Arturo is the dynamic protagonist and first-person narrator of the novel. He is a Mexican American adolescent whose family has recently immigrated to the US. He lives in a Los Angeles barrio with his family.

In charting Arturo’s journey, Any Small Goodness functions as a bildungsroman—or coming-of-age—novel. Throughout the novel, Arturo must come to form his own identity, striking a balance between his Mexican heritage and American culture. In the novel’s beginning, Arturo defines himself within the context of a larger family tradition: “My name’s Arturo, ‘Turo’ for short. For my father, and my grandfather, and his father, back and back” (7). However, when starting school, Arturo hopes to separate himself from his family and create a new, distinctly American self, aligned with stereotypical American individualism. When Miss Pringle changes his name to “Arthur,” Arturo rolls with it, until he overhears Abuelita’s grief and realizes that he’s taken it a step too far. Ultimately, Arturo settles somewhere in the middle of these two extremes: embracing his Mexican identity but also allowing himself to take on some aspects of American life. For instance, Arturo speaks in pocho, an English-Spanish mix that honors both linguistic traditions, emphasizing

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