“‘Señora, why did Mamá go home?’ Lupita asked anxiously.

‘I don’t know. Who tells me anything? […] Go home, girl, and find out. Do not pester me. I have much to do today.’ She added, grumbling, ‘Who knows when your mother will return?’

Not return? By now Lupita’s heart had begun to hammer. Something had happened! Something was wrong.”

When Lupita discovers that her father’s boss, who was supposed to have been at sea, has come home early and summoned her mother, she realizes immediately something is amiss. This quote reveals the precarious nature of the Torres’s economic situation. It also illustrates the hypervigilance of Lupita, who understands the fragility of their livelihood.

“Holding the baby in one arm, rocking him to stop his crying, the widow pointed to the three younger children. ‘Pobrecitos, poor little ones.’ She sighed. ‘What will happen to them now? It is very hard for children without a father when there is little money.’

‘Sí,’ the other woman agreed with a sigh. She nodded and confided, ‘But at least Carmela will not have to pay for her husband’s funeral. His being swept into the sea has saved her money she will need. Ay de mí, the sea, at least has done that for her and her children.’” 

This conversation is happening between two neighbor women who have arrived to assist Lupita’s mother with her children and offer condolences. The inappropriate nature of these comments, while they are honest and depict the reality of a brutal situation, are painful for Lupita and her mother to hear. Lupita responds by taking the baby and telling the women they are free to go.

“As Lupita walked along, her footstep guided by the flashlights of the officers on her left and right, Salvador whispered, ‘I was proud of you down there, Lupita.’

‘I was proud of you, too, Salvador. But we must get a new bottle for our water.’”

This brief conversation occurs as US Border Patrol agents escort Lupita and Salvador back to Tijuana after their failed attempt to surreptitiously follow a coyote across the border. Each is proud of the other because of their bravery in the face of an attack by robbers in which Lupita smashed their water bottle over the head of a gringo who had hold of Salvador. Lupita’s casual remark about the bottle is practical as well as one of the rare humorous asides in the