October 30 2019

The Book of Unknown Americans (2014)
By Cristina Henriquez

Alma and Arturo Rivera have come to the US from Mexico, sponsored by an American company that has offered Arturo a job.  The Riveras hope their move to America will bring hope of helping their beautiful teenage daughter Maribel to recover.  Though they don't have much money, they find kindred spirits among their neighbors in their apartment building - immigrants from Guatemala, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, and (in the case of their closest new friends, the Toro family) Panama.

Maribel starts school in a special ed setting geared to help kids with disabilities.  Maribel makes small strides in her recovery from a brain injury sustained in a fall from a ladder, for which both parents blame themselves.  But Maribel's greatest success in speech recovery is through her relationships with the Toros' son Mayor.  Mayor is neither the good athlete nor good academic that his older brother is - but he is smitten with the new neighbor, realizes her difficulties, and takes on a protector role when bullies come her way.  They spend hours in conversation and, when the two are spotted in Mr Toro's car, a nosey neighbor assumes the worst, and tells Alma.  Maribel is then forbidden to see Mayor and reverts into her shell once again.

Then one day, Mayor and Maribel sneak out together in a snowstorm.   What seems like a risky move escalates to a tragic outcomes and the reader is struck by the risks that immigrants take, and the not-always-happy endings that result.

This story is told by all the voices in the book.  It will change the way I think about immigrants.

October 28, 2019

The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West (2019)
By David McCullough

I expected a tale about the settlers who rode west in covered wagons in the late 1800's - but got a very different story.  David McCullough brings his usual skill to chronicle the settlement of the Northwest Territory via some fascinating characters and through a very accessible narrative.

Shortly after the new Unites States of America and Great Britain signed the Treaty of Paris, Congress agreed to settle the Northwest territory (land ceded by Great Britain that will eventually become Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin) through land grants awarded to Revolutionary War veterans.  Surprisingly, it is a Massachusetts minister, Manassah Cutler, who undertakes the task of petitioning the new congress to establish the territory as a bastion of freedom of religion, free universal education and prohibition of slavery.  The following year (1788) Gen Rufus Putnam leads the first band of pioneers, where they settle the first town town across the Ohio River, Marietta, Ohio.  Cutler's son Ephraim joins the pioneers, eventually joining the state legislature where he champions public education including initiating legislation to found the Ohio University.  Carpenter/architect Joseph Barker designs and builds not only houses and public buildings but also ships that will steam down the Ohio River.  Dr Samuel Hildreth is an early town physician and naturalist who also publishes several histories of Marietta and its citizens.  It's clear that these men (and their wives) were gifted, committed to serving their neighbors and their God, and in the right place at the right time.

McCullough includes a list of colorful secondary characters, too, including the wealthy Harman Blennarhassett and the wily Aaron Burr.  He also alludes to several tragic encounters with native Americans -- whose land was being overtaken -- a travesty noted by several British travel writers, but apparently not questioned by the American settlers.