They grow up in an urban landscape, intensified by freeway construction that displaced homes, while the Quarantine Authority uses roadblocks to keep residents in East Los Angeles, “supposedly” protecting them from rabid animals.

Tranquilina, the daughter of missionaries, is optimistic about religion despite witnessing horrible atrocities, like the cruel and revengeful murder of Ermila’s cousin Nacho, committed by the McBride Boys.

The title and the story work to expose how the Quarantine Authority controlled Latinos in Los Angeles, using their ownership of dogs as an excuse.

The bulldozers resembled the conqueror’s ships coming to colonize a second time and I felt a real desire to portray the lives of those who disappeared.” Helena Maria Viramontes in an interview with La Bloga.

Having no political voice, Chicano communities could not stop the destruction of neighborhoods, displacement of homes, and the isolation of divided East L.A. which followed the freeway construction.

Within the context of the novel, each of the four female protagonists directly experience this isolation and attempt to accommodate for it in their own ways such as joining gangs or returning to religion.

Composed of road blocks and police who enforce curfews that effectively "quarantine" the Chicano community from supposed rabid dogs.

In effect, the Quarantine Authority become the conquerors of the Chicano neighborhood and the embodiment of the stifling isolation that the characters and communities at large felt from the experience.