One interesting thing to notice is that for the unnamed narrator in her bildungsroman quest for meaning and identity, it isn't enough for her to seek herself earnestly in her emotions alone. When her grandfather puts her squarely in front of who he believes to be the greatest Salsa musician of his time, the daughter is forced to entertain a new identity, because the music literally is her heritage, now that her own ancestor has given it to her as a gift. It was not in herself but in the gifts of her love from her family that she finds her identity.
There is a clever use of archetype in "How to Make Flan," because the young girl is clearly on the cusp of adolescence, verging on the truest identity crisis in the universe, human puberty. In world mythology, from Jewish scripture to Greek poetry, to the tribal traditions of the primitive people groups, in all those, there is a common motif where the grandmother will consult a girl on her identity. For a modern example, perhaps consider the grandmotherly tree in Disney's Pocahontas.
The point of the motif is that the young girl will not have enough information on her own to be secure in her identity. There is an important adoption of identity that needs to be accomplished: The adoption of one's own inheritance. That is what ties the characters of these stories to their heritage and culture: not their own value (so their self esteem crisis is averted), but on their literal identity: who their parents were, what music they listened to, where they lived, and most importantly of all: who one chooses to become, and whether one honors their culture voluntarily, like the grandfather with his Salsa.
