Bodega Dreams

10 Pages 2430 Words

of the impoverish community. Book one, also known as “Because Men Who Built This Country Were Men From The Streets,” elucidates the relationship between Chino and Sapo and makes the reader understand the significance of the friendship and why later on in the story Chino feels obligated to help Sapo. Names are also symbolically significant in the novel specifically Chino and Sapo. Sapo in English is translated into the word toad. The narrator suggests that Sapo received this name because of his hideous appearance,
It was rumored around the neighborhood that when Sapo came out, the nurses cleaned him up and brought him over to his father. His father saw the baby and said, “Cono, he looks like a frog,” and quickly handed the baby to the mother. “Here you take him.” I think this story is true. (Quinonez 3,4)
While on the other hand Chino received his name because of his reputation for fighting and physical appearance,
There were many guys named Chino in East Harlem but it wasn’t a name that was just given to you. First, you had to look a bit Chinese, and second, you had to fight. It was an honor to be called Chino. (Quinonez 8) There are other characters with symbolically significant names, such as Blanca, Chino’s future wife, and Veronica, also known as Vera, the love of Willie Bodega’s life. The character of Willie Bodega is introduced in the second round of book one after the rest of the characters in the novel. The novel seems to use this as a function to emphasize the significance and influence of the character to the novel and the other characters in the novel. Though Bodega is not the protagonist of the story there is a very fine line drawn of this character between the antagonist and the protagonist. Although initially the reader may see Bodega as against the protagonist’s ambitions the novel begins to reveal that Bodega has the same ambitions but attempts to attain them in a different manner. As a favor t...