Lupita Manana

The title of the book and the introduction readers are given to the main characters are immediate signals that a perpetually optimist outlook is going to be a major concern within the narrative. Even as readers are learning of the Torres’s difficult living conditions—which are about to become exponentially worse—Beatty is also revealing that Lupita is known for her forward-looking perspective: “[W]hen your father doesn’t catch as many fish as he wants, you always say, ‘Tomorrow, mañana, you will catch more, Papá’” (11). Because everyone acquainted with her in Ensenada calls her by her nickname, Lupita Mañana, she knows that she is distinguished by her optimistic attitude. In many cases, as with her brother and his friends, the nickname is used derisively. The general attitude in Ensenada, as readers can surmise from the poverty, unemployment, lack of a social safety network, and lack of education, is not one of optimism about tomorrow but rather cynicism: Life is hard and painful, and it is probably going to get worse. In a way, Beatty has decided to conduct a literary test of whether an attitude of persistent optimism can carry one through dire circumstances.

Beatty makes an important distinction in the novel.