Bodega Dreams

The chapter begins with Chino restating the opening passage from Book I, Round 1, that “no one messed with [Sapo] because he had a reputation for biting” (85). Chino knows that he has to keep Blanca from hearing the details of Salazar’s death, because she would be suspicious about the bite mark.

Back at Julia de Burgos Junior High, they had a racist English teacher named Mr. Blessington who told the boys they would all end up in jail and eyed Blanca like a “repressed racist” (86). They also had a science teacher, Mr. Tapia, who actually taught them and encouraged them to make the right decisions about their futures. One day, Chino questioned Mr. Blessington about why they always studied Robert Frost rather than Julia de Borgas, the namesake of their school. Blessington replied that de Burgos was “obscure” and implied that the school was only named after her for reasons of political correctness. When Sapo refused to turn in his homework for the class and tried to leave, Blessington put Sapo in a headlock. In response, Sapo dug his teeth into Blessington’s neck, then “spat out a chunk of Blessington’s flesh, bounding it off Blessington’s left cheekbone” (91).