It was first published in 1985 in Viramontes’ first book, The Moths and Other Stories, by Arte Publico Press in Houston, Texas.
[1] The story is a first-person narrative of a Latina granddaughter reminiscing about her relationship between her family, most especially her grandmother, when she was a teenage girl.
The narrator speaks about the indifference she felt towards her sisters because she was not “pretty or nice” and could not “do the girl things they could do”.
When the cancer finally kills the grandmother, the granddaughter continues to take care of her, undressing her and cleansing her in the tub, as she holds her and rocks her back and forth saying “there, there Abuelita”.
[3] Helena Maria Viramontes is a Chicana writer, who writes about women that face the troubles of religion, identity, sexuality, family, and tradition.