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Book 1, Round 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Bodega Dreams, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Latinx Immigrants and Broken Dreams
Crime, Wealth and Activism
Religion, Sexism, and Poverty
Loyalty, Solidarity, and Community
Summary
Analysis
In eighth grade, Julio gets into the High School of Art and Design on 57th Street and Second Avenue. He spends less time in East Harlem, and his world changes. Sapo has already dropped out, so they see each other less often, but they still have each other’s backs. Julio becomes obsessed with the Futurist mantra of burning museums and reinventing culture. Julio relates to the Futurists’ anger and wants to reinvent himself. Blanca feels the same way. She hates it when people change their names—from Juan to John, or Veronica to Vera. When Julio hears this, he wants to marry Blanca on the spot. They enroll in Hunter College and get married the next year. Blanca’s company makes life seem less dirty and unjust.
By the time Sapo and Julio are teenagers, their lives have diverged: Julio is headed for college, while Sapo is headed for a life of petty crime on the street. Nonetheless, Julio stresses that the loyalty between them is unbreakable. Julio and Blanca’s hopes of empowering themselves with education without abandoning their Latin culture introduce an important idea that the plot revolves around. They, like others in the story, have a strong motivation to improve their lives without erasing their cultural roots (unlike people who change their names to sound more white).
Themes
Looking back, Julio realizes that he’s drawn to Willie Bodega because Bodega also wants to change things. Bodega still believes in dreams. He changes Julio and Blanca’s lives, and he changes the neighborhood. To get to Bodega, Julio has to go through Sapo. Sapo often shows up at night asking Julio to look after package, which drives Blanca crazy—she knows it’s drugs. Blanca doesn’t respect Sapo because he hasn’t tried to better himself or get out of El Barrio. Julio gets angry and snaps back that maybe Sapo likes it here—not everybody wants a house and kids. Blanca is almost finished studying at Hunter, and she’s annoyed that Julio’s slacking—especially with an unexpected baby coming.
Quiñonez introduces the story’s anti-hero, Willie Bodega. The reader learns that Bodega’s actions similarly revolve around improving the lives of people in Spanish Harlem. Meanwhile, there is a deep tension between Blanca (who’s keen to avoid illegal activity) and Sapo (who’s a drug dealer). It’s clear that Julio’s loyalty to Sapo is unwavering—even if it causes problems in his marriage. Hence, Quiñonez shows that loyalty is something that people take very seriously in this community.
Themes
Blanca warns Julio that if he’s up to anything with Sapo, or if he gets into any trouble with the police, she wants to hear it from Julio first, so she can decide if she’s going to leave. Julio, exasperated, explains that he’s here, that he’s never been in trouble, and that Sapo would never pull him into trouble. Blanca knows that Julio just had to act macho in school. She hates that Julio had terrible teachers, and that the only things that matter in this neighborhood are what people can break or steal. Blanca knows that Sapo is Julio’s friend, but she doesn’t trust Sapo’s other friends. Julio knows that Blanca is right, but he won’t admit it, and he tells her to go to sleep.
Quiñonez highlights more clearly the tension that Julio’s loyalty to Sapo causes in his relationship with Blanca. Blanca nods to the oppression that Latinx men face: the teachers have no respect for the students, so the students become disillusioned about their futures and get lured into lives of crime (just as Sapo has). Julio’s loyalty to Sapo prevents him from agreeing with Blanca, even though she is clearly correct in her assessment of the detrimental effects of systemic oppression on immigrant men.
Themes
By Blanca’s second trimester, she’s given up fighting with Julio and becomes hopeless. She gets upset every time Julio goes to hang out with Sapo. Blanca wishes Julio was more religious, but Julio thinks a Pentecostal church full of Latino people is like a circus: there are tambourines, peoples throwing themselves on the floor, the pastor screaming that Christ is coming, and the band playing salsa. He just can’t handle it. Admittedly, the Pentecostals have the prettiest girls, and Julio knows he’s married the prettiest one. Just as Julio needed Sapo growing up, he needs Blanca now to make him feel valuable.
Julio is unwavering in his loyalty to Sapo, even though it’s causing a tremendous strain in his marriage. This implies that loyalty is so valuable to the story’s characters that they’ll uphold it even when it comes at a personal loss (like a strained marriage). Julio introduces the idea that he’s skeptical about the churchgoing crowd, which puts him at odds with a significant aspect of Harlem’s immigrant community and could potential alienate him. Meanwhile, Julio indicates that loyalty is important to him because it gives him a sense of self-worth and identity.
Themes
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One day, Sapo calls asking Julio to drop the package off in Hunter’s library for some rich guy’s party. Julio gets annoyed but Sapo explains that he’s stuck in the Bronx and just really needs the favor. Julio is scared—not of the cops, but of Blanca. In the end, Julio takes the package to Hunter without telling Blanca. The next evening, Sapo shows up and gives Julio $50 from Willie Bodega. This the first time Julio has heard of Bodega. Reflecting on that night, Julio now knows that Bodega—and Bodega’s dreams for Spanish Harlem—eclipsed anything that Blanca or Sapo meant to him, even if Bodega broke a few laws to find “his way back to dignity.”
Once again, Julio’s loyalty to Sapo wins out over his deference to the law or to his wife. The reader learns a bit more about Bodega: it seems that Bodega wants to empower Spanish Harlem, and that he breaks the law to do so. Quiñonez uses Julio’s positive characterization of Bodega’s actions to imply that breaking the law is justified if there’s a worthy social cause involved, such as empowering a community and claiming a sense of “dignity” under oppression.
Themes
