State one theme the author develops in this excerpt. Cite evidence from the text to support your analysis.
The novel became even more timely and resonant in the years immediately following its publication when the Presidential campaign of Donald Trump ramped up the heat on the so-called crisis along the southern border. The characterization of immigrants from Latin American by those supporting the contention that a concrete wall stretching nearly the entire length of the southern border is distinctly at odds with immigrant experiences presented in the novel. The story feature immigrants from several different countries to the south of the United States—Panama and Nicaragua as well as Mexico—and the stories of those people coming to America reveals a complexity to the issue of immigration that simply does not conform to the narrative required to fit campaign slogans, sound bites and slanted ideological messages of conservative media stars. Instead, the immigrant experience in America is presented as one that defies easy answers and simple solutions. As one of the characters puts it, this theme might be expressed as call to respond to scare tactics of isolated incidents by taking “the time to get to know us [so that those who are scared might] realize that we’re not that bad, maybe even that we’re a lot like them.”
Gradesaver
