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Chapter 3
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Return to Sender, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Immigration in America
Coming of Age
Democracy
American Values
Home and Belonging
Love, Friendship, and Human Connection
Summary
Analysis
Farm of Many Plots. It’s Thanksgiving, and after saying a blessing over the food, Grandma wants everyone around the table (Tyler, Mom, Dad, Ben, and Sara; Uncle Larry and Aunt Vicky, their kids Larry Jr., Vic, and Josh; Aunt Jeanne and Uncle Byron, and their twin daughters Emma and Eloise; Papá, Tío Armando, Tío Felipe, Mari, Ofie, and Luby) to say what they’re grateful for. It takes forever because there are so many people. Tyler quickly says Dad’s miraculous cure. And Papá, speaking for his whole family, thanks the Paquettes for treating them “like family.”
The “Farm of Many Plots” can be interpreted in two ways. One refers to many plots of land, as in many parcels of earth that will hopefully support many people. The other is that it’s becoming a place where people are hatching plots and plans. The way these two ideas play out will develop across the course of the chapter. In its opening moments, however, the book chooses to emphasize the value of friendship and mutual support among the Paquettes and between the Paquettes and the Cruzes.
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Although it’s an upbeat evening, there are still some undercurrents of tension. For one thing, Uncle Larry isn’t necessarily excited about sharing the table with Dad’s Mexican employees. For another, Aunt Jeanne, worried about Grandma living alone, is plotting to make her move either into one of her kids’ homes or into a nursing home. And third, after dinner, when Tyler follows Uncle Larry, Dad, Ben, and his older cousins to the TV room, Uncle Larry says that Homeland Security has upped their presence in the area and has been arresting undocumented workers. Mari enters just in time to hear this part. She looks scared.
The “plan” meaning of “plot” comes into focus first, as it becomes clear that Aunt Jeanne has been making plans for Grandma. Tyler is upset by this news because it suggests more and faster changes (as well as an unpleasant reminder of his grandmother’s age and, by extension, her impending mortality). Home won’t be the same without her. But there are other plots afoot, too, on the part of the U.S. government and its increasing focus on hunting down and rounding up undocumented immigrants.
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When Grandma goes upstairs to check on Ofie, Luby, and Tyler’s younger cousins, Aunt Jeanne declares it’s time for the adults to decide about what to do with her. They move their conversation to the kitchen, away from Tyler’s prying ears. But he drifts into the hallway, where he can overhear parts of the conversation.
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Ofie and Luby come downstairs, and Tyler invites them and Mari to his house to look at the stars. He knows they have time before Papá, Tío Armando, and Tío Felipe are done with the evening milking. As they walk across the farm, Mari asks if he thinks Uncle Larry is right about “la migra.” Tyler isn’t sure, but he says they should have a backup plan ready just in case. He knows of a cave where they might be able to hide, and he volunteers to show it to Mari soon. In just a few short months, he’s gone from wanting the Cruzes deported for breaking the law to planning on ways to help them break it.
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The phone is ringing as they enter the house. Sara answers. It’s the silent caller once again, the one she thinks is her ex-boyfriend. She screams into the phone that she’ll call the police if he doesn’t stop. But after she hangs up, Mari wonders aloud if it might be her Mamá. After all, they left the Paquettes’ phone number in North Carolina for her. Tyler is surprised and confused. It never occurred to him that his friends’ mother might not know where they are, or that his friends might not know where their mother is.
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The phone rings again and this time Mari answers it, “¿Mamá?” But this time it is Sara’s ex. Tyler suggests the telescope again to try to break the tension in the air. But Mari says it’s time for her, Ofie, and Luby to go home. Watching them walk across the lawn to the trailer, Tyler wonders why their mood fell so fast. But his worry about his friends is overshadowed a little while later when Mom and Dad come home and say that the conversation with Grandma went badly. She threatened to run away if they tried to make her move. Once, the irony might have struck Tyler as funny—but not tonight.
Adorada Virgen de Guadalupe. On December 12, the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mari writes a letter to the Virgin, begging her for help with the family’s current troubles. Shortly after Thanksgiving, Ben invites lonely Tío Felipe to a party. But when Ben is caught speeding on the way home, Tío Felipe panics and runs away from the traffic stop. The sheriff reports the incident to Homeland Security, who sweep the county looking for him.
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The next day, Papá and Tío Armando pack their passports and other documents. They make the girls pack, too. And they don’t go to work that day. Instead, they hide in the house, out of sight of the windows, with Mari, Ofie, and Luby. Papá tells Mari that if he and her uncle are taken, she should ask Mrs. Paquette to help her take her sisters to his parents, Abuelote and Abuelota, in Mexico. Overhearing this, Ofie grows upset. Mari suggests they hide in the cave Tyler mentioned. But there’s no reason to run just yet, Papá reasons.
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A little while later, Grandma knocks softly on the back door. She has a suitcase in her hand. She explains that she’s running away to teach her children a lesson for trying to force her out of her own home. Her friend Martha is coming to fetch her after dark, but she needs a place to lie low for the day, too. If Grandma’s kids would turn on her in this way, Papá and Mari worry, what might they do to the Mexican workers they’re harboring illegally?
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Late in the afternoon, Mrs. Paquette comes over to tell Papá that Tío Felipe has been caught and arrested in the next county over. (He was leading the authorities away from them, Mari thinks). If he’d just been caught without papers, the case would have been simpler. But because he tried to run away, he’ll have to go to court and face a full trial, she says.
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Mrs. Paquette leaves the trailer and heads for Grandma’s house. Mari watches through the window as she discovers that Grandma isn’t there and storms back toward her own house. Throughout the afternoon, Mr. Paquette, Ben, and Sara all stop at Grandma’s house. Grandma smiles triumphantly at their annoyance. But she’s sad, too, because she doesn’t want to say goodbye to Mari, Ofie, and Luby. She imagines selling her house and use the money to move to Mexico where she and the girls could take care of each other. The plans the four of them are making end when Grandma’s friend arrives.
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The next day, Papá keeps Mari, Ofie, and Luby home from school. Mari tells this to Tyler when he uncharacteristically stops by the trailer to walk with them to the bus stop. It turns out he wanted to tell her about Grandma’s disappearance, and his bitter complaints about his family’s behavior show Mari that he is as horrified by his their “evil plan” as Mari herself. She tells him to come again after school.
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All day, Mari watches as Mr. Paquette, Mrs. Paquette, and other family members search the farm looking for Grandma as if they are calves that have lost their mother. She feels bad for them because she knows what it’s like to be missing a mother. At lunchtime, Uncle Byron and Aunt Jeanne stop by. Uncle Byron, a university professor, can speak Spanish, but he uses such highbrow words that it’s not easy for Papá or Mari to understand what he and Jeanne are getting at as ask for help. Tío Armando tells them that Grandma is fine but won’t tell them where she is until they promise to drop their plan to force her out of her home.
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And so, by the time Tyler gets home from school, Grandma is back on the farm where she belongs. Watching him race up the hill toward his grandmother’s house reminds Mari of how precious family is, and that brings her to the reason for her letter. It is a prayer for the Virgin Mary to keep Tío Felipe out of prison and to make sure that her family, Mamá included, will be reunited again soon, whether in America or in Mexico.
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Traditionally, in Mexico, people would write out their prayers to the Virgin of Guadalupe and place them near her statue in the nearest church. The Paquettes don’t attend a Roman Catholic church, but recently Mari spotted a nativity display in front of a church in town. She plans to slip off the school bus and tuck the letter under the Mary figurine the next time she goes to school.
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