Summary

Book I, “Because Men Who Built This Country Were Men from the Streets” (1) begins with Chapter 1, “Spanish for 'Toad'” (3). The narrator, Chino, explains his love for his best friend, Sapo. Both Puerto Rican (though Chino's father was Ecuadoran), they grew up together in Spanish Harlem (aka “El Barrio” (5)). Chino's real name was Julio and Sapo's was Enrique, but it was important to have a nickname in their neighborhood—a masculine rite of passage. In junior high school, Sapo was a trouble maker, but this was partly due to the teachers having little faith in him or the other students. Chino was a good artist, so people in the neighborhood often hired him to paint murals when someone close to them died. Chino fell in love with Nancy Saldivia, a Pentecostal girl nicknamed Blanca because of her piety.

In Chapter 2, “Willie Bodega...