So, since we were almost convinced that our race had no culture, no smart people, we behaved even worse. It made us fight and throw books at one another, sell loose joints on the stairways, talk back to teachers, and leave classrooms whenever we wanted to.
-- Chino (Book I, Chapter 1)

Importance: At the beginning of the novel, Chino recalls his junior high years at a school in Spanish Harlem and how the white teachers often ignored or outright disparaged the Latinx students. The attitudes of these teachers caused the Latinx students to neglect their studies and misbehave because they believed they had no academic futures. One teacher in particular told the students they would all end up as sex workers or in prison.

B'cause men that made this country, men that built this country were men from the street. Men like me, men like you, men like Sapito there...Men that used whatever moneymakin' scheme...
-- Willie Bodega (Book I, Chapter 3)