The setting described in the first few paragraphs of Judith Ortiz Cofer's short story "American History" revolves around Elena's apartment building, El Building, and her school, Public School Number 13. Her apartment building is considered mostly a happy place because she uses the simile "like a monstrous jukebox" to describe it. It's as if there's a party in every apartment! The high school, on the other hand, isn't described with much more detail other than by the generic name of it and the fact that it has a fenced-in playground. The narrator also mentions that the weather is simply cold and gray, "The kind that warns of early snow" (Line 36). The school and the weather suggest sadness or loneliness.

These descriptions of the setting help the reader identify with the protagonist, Elena, who will experience November 22, 1963 in a much different way than the rest of the United States. As the country mourns the death of its President, Elena happily prepares to visit a boy she likes very much (just like the happy culture of El Building) only to end the day sad and lonely because his mother rejects her (just like the sad and lonely school she attends).