of vignettes and poems based on the author's experiences growing up in Puerto Rico as a Cuban exile. Evoking childhood memories, the author explores the feelings of a boy developing an identity in a place that seems both familiar and alien. Throughout this loose chronology, parents, siblings, and childhood friends serve as symbols for the increasing sense of conflict the boy grapples with and struggles to identify. Describing both the Puerto Rican countryside and its urban grit, the maturing narrator eventually comes to grips with both sides of his Caribbean self.