39 pages • 1 hour read
Francisco JiménezReaching Out
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2008A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 15-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 15 Summary: “Soul Mate”
Now in the second half of his sophomore year, Frank feels less worried about school and family. His father is slowly recovering under the care of Frank’s Tía Chana: “She told my mother that he prayed for us every day” (122). Frank finds a soul mate in Laura Facchini, an intelligent freshman classmate in his Latin American Literature class. Laura and Frank work together at the language lab, and afterword they sit on the front steps of the library and share stories of their working-class childhoods. Frank comes to feel trust and affection for Laura.
Chapter 16 Summary: “Home Away from Home”
Frank befriends Laura’s friend Emily Bernabé, another student at the college. He enjoys eating dinner at her home in the company of Laura, Emily, and Emily’s mother. Emily shares similar experiences with Frank of growing up Mexican-American and working-class. “I visited Emily and her mother several times after that, and each time I felt as if I were with my own family” (131).
Chapter 17 Summary: “Paisano”
Frank befriends Rafael Hernández, a janitor at the college who comes from the same area of Mexico and has also done field labor. Years ago, Rafael left his children and his ill wife in the care of his mother in Mexico, and came to the U.S. to help support them. Rafael invites Frank to his home, where he explains that he is going back to Mexico to join his family: “Life is too hard for us in this country. There are people here who think that we Mexicans are no more than animals” (135). Frank is sad to see Rafael go, but he understands better his own father’s desire to return to Mexico and have his whole family together.
Chapter 18 Summary: “In a Cell”
Now beginning his junior year of college, Frank gets a job as a campus prefect, which helps pay for his expenses. He also gets a new roommate, James Clark, a fastidious graduate student preparing to become a high school teacher. Frank becomes more active in Sodality, tutoring college students in Spanish to help them prepare for social work in the poorer areas of Mexico.
During a Sodality meeting on interfaith marriages and racial issues, a student makes a derogatory remark about Mexicans. Frank storms out, and the student apologizes to Frank. Frank is troubled by the remark—"You should feel sorry for yourself…you’re the one who has the problem” (141)—and wonders if other people he knows hold similar views.
Chapter 19 Summary: “A Secret Revealed”
Frank takes Laura to a coffee shop off campus and reveals the fact that he was born in Mexico, not in Colton, California: “I had to tell Laura the truth. I could no longer keep my secret from her” (142). Laura explains that most of her family were born in Italy and that she grew up speaking Italian with her grandparents. Laura and Frank tell each other about their ancestry and family background.
Chapter 20 Summary: “An American Citizen”
Having revealed his secret to Laura, Frank now feels compelled to confide to his spiritual advisor, Father Shanks, that he lied about his origins on school records and applications for financial aid. Shanks tells Frank that he can avoid any possible repercussions from this by becoming an American citizen.
Frank applies for citizenship and goes to the Department of Justice headquarters in San Francisco to take his test. When asked about deportation history, Frank tells the truth about his family’s deportation; nevertheless, he passes the test and is approved for citizenship. At the courthouse in San Francisco, he takes the oath of citizenship and recites the Pledge of Allegiance, along with a crowd of other foreign-born people to whom he feels a deep kinship. “We were all different yet the same” (153).
Chapters 15-20 Analysis
Frank’s meeting of Laura Facchini is another crucial turning point in the book. Frank immediately notices Laura’s intelligence and skill in the Spanish language. He later learns that she, like him, comes from an immigrant, non-English-speaking background. Laura’s pride in her Italian heritage parallels Frank’s pride in his Mexican heritage. Both of them had similar working-class experiences growing up. Laura is Frank’s first romantic interest in college and will eventually become his wife.
Having met Laura, Frank’s social world continues to expand when he meets Laura’s Mexican friends, the Bernabés, who become a second family to him. Sharing Mexican-style dinners with them reminds him of home. He discovers that he shares common experiences with Emily of growing up and struggling with the English language.
Another friendship forged in this section is that with Rafael Hernández, a fellow Mexican who also works as a janitor. When Frank and Rafael realize that their fathers were born in the same part of Mexico, there is an immediate camaraderie between them. Rafael’s nostalgia for his home country and his familial devotion help Frank to understand his father’s motivations better.
Frank’s confession to Laura about his non-U.S. birth emboldens him to come clean to Father Shanks as well. This in turn leads Frank to obtain U.S. citizenship, another key turning point in the book. By becoming a citizen, Frank realizes that he has much in common with other foreign-born people living in the country. By confessing what he perceives as guilt about his family’s illegal history, a burden is lifted from his shoulders.
A darker shadow is cast by the Sodality meeting, when a student makes a prejudiced remark about Mexicans in the midst of a discussion about racial issues. This is one of the few times in the book that Frank experiences racial prejudice. The chapter title “In a Cell,” while most obviously referring to the Solidarity group meeting, might also point to the idea of racism as a sort of prison.
The author frames the incident in the historical context of President Johnson’s signing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, which outlawed discrimination based on race, religion, sex, or national origin. One student argues that “laws can’t end discrimination” (139), while another student counters that laws can nevertheless control harmful acts. The discussion then evolves into the question of unjust laws such as slavery. This discussion demonstrates how the students of Santa Clara University relate philosophical questions to the issues of the day.
In this section we see how human relationships and actions can expand outward and lead to unexpected and beneficial consequences. Frank’s attending college allows him to meet Laura, which in turn allows him to meet the Bernabés. His revelation of the facts of his birth to Laura and to Father Shanks leads him to seek citizenship. By speaking about his family troubles to Father O’Neill, he is led to join Sodality and thus improve his ability to reflect deeply on his life.
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