The House of Broken Angels

It rains as the family walks toward the gravesite. Lalo pushes Big Angel, and Perla walks with Little Angel. They pass the grave of Perla’s son Braulio. Perla can’t look at it, Lalo chokes up, and Minnie stands before it, wiping leaves from Braulio’s name. Lalo reflects on his troubled past as a gangbanger with Braulio and his memories of Braulio speaking to an army recruiter in the mall. The recruiter promised citizenship in exchange for a few years of fighting. He was a liar. Lalo recalls a bomb going off in an alleyway in Iraq. When he came back, he got into trouble again trying to sneak a friend from Tijuana into the United States. He moved into Big Angel’s garage, hoping to stop bringing shame on the family. Little Angel joins Minnie at Braulio’s grave, and she tells her uncle she wishes her brother Yndio were there. Her father and Yndio are not getting along, she explains to Little Angel, due to Yndio’s lifestyle choices; by way of explanation, Minnie pulls out her phone and shows him Yndio’s Facebook page, which shows him cross-dressing and describing himself as “non-cisgendered, non-heteronormative.”

The ceremony ends quickly, and soon they are back home. Party preparations begin for Big Angel’s birthday. Lalo gets a call from his son, who tells him someone finally figured out who killed Braulio. Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Little Angel flirts with La Gloriosa, Perla’s sister. Perla banishes him to Big Angel’s bedroom, and the men argue about whether they are an “American” family. Big Angel brings up the fact that Little Angel is half-white. They reconcile quickly, and soon Big Angel is recalling old times with their father, and Little Angel curls up in bed beside his dying brother. 

After everyone leaves, Perla climbs quietly into bed to avoid waking Big Angel. He is awake, however, and the husband and wife reminisce about their courtship, when Big Angel lost his virginity to Perla on the beach. Big Angel reminds Perla of the hard work they put into their family. Big Angel tells Perla he can astral-project in his sleep, walking around freely without his body. Meanwhile, Little Angel sleeps on MaryLú’s couch in Mamá América’s old house, though he has his own hotel room. They eat cookies together, and MaryLú asks him about life in Seattle. Little Angel recalls his childhood and his strained relationship with his father, who often beat him. Minnie, at her own house, stays up late drinking white wine alone in the living room. She waits until her man is asleep to climb into bed. She often wants to be alone and to sit with herself in the darkness. The chapter ends when Big Angel wakes in pain at two o’clock in the morning. He takes codeine and thinks about his home, which still feels like a palace to him after all these years. Big Angel washes himself in memory again, blissful. He “invited every memory to come to him and clothe him in beauty” (97).