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Description:
At the beginning of the novel Pequena is about to give birth while also experiencing extreme rancor towards the baby and the baby’s father. Chico and Pulga are best friends, brought together by tragedy. After witnessing a horrific act of violence against a local store attendant, Chico and Pulga agree that it is best to risk the journey traveling to the United States than either work for or die at the hands of the local gang leader, Rey.
Theme/Observation Revealed:
What I learned with that is that sometimes you need to fight and continue with your life no matter what.

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Description:
The three of them travel from Guatemala to cities in Mexico like Ixtepec, Lecheria, and Guadalajara under extreme conditions. Their commitment to one another and to a better life is what gives them hope and strength on their trek to the United States. The three flee wearing layers of clothes and their backpacks containing what’s left of their lives on what seems to be a never-ending and grappling journey aboard La Bestia, the fast-pace train known as the route most migrants take to cross from Mexico to the United States.
Theme/Observation Revealed:
In this part I learned that immigrants left everything they have on their countries just for a new future with new opportunities.

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Description:
The majority of them are Central Americans fleeing the violence created by U.S. imperialism. Furthermore, it is also necessary to recognize the violence Central Americans experience at the hands of the Mexican state while journeying through Mexico. Chico, Pulga, and Pequeña experience these multiple levels of violence as they journey to the United States. In both of these passages, Pulga points out the systemic violence they experience as Central Americans that is symptomatic of the U.S. empire.
Theme/Observation Revealed:
In this little part I learn that immigrants suffer a lot to immigrant to a new country. And I learned that every fight we have have a prize waiting for us.

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Description:
Pulga and his friends are emotionally and physically exhausted as he narrates his thoughts: “I imagine I am an animal. Skulking through the darkness. Keen. Instinctive. Alert. Alive. Some don’t make it. But some do. Why not me? Why not us? I hold on to this thought as we walk. Why not me? my feet say with each pound to the ground. Why not us?”
Theme/Observation Revealed:

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Description:
There is a ghost called bruja that appears to Pequeña every once in a while are witness to the sexual violence she endures in her hometown in Guatemala. When readying to join Pulga and Chico on their journey north, Pequeña chops off her long hair to pass for a boy because she knows of the violence women experience on this journey.

Theme/Observation Revealed:
After buying supplies at the market, she reflects:

I wonder if it’s coincidence that the razors and the switchblades are in the same area of the pharmacy as the birth control and morning after pills. At night, I go to sleep thinking of ways to be deadly. How to cover my body in razors. I imagine them covering my body like scales. I imagine anyone who touches me being cut and sliced and pierced. A warning. Nobody come near me.

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Pulga’s determination to continue walking, to push past exhaustion, demonstrates the inner strength needed to survive this journey. There are several, powerful moments like this throughout the novel where the characters must find individual strength and where they need to remind one another of that courage. That Pulga asks, “Why not me? Why not us?” is another example of Torres Sanchez’s talent with language because not only is Pulga trying to convince himself to keep going but these questions also force readers to question the value (or lack thereof) our society places on (im)migrant lives.
Theme/Observation Revealed:
I understand that sometimes is ok to not feel like good with the situations that you are in at the moment and that is normal we just need a little time to recover us.

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Description:
The razors, the blades, and the contraceptives serve as ways for Pequeña, and young women like her, to protect her body because she knows that the world won’t–she knows from experience. This scene shows Pequeña’s pain and agency. She reveals to the reader the cruel reality of violence against women in different settings–at home and while (im)migrating. She indicates that this has happened to her. But by imagining herself covered in razor blades, she arms herself against patriarchal domination. She is readying herself to fight and survive at all costs. That she needs to live this way in the first place is terrible, but that she won’t surrender is a form of empowerment.
Theme/Observation Revealed:
In this case is Pequena that suffer abuse and is so sad I can understand her feeling and I my personal experience suffer that is terrible.

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Description:
I think a significant event could be when Rey raped Pequena and she is about to give birth a baby from him and she felt so bad about it. Everyone that suffer sexual abuse felt a really bad experience that they never be the same after that.
Theme/Observation Revealed:
The observation that I have in this one is that when she was being raped she suffer a lot and some girls decide to do not have the baby but she decided to have it with no matter all the bad situations that she is suffering at that moment.

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Description:
The death of Don Felicio make a big change in this story because just happened the murder of Don Felicio, the convenience store owner who gives them Cokes in exchange for help. Pequeña, who is 17 and a new mother, wants to escape to Rey, who is the gang member who raped her and wants to force her into marriage and who murdered Don Felicio.
Theme/Observation Revealed:
I think that the thing that I learned on here is that exist some people that are just bad and they are not going to change it. Like Rey that person just do bad things like rape, and wants to married her person and we can't change that person even if we want to change it we cannot do that.

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Description:
When Nestor forced Chico and Pulga to fight was a significant event too because was part of that big problem that just happened in the story. Nestor just forced Chico and Pulga to fight and obviously they don't want to do that because they are so friendly to each other.
Theme/Observation Revealed:
The lesson that this part left me was that obviously you don't want to hurt your people because you love them and some day there is going to be a really bad person who will force you to do something that you don't really want to do that and specially if we talk about do something with our people.

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Description:
When Rey Villa proposed to married Pequena. Pequeña knows she must run away to escape him, and a vision tells Pequeña that Chico and Pulga are in danger as well so they decided to go away all togueter. When Pequeña says that they have to leave, Pulga buys three bus tickets and the teenagers leave secretly in the middle of the night.

Theme/Observation Revealed:
The observation revealed on here is that in some situations you just need to leave all the problems and leave everything no matter what if you don't want to suffer.

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Description:
Chico suffers a concussion and the three teens must stay a week at a shelter where an aid worker, Soledad, tends to him. Soledad tells Pequeña she must be strong and encourages ans she must start to think of create a new identity in this new suntry. Pequeña chooses the name Flor. Pulga convinces Chico that they must keep going.
After boarding and fleeing several more trains on the route, Chico is weak and sick. When the train suddenly slows, Chico tumbles off and is caught under the wheels. Pequeña and Pulga jump off to find him and Chico dies in Pulga’s arms. At a shelter nearby a priest convinces Pulga to bury Chico in a local graveyard of others who did not survive the trip. Pequeña leads them from train to train until they arrive in the town of Altar, where dishonest men try to force them to pay for shelter and supplies. On the third night, Pulga gives up. Pequeña cannot convince him to walk with the group, and they are left behind. Pequeña forces Pulga out into the desert where they fall unconscious due to dehydration. Pulga falls unconscious again but Pequeña flees. Pequeña speak with her mother by telephone. Pequeña’s mother then calls Pulga’s mother who arranges for his deceased father’s sister in the US to find him. Pulga is taken to a migrant detention center and they finally crossed to a new country.
Theme/Observation Revealed:
The lesson to this part left me is that we need to be so much brave because sometimes is just that we need to do we want it or no we need to do it for situations that we live and we can make a change and create a new us like Pequena do it.