The No-Guitar Blues

“That afternoon Fausto knew his mission in life: to play guitar in his own band; to sweat out his songs and prance around the stage; to make money and dress weird.”

This sentence encapsulates Fausto’s motivation—to grow up and start a successful rock band, his version of the American dream. Seeing Los Lobos on American Bandstand is the inciting incident that sets the story into motion, and Fausto is characterized here by his desire to become a successful musician. Soto uses unusual verbs like “sweat” and “prance” to create rock-star imagery.

“And besides, they hated rock music. They were into the conjunto music of Lydia Mendoza, Flaco Jimenez, and Little Joe and La Familia. And, as Fausto recalled, the last album they bought was The Chipmunks Sing Christmas Favorites.”

Soto uses allusions here to develop the story’s world and Fausto’s background as a Mexican American youth. While many parents hate rock music, Fausto says that the soundtrack to his daily life is conjunto, a type of Mexican folk music, developing his specific context. Ironically, guitars also feature strongly in conjunto music, so these comments by Fausto foreshadow his parents’ understanding of his desire to play guitar and eventually giving him the guitarrón.

“‘I can’t promise,’ she said turning back to her tortillas, ‘but we’ll see.’”

Fausto’s mother gives him a noncommittal answer after he asks for a guitar, and the response of “we’ll see”—familiar to many children and teens—creates a quotidian dynamic. This everyday exchange blends with the more specific cultural imagery of his mother rolling tortillas to create a sense of