Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in My Beloved World, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Optimism, Determination, and Adversity
Family and Friendship
Education and Learning
Puerto Rican Identity and Culture
Morality, Justice, and Giving Back
Summary
Analysis
Right before Christmas of Sonia’s freshman year, her family moves to a new apartment in Co-op City, a brand-new development. It’s close enough to Cardinal Spellman that Sonia can walk, though poor Junior now has to commute an hour to Blessed Sacrament. Mami is ready to move because gangs are moving into the Bronxdale projects and arsonists set fires often. Dr. Fisher enables the move when he unexpectedly leaves Mami $5000 in his will. Sonia immediately sees why Mami wanted to make the move: the apartment is big and Junior and Sonia can even have their own rooms.
Again, Dr. Fisher emerges as one of the memoir’s quiet heroes. He understands that if Mami wants to help her family succeed and thrive, she’s going to need help—and leaving her money in his will is a way to ensure that Mami can’t refuse the help. This makes the case again that Sonia isn’t self-made. There have been people all throughout her life who have done amazing things for her and for her family that enable her to apply herself to school and to her work.
Themes
Sonia gets a job at Zaro’s Bakery. She enjoys the job, and some Jewish customers assume she’s Jewish—but thankfully, they don’t call her a “spic” when they discover she’s Puerto Rican. Gradually, Co-op City transforms into a real community as the construction wraps up. Many residents are Jewish, but people from all over the city from all different backgrounds move in. Soon, Alfred, Titi Carmen, and others move in—and Titi Aurora moves in with Sonia’s family. Titi Aurora sleeps in the foyer and grumbles if Sonia or Junior stays out late, and she’s a packrat. She’s also frugal to a fault and takes issue with Mami’s willingness to go into debt (which she always pays off) for things like Catholic school or encyclopedias.
Especially when Mami invites Titi Aurora to live with the family, it suggests that after the death of her husband, Mami begins to develop her own ideas of what’s important when it comes to family and friends. For her, it’s important to maintain these ties with Titi Aurora, even if they don’t always see eye to eye. This becomes an important lesson for Sonia, as it is, in many ways, the opposite of the strained dynamic that she saw between Mami and Mami’s father. If people work on their relationships, they can improve them.
Themes
Sonia doesn’t understand how Titi Aurora and Mami get along with their differences, but she can tell that they’re oddly bound to each other. She also suspects that Mami invited Titi Aurora to move in to deter Sonia and Junior from misbehaving—though Titi Aurora cannot punish the children, and most things look insignificant to Mami if they’re not drugs or jail. Just as before, Sonia’s friends congregate at her apartment. Once, when a neighbor calls security about the noise, Mami shouts at the security guard that if kids can’t have fun at home, they get trouble elsewhere. She then invites the guard for coffee.
Mami sees that allowing Sonia’s friends into her apartment is a way to make them feel safe and cared for, and it also keeps them out of trouble on the streets. This is a small way that Mami can improve her community, and it makes an impression on Sonia. Notably, that the security guard isn’t the enemy here. He’s also part of the community, and inviting him in for coffee makes that clear.
Themes
Sonia and Marguerite Gudewicz become best friends after a boy dumps both of them for another girl. Marguerite’s house makes Sonia feel like she’s back at Abuelita’s, and though Marguerite’s father holds racist views about Puerto Ricans, he still defends Sonia to even more racist friends and family. Sonia begins to see that there’s more to New York than a small area of the South Bronx. Marguerite’s German and Polish parents introduce Sonia to more vegetables, while the Jewish community introduces her to new curses. But despite all the differences between the groups, Sonia still sees that everyone is committed to their families and community—and food binds everyone together.
As Sonia’s world begins to expand and she gains more experience with different ethnic groups, she begins to see that they’re really not all that different. This passage speaks in particular to the idea that sharing one’s food with others can create an even larger, more diverse community. And with more people in the community to care for one another, it’s more likely that everyone in it will thrive.
Themes
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Junior year, Sonia has a teacher named Miss Katz for history. She’s different from the other teachers in that she’s not a nun, and she warns against “getting stuck in rote learning,” focusing on conceptual thinking instead. Sonia is intrigued and often visits Miss Katz’s office. She learns about Miss Katz’s freedom fighter boyfriend and learns that though Miss Katz is Jewish, nuns and priests in Latin America inspired her to work at a Catholic school. Miss Katz speaks reverently of Father Gigante, Titi Aurora’s priest; he’s a tenants’ rights activist. Miss Katz is the first progressive Sonia sees up close, and Sonia thinks that Miss Katz is so interesting because she is so engaged in her own continuing education. But despite Miss Katz’s attempts, Sonia doesn’t understand critical thinking until college.
Miss Katz is Sonia’s first introduction to critical thinking, and it’s telling that this is so fascinating to Sonia. Miss Katz, like Dr. Fisher, shows Sonia how a person can serve their community, especially by bringing up Father Gigante’s work for tenants’ rights. She highlights the areas where the local community needs help and points out the people who are stepping in to fix it, which gives Sonia a road map for later.
Themes
Sonia isn’t considered a beauty in high school. She barrels down the halls instead of ambling sexily, and even Mami says that she has bad taste in clothes. Boys ask her out occasionally, but she often feels like everyone’s second choice. One guy, Kevin Noonan, makes Sonia feel attractive. After their first date, they’re inseparable. Kevin brings Sonia a rose every day for the first month that they date. One day, Sonia drags him to meet an aunt and uncle, but Kevin goes pale and doesn’t talk. Later, he admits that he’s been stealing roses from that man’s garden, not knowing he was Sonia’s uncle.
Kevin’s kindness and interest makes Sonia feel as though she has the chance to one day create a family of her own. Especially when they discover that Kevin has been stealing from Sonia’s uncle, it illustrates just how widespread and close-knit Sonia’s family is in the Bronx—and how without even knowing it, Kevin is already immersed in it.
Themes
Kevin spends most of his time at Sonia’s apartment. They study and watch TV together, and they work on Kevin’s car. They don’t often go to Kevin’s house, as Kevin’s mother doesn’t like Sonia. Eventually, Sonia introduces Kevin to Abuelita, which makes their relationship official. Everyone knows they’ll get married at some point. One afternoon, as Sonia looks out her window at Kevin working on his car and Junior on the basketball court, Mami joins her and remarks on “[her] two sons.”
Introducing Kevin to Abuelita—that is, the matriarch of the family—is what makes their relationship real and valid in the eyes of Sonia’s family. This speaks to just how important family is to Sonia, as it reads as though she needs Abuelita’s blessing before she can move forward with the relationship.
Themes
