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“When asked where she’d come from, she’d roll her eyes, pitch her arms up to the night sky, and point to the stars with her long scarlet fingernails. So the other kids and I believed she’d flown down from a star.”
Doña Clara’s appearance at the start of the book represents an important quality of the story—that the lives that unfold on its pages are filled with magic and wonder. The young children believe Doña Clara came from a star, and this marks the beginning of a family culture that nurtures imagination through its traditions and rituals. What readers see right away is that Sofia’s world is one of marvel and awe, and that stories weave together the meaning and actions that perpetuate knowing who she is and where she comes from.
“Yes, kicking and biting like mules runs deep in our blood. Never forget that, for it might come in handy someday.”
For the first time in her life, Sofia learns the recurring lesson that if she wants to get her way, she must be like a donkey: strong and willing to kick. Being a “kicker” is a running refrain throughout the book, and one that Sofia hears repeatedly. Sofia learns that fighting for what you want is something that has been in the blood of her family for generations. This quote teaches her two things at once: that there is past ancestral power in her present-day life, and that she needs to be tough if she wants something that’s not easy to acquire.
“When we played “taking the holy host,” I was the priest. My little sister, Lucy, and Berta’s little brother, Noe, both three years old, were the penitents. I never asked Berta to play because she always ate most of the wafers, even if it was my roll of Neccos.”
This scene is notable because it acts out Sofia’s fear of her First Holy Communion. Here, she designates herself the priest, which demonstrates that even as a young girl, Sofia knows she is a leader. At the same time, Sofia takes ceremony seriously. These practice runs at taking her First Holy Communion establish the importance of the sacred ritual in her life, taught to her by her parents. This scene is a clear demonstration of the author’s sense of humor. Much of the book is characterized by its comedy and wit. Finally, Sofia’s cousin, Berta, doesn’t participate because she will just eat all the candy. From the start, readers see how different the two cousins are. Sofia is far more serious, while Berta takes things lightly. The initial tension the author sets up between the two girls only heightens later during the poignant moments when they find themselves supporting each other as comadres.
“It was a riot of laughter, and paper jewels and bits of bright eggshells flying everywhere and on everyone.”
Every tradition has its fun aspect, and Easter is no exception. Even though Easter is taken seriously because it is the birth of Jesus, flying jewels are important to the nature of this story. This is a family and a group of friends who know how to observe their cultural traditions and also have fun doing it. But it’s only after the long and serious Easter mass that the children get to be wild with their Easter cascarones. This sparkly playfulness throughout the story establishes the notion that for each serious ritual or tradition, there is always a lighter side, and one that bonds Sofia’s family and friends for life.
“‘A curandera isn’t a bruja exactly,’ she said. ‘but someone special who heals others by praying to saints and using herbs. Dressing up as a curandera for Halloween…well, it just isn’t right.’”
There is a difference between a healer and a witch, and Mama wants Sofia to know this difference. Though they might seem similar, to heal and to haunt are two entirely different things. Mama is a character who wants to impart the truth of her heritage to her daughter. She is careful not to scold or humiliate Sofia when Sofia says she wants to be a curandera for Halloween. Sofia’s mama is mainly interested in teaching Sofia about the sacred. In this quote, Sofia learns, as she continues to learn throughout the story, how to honor and hold hallowed certain practices of her people and her neighborhood. While there’s always time for fun, there is always, equally, a time for honor and respect.
“‘I wish we lived on the other side of town,’ I said, looking out the window at the darkness.”
The darkness outside the window is symbolic of the dangers inherent in wishing for a different life than the one you have. Sofia’s desire to live among the wealthy is superficial and wrongheaded. She wants the material things that rich people have, and though she doesn’t know it yet, to chase things like that will only bring darkness and loneliness to her life.
“Yes but we have our music, our foods, our traditions. And the warm hearts of our families.”
Papa is always focused on teaching Sofia about the importance of their Mexican American heritage. Happiness is not found in material goods, he explains, when Sofia complains about not getting what she wants. Happiness comes from and resides within the heart. The heart is the main organ, so to speak, through which everyone in Sofia’s world demonstrates their devotion to the traditions of their culture and to each other. Music, food, and ritual is a deeper thread among Sofia and her friends and family than material wealth. Papa teaches Sofia that to covet what others have is to dishonor what you have yourself.
“Sofia, learn to kick with your head instead.”
