Stephen Cruz was able to pull himself up by his bootstraps, but not necessarily of his own merit. He was an intelligent, hard-working man, but that was not why he recieved job offers. e was given jobs because of his Mexican herritage. As he got promoted, he was "made visible." The business could show off its diversity by having a Mexican in a decent position.
This is actually a somewhat similar story to Ragged Dick. Both Cruz and Dick were given jobs based on something beyond their control: race in Cruz's case, character in Dick's. Dick would never had gotten the high-paying job he got had he walked into the office and presented his credentials. Stephen Cruz may have gotten offers were he white, but probably not as many as he did as a Mexican. It looked good to have a "good" minority.
Both Cruz and Dalton bring up the concept of being the "good" minority-of being compared to others of your biological kind rather than the entire group you're working with. From the corporate point of view, it leaves an impression to have a "good Mexican" on your staff to outsiders. It shows how as a business, you've transcended racial predjudice, when really, you hired the man specifically for this image.
Cruz and Dalton argue that the only way for the American Dream to exist is to completely eliminate things that a person can't help when applying for a job. Because everyone has a bias, stories like Ragged Dick will never exist. There is no way for a person to judge another person soley based on his or her merits.
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