Jesse, the protagonist of in “Baseball in April,” is also worried about his appearance. After Jesse goes to bat at the Little League tryouts, he believes that he had “looked strong standing at the plate, bat high over his shoulder” (16). In addition to trying to join the baseball team, Jesse wants to be perceived as strong, and this desire can also be seen when he joins the team at Hobo Park and plays catcher. Because he cannot afford protective gear, he is vulnerable to being hit by random balls, “but he never let on that they hurt” (19). Although it is dangerous for a catcher to play without protection, Jesse has no choice. Instead of complaining, he exudes a sense of stoicism to prove that he is concerned with the risk of injury.

As the title indicates, Jesse is obsessed with baseball. His love of the game highlights his childlike nature and emphasizes his efforts of Finding Belonging in a Multicultural World by embracing America’s traditional pastime of baseball. Notably, this story, unlike others in the collection, only features one Spanish word. Additionally, Jesse’s Mexican background is reduced to a few brief references, such as when he plays in his first game and notices that the opposing players “were Mexican like his team” (19) and that the coaches “talked quietly in Spanish” (20). Because Jesse only makes subtle observations that indicate his cultural heritage, it is clear that his main focus is on fitting into mainstream American society by playing baseball.

Hector, the quiet and curious nine-year-old boy in “Two Dreamers” spends the summer with his grandparents. He enjoys the company of his grandfather, Luis, often sitting in companionable silence with the man during meals. When he was younger, Hector would pepper his grandfather with random questions about everything he could think of, but now that Hector is nine, it is Luis who asks the questions. He assumes that his grandson knows much more about life in the United States than he does. As a result, Hector fields questions that he does not know answers to, like how much a house down the street might cost.

Because of Luis’s unquestioning trust in the boy’s knowledge, Hector serves as a dubious bridge between two cultural worlds: Mexican and mainstream American. Luis is obsessed with buying a house, so he asks Hector in a mixture of Spanish and English to call the real estate office and ask about it. However, when he learns that the house costs more than Hector guessed it would, Luis is frustrated with the boy. Feeling trapped, Hector thinks, “Why did he have to listen to his grandfather and call a person he didn’t even know?” (28). Having to speak on behalf of his grandfather forces him into an impossible situation. Luis’ elevated perception of Hector forces the boy to act like an adult and negotiate the cultural divide between Luis and the real estate agent.

As the protagonist of “The No-Guitar Blues,” Fausto dreams of emulating the group Los Lobos. (This band is a 1980s-era Mexican American rock band that integrated American pop music with traditional Mexican songs. Famous for their remake of Ritchie Valens’ “La Bamba,” the group symbolizes the success of Chicanos in mainstream culture.) Fausto wants to perform on American Bandstand someday, just like Los Lobos, so he resolves to obtain a guitar even though such an instrument is too expensive for his family to afford. After his mother confirms this, he brainstorms ways to make money.

However, this quest causes an inner conflict reminiscent of the boy’s literary namesake: Christopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus. Infamous for selling his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power, Dr. Faustus attempts to get out of the deal, only for the devil to sentence him to hell anyway. Although Soto’s Fausto does not face a doomed afterlife, he does temporarily compromise his own ethical code when he uses deceptive methods to obtain money. Specifically, Fausto returns a “lost” dog to its owners so that he might earn a monetary reward and buy himself a guitar. However, when the couple’s generosity proves excessive, he feels guilty for lying to them. As the narrative states, “Fausto looked at the bill and knew that he was in trouble. Not with the nice folks or with his parents but with himself” (48). The boy’s chagrin reflects the fact that his conscience is reminding him that making money through deceit is unethical. Fausto is so guilt-ridden that he donates the money to church the next day. However, unlike Dr. Faustus, he is rewarded for making a moral choice when he is gifted an old family guitarron.

In “Seventh Grade,” Victor is an immature teenager learning to navigate an awkward middle-school romance. On the first day of school, his friend Michael posits that wearing a scowl attracts girls’ attention. Although Victor thinks “his friend looked pretty strange” (53), he attempts a scowl as well and sees “a girl looking at him” (54). Later, when Teresa, his crush, says hello, he responds awkwardly. Later, his immaturity is on full display when he pretends to know French in order to impress Teresa. When Mr. Bueller, his French teacher, puts him on the spot, Victor grunts odd sounds to cover his deceit, and although Mr. Bueller immediately realizes the truth, he does not expose Victor when Teresa expresses her admiration of the boy’s supposed prowess with languages. Instead, Mr. Bueller quietly reflects on his own misguided attempts to impress girls when he was younger. This shift to Mr. Bueller’s perspective suggests that Victor’s immature gambits are a typical part of growing up. In the end, Victor is not as childlike and immature as Alfonso in “Broken Chain,” for he is embarking on the trial-and-error process of navigating The Challenges of the Coming-of-Age Journey.

Like other protagonists in Soto’s collection, Gilbert Sanchez in “The Karate Kid” exhibits signs of marked naïveté, as when he confidently stands up to the school bully, Pete the Heat. Later, during a fight with the boy, he mistakenly believes that standing on one leg like the hero in The Karate Kid will protect him. However, his simpleminded belief in the magic of the big screen fails him when the Heat punches him in the face. Even so, he continues to show faith that the movie reflects reality, as when he rewatches the movie to gain more tips on how to best Pete and realizes that he “didn’t have a teacher, and the kid in the movie did” (72). Even though his new decision to find a karate teacher is more beneficial than standing like a stork, his mindset still indicates his naiveté, because he is turning to a fictional story to help him deal with a real-life problem.

When the karate studio closes before Gilbert ever learns to defend himself, he realizes that trusting in a film is foolish, and so he is relieved to give up the sport. He is disillusioned by the fact that real karate class differs greatly from the idealized plot of the movie. When the next Karate Kid movie is released, Gilbert stays home to read comic books instead, and it is clear that he will not base his own actions on fictional depictions.