Stephen Cruz was a very successful man who truly believed, or at least wanted to, in the American Dream. Though he was a minority, he still managed to get jobs in the 1960's which he knew had a lot to do with the Civil Rights Act, but also believed it was because of his vast abilities. As he climbed up the economic ladder, he realized that a lot of what goes on in the work force when dealing with who gets hired or fired, has a lot to do with racism. Cruz, even with his optimistic personality, left his job where he was making fifty thousand dollars because he could no longer be "disillusioned", he couldn't work for people obsessed with their image and money because he knew he'd turn into them.
Cruz's situation is somewhat similar to that of Richard Rodriguez, who became so obsessed with his education and being the smartest, that he forgot about his family and his culture and left them behind. Rodriguez eventually realized that being book smart isn't everything; you need your family, you need to stay connected to your heritage while venturing into other worlds, you can't bury yourself in books and hide from those you love. After spending time studying in London Rodriguez returned home to be with his family.
Cruz is similar to Mike Rose because they are both very optimistic people. They both knew that they weren't always in the best situations, but they made the best of it, tried to have faith in others, and made the right decisions for themselves. They may have been stuck working with people who didn't care as much as they did, who didn't treat others with respect, but they found ways around it and in the end both of their situations worked out for them.
Gary Soto and Cruz both desired to have The American Dream more than anything and were willing to work for it no matter what it took. The difference is that Soto wanted to be like the white sitcom families he saw on TV and Cruz just wanted to be respected in the work force for who he was by his white employers. They both learned that the American Dream is somewhat of a myth and that they are actually more fortunate than they thought they were.
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