He didn’t like beating people.
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: In the opening line of the novel, Moreno-Garcia captures the inherent tension between Elvis’ real and performed selves. Despite his employment with the Hawks (a paramilitary group dedicated to oppressing protesters and students), Elvis dislikes violence. From the first line, Elvis struggles to fully understand and express his authentic self. He does not fit in cleanly with the ideals and expectations of the Hawks. By the end of the novel, Elvis, somewhat ironically, murders El Mago in a clear rejection of the brutality, corruption, and violence that his boss represents.

She lived for those stories. She woke up, fed her parakeet, went to work, came back, put on music, and pored over each panel in the comic books; she gnawed at each word like a starving woman.
-- Narrator (chapter 2)

Importance: Maite, in the midst of her unfulfilling and mundane employment as a legal secretary in Mexico City...