Vargas

Sonni Vargas
English 91
Filbeck
24 November 2014
The Struggles of an Immigrant
As of 2013, approximately 11.6 million Mexican immigrants resided in the United States.
Mexican immigrants come from Mexico to America in order to make a better life for themselves
and their families. The journey to cross the border from Mexico to America is not easy, it is very
challenging both physically and mentally. In The Tortilla Curtain, T.C. Boyle uses the immigrant
experience of Candido and his wife America in order to reveal the struggles most Mexican
immigrants go through when they come to America.
Most Immigrants suffer from poverty. They only come into America with the clothes on
their back and do not have a place to live. In the beginning of the book the audience is introduced
into Candido and Americas lifestyle. They do not have a stable place to live and the places they
often stay at are unsanitary and not fit for Candido and his wife who happens to be pregnant. For
example Boyle describes one of the places they lived in, Hotbedding in a two-room apartment
in Echo Park with thirty-two other men, sleeping in shifts and linking up on the street corner for
work, the reek of the place, the roaches, and the nits(26). This is a very realistic example of how
many immigrants still live today, struggling with not having much and trying to make better lives
for themselves.
Aside from poverty one of the biggest struggles of a Mexican immigrant is physically
crossing the border into America. The border is used to keep immigrants from coming into
America illegally. Many find ways to go past it such as paying people who are called coyotes in

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order to sneak them across the border. Boyle describes how nerve wrecking crossing the border
was for Candido and America, Crouching there beside the corrugated iron fence, her mouth dry
and heart racing, she waited through the long night till the coyote gave the word, and then she
and Candido and half a dozen others were running for their lives on the hard-baked earth of
another country(59). The immigrant experience is very dangerous as well. Children, especially,
can be subjected to robbery, violence, sexual assault, sex trafficking or forced labor. In The
Tortilla Curtain America and Candido deal with violence, getting robbed, and rape. Overall,
crossing the border is not an easy task, it is hard work and takes its toll on a person both
physically and mentally.
After crossing the border most immigrants deal with being discriminated because of their
race and social class. Throughout The Tortilla Curtain, Candido and America deal with people
who treat them as if they do not matter in the world. Many stereotype against them and do not
want them coming into America. Mexican immigrants are being threatened all the time as Boyle
showed what many people of Arroyo Blanco said about Candido and America, BEANERS
DIE(62). A lot of racism is shown throughout the book and it is an accurate representation of
how immigrants are actually treated. People come to America in order to have a better life and to
be treated equally but they are not getting that. It is very hard for immigrants to be accepted in
todays society.
Immigrants also go through the struggle of not knowing English when coming to
America, which makes it harder for them to communicate. Mexican immigrants are coming from
a different country so naturally many do not know how to speak or understand English. Not
knowing English puts them at a disadvantage because they need to know how to speak it in order
to communicate with others. While many people in America know Spanish it is beneficial for

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Mexican immigrants to learn English. Without knowing English it is harder for them to get a job
and many do not see them as well educated, She doesnt speak any English what do you want
with her?(84). America does not speak English when looking for a job, therefore nobody
wanted to hire her and felt she wasnt qualified enough. Not only does that not get her a job but
even if she got a job the company would pay her less than any other worker simply because she
does not know English. Not being able to communicate is a big struggle that many Mexican
immigrants go through.
In The Tortilla Curtian, T.C. Boyle gives his audience an inside look on what a life as a
Mexican immigrant is like. They go though the struggles of crossing the border, suffering from
poverty, racism, and a lack of communication. Despite of these struggles and dangers of the
immigration experience, immigrants still stop at nothing to make a better life for themselves.
They want the American dream and will do all they can to come to America and succeed in
life. Candido and his wife America go through all of these struggles all because they want to
make a better life for themselves.