62 pages • 2 hours read
Celia C. PerezTumble
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 31-39Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 31 Summary
Manny takes Addie around downtown Esperanza. He talks about Pancho not always being home for the holidays and how confusing it was when he did join them, because Mateo would cry for days when Pancho left again. Addie wonders if it would have been better for the Bravo boys not to have a son at all. Manny asserts he can’t change anything about the past but is trying his best now, and Addie shuts down the conversation, afraid to talk about how she really feels about his absences.
Addie and Manny shop and come across a man selling poems. Manny attempts to buy one for Addie, but when he is unable to answer the poet’s questions about what Addie is like, he gets embarrassed and storms off. Later that night, Manny apologizes to Addie for his behavior. He talks about what it was like, growing up with Pancho; whenever Pancho was around, everything was about training and wrestling, and the boys were happy to do so, to make him proud. Things changed after Speedy died; it was the first time Manny saw Pancho cry, and the family seemed to crumble after that. Addie understands that Manny was hurting, but she is tired of “adults being so busy thinking about themselves […] that they couldn’t see when they were hurting someone else” (299). Manny apologizes for not being around to help with the play and promises to be there for it on Thursday.
Chapter 32 Summary
Addie and the twins are working on school assignments. Addie has decided to create a pantheon using her own family for her mythology project when Mateo comes in dressed in drag. He invites the girls to come with him; when Addie demurs, as she is waiting for Manny, Maggie points out no one knows when Manny will be back. Mateo sees that this hurts Addie and commiserates with her, telling her about his experience of waiting for Pancho the same way; with him, too, wrestling was an obsession, and everything else a distraction.
Mateo knows it isn’t easy to hear, but he wants Addie to know the truth about the Bravos. He explains how growing up without a father whose approval they were always hungering for—and then becoming young fathers themselves—was not easy for Manny or Speedy. Mateo doesn’t think Addie should be waiting around for things to change; this is what Mateo did, choosing what he loves instead of wrestling just as a way to be close to his father. As Mateo leaves, Addie thinks about what he said and realizes that, along with her father, one of the things that had been missing from her life so far was choice.
Chapter 33 Summary
Brandon sprains his ankle shortly before the show, and a horrified Cy panics about the production. The two of them, with Gus and Addie, brainstorm about what to do, and come up with no ideas. As Brandon and Cy leave, Gus claims Brandon is lucky, as he won’t have worms dumped over him now. Addie claims she has an alternate idea; she asks Gus to keep the worms ready for Friday, and although it is after the show, she asks him to trust her anyway.
Chapter 34 Summary
On the day of the show, the seventh graders get ready, and Addie peeks out from backstage, trying to catch a glimpse of her family. Cy checks if she is ready and thanks Addie for being the best friend in the world, as the show wouldn’t be possible without her.
The play opens, and as the scene of the final battle arrives, Cy as the referee announces that the main event is a championship battle for Marie’s heart; Addie, as Marie, shows the audience the championship belt to be won, modeled after Rosie’s. Cy announces the Mouse King and the Nutcracker, and Gus and Brandon enter, the latter on crutches. As they wrestle, Addie slips away to tie on Rosie’s old wrestling cape and a red mask she borrowed from Mateo.
Just as the Nutcracker appears to be losing the match, a masked Addie enters, pulling off a shoot. She fights both the Nutcracker and the Mouse King, and feels a rush when she hears the crowd cheering for her, truly understanding why her family enjoys being in the ring. Addie finishes the match as the sole victor, defeating both the Nutcracker and the Mouse King, and a masked Marie claims the championship belt to thunderous applause.
Chapter 35 Summary
Lourdes and Alex congratulate Addie after the show. The Bravos arrive too, praising Addie, and Pancho tells Addie that she reminded him of a wrestler he once knew named “La Rosa Salvaje.” However, Addie is heartbroken to discover that Manny is not with them; he had to go out of town to meet with someone about a job. Rosie tries to console Addie, saying Manny will return later that night and will have breakfast with her the next morning. Despite this, Addie is furious that Manny didn’t follow through on his promise, or even call or message her himself.
Addie asks Rosie if she ever tires of apologizing for the people in her family. Rosie notes that she can’t control what her family does; if she could, Addie would have always been in her life, despite Manny and Lourdes’s breakup. While she admires Lourdes for keeping her word about cutting ties with Manny, Rosie acknowledges that what Lourdes did was also selfish, keeping Addie from the rest of the family. Rosie tells Addie she is proud of her and gives her the wrestling cape to keep for good.
