Jennifer Buehler

“Their Lives Are Beautiful, Too”:

How Matt de la Peña Illuminates the Lives of Urban Teens

A
s an author who writes about the experiences existence. Folks in nice cars like BMWs and Mercedes
of urban teens, Matt de la Peña understands and Jags just didn’t see him. I tried to figure out what
that there’s a clear line separating the haves that meant to me. And then I said to myself, ‘Man, I
from the have-nots in America. Having grown up poor want to write about kids like him. I want to show how
in a Mexican American border town (National City, his life is just as beautiful as the lives of the rich folks
California), the son of a white mother and a first-gen- sitting in those nice cars. I want to make people see
eration Mexican American father, Matt knows first- him for three hundred pages.’ And I guess that’s what
hand that skin color and income level play a powerful I’m still shooting for.”1
role in urban teens’ perceptions of the world—and in
the world’s perceptions of them. Writing about the Forgotten Kids
That’s why Matt’s novels—Ball Don’t Lie (Dela-
The image of the kid with his hood up resonated
corte, 2005), Mexican WhiteBoy (Delacorte 2008), and
deeply with Matt, in part because of his own experi-
his newest book, We Were Here (Delacorte, 2009)—
ences as a teenager. Noticing how kids in school were
take such an unflinching look at the role of race and
implicitly sorted into groups on the basis of social
class in urban teens’ lives and identity formation.
class and skin color made a powerful impression on
Whether his characters are talented athletes or teens
him. Though Matt conceded that some of that sorting
in the juvenile justice system, they see the privileges
was self-imposed, the result was that some kids had a
conferred on kids born into white middle-class homes,
real chance to succeed and were encouraged to go to
and they recognize how much less they themselves
college, while others were basically forgotten. Even-
have been given by virtue of their birthright. For
tually the forgotten kids expected nothing more for
Matt’s characters, coming of age is integrally tied to
themselves than their teachers did.
the process of developing race and class conscious-
“I was in that [forgotten] group,” Matt said. “But
ness—that is, deciding who they can be in a world
my cousins, who were darker than me and did worse
that expects so much less of them than their white
in school, they were deep in that dismissed group.
middle-class peers.
I think the world sort of looks to the kids who have
“I’ve always wanted to write about the other
potential. These are the kids who are going to do
side of the tracks, the have-nots,” Matt said, “maybe
something with their lives, who are going to do some-
because that’s who I was.” Getting readers to see
thing for the world. I don’t think it’s malicious, but
those have-nots is the goal that drives all of Matt’s
the other kids get lost from that point on. I was lucky
work. “I’ll never forget this epiphany I had when I
enough to get a basketball scholarship. And once I
lived in L.A. I saw this kid sitting alone on a bus stop
arrived on campus, my thinking started to evolve. My
bench, hood up, headphones on, holding a basketball.
self-perception evolved. But most kids like me aren’t
People pulling up to the stoplight were oblivious to his
so lucky.”

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 Matt admitted that he went to college mostly for But even after he’d made it to graduate school at
basketball and girls. Once he arrived, however, he San Diego State University, Matt had more catching
quickly realized that college was his ceiling for basket- up to do. “I didn’t know my POVs, my tenses,” he ex-
ball—he knew he was never going to play in the NBA. plained. “I was writing with my heart, not my head.”
For the first time in years, he started wondering what In time, Matt learned his craft. When he finished
else he could be good at. “I had an interesting mo- Ball Don’t Lie, he sent it to five agents. Four of them
ment where I was like, okay, well, what am I going to wanted the book, which
do now? All along I’d been writing street poetry, never was eventually published
showing anyone. And then I started to see a paral- by Random House and Representing the com-
lel between grace in basketball and grace in street released as a movie last fall
poetry.” starring Rosanna Arquette, plexity of urban kids’
But it was only when Matt won a big writing Ludacris, and a young
contest during his junior year that his self-perception streetball player named
experience requires Matt
changed significantly. Winning shocked not only him, Grayson “The Professor” to paint honest portraits
but most everyone around him, because so few people Boucher.4 (Matt himself
knew that he wrote. Having professors recognize had a bit part as the ref- of impoverished urban
his talent helped Matt see himself differently. “That eree in the big game, and
validation, those professors picking me, it completely his dad played the school neighborhoods and the
changed the way I viewed myself. For the first time in janitor. ) Ball Don’t Lie
5
dangers they contain.
