The First Rule of Punk

At school, in homeroom, a classmate tells Malú that it’s “a little early for Halloween,” which elicits laughter from others (47). Ms. Hernandez, Malú’s homeroom teacher, is concerned. Selena Ramirez, who serves as Malú’s chief antagonist for much of the novel, chews on a candy necklace and asks Malú what’s up with her makeup. Selena then asks Malú, “What are you? You’re not Mexican, right?” (49). Malú, in response, thinks:

What are you? I was used to getting some version of that question, especially when people heard my name. I wasn’t always sure how to answer. Sometimes it just seemed easier to blurt out what Mom calls my pie chart: half Mexican, half fill-in-the-blank with names of a bunch of different European countries (49).

Ms. Hernandez says that Malú is in violation of the school’s dress code and needs to go to the school auditorium. The chapter concludes with an eight-page zine titled “The Story of a Name,” which deals with Malú’s racial/cultural background and notions of how her parents’ respective races and cultures inform her identity.

Malú reaches the school auditorium, where she encounters other students who are also in violation of the school’s dress code: “[W]e were a herd of dress-code violators, and the man on the stage was corralling us” (59). Among the violators is a “boy with blue hair” (59). Malú offers that while “his hair looked punk […] nothing else about him did” (59).

Mr. Jackson, the school’s guidance counselor, passes out pieces of paper that denote the dress-code violation; these need to be signed by a parent and returned. The boy with blue hair—who will turn out to be Joe Hidalgo, the son of the woman who owns the Calaca coffee shop—says that he likes Malú’s makeup, after telling Mr. Jackson how hard it was to dye his hair. Mr. Jackson sends Malú to the nurse’s office to obtain assistance in removing the eyeliner.

Malú eats alone during lunch, removing her copy of The Outsiders from her bookbag while gazing around the lunchroom and asking, “Where [a]re my people?” (64). Malú studies Selena and her friends: “The boys wore baggy jeans, puffy basketball sneakers, and huge shirts. The girls all wore similar outfits of tight jeans and T-shirts with stuff like CUTIE and SRSLY printed on them. Like Selena, they all wore candy necklaces” (64).

Selena comes over to where Malú is sitting and inquires about where she’s moved from, adding that it’s in Malú’s best interests not to be a “weirdo,” and that “only a coconut” would wear the amount and type of makeup that Malú had on (66). Selena uses Joe, the “blue-haired boy,” as an example of a “weirdo,” saying Malú doesn’t want to be like them. Malú counters, saying she’d “rather be at [Joe’s] table than [Selena’s]” (66). Selena makes a disparaging remark about the duct tape holding Malú’s shoe together then returns to her friends.

When Malú gets home from school, her mom is painting a wall in the kitchen. Malú offers the dress-code violation sheet she needs to get signed. Malú’s mom signs the piece of paper and tells Malú to dress less punk in the future. She offers that she was reading about the school’s namesake, José Posada, adding that Malú might be interested in learning more about him. The conversation gives Malú an idea for a zine.

After dinner, Malú calls her dad and places the worry dolls under her pillow. Following the call, Malú listens to the mix tape her dad made her, and then eschews her algebra homework and starts in on her zine.

The chapter closes with the eight-page zine Malú has made; it’s titled “SuperMexican,” her nickname for her mother, and includes her mom’s superpowers, one of which is that “she absorbs everything she can about Mexico and Mexicans in the United States” (76). The reader also learns through this zine that Malú is second-generation Mexican American, her mom having been born in California.

Malú tests into the fluent Spanish class at school, a fact that surprises her. The class’s first assignment is to “create a family tree and write a short essay to go with it” (82). Selena is also in the class and says to the teacher that Malú can’t speak Spanish. (A good percentage of this short chapter is in Spanish.) Toward the end of class, Selena steals the zine Malú is working on, ultimately giving it back but not before teasing Malú extensively. Malú is confused as to what she’s done to get on Selena’s bad side.

Malú has library orientation with her language arts class. She meets Ellie, a fellow seventh-grader who’s starting a petition to get better-quality food in the cafeteria. Ellie’s described by Malú as having “a face full of freckles and the reddest hair [Malú had] ever seen, pulled up into a sloppy, lopsided bun on top of her head” (84). Ellie’s already concerned about college applications, which is part of her motivation for the petition. Malú offers that Ellie should start a petition for a less-strict dress code. Mr. Baca, the language arts teacher, reminds the students about the upcoming Fall Fiesta, a component of which is the student talent show.