It’s 1975, and Soto starts the story by saying that he and his siblings were mean children: “My brother, sister, and I felt a general meanness begin to surface from our tiny souls while living on Braly Street, which was in the middle of industrial Fresno” (1). He describes industrial Fresno as being full of concrete, “scraggly sycamores” (1), and factory buildings. Many of his family members work at the Sun-Maid Raisin factory that’s down the street from his house.

Soto is 5, his brother Rick is 6, and his sister Debra is 4: “Although we looked healthy, clean in the morning, and polite as only Mexicans can be polite, we had a streak of orneriness that we imagined to be normal play” (1). He and his siblings often play with their neighbors, the Molinas, who live right across the street from a broom factory. The Molinas teach them how to have fun, and they teach them how to fight.

Soto is constantly fighting his brother and others, including Ronnie: “[A]n Okie kid […] yelled that we were dirty Mexicans. Perhaps so, but why bring it up? I looked at my feet and was embarrassed, then mad” (3). On another occasion, Soto and Rick decide to fight some new kids in the neighborhood for no reason.