Invisible

“Not all the same. I am Dominicano.”

When the interviewer unthinkingly labels all the children as Mexican, they each angrily counter this assumption by announcing where their families are from. Miguel assertively notes that not everyone who speaks Spanish is the same, and from this exchange, he is clearly aware of the way people outside the Latino community often group Latino people together as one monoculture when they are in fact infinitely diverse.

“Don’t say anything about Mom. Don’t say anything about the move.”

Both George and Celeste experience shame as a result of their poverty. This quotation makes it clear that George feels as though he must hide his family’s economic difficulties in order to avoid ruining his chances of getting into a good high school. Similarly, Celeste fears what might happen if the authorities find out that she is living in her van with a young child. Their shared experience of adversity leads George and the others to reach out to Celeste.

“You’ll be with students like you.”

Principal Powell signs George up for morning community service in the cafeteria, assuming that he will fit right in with the other students in the group because they are all of Latinx heritage. George misinterprets the phrase “like you” and theorizes that the principal is referring to other gifted students. Upon arriving at the cafeteria, he is shocked to find out how readily the principal is willing to stereotype him. This scene therefore serves as an early indicator of the graphic novel’s willingness to address the challenging topics of racism and stereotyping head-on, and this trend continues as the story unfolds.

“He’s a jock. She looks like she’s ready to beat someone up. He’s some stuck-up rich kid […] And she’s […] that weird loner girl that no one talks to […] What could I possibly have in common with any of them?”

The staff are not the only ones guilty of assumptions and stereotyping; the students also assume things about one another. When George first meets the others, he pegs each of them using a stereotypical label often placed upon youth which paints them as one-dimensional people. Before long, however, George learns that each of them has much more depth than he originally assumed. As the students learn to reveal the truest sides of themselves, they grow together into a cohesive group, thereby reflecting the theme of Individual Identity and Group Solidarity.

“Isn’t your last name Rivera? They said you spoke Spanish.”

This quote reveals that of all the adults in the story, Mrs. Grouser is perhaps the most obvious and offensive example of how racism and stereotyping can actively harm its targets. In this early scene, she assumes that the students are problem children and that they must all speak Spanish equally well. Thus, she treats them with disrespect whenever they interact. When she finds out that George doesn’t speak fluent Spanish, she reacts with shock, as if that is just something that comes with being Latino by default.

“Me ready to work…Sra. Grosera.”

Miguel has a sharp sense of humor, and when Mrs. Grouser patronizes him and the others based on her preconceived notions about children of immigrant families, Miguel decides to toy with her a little by creating a Spanish pun with her name. It is subtle enough that Mrs. Grouser doesn’t notice, but the other students chuckle with the private knowledge that he has just called her “Senorita Rude.”

“The fake gringo and that strange bird. What a pair!”

Miguel and Nico occasionally resort to bullying and stereotyping the other kids, in this case by calling George and Sara names as they seem to be bonding with one another. Although they have both experienced stereotyping themselves, they inevitably mirror these negative behaviors sometimes, without really realizing that their behavior is quite similar to the behavior they find so problematic in others.

“Ok, I’ll tell you what really happened.”

Gonzalez chooses to include all five students as narrators, giving them each a sense of agency and an assertive voice. With this stylistic decision, the author emphasizes that each of the five students is a valuable individual who deserves to have his or her own story heard. Whenever the narration shifts from one person to the next, the story switches back to the present as the kids argue about the series of events and the particulars of what happened. It is clear from these arguments that their narration is not totally reliable, but the most important facts still remain untainted.

“You want to focus on what matters. Otherwise, you’ll end up in a factory like me or doing construction like him.”

Immigrants in America struggle not only with stereotyping and racism, but also with the pressure and expectations that both parents and peers place on them to excel. While such pressure is well-meaning, it stems from the family’s decision to immigrate to the United States, and therefore it is often up to the children of such families to justify such an immense decision by doing well in the new environment. Miguel feels this pressure immensely, for even though he wants to be an artist, he feels obligated to follow his father’s urging that he put all of his energy into baseball in hopes of someday winning an athletic scholarship.

“Miguel, don’t exaggerate. You weren’t the only one wanting to help.”

The students continue arguing about each other’s reliability as narrators; as they take turns telling the story, a more nuanced view of both the past events and of the students themselves becomes apparent. In particular, each student wants to claim having done the most to help or being the one to initiate the decision. It takes time for them to accept that it was a group effort, because they were for many days unwilling to act with any degree of closeness or solidarity.

“As long as you don’t say anything, we’ll be fine. We’re pretty much invisible anyway.”

Celeste comments on the invisibility of people like her who are without adequate housing. The remark rings true for the students, who each for their own reasons have felt invisible during their time in middle school. This shared sense of being unseen and unheard is what leads to the Kindness Inspired by Adversity that the students show toward Celeste and Lisa.

