As one can imagine, Reyna's very sad at her mother's departure. As with many Mexicans Mami has headed off to the United States in search of a better life. However, Reyna's too young to understand any of this; she can only feel the acute pain that comes from the severance of the close bond between mother and daughter. To make matters worse, Reyna doesn't have a photo of her mother, something to remember her by, although she has one of her absent father. What she does have, however, is the umbilical cord that once tied her to her mother's belly.

But this isn't enough to stop Reyna feeling isolated and abandoned in the wake of her mother's departure. Don Bartolo does his best to make Reyna feel a little better about her parents' absence. He tells her that they only left because they love her, not because they don't love her. Reyna guesses that maybe he's right, but the very fact that she has to keep on telling herself this is perhaps an indication that she doesn't really believe it deep down. Her future interactions with her mother, which are problematic, to say the least, only confirm our suspicions in this regard.