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Part 2, Chapter 9: Strangers
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 explains that journalism became not just his job, but his “entire identity.” His life started revolving around deadlines. While he continued lying about his immigration status, he was meticulous about telling the truth in his writing. And he cared about being original—for instance, when the San Francisco Chronicle assigned him to write about “diversity issues,” he interviewed white students at majority-minority high schools.
Just as Vargas viewed journalism as a way to counteract his legal exclusion from U.S. citizenship, he viewed telling the truth in his reporting as a way to counterbalance the lies he had to tell in order to get his job. However, fully immersing himself in his work was also a way for him to avoid confronting the deeper trauma of feeling alienated and out of place in the U.S.
Themes
In D.C., Vargas spent virtually all his time working. He particularly struggled to improve his writing in English. At first, he reported on video games and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. When a senior editor offered him an assignment in Baghdad, however, he had to turn it down—he couldn’t travel. The editor offered to move him to the politics desk instead. He enthusiastically agreed.
Journalism exposed Vargas to a wide range of issues and perspectives, but it also presented him with a series of unique challenges that other reporters didn’t face. While he couldn’t go to Baghdad due to his undocumented status, the fact that his boss offered him a position there shows that he was clearly standing out as a reporter.
Themes
When he started covering politics, Vargas was younger and more tech-savvy than the other reporters, so he began making videos. He sent the Post’s top editors a memo about the increasing importance of technology in politics, and they put him on the team covering the 2008 presidential campaign. Vargas admits that this was unfair to the other editors—in retrospect, he sees that “my ambition far outweighed my skills.” Fortunately, many senior Post staffers, like Lynne Duke, guided and mentored him.
Vargas recognizes that his success at the Post partially depended on being in the right place at the right time and having dedicated mentors. His success proves that undocumented people are just as capable of succeeding at high levels if they have the right resources—but it also shows how difficult those resources are to come by. Thus, while Vargas’s story might be able to inspire young undocumented people to pursue their dreams, Vargas shouldn’t be construed as arguing that this is all they need to do to succeed. (Instead, they also need policy changes to put them on a level social and economic playing field with citizens.)
Themes
