The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle is a novel about two couples, one American and the other Mexican, from opposite ends of the financial spectrum whose lives intermittently intersect for the worse. The novel portrays a particularly tragic tale of coexistence between a wealthy couple living in Arroyo Blanco Estates, where the general concern is building a wall “to keep out those very gangbangers, taggers and carjackers they’d come here to escape.”(39) Whereas Candido and America Rincon are an immigrant couple struggling to survive in a “camp in the ravine” (16), just below Arroyo Blanco in Topanga Creek. This story contains several underlying themes regarding immigration and xenophobia. Moreover, a prevalent motif within The Tortilla Curtain
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Immigration and Customs Enforcement as the enemies of illegal immigrants. Both are hunted and barred from the rest of civilization, left to live in the outskirts, “…gathering in his powers and dominions, hunting, gamboling, stealing like a shadow through the scrub around me…”(19) However, the similarities between coyotes and Mexican immigrants go beyond …show more content…
“All at once she understood: garbage, they were going to eat garbage. Sift through it like the basureros at the dump, take somebody else’s filthy leavings, full of spit and maggots and ants.” (238) No money and looming starvation leads to Candido feeding his wife and himself with food scavenged from a dumpster behind KFC. One would imagine only an animal was capable of stooping to such levels of desperation, however for Candido it’s a matter of survival. Moreover, the mere location of where Candido and America live is wild. “…he was camping down there, that’s what he was doing Camping. Living. Dwelling. Making the trees and bushes and the natural habitat of Topanga State Park into his own private domicile…” (11) Candido and America have no real “home”, sleeping in blankets, and “They’d been living in the canyon three weeks now…”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement as the enemies of illegal immigrants. Both are hunted and barred from the rest of civilization, left to live in the outskirts, “…gathering in his powers and dominions, hunting, gamboling, stealing like a shadow through the scrub around me…”(19) However, the similarities between coyotes and Mexican immigrants go beyond …show more content…
“All at once she understood: garbage, they were going to eat garbage. Sift through it like the basureros at the dump, take somebody else’s filthy leavings, full of spit and maggots and ants.” (238) No money and looming starvation leads to Candido feeding his wife and himself with food scavenged from a dumpster behind KFC. One would imagine only an animal was capable of stooping to such levels of desperation, however for Candido it’s a matter of survival. Moreover, the mere location of where Candido and America live is wild. “…he was camping down there, that’s what he was doing Camping. Living. Dwelling. Making the trees and bushes and the natural habitat of Topanga State Park into his own private domicile…” (11) Candido and America have no real “home”, sleeping in blankets, and “They’d been living in the canyon three weeks now…”