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Gabi: A Girl in Pieces is about a young girl who writes about her last year of high school. In her story she talks about her struggles with body weight and Mexican culture. She shows the stereotypes of Mexican American children who try to improve their future but struggle with also making their parents happy. In her case she gets accepted into her dream school and wants to move away to go to college while her mother urges her to stay home. She is an overweight individual who consistently calls herself "fat" or "gordita". Throughout her diary she improves In her self love by not hating herself towards the end. Gabi is very inspirational to young Mexican American girls because she breaks the barriers of biased between boys and girls in Mexican culture. She does what she desires and doesn't let anyone tell her differently, not even her mother.

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“Why is every mom's concern about sex? There are more important things in life, like school, careers, poetry, books, ice cream, or learning how to make the perfect chocolate cake. It's so damn frustrating.

I feel that the quote above describes a big part of the book because sex in Mexican culture is basically forbidden. The conversations about sex between parents and children are very taboo. When a child asks their parent about sex it's an automatic "why? are you having sex?" rather than an intellectual response from the parent. In the story, Gabi's mom always tells her not to have sex and tells her brother the opposite by suggesting the use of condoms. The constant struggle between the mom and Gabi about sex is an ongoing issue throughout the story and shows how parents who are very protective about what their children are doing cause the child to do things either way. Sex should not be a taboo between parents in child but sadly in Mexican culture it is.

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“If words are our weapons, we must ask ourselves, why should we use rocks and sticks when we have tanks available?”

Gabi uses poetry a lot in the story because she loves to write. Poetry is a big part of her life because she uses it as a way of escaping from reality along with eating food. Gabi uses poetry in a way that people don't really view it as. With all her struggles and issues that she deals with throughout the story such as her dad being an addict, and her mom being biased she always has poetry to lean back on. She uses poetry to vent and express herself in a way that she can not do with other people. I feel like this is important because not everyone will always be able to speak to others about how they feel and feel like it is easier to express themselves through writing and that is what Gabi does.

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“Living a lie is painful, and doesn’t do anyone any good. I had to be true to myself, because, either way, God would know if I was lying.”

Gabi is a very big girl and doesn't fall under the typical body size of other high school girls. She constantly calls herself words like "fat" or "gordita" throughout the story. She states the the mirror is her worst enemy when she looks at it. She uses food as a scapegoat from her problems which causes her to ultimately gain a lot of weight. Her mother constantly looks down at her daughter for eating so much to the point where Gabi has to sneak in snacks to her room in order to eat them peacefully and avoid her mother. She loves food to the point where she invited the boy she likes over to try her beef jerky that she says is "very good". Body image is probably the biggest issue to Gabi throughout the story but she eventually learns to love herself by the end of her diaries.

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“And if anyone has trouble understanding that, well, they can kiss my ass.”

Gabi is a very open book and doesn't hold anything back. She speaks her mind and thinks with her heart more than her brain. In the quote she says "they can kiss my ass" which shows that she still has some maturing to do. Even though she has gone through tougher things than most teenagers like having a drug addicted father, her mentally of, " I do what I want" shows throughout the story. I can relate to this because I use to be the same way all throughout high school of not caring about others and I matured a lot after high school and I see the same mentality in Gabi. The quote relates to the overall text because her mentality improves or develops through the story.

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“I don’t want us to be ashamed anymore (we all were crying by this point) of being pregnant or gay or poor or having a crackhead dad! I want us to be fucking proud of ourselves. (...)"

Gabi is very outspoken and very emotional when it comes to things such as her friends and family. She talks about how she does not want to be ashamed of who she is anymore. I feel that this is very important because it applies to every aspect about herself. She doesn't want to be ashamed about her body weight, or about her dad being a drug addict, or even about her culture of being Mexican American. She shows how even though everyone has issues in their lives they don't have to be ashamed for being themselves. She wants everyone to be true to themselves no matter what the circumstances may be wether that is, being gay, getting pregnant as a teen, or coming up from having a drug addicted father. Being true to yourself plays a big part in the story because through all her problems Gabi stays true to who she is.

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“The way my tia looks at Raul is the way I look at Martin. He makes her happy and helps her see that she is stronger than she thought she was. It's not that he makes her stronger, but he definitely helps her see that she has been strong all along.”

Gabi dates a couples boys throughout the story and shows how she ends up falling in love. She views herself as fat or in a negative way and her boyfriend shows her that, that is not the case. In the quote it says that "he definitely helped her see that she has been strong all along" and that is the case with Gabi and her boyfriend. Gabi's boyfriend shows he that she has always been a strong individual. She has faced hard challenges but event through all her rough patches in her life Gabi has always stayed true to who she is and it made her an even stronger individual. Gabi struggles with self love but her boyfriend helps her realize that she is a great individual and there is no reason that she should be thinking about herself in a negative way. No matter how she thinks she may look, he helps her feel like she is beautiful.

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“This skin thing always pisses me off. What I need is a nopal on my forehead to let the world know about my roots. One of those flat cactus plants that my grandpa grew behind the house before he died--nopal en la frente. Yup. That would solve all my problems.”

Gabi is Mexican American and struggles with her culture throughout the story. She is stuck in between staying true to her Mexican roots and becoming an American first. Her mother tells her how things like leaving to college are bad because she is becoming white washed. She tells Gabi how she must clean around the house and not have sex until marriage because that was the way of her times back in the day. Gabi is a new generation and has different views about how she should live her life but constantly butts heads with her mother which is very old fashioned. She says how she should have a "nopal en la frente" so people know she's Mexican however other times she prefers not to be viewed as such. The constant struggle between her Mexican roots and the American way is a battle she has with herself throughout the story but in the end she realizes that doing things such as leaving to her dream school for college are not always a bad thing.