Summary

In Chapter 9, “My Father's Hands” (135), Hernández describes her father's hands, which are marred with scars from years of manual labor. She reflects back on her father's early years. Growing up in Havana, he does not wish to be a farmer like his own father, so he joins the military. In 1961, he immigrates to the United States, settling in New Jersey and getting a job at a textile factory. In the late 1980s, he begins to have his hours cut at the factory. At the factory where Hernández's mother works, the women are often not paid on time, or they are paid very little. When her father files for unemployment while Hernández is in high school, she fills out the forms for him and helps him speak to the various agents involved in the process, since he...