Lola experiences significant struggles as she navigates life as the daughter of an immigrant single mother. In her most formative years, Lola takes every demeaning word from her mother to heart, thinking, “For a long time I believed her. I was a fea, I was a worthless, I was an idiota. From ages two to thirteen I believed her” (Paragraph 12). Each account of the particularly hateful things Belicia has said or done to Lola erodes the possibility of developing sympathy for her. One of her most harmful reactions is when Lola tells her that a neighbor molested her when she was eight years old, and Belicia says, “Shut [your] mouth and stop crying […] All you do is complain […] but you have no idea what life really is” (Paragraph 12). Lola becomes defiant and unfeeling as a result, even after she learns that her mother had been set on fire as a girl back in the Dominican Republic.

At dinner one night, Belicia tells her two children that the cancer that caused her double mastectomy has likely come back. While Oscar cries, Lola asks her to pass the salt.