BY GABRIELLE RODRIGUEZ ’22
Mount Holyoke’s 2018 common read, “The Book of Unknown Americans” by Cristina Henríquez, is a novel full of complex and validating representations of immigrant communities. Literary systems must be critiqued to be bettered, and while Henríquez does a great job crafting an enticing story with great representation, I will continue to push for stories with Latinx casts that do not hinge on trauma.
BY SARAH CAVAR '20
On Tuesday, Cristina Henríquez, acclaimed author of Mount Holyoke Common Read “The Book of Unknown Americans,” spoke in Chapin auditorium. Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students Marcella Runell Hall began the evening by asking the waiting audience to consider: “What kind of community do we want to be in together?”
BY CASEY ROEPKE ’21
The beginning of this summer was shaped by the Trump administration’s family separation policy. As photographs of toddlers in cages, recordings of children crying for their parents and statements of utter inaction from elected officials flooded the news cycle, Mount Holyoke students sat down to read this year’s Common Read, “The Book of Unknown Americans.” Within its pages they found solace and its captivating characters and bittersweet moments were made to seem even more important by the real-world events happening in the U.S.