Spare Parts

by

Joshua Davis

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Spare Parts makes teaching easy.
One of the four students who compete in the MATE competition as a part of the Carl Hayden robotics club, along with Oscar, Lorenzo, and Cristian. Luis was brought by his mother, Maria Garcia, to the U.S. to give him better educational opportunities, and ultimately his father Pedro is able to get him and the rest of the family green cards. Through middle school and high school, Luis also starts working in various restaurants to help support the family. Luis is not particularly interested in school, but he understands the sacrifices his parents have made for him to go. During his senior year, Luis takes Fredi’s Senior Science Seminar and Fredi tells him he can get credit by joining the robotics team (particularly because the kids need a little more strength on their team to help build the robot). Luis serves as the brawn of the operation, at six feet tall and 250 pounds. He is also a very quiet kid, and so most students in the school leave him alone because they are intimidated by him—that is, until Oscar befriends him. Luis proves crucial in not only helping the other students to build the robot, but also when he shows the judges that he has also been learning the science behind the machine they’ve built. Like Lorenzo and Cristian, Luis also has a hard time building a successful life after the competition. He starts a catering business with Lorenzo, but mostly he works as a garbageman.

Luis Aranda Quotes in Spare Parts

The Spare Parts quotes below are all either spoken by Luis Aranda or refer to Luis Aranda. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Underdogs and Overcoming Odds Theme Icon
).
Introduction Quotes

There were teams from across the country, including students from MIT, who were sponsored by ExxonMobil, the world's largest publicly traded company. The Latino kids were from Carl Hayden Community High School in West Phoenix.

Related Characters: Oscar Vazquez, Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Luis Aranda
Related Symbols: Stinky the Robot
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:

As a NASA employee, she had become accustomed to working with engineers who conformed to a sort of industry standard: white, well educated, conservative clothes. These four teenagers standing in front of her signaled that the future looked different.

Related Characters: Oscar Vazquez, Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Luis Aranda, Tom Swean, Lisa Spence
Related Symbols: Stinky the Robot
Page Number: 6
Explanation and Analysis:
One Quotes

I've got to create something that doesn't compete with other science centers; it's got to compete with the World Series and the Super Bowl. I’ve got to find a way to make science and technology cool.

Related Characters: Dean Kamen (speaker), Oscar Vazquez, Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Luis Aranda, Fredi Lajvardi
Page Number: 64
Explanation and Analysis:
Two Quotes

The whole point was to give the guys a chance to accomplish something beyond what they thought possible. But if they showed up at the event and failed utterly, it would only reinforce the impression that they didn't belong in the contest in the first place. That could leave a kid such as Lorenzo with a permanent sense of inferiority.

Related Characters: Oscar Vazquez, Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Luis Aranda, Fredi Lajvardi, Allan Cameron
Page Number: 91
Explanation and Analysis:

For Lorenzo, the robotics team was like a new family. In some respects, Fredi and Allan were surrogate parents, constantly advising him and pushing him to do better. […] A team spirit had developed. Lorenzo wasn't the only one sitting in the front row of his classes.

Related Characters: Oscar Vazquez, Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Luis Aranda, Fredi Lajvardi, Allan Cameron
Page Number: 113
Explanation and Analysis:

“It needs a name,” Lorenzo said.
Oscar remembered Lorenzo’s choking on the glue fumes and suggested, “Why don’t we call it Stinky?”

Related Characters: Oscar Vazquez (speaker), Lorenzo Santillan (speaker), Cristian Arcega, Luis Aranda
Related Symbols: Stinky the Robot
Page Number: 138
Explanation and Analysis:

The group also offered some of the same benefits of being in a gang. Now that he hung out with Luis on campus, Lorenzo found that other students were less likely to make fun of him.

Related Characters: Oscar Vazquez, Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Luis Aranda
Page Number: 132
Explanation and Analysis:
Three Quotes

It reminded them that they were doing something they had never done before. In Phoenix, they were called illegal aliens and pegged as criminals. They were alternately viewed as American, Mexican, or neither. Now, for a moment, they were simply teenagers at a robotics competition by the ocean.

Related Characters: Oscar Vazquez, Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Luis Aranda, Fredi Lajvardi, Allan Cameron
Related Symbols: Stinky the Robot
Page Number: 158
Explanation and Analysis:

Stinky represented this low-tech approach to engineering. But that was exactly what had impressed the judges.

