Summary

Chapter 2 - In first person narration, Little Merced describes how she and her father made their new home in a town called El Monte, a short drive from the home of actress Rita Hayworth and where Federico got work picking flowers. This narration sets the time of the story in the mid-1940’s. Little Merced describes how the town was full of members of a union that was like a gang (El Monte Flores, or EMF). Little Merced watched the initiation by fistfight of a new member (Froggy) during which Froggy spat blood and rose petals.

Little Merced shared through narration how, on occasion, her father became thoughtful as he reminisced about Merced. She also describes her continuing habit of eating limes, their seeds creating a small orchard; and how, one day, she came home from school to find the lime tree...