my life I thought, man, maybe I am smart.” also earned literary acco-
As the first person in his family to go to college, lades when it was named
Matt was motivated to succeed academically, in part a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library
because he wanted to make his mom proud. “She was Association, as was Matt’s second novel, Mexican
so happy I made it to college. And I wanted to see her WhiteBoy—which was also named to the ALA’s Top
like that always. A lot of sons have this, I think. She’d Ten list.
given so much to her kids and I wanted to reward Since those early successes, Matt has continued to
her somehow. So I invested everything in school and keep his focus as a writer on the forgotten kids. When
books.”2 talking about his work, he often still mentions the
And yet the privilege of attending college could be boy with the hood up, how his life is beautiful, too.6
fraught at times. “A lot of my family were full Mexi- But at the same time, representing the complexity of
can—my cousins, my uncles, my aunts—and so I felt urban kids’ experience requires Matt to paint honest
like I was a little bit less than, in terms of the culture. portraits of impoverished urban neighborhoods and
However, on the flip side, those same people sort of the dangers they contain—including fights, hustles,
built me up as the hope of the family, you know, like drug and alcohol abuse, and occasional acts of theft
Matt’s going to go to college, and he’s going to do or vandalism. Born into the urban environment,
this. And so that leaves you feeling both proud and Matt’s characters are both perpetrators of violence and
incredibly guilty at the same time.”3 victims of it. They talk and behave in ways that may
Despite the recognition he’d received for his writ- offend middle-class sensibilities, but those practices
ing, as college graduation neared, Matt still hadn’t allow them to survive.
become his own advocate. Perhaps he’d been one of Matt’s books give the real kids who live in low-
the forgotten kids in school for too long. Convinced of income urban communities a voice, and they give
his talent, Matt’s professors filled out applications to middle-class readers a glimpse into lives very different
graduate MFA programs for him, knowing that Matt from their own. His novels also offer readers insight
wouldn’t have believed such a thing was possible. He into the motives behind characters’ decisions, even
got into two of them. Soon his street poetry gave way when the decisions they make are bad ones. Matt goes
to short stories, which gave way to novels, and the to great lengths to explore the nuances of urban teens’
kid he’d seen at the bus stop with his hood up became emotional lives, including their fears and yearning, the
the protagonist of his first book, Ball Don’t Lie. hurts they’ve experienced, and the poignancy of their

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 goals and dreams. In light of the social and material people who have everything in order to protect them
obstacles they face, the fact that his characters are still from the people who have nothing (228).
trying to do right, albeit on their own time and in their But Dante can’t stop at this point. Reflecting on
own ways, is no small achievement—and that’s what how his own life has been shaped by his skin color
Matt wants the world to see. and his poverty, he urges Sticky to recognize the full
“I’ve always thought it was super important, out depth of his disenfranchisement. Dante lays a series of
of respect, that I show the forgotten kids, the group three stones on the ground outside the back of Lincoln
with ‘less potential.’ Because I really think there is Rec to illustrate his message:
beauty there, too. And grace. And dignity. Sometimes See that wall in front a you? he says. In America, life’s like
the growth these folks show is amazing. Maybe they a race to that wall. That’s the way I see it. He sets the first
don’t become doctors, but their growth should still be stone less than a foot from the wall, points and says: If you
highlighted.”7 born white and got money then you start the race way up
here. Ahead of everybody . . . .

Highlighting Injustice and Inequality: But say you ain’t white and ain’t rich. Say you poor and
Ball Don’t Lie black. Or you Mexican. Puerto Rican . . . . You may not even
have enough food to eat a balanced meal every night . . . .
