Previous
Lola
“Lolo” (Tagalog for “grandpa”) is Jose Antonio Vargas’s grandfather Ted Salinas, who housed and raised Vargas after he arrived in California at age 12. After he and Lola followed their daughter Florie to the United States in 1984, Lolo began working as a night security guard and sending money back to Vargas’s mother in the Philippines. Lolo also saved up the $4,500 to bring his grandson to the U.S. with fake documentation. By the time Vargas arrived, Lola and Lolo were proud U.S. citizens. But Lolo was also a devout Catholic, and he hoped that Vargas would marry a woman to “get legal.” He was furious when Vargas came out as gay and even briefly kicked him out of the house. He also constantly worried that Vargas’s high-profile journalism career would get him deported. However, despite all their differences, Vargas and Lolo reconciled shortly before Lolo’s death in 2011.
Lolo Quotes in Dear America
The Dear America quotes below are all either spoken by Lolo or refer to Lolo. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 1, Chapter 2: The Wrong Country
Quotes
To Lolo, America was something you wear, something you buy, something you eat, and he wanted to spoil his first and only grandson—me. It was consumption all around.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 5: Filipinos
Quotes
But my family is from the other Mountain View, which is part of the other Silicon Valley. This is the Mountain View of immigrant families who live in cramped houses and apartments, who depend on Univision, Saigon TV News, and the Filipino Channel for news of home, not the homes they’re living in but the homes they left behind. This is the Silicon Valley of ethnic grocery stores in nondescript and dilapidated buildings, where sacks of rice and pounds of pork are cheaper, where you hear some Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese before you hear a word of English. This is the other Mountain View, in the other Silicon Valley, where the American Dream rests on the outdated and byzantine immigration system that requires families to wait for years, if not decades, to be reunited with their loved ones.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 7: Fake
Quotes
“Peke ba ito?” I asked in Tagalog. (“Is this fake?”) I held out the green card and searched his face as my voice cracked, afraid of what he might say.
Without addressing the question, he got up, swiped the card from my hand, and uttered a sentence that changed the course of my life.
“Huwag mong ipakita yang sa mga tao.” (“Don’t show it [the card] to people.”)
His voice was soft, soaking in shame.
“Hindi ka dapat nandito.” (“You are not supposed to be here.”)
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Dear America LitChart as a printable PDF.
Lolo Quotes in Dear America
The Dear America quotes below are all either spoken by Lolo or refer to Lolo. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 1, Chapter 2: The Wrong Country
Quotes
To Lolo, America was something you wear, something you buy, something you eat, and he wanted to spoil his first and only grandson—me. It was consumption all around.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 5: Filipinos
Quotes
But my family is from the other Mountain View, which is part of the other Silicon Valley. This is the Mountain View of immigrant families who live in cramped houses and apartments, who depend on Univision, Saigon TV News, and the Filipino Channel for news of home, not the homes they’re living in but the homes they left behind. This is the Silicon Valley of ethnic grocery stores in nondescript and dilapidated buildings, where sacks of rice and pounds of pork are cheaper, where you hear some Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese before you hear a word of English. This is the other Mountain View, in the other Silicon Valley, where the American Dream rests on the outdated and byzantine immigration system that requires families to wait for years, if not decades, to be reunited with their loved ones.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 7: Fake
Quotes
“Peke ba ito?” I asked in Tagalog. (“Is this fake?”) I held out the green card and searched his face as my voice cracked, afraid of what he might say.
Without addressing the question, he got up, swiped the card from my hand, and uttered a sentence that changed the course of my life.
“Huwag mong ipakita yang sa mga tao.” (“Don’t show it [the card] to people.”)
His voice was soft, soaking in shame.
“Hindi ka dapat nandito.” (“You are not supposed to be here.”)
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
