Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Bodega Dreams, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Latinx Immigrants and Broken Dreams
Crime, Wealth and Activism
Religion, Sexism, and Poverty
Loyalty, Solidarity, and Community
Summary
Analysis
Julio wanders around the neighborhood trying to walk off his high. He strolls down Fifth Avenue, past El Museo del Barrio on 104th Street reminiscing about playing with Sapo there. He walks down towards the rich people’s houses, remembering his mother taking him into some of them when she was a cleaner. They look like fancy museums inside, and nothing like the homes a few blocks north. Julio gets home and slips into bed. He wants to make love to Blanca to show her that he’s not interested in other women and finds her sexy in her pregnancy, but she tells him that he smells like marijuana.
Julio’s nostalgia about playing with Sapo in the streets of Spanish Harlem shows that his friendship has instilled in him a sense of loyalty to the neighborhood. This sort of feeling—of caring for one another and for the neighborhood—is what Bodega wants to encourage in all the neighborhood’s residents. Julio’s description of his mother’s cleaning jobs highlights unjust economic disparities between wealthy white people and poor immigrant people who live side by side.
Themes
Blanca and Julio discuss baby names. Blanca suggests Julio for a boy, and Julio suggests Vera for a girl, recalling Blanca’s aunt Veronica who married a rich Cuban and moved to Miami. Blanca explains that Veronica wanted to marry a street activist, a Young Lord, but her mother was against it. Julio thinks about Bodega, and something clicks. He tells Blanca that he loves her and that he’ll fix things for her. Blanca jokes that it’s probably best her aunt didn’t marry the Young Lord, because he ended up in jail. Bored of this topic, Blanca tries to encourage Julio to come to church with her in two weeks. Julio agrees blankly, his mind still on Bodega.
Quiñonez introduces a central component of the plot here: it’s implied that Julio realizes Bodega must be the jailed activist whom Veronica was in love with. Julio now knows that Bodega wants access to Veronica, which inspires Julio to start scheming about what he can get in return for offering to connect them. But while Julio is scheming about pragmatic ways to improve his circumstances, Blanca insists that going to church is the path to empowerment. Julio, however, clearly disagrees.
Themes
Julio looks around the small apartment he lives in with Blanca. He thinks about their high tuition bills and the extra space they’ll need once the baby arrives. He reasons that if Bodega wants something from him, he can get some of the things he needs in return, acknowledging that this is how “street politics” works.
In scheming to make a trade with Bodega, Julio exposes the way things get done in Spanish Harlem, a system he refers to as “street politics.” This implies that people already have to help one another to get ahead, meaning there’s already a bourgeoning sense of community among those who dabble in street politics (which Bodega wants to encourage further).
Themes
