As time went on there was more fighting due to many problems that arose, like when Mami had to quit her job to care for Raymond. Santiago says, " the more frantic Mami became in her search for the right treatment for Raymond, the more distant papi became, as if we were all wounded in some way that he couldn't help. There were more fights, more arguments, more yelling in the night, more long absences. Until it seemed as if anything would be better than living with these people who hated each other" (129). This shows the reader how traumatic these fights were for Negi and how all of their fighting and papi's long absences affected her and made her not want to be near them anymore because it was just too unbearable.
As Negi grew older she became aware of how her parents relationship differed from the ones that were described on the television soap operas, the radio-novellas and the romantic novels that she read. Santiago says " On the radio, love was different. Men with rich voices, who were always tall and dark, won the hearts of young woman who were always petite and innocent "(194). She liked listening to these stories because it gave her a glimmer of hope that one day she would fall in love and not suffer they way her parents did. " I would rush home from school every day to sit by the radio for hours listening to the romantic tales of woman with names like Mariana and Sofia, and men such as Armando and Ricardo". (194) These stories gave her the ability to escape the constant arguing in her house, because they allowed her to fantasize about the way love was supposed to be.
Then there were the soap operas that also provided her with a different view on true love. "According to the soap opera, someday I would fall in love at first sight, but my love and I would suffer before we could be happy" (194). This shows how Negi believed that the soap operas were in some way describing her life and what would happen to her in the future.
