A review by miocenemama
The Barbarian Nurseries by Héctor Tobar

4.0

This book is ten years old but it could have been written today. With a familiarity of all the Los Angeles area gained as a journalist and an understanding of the caste system that has emerged with LatinX workers and their employers, he shines a light on the challenges of the undocumented in this story of a Mexicana domestic worker that suddenly finds herself alone with two young boys when her employers each go separate ways after a heated argument. The story is propelled by a lack of communication between parents and between employers and employee. Tobar shows the manipulation of Araceli's plight by people in all areas of the political landscape making her both scapegoat and hero. I related to this story having personally dealt to some degree with the huge obstacles of the immigration system. I have friends and family members who have come into the US without documents. I have seen parents who were afraid to seek help because of their legal status. I have one friend who was an author and the director of her own school in Guatemala but has never been able to be more than a housekeeper here in the States in spite of her legal status which is now that of a citizen. Tobar looks at the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful in the experiences of his characters and manages to do so with a certain amount of sympathy, or at least understanding, of all involved