Motif: The Subway
The motif of subway travel represents the transience of Xiomara's life. Her life is in the process of changing in many ways (her relationship with religion, her family, poetry, school, etc.) and nothing feels permanent, just like how subways are constantly moving from place to place, never staying for long. The subway reflects Xiomara's life as she goes through frequent changes.
Symbol: Xiomara's Notebook
Xiomara's notebook is a symbol for her dreams for the future. It contains all of her poems that she writes in her spare time and symbolizes her new identity as a poet and the future that she wants to cultivate for herself, even though that culture and identity is different than what her family might want for her.
Symbol: Scarred Knuckles
Xiomara says of her mother, "I look at her scarred knuckles. / I know exactly how she was taught / faith" (17). The ravaged knuckles symbolize the corporeal punishment her mother received in order to ingrain religious teachings within her. They are a scar, a mark of violence that symbolizes the oftentimes brutal nature of Christianity (Catholicism in particular).
Symbol: Mami catching (or not catching) Xiomara
Xiomara remembers being a child and playing ninjas with her brother. At one point, her mother came home and she leapt into the air, expecting to be caught. She admits she does not remember if her mother caught her or not, but either way would be symbolic: if her mother caught her, then it would be clear that even when Xiomara was doing something her mother disapproved of, she would still ultimately catch her daughter (literally and figuratively), but if her mother did not catch her, then it would symbolize her mother's disinclination to tolerate improper behavior from her wild daughter. The fact that Acevedo leaves this open to the reader and that both examples seem plausible reinforces the nuanced nature of Mami's character.
Motif: Music
Clearly poetry is the central art form of the text, but music is a powerful motif as well. It is what Xiomara loves as a young woman and first gets her into writing, it is what she and Aman first bond over, it inflects the poetry of Isabelle, and it permeates the text in smaller ways as well, such as Xiomara writing a paper about rapper Nicki Minaj. Music allows people to think and feel; it is often cathartic simply to listen to music and to know there is someone out there that is saying what one feels deep in their own soul. Xiomara hopes that her poetry will be able to do the same thing for people.
