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
Since 2014, Vargas has avoided investigating what led the Border Patrol to free him in McAllen. Why did he get released in eight hours, while most undocumented immigrants get deported with no due process? He never wanted to know, but he eventually found out. Well-connected friends contacted the Philippine Embassy, White House, and DHS. The DHS was deporting people from Texas straight to Mexico, so presumably it didn’t know what to do with Vargas. And the Border Patrol kept moving Vargas from cell to cell because journalists and photographers were visiting that day.
Vargas’s privilege clearly saved him from deportation. At the same time, he didn’t want to find out exactly what happened because he could not stand the thought that so many people who lack these same privileges get treated far worse in the U.S. immigration and prison systems. While he was released this time, this doesn’t necessarily mean that he will avoid deportation in the future—so he still cannot feel safe in his country. Finally, it’s deeply ironic that the guards constantly moved Vargas around to hide him from journalists—this actually confirms his deep-held belief that journalism can change public opinion by exposing how the immigration system really works.
Themes
While writing this book, Vargas called his mother, and they had their longest conversation ever. He told her about how writing this book gave him the space and time to really reflect on his feelings for the first time. He was staying in a hotel—he still didn’t have a permanent address. Mama replied, “maybe it’s time to come home.”
Vargas’s experiences while writing this book have helped him confront the trauma of his past and rebuild some of the emotional intimacy with his mother that he had lost. In this sense, he is healing his own psychological wounds and slowly learning to overcome the pattern he calls “distant intimacy.” Nevertheless, his mother’s suggestion that maybe he should “come home” shows that he will always have to face an uncertain, precarious status in the U.S. Of course, it also shows that she genuinely doubts whether it was right to send him to the U.S. at all. He clearly shares this doubt, as he wonders whether saving his relationship with his mother would have been worth foregoing the great material advantages of living in the U.S. Finally, Vargas’s Mama’s comment raises an important question for the reader: where is the “home” for Vargas to go back to, really?
Themes
