We Were Here

While this narrative deals primarily with the impact of the repercussions of institutionalization upon young people, it also details some of the realizations involved with the process of reaching maturity in contemporary American culture. This idea permeates the text in a number of ways. For example, early in the story, Miguel describes a parting with his mother, when he is admitted to juvenile hall, that is devoid of all emotional affect. His mother wordlessly transports him to the facility in order to begin his sentence, and Miguel realizes that he is unlikely to see her again for a long time. He perceives his mother from a more dispassionate stance than usual. As he is led away by guards, he realizes “how mad pretty [his] mom is” (6). Subsequently, when he and Rondell are peering at the streets of Tijuana from across the border, Miguel observes a Mexican boy of his own age attempting to sell wares from the street, “[b]ut nobody stopped at his stand” (217). This is the commencement of Miguel’s perspective on the random nature of good fortune; he realizes that he was lucky to be born on the other side of the border and that he had not been sufficiently appreciative of his own life in the past.