Quote 19
Out back is a small garage for the car we don't own yet and a small yard that looks smaller between the two buildings on either side. […] The house has only one washroom. Everybody has to share a bedroom – Mama and Papa, Carlos and Kiki, me and Nenny. (1.5)
The description of the Cordero family's new home contains clues about their economic status – the smallness of the house, not really big enough for a family of six, tells us that the family is poor.
Quote 20
You live there? The way she said it made me feel like nothing. There. I lived there. I nodded. (1.10)
Esperanza feels judged by the nun from her school. It's all in the intonation – the way she says the word "there" tells Esperanza that there's something wrong with her home.
Quote 21
Cathy's father will have to fly to France one day and find her great great distant grand cousin on her father's side and inherit the family house. How do I know this is so? She told me so. In the meantime they'll just have to move a little farther north from Mango Street, a little farther away every time people like us keep moving in. (5.4)
When Esperanza lets us know that her only source of information about Cathy's noble heritage is Cathy herself, we know we have reason to doubt the story. Why does Cathy feel it's so important to claim an aristocratic, European heritage?