 She wanted to tell the story of every Mexican American living in East Los Angeles during the political and social upheaval of the 1960s-1970s.The novel uses her own childhood experiences and events such as the Vietnam War, the Chicano Moratorium, poverty and Chicano gangs, and the construction of the freeways as a backdrop to an intricately woven story of four different female protagonists.The freeway construction is an important theme in the novel and to the social climate in East Los Angeles at that time.