How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water

Angie Cruz explores the complexities of immigrant identities through the underlying premise of the Senior Workforce Program and its stated goal of producing ideal job candidates. To this end, Cara’s complex personality, unique communication style, lived experiences, and skills contrast sharply with the reductive responses that American employers use to judge employability. This key difference in approach is designed to expose the biases inherent in American occupational institutions. Through Cara’s complexity, Cruz challenges the reductive measures that Americans typically use to determine who is most worthy of work. Based on the narrow social measures that employers use to vet candidates, Cara fails to prove her employability. Because American standards emphasize a command of standard English grammar and the ability to communicate concisely in a formal register, no potential employer acknowledges the value of Cara’s many experiences and strengths. As this injustice becomes evident, Cruz relies on linguistic bias to expose the reductive ways in which Americans judge both immigrants and job applicants. By contrasting the intimacy of Cara’s sessions with her responses on sample job interviews, Cruz reveals the depths that employers miss when they rely on narrow tools and linguistic expectations to vet job candidates.