-Understanding Meaning #1-6
1. The accident is minor and not serious at all.

2. The diver of the van insists on calling the police because the van is a company car, and he needs a report that says the accident was not his fault.

3. This incident is dangerous for Pérez because he has no identification or license to prove he is a legal citizen of the United States. Because of this fact, he could get deported to Mexico.

4. Pérez attempts to preven the van driver from summoning the police by saying that he will pay for the damage.

5. Pérez answering the Chicano patrolman in Spanish is not an accident because he knows that the policeman is of Mexican descent. Since he knows this, he feels as though his Spanish will be understood by the officer. …show more content…
Pérez advances the narrative by using dialouge to give a more natural flow to the story and to give the reader a chance to feel the conflict between characters. Direct quotes are definitely more effective than paraphrases because they provide a direct outlet for a reader to become apart of the story. This connection occurs because the reader begins to understand the personalities of the various characters and he or she feels apart of the conversations within the story. With paraphrasing a reader gets the basic facts of what happened and this valuable connection with the story is lost.

-Appreciating Language #1-2

1. Pérez uses the words "..minor, only a scratch on the paint and a pimple-sized dent" (73). to minimize the damage caused by the accident.

2. One step away from Mexico, a letter, a forced trip to Tijuana, driver's license, identification jail, and we can report him to Immigration are all word choices and images that stress the importance of paper documents in the lives of aliens.

Pages 77-81 -Understanding Meaning #1, 3-5

1. The fact that nobody in the neighborhood thought to call 911 until well after the death Miss Genovese is what transformed this murder from a local crime story into an event that captured national