In this moment, after her P.E. Coach tells Sofia she can beat her bully through brainpower, Sofia’s life changes. The notion of being a “kicker” is further refined for Sofia when her coach explores it with her. She begins to apply herself to her studies, which eventually leads her to the scholarship that further enriches and directs her life. The idea of being a family of kickers that began with Doña Clara takes on new meaning when her coach mirrors the idea of being honorable, even among those who hurt you. Sofia learns that violence is not the way and that there are so many other more powerful things to kick around for success, including sports, education, and love. It’s also important to note, that while Sofia’s primary teachers are her friends and family, there are also strong examples outside the home.
“Berta I don’t want a quinceañera. I love it here, but what I want is to go see new things. I want to go to college, make money, and buy a nice house for Papa and Mama. And maybe become a…lawyer.”
When Sofia tells Berta her dream for herself—to pursue her education and become a professional—it is the first time in the novel that she actually voices her dream. Sofia does not want pageantry. She is not interested in the same things that her best friend values. For a short while, their dreams clash, but for Sofia, being able to put into words what she wants for herself shows that she is clarifying her goals and readying herself to do whatever it takes to be what she wants to be. This quote is also important because it highlights the consistent conflict between Sofia and her cousin. This tension eventually gives way to a loving relationship. Setting up their conflict heightens the reward for the reader when they do become loving comadres. Moreover, readers see that while Sofia loves and honors her culture and its rituals, she is also willing to stand up for herself when she doesn’t wish to participate in one. In this quote, Sofia claims her wish to be independent.
“Part of learning to become a good comadre is learning how to feel happiness, especially after life gets tricky.”
Sofia repeatedly hears from people who love and care for her that life gets hard. When Tia Petra teaches Sofia how to be a good comadre, she includes this quote on happiness because without a clear route to finding happiness, you cannot be a good friend. Part of being a good comadre means being able to share both happiness and sadness with your loved one. But the main goal, which is repeated frequently throughout the book, is to ride the waves of the hard times and return always to that state of grace and happiness. The author means to impart on her young readers that happiness is not only possible but an important element of friendship and love. Loyalty, Sofia learns, begets happiness.
“But usually we cleaned in total silence. And that was when I felt completely close to Papa. He was the only person I knew who made me feel I could feel perfectly quiet and still enjoy something really warm and special with someone.”
This moment sums up the way Sofia and her papa engage, but it also describes the main characteristic of their relationship. Sofia feels safe enough to sit in silence with her papa. Indeed, it is the silence and the comfort of that silence that makes her feel so close to him. Being with her papa is the one time she doesn’t have to prove herself or act a certain way or be someone she isn’t. The quiet, repetitive value of cleaning the beans brings on an almost meditative aspect to her relationship with her father.
“Okay, Sofia. And know that I always want you to follow your dreams. You’re a dreamer like me. And I see from your Taco Head story that you have the kick it takes to learn from life, to keep on going even when it gets hard.”
When Papa gives Sofia his blessing for her to go to Saint Luke’s, it’s not surprising that he brings up the idea of having “kick,” a perennial theme throughout the book. In this case, it’s a little different. It’s not an action that he wants her to take, like her Coach telling her to kick with her brains, but rather a state of being. Having kick means having a quality of toughness and an ability to jump the high hurdles that life puts in your way. Papa acknowledges this characteristic that lives within his daughter, and in so doing, he demonstrates his pride in her mental toughness to be bigger and stronger than racism.
“You have to connect with her in a way she can feel and understand, in a way that takes care of her, too. That’s what I mean when I say you need to learn to dance. Your mama is a dancer, not a dreamer, like you and me. She needs to see and hear things; she can’t sense things in silence like we can.”
Here, Papa coaches Sofia on the best way to reach her mama, a woman whom she differs from in so many ways. The symbolic language and metaphors are a central part of the way Papa and Sofia communicate. He indicates that he and Sofia have a skill that her mother doesn’t have, which is to the ability to envision a different future for themselves. Papa is careful not to discredit his wife and Sofia’s mama in her ways of understanding. He explains in his highly metaphorical language, that everyone is different. People learn about and see the world and its ways differently. Success comes from understanding how to reach out to people who aren’t like you.
