True or False
Enrique was four years old when the family left Panamá.
What is true?
What did Mayor say about his identity?
What is "I felt more American than anything, but even that was up for debate"?
This conflict drives the story and affects Mayor’s family the most.
What is the tension between Mayor’s parents?
This word describes someone who is uncertain about where they belong, which reflects the narrator’s feelings about being American or Panamanian.
What is confused?
Explain why the father says, “Maybe we don’t belong there anymore.”
What is the father realizes that his classmates think he believes he is better than those who stayed in Panamá because he left and became an American citizen?
Enrique remembered things about Panamá that the narrator could not.
What is true?
This word best describes Celia, the narrator’s mother.
What is expressive? What is emotional?What is melo-dramatic?
What event happened in the living room of the Toro's house?
What is the 9-11 attack on TV?
This word describes moving to a new place and trying to start over, like the narrator’s family when they leave Panamá for the United States.
What is “relocate” or “resettle”?
What does this mean "That year around the holidays we were all miserable. Holidays were always bad…"?
What is how the family feels during holidays in their new home?
The Toro parents sold most of their belongings to buy plane tickets to the U.S.
True
This detail shows the father cares deeply about his family’s identity.
What is taking them to the beach to remember Panamá?
This event causes the Dad to reconsider returning to Panamá.
What is the father's classmate calling him "gringo-royalty?"
This word describes something that has been severely damaged, destroyed, or worn down, like the narrator’s memories or the landscape left behind in Panamá.
What is ravaged?
Who said this "“I let her, too, even though every time she did, instead of comforting me, it only made me more scared.”?
What is the narrator? What is Mayor?
Celia claims the parents’ hearts stopped breaking once they left Panamá.
False.
This character’s injury and feelings of isolation reveal how the challenges of adjusting to a new country can affect a young immigrant’s confidence and relationships.
Who is Enrique, Mayor’s brother, whose struggles at school and with his injury show his vulnerability and frustration?
Put these events in order:
• Father learns how classmates feel
• Narrator explains leaving Panamá
• Father takes them to the beach
• Family becomes citizens
Narrator explains leaving Panamá
Father learns classmates’ feelings
Become citizens
Beach trip
This slang term, sometimes teasing or playful, is used to describe someone from the United States, and in the story it appears as part of a nickname that reveals friendship and cultural teasing.
What is gringo?
Who said this: "“They think we’re Americans now. And maybe we are! Maybe we don’t belong there anymore after all.”?
Who is Rafael?
Celia believes the family never truly made a life in the United States.
What is false?
They did make a life: friends, school, jobs.
Watching Enrique hold on to early memories of Panamá while others in the family struggle to connect to their roots, this character wonders whether remembering a place matters more than having lived there.
Who is Rafael?
This character’s involvement in the story shows how extended family can influence decisions and emotions when an immigrant family struggles with returning to their homeland.
Who is Tía Gloria, whose calls and advice stir the mother’s emotions and highlight the family’s connection to Panamá?
This word describes someone who reacts in an exaggerated, overly emotional, or theatrical way.
What is melodramatic?
Which character said this "“Wouldn’t it be nice to find out how Cristóbal—wasn’t that the owner’s name?—is doing?”
Who is Tia Gloria?