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Melissa Wu

10069210
RRJ 4

Summary:
The chapter starts off with the introduction of the bus driver, Efren,
Mendoza, and a brief description of what his job is and what it basically consists of
on a daily basis. His position is a bus operator (BDOF) for the Los Angeles County
Metropolitan Transit Authority. Efren goes on to explain the rules of being allowed
on the bus itself, his salary per hour and what it means to earn that amount and as a
Mexican, the bus fair to ride the bus, and his main job as a bus driver. He states that
his job is to get his passengers from point A to point B and ensure quality and safety
of the ride and his passengers.
Efren then recalls back in his life when his father, Manny Sr., and his spoiled
older brother, Manny Jr., used to mistreat Efren and how he left home and moved
into an abandoned house and tried to live on his own, earning his own money. He
goes on to talk about the many challenges he faces with his passengers during bus
rides and recalls a time when a Mexican guy on his route tried to expose himself to a
Chinese girl who screamed until he got off at the next stop. Instead of being proud
of what she did, the little Chinese girl yelled at Efren saying, Why dont you do
something? Why do you let him on? However, in Efrens defense, he cant get
involved because discriminating against specific riders whom he hasnt witnessed
committing an actual crime firsthand, along with direct confrontation of an assumed
criminal, is a violation of Metro policy. Another policy he mentions that he cant
break is that general conversation is not permitted between Efren and his
passengers. He goes on explaining why he cant converse with them, but when he
does, they are warning signs advising Mexicans and blacks about which stops are
safe for them to get off at.
The major story that Efren tells is of a kid he had to leave in his own blood at
a bus stop. It happened at dusk. A sixteen-year-old kid got on at Washington
Boulevard. He was wearing a Kobe basketball jersey that went to his knees, denim
shorts, and bright toothpaste-white high tops. But, on this route, black kids would
be selling candy bars in nonghetto English. The black kid was selling candy but had
accidentally bumped into a Mexican, which started a ruckus in the back of the bus.
The two began fighting. Eventually, Efren had to pull the bus aside, turn on the
emergency flashers, and kick the black kid out of the bus and leave him at the stop.
The kid ran alongside the bus and began slamming and kicking it. Efren drove to an
intersection, but didnt see the kid in his blind spot. The kid was hit by the bus and
flew 30 feet ahead of the road, cracking his neck against the curb due to the impact.
Efren called 911 and covered the body with a sheet of canvas until the paramedics
and police arrived. The witnesses in the bus began accusing Efren of killing the kid
on purpose. The friends of the dead kid then blamed the Mexican who started the
fight with the friend and began beating him up while also trying to get at Efren as
well. Efren safely locked himself in the bus and drove off with the other passengers.
He dropped the passengers off on the corner of Hoover and Jefferson at a Dennys.
Then, he parked in front of a gas station and shut the bus down. All of a sudden, a
man was pounding on the bus door hoping to get a ride from the driver, but the
driver said that the bus was out of service. Either way, Efren agrees to drive him
and figures out that the passengers name is Freddy. The last thing the chapter
ended with was the two driving away from the gas station.


