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Maribel Rivera
Mayor was a young child when his family left Panamá, and he has lived most of his life in Newark, Delaware. Mayor is a scrawny, slightly nerdy teen boy. His father Rafael dreams that Mayor will achieve soccer stardom just like his older brother, Enrique, who is off on a college athletic scholarship, but Mayor is a quiet, sensitive boy who is too concerned with his own self-image to endure failure. Mayor quits the soccer team but does not tell his father, and, soon after the Riveras’ arrival, he develops a crush on Maribel Rivera. At first, he is conflicted about his feelings for Maribel, since he is aware of her brain injury, and does not want to take advantage of her or her time, but he soon realizes that he is truly the only one who sees Maribel for the complicated figure that she is, and one of the only people patient enough to help her negotiate the maze of her brain. Mayor’s obsession with Maribel deepens and leads to trouble for both of them—Mayor sees himself as a romantic figure full of longing, and his belief that he and Maribel are “meant” for one another blinds him to the ways in which his infatuation with her is selfish and even dangerous.
Mayor Toro Quotes in The Book of Unknown Americans
The The Book of Unknown Americans quotes below are all either spoken by Mayor Toro or refer to Mayor Toro. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 8: Mayor
Quotes
“It’s in you,” my dad assured me once. “You were born in Panamá. It’s in your bones.”
I spent a lot of time trying to find it in me, but usually I couldn’t. I felt more American than anything, but even that was up for debate according to the kids at school who’d taunted me over the years. The truth was that I didn’t know which I was. I wasn’t allowed to claim the thing I felt and I didn’t feel the thing I was supposed to claim.
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Chapter 17: Mayor
Quotes
“Next time, just try to blend in with everyone else and you’ll be fine,” my mom offered.
“The way of the world,” my dad said.
“What?” my mom asked.
“Just trying to blend in. That’s the way of the world.”
“Well, that’s the way of America, at least,” my mom said.
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Chapter 26: Mayor
Quotes
Both of us were trying to make sense of it. And sitting there, I started thinking, Who can say whose fault it is? Who can say who set this whole thing in motion? Maybe it was Maribel. Maybe it was me. Maybe if I hadn’t left school that day, none of this would have happened. Maybe if our parents hadn’t forbidden us from seeing each other, I wouldn’t have needed to steal her away. Maybe if my dad had never bought that car, I wouldn’t have had a way to get to the beach. Maybe it was my tía Gloria’s fault for giving my dad the money [to] buy it. Maybe it was my tío Esteban’s fault for being a jerk she would need to divorce to get that money. You could trace it back infinitely. All these different veins, but who knew which one led to the heart? And then again, maybe it had nothing to do with any of us. Maybe it really was completely random, just something that happened.
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“You could come back one day,” I said. “Or I could come there.”
“Maybe.”
“I could find you.”
Maribel shook her head. “Finding is for things that are lost. You don’t need to find me, Mayor.”
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Mayor Toro Quotes in The Book of Unknown Americans
The The Book of Unknown Americans quotes below are all either spoken by Mayor Toro or refer to Mayor Toro. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 8: Mayor
Quotes
“It’s in you,” my dad assured me once. “You were born in Panamá. It’s in your bones.”
I spent a lot of time trying to find it in me, but usually I couldn’t. I felt more American than anything, but even that was up for debate according to the kids at school who’d taunted me over the years. The truth was that I didn’t know which I was. I wasn’t allowed to claim the thing I felt and I didn’t feel the thing I was supposed to claim.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17: Mayor
Quotes
“Next time, just try to blend in with everyone else and you’ll be fine,” my mom offered.
“The way of the world,” my dad said.
“What?” my mom asked.
“Just trying to blend in. That’s the way of the world.”
“Well, that’s the way of America, at least,” my mom said.
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Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26: Mayor
Quotes
Both of us were trying to make sense of it. And sitting there, I started thinking, Who can say whose fault it is? Who can say who set this whole thing in motion? Maybe it was Maribel. Maybe it was me. Maybe if I hadn’t left school that day, none of this would have happened. Maybe if our parents hadn’t forbidden us from seeing each other, I wouldn’t have needed to steal her away. Maybe if my dad had never bought that car, I wouldn’t have had a way to get to the beach. Maybe it was my tía Gloria’s fault for giving my dad the money [to] buy it. Maybe it was my tío Esteban’s fault for being a jerk she would need to divorce to get that money. You could trace it back infinitely. All these different veins, but who knew which one led to the heart? And then again, maybe it had nothing to do with any of us. Maybe it really was completely random, just something that happened.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“You could come back one day,” I said. “Or I could come there.”
“Maybe.”
“I could find you.”
Maribel shook her head. “Finding is for things that are lost. You don’t need to find me, Mayor.”
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