61 pages • 2 hours read
T.C. BoyleThe Tortilla Curtain
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1995A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Cultural Context: Immigration and Labor Exploitation in the United States
Illegal immigration and labor exploitation go hand in hand in the United States. Despite the backlash against undocumented immigrants, many sectors of the US economy, particularly agriculture, rely on cheap immigrant labor. Employers have long been known to intentionally seek out undocumented workers, whether for “their gumption or their limitless exploitability” (Henderson, Timothy J. Beyond Borders: A History of Mexican Migration to the United States. United Kingdom, Wiley, 2011). The worker’s undocumented status is often in the unscrupulous employer’s favor as undocumented employees are unlikely to report abuses or demand better working conditions for fear of deportation.
Yet while undocumented workers are more likely to be victims than perpetrators of crime, anti-immigrant rhetoric in American press and culture portrays immigrants as criminals who take work from American citizens and bring violence into American communities. Such rhetoric dehumanizes undocumented workers in the minds of US citizens, reducing their understanding of and empathy for their plight. The combination of persistent anti-immigrant rhetoric with “the continuing refusal of the US to reform its immigration policies serves the purpose of providing US business interests with a constant supply of compliant, cheap labor” (Etler, Dennis. “U.S. Exploitation of Immigrant Labor is a Gross Human Rights Violation.” CGTN, 2021). The lack of sympathy for undocumented workers and the difficulty of getting legal work creates a situation in which immigrants continue to be exploited for the benefit of wealthy Americans.
The Tortilla Curtain explores the hypocrisy of this situation. Outspoken advocates for the wall around Arroyo Blanco such as Jim Shirley hire the very immigrant workers they hate. In fact, both Cándido and América work in Arroyo Blanco even though Cándido knows that the gate at the community’s entrance is “meant to keep out” people like them (171). The wall itself is constructed by “tireless dark men […] applying stucco under conditions that would have killed anybody else” (249). The residents of Arroyo Blanco want the cheap labor that the undocumented workers offer, and their anti-immigrant rhetoric ensures the immigrant laborers’ continued exploitability.
Historical Context: The 1990s Recession and Proposition 187
In the early 1990s, the United States experienced an economic recession that led to a weak job market. In Southern California, the recession coincided with changing social demographics, including the growing Latinx population. At the time, California was home to an estimated 1.6 million undocumented immigrants, more than anywhere else in the country (California State Archives. “Looking Back at Proposition 187 Twenty-Five Years Later.” Google Arts & Culture, 2019). Some Californians began to believe that undocumented immigrants were taking jobs and other resources away from American citizens, and anti-immigrant sentiment began to grow.
In 1994, the year before The Tortilla Curtain was published, California passed the controversial Proposition 187, also known as the Save Our State initiative. The proposition denied undocumented immigrants access to public services such as healthcare and education. Additionally, the bill encouraged public service workers to report those suspected of being undocumented to immigration authorities. Almost immediately after being implemented, the bill was blocked by various advocacy groups, and courts eventually ruled that the bill was unconstitutional.
Boyle has claimed that The Tortilla Curtain was “somewhat misunderstood” due to the proximity of its release to the passage of Proposition 187 (“The Tortilla Curtain Reader’s Guide.” PenguinRandomHouse.com). Though “people attacked the book or enjoyed it based on their own perspective,” Boyle has noted that the novel was complete before Proposition 187 was even drafted (“The Tortilla Curtain Reader’s Guide“). Nevertheless, the context is important for understanding the novel, which was inspired by the same anti-immigrant sentiment among well-to-do white Americans that led to the controversial bill. A resident of Los Angeles for 16 years at that point, Boyle had observed the growing tensions in his community. The Tortilla Curtain, he explains, is the result of “having lived here and picked up on everything going on that finally resulted in 187, and from trying to sort out my own feelings” (“The Tortilla Curtain Reader’s Guide“).
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