Salvador Late or Early

“Salvador […] runs along somewhere in that vague direction where homes are the color of bad weather.”

Salvador lives where houses have the muddy color of storms, suggesting the rundown nature of his neighborhood and hinting at his family’s financial hardship. Furthermore, Cisneros notes that Salvador runs “somewhere” and in a “vague direction”. This lack of specificity, which follows the details that the boy has no friends, and that his teacher does not remember his name, underscores his Invisibility Within the Education System and in society in general. This diction emphasizes how forgettable Salvador is because no one pays attention to him or gets to know him.

“Helps his mama who is busy with the business of the baby.”

As Salvador takes on responsibility and “helps his mama,” much is suggested about his mother and their family dynamics. First, there are four children, two that Salvador cares for and an infant. Also, the diction describing the mother’s care is cold and detached, for she tends to the “business of the baby.” This is ironic: Typically, a mother’s nurturing care is described as loving, not as a paid job. This foreshadows the details about the abuse Salvador endures, suggesting that their home is not full of love.

“Tugs the arms of Cecilio, Arturito, makes them hurry, because today, like yesterday, Arturito has dropped the cigar box of crayons.”

Salvador’s care for his brothers is not a one-time event but a repeated occurrence: This day is “like yesterday.” Salvador is the subject of the sentence, but Cisneros omits his name, suggesting that his care for his brothers erases his own identity. Because he puts so much into ensuring they are cared for, Salvador has little time to develop his own interests—unlike Arturito, he has no crayons or other toys to spill. Consequently, Salvador’s identity is defined solely by his role as a caregiver.

“[T]he crossing-guard lady holds back the blur of traffic for Salvador to collect them again.”

When his brother drops his box of crayons in the street, the crossing-guard stops cars so Salvador can gather the crayons. Although she is helping him, it is in a perfunctory way: She pauses traffic as a feature of her job, much as Salvador’s mother tends to her baby in a “business”-like way. The crossing-guard says nothing and does no more than her post requires, leaving Salvador to retrieve the crayons on his own. This moment, therefore, emphasizes The Isolation of Young Caregivers.

“[L]imbs stuffed with feathers and rags.”

This phrase is part of a physical description of Salvador’s body after it is implied that he has endured abuse. His limbs are less flesh and bone, than they are weakly loaded with “feathers and rags”, which highlights how physically small the boy is. His bulk is not entirely his body, but stuffing. The emphasis on his slight stature accentuates the abuse he has endured. Furthermore, the word “rags” hints at the poverty Salvador experiences.

“[I]n that cage of a chest where something throbs with both fists and knows only what Salvador knows.”

A metaphor compares Salvador’s chest to a cage, evoking feeling trapped. Inside his chest is an emotion so strong, it is personified as having its own fists that are pounding, or “throbbing” against the cage. This mixture of literary devices creates the image of Salvador as a prisoner of his circumstances externally and his emotions internally, creating a tone of hopelessness.

“[I]nside that body too small to contain the hundred balloons of happiness, the single guitar of grief.”

Salvador’s body is described as too small to contain both extreme happiness and a small amount of grief. This is ironic, for between his caregiving responsibilities, the history of abuse, and his family’s financial hardship, Salvador has already endured a lot. Despite this, he has no room inside himself to dwell on the positive feeling of joy or experience productive mourning. Additionally, Salvador’s “grief” alludes to something lost; although not stated explicitly, the entire vignette indicates that his childhood innocence is what is gone.

“[I]s a boy like any other disappearing out the door, beside the schoolyard gate, where he has told his brothers they must wait.”

This observation that Salvador is like other boys leaving school at the end of the day immediately follows the reference to his history of physical pain and emotional hurt. The contrast between what Salvador looks like and what he has lived through emphasizes how little we can know about what burdens a person carries: In this case, no one truly knows Salvador. Furthermore, the dichotomy between observation and reality highlights how alone and unseen Salvador is, illustrating The Isolation of Young Caregivers.