Bodega Dreams

Before returning home to Blanca, Chino takes a walk down Fifth Avenue to 96thStreet, remembering how he and Sapo used to skip school to sneak into museums. El Museo del Barrio was the only museum where they could walk around freely, without being followed by a guard. When they wandered past some of the fancy apartments on Fifth Avenue, noting the doormen and the air conditioning units in every window, Chino saw the “difference between those that had and those that didn’t” (44).

Back in their apartment, he and Blanca talk about naming the baby—either Julio for a boy or Deborah for a girl, after Blanca’s sister. Remembering what Sapo said to him, Chino suggests the name Vera, after Blanca’s aunt. Blanca is against the idea, informing Chino that Veronica (who now calls herself Vera), lives in Miami, is married to a rich Cuban man, and has basically severed all ties with Spanish Harlem. When Blanca says, “Supposedly she was going to marry this guy she was in love with, some street activist or something, but her mother made her marry the Cuban” (46), Chino makes the connection. He realizes that