“She was made after the time of ribs and mud.”

The opening sentence alludes to the biblical creation stories of humankind. In the first chapter of Genesis, God creates men and women equally. In the second chapter of Genesis, God creates Adam out of the dust of the earth and Eve out of Adam’s rib and places them in the Garden of Eden. In this creation story, God and the humans speak to each other and have a relationship. In the novel, Plascencia mimics God in the creation of his characters, using ink and paper; in this case, the creation is that of Merced de Papel.

“He felt the weight of a distant force looking down on him.”

Federico de la Fe begins to sense that some being or force, located in the sky, is watching him and directing his fate. The watcher is Saturn, a stand-in for the author. This quotation points toward the metafictional nature of the book, in which the characters are not only aware of their creator but also go to war with him.

“When he felt that we were alone we stepped over the chalk line and walked toward a world built on cement.”

Little Merced narrates the moment when she and her father leave Mexico and step into California. Because they wait until no one sees them, the text implies that the two may be undocumented immigrants, not holding the proper papers.