“I mean no one really notices us. People only see what they want to see most of the time.”

Similar to how the students are stereotyped, Celeste also feels that when people look at her, they do not see the truth that she is struggling. Instead, they see a woman with a daughter and lie to themselves about what is going on to avoid having to do something to help. The students rise above this mentality and step in, demonstrating Kindness Inspired by Adversity.

“Dayara can be nice when she wants to be.”

An array of complexities underlie this seemingly simple statement, for when Sara sees Dayara acting kindly toward Lisa, she realizes that her preconceived notions about Dayara might not be completely accurate. This scene is also just one of many ways in which the authors use Lisa and Celeste as catalysts to allow the students’ own quirks and personalities to fully blossom. Thus, Dayara shows a side of herself that Sara had never seen before. The story itself explores the idea that stereotypes can easily limit people’s perceptions of others, and the students are not immune to this problem.

“Food? Whose food? And since when do you speak English?”

When Mrs. Grouser hears that the students were giving away cafeteria food, she immediately becomes enraged and suspicious, and more of her biased assumptions about the students are displayed. Although Mrs. Grouser runs amok with her disrespectful and abusive behavior toward the students for the majority of the story, her many transgressions are fortunately noticed by the principal in the end, and ironically, Mrs. Grouser’s prejudice ends up being what leads the principal to discover the students’ good deed.

“Sara, don’t let that guy make you feel bad. You have to be strong.”

Each of the students faces bullying and prejudice due to their heritage, and Dayara tries to impart some of her wisdom to Sara, encouraging her to be strong in the face of such judgments. The advice sticks, and Sara starts to speak her mind, revealing herself to be opinionated and intelligent; she even shows herself to be a skilled leader in many ways.

“In English, Sara. I brought you here so you could practice English.”

Sara’s papi pressures her to speak English even though Sara still feels deeply attached to her Mexican heritage and the Spanish language. At one point, George also questions Sara about why she does not speak English more often. Despite her insecurities in the English-speaking world, Sara starts to open up and show her true self the more frequently she spends time with the other students and learns from their examples.

“And we’re fine now. Like, really great. Really, really great.”

George feels a sense of shame and embarrassment toward his family situation and doesn’t want others to know that he has experienced adversity in the same way that Celeste and her daughter have. When he lets this truth slip out, he immediately tries to cover it up by explaining that his family is better off now, even though their situation recently got tougher. The almost desperate tone of his repetition actually reveals his underlying anxieties, for by repeating how “great” everything is, George hopes to make himself believe it just as much as he hopes to convince the other students that it is true.

“Be careful. Because pretty soon they might confuse you with one of us.”

When Dayara hears George speaking casually to himself in Spanish, she jokes that he’s becoming part of the group. Initially, George did not want to be seen as one of the Latino students, and he felt that he had nothing in common with them. Ultimately, however, he learns to be proud of his Latino heritage and comes to realize that being around the other students helped bring him to that realization.

“Nico? Please. That guy doesn’t care about anything or anyone.”

In direct contrast to the derisive tone of this quote, Nico does care quite a bit about other people. However, he places a great deal of importance on maintaining his image, and he also feels more reluctant to talk about the help that he offers to Celeste and her daughter. This reticence on Nico’s part leads the others to develop a false perception of him, which he then attempts to reverse by working with the group and sharing his news about the job with the other students.

“I’ve always been interested. And I know how things can go from bad to worse in an instant. How you can lose everything.”

Despite the appearance that Nico is rich and thus must not have any problems, he is constantly worried about the safety of his family, who still live in Venezuela. He realizes that money cannot protect a person from political upheaval, and he knows too that at any moment, he could receive news that he has lost someone he loves. Nico’s own experiences of adversity are what lead him to help Celeste despite his appearance of privilege and arrogance.

“Was it your idea to steal food, sneak out, and pull that soap prank […] or did someone else put you up to it?”

Principal Powell makes comments which in a subtle way reveal how prone he is to boxing the students into categories and stereotyping them. He puts considerable pressure on George, who speaks fluent English, but not on the other students, who speak English less fluently or who are less vocal, like Sara. He assumes that George could never have taken part in such rule-breaking and assumes that the boy must have been coaxed into doing what he did.

“No, I already said that no one made me do it. Mi culpa, mi idea.”

In the novel’s conclusion, George demonstrates his newfound pride and acceptance of his Latino heritage by including some Spanish dialogue in his statement with a confidence he did not have before. He admits to his part in deceiving Mrs. Grouser, and accepts his role as a member of the group that is collectively responsible.

“When I first got here, I thought these kids were all the same. That the story was about five Latino kids doing a good deed […] but it’s so much more. They are so much more.”

The interviewer realizes the depth and individuality of the students and admits to having held closed-minded assumptions about them until that point. Through their good deed of helping Celeste, the students not only help someone in need, but they also work to break down social barriers and challenge the stereotypes that others have formed about them.