Camino's House and Neighborhood

Camino’s house and neighborhood in Sosua, Dominican Republic is the most significant setting for Camino, and where she lives with Tia, her aunt. The setting represents the poverty of the developing world, provides a contrast to the likely American reader, with likely American and economic privilege. This setting also forces the reader to consider how and why these countries experience the poverty they do. It also serves to compare and contrast how Yahaira and Camino view spirits and ghosts. The novel opens in this setting. Camino describes it and her home country in the opening two pages, “I love my home. But it might be a sinkhole” (2). She describes the mud and dirt of the barrio. Inside her house though, she explains to the reader, “We have the nicest house in the barrio [line break] because Papi spent money to make it so” (34). She...