Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Dear America, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Citizenship, Belonging, and Identity
Family, Love, and Intimacy
Immigration Politics and Policy
Journalism, Storytelling, and the Power of Truth
Summary
Analysis
Pat Hyland was shocked when Vargas told her that he wasn’t applying to college. He already had a job offer at the local newspaper, and because he was undocumented, he couldn’t receive financial aid. The choir teacher, Mrs. Denny, was the only person who knew about his status—he told her after she planned a class trip to Japan. (She rescheduled it for Hawaii instead.) He eventually explained his status to Pat, Rich Fischer, Mary Moore, and his best friend’s mom, Gail Wade. They didn’t know what to do, but they looked for solutions, like adoption or marriage. They learned that Lolo and Lola could have adopted Vargas and gotten him papers before he turned sixteen—but they never knew. It was already too late.
Vargas’s secrecy about being undocumented reflects his deep fear that even the people who loved and cared for him could conceivably turn against him if they found out about his status. But again, Vargas’s mentors went out of their way to help him. In contrast to the public discourse about immigration in the U.S., they put people before politics. While Vargas was understandably frustrated to learn that Lolo and Lola could have gotten him legal papers by adopting him, this also shows how confusing and opaque the U.S. immigration system often is to the people who go through it.
Themes
However, Vargas’s mentors did find him a scholarship to college. He met the scholarship’s funder, Jim Strand, who confirmed that his immigration status didn’t matter. Years later, Strand has sent hundreds of first-generation students to college, and Vargas now serves on his program’s advisory board.
Strand’s generosity—like Hyland, Fischer, and Moore’s—ended up being a crucial turning point in Vargas’s life. In other words, where the government failed to provide Vargas with the same opportunities as other Americans, private individuals stepped in to help. But most undocumented people aren’t so lucky—their status often prevents them from getting higher education. Combined with their inability to work legally, they end up at a significant, lifelong disadvantage on the job market.
Themes
