In Make Your Home Among Strangers, Lizet is a Cuban American girl who lives in Florida. She came to the United States with her mother as a young child and is working hard to succeed in college. Three important communities of which she is a member are her family, the Cuban American community, and the academic world of her school. Although Lizet is close to her mother in many ways, she does not understand why her mother feels compelled to take an activist role on behalf of Cuban Americans who perished at sea or survived the wreck. Lizet is part of the Cuban American community but she does not feel like a full member of it, and she resents the time that her mother’s organizing activities take away from their family. Struggling constantly with the lure of assimilation, Lizet tries to emphasize the academic content of her college achievements and believe that this is not taking her away from her roots. When she succeeds in winning an internship, however, that will take her far away from home, she realizes that these conflicts are not so easily reconciled.