[3] When asked about how he started to write stories, Soto stated that he learned by conversing with people when he was selling lottery tickets growing up in the La Puntilla slums in Cataño.

[1] In 1953, Soto's first career writing attempt came with Los perros anónimos (Anonymous Dogs), a short novel based on Puerto Rican participation in the Korean War.

It is also around this time that Soto began to publish his early works, Garabatos (Scribblings) and Los inocentes (The Innocents), for which he won awards.

Toward an Archeology of Displacement of Sexual Minorities in the Caribbean, the 1973 English translated version of Spiks included an author's note explaining that the first short story was the last to be written.

[6] Soto uses The Captive to frame departure by writing about the exile of a 17 year-old girl named Fernanda, from Puerto Rico to New York, after she was caught cheating with her brother-in-law months before her sister's expected baby.

Despite the major theme of forceful migration, Soto also explores the issues of patriarchy through the breaking of gender norms by the main character, highlighting the suppression of female sexuality.

Throughout the story, there are signs of mockery and discrimination against mentally ill people, as the mother is insistent that her son remain quiet and not speak to avoid shame.

The story follows the life of a poor afro Latina boy named Usmaíl derived from "US mail", who is abandoned by his Puerto Rican father and American mother.

He states that although speaking out against violence stemming from colonial system is monotonous in Puerto Rican literature, it must be constantly done, through continual improvement in craft and creativity.