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Uno and His Peeps Talk Summer Jobs
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Mexican WhiteBoy, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Race and Identity
Fate vs. Opportunity
Violence, Power, and Coping Mechanisms
Coming of Age
Family, Friendship, and Culture
Summary
Analysis
1. Sofia forces Danny to leave his cot and says he’s going to the fair with her and her friends. After Danny gets ready, Chico and Carmen pull their cars up to Sofia’s house. Danny notices the contrast of his collared shirt and Vans to the others’ clothes, and he cuts his arm again.
Sofia forces Danny to go to the fair out of concern for him—she wants him to have fun and socialize with the others. Again, Danny’s style is markedly different from the others, and this makes it apparent that he comes from a wealthier background than they do. Whereas the others wear clothing designed for manual work, Danny has a “skater” or “surfer” style—he wears clothing originally meant for expensive leisure activities. Noting how much this makes him stand out causes him so much anxiety that he self-harms again.
Themes
As everyone is hanging out in the cars and on the street, Danny’s uncle Ray angrily enters the scene. He asks Danny whether Uno hit him, threatening to hurt Uno if so. Danny doesn’t answer at first but eventually yells that Uno didn’t hit him—the injury was just an accident from the game. Everybody calms down, and the group drives to the fair. In the car, Raul and Lolo offer Danny beer, which he drinks. Danny sees a man who looks like Javier staring at him through the car window, but Danny knows it can’t actually be his dad, because he's in Mexico.
Ray asking Danny if Uno hit him implies that Ray heard about the incident, but it’s not clear who he heard it from. Ray’s fury shows that he, like Sofia, believes in family loyalty. Ray and Danny don’t have a close relationship, but Ray wants to protect Danny at all costs. It’s significant that Danny yells here because he has barely spoken out loud up until this point. The boys sharing beer with Danny is a sign that they’re beginning to respect him—they know that Danny lies to Ray in order to protect Uno. The detail about the man who looks like Javier is suspicious. Danny thinks his dad is in Mexico, but as readers will have already discerned, Danny’s thoughts about his parents are not entirely reliable. This makes readers wonder if the man Danny sees really is Javier.
Themes
2. At the fair, Danny, Flaca, and Sofia are on the Ferris wheel drinking spiked juice. Flaca points out the half-white girl in the fair crowd—she’s new to the neighborhood, and Sofia says her name is Liberty. Flaca says she heard that Liberty is “una puta” already at the age of 16, but Sofia brushes this off as a ridiculous rumor. Danny feels intoxicated as he gets off the ride.
Liberty is the same girl that helps Danny when Uno punches him. Since she’s new to the area, and Flaca suggests that she might be a puta, a which means “prostitute,” it’s clear that Liberty is an outsider to the community. She and Danny have this in common, as well as both being half white and half Mexican.
Themes
3. Later on at the fair, Danny listens while the other boys gossip about girls. Everyone is drinking. They debate whether the toddler Danny saw Liberty with is her own child or her cousin. Uno sees Danny laugh at a joke he makes at Chico’s expense and nods at him. The girls join them after visiting the fair’s art gallery, talking about how women are more cultured than men. Danny thinks about Liberty and determines that the toddler must be her cousin.
This is the first time Danny hangs out with the other teenagers since Uno punches him. Everyone—even Uno— begins to accept him into the group, since they see Danny lying to Ray as an act of loyalty toward them. Danny begins to develop a crush on Liberty. He’s drawn to her because they’re both outsiders.
Themes
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4. Danny hears the girls say that Liberty doesn’t speak English, and that her white American dad brought her to National City after she wrote him letters from Mexico, but he lives in LA with his other family. Danny thinks about Javier and looks forward to finding him in Mexico.
Liberty’s story parallels Danny’s—they both experience language barriers, and Liberty wrote her dad letters from Mexico to California just as Danny writes Javier letters from California to Mexico. In addition, they’re both estranged from their fathers.
Themes
Later that night, Danny writes a letter to Javier, saying that he’s become close with Sofia’s friends. He writes that Liberty is his girlfriend but that he’s taking it slow with her—like his dad warned him—so that he doesn’t end up with a teenage pregnancy like his dad and uncle Ray did. Danny writes about being a professional baseball player one day and bringing Liberty to Mexico to meet Javier.
Again, Danny lies and exaggerates in a letter to Javier, writing about things that he thinks will make his father proud of him. The letter reveals that Javier had a teenage pregnancy that he regrets, but it’s not clear when this pregnancy was or how it culminated. One possibility is that it was Wendy’s pregnancy with Danny, and another is that Javier has another child. The combination of Javier’s teenage pregnancy and his violent temper paint him as a reckless and impulsive man.
Themes
5. Danny gets drunker at the fair and he enjoys the feeling. Sofia and Carmen check on him and realize that he’s very drunk when he kisses Carmen’s hand and laughs, so Sofia cuts him off. Danny falls asleep sitting against a fence and has a recurring dream he’s had for three years. In the dream, he sees a family of hawks, and the sight fills him with joy. Then he falls asleep in the dream. When he wakes up, the hawks are gone. Devastated, he tries to fall back asleep, hoping to see the hawks again, but he can’t.
Throughout the novel, hawks symbolize Danny’s desire for his parents to protect and watch over him. This recurring dream, which Danny starts to have when Javier leaves, reflects the distress Danny feels about his dad’s absence. Danny’s hope to find the birds again in his dream reflects his real longing to see his dad again. In the dream, Danny doesn’t know where the birds are, which might suggest that he has some doubt about where Javier actually is.
Themes
