Promise Boys

The pupusas that Ramón bakes with his abuela symbolize the importance of community, emphasizing the theme of The Value of Family and Friendship. Pupusas, the national dish of El Salvador, are a corn flatbread filled with various ingredients like cheese or beans. As such, they emphasize the importance of Ramón’s Salvadoran heritage: He holds onto that heritage through his relationship with his abuela. He wakes up each morning to cook with her, helping her with her business while also taking some to sell at school. With the money from the sales, he hopes to save enough to open his own restaurant after high school. In this way, the pupusas emphasize the value of Ramón’s relationship with his abuela, his connection to his heritage, and his desire to improve his community through a new Salvadoran restaurant.

In a key scene in the novel, the pupusas symbolically bring the “Promise Boys” together for the first time. When they meet by chance in the park, the boys are initially hesitant, unsure whether they can trust each other. As they slowly share information, they realize that they will need to investigate and solve the murder on their own—as no one else is willing to do it for them.