Beto was leaving for college at the end of the summer and was delirious from the thought of it—he hated everything about the neighborhood, the break-apart buildings, the little strips of grass, the piles of garbage around the cans, and the dump, especially the dump.
-- Protaognist (N/A)

Importance: This quotation establishes the protagonist's neighborhood as relatively low-income, and it also establishes the relevant motif of wanting to escape the neighborhood. The protagonist implicitly holds this desire, while Beto expresses it outright.

[Beto is] a pato now but two years ago we were friends” (91).
-- Protagonist (N/A)

Importance: "Pato" literally translates to "duck" in Spanish and is a slang term for homosexual. This quotation foreshadows the protagonist's intolerance of homosexuality and the role of that intolerance in the end of his friendship with Beto.

Fuck me, I say. I'm not the oldest motherfucker in the place, but it's close.
-- Protagonist (N/A)

Importance: This quotation occurs in the present-day scene when...