The Times They Are A Changin' - Yoli Grows Up Right Before Our Eyes

     Motorcycle on the Sea of Tranquility gives us deep and insightful perpesctive into the Chicano experience.  This story isn’t so much about fighting as it is about loving.       Oquei, Chuy leaves the scene, both physically and emotionally, but in the middle of the night as he terrorizes the whole neighbourhood with his Harley Chopper,  he  seems to wake up a spirit in his little sister. 

Yoli is  almost 15 and  she sees herself as a writer.  Where other girls her age are busy talking about boys and makeup, Yoli has her journal out and is considering the wanderlust spirit she was born with.  She thinks about her father “searching for his El Dorado, a wife and pile of kids in tow.  She thinks about her brother blasting down the highway, and she feels that same  spirit of freedom and wonder tingling between her legs.

     Through Yoli, Santana takes us on a bumpy ride through the Chicano experience of her youth.  And it’s not all that  pretty.  First, and foremost, there is little chance to escape the oppressive role of women in Mexican culture -  Yoli doesn’t even have to leave the house.  Her father dominates her mother and makes the decisions for his daughters.  Her brothers mistreat, abuse and discard some of her closest friends.  Yoli, herself, is hot for a guy named Francisco Valdivia, but if she makes the first move, she knows what she will be labelled as.   How ironic is it that in a time where a man takes his first steps on the moon, the chicana woman is can’t approach a man without being called a puta.

     But with pain, there is growth.   As the legend of Chuy storms toward a violent forboding climax Yoli develops a quiet sense confidence and  independent thought.   What a surprise! In the end, it’s little sister Yoli who steps up to meet the needs of her cowering older brother.  Like  the journey of the moon, Santana’s story comes full circle.  We see at the end of the book that Yoli is ready for her quinceñera.  She is already a woman with secret knowledge and a broken heart.