Chapter 36 Summary
Manny arrives at the diner the next morning. He reveals that he had a meeting about a new job that will give him a chance at the belt, but in Delaware. He tells a shocked Addie that although he had originally planned to stay, he cannot give up such an opportunity; even Pancho has given him his blessing. An upset Addie asks why Manny isn’t asking for her blessing, and whether he even cares about the adoption or wanting to be her father. Manny claims he does, but reveals that he won’t even be back for Christmas, as he doesn’t know what his schedule will be like; he needs to be willing to do anything for the belt.
Addie realizes that this is all she will ever get from Manny as a father. After Manny leaves, Lourdes comforts Addie and finally tells her the whole story: Manny and Lourdes were childhood sweethearts, with dreams to move to Albuquerque for college and work. Lourdes left, but Manny never joined her, even after they discovered that she was pregnant. Different wrestling opportunities kept coming up, and he kept putting off the move, until he decided he couldn’t give up wrestling. He missed Addie’s birth, and when he asked Lourdes to marry him and move back to Esperanza, she refused, as she had bigger dreams. As Manny’s career grew, he stopped visiting Lourdes and Addie as much. Lourdes finally gave him an ultimatum to stop coming unless he meant to stay, knowing how much it hurt all the Bravo boys to not have Pancho around.
Lourdes never told Addie about Manny, preferring Addie’s ignorance over the knowledge that her father chose wrestling over her. Addie asserts Lourdes should have told her anyway; it should have been Addie’s choice to have Manny in her life or not. Lourdes agrees and apologizes. Addie decides that she doesn’t feel ready to make a decision about the adoption yet, and Lourdes accepts this. Addie claims that a positive that has come out of her Esperanza visits is that she was also able to learn more about her mother. They cry together.
Chapter 37 Summary
On the Friday before winter break, Addie turns in her mythology project: a poster board collage of the New Mexican sky and landscape with pictures of everyone in her immediate, extended, and chosen family, including the Bravos, Alex, Marlene, and Cy, arranged to resemble the Greek pantheon. On the back are index cards spelling out short family myths Addie created based off different family members.
Addie also distributes invitations to all the seventh graders for the first meeting of the “F.A.C.E.S” club: “For Action, Care, and Equality in School” (341), named after the “babyfaces” in wrestling, the stereotypical heroes. It is an activism club, and the first order of business is burying the earthworms and giving them a proper funeral. Addie directs her classmates to Gus’s library display on animal cruelty for more information. Once they are back from the break, Addie proposes the club demand more information about where their lab creatures come from and work toward alternatives for dissection.
As the group disperses, Gus admits this wasn’t a bad idea. He reveals that his father works for the government, necessitating constant relocation, and so he has never made any friends. Cy and Addie point out that what makes things harder is not letting people be your friends. They teasingly come up with a nickname for Gus: “Gusano,” which means worm in Spanish, and Addie notices Gus smile as he walks away.
Chapter 38 Summary
Addie heads to the historical society after school and donates the photograph of Rosie and her wrestling cape to its archives, revealing to Rudy that Rosie is her grandmother. Since the space collects items related to local history, Addie insists Rosie be included, too: She was not only a wrestler, but also an important part of the Bravos’ story, and now contributes to local culture by creating the tumbleweed statues. Rudy states he would be honored to display the items, suggesting that Addie would make a good archivist.
Chapter 39 Summary
On Christmas morning, after opening gifts, Addie, Lourdes, Alex, and Marlene head to the tumbleweed snowman; Cy can’t make it, as she is out of town. As Alex sets up the camera, Rosie and the rest of the Bravos—except for Manny—arrive, with Hijo and Carter in tow. To Addie’s delight, they are all in matching sweaters. As the twins greet Addie, she watches Lourdes welcome Rosie and Pancho, a mixed expression on her face; Addie knows it must have been hard for Lourdes to invite them but is glad to see her mother evolving.
Mateo gives Addie a Christmas gift: a mask commissioned by Manny, painted in the colors of the New Mexican landscape and decorated with stars, tumbleweeds, and cacti. Addie puts on the mask, and everyone gathers to take the photograph. Addie reflects on how anyone watching them would believe them to be a family.