Pieces of Matt’s personal story and ways of thinking In this case you startin the race of life way back here. He
about the world are evident in each of his novels, as is points to the second stone. Only a fool would think someone
who starts here has the same opportunities as cats startin
his desire to cast light on the role that race and class
at the first stone . . . .
play in urban teens’ identity formation. For example,
the pivotal scene in Ball Don’t Lie, Matt’s first novel, And let me tell you something. If you some scrubby white
boy who’s been moved in and out of different foster homes
isn’t a moment on the bas-
since you was little, then you off the charts, boy . . . . Dante
ketball court. Instead, it’s snatches up another stone and puts it even further back.
Sticky doesn’t want to a moment where the main Points at it. Moves Sticky’s face so he has to look at it . . . .
character, Sticky—a white You startin out way back here. You three stones back.
hear these ideas. In fact, foster kid who spends all (229–230)
his spare time playing bas-
he can barely stand to Sticky doesn’t want to hear these ideas. In fact, he can
ketball with homeless guys
barely stand to think about them. But in the aftermath
think about them. at Lincoln Rec, an all-black
of Dante’s speech, the driving question for Sticky
gym—is forced to confront
becomes, what is he going to do about his situation?
his position in a society
Where will Sticky draw his own moral line?
that’s structured to preserve inequality. Though Sticky
In a telephone interview during July 2009, 8 Matt
has phenomenal talent and dreams of playing in the
explained that a big aspect of his experience growing
NBA, the poverty that oppresses him on a daily basis
up was sorting out his feelings about living in poverty.
turns something as seemingly simple as getting a
“I used to be so angry about the kids that had stuff,”
birthday present for his girlfriend into a complex chal-
he said. “Like the kids that had cars, the kids that
lenge. Panhandling enables him to raise some of the
had money to go get lunch every day off campus. I
money he needs, but it’s not enough to buy the gold
used to feel so slighted. I was like, hey man, why do
bracelet he has his eye on at Macy’s department store,
they have stuff and I don’t? And I used it as a defense
so he plans to steal it.
mechanism. I hated them before they could judge me.
Sticky spends days plotting his theft, rational-
I wanted to punch first, if that makes sense.”
izing that he’d never rob a rich person on the street,
In giving his characters a similar awareness of
but that gold from Macy’s is ripe for the taking. When
social and economic inequality, Matt allows them—
Dante, an older player at Lincoln Rec and a mentor to
and perhaps some of his readers—to feel a bit of that
Sticky, hears this logic, it triggers something in him.
same anger. As a writer, however, Matt is careful
He feels compelled to challenge Sticky’s reasoning,
never to present his characters as victims who are
arguing that moral distinctions like Sticky’s make no
trapped by their circumstances. Instead, he portrays
sense in a world where the laws are set up by the
them as people who are faced with a series of choices.

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 It’s up to them to decide how to respond to the injus- writing to explore the role that race and racism often
tices they face. “I think it’s really fun to watch kids play in young people’s identity formation. “In every-
figure out where they draw the moral line,” Matt said. thing I’ve ever written—even the stupid poems I used
“Because the truth is, you know, there is no set-in- to write in high school to try and get girls—elements
stone line . . . . it’s all set by others, and usually by of racism and racial identity and racial consciousness
people who have everything. So I think it’s interesting color the world.”
to watch kids realize that and then figure out where Like Sticky, Matt was a racial outsider at the
they’re going to put their line.” all-black community gym in Balboa Park where he
Matt related his stance on teens’ negotiations with played basketball day and
morality to his reading of Nietzsche’s Beyond Good night during high school.
and Evil in graduate school. “I’ll never forget when The racial alienation he For Matt, writing novels
he was breaking down the definition of good and bad, felt when he first arrived at provides a space for figur-
how he said it was merely a product of who’s looking the gym was so strong, it
at it. So if the aristocratic society is looking down at caused him to question his ing out how and why such
the proletariat and they’re saying, ‘Well look, they’re talent for the game. “I’ll
trying to take our stuff, or they’re poor and they’re never forget the first day things can happen, and
making the street dirty, they’re bad.’ But then, you I showed up and tried to
exploring what they mean.