“I turned to the stars and now saw them as faraway worlds. Yes! That’s what I wanted: I didn’t want to stay a kid, but I didn’t want to enter Mama and Berta’s grown-up world either—at least not so fast. And not if it was only about getting married and having children, like in the movies. No, I wanted to explore.”
Once again, as she does often throughout the book, Sofia expresses her dreams for herself. She is not interested in traditional domestic roles for women—to be a wife and have children. She wants to test the world out and see what it has to offer. She wants to build her dreams in the stars. She is also not ready to grow up. She is in that middle place between childhood and adulthood, and she is not ready to capitulate to the grown-up world as symbolized by the movies that her mother…and now Berta, like. She expresses what every adolescent must express at some point in their lives; that leaving behind childhood is hard, yet the future beckons in dazzling ways. This quote marks a turning point in Sofia’s life, where it becomes clear that she understands herself and has some consciousness within about what she does and doesn’t want. It is ironically a sign of maturity, the author implies, to know that you aren’t quite ready to grow up.
“For the first time ever, I detected a sense of fear in Mama, that even her web of comadres was no match against these changes. And maybe, I thought, going away to school might help me help her someday.”
For the first time, Sofia sees a chink in Mama’s armor. The tough, bull of a mama, described by Doña Clara as a hard-kicking donkey, shows her humanity and humility. Sofia shows her true characteristic of compassion when this vulnerability she witnesses inspires her to think that she might one day be able to do something good for her mama. She is not upset by her mama’s fear. Instead, she digs into her deeper, empathic self and pulls out the desire to one day take this gift and give it back. Sophia cannot accomplish this without her education, and she has made up her mind to go in spite of her mama’s fear.
“…the craziest things happen during the canicula. But to this day, I still don’t know whether the canicula makes people crazy so they do crazy things, or whether it makes things crazy to make them crazy.”
Sofia’s mama illuminates the age-old question: Do outside things make people crazy or is there something within humans that makes them crazy? Mama is someone for whom superstition can answer life’s most pressing queries. This moment is classic Mama, as she attempts to “dance” not “dream” through life and tries to make sense of the changes that are coming.
“Saint Sofia represents the gift of divine wisdom. Take her with you so that you can marry divine wisdom with everything you do.”
Papa tells Sofia, for the first time in the book, what the saint she was named after represents. He imparts to her that one must cultivate wisdom and use it in every aspect of life. It’s not just any kind of wisdom either, but wisdom that is inspired by the divine. This is yet another example of the quiet spirituality of Sofia’s Papa, who explains to her in his subtle way that spirituality is the foundation of wisdom, and that if Sofia is to live her life wisely, she must stay close to whatever spirit moves her.
“I stopped and reached into my shirt pocket and pulled out the little wood carving of Saint Sofia. I suddenly remembered Papa’s words of many years before, that our side of town had its own wealth and warmth. I finally understood what he’d meant.”
Sofia says goodbye to her family and stands there in the wake of their hugs and kisses alone. It is the first time she really considers what this separation might be like. But when she reaches for the carved Saint Sofia her papa made her, she is comforted. Saint Sofia is synonymous with wisdom, and that is what it will take to get through the next few days, months, even years. In this quote, Sofia ushers forth her memory of that Halloween when she wished she could live like the rich people do; now, wisdom shows her that her barrio is where her heart belong, and wealth has nothing to do with money.
“My heart pounded, my adrenaline pumped as I wrote. I felt terrified and electrified at the same time.”
Sophia is almost overwhelmed when she listens to her English teacher. She has never experienced anything quite like this teacher’s ardor and passion in her other schools. She has never faced learning in this dynamic and challenging way and is afraid. It is unfamiliar and vigorous, but she is electrified, too, and this is the key to her success. The physical reactions in her body represent the thrill of this new intellectual challenge. It implies that though Sofia has never been so challenged, she is up for that challenge. Despite her fear, she will succeed. Once again, readers see Sofia as a girl who has kick and won’t let her terror stop her from acknowledging the excitement of a challenge.
“Later that week I received my first package from Papa. It was the tequila worm he’d promised, in a tiny, empty mescal bottle. I made it part of my room altar, setting it next to Papa’s secret cascarone. My stories were helping me feel less homesick. Now Papa had sent the real cure. I’d save it, just in case.”
