I am a different Maria, no longer the Maria Alegre who was born on a tropical island, and who lived with two parents in a house near the sea until a few months ago, nor like the Maria Triste, the lonely barrio girl of my new American life. I am fifteen years old. Call me Maria.
-- Maria (Call Me Maria paragraph 1)

Importance: When the novel begins, Maria reveals the events of the past few months. She has come to live in America with her father, and is no longer the same girl as before. She is neither happy nor sad, but is simply Maria. She feels as though she is nothing and without a true purpose. It is from this point that Maria will begin to forge her identity as a poet.

I know that spring will come someday even to this barrio. When it does I will break through the concrete and reach for the...
-- Maria (Like the First Flower paragraph 1)