The Tortilla Curtain by T. Coraghessan Boyle
"The Tortilla Curtain" by T. Coraghessan Boyle is a poignant exploration of the cultural clash between Mexican immigrants and affluent American residents in contemporary Southern California. The novel's title symbolizes the metaphorical and literal border that separates these two worlds, highlighting the struggles of individuals like Cándido Rincón, an undocumented immigrant who faces relentless adversity. His journey intersects with that of Delaney Mossbacher, a well-off resident of Arroyo Blanco Estates, whose comfortable life is disrupted by the realities of immigration and poverty.
Through their parallel lives, Boyle illustrates the stark contrasts in their experiences—Cándido and his wife América live in dire conditions, while Delaney and his family enjoy the luxuries of suburban life. The narrative delves into themes of economic disparity and societal indifference, as Cándido's desperate attempts for survival often clash with Delaney's evolving perceptions of privilege and morality. As events unfold, including a dramatic brush fire and a life-threatening flood, the characters confront their shared humanity, ultimately questioning the ideals of the American Dream. This thought-provoking novel raises important questions about identity, belonging, and the complexities of human connection across cultural divides.
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Subject Terms
The Tortilla Curtain by T. Coraghessan Boyle
First published: 1995
The Work
T. Coraghessan Boyle’s sixth novel, The Tortilla Curtain, addresses the clash of cultures inherent in the contemporary Mexican American experience. The novel’s title refers to the border separating Southern California and Mexico, which Mexican immigrants cross illegally in search of work. One such immigrant, Cándido Rincón, is crossing a highway in suburban Los Angeles when he is struck by a car driven by Delaney Mossbacher, a resident of the nearby upper-middle-class community Arroyo Blanco Estates. When the bumbling Delaney offers help, Cándido asks for money and receives twenty dollars. The transaction cynically defines the novel’s ethnic identities: Americans are valueless exploiters who purchase peace of mind with money; Mexican immigrants are desperate victims who sell themselves cheaply in order to survive.
The novel parallels Delaney and Cándido’s lives, which are lived in close proximity to each other and occasionally intersect. Delaney, a transplanted New Yorker who writes columns for a nature magazine, is a house husband to his second wife, Kyra, and stepfather to Kyra’s son, Jordan. They live a yuppie dream of the good life, replete with gourmet foods, two cars, and financial security. Their only concern is the invading coyotes, whose assaults on their pets symbolize the predatory world beyond their fenced-in backyard.
Cándido and his second wife, América, are part of that world, and their grim existence contrasts sharply with that of Delaney and Kyra, who know nothing of “the dog-eat-dog world where a poor man had to fight like a conquering hero just to keep from starving to death.” The Rincóns live in the woods, in a hovel made out of discarded garbage. Cándido struggles daily to find work and feed his pregnant wife, but the couple’s hopes for climbing out of their poverty are repeatedly destroyed by abusive employers, bigoted locals, predatory fellow immigrants, and the omnipresent threat of deportation.
Cándido’s troublesome reappearances in Delaney’s life help erode Delaney’s liberal humanist values, which he finds easier to observe in the abstract than in the real world. Resistant at first to his housing development’s plans to enclose itself within a gated fence that will keep out immigrant riffraff, Delaney relents after experiences with Cándido and other illegal aliens. When Cándido accidentally starts a brush fire that endangers the development, Delaney tracks him to his hovel in the hope of taking legal action against him. Delaney is surprised by a flash flood that almost kills the two men. The flood awakens them to their common bond as human beings.
Like John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (1939), from which it takes its epigraph, The Tortilla Curtain depicts how the American Dream of success has become a nightmare for outsiders trying to gain a foothold in a culture that fears and despises them.
Sources for Further Study
Kingsolver, Barbara. Review of The Tortilla Curtain. The Nation, September 25, 1995, 326-327.
Los Angeles Times Book Review. September 24, 1995, p. 4.
New Statesman and Society . VIII, November 10, 1995, p. 39.
New York. XXVIII, October 9, 1995, p. 85.
Rifkind, Donna. Review of The Tortilla Curtain. The Washington Post Book World, August 20, 1995, 3, 8.
San Francisco Chronicle. September 10, 1995, p. REV9.
Skow, John. Review of The Tortilla Curtain. Time, September 4, 1995, 68.
Spencer, Scott. Review of The Tortilla Curtain. The New York Times Book Review, September 3, 1995, 3.
The Times Literary Supplement. October 27, 1995, p. 25.