My Response:
This chapter ties into Felicias and Hectors chapters. From the title itself and the
first descriptive paragraph of Efren of the chapter, I can already assume that it has
to do with Efrens job and what it means by him following the rules of the road. In
chapter 2, Felicia did talk about the bus driver where he would tell her about his
endless brag of following the rules. She thought that he was just like any ordinary
man who wasnt interested in her as a person, but more interested in getting in her
pants. She was the one who learned his name and acted friendly, which caused him
to want to stop the bus early for her and wait for her so she could get on the bus.
This gave Efren the wrong idea. Efrens original thought of Felicia was completely
different than Felicias of him. He thought she was interested in him and began
listing all the things on why she could possibly be so friendly to him so much. Also,
in chapter 2 Felicia told Efren that she cleaned the house on Avalon and he drove
her there with the bus. Upon leaving the bus, Felicia asked Efren for a discount for
bus rides and extra time in order to get on the bus. That is when Efren realized that
Felicia was being really nice only because she was using him to get things from him.
So, Efren got her back by making her pay for children on the bus when she didnt
need to pay for them.
My initial thoughts on who would be the narrator of the story went straight
to either Aurora herself or a family member related to her since the whole book is
about Aurora. I was confused as to why a bus driver was the narrator and what his
importance was in this chapter especially. I immediately thought that his relevance
in this chapter had to do something with one of the other narrators lives and that an
action he made consequently led to something else later in the book. This whole
chapter had me wondering why there were such major conflicts between Mexican
and black people. In this chapter, there is a fight between a black kid and a Mexican.
There seems to be a major problem between all the ethnic groups but out of ones in
Echo Park, the Caucasians seem to get the least messed around with, while the black
and Mexican people are the most messed around with. Because things were getting
tense in the fight, Efren felt himself possibly getting into danger and decided to do
something in order to make the situation better. He threw off the black kid instead
of the Mexican kid because the number of Mexicans on the bus outnumbered the
black kids. If he threw off the Mexican kid, he would end up getting beat in the fight.
He was only trying to do things to save his self despite putting others in danger.
Im left to wonder who this Freddy guy is that Efren the bus driver picked
up. What does Efren mean by, I would learn a new set of rules. ? I would find
another way home? at the end of the chapter? I also wondered why it was very
difficult for a Mexican to find work and earn minimum wage say compared to a
Caucasian. As hard as it was for Mexican women to find work, it was just as difficult
or more difficult for Mexican men to find a safe job. The title of the chapter, Rules
of the Road, had me originally thinking that would continue on from the previous
chapter about to do with something that happened on the bus Felicia was on. But at
the end of chapter 3, a bus comes to pick her up. Then, the narrator changes, which
means the story doesnt continue with Felicias.
There was another incident that dealt with Efren and another colleague. She
must have dated him and also broke some rules, just like he did. The major event
between them was that one day on their shift, she brought along her children
instead of getting a babysitter. Efren dumped her because of that, reported her, and
indirectly had her fired from her job. What is strange is that the bus driver believes
he follows the rules and always follows the rules if they can be used to his
advantage.
When the incident of the death of the African American kid occurs, a group of
people, who were witnesses, kept yelling that the bus driver killed the African
American kid. They said that they got it on video, but the bus driver said he didnt
see the kid because the kid was in his blind spot. Efren was afraid of getting caught
and afraid of getting into trouble with more people that he decided to leave the
crime scene.

Reading Process
This particular reading was very confusing. I kept wondering why there
would be a chapter on a bus driver. I was distracted by the fact that on this bus,
there was a fight between a black kid and a Mexican and the black kid ended up
getting kicked off the bus and the Mexican getting beaten up by the black kids
friends anyways. It made me understand that the racial difference between the two
did create a large amount of hostility towards one another. It made me understand
that crime and gang violence was an issue in Echo Park. I remembered that near the
middle of the chapter, Efren was not allowed to converse with his passengers, but he
did mention that some of the times that he did converse were to warn black and
Mexican people not to stop at certain bus locations because they werent safe. It
made me understand that not every place was safe in Echo Park. There were still
places that proved to be more dangerous than others. I also began to wonder
whether the black kids death from being hit by the bus has any significance to later
on in the book and whether the bus driver will be charged with anything based on
the outcome of the death. All the chapters connect in some way or back to other
characters stories in previous chapters. Near the end of the chapter, the African
American that gets thrown off the bus is killed, but the truck that cuts off Efren from
hitting him happened to have Hector and Tenant in it. Hectors chapter at the
beginning of the book mentions their truck running straight through the red light
while also trying to avoid a bus driver that was to hit him if he didnt make a quick
move. And another example would be of Efren mentioning courting a cleaning lady
and talking to her about a lot of things back in Chapter 2 that ties into his own
chapter in chapter 4.


Discussion Questions:
1. Why would Efren agree to pick up Freddy even if it was Efrens job to take
passengers?
2. What made Freddy change Efrens mind?
3. Is there an underlying message to his answer? What is the coincidence that
the two met at the gas station at the same time?
4. Why does he follow the rules throughout most of the chapter, but then he
doesnt at the end?


3-5 Good Words:
3 good words I chose were velour, qualms, and itinerant. The definition of velour is:
A plush woven fabric resembling velvet, chiefly used for soft furnishings, casual
clothing, and hats. It is also a noun. The definition of qualms is: An uneasy feeling of
doubt, worry, or fear, especially about ones own conduct; a misgiving. It is also a
noun. The definition of itinerant is: traveling from place to place (adj.). (n): A
person who travels from place to place. Because the narrator is a bus driver, he
goes on saying one quote about the American dream, which stuck out to me. The
American Dream is there for the taking if you arent lazy and have no qualms about
the kind of work you do. I didnt understand the word, qualm, but the rest of the
sentence kind of gave away the meaning of the word. The sentence, How can a guy
who drives a bus for a living compete with a baller who rolls around in a jet-black
Cadillac with wine velour upholstery? reminded me of how competitive it was to
get a job back then and what the title of your job meant to yourself and others.
From the context of the sentence I had a small clue as to what the word, velour,
meant, but not entirely certain. I was curious about the word, itinerant, because I
thought that it meant something similar to hostile, which was mentioned in the
sentence, but the actual definition, I realized, was given away in the previous
sentence before itinerant was mentioned.

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