…that’s how I lose track of time, thinking I was my fault that the girl Petrona was just fifteen when her belly was filled with bones … Mama sits down next to me like taking off so much weight, and together we are quiet and sorry on our dirty stoop on Via Corona in East L.A., staring at that fucking photograph.”
-- Chula (Narration)  (Section 1, Chapter 1)

Importance: This quote, from the prologue-like first chapter of the book, illustrates how important Petrona and her story were, and are, to both protagonist Chula and her mother. The image of Petrona's belly being filled with bones refers, on a literal level, to her pregnancy, and on a metaphorical level, to her carrying feelings and other aftermaths of death in her heart and in her spirit.

War always seemed distant from Bogota, like niebla [fog] descending on the hills and forests of the countryside and jungles. The way it...
-- Chula (Narration)   (Section 2, Chapter 5)