The Madonnas of Echo Park

Chapter 2 is narrated from the perspective of Felicia, Aurora’s mother. Felicia opens with the story of how, as a child, she tried to grow a jacaranda tree in her grandmother’s house in Chavez Ravine, in order to prevent the house from being bulldozed for the LA Dodger’s new baseball stadium. That night, Felicia has a dream wherein she is a blossom drowning underwater. She awakes to find the jacaranda blossoms are drowning, and her grandmother explains, “a drowning flower moves toward the water, not away from it. Its stem may be strong enough to stand on its own, but when its petals grow wet and heavy, they drag the flower back into the water and that causes it to die” (26).

Felicia connects this image to her former employer, Mrs. Calhoun, who surrendered to the sadness surrounding her marriage. Felicia obtained her job as a result of the publicity following a drive-by shooting at a local mercado called El Guanaco. The local Mexican store was featured in Madonna’s music video for “Borderline,” and a group of girls and their mothers gathered to dance outside the location in Madonna-inspired clothing. While the group of mothers and daughters posed for a picture, a gangster opened fire, and 3-year-old