The archetypal grandmother
The stories invoke an archetypal theme by having the unnamed narrator discuss her own value and identity with her grandmother, who is sick and dying. The dilemma is painfully ironic, because the young girl wants to solve her emotional crises, but she doesn't truly appreciate the emotional crisis of death that is looming. When the grandmother dies, the girl realizes that it was always that sacred family love that she was hoping to discover. Now she has it only in memory and in her remaining family.
The motif of fathers and fatherlessness
Although the family father absconds his role in many of these stories, there is a picture of fatherly love given to the young narrator from her grandfather, who gave something to her by showing her his favorite music. By doing that, he gives her a cultural narrative in which she can participate, so the portrait offered of fatherlessness is the inverse opposite of that. In their neighborhoods, fatherlessness causes chronic identity issues throughout the community.
Salsa as a symbol of God
To say the 12-year-old girl had a religious experience of her grandfather's Salsa music would not be an overstatement. She begins by begging him in her own ways to confide something in her that could help her with her identity issues, not even understanding that she is doing so. Then, when he answers her request with his own passion for Salsa music, he brings her back into harmony, because the music is overwhelmingly intimate in her psychology, and its beauty is something she cannot easily fathom. She gains hope from her father's true love for music, so that love is also like a religious portrait of hope.
Abuse and its depiction
There is a motif of brokenness in the family, and Rosa's life symbolizes the arch-form of that brokenness, which is spousal violence and dysfunction. Rosa's husband is violent with her, often causing her serious bodily harm by attacking her in fits of panic and rage. The gruesome depiction is difficult to stomach, and as art, it symbolizes the nature of suffering, because she longs for love and is confronted with human violence and malice.
Food and life
In a day, it's often difficult to remember what the important parts are. From morning routine to evening routine, a person is cyclic and habitual, so this novel depicts people in those rhythms. And what's the difference between the narrator's habit and the habit of her family? They prioritize food, cooking the meals of their people, and then sharing that food to eager children who almost forgot they were supposed to be eating. The food serves as a reminder of their own quest for life, already fulfilled. They are already alive, and secretly, the only important part of the day is to eat food and have a place to sleep, and that is gifted to them, like life was—by love.
