In "How to Transform," what role does the narrator's Mexican heritage play in the story?

At the gym, many of the players do not accept the narrator at first because he is Mexican. They stereotype him and expect him to play a different sport like soccer. In addition, one morning a policeman questions the narrator because he is sleeping in his father's car. When the policeman takes the narrator to find his father at work, the father tells his son, "Mexicans are allowed to sleep too" (8).