Julia

Julia Reyes is a fifteen-year-old American high school student when the novel begins, and she is the novel’s narrator, protagonist, and dominant character. One of the central tensions in her life—and consequently one of the book’s major themes—is Julia’s struggle to find a place for herself in her Mexican-American family. Since Julia does not ascribe to the family-first, socially-conservative values of her extended family, she has difficulty finding a place to fit in. She feels particularly inferior to her deceased sister Olga, who at least outwardly adhered to traditional expectations for a Mexican woman. At a family party early in the novel, Julia’s tío Bigotes tells her: “You know, without family, you won’t make it in this life. And now that you’re older, you have to learn how to be a nice señorita just like your sister, may...