Makina

Makina is the protagonist of the novel. She has at least one younger brother and one much younger sister. She lives with her mother in a place identified only as the Village. Her mother, Cora, asks her to bring a note to her younger brother, who left the home at least a year before the events of the novel in search of family property. The novel follows Makina’s journey from the Village to the Big Chilango and across the river to a place identified as the other side.

Throughout the novel, Makina is portrayed as tough and fiercely protective of herself, her body and her family. She refuses to adjust to a world in which men harass and comment upon women’s bodies. When a boy on the train harasses her, she bends his finger, nearly breaking it. She is unafraid of verbal confrontation, and faces the...