Arquilevich CCQC #1

The wall in Tortilla Curtain is not just a physical barrier but a symbol that separates the middle-upper class Americans from illegal immigrants. In Arroyo Blanco the community decides to build a wall around the estates to keep unwanted visitors out. Not only did this wall keep illegal immigrants out of Arroyo Blanco but it also resembled the separation of lifestyles between the two classes. Throughout the first part of the book it's very obvious that Delaney Mossbacher's family has it way easier than Candido and America. Delaney has a relatively easy life, "That's what he did, every morning, regular as clockwork: squeezing oranges...while Kyra sipped her coffee  and washed down her twelve separate vitamins and mineral supplements with half a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice" (31). This type of life is something illegal immigrants, like Candido and American could only dream of. Candido and his wife were stuck living in the wilderness. They didn't have the luxury of making fresh squeezed orange juice in the morning like Delaney's family."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). Not only was it hard to find a home but work was even harder to find, "with thirty-two other men, sleeping in shifts and lining up on the street corner for work, the reek of the place, the roaches and the nits" (26). This two different lifestyles were drastically different from one another. An illegal immigrant could only hope to have the life Delaney's family had. So much so that it's like there is a wall separating the two of them. But every once in a while people can break in.


The day that the Delaney family has sounds identical to a day a typical Marin parent would have. When Delaney wakes up he has a very busy morning getting everything ready for the day. "He made sort of a game of it, counting the steps it took him to shut the windows against the coming day's heat" (31). A typical parent in Marin may get bored doing the same things over and over again and this may cause them to make a  a game that would keep them entertained just like Delaney did. "Kyra applied her makeup, wriggled into a form-fitting skirts with matching jacket and propelled her Lexus over the crest of the canyon into Woodland Hills" (31). This sentence sounds a lot like a typical Marin parent. Getting ready in the morning, driving there Lexus to another part of town. Another thing we learn about Kyra is that she is a salesman which is a pretty common job in Marin. Overall the life in Arroyo Blanco seems to match up with life in Marin, from daily rituals to the cars we drive. Since so much of Marin life is like Arroyo Blanco this raises the question of if we are having the same illegal immigrant problem as in the estate.