The novel opens with a brief Prologue, composed by Arturo, the narrator of his own Epic Fail. Apparently written just after the disappointing events of Chapter 16, the note reviews Arturo’s self-perceived failures up to that point. He ends the note saying, “So let me start the puro desastre, the, like, total meltdown, from the beginning […]” (2).

Thirteen-year-old Arturo is excited because it’s “the Sunday before the official start of summer” (4). For Arturo, summer in Miami means hanging out with his friends Bren and Mop (so-called due to his “mop” of hair) in their Cuban neighborhood, “swinging on banyan trees, looking for manatees in the canals throughout Canal Grove, [and] eating churros” (4). Arturo will also be working part-time at his family’s restaurant.

La Cocina de la Isla is closed this Sunday, as usual. Arturo’s abuela always shuts the restaurant’s doors on Sundays, despite grumblings from regular customers, so the whole Zamora family can share a meal. The place bustles with energy. Arturo’s aunts, uncles, and older cousins chat or flip through TV channels at the bar, while his younger cousins zip “around, pretending to be superheroes” (4) and overturning chairs. Although Abuela’s health is failing, and she’s yielded the restaurant kitchen to her oldest daughter—and Arturo’s mother—Caridad (Cari), she sits happily “in the lounge area, smiling and surveying the whole scene” (3).