VLVL2 (3): Hector Zuniga & Zoyd Wheeler (More or Less Ironic Double Stuff)

[Tim Strzechowski]

And adding to the irony is the fact that although Hector is a Mexican
American "responding to the American ideology of advancement," his role
within that system is based on "snitching" (i.e. getting others to be the
rat) to advance his status within that American Dream.  Jay Gatsby, Willy
Loman, these are characters who essentially sell their souls for the sake of
advancement within the System, to achieve the AD.  Does Hector really sell
his own soul to achieve success, or does his role depend on others who do?

Tim



From: "Terrance" <lycidas2 at earthlink.net>

> At a time when the climate of opinion (1960s USA) is not conducive to
> the traditional rhetoric of the American Dream, making it sound old
> fashioned and dated, many Mexican American youths are laying claim to
> that dream. . . . The process of responding to the American ideology of
> advancement, observed in all other immigrant groups in the second
> generation is being similarly reenacted here, although it took longer to
> get underway.  What typically took place in immigrant groups in the
> second generation is now occurring  among third- and fourth-generation
> Mexican Americans. As a phenomenon of noticeable proportions, it is new
> among Mexican Americans. Also, these third- and fourth- generation
> Americans are facing the problems of marginality and assimilation, which
> other ethnic groups met in the second generation.
>

[...]

>
>
> Hector is a  great expectation and exception, an American Dreamer. Like
> Jay Gatsby, he builds his identity from  cultural waste (film and TV
> 1950s Reagan-debris and the like ... Franklin's work ethic and Hopalong
> Cassidy books).
>