Racism Theme Analysis

Nayeli and her friends encounter racism on both sides of the Mexican-American border. Tía Irma's campaign policies are exceedingly nationalistic in favor of Mexico and racist towards Central Americans, and Nayeli is shocked to see how awful some Americans act towards her and other Mexican people. This establishes racism as a central concern as Nayeli navigates along her journey, especially when she begins to see firsthand that racism isn't as benign as it initially seems when it's not directed towards her. Rather, as she moves north through Tijuana and the United States, Nayeli learns that racism has real consequences for everyone—and even though it often takes forms that seem relatively harmless and meaningless upon first glance, that appearance is what makes racism insidious and even more damaging.

The novel overwhelmingly uses humor and irony to suggest that, at its heart, racism is absurd, senseless, and unfortunately all too common. It does this by illustrating the same kinds of racist ideas happening in both Mexico and the United States, showing that neither country is innocent when it comes to fostering racism. Tía Irma speaks about Honduran and Guatemalan immigrants in Mexico in much the same way that Nayeli hears people on American talk radio speaking about Mexican immigrants. In both cases, immigrants are considered a scourge and the undoing of their host countries. Similarly, Irma also cautions Nayeli to not have sex with Matt, so as to not bring home any "American babies." Fifty years earlier, Chava's American girlfriend left him after she became pregnant, because "nobody wants to stay with a Mexican." By calling attention to the way in which racism takes root on both sides of the border, the novel highlights the absurdity and counter-productivity of such racist beliefs.

Though it's often humorous when Nayeli and Tacho are mistaken for being Middle Eastern during their travels, the Americans' recurring mistake points to the underlying anxieties of the post-9/11 era. Border Patrol officers state outright that they don't care much about prosecuting Mexicans, as the US is focused on catching Middle Eastern terrorists. This highlights the ways in which racism is rooted in fear of the unknown "other." Similarly, when Irma gripes about the Central American immigrants getting free educations in Mexico, it is clear that racism also takes root when the “other” is seen as a strain on resources.

When Nayeli gets to the United States, she's shocked by the racism and anti-Mexican sentiment she encounters. This shock is heightened by the fact that, as far as she's concerned, she's doing the US a favor by taking illegal Mexican immigrants back to their country of origin. To those who believe that all Mexicans who cross the border must only want to remain in the US, Nayeli's story of coming to the US to find seven Mexican men to take back to Tres Camarones so they can fight off the narcos and bandidos is absurdly fantastical and entirely unbelievable. For example, Arnie, the Border Patrol agent who process Nayeli, doesn't believe her when she shares her story the first time. However, when he later encounters Nayeli and Tacho on a bus to San Diego from Kankakee, Illinois—proof that Nayeli was telling the truth, and that staying in the US is not her end goal—Arnie is moved to humanize Nayeli and help her and Tacho achieve their goal rather than deporting them outright. Though it's important to keep in mind that Arnie comes to this decision in part because he's extremely fed up with his job and with the government's obsession with policing the border, his decision to help Nayeli makes the case that humanizing someone previously thought of only as an "other" can lead to positive outcomes for all parties.

Though the novel doesn't offer a quick fix for the racism and animosity between Mexico and the United States, the small kindnesses Nayeli experiences throughout the novel suggest that humanizing people and moving away from the idea of the "other" is a simple way to combat racism. Overall, the humanity and very simple desires of the characters insist that no matter what kinds of divisions people draw, people are human and deserve to be treated as such.