know, the working class people are looking at the play. The regulars laughed
aristocrats and saying, ‘But they have all the money at me and said I’d come to
and they’re hoarding it, so they’re bad.’ I think bad the wrong place. ‘Yo, Mexicans don’t play ball,’ one
depends on whose point of view it is. And with kids of the guys announced, and all his guys busted up.
like these that I like to work with, they’re not neces- ‘Yeah,’ another guy said. ‘What you need to do is get
sarily bad, but they’re trying to figure out where to fit yourself a soccer ball, Pele. Kick it around in the grass
their sense of morality into the world.” outside.’ They all laughed and laughed. I wasn’t al-
Matt raises ideas like these in his novels—issues lowed to play that day. The next day, either. In fact, I
of inequality, and morality, and personal choice—be- spent the entire first week up in the bleachers, watch-
cause he’s seen how young people’s responses to the ing. I wondered if they were right. Maybe I would
injustices they face can have life or death consequenc- never be good enough to play in college because I was
es. One of Matt’s own cousins had a boyfriend who, Mexican.”
like Sticky, tried to steal money to get her a gift. Un- Of course, it turned out that Matt was good
like Sticky, the cousin’s boyfriend was shot and killed. enough to play in college. By the time high school
For Matt, writing novels provides a space for fig- was over and he was offered a basketball scholarship,
uring out how and why such things can happen, and a few of the guys from the gym even showed up at
exploring what they mean. “A lot of people ask me, Matt’s school on the day he signed his letter of intent.
‘Are you born a writer?’ And I don’t think it’s neces- Looking back, he counts those men as some of the
sarily true. I just think what you either have or you most important people in his life. But his first experi-
don’t is this ability to see something that’s complex ence with them was uncomfortable—and profoundly
and worth talking about.” racialized.
Therefore, it makes sense that in all three of
Exploring Racial Awakening and Race Matt’s novels, characters engage in an ongoing pro-
Consciousness: Mexican WhiteBoy cess of reading each other racially. They form under-
standings of who other people are, at least in part,
During an interview with Amy Bowllan in August of on the basis of ideas they have about those people as
2009,9 Matt reflected on his body of work so far. He members of different racial groups. But just as impor-
said that the most prominent recurring theme is the tant, Matt’s characters read themselves racially. This
search for racial identity and racial awakening—al- is especially true for Danny, the biracial protagonist of
though he conceded that class also plays an important Matt’s second novel, Mexican WhiteBoy:
role. Even before he became a novelist, Matt used

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 And Danny’s brown. Half-Mexican brown. A shade darker At times their view is cynical. When Uno asks
than all the white kids at his private high school, Leucadia Sofia if she’s ever thought about college, she reveals
Prep. Up there, Mexican people do under-the-table yard
the low expectations she has for herself. “What do I
work and hide out in the hills because they’re in San Diego
illegally. Only other people on Leucadia’s campus who
know about college?” she replies. “Nobody I know’s
share his shade are the lunch-line ladies, the gardeners, ever been there. Nobody in my family, that’s for sure”
the custodians. But whenever Danny comes down here, to (210–211).
National City—where his dad grew up, where all his aunts But Sofia doesn’t stop there. She keeps thinking,
and uncles and cousins still live—he feels pale. A full shade going on to recall the memory of watching a little
lighter. Albino almost. Less than. (2)
Mexican girl play with her parents at the neighbor-
It was in a Blogtalk Radio interview with Cyrus hood playground. Sofia tells Uno how the little girl sat
Webb10 that Matt acknowledged how closely Danny’s for a moment at the top of a slide, laughing and clap-
struggles with race mirror his own experience. “I think ping, before calling out to her parents down below,
Danny was the hardest character I’ve written so far ‘Here I come.’ Watching that little girl prompted Sofia
for one simple reason, and to reflect on what she herself had lost in the process
that is, he’s probably the of growing up poor and Mexican in National City:
Matt’s aim in raising these closest to me in terms of
It was like she was saying it to more than just her parents
the stuff he’s dealing with.
issues is to help readers . . . . She was saying it to everybody around her that day.
