Although written long before The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which aimed to ensure that all students received a quality education no matter the school or situation, “Salvador Late or Early” outlines why such measures were taken in the United States. Unseen and unnamed by adults and peers alike, Salvador walks through his school day as a ghost, acknowledged by no one and defined by his roles and circumstances outside the classroom.

It is immediately evident that Salvador is alone and invisible at school. In the first sentence, Cisneros reveals that his teacher cannot recall his name. By presenting this observation alongside a description of the boy’s appearance, Cisneros suggests that this is just a fact of his life that he can neither control nor change. Whether through personal bias or systemic flaws, the person who is directly responsible Salvador’s education—his teacher—cannot identify him accurately. Furthermore, Salvador remains unseen by his peers. He has no friends, and no one acknowledges his existence in the schoolyard at the end of the day. The swirl of colors and “elbows and wrists crisscrossing [...and] shoes running” (Paragraph 3) shows the fun children have on the playground. Yet, instead of partaking in this, Salvador dodges it, imperceptible. In fact, the only person who pays him any attention outside of his family is “the crossing-guard lady [who] holds back the blur of traffic for Salvador to collect” his brother’s lost crayons (Paragraph 2). Even this interaction is minimalist, for “the lady” has no name and she does not actually speak to Salvador. So, although she literally sees him, the crossing guard is much like everyone else at his school: Someone who performs her duties without providing any extra care or attention to the boy.

Salvador’s invisibility is reinforced by what is excluded from the vignette. The reader only learns of what happens before and after school in Salvador’s life. There are no details of what he experiences within the classroom. Ironically, the only mentions of academic subjects, geography and history, are in reference to the physical and emotional abuse that Salvador endures. All this suggests that his intellectual life is blurry and unrealized much like the teacher’s memory of his name. Cisneros emphasizes that Mexican American children who live in low-income families, like Salvador’s, are not defined by what they do in school, but by their circumstances outside of it. Paradoxically, these circumstances are often ignored by teachers and school administrators.