Throughout then novel, food serves as a motif for The Importance of Family and Community Support. The Guzmáns’ first experiences of community in Vermont take place at Rudy’s Restaurant: “‘Welcome Wagon Special,’ he calls it, ‘Three meals for the price of one and you guys teach me some Spanish’” (4). As the special’s name illustrates, the meals Rudy gives the Guzmáns are not only sustenance but also a show of support and an invitation into community.

The motif of food increases in prominence with Tía Lola’s arrival. She takes on most of the cooking for the family—one of the key ways that she helps Mami and takes care of the children. At various moments in the novel, Alvarez suggests the possibility that Tía Lola’s cooking has magical properties, adding an element of magical realism to the narrative. In Chapter 4, Tía Lola prepares several Dominican dishes for her great-nephew, such as quipes and empanaditas de queso, and Miguel becomes convinced that the “special magic rations in his lunchbox” give him good luck (53). Miguel and Tía Lola’s conversations about her food lead to one of the novel’s most significant pieces of dialogue: “Everything is magic if made with love” (53).