42 pages • 1 hour read •
Make Your Home Among Strangers
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Chapter 6-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary
The rally for Ariel Hernandez continues outside the window of the apartment in Little Havana. Lizet reflects on the strangeness of the heat in winter, and recalls a memory of her first moment in snow, wearing flip-flops, startled by how it made her hands and feet burn. She asks Leidy about Roly, and about their father. Leidy says she has talked a few times to their Papi, but Mami always hangs up the phone when she figures out who it is. Lizet asks to go by their old house, but Leidy says the new owners have paved over the grass and filled the lot with SUVs—it isn’t something Lizet will want to see.
Lizet tries to talk to her sister about her troubles at school, but before she can, Leidy points wildly at the TV: Mami is speaking into a microphone about Ariel Hernandez. Leidy grabs Dante and prepares to go find their mother, while Lizet continues listening. “Our mom kept talking. Her voice was too deep—it sounded like a stranger’s” (49). Lizet and Leidy rush out the door into the streets.
Chapter 7 Summary
Lizet and Leidy find their mother outside at the rally and observe her enthusiasm. Later, at dinner, Mami insists his case should be a simple one, but Lizet isn't so sure: “I didn't want to say that what she thought of as the law was probably very much open for debate [...] more complicated than my mom wanted to admit” (52).
Lizet asks where her mother is getting information on the case and Ariel. She argues with Mami and Leidy when her mother doesn't understand the necessity of getting information from reliable sources. The topic reminds Lizet of her own struggle at school to understand how to properly cite a text. She tries to talk about this challenge, but her family doesn't understand that either. She gets into another argument when Leidy and Mami insist she go see Omar, whom Lizet is still dating despite going away to school. Lizet finds their view that the trip is a waste if she doesn’t see Omar upsetting; she wonders if she spent all her money on this trip home for nothing.
Chapter 8 Summary
Lizet reflects on her relationship with Omar, both the reality of it and the way she portrayed it to girls at school. Omar is a supportive boyfriend, and very much in love with her—Lizet knows Leidy is appalled that she would leave a man like Omar behind in Miami—but Lizet has decided to break up with Omar after he responded to her anxiety about the plagiarism hearing by saying “You can always just come home” (60). Lizet struggles with her idea of herself as a Miami girl in love with Omar, versus her idea of herself as a successful professional woman. The two seem mutually exclusive.
At school, Lizet has told her peers that Omar is a monster because “when everyone around you thinks they already know what your life is like, it’s easier to play into that idea” (65). Lizet remembers her last night with Omar in August; they drove onto a golf course to park and have sex, got into an argument after Omar tried to express his feelings, and promptly realized they were stuck in a thick pile of mud.
When Lizet finally calls Omar from the airport in Miami, on her way back to school in New York, he is frustrated that she didn’t visit him but stays on the phone to chat. She promises to call him when she lands. They both know she won’t. Omar wishes her luck at her hearing, in a way that seems sincere.
Chapter 9 Summary
Lizet returns to her dorm and checks her mail. She has a letter from the Dean of Students informing her of her final hearing, scheduled that Monday afternoon. Lizet picks up the phone to call the dean, but strangely gets Omar on the phone instead. They argue, and Lizet hangs up; Omar does not call back as she expects him to, and she becomes angry and morose.
Lizet decides to curl up in her roommate Jillian’s bed and watch Monty Python on her computer, but she doesn’t understand the movie; “I watched the movie two more times, looking for clues to the jokes, for the setups—the warnings I’d missed” (77). Lizet then reflects on meeting another struggling low-income student named Jaquelin at a gathering for students of color. Jaquelin is from Los Angeles, and her mother doesn’t have a green card. Lizet hasn’t seen Jaquelin in a while, but still thinks about her, wondering if “at the very least, I had a better chance than her” (84).
Chapter 10 Summary
Jillian returns to the dorm and immediately asks Lizet about Ariel Hernandez. Lizet is confused that this boy has made national news, and finds herself getting more and more heated the more Jillian talks about him. Lizet finally lashes out, and Jillian responds with, “Don’t get ghetto Liz,” claiming that Lizet is “too connected to the whole thing” (89) to have a clear opinion. Jillian then calls Lizet racist because Lizet suggests that she might have more knowledge about the subject, as a Cuban and a person from Miami; Jillian insists that “people of color can be racist, too” (90) before the girls change the subject.
Chapter 6-10 Analysis
As she prepares to return to Rawlings, Lizet feels conflicted about Omar. She wants to break up with him and has falsely portrayed him to the girls at school as a monster, but she doesn’t sever the relationship, knowing that her family won’t approve and hesitating to cut yet one more tie to home. Lizet lies about Omar as a way of fitting in at school, finding it easier somehow to assimilate into her peers’ racial stereotypes than to represent her life in Miami as it actually is.
These chapters are particularly concerned with ways of knowing: where and how information is validated, who can and cannot have an opinion on a subject, and why, as illustrated in the way people respond to the Ariel Hernandez debate. Lizet finds herself in an argument with Mami about where Mami’s information is coming from, and she feels dubious about her mother’s assertions about the case, most of which Mami bases on information heard the streets of Little Havana. Lizet asks if any reporters have validated the information and immediately finds herself at odds with Mami, who sees Lizet’s questions as a way of telling her that her knowledge is not valid or complete.
Ironically, the situation is flipped back at Rawlings, when Jillian asks questions about Ariel Hernandez using only media-based information. Lizet tries to explain that the case is much more complicated than Jillian believes, but Jillian shuts her down, arguing that she is “too connected to the whole thing” (89) to see it clearly. In the same way that Lizet shut down Mami’s firsthand knowledge back home, Jillian dismisses Lizet’s community-based point of view. In both situations, Lizet feels lost, wondering how to find valid information or form a reliable opinion if neither way of knowing is entirely adequate.
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By Jennine Capó Crucet
