Latin Americans have experienced great difficulty trying to integrate the U.S. society and to this day they continue to be discriminated. Even with this, the problems they went through did not stop them from devising effective strategies to influence others to accept that there is virtually nothing differentiating them from the rest of the world.
Leguizamo's attempts to impress the Irish girl are surely not meant to have her think that he is a bona-fide Irish person. Instead, he wants to exploit his humor and his Latin background in trying to get to her through other means. He is well acquainted with the fact that it would be difficult and almost impossible for him to pass as an Irish, but still goes on with trying to look that way because he thinks about the humor he would instill in his audience by doing so.
People like Leguizamo managed to experience success in their lives because of their failures. They learnt how to recover rapidly from problems that they came across and they even learnt how to use their background as a tool to influence others in appreciating who they were. The fact that the Irish girl relates to Leguizamo as being a Puerto Rican actually contributes to the feeling that he did not hesitate to put across ideas that might have emphasized his cultural background.
Leguizamo uses an intriguing...
It is actually by emphasizing the fact that he is not Irish that Leguizamo attempts to influence the girl in expressing interest in him. He apparently knows that such a strategy would significantly increase his chances of being appreciated. By exaggerating, he wants to show that he is not actually interested in appearing to be someone he is not and that he is not actually ashamed of his background.
The scene involving the Irish girl is a part of a greater context meant to provide the audience with Leguizamo's life. The performance's title is meant to emphasize how Leguizamo's feels concerning his personae and how he considers that there would be nothing wrong with him being discriminated as long as he is well-acquainted with who he actually is. The performance is focused on two aspects of his life: one involving his biological family and one displaying a series of traditions expressing Latin thinking. Even with this, the performance actually puts across the feeling that Leguizamo is more concerned about situating his character within a different community -- one involving famous Latin American individuals throughout history that managed to generate much controversy as a regard of their complexity.
