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
Vargas needed a driver’s license, and Oregon was the only state that would give him one without a passport or green card. His former co-worker’s father-in-law lived in Portland and agreed to let Vargas receive mail at his address, for a proof of residency. Rich, Pat, and Mary sent Vargas letters to his former co-worker’s father-in-law’s address in Portland. Then, Mary’s son drove him up to Portland for his test. Rich had already taught him to drive. When Vargas passed his driving test, he got his first official document: an Oregon license valid for eight years. His “white family” never asked if they were doing something wrong by helping him out. They were nothing like the other white people he would meet in D.C.
Again, Vargas only managed to successfully navigate institutional bureaucracy because of support from his “white family.” But the complicated process that he had to follow to get his Oregon driver’s license shows how the government makes it unnecessarily difficult for undocumented people to access basic services. Vargas finds it striking that his friends never doubted the ethics of their actions—they always knew that helping and protecting other people was more important than following the letter of the law. Of course, this points to the important ethical question that underlies much of Vargas’s story: what should people do about unethical laws? Is it justified to break them, or only to protest against them?
Themes
