How Tia Lola Came to (Visit) Stay

As the summer continues, Tía Lola tells the children more stories about their Dominican relatives, including an uncle who fell in love with a magical ciguapa. When the children explore the attic with Tía Lola, Miguel finds photographs of Colonel Charlebois as a boy on a baseball team. The colonel is the Guzmáns’ landlord. To Miguel’s surprise, the elderly man says that he would be honored to have the team practice in the fields around the farmhouse. Miguel’s teammates come over to play baseball every day. They choose Miguel to be their captain, and he names Tía Lola the team’s manager because she makes them delicious Dominican smoothies and tells them stories about Dominican baseball players.

One day, Tía Lola paints the house purple to match the colorful homes in the Dominican Republic. Mami is afraid that Colonel Charlebois will evict them, but Tía Lola assures her that she has the situation under control. A few days later, the colonel leaves a message in their mailbox: “Unless the house is back to its original white by the end of the month, you are welcome to move out” (100). Although she loves the house’s new color, Mami feels that their only option is to restore the bland white paint.