Jose Vargas's Story Summary

Jose Vargas’s story is one of fear, secrets, and struggles with a glimmer of hope at the end. You may see all of his struggles as just a mass of problem after problem without any significance in the individual stories. I do not believe this to be true. I believe one story in particular was used as an excellent tool. The story of Jose’s coming out as a homosexual was used to show what was to come. I thought Vargas’s use of relating the story of his coming out about his sexuality as foreshadowing for his experience telling others of his status as an undocumented immigrant was clever.
The way that Jose wrote the very few sentences he chose to talk about his sexuality really impacted me. He wasn’t just randomly stating that, it had a purpose. Throughout the essay I was able to connect the dots of his story to create a bigger picture. Because of the many similarities between the two, Jose was able to interweave them.
On the surface it seems that homosexuality and having the status of an undocumented immigrant don’t have much in common, but you are …show more content…
While I personally do not support this lifestyle, I recognize that many in this day and age do. Even with this acceptance homosexuality is still a terrifying secret that many people keep to themselves for as long as they can possibly bear. They are afraid of what others will think of them or whether people will understand and accept them or not. Similarly, undocumented immigrants must hold fast to their secrets or risk deportation or unfair stereotyping.
Because of this, many people in these situations fear for their lives every single day. They fear of being discovered for who they really are. Both groups are terrified of what people will think of them. This causes massive rates of anxiety and depression in homosexuals and illegal immigrants. Jose discusses the anxiety he had about being an undocumented immigrant and many openly gay people discuss the anxiety they had before coming out as