Make Your Home Among Strangers: Chapter 31 Summary & Analysis

Leidy tells Lizet that Lourdes has been spending all over her time over at Ariel’s house—she has only been coming home “to shower and to shit.” It turns out that the day Lizet saw Lourdes on national news was the last night she slept in her own bed—since then, she has been staying up all night for the vigil or sleeping over at one of the houses of her fellow Madres—or even at Ariel’s, which has been made available to the Madres. The house is now host to a “perpetual sleepover,” and women sleep at the house at all hours.

Leidy also explains that Lourdes has been using up all of her sick and vacation days at work, and is putting her job in jeopardy. Hearing this, Lizet feels hurt that her mother is using her vacation days for Ariel, but wouldn’t use them to spend more time with Lizet when she was home for Christmas. Lizet knows Lourdes’s behavior has to hurt Leidy, too, who is spending over half her paychecks from the hair salon on daycare for Dante.

Leidy hands Lizet a piece of mail that came for her recently—it is a large manila envelope from UC Santa Barbara, postmarked three days before the start of spring break. Inside are all the application materials for Professor Kaufmann’s interest—Lizet now understands why Professor Kaufmann has been distant. Lizet lied about going home for spring break; Kaufmann must have thought she’d gotten the forms, but of course, Lizet hadn’t.

When Leidy asks what the envelope is for and Lizet explains it’s for a summer internship, Leidy grows irate. She has been counting on Lizet to be around during the summer to help out with Dante. Lizet reassures her that she will be home after all—she is not taking the internship. Leidy makes Lizet swear she’ll come home, and Lizet promises. Lizet asks if they can go out and look for their mother, and Leidy agrees that they should.

Leidy, Lizet, and Dante head down the street towards Ariel’s. As they approach the house, they see a group of women gathered on the lawn, praying in Spanish. It takes Lizet a minute to spot Lourdes’s face—when she does, her first thought is that Lourdes looks like a stranger. When Lizet approaches Lourdes, though, Lourdes embraces her happily, and at last introduces her to all the other women as her youngest daughter. When Lourdes asks Lizet what she’s doing in Miami, Lizet explains that she came down to “get” Lourdes. Lourdes hugs Lizet tight, squeezing her hand just a touch too hard, as if she is perhaps “really mad.”

Lizet asks Lourdes if she’ll come home just for a little while so they can spend some time together, but Lourdes insists she can’t leave the prayer circle. The group is praying all weekend and then marching to the courthouse on Monday in support of the mayor of Miami, who has declared that no matter what the federal government says, Ariel will stay. Lizet tells her mother she doesn’t think this is possible, and she sees a current of anger sweep across her mother’s face. Lizet hurriedly says that Lourdes should stay and continue praying; Lourdes promises to visit later, when the group rotates.

Lizet rejoins Leidy away from the group; Leidy is crying. She tells Lizet that she has come down here many times over the last few months to ask Lourdes for a favor, and Lourdes has never even acknowledged Leidy when she is with the Madres. Leidy begins hurrying back down the street towards the apartment, and Lizet runs behind her, trying to catch up. Back home, Leidy goes straight into the shower and then plays with Dante, ignoring Lizet all afternoon.

As evening is about to fall, Lourdes comes home to the apartment. She greets Lizet warmly, but tells her she doesn’t have much time—she doesn’t feel right not being at the vigil if she can be there. Lourdes tries to impress upon Lizet how important the work she and the Madres are doing. Lizet sees how hard her mother is trying to convince her that this is true, and so she relents; she tells Lourdes she understands.

Lourdes asks if Lizet will come back to the vigil; Lizet is taken off guard, but Lourdes insists Lizet come. She urges Lizet to hurry and get her things while she takes a shower and changes. As Lizet watches her mother hurry through the apartment, she realizes Leidy has overheard everything. Lizet wants to try to explain, but Leidy shuts her bedroom door angrily. Once Lourdes is in the shower, Leidy comes out of her room. She urges Lizet not to “play around” with the Madres. Lizet asks Leidy not to be mad at her, but Leidy gathers up her things—and Dante’s—and leaves the apartment. Lizet watches from the window as Leidy packs Dante up into the car and drives away.

Lizet goes back into Leidy’s room and packs for the “sleepover” part of the vigil. She knows that this is what she has come to Miami for—to face the Madres head-on, and drag her own mother away from them. Lourdes comes to the door and asks if Leidy left—Lizet says that she did. Lourdes doesn’t seem angry, and rather than mentioning Leidy again, asks if Lizet is ready to go. Lizet shoulders her bag, and the two of them head out into the night as the moon rises in the sky above them.