Efrén Nava wakes from sleeping on the mattress he shares with his younger brother and sister, Max and Mia. He goes to the bathroom, his only sanctuary of privacy in the one-room apartment in which he and his siblings live with their parents, Amá and Apá. Efrén was born in America and is an American citizen, but both of his parents emigrated to the US from Mexico without approval; they are considered undocumented immigrants. Efrén likes to claim a few minutes of reading time in the tub before breakfast. Today he takes the tape strips from his ears, which he uses to train them to lay flatter against his head, then climbs into the tub. He is so tired, though, that he snoozes. His exhaustion results from waiting up for his mother to come home from her factory job, as he is worried about the reports and rumors of “various raids and stop points happening around town […] families being separated, kids put in cages” (4).

Efrén goes to the kitchen and admires the skills of his mother as she prepares sopes for breakfast. The sopes that morning are simply friend rounds of corn dough topped with cheese and leftover beans from dinner the night before, but Efrén thinks they are a wonderful breakfast.