Point of View

The novel is written from Magda's point of view and is told through first person narration. In the sections that precede her birth, she is present as an omniscient narrator, describing everything with the complete clarity of hindsight. Descriptions start with "The man who would be abuelito" (15), or "...when the young woman who would be my tía" (23), indicating that she is narrating historic events and specifically relating events that happened to the previous generation that had a strong influence on how she was raised by her mother and her aunt. This contrasts with the sections in which she is an active participant, and these same characters are simply referred to by their name or title.

Language and Meaning

Throughout the novel, Magda switches often between Spanish and English. Often it is just a single word in Spanish, and typically it is slang, insults, or...