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Part 1, Chapter 7: Fake
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 didn’t want to marry a woman for citizenship because, as his grandparents soon figured out, he’s gay. He learned about his sexuality as a teenager through online chatrooms, where he pretended to be 21 and chatted with older men. Embracing his sexuality helped him cope; he didn’t know what to do with his “illegal” identity, but he knew what it meant to be gay. He remembers seeing Ellen DeGeneres on the cover of Time magazine, but also learning about Matthew Shepard’s murder in Wyoming. He constantly told himself, “There’s nothing wrong with being gay.”
There’s a clear parallel between Vargas’s struggle with his sexuality and his struggle with his immigration status. Both represent how his identity divides him from the people around him and threatens to alienate him from society in general. However, where he lacked positive media representations of undocumented people, he had a clear gay role model in Ellen DeGeneres. This shows how journalism can make a significant difference in young people’s ability to accept themselves, and it helps explain why Vargas is so intent on telling positive stories about undocumented people today.
Themes
Vargas came out as gay in U.S. history class, right before watching a documentary about Harvey Milk. But Lola and Lolo were devout Catholics—and still wanted him to “get legal” by marrying a woman. Lolo wasn’t willing to put up with a gay grandson, so he kicked Vargas out. Vargas went to stay with one of the men he met online.
The prejudice Vargas faced from Lolo for being gay, much like the prejudice against undocumented immigrants that he saw all around him, left him feeling isolated and unloved. In fact, Vargas lost his only support network in the U.S. Of course, Lola and Lolo’s frustration at Vargas’s inability to get citizenship through marriage also shows how U.S. laws used to disadvantage queer immigrants. Before same-sex marriage was legal, same-sex couples could not gain immigration benefits.
Themes