I was a biracial kid—father To the whole world even. “Here I come.” And I kept think-
appreciate the substance Mexican, mom white, just ing, Man, I bet I was like that when I was little, too. What’s
like Danny.” happened to me since then? We all start out believing we
and the significance of Matt’s connections
can do anything. Even Mexican kids who grow up here. But
at some point we lose it. It totally disappears. Like me, for
with Danny gave him
urban teens’ thoughts. example. Why is that? (212)
plenty of insights as a
writer dealing with the Despite their awareness of the very real disad-
tensions of being biracial. In other ways, however, he vantages that correlate with their social class and skin
struggled while writing Danny. “I was really mean to color, Matt’s characters don’t give up. Sofia and Uno
him in the first draft,” Matt explained. “I was a little continue to talk about and imagine what their future
bit hard on him, because I kind of blamed him for not lives could be. They hold onto the hope of achiev-
fitting in and not being Mexican enough. And then in ing some form of success, and they take small steps
the revision, I had to pull back, because I don’t think toward getting there.
the writer should ever blame any character. And so Matt’s aim in raising these issues is to help read-
I had to pull back and just let him exist and sort of ers appreciate the substance and the significance of
study him in a way, kind of like he’s studying Kyle urban teens’ thoughts, no matter where their conver-
[the white pitcher Danny admires on the Leucadia sations occur or how their ideas get expressed. “A lot
Prep baseball team]. But that’s actually where he of people look at characters from working class fami-
came from, was from a lot of issues I felt growing up.” lies, and they don’t know how much thinking these
Danny’s talent as a baseball player offers him a kids do. And they’re not just thinking about small
way to become somebody, to escape the poverty he things. Sometimes they’re going to talk about big
finds in National City during the summer he spends things. And maybe the language isn’t perfect, it’s not
there with his relatives. But it’s different for his cousin proper English every bit of the way. But they are going
Sofia and his friend Uno, a biracial kid with a black to discuss [weighty issues, like structural inequality,
father and a Mexican mother. The connections they or religious faith], and it may come up when they’re
see between race and poverty—in the form of the just watching this kid [Danny, in Mexican WhiteBoy]
limited life chances available to the majority of dark- throw the ball alone. You know, like what does all
skinned people in their community—make it hard for this mean?”11
them to imagine any other way of living. And yet that Matt cultivates this quality of thoughtfulness in
doesn’t stop them from actively thinking and wonder- his characters because he grew up seeing it in the peo-
ing about the future. ple around him. During our telephone interview, 12 he

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 explained what he noticed about conversations at the this is making no sense, he’s not helping this kid.’ But
gym back in Balboa Park where he played basketball in my mind I was like, I grew up with this guy, and
as a teenager. “I remember just listening, because I the thing is, he’s looking at his son, and he’s talking
never spoke. I would just listen. And I was amazed at to his son, and that’s the most important thing. The
how intelligent the dialogue can be at times between language is kind of secondary.”
a guy who works at a gas station all night and a guy
who sells drugs. It’s amazing. At times you will hear No Kid Is Born Bad: We Were Here
some things that are smarter than anything you would
Matt’s newest book, We Were Here, explores the
hear at school.”
lives of three teenagers who meet in a group home
As a novelist, Matt learned to capture that kind
where they’ve been sent after serving time in juvenile
of intelligence through dialogue, embedding profound
detention. Like all the other kids in the group home,
insights about the world into ordinary street dialect.
Miguel, the main character, has committed a hor-
“A lot of it is metaphor, you know, ways of comparing
rible crime—but unlike the others, his crime was an
one thing to another, that’s like a really cool connec-
accident. Still, nothing can assuage the grief and self-
tion. And that maybe the middle class reader might
loathing he feels, or the stigma of being a group home
not expect. But I think it’s amazing. The truth is, yes,
kid. Beneath his hostile attitude toward the counselors
there are different speech patterns, but there’s intel-
and other residents, Miguel is terrified of spending the
ligence in every kind of speech pattern.”
