Character Analysis of Mayor Toro from "The Book of Unknown Americans"

Cristina Henríquez’s novel The Book of Unknown Americans, accurately depicts the struggles immigrants have to go through on daily basis in United States. Whether it is familiarizing themselves with new food varieties, learning the new language or adapting to the new weather, the novel covers it all. Henríquez’s novel helps convey that even though we put all this people in a big group labeled ‘immigrants’, they all have their very own distinct stories and that, they come to United States for different reasons. The novel includes some of these many immigrant stories. One of these stories belongs to Mayor Toro.

Mayor Toro is a teenage wimpy kid, who was an infant when his parents moved from Panama to United States. He for the most part grew up in United States. Mayor has an overachieving elder brother, who is better than him in everything. Mayor is shown to lack confidence in the novel. He mentions about when he used to go for soccer practice that, “I felt like a loser, hanging around the sidelines all the time. Whenever the girls broke out in laughter, I was sure they were laughing at me” (Henríquez 17). May be the girls weren’t laughing at him. But he was very self-doubting and would always assume that something was wrong with him. He was always bullied at the school and was never able to stand for himself. He would allow other kids to step all over him and not do anything about it. A lot of it has to do with the way his parents treated him. He discusses about one evening when his father was talking to the Rivera family about his sons and, mentions that, “Mayor plays soccer too, But I haven’t seen his name in paper yet” and “looked [Mayor] with pity” (Henríquez 68). His father, Rafael Toro, always compared him with his brother. In the novel, he is always seen bragging about his elder son. This knowingly or unknowingly has an adverse effect on Mayor’s self-confidence. As a result of his parents’ constant comparison of him with his elder brother, he developed inferiority complex.

Mayor came to United States as an infant and grew up in Newark, Delaware. He was the citizen of United States and was raised here as well. These made him an American for the most part but yet, he was unsure of his identity. His father always assured him that he Panama was in his bones, but he didn’t feel it. He felt American. But, he mentions that even that was debatable according to his classmates at school, who considered him Panamanian (Henríquez 78). Mayor was certain that he is an American. But, people around him thought of him differently. Mayor’s father told him that he is Panamanian, in hopes of keeping him true to his roots. He wanted to pass his culture to his children and as a result affirmed that despite living in United States they were all Panamanian. The other kids at school made racists slurs and told him to “go back through the canal” (Henríquez 78). Despite spending almost, the same amount of time in United States as his classmates, they considered him foreign just because he looked different. All these different views of people confused him of who he truly was.

Mayor is portrayed as a disparaged and self-doubting person that is confused about his true identity. His concept of home is unclear. He truly wants to believe that home means United States but, people around him has conflicting opinions which makes him doubt himself. Mayor is in serious need of some sort of confidence booster, which he finds in form of Maribel. Maribel listens to him. She laughs at his jokes and shows interest in him. Maribel helps him build confidence and believe in himself.