Summary

This book is broken into four parts, with some chapters written in first-person prose and others in verse. Part 1, “Life in Paradise, Also Known as Hell,” opens with a poem titled, “Facts on How to Be Born: Life,” Claudia recalls her mother telling her about her birth. Claudia’s mother tells her that she acted “like a tomboy” (3). Two months after her birth, Claudia’s mother registers her under the name of Claudia Denise Hernández Ramos, though the secretary misspells Denise as “Penise.” Claudia returns at 19 to fix her legal name. On this trip she learns that her name should have been “Rossi” instead of “Hernández.”

The next chapter, “Tempting Mud,” is told in prose. Claudia is 4 years old and her older sister, Consuelo, is 6. Mamá enlists her oldest daughter, 12-year-old Sindy, to help the girls bathe in the washbasin. Claudia...