A personal message from the author:
Unlike Oprah’s book club pick, American Dirt, All Bones Are White (ABAW) is an authentic immigrant family saga spanning three decades across the east coast, west coast, and Mexico. This story takes a closer look at what it means to be an American. I offer readers a glimpse into the struggles of the Americanization process and how identity can be molded, generalized, and lost within the American dream. Learning English is a necessary step toward inclusion in the assimilation process. I share a unique, heartwarming look into the experience through the eyes of a child in a white community.
While our country is built on the concept of liberty and justice for all, we see parts of American culture that does not accept diversity and does not promote freedom to be who we indeed are. That attitude has been detrimental to the health and happiness of our country as a whole. Through my family’s eyes, we witness a fragmented America. One America that puts down and alienates our differences, excluding anyone that does not match a singular version of the “true American.” And in that rejection of change, new perspectives, and differing cultures, we lose what makes America great. In another America, we witness kind, loving people like my father, my friends, and my teachers. This book asks the reader to reconsider how we define the term American. These are the major themes throughout the book. They are all at the root of this story through observations and intimate insight and can guide readers through the psychological journey of becoming an American.
America has many Caucasian and African American role models and heroes to look up to. Yet, even as our nation focusses more than ever on embracing diversity, the vast Hispanic culture within America continues to be underserved and often misrepresented. For this reason, I feel this is an important book. This is a Mexican American coming of age story, a perspective that readers of all ethnicities have not had enough access to and need more than ever in Trump’s America.
— Carlo Perez Allen
For a young immigrant boy named Carlo–who was forced to say goodbye to his birth name and country–the answer was a hard one to find.
When Carlo was just five years old, his Mexican mother, Camerina, married a gringo, Bill Allen. Wanting only the best for his three adoptive children, Bill moved his new family across the border. Bags packed and sights set for the sky, they left Mexico and set their sights on none other than the Big Apple.
From the start of this long trek across North America, Carlo’s childhood was filled with exciting new experiences, harrowing odds, and cultural backlash.
Detailing one man’s personal journey of self-discovery in a foreign land, All Bones Are White offers readers a rare firsthand glimpse into the seemingly insurmountable struggles of the lengthy Americanization process.
Told in Carlo Perez Allen’s own words, learn first-hand how one person’s identity can be forcefully molded, generalized, and lost within the struggle to obtain the All-American dream.