Julia is the 15-year-old narrator and protagonist of the story. Her parents, Amá and Apa, immigrated from Mexico before their first daughter, Olga, was born. She resents their monotonous, working-class life, and is eager to leave Chicago to go to college and become a famous writer. She wears band t-shirts and loose-fitting, tattered clothes, preferring to spend what little money she can save on books.  

Born into vastly different circumstances, Julia and her parents never see eye to eye and often argue. Sensitive, judgmental, and opinionated, she is unafraid to condemn her family’s traditional ways of thinking, but she nevertheless is deeply affected by their constant criticism when she fails to meet their expectations of a “perfect Mexican daughter.” 

Julia feels Olga’s death acutely, even though the two were not particularly close. When Julia uncovers Olga’s secret affair, and that she was pregnant with a married man’s child, Julia realizes Olga was far from the perfect daughter everyone thought she was. Instead of bringing her solace, this discovery only angers Julia and makes her resent Olga for dying with such a harmful secret, leaving Julia in her shadow. 

Julia struggles with undiagnosed anxiety and depression, which the author reveals through her thoughts.