Summary

In Chapter 3, Ana’s mother, Gloria, is in a family detention center in Texas in 2014. An officer informs Gloria that Ana is on her way to join Gloria and that they will both face deportation. A guard pressures Gloria to sign a voluntary departure form. Gloria reflects on motherhood and admits that sometimes she wishes that Ana would not be returned to her so that Ana could have a different life. Gloria reveals that she fled El Salvador to escape the person who killed her brother.

Chapter 4 sees the narrative switch to Jeannette, Miami, 2002. Jeanette and her friend, Sasha, approach a stranger, Johnson, to buy them cigarettes at a gas station, who intimates that he is interested in Jeanette. Johnson takes Jeanette to a party and encourages her to use cocaine for the first time. She experiences an exhilarating high and, as Johnson...