In fact, when Reyna and her siblings had to stay at Abuela Evila’s house they had to endure the neglect and abuse of their grandmother who barely loves her grandchildren and Elida who always ridiculed them whenever possible. Elida acts like a spoiled brat that takes advantage of her position towards Reyna and her siblings, which leads to one instance where she insults them for having their parents leave to El Otro Lado to have a better life than in Mexico. She even has the gall to say their parents are “going to forget all about you. You and your brother and sister are always going to be Los Huerfanitos.” In response, Mago said “Speak for yourself. It’s your mother who’s not coming back,” Mago said. “Doesn’t she have another child, over there in El Otro Lado?” (25) This quote shows that Mago won’t back down against a person who’ll say anything to bring others down. Elida sat in silence as Mago put in her place, not being able to come back against her comment. Elida isn’t the only person to abuse Reyna, Mago, and Carlos in their …show more content…
María appeared before him looking angry and said why he was staring at her for and Carlos wasn’t able to defend himself since he lacked self-esteem. Mago protected Carlos from María and in Mago’s response said “she should be grateful my brother is looking at you, since you’re so damn ugly.” Carlos denied of María being ugly and Mago responded with “I was trying to defend you, pendejo.” (212) This quote shows that Mago was protecting his brother since he had low self-esteem and was self conscious of his teeth that resulted in him being that way. Furthermore, when María came to their house to teach Mago a lesson, Mago taught her a lesson by beating her in a fight and told her she should be happy when her brother looks at her. This shows that Mago will go great lengths to protect her siblings from anyone who’ll cause harm to them. They’ll protect and defend each other from any enemy as well as assist each other when facing disheartening