The First Rule of Punk

Malú’s father has come over to Malú’s mom’s place; Malú greets her dad enthusiastically. Malú’s mom has been knitting, which Malú deems a “a bad omen,” as the scarf Malú’s mom is working on “only appears when Mom’s stressed about something” (14).

Malú and her dad pick up dinner from DaVinci’s, their favorite spot, and go back to her father’s record store. Her dad’s dog, Marti, named after Cuban poet José Marti, welcomes them home. Malú offers that her father’s store, Spins & Needles, “wasn’t just a record store; it was [Malú’s] second home. Dad had owned it for as long as [Malú] could remember. He lived in the apartment upstairs” (16). She adds that she loves listening to records at the store with her father, and especially loves when people gather to watch bands perform:

The air would hang warm and heavy, and sometimes there wouldn’t even be room to pogo because the store would be so packed. The energy of the band and the crowd made [Malú] feel like there were hyper butterflies inside [her]. The music would flow through the store like a magic carpet inviting me to hop on for a ride (16).

Malú’s dad puts on The Smiths and the two of them dance. Afterward, Malú finds an album in the “NEW (USED) ARRIVALS” bin that she’s drawn to (17). The female singer on the cover has on lots of makeup, making her, to Malú, look like “a little scary, like an angry witch, but also kind of pretty” (17). Malú asks her Dad if she can make herself up in a similar manner; Malú’s father tells Malú to ask her mom.

Malú offers that she doesn’t want to move—that she’s almost 13 years old and is perplexed as to why she can’t stay in Florida with her dad. Malú’s dad takes out a shoe box from behind the counter; inside, there are gifts for Malú, ahead of her move. The first part of the gifts is “six tiny dolls that looked like stick figures, with ink dots for eyes and mouths” (20). Malú’s father says that they are “worry dolls […] [y]ou put them under your pillow when you go to bed, then tell them your worries, and they take them away while you sleep” (21). Malú’s dad also offers Malú his old Walkman and a mix tape he’s made for her.

After dinner, Malú and her dad watch The Wizard of Oz upstairs. Malú is fearful about the move, but her dad reminds her of what the first rule of punk is: to be one’s self.

Malú and her mom arrive in Chicago. The two were “supposed to live on campus in family housing […] but there were no apartments available, so someone in the English department helped Mom find [their] place” (25). Malú describes the apartment as being “furnished in that generic way homes in furniture catalogs are” (25). Malú picks the smaller bedroom, which has more windows. The room’s walls are “a pale green that remind[s] [Malú] of the hospital room where [she] recovered after [she] had [her] appendix taken out” (25).

Suddenly panicked by the room’s bare walls and the full realization that this is her new home, Malú takes out her zine-making supplies from her backpack and sets to work. Malú’s mom comes in and suggests they take a walk and find something to eat. On the way out, they meet their across-the-hall neighbor, Oralia Bernal, an elderly Mexican American woman. Readers learn that Malú’s mom’s name is Magaly Morales, and that Malú’s full name is María Luisa, which she doesn’t like going by.

Malú says hi to Oralia; in turn, Oralia walks over and takes Malú’s hands in her own. Oralia has on “glittery purple” nail polish, and her hands are “brown, darker than [Malú’s], and covered in faint wrinkles that made them look like paper bags someone had balled up and then tried to smooth out” (28). Oralia says to stop by, should Malú or her mother need anything.

As Malú and her mother go to find food, the reader learns that Malú despises cilantro and that she’s secretly nervous about the first day of school. Malú’s mom speaks of the surplus of art and culture that Chicago has to offer, but Malú is skeptical.

Malú and her mom spend the week exploring Chicago: They go to Lake Michigan, the Field Museum, and the public library, among other places. Malú spots the record store her father had mentioned but doesn’t go in, saying that “it felt too weird to think about being in someone else’s record store” (32).

Malú and her mom go to a neighborhood coffee shop called Calaca; the name of the shop is a Spanish colloquialism for a skull or skeleton used as decoration during the Day of the Dead festival. The shop’s front window is “decorated with colorful skulls, marigolds, and dancing skeletons” (32). The shop’s interior is decorated with “a life-sized papier-mâché skeleton that looked like Frida Kahlo,” and there is a “skeleton monkey […] perched in her bony arms” (33). Malú likes that Kahlo “painted about herself and her life and that she was outspoken,” claiming that Kahlo was “pretty punk rock” (33).

The shop’s owner, Ana Hidalgo, turns out to be Oralia Bernal’s daughter; Ana has pink hair and lots of tattoos. Ana’s son, José (who goes by Joe), will be starting 7th grade at José Guadalupe Posada Middle School (JGP), just as Malú is. Malú orders vegetarian breakfast tacos made with Soyrizo and reiterates how much she misses Florida.

The chapter’s text concludes with Malú in her room, later that night, grabbing the worry dolls her dad gave her and placing them under her pillow:

I didn’t really believe that six tiny stick figures had magical powers that could take away my worries. Still, I lifted my pillow and lined them up in a row underneath. I turned off the light and climbed into bed. Then I buried my face into the pillow so that Mom wouldn’t hear me crying (39).

The chapter closes with a one-page collage; in the center of it, are the words “WORRIED? ME?” surrounded by pictures of the worry dolls and the aspects of Malú’s life that she’s worried about.