Imagery: Xiomara's Mother on the Subway
Xiomara invokes the image of her mother riding the subway every day for two hours across multiple trains several times throughout the novel. The image of her overworked mother increases our sympathy for her, because even though the relationship between Xiomara and her mother is tense, her mother clearly loves her and makes sacrifices for her to have a better life.
Imagery: Light
Acevedo uses images of light to talk about Xiomara's writing and her growth throughout the book, as poetry and her burgeoning sense of self as a writer brings meaning and happiness to her life. This light imagery shows readers just how much her life improves.
Imagery: Xiomara's Body
Acevedo describes how Xiomara experiences issues with her body image after she goes through puberty. She frequently describes the larger, curvaceous body that Xiomara occupies and emphasizes its contrast with the smaller personality Xiomara tries to exhibit out of self-consciousness about her body. This is also to emphasize the way that society treats larger-bodied women of color. Xiomara is frequently harassed by older men in spite of the fact that she is young, and is often blamed for that harassment.
Imagery: Church
Acevedo uses imagery to demonstrate how Xiomara is exquisitely uncomfortable in church. She writes of Xiomara's painful knees and how they "learn the splinters of pews;" the "mustiness of incense;" and the "priest's robe [that] tries to shush silent / all the echoing doubts" (20). All of her senses are affected, and she feels like this place is not welcoming or safe.
