“You’ve already told them that you were feeling too sick to go to Union City to visit that tía who likes to squeeze your nuts. (He’s gotten big, she’ll say.) And even though your moms knew you weren’t sick you stuck to your story until finally she said, Go ahead and stay, malcriado.”

This section contains one of the first instances of a difference in behavior and social expectations on the part of the narrator. It also shows that depending on the context, he is not always in control of his actions. The narrator is working within different social or cultural structures, whether it be unwanted contact from his aunt or having to stick closer to his roots with a difference in language.

“If she’s from the Park or Society Hill, then hide the cheese in the cabinet above the oven, where she’ll never see it. Leave a reminder under your pillow to get out the cheese before morning or your moms will kick your ass.”

This section shows the issue of poverty or at the very least an underprivileged home situation. The cheese is connected to the idea of social service government aid. The result is that the reader sees the lengths that the narrator goes through to hide aspects of himself.

“Take down any embarrassing photos of your family in the campo, especially that one with the half-naked kids dragging a goat on a rope. Hide the picture of yourself with an Afro.”

This is another instance of the protagonist hiding his cultural heritage and identifying factors of his culture. There is the sense that there are negative connotations to them from his perspective, and this is one of the first instances of this shame over being an immigrant from the Dominican Republic.