Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna

Dobbs uses both Petra’s narration and her active choices to demonstrate how deeply she values her family and prioritizes their safety and protection. Throughout the story, Petra loves them in both word and deed. Every person Petra mentions in her narration in the first two pages of the text—Pablo, Mamá, Papá, and Amelia—is a member of her family—establishing early on that Petra’s family is her highest concern. Amid the chaos of the Mexican Revolution, Petra becomes a guardian to her young siblings: “protecting Amelia and Luisito [has] been [her] main concern since Mamá’s passing” (24). The fact that Petra is still mourning the loss of both her parents—her mother to a difficult birth and her father to the Federal Army—emphasizes their importance in her life. Though her mother has been dead for a year at the outset of the novel, Petra still struggles to talk or even think about her, as “[her] heart [is] still too raw” (14). The acute grief she feels from the loss of her parents makes her even more determined to keep the rest of her family close and safe.

Petra’s commitment to keeping an important promise to her Papá, vowing to “take care of Amelia, Luisito, and…Abuelita” as her father is being dragged off by the Federales, is further evidence that family is deeply important in her life, and that love is shown through active care and protection.