The Diary of an Undocumented Immigrant is a biographical novel written by Ramon Perez and published in 1991. The narrative follows our storyteller and author Perez through his journey from a Zapotec village in Oaxaca, Mexico over the border, illegally of course (hence the title) into The United States where he experiences the many facets of American culture before returning to his home village two years later as a celebrated hero. Now, you might be wondering why that sentence was structured to deliberately include the word “hero,” it’s really quite simple. The topic of illegal immigration has always been a touchy subject between nations and the opinion of whether or not the immigrant accused is a “hero” or “villain” relies totally, on which side the controversy is viewed from. Having spent the past 237 pages shadowing Perez’s journey I feel compelled to see things from his standpoint. In which case Ramon Perez is very much a hero. First off, when observed from a literary stance it’s difficult to not notice Joseph Campbell’s monomyth, or hero’s journey, template present in Perez’s writing. The monomyth template is as followed: “A boy …show more content…
As mentioned earlier how heroic our protagonist is depends completely on how willing the reader is to understand the intricacies of Perez’s village culture. It is important to note that the village of Macuiltianguis is not in poverty. Perez states his father’s store is doing well and there is no shortage of work. This evidence supports the idea that his choice to immigrate to America was not cultivated in desire for ‘dat green dough. In fact Perez continues on to say “It was a matter of following the tradition of the village…A lot of people, nearly the majority, have gone, come back, and returned…” (PG12) This quote implies that America is merely a chapter in these men’s books, simply something they must