It is a reality check to read the sentence, "The desire to return home was now a tumor lodged under Perfecto's heart..." (82) because while I often find myself missing home from the comfort of my college apartment, my experience is nowhere near comparable to Perfecto’s and is something I cannot fathom.

The sentence, "... she wanted to tell him how good she felt but didn't know how to build the house of words she could invite him into" (70) is a beautiful way of describing being at a loss for words, even when you want to tell someone something important.

The parallel between the women's swollen veins and the grape vines on 61 is stark and eerie and highlights the subtle and not so subtle ways Viramontes emphasizes their hard work and the side effects that come with it.

At the bottom of 53 and the beginning of 52, Estrella has to imagine herself somewhere else to hold back the tears she felt welling up. I cannot imagine how difficult the task is for her, and I am wondering if she is doing it to put on a brave face for the people around her or to encourage herself.

At the top of page 52, the only water Estrella has to drink is described as "tepid," which is a word I had to look up and means lukewarm, and along with the particles, definitely unappealing.

On page 51, a pregnant mother is described picking cotton, "The sack slowly grew larger and heavier like the swelling child within her," which is a powerful simile. A pregnant mother should have the ability to rest, but that is an impossible luxury for her.

Again at the bottom of page 50 Alejo thinks of all of the sacrifices and hardships his grandmother has endured just for him to have a chance at going to school. As a college student this is an important reminder to not take our education for granted.

The sentence "...a white sun so mighty, it toasted the green grapes to black raisins" on page 50 stood out to me. From what I know, it takes up to 30 days to try grapes, so the author describing this as happening within moments emphasizes their brutal working conditions.

The emphasis on how grueling this manual labor is already appears in the second sentence, "Even the birds wavered on the crest of the heat waves" (49). Birds are animals that have a high tolerance for heat, so highlighting their struggles with the temperature depicts how difficult the labor is, especially under these circumstances.