An important aspect of the text is the hold that gang violence, specifically youth gang involvement, has over Emako and her friends’ community. Therefore, an important context to understanding the text is why youth join gangs in the first place. In the Juvenile Justice Bulletin 1998 article “Youth Gangs: An Overview,” James Howell discuss the many reasons that youth join gangs.

Many of the factors that contribute to youth gang involvement parallel underlying factors in the text, such as Emako’s economically disadvantaged neighborhood. Steve and Scott Decker and Darrick van Winkle reveal in their 1996 study, “Life in the Gang: Family, Friends, and Violence” that gang involvement offers an avenue for impoverished youth to make money by selling drugs. This contributing factor is shown in the text when Emako recalls when the rival gang member, the same one who will murder her later on, shows up in her line at Burger King, flashing his wealth as a way to both intimidate and threaten Emako and, by extension, Dante.

The decision to join a gang can seem like the only choice in an otherwise bleak economic landscape with scarce resources. Emako explains to Monterey early in the text that she chose to leave her previous school in her neighborhood because “I got tired of all the nonsense.