Readers typically want a happy ending in any novel. Their Dogs Came with Them Viramontes demonstrates why a happy ending may not be possible. Cuevas, in her study of Viramontes' work, suggests that happy endings do not always occur for Latinas, and queer Latinas. People in these communities do not overcome disparities and systems of oppression, and violence. Similarly, Pattison suggests that people in urban communities are deprived of their political connections to the space and erasure of memory sites. Communities are sacrificed in the name of urban expansion.[20]
Viramontes’ novel showcases the 1960s freeway construction in East Los Angeles in which Mexican American sites of cultural memory were permanently erased. The author emphasizes the traumatic relationship between the characters and their disappearing community. In the novel Viramontes focuses on the Chicano movement that the young characters joined during a time in which the freeway threatened the erasure of their community and culture.[21] She also creates a space to imagine Latina futures from a broken ground, unredeemed past or non-redemptive history.[22] She maps the lives of four Latinas who navigate personal and political unrest with their communities while emphasizing how Chicanas and queer-Latinas have been an integral part of Chicana/o history. Her character's identities are intertwined with their communities through the imagery and metaphors of their bodies. She is able to articulate positive and negative dynamics within their neighborhood during the turbulent time of the freeway construction.[23]
