49 pages • 1 hour read
How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water
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Background
Ideological Context: The American Dream
Coined by historian James Truslow Adams in his 1931 book The Epic of America, the phrase “American Dream” encapsulates the national ethos of the US. Disheartened by the economic upheaval of the Great Depression, Adams critiques the modern era’s focus on material wealth and its drive for economic gain. Instead of measuring American greatness by its material comforts, Adams posits, America might instead be measured by its ability to enforce a social order that provides a better life for everyone and ensures opportunity in measure with ability and achievement. Historians have since attributed this belief that the US is a land of opportunity to narratives of American exceptionalism and have used it to explain the country’s popularity with immigrants.
Critics of the ethos argue that the idealized version of America presented through the American Dream ignores the social and economic realities that have shaped the US, for it does not acknowledge factors such as enslavement and its legacy, including Jim Crow laws and the racist manifestations of violence in the modern era. Historiography that adopts the American Dream narrative also ignores the ruinous effects of colonialism and the widespread genocide of Indigenous people. Some scholars argue that rapidly widening income inequality in the US in the 21st century discredits the notion that work correlates with prosperity. Furthermore, by connecting prosperity and hard work without acknowledging the systems that deliberately disadvantage people, critics of the ideal claim that it promotes biased narratives that perpetuate inequality.
In How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water, Angie Cruz examines the American Dream through the lens of the wider economic pressures and personal conflicts that Cara Romero faces as an out-of-work immigrant during the Great Recession of the late 2000s. While Cruz does not critique the foundational ideals that the America Dream represents, she does examine the social and economic systems that undermine its egalitarian ideals. Through Cara’s resilience and willingness to give care to others despite her own dire circumstances, Cruz offers evidence that immigrants embody the hard work, social responsibility, and community-driven values that make the American Dream possible.
Historical Context: The Great Recession
The Great Recession refers to a period of severe global economic downturn in the late 2000s. During this time period, vulnerabilities to the global finance system were ignored due to a lack of financial regulation; this dynamic was driven by the misguided notion that banking and finance systems were too big to fail. In the US, the lack of close oversight on lending and credit systems led to irresponsible increases in subprime mortgage lending and housing speculation. These factors artificially inflated the perception of wealth in banking institutions that were backed by housing-related securities. Rising interest rates led to a wave of homeowners defaulting on these subprime loans, which devalued mortgage-backed securities and threatened large-scale collapse of major financial institutions such as leading lender Lehman Brothers. High interest rates and a collapsing bank and credit sector led to a domino effect across the economy as businesses could not secure credit and turned instead to downsizing and bankruptcy. Meanwhile, job opportunities shank and unemployment rose, and without adequate access to work, individuals’ debt skyrocketed. Although congress passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act in 2008, which allowed the use of taxpayer funds to purchase major lenders’ toxic assets and prevent default to global banks, economic turmoil continued for individual Americans through 2010.
The Great Recession is regarded as one of the worst financial periods in US history. Ideologically, it remains a period of both great hope and disillusionment for Americans. Barack Obama, who ran on the campaign slogan “Hope” to become the first Black president of the US in 2008, inherited the responsibility of fixing the economic crisis. The situation dampened the public reception of Obama’s long-anticipated presidency. Many viewed Obama’s mobilization of the Economic Stabilization Act negatively, seeing it as a bailout that allowed banks to escape the consequences of their greed even as victimized taxpayers suffered rising debt and unemployment with little financial relief. In How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water, Cruz captures the era’s tension between great hope and great disillusionment by outlining the plight of Cara Romero. Using the recession as a backdrop for examining immigrant and working-class experiences in America, Cruz highlights the compounding hardships that visit the most vulnerable during times of economic turmoil. Through plotlines involving gentrification, outsourcing, and weaponized documentation, Cruz emphasizes that although immigrants are often blamed for economic turmoil, the promises of the American Dream are in fact compromised by the same self-interested American pursuit of wealth and lack of community responsibility that led to the Great Recession.
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