rest of his life weighted
Matt continues to find evidence of this intelli-
down by guilt over what
gence—and material for his books—in his everyday
life in New York, where he now teaches creative writ-
he’s done. As a novelist, Matt
In order to pass
ing classes at NYU and Gotham Writers Workshop. learned to capture that
the time and escape the
He explained how a conversation he overheard on the
burden of his emotions,
train between a father and his son led to the character kind of intelligence
Miguel spends part of each
of Senior, Uno’s father in Mexican WhiteBoy. “One
day I was on the subway riding from Brooklyn to
day in the group home through dialogue, embed-
reading, but the only
Manhattan, and I was just minding my own business
books available to him ding profound insights
with an iPod on. This Puerto Rican father got on with
are the classics. Miguel
his son, and his son I could tell had just done some- about the world into ordi-
doesn’t mind; he actually
thing wrong. I think he had been caught with marijua-
na at school. And the dad was working class, I think
likes reading. It’s just that nary street dialect.
where he’s from, it isn’t
he worked for MTA [Metropolitan Transit Authority],
cool to read a book unless
and he was trying to tell his kid that this wasn’t right.
a teacher’s making you. The first book he pulls off the
And he started saying all these crazy things, like liter-
shelf is The Color Purple. The sadness and the beauty
ally he was saying, ‘Man is his own best doctor, and
of the story blow him away.
you fake it till you make it,’ and all these crazy things
Matt said he gave Miguel The Color Purple to read
that didn’t really make sense. But I was like, he’s try-
because of the impact the book had on him after going
ing. He’s trying to talk to his son.
through high school as a reluctant reader. “I had a
“And then he literally came up with that spaghetti
professor my freshman year [in college at University
line about, ‘If I cook spaghetti for you every single
of the Pacific] who said, ‘Hey Matt, I want to give you
day, that’s the same, but if one day I put meatballs in
this book, and I know you’re on the road all the time,
it, that’s a change, and that change is in you, son, and
and I don’t even want to give you a due date on this.
that change is God.’ And he said that word for word,
But I want you to respond to this novel by the end of
and I turned down the volume on my iPod and wrote
the semester.’ And at first I was reading it and I was
it down. Every single word of it. And then he became
like, hey what’s going on, why would she give me this
Senior.
book? This woman can’t even speak proper English.
“So I just love [that], because, I mean, you could
“But for the first time in my life, I finished a book
sit there and say, ‘Hey, this guy is not that smart, and

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 in two days. That character moved me so much, I Miguel thinks about his file again after he and
couldn’t believe it. I was about to cry at the end. And Mong and Rondell have run away from the group
I always tell people, I grew up in the kind of family home and find themselves stranded in San Francisco.
where you don’t cry as a male, like to the point where When they suddenly realize that they have no idea
if you get hit by a car and your arm’s laying across the what they’re going to do next, Miguel picks a fight
street, still your dad will look at you and be like, you with Mong, the person he blames for their circum-
better not cry. So the fact that I was moved by a novel stances. After the fight, Miguel stands at Fisherman’s
shocked me. And so The Color Purple is still—to this Wharf, watching the sea lions and worrying about
day, I feel like I owe so much to that novel. It totally who he’s becoming in relation to his file:
changed my way of looking at books. And it made me They had no clue who I was or how something inside me
a reader. So that was kind of fun, too, to have him was changing by the minute, getting more and more angry
discover literature.” 13 and confused. They didn’t know how I was becoming what
Matt also linked Miguel’s decision to begin read- people probably thought if they ever read my file, saw what
ing to the story of Malcolm X. “I thought of Malcolm I did . . . . Maybe it’s a waste of damn time to fight what’s
in your file. Maybe you’re destined to end up being that
X, when he’s in prison. You want to get something out
person no matter what. (100–101)
of that time that you have to serve. And so I felt like
hey, Miguel, he wants to be alone. He also wants to A few days later, after the three of them have
gain something from this time. So instead of social- spent the evening drinking and talking around a
izing with other kids, he gravitates towards books and campfire on the beach, Miguel stays up late reading
being alone with them.” Mong’s and Rondell’s files. The impact on him is far
Reading may help Miguel to pass time in the more profound than he expected. In fact, he’s stunned
group home, but it doesn’t help him to come to terms and horrified to learn about the traumatic experiences
with his grief, or figure out how he can ever make Mong and Rondell have had. “How’s that even fair?”
