Promise Boys

Tony thinks that his sister does not really understand Ramón. Ramón has a passion for cooking and has greatly improved Promise’s short-staffed cafeteria. His initiative to let students cook has made a big difference.

Ramón also used to sell his abuela’s (grandmother’s) pupusas (a type of Salvadoran flatbread) at the school. He told Tony that the money went to his abuela’s store and to his “stash.” However, Moore recently shut the business down. Tony now wonders what Ramón meant by “stash” and if it has anything to do with drugs.

César is not afraid to hide who he is. His tattoos let people know. He is adamant that the only difference between him and the students at Promise is the clothes they wear. For all of them, they “need money [and] when you need money, violence follows” (113). Either way, they are just viewed as “animals.”

Ramón’s abuela is certain that Ramón would never hurt anyone. He helps her bake and cook each day, striving to learn recipes from their home in El Salvador. Despite César’s constant efforts, she is sure that Ramón would never join the Dioses.

She notes that everyone always sees kids like Ramón get in trouble and assumes the worst. However, all Ramón ever got in trouble for at Promise was selling his food to try to save money for a storefront shop.

Magdalena is César’s younger sister. She knows how much trouble he can cause but also feels helpless to stop it. Instead, she constantly reminds César that she is there for him if he needs her.

Magdalena often watches César and Ramón talk in front of her house when Ramón walks home from helping at his abuela’s shop. These moments are the few times when she sees César happy and laughing.

One night, Magdalena saw César and Ramón arguing out front. It ended with César angrily asking if Ramón thinks he is “a bad guy” several times, with Ramón eventually yelling back, “Yes! I do!” (118).

The day before Moore was murdered, Magdalena got a text from Ramón. He asked her what to do when he could no longer trust the people he thought he could. Magdalena still isn’t sure whether he was talking about Moore or César.

An unnamed student argues that while everyone is talking about how the killer showed signs that they were going to snap, no one is “looking at the right person” because they are too “distracted by all the other noise” (119).

Detectives Ash and Bo pressure Ramón to admit that he is part of Dioses del Humo, but Ramón keeps insisting that he isn’t. When they try to talk about César, he refuses. They try to convince him that he needs to talk to protect his abuela from the Dioses. Ramón claims that he was in detention, but the detectives point out that his brush was found in Moore’s office.

Ramón wakes up early to help his abuela in the kitchen, but she insists that he needs to leave early for school, as it’s raining, so his bus is running late.

Instead of getting on the bus, Ramón decides to walk past the storefront that he plans on buying. He runs into César on his walk there. He truly likes César but knows that he has done horrible things in his life. He wishes that César would have done things differently. However, he also realizes that César’s life—and his choices—are different from his own.

César asks Ramón about his bag. When he realizes that it contains food to sell at school, César compliments him on having his own “hustle.” This makes Ramón feel proud, so he tells César about his dreams to buy a storefront. However, César laughs at him. He insists that Ramón should give up on his dreams because doing things the right way never works. He tries to get Ramón to join the Dioses so that they can “work together to build [their] own” instead of relying on the broken system (130). Their conversation is interrupted by Ever, another member of the Dioses.

Ramón walks to the shop that he plans to buy. However, it now has a “SOLD” sign in the window. He goes from sad to angry and thinks about how he wants to smash the window, so he makes himself walk away.

While sitting on the bus, Ramón texts Magdalena. He tells her that he is worried about César, as he seemed more angry than usual and kept talking about how he “only [has] one choice” (132). Magdalena apologizes but says she never knows what to think about César.

Ramón arrives at school early and tries to go to the study-hall room. On the way, he hears someone swearing. He comes face-to-face with Dean Hicks, who angrily asks him why he is there so early. Ramón hesitates, struggling to think of the English words that he wants. When he finally explains himself, Hicks scolds him and gives him a demerit for being in the hall.

That afternoon, Ramón is feeling better because he sold all his pupusas during school. However, when he goes outside, he sees César waiting to pick him up.

Ramón tries to get César to leave. A few weeks ago, Ramón told him to stay away, as Moore had seen César at Promise and been upset. Instead, César tells Ramón to get in the car. He explains that he thought about what Ramón said and is wondering if they do have a choice to make money a different way. He wants to help Ramón find a new storefront.

Before Ramón can get in the car, several police cars pull up. They grab Ramón and César and then search the car. One of them finds a gun, so they arrest César. They let Ramón go.

After the police are gone, Ramón looks around the school. He sees Moore watching everything, nodding from the steps of Promise.

Convinced that Moore called the police on César, Ramón spends the night making four times as many pupusas as he normally would. His abuela helps him and gives him money; they hope that they can make enough to pay César’s bail.

At the bus stop, Ramón is approached by Ever and three other members of the Dioses, whom he doesn’t know. Ever tells him that he knows Moore called the police and that he has been a “problem” for them for years. He suggests that Ramón could become a member of the Dioses if he did something to get rid of Moore. The idea interests Ramón, as he is overwhelmed by his “anger” and likes “[t]he idea of revenge” (145). However, he tells Ever that he will think about it.

Throughout the day, Ramón manages to sell most of his pupusas with his friend Luis. At lunch, however, one of the students drops one on the ground while Moore is disciplining him. When Moore sees it, he goes to Ramón, grabbing his bag and dumping the remaining pupusas into the garbage. He then takes Ramón’s money and bag and puts an end to Ramón’s culinary initiative. Overwhelmed by anger, Ramón goes to the bathroom and finds Ever’s number in his phone.