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Uno Interrupts Danny’s Workout
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. Uno and Danny have been working out together every day for a week. As they walk home from the park together, Uno says they’re going to meet a baseball player named Carmelo tomorrow. Uno’s idea is to hustle batters at high schools in the area by betting them that Danny can strike them out. Uno says that Danny should underplay his skill at first while they warm up and let the batter hit a few times. Once the batter is confident, they’ll make the bet and Danny will strike them out.
2. As they walk, Danny becomes nervous that he won’t be able to strike out Carmelo. He knows that Uno needs the money to live with Uno's dad, and Danny doesn’t want to let Uno down. Uno points out the man in the Padres hat again, and Danny says he’s a scout who used to come to his high school to watch Kyle Sorenson. They speculate that he’s scouting Danny. They arrive to Sofia’s house, where Sofia’s getting ready to bring Danny to a movie with her friends. Uno jokingly asks if they didn’t invite him because the movie is only for Mexicans.
Danny is sure that the man in the Padres hat is a scout, but this character is still mysterious. The man inexplicably always knows where Danny is. This man also recalls the person who looked like Javier that Danny saw on his way to the fair. One possibility is that the man Danny saw from the car is the same as the one who watches Danny pitch. Uno refers to Danny and the others as “Mexicans,” even though Uno and Danny are both half Mexican. Uno thinks of himself as Black, and he doesn’t know that Danny is also mixed race. This adds to the book’s examination of how other people’s perceptions can complicate one’s self-image.
Themes
3. At the drive-in theater, Danny sits in Carmen’s car with Sofia and the rest of her female friends. Instead of watching the movie, Danny reminisces about Danny's dad. He recalls one time he was sick and home from school. His dad was watching TV and smoking a joint next to him. Danny got high from secondhand smoke and left to hide in the bathtub for an hour until his dad came to find him. When his dad finally returned, Danny said he was going to take a shower but got too tired. They both went back to watch TV, and his dad let Danny choose the channel. He chose based on what he thought his dad would like best.
Danny’s flashback establishes that Danny has always been concerned about pleasing Javier, even before Javier left. It’s understandable for children to want to please their parents, but it’s possible that Danny experiences this to a heightened degree because Javier doesn’t speak to Danny much, or because Danny is afraid of Javier’s violent temper.
Themes
4. Back in the present, everyone in the car screams at the horror movie. They send Danny to get popcorn for them from the food stand. Spotting Liberty in the snack line, Danny realizes that the girls set him up to talk to her. He almost goes back to the car but decides he should talk to her because that’s what Ray or Javier would do if they were him. Danny gets anxious trying to think of what he should say to her, and the feeling reminds him of how he felt when he was high off his dad’s marijuana. Danny ends up just waving at Liberty. Sofia says she and her friends will help him learn how to talk to girls.
It's notable that Danny mentally groups Javier and Ray together. Ray, Tommy, and Javier are all brothers—Ray and Javier are similar in that they are impulsive and unstable, and Tommy is the only one with a stable marriage and family life. Unable to see Javier’s flaws, Danny strives to be just like his father.
Themes
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