Danny

Danny is a 16-year-old teenage boy. He lives in San Diego with his mother, Wendy, and sister, Julia. He attends the prestigious Leucadia Prep school where he gets perfect grades. He plays baseball and is a prodigious pitcher, throwing balls at upwards of 90 mph. He has a Mexican father and a white mother. Danny feels conflicted about his race. At school, he is one of the only non-white students, so he feels ostracized and invisible. With his Mexican family, he feels like a white imposter infiltrating their close-knit community.

Danny believes that his father left the family to go to Mexico and be in his true and beloved country. Danny idolizes his father, Mexico, and his Mexican family. It is not until the end of the novel when Danny realizes that his father is not in Mexico, but in jail in California for violently assaulting his mother.

When...