Related Characters: Oscar Vazquez, Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Luis Aranda, Lisa Spence
Related Symbols: Stinky the Robot
Page Number: 176
Explanation and Analysis:
Four Quotes

“If the really long list of immigrant inventors who have made this country and the world a much better place is to stop here and now, we will also likely become the newest declining nation,” one reader commented.

Related Characters: Oscar Vazquez, Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Luis Aranda, Joshua Davis
Page Number: 186
Explanation and Analysis:

In reality, life is more complicated. The attention paid to the team as a result of their victory coincided with a backlash against immigrants in Arizona.

Related Characters: Oscar Vazquez, Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Luis Aranda
Page Number: 219
Explanation and Analysis:
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Luis Aranda Quotes in Spare Parts

The Spare Parts quotes below are all either spoken by Luis Aranda or refer to Luis Aranda. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Underdogs and Overcoming Odds Theme Icon
).
Introduction Quotes

There were teams from across the country, including students from MIT, who were sponsored by ExxonMobil, the world's largest publicly traded company. The Latino kids were from Carl Hayden Community High School in West Phoenix.

Related Characters: Oscar Vazquez, Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Luis Aranda
Related Symbols: Stinky the Robot
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:

As a NASA employee, she had become accustomed to working with engineers who conformed to a sort of industry standard: white, well educated, conservative clothes. These four teenagers standing in front of her signaled that the future looked different.

Related Characters: Oscar Vazquez, Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Luis Aranda, Tom Swean, Lisa Spence
Related Symbols: Stinky the Robot
Page Number: 6
Explanation and Analysis:
One Quotes

I've got to create something that doesn't compete with other science centers; it's got to compete with the World Series and the Super Bowl. I’ve got to find a way to make science and technology cool.

Related Characters: Dean Kamen (speaker), Oscar Vazquez, Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Luis Aranda, Fredi Lajvardi
Page Number: 64
Explanation and Analysis:
Two Quotes

The whole point was to give the guys a chance to accomplish something beyond what they thought possible. But if they showed up at the event and failed utterly, it would only reinforce the impression that they didn't belong in the contest in the first place. That could leave a kid such as Lorenzo with a permanent sense of inferiority.

Related Characters: Oscar Vazquez, Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Luis Aranda, Fredi Lajvardi, Allan Cameron
Page Number: 91
Explanation and Analysis:

For Lorenzo, the robotics team was like a new family. In some respects, Fredi and Allan were surrogate parents, constantly advising him and pushing him to do better. […] A team spirit had developed. Lorenzo wasn't the only one sitting in the front row of his classes.

Related Characters: Oscar Vazquez, Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Luis Aranda, Fredi Lajvardi, Allan Cameron
Page Number: 113
Explanation and Analysis:

“It needs a name,” Lorenzo said.
Oscar remembered Lorenzo’s choking on the glue fumes and suggested, “Why don’t we call it Stinky?”

Related Characters: Oscar Vazquez (speaker), Lorenzo Santillan (speaker), Cristian Arcega, Luis Aranda
Related Symbols: Stinky the Robot
Page Number: 138
Explanation and Analysis:

The group also offered some of the same benefits of being in a gang. Now that he hung out with Luis on campus, Lorenzo found that other students were less likely to make fun of him.

Related Characters: Oscar Vazquez, Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Luis Aranda
Page Number: 132
Explanation and Analysis:
Three Quotes

It reminded them that they were doing something they had never done before. In Phoenix, they were called illegal aliens and pegged as criminals. They were alternately viewed as American, Mexican, or neither. Now, for a moment, they were simply teenagers at a robotics competition by the ocean.

Related Characters: Oscar Vazquez, Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Luis Aranda, Fredi Lajvardi, Allan Cameron
Related Symbols: Stinky the Robot
Page Number: 158
Explanation and Analysis:

Stinky represented this low-tech approach to engineering. But that was exactly what had impressed the judges.

Related Characters: Oscar Vazquez, Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Luis Aranda, Lisa Spence
Related Symbols: Stinky the Robot
Page Number: 176
Explanation and Analysis:
Four Quotes

“If the really long list of immigrant inventors who have made this country and the world a much better place is to stop here and now, we will also likely become the newest declining nation,” one reader commented.

Related Characters: Oscar Vazquez, Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Luis Aranda, Joshua Davis
Page Number: 186
Explanation and Analysis:

In reality, life is more complicated. The attention paid to the team as a result of their victory coincided with a backlash against immigrants in Arizona.

Related Characters: Oscar Vazquez, Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Luis Aranda
Page Number: 219
Explanation and Analysis: