Mexican WhiteBoy

Consider the dilapidated recycling plant in Mexican WhiteBoy. Rundown and covered in graffiti, the recycling plant is visible from Uncle Tommy’s front steps. Recyclable items wrongly discarded into landfills are like the lives of many of de la Peña’s characters: they have innate potential but live in el barrio, a heavily Hispanic, impoverished neighborhood whose residents have limited opportunity.

On the one hand, the recycling plant symbolizes an abundance of waste and untapped human potential. Think about ways you might see the landfill as a figure of hope. Can we find reasons for hope and/or symbols of rebirth and potential in the recycling plant? Discuss and analyze the layered meanings of the recycling plant and how it functions in the novel’s themes.  

Teaching Suggestion: If students struggle to answer this question, ask them to think about the recycling plant as a symbol of duality, and have them reflect upon the many binaries depicted in Mexican WhiteBoy. The most prominent pair of opposites is hope and despair, so it makes sense that the recycling plant would have a hopeful counterpart to its representation of despair.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners and struggling readers, consider providing further context for from this informational sheet from the Environmental Protection Agency entitled “Recycling Basics.