Importance of Riverside, California

Riverside is one of Gonzalez's two worlds and an integral part of his identity. It is the world in the U.S. where he lives in the present, studies and has a secret relationship with an older man, his lover. This is a world that he is happy to have escaped to (leaving his family's migrant farmer life). At the same time, he misses his family at times and hopes to find solace with them when the situation with his lover deteriorates. At the end of the book, Riverside is the place he returns to in order to close the door on his past and come to terms with his present.