Chapters 31-39 Analysis
The final chapters resolve a number of questions, even as others remain unanswered and incomplete; the show, and Manny’s decision, are two of the major events that contribute to this. With Brandon injuring himself, the group is forced to think of an alternative ending to the play, and they introduce an unscripted moment involving Addie, as “Marie,” entering the ring. The rush that Addie feels on stage allows her to truly understand her family’s passion for wrestling; in this moment, she really feels like a Bravo, underlining the themes of Understanding Identity vis-à-vis Family and The Weight of Family Expectations and Legacy. She honors her paternal family’s tradition of performing and storytelling, and even manages to do so through wrestling.
However, the high from the performance is countered by the heartbreak of Manny’s absence, once again. This is something that the story has been building up to. When Addie and Manny go out Christmas shopping, it becomes painfully evident that, despite the number of opportunities they have had to spend time together, Manny has not really made an effort to get to know his daughter. This is emphasized by the fact that he is unable to describe who Addie is to the poet at the market. Later, he offers a justification by way of an apology, even as he asserts that he is not making excuses: Manny once again talks about how it affected him to not have Pancho around growing up.
By this point in their relationship, Addie is able to recognize that Manny having been hurt is not an excuse for him to be hurting her, even if inadvertently. She is tired of the adults in her life only thinking about themselves, and this extends to both of her biological parents. Later, she confronts Lourdes, too, about how Manny’s presence in her life ought to have been her choice, not Lourdes’s.
This is an idea reinforced by the conversations Addie has with Mateo, Manny’s brother. Despite their similar upbringing, they make very different choices in life. Mateo chose to walk away from wrestling, because he understood that it was a futile effort in getting closer to their father. Instead, he chose to do what he loves: sewing. Manny, on the other hand, immerses himself further into the wrestling world in hopes of winning his father’s approval, without seeing how it affects his relationships. Mateo’s and Manny’s stories, in context of each other, demonstrates how The Weight of Family Expectations and Legacy can indeed be a heavy burden, but it need not be binding or life-defining.
Manny ultimately makes the choice to leave Esperanza again—a decision he reveals to Addie the day after he misses her show. Addie realizes that this is the extent of engagement she can expect from Manny as a father. Having seen the truth, Addie finally understands Lourdes’s concerns, and Lourdes tells her the rest of the story about how she and Manny grew apart. The conversation that follows allows Addie to point out Lourdes’s blind spots about Manny and also acknowledge that, despite the disappointment, Esperanza was an important journey for Addie: It allowed her to learn about her parents’ history, underlining the theme of Understanding Identity vis-à-vis Family. She also knows now that some things are more complicated than they appear and decides to hold off on deciding about the adoption.
The importance of having a choice is showcased in this instance, as well as throughout others in the final set of chapters. The unscripted moment that allows the show to go on involves not just “Marie” entering the ring, but also winning the supposed battle for her heart. It is a moment of empowerment, displaying how a character that otherwise is only a bystander can affect the outcome of their lives if they so choose. Significantly, Addie wears Rosie’s cape and Mateo’s mask when she wrestles as Marie, honoring two members of the Bravo family who exercised their agency of choice: Rosie, by choosing to view her life as a fulfilling one despite the sacrifices she made, and Mateo, by picking a different direction than the one expected of him. Using Storytelling to Subvert Social Norms is carried over into Addie’s mythology project as well, where she reimagines her family as a pantheon in their own right, again blending different forms of storytelling: history, mythology, and wrestling.
Besides her personal history, Addie also makes efforts to rewrite past history and future events. Her first impression of the Bravos’ family room was that it resembled a museum, albeit one that told a story that erased its women. Addie rectifies this by donating Rosie’s cape and photograph to the historical society. She believes that Rosie is an important part of the Bravos’ history and ought to be displayed and remembered. Addie also ensures that things are done differently in the future with respect to her school when she founds the “F.A.C.E.S” club, to Gus’s satisfaction.
In this way, different threads in Addie’s story are neatly tied up, while others are left open for interpretation or future resolution. The play is over, the issue of the earthworms is resolved, and Addie knows who her father really is—and what really happened between her parents. At the same time, there is tentativeness about Manny’s continued engagement in her life, especially with him traveling again. There is also ambiguity about whether Addie will approve of Alex’s adoption of her or not. Regardless, Addie’s family is expanding. In addition to her sibling, who will be arriving soon, Addie accepts the Bravos permanently into her life. When Lourdes invites the Bravos to this year’s family Christmas photograph, it indicates that she is willing to move forward and allow Addie to choose who she considers family and who she wants to be in her life from that point forward. As she poses for the picture with them, Addie cannot help but reflect on how, in their myriad, complicated ways, all these people are still undoubtedly her family.
