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“You are forgetting who you are, Niña. I have seen you staring down at that boy’s house. You are heading for humiliation and pain.” My mother said this in Spanish and in a resigned tone that surprised me, as if she had no intention of stopping me from “heading for humiliation and pain.”

Elena’s mother makes this speech toward the end of the story when Elena announces that she is going to Eugene’s house to study rather than to church with her mother to pray for President Kennedy. At age fourteen, Elena’s development of romantic attractions become another source of tension between her and her mother. In particular, Elena’s mother sees her infatuation with a white American boy of a higher social class as a sign of Elena’s pulling away from her family’s values. Elena’s mother tries to protect Elena from being hurt, but her resigned tone suggests that she knows she cannot stop her daughter from doing what she wants, even if she also knows Elena will likely end up hurt.

Eugene doesn’t want to study with you. He is a smart boy. Doesn’t need help. You understand me. I am truly sorry if he told you you could come over. He cannot study with you. It’s nothing personal. You understand? We won’t be in this place much longer, no need for him to get close to people— it’ll just make it harder for him later.

When Elena arrives at the house to study with Eugene, his mother refuses to let her in and says these words, which demonstrate the tension between what Eugene wants and what his mother wants for him. Eugene enjoys spending time with Elena, his only friend at school, and he wants to spend the afternoon with her. However, his mother sees Elena not as a peer who shares her son’s interests, but as a poor Puerto Rican girl from the dirty and chaotic building next to her neat house. She claims to be protecting Eugene’s feelings from being hurt when they move, but her condescending tone of voice and use of coded language like “you people” suggests her real motivation is keeping her white son from socializing with people of color, especially with a girl he might wish to date.

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