The House of Broken Angels

Little Angel and Big Angel share their favorite memory. In the first six months after receiving his green card, Big Angel is exhausted. He is overworked and degraded: “[…] they [the gringos] were making him embarrassed about being Mexican” (209). He drives regularly to Tijuana to pick up Mamá América so she can visit the family. Because Don Segundo is worried his half-white son isn’t Mexican enough, he insists Big Angel take Little Angel with him. Across the border, Mamá América has a business idea. She wants to sell green parrots, common in Mexico but rare up north, to the Mexicans living in exile in California. Big Angel insists she can’t smuggle animals over the border, but she drags them all to the fruit market, where a vendor sells birds at a small stand. She buys a parrot, feeds it tequila until it falls asleep in a drunken stupor, wraps it in a newspaper cone and stuffs it into her cleavage. At the border, they are nearly across when the parrot begins to squawk from between Mamá América’s breasts. She acts nonchalant as the bird emerges from her cleavage. The men watch in shock as the bird flaps out the window and north toward California. 

The family gathers for cake. They sing raucously in Spanish to Big Angel, who gets teary-eyed. He recalls the day he fell from his bed trying to get his pill bottle from the dresser. God forced him onto his knees to confess. It took him three hours to admit all his sins. That night, he dreamed of this party as a prophecy of his dying day. He and Little Angel wonder if this is how it will end. El Yndio waits in his car in the driveway, too afraid of rejection to go inside. He has a tattoo naming him the prodigal son. As he waits, Yndio sees a gunman pull out a pistol and creep through the yard. Yndio gets out of the car and runs toward the gunman.

The gunman kicks Lalo, who is unconscious in an outdoor chair. Big Angel realizes this is his opportunity to be a hero. He climbs on top of Lalo to save him. He insists the gunman shoot through him to kill his son. At that moment, Yndio comes to back up his father. He punches the gunman in the face, and Minnie takes the gun. The family flocks around the fallen gunman and kicks him until he scrambles out of the yard. There is a moment of victory, and Big Angel greets his lost son. Yndio carries Big Angel into his bed, and everyone climbs into bed beside him—Little Angel, Minnie, Lalo, and Perla. Yndio is skeptical but finally moves into place beside his family after a decade of exile. 

In the final pages of the book, Big Angel dies in a hospital bed. His funeral is glorious, even more so than Mamá América’s. Dave gives the eulogy. In the coming weeks, Minnie is lost in her grief but takes on the role of matriarch. Little Angel finally consummates his love for La Gloriosa, in a much more tender way than either anticipated. In the final passage, Big Angel describes his final day of life. He curls up in bed with Perla, touching her body. They reminisce about life together. Little Angel calls to invite him to La Jolla, a part of San Diego Big Angel has never seen. His last day is full of joy.