Question

“Por favor,” says the lady. “¿Un foto?” pointing to her camera. “Si.” She’s so busy taking Junior’s picture, she doesn’t notice me and Keeks. “Hey, Michele, Keeks. You guys want gum?” “But you speak English!” “Yeah,” my brother says, “we’re Mericans.” Which of the following statements best explains the irony in this excerpt?

Answer 1

The answer would be, " A. The woman assumes that the narrator’s brother is native to the region, but he is actually an American. "

Answer 2

In Sandra Cisneros's Mericans, a tourist couple is roaming around in front of a church when they run into the speaker and her brother, whom are visiting the church with their grandmother. The kids are north-Americans but are visiting their grandmother in Mexico when they run into the tourists. When the tourist lady sees the boy sitting in front of the church, she wants to take a picture of her, maybe thinking that she was capturing something exotic. The irony is in the fact that the kid she was trying to capture was just as American as herself.