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A Final Phone Call from San Francisco
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 waits for Uno's mom to come home from the hotel she cleans at so he can tell her that he’s moving to Oxnard. He thinks she’ll yell at him when she finds out, even though he feels like his presence at home inconveniences her. When she arrives, she tells Uno that she’s pregnant. She hopes it’s a boy because Ernesto wants a son, even though they already have Manny. Uno doesn’t mention Oxnard, and his mom tells him to clean up the house or else Ernesto will be angry.
Uno’s mom seems to have little regard for Uno’s emotional wellbeing. Her comment that Ernesto wants a son is insulting—Manny is Ernesto’s biological son, and Uno is his stepson. One explanation for Loretta’s coldness could be that since she is likely a victim of her husband’s abuse, she simply doesn’t have the emotional resources to properly care for her son. This idea applies to Wendy and Javier, too. This could illustrate how abuse spreads through families, an idea the novel repeatedly returns to.
Themes
