Community Library Notes: Good Reads
“Infinite Country” by Patricia Engel is the story of Talia who is in a prison for youth offenders. She has poured boiling oil over a man who’s killed a cat in the same way. When Talia runs away she hitches a ride on a truck with an old man. She lies about where she’s going and why. Her father, Mauro, feels bad that he’d made Elena, his wife, and Talia resent their country. Her parents’ generation had been raised with gunfire, executions, explosions, and kidnappings.
Mauro and Elena met at them and fell in love. He never told her where he slept nor that he worked digging graves. When Elena has a baby, Karina, they decide to leave Colombia and fly to Texas with their pooled monies. Perla, Elena’s mother, also contributes from her laundry business. In Texas Mauro finds work and Elena cleans the house for the woman upstairs. As their Visas expire, they try to decide whether to stay in the U.S. or return to the country they know.
Elena is pregnant again and they must stay until the new baby arrives. They decide Nando is too little to travel and they watch in horror the scenes of 9/11 on the television in their rented room. Author Engel shows the vision the characters have of their future, one based on hope and courage. They remain a family despite their many setbacks.
Meanwhile Talia, after leaving her truck ride, meets a French man she thinks she can trust. She goes to his room and leaves in the early morning with his wallet. Her next ride is on the back of a motorcycle and, as the miles roll by she daydreams of going to an American school and being with her mother and siblings. She hasn’t told the other prison girls she has a ticket to America waiting for her. Her father always said to trust no one, only family. The girls there are almost murderers. When Talia is seven her father came more often to Perla’s house and told myths that Perla scoffed at. After Perla dies Talia saves a seat for her at church and at dinner and waits for her to come back at night.
Later, after Mauro’s visa expires and he’s in a fight in a bar, he’s deported back to Colombia. Elena and the children stay in the U.S. but she phones Talia often. Mauro stops drinking and fighting while living at Perla’s house. Elena and the family are forced to move because there are too many living in one small space. They find another available room to share with another family, with plenty of food and other adults to look after the children. But the male of the other family sleeps naked and masturbates as Elena shelters her children against the wall. Life is hard for them with many crises and humiliations. Women are often targeted for deportations.