Summary Of We Were Here By Matt De La Pena

Have you ever changed your dreams before? In the book We Were Here by Matt de la Pena, Miguel dreams of escaping from his group home and going to Mexico with his friends. Miguel feels guilty about his brother’s death, even though it was an accident. By him running away he believes that it will help him forget his problems and that his disappearance with be a weight lifted off his mother’s shoulders. But when he arrives to the border, he just can’t do it. He loses a good friend along the way, that alter him into making better decisions. He meets a couple of girls that affects him remarkably in choosing what he must do with his life. With the help of his grandparents, specifically his grandma, he is given reassurance that guide him home. Through

Miguel also meets Mong at the group home as well. Both friends of Miguel’s started off on a rough patch, but soon became close. It was Mong’s idea to flee to Mexico and start a new life away from reality. What hit Miguel the most was when he experienced his friend commit suicide in the ocean. Miguel and Mong the night before were talking about their problems with each other, and Mong mentioned that he didn’t want to live anymore. The next morning Rondell and Miguel notice that Mong was going swimming, and were concerned because he had mentioned before that he could not swim. But they could not save him, because they too were not the best swimmers themselves. After that experience of Mong’s death, it shocked both of the boys. “I had to do just like the marine marching into war. Keep Marching. Don’t think about it. Look at the sand. These are your orders. This is what you’re supposed to do” (194), this shows how the boys felt afterwards, trying to forget their problems and hope that they just go away. Since Mong was the brains of the operation of planning to go to Mexico, the boys were not so sure what the plan was next. This is where the boys probably changed their dream of going to Mexico. Miguel for sure changed his plans right then and there. For Rondell, it took him a little bit longer to try and figure out what exactly

This might also contradict his plans on going to Mexico. Throughout the whole first half of the book, Miguel is a little hesitant on if he should actually follow through with the plan. The next occurrence of Miguel wanting to have a committed relationship was when he meets Flaca. He really liked her a lot and even said that Diego would have even said she was fine. They ended up having a good night together, until Rondell got into a fight. The next day she stood him up and stole all his money. This is where the boys had to figure out how they were going to make money, without stealing. They needed money, so that are able to eat. Right then and there is when Miguel realized stealing was a problem. He would practically rather starve, then to have to steal. He would even regularly feed Rondell more food then himself. Because it was his fault that they got their money stolen. This shows how far along Miguel has come, so far in the book compared to what he was doing before. If he never would have met Flaca, he probably wouldn’t have learned not to steal and to make money on his