Tres Camarones, Mexico

Tres Camarones is a small village in Mexico that is the hometown of most of the main characters in the novel. The village is symbolic of the wider themes in the novel because it is on the border between two states and the government does not know which it should belong to, echoing the situation of many Mexican immigrants in the United States who do not know which country they truly belong to. At the start of the novel, the village is controlled by criminals prompting Nayeli to leave and search for people to return to the village to help them.

Tijuana, Mexico

Tijuana is the final Mexican stop on the friends’ journey before they reach the United States. In Tijuana, the friends are mistreated and exploited by the people they meet. The city is a mixture of wealthy tourists who are in the city to...