Ernesto Hernandez, an undocumented worker from Mexico, is a talented artist who makes his living as a house painter. When he meets the wealthy Kit, he allows her to believe he’s a student. She embellishes his story still more when he’s introduced to her parents, who then provide him with a studio in which to work. When they find out the truth, they pull all support. Do you think their anger was justified? Do you feel the outcome would have been different if he’d been honest in the first place? Why or why not?
I get that they could feel lied to but they never gave him a chance to explain or to consider his character in the whole from meeting me. We are not just one situation. I thought how typical for self-righteous people. We all make mistakes. Forgiveness is core to being a good human.
Ernesto got a raw deal all around. Kit introduced him to a unrealistic reality. She should have been more astute in sizing him up. He lost all sense of what he was suppose to be doing in the US and engaged in the mortgage fraud without questioning anything. I don’t think most immigrants are that naive.
It was unwise of Ernesto to claim he was an art student when he wasn’t and bring the anger of Kit’s parents upon himself. However, to my mind their anger, while justified in some respects, totally overlooks the quality of Ernesto’s art which had apparantly captivated Kit and her family in the first place. His real story, that of an undocumented immigrant who apparantly paints imaginative and outstanding works of art, is to my mind, even more compelling than his lie about studying art at a University. Ernesto should have stuck with that, but I guess fear and insecurity pushed him down a path of lies. That being said, if Kit’s family were genuinly enamored and excited by Ernesto’s art, they may have voiced their concerns but would not have totally ghosted him. The fact that they cast Ernesto out of their lives suggest to me a shallowness on their part.
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He shouldn’t have lied, so I get the anger but they could definitely have been more understanding I think. I’m not sure the outcome would have been much different if he’d been honest from the start. Being honest would have given them the chance to make the decision themselves instead of feeling like it had been made for them through deception.
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Frankly I have found that it’s just better to be honest. Believe me I get it. Emesto meets an attractive woman and he doesn’t want to say he’s unemployed. So I do think the outcome would have been different if he just told the truth. Kit doesn’t mind other people being fooled (as evidenced by all the lies SHE told about Ermesto, but SHE doesn’t want to be fooled. I get that too. However I thought Kit and her family’s reaction to the lie was over the top. I wonder what their REAL agenda was in accepting Ermesto into their sphere.
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I don’t believe Ernesto should’ve lied. If he felt he couldn’t tell the truth he should have moved on or waited until he felt better about himself. I realize Kit and family came on strong and hard to help him and he may have thought this is too good to let go. Ernesto had good intentions and I think he did not like the lie. Bonnie_O mentions Kit should have been more astute..I think she was too young for that. But, the aunt should’ve taken it a little slower. The outcome may have been different if he confided in one family member he could trussst.
I agree with your statement that Kit’s family overreacted to the situation. But, maybe people in that position cannot or will not put up with being lied to. At least it was swift!
I felt so much empathy for Ernesto… I wish they would have let him explain his situation and been a little more understanding to him. I know it is not good to lie, and I was wishing he hadn’t gotten in so deep and felt like he couldn’t get himself out of the lies he had told before it was too late, but I think I might have been a little more understanding of his situation.
He certainly should have been honest in the first place. But Kit and her aunt should have talked with him and let him explain. They both knew he had talent.
Ernesto, Kit, and her friends and family were all pretentious in their own way. It was evident that Kit and her friends would not have entertained Ernesto, despite his remarkable drawings, if he were undocumented. Ernesto should not have embellished his background. He claimed to be from Mexico, but then lied about being from Mexico City and studying at UCLA.
Kit had a new project—rescuing a dog, now Ernesto. Ernesto should have corrected Kit’s embellishments to her parents and Aunt. However, since he didn’t, he was presented with an incredible opportunity. Ernesto was even gullible and ignorant about mortgages and buying a house without inspecting it. So, even the realtor was not truthful. If Ernesto truly had talent, I would think Kit and her Aunt would have wanted to know the truth. But their feelings of being deceived and shattered their fantasy led to Ernesto’s ruined circumstances.