Sofia has found a way to grapple with her feelings of homesickness. If she writes a story about the people she loves, she will feel their presence. They may even show up in her dreams, but when her papa sends her the worm, she feels relief. She has been told her entire life that the worm will cure her homesickness; compared to her stories, the worm is a tangible symbol of strength. From the first time she heard Doña Clara say so, to hearing her papa reiterate it, she believes in the tequila worm as the true spiritual medicine she will need at some point in her life. It isn’t a matter of superstition. In Sophia’s world where people are donkeys, stars are worlds, and there’s a day to celebrate the dead, of course the worm will eradicate her feelings of loneliness and homesickness.
“I think it’s different for us. I feel I’m here for my family, too, not just for myself. I love so much about my family, my barrio. Saint Luke’s makes me appreciate them more.”
Sophia’s friend from the barrio, Marcos, is also a student at Saint Luke’s. They both feel relief when they sit down on the bus and head home for the first time since they arrived. The relief come from knowing they grew up in the same barrio and can share intimately about their way of life. Pleasing their parents and siblings is a desire they share and both feel strongly about. They realize, unselfishly, that their education isn’t just for themselves. They have both been raised in a place that values family over most everything else, so when Marco and Sofia agree that school and family are intertwined, it demonstrates how most things in their lives have a family component to them. Also, Sofia acknowledges that her prime fear of forgetting her family’s traditions and way of life when separated from them has never come to fruition. Instead, being away has shown her that where she is from is inextricably bound with who she is. Being on the bus with Marcos acts like an affirmation to Sophia about who she is and what matters.
“I’ve since discovered that creating the nacimiento isn’t work, really, even when it takes weeks, for it’s a gift of sacredness—to the baby, to the whole family.”
As Sofia and Lucy place her grandmother’s precious pieces around the manger, Sofia’s abuela tells her creating the nacimiento isn’t really work, it’s an act of love. Sophia is meant to find meaning in the idea that when you do something you love, or something sacred for your faith and/or your family, it is never hard. Whatever you do for love in that capacity is a joy. Sofia listens carefully to this lesson. As with so many of the other holidays in Sofia’s life, the nacimiento requires creativity and patience, because it is something that will belong to everyone. This echoes the idea that Sofia and Marco discussed on the bus when returning home for Thanksgiving; that school isn’t just for them, but for the betterment of their families. Sofia has learned that everything she does also benefits or affects the people she loves.
“When we left his side late that night, I reached down, took Papa’s beautiful brown and white boots, and hugged them. I wanted to die. But Mama smiled, then wove her arms around Lucy and me, and held us for a long time, like a tree, giving life to her fruit.”
Mama is the giver of life. She is the one who restores her children when they are wounded. In this beautiful moment, when Sofia clutches her papa’s boots, the only one who can really offer her consoling love is her mama. This is true throughout the story. Even if sometimes Sofia and her mama clash, when it comes down to knowing exactly what to do, Sofia’s mama rises to the occasion. Hugging her papa’s boots is symbolic of walking in his shoes; Sofia and her papa were so close that in spite of his death, Sofia will continue to live as if he is still walking beside her, and she is still learning from him.
“I thought about Papa’s bean cleaning and cooking, about the Christmas nacimiento, and about the nine days of rosaries to get Papa’s soul to heaven. These were all rituals that connected me with something higher. And now eating the tequila worm had worked its magic.”
“I thought about Papa’s bean cleaning and cooking, about the Christmas nacimiento, and about the nine days of rosaries to get Papa’s soul to heaven. These were all rituals that connected me with something higher. And now eating the tequila worm had worked its magic.”
“I smiled for now I knew it was not an obsession with death that Mexicans had after all, but rather an acceptance of it—woven like a thick vine throughout our lives, helping us transcend death itself and compelling us to live even richer, more meaningful lives.”
When Sofia returns home in her adult life, she is finally able to put the nagging insult Terry made to her away where it belongs. When she brings food to her papa’s grave on the Day of the Dead, she finally and fully understands how powerful her cultural rituals are, especially this one. It’s important to note that Sofia still thinks about that day when Terry insulted her. Some insults linger for years, maybe forever, but for Sofia, the understanding that accepting death will lead her to living a more meaningful life finally ends the power of the insult. This thought is also notable for its highly literary language. The metaphor of the vine implies that her family’s cultural and religious rituals grow over time and their meaning and power widen throughout the years to envelope new beloved family and friends. Such traditions provide Sofia with balance and are an explanation for who she is and where she comes from.
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