Overview
In this episode of Diaz's work, the narrator and his friend, Cut, are drug dealers living in a poor neighborhood.  They deal drugs to “a lot of kids and some older folks who haven’t had a job or a haircut since the last census” (51). They are small time dealers but do well enough to drive around in a Pathfinder.   The narrator has a girlfriend named Aurora who is addicted to drugs.  She recently spent time in juvenile detention.  Their relationship is more distant since she came out.

Analysis
The narrator stays with his drug-addicted girlfriend, Aurora, even though their relationship has changed: “We were tighter before she got sent to juvie, much tighter” (54).  She focuses more on her drug habit than on her boyfriend.  She longs for his affection especially when they were separated but her longing is not as strong as her addiction.  Nothing is as strong as her addiction.  Her boyfriend stays with her because he still has feelings for her.  Her drug habit comes between them and they make the best of it.  Diaz’s use of plot is ironic because he is a drug dealer.  The narrator sees the effects of drugs on both sides.  He benefits from other people’s dependency.  But drugs also hurt him because Aurora’s addiction interferes with their relationship.  They don’t spend much time together because she goes away to the Hacienda to be around her drug addicted friends.  Still, he imagines a different ending to their story: “I’d put my arm around her and I wouldn’t let her go for like fifty years, maybe not ever.  I know people who quit just like that, who wake up one day with bad breath and say, No more.  I’ve had enough” (61).  He wants her to quit but he doesn’t know how to make her stop.  As a dealer he knows how to supply addiction but not how to stop it.  He wants to hold on to the past because he hasn’t accepted the fact that their lives have changed.  He doesn’t want change in his life and to let her go would allow change.  Even Cut advises him to cut his losses: “Stay away from her, Cut said.  Luck like that don’t get better.  No sweat, I said.  You know I got the iron will.  People like her got addictive personalities.  You don’t want to be catching that” (63).  Cut sees that their relationship is headed for disaster and that his friend is turning a blind eye to it.  He gives him advice so that he can really think about the troubled path he is on with Aurora.  Although he does not supply her with drugs, he does nothing to help her beat the habit.  In this way he is ignoring the problem and living the fantasy of a normal relationship.  He supplies to people just like her but doesn’t make the connection.   He helps destroy the lives of other people and does nothing to help his girlfriend who is destroying her own life.

Questions
1) Why is the main character’s name left out? Is this a novel or a group of stories?
2) How do the tone and content of Diaz’s work differ from other Latino writers we have read?