Please join us for our discussion on June's book:
Bodega Dreams by Ernesto Quinonez
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You do not have to have read the book to join in the discussion!
Please contact PDC@NVRID.org with any questions.
Discussion questions:
1.) Who is your favorite character?
2.) Who is your least favorite character?
3.) Why do you think Chino cares about Sapo so much?
4.) Who does Chino have greater loyalty to: Sapo or Blanca? Why?
5.) Is Bodega a good guy or a bad guy?
6.) "Bodega would go down as a representation of all the ugliness in Spanish Harlem and also all the good it was capable of being. Bodega placed a mirror in front of the neighborhood and in front of himself. He was street nobility incarnated in someone who still believed in dreams. And for a small while, those dreams seemed as palpable as that dagger Macbeth tried to grab" (13-4).
This quote is an allusion to a play called Macbeth where the character hallucinates a dagger that he could use to kill someone in his life. He was able to see it. The meaning of the world palpable is "(of a feeling or atmosphere) so intense as to seem almost tangible." Like Macbeth, Bodega's dreams were palpable for him. What is Bodega's dream?
7.) Everyone has a nickname, except Nazario. Why is this?
8.) That ending. Did you see it coming?
9.) This book is often compared to The Great Gatsby or Catcher in the Rye. Can you see the similarities with those books?
10.) Veronica becoming Vera… how is that different from Nancy becoming Blanca?
11.) What are some themes/issues/topics you see throughout the story? Religion? Friendship? Loyalty?
12.) The novel frequently discusses Spanish Harlem and the desire of Latin Americans to build themselves up. The novel mentions The Young Lords (an Afro-Latino group) and that group is often labeled as a “radical activist group”. Here is the manifesto of that organization: http://palante.org/13%20Pt%20Program-Corrected.htm and a youtube about them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Anf9kfSe9xc Do you think Bodega, Nazario, Sapo, and/or Chino actually want to lead a revolution?
