The Madonnas of Echo Park

The Madonnas of Echo Park presents numerous situations where the characters are confronted with ethical dilemmas whose boundaries seem unclear, including Hector’s entrustment with the sledgehammer, the racially-motivated incident on Efren’s bus, the community response to Felicia and Aurora’s interaction during the drive-by, and Manny Jr.’s conversation with his army-bound son. Select two different ethical dilemmas faced by two different characters in this book and compare their personal responses.

Over the course of the book, the image of the flowering jacaranda tree appears in numerous stories, beginning with the words of Felicia’s grandmother: “a drowning flower moves toward the water, not away from it […] when its petals grow wet and heavy, they drag the flower back into the water and that causes it to die” (26). What is the symbolic significance of the jacaranda flower in The Madonnas of Echo Park? How does this symbol evolve from the beginning to the end of the book?

From the displacement of Chavez Ravine’s residents by Dodger Stadium to the replacement of Vietnamese and Mexican-owned businesses by white-owned establishments, gentrification dramatically changes the landscape of Echo Park. By the end of the book, however, Skyhorse writes, This is the land we dream of, the land that belongs to us again” (199). Choose at least two different characters from The Madonnas of Echo Park and compare (or contrast) their responses to neighborhood gentrification. How do you interpret the book’s ending in light of these responses? 

Between Ofelia’s negative reception to Juan’s Vietnamese girlfriend, the racially-charged tension between Duchess and Angie, and the race-motived violence of Efren’s narrative, The Madonnas of Echo Park addresses the complications of interracial dynamics and relationships. What does this book tell us about the friction between racial groups? How does the blending of groups embody the changing character of Los Angeles? 

In The Madonnas of Echo Park, religious imagery melds uncannily with the everyday landscape, including the omnipresence of shrines. From the shrine dedicated to Alma Guerrero to the more intimate shrines of Cristina’s Hollywood “saints,” Angie’s wall full of Duchess’s drawings, and Aurora’s Morrissey photos, The Madonnas of Echo Park contains tributes to the numerous figures that loom large in characters’ minds. How do these shrines function in the lives of the book’s different narrators? What do these shrines suggest about the presence of celebrity in the imaginations of Los Angeles Mexican-Americans?

The different narratives in The Madonnas of Echo Park present a complex landscape of gender roles and sexual identities, including vivid examinations of masculinity, women who assume “male” characteristics, and both men and women who flirt with homosexual behavior. Choose a male-narrated chapter and a female-narrated chapter from the book and compare their discussions of gender and sexuality.

In the book’s first chapter, Hector reflects: “Everything I have earned in this life by lying, I have lost. By lying” (23). How do you interpret this reflection? How do these words speak to the book’s broader themes of lying, culpability, and loss?

Many of the book’s characters—including the author himself—occupy a liminal space of identity, feeling out of place in both the Mexican and American halves of their cultural landscape. In light of this feeling, what is the metaphorical significance of the song “Borderline” for The Madonnas of Echo Park?