American Dirt Themes

Sympathizing with the plight of clandestine migrants, American Dirt shows how traumatic experiences have the capacity to completely redirect the course of one’s life. The novel opens with a massacre. The protagonist, Lydia, and her eight-year-old son, Luca, are in the bathroom when three gunmen storm onto the patio and open fire, murdering 16 members of their family. Able to hide in the shower during the bloodbath, Lydia and Luca are the sole…

Most of the characters in American Dirt are intimate with loss. As a result, their journeys to the United States are punctuated with grief, showing the pervasive and long-lasting impact that loss has on the psyche. Within the novel, grief manifests both unconsciously and consciously. For instance, Luca exhibits both emotional outbursts and periods of inarticulacy as he comes to terms with the reality of Sebastián’s death. Soledad and Rebeca, on the other…

Lydia, the protagonist of American Dirt, is, first and foremost, a mother. Despite the fact that her entire family has been murdered by a cartel, caring for her young son, Luca, gives her a reason to live. Driven by her “maternal instincts”—a deep, all-consuming (and, at times, even reckless) drive to protect Luca and keep him alive—she flees her hometown and embarks on a treacherous journey across the country, going as far…

In American Dirt, Lydia and her eight-year-old son, Luca, are on the run from the cartel that murdered their entire family. They are trying to reach the United States, and as Lydia assesses their options near the beginning of their trek, she comes to an important realization: “She and Luca are actual migrants. That is what they are.” On the surface, Lydia and Luca do not resemble the people mainstream culture pictures when…