amends with his family. So when a crazy, violent Miguel wonders. “To have so many bad things happen
Chinese kid named Mong invites Miguel to break out in one life” (136).
of the group home and run away to Mexico, Miguel Matt’s understanding of the role that juvenile of-
figures that starting a new life is really his only option. fenders’ files can play in their perceptions of them-
He doesn’t trust Mong, but he doesn’t particularly care selves and in other people’s perceptions of them arises
what happens to himself, either. When Miguel’s room- from his own experience working as a counselor in a
mate Rondell, a big black kid who doesn’t appear to group home for a couple of years after college. Like
be very smart, asks if he can come along, too, Miguel Miguel, reading kids’ files gave Matt a very different
doesn’t care enough to say no. and far deeper understanding of who those group
Not only does Miguel agree to run away; he home kids were.
makes the situation worse by stealing all the group “I remember thinking, oh, this kid right here, he’s
home’s petty cash. He also steals his official file, along just a little asshole, you know, he’s a bad kid. And
with Mong’s and Rondell’s. It’s not something he then that night, I would go in and read his file and
thinks about; he grabs the files on impulse, perhaps find out that he’d had a stepfather who had raped
because his relationship to his own file is so torment- him, or something amazingly difficult for any kid to
ed. When Jaden, the counselor at the group home, ever deal with.
first invites him to talk about what’s recorded in the “And then you start to think about this and you
file, Miguel reacts defiantly: say, wow, there’s no kid that’s born bad. Or, you
know, if there are, maybe just a couple. Most kids
You bring people in here and talk and talk and talk. You
open up their stupid-ass file and act like it has all the an- have something happen to them that moves them in
swers about ’em, and then you talk some more. But you this direction, and it’s almost like, it’s easier for them
don’t know me, man. You don’t know the first thing about to be bad because they feel like that’s the way the
who I am or where I come from. (50) world defined them. It makes more sense.”14
Jaden concedes that this is true, but he insists that he Because of the bad things that Miguel and Mong
wants to help. and Rondell each have done, they struggle mightily to

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 believe that their lives can still matter. Their reckless- lege to consider how the world looks to people who
ness, their detachment from adults who want to help have less and live differently. As Matt reminds us,
them, and their tendency to fight are all manifesta- their lives are beautiful, too.
tions of the underlying fear and sadness they live with
each day. Consequently, there’s more at stake in their Jennifer Buehler is an assistant professor English Education
journey from the group home to Mexico and beyond at Saint Louis University. She spent ten years teaching high
than the desire to start a new life. What they need to school English, first in New Jersey and then Michigan. During
know is that they haven’t been erased as human be- that time she developed an 800-book classroom library and
immersed herself in reading young adult literature with her
ings because of their crimes.
students. She now teaches young adult literature classes to
Matt put it this way: “Ultimately, that’s all these
English majors and future teachers and produces podcasts
kids want, that’s their ultimate motivation, is for
on YA lit for ReadWriteThink.org.
people to know they’re there. For Rondell, he wants
God to know he’s there, because he thinks that God’s Notes
important. But then Mong, when he carves [a say- 1
Interview with Shon Bacon, All the Blog’s a Page, 2 Septem-
ing] into the rock, he just . . . he understands that ber 2009.
he’s gone, and he just wants people to know that he 2
Personal email, 2 October 2009.
existed. And Miguel, he was watching that, and he 3
Blogtalk radio interview with Cyrus Webb, 27 August 2009.
was taking all that in, and for him it’s like, he would 4
Gotham faculty profile page.
love nothing more than for his mother to acknowledge
5
Telephone interview, 10 July 2009.
him, [to have his] family remember that he’s there,
6
Blogtalk radio interview, 27 August 2009.
7
Personal email, 2 October 2009.
and that he still exists. I think in the book in general,
8
Telephone interview, 10 July 2009.
it’s wanting to be seen. And wanting people to know 9
Interview with Amy Bowllan, Bowllan’s Blog, 31 August
that they existed.”15
2009.
10
Blogtalk radio interview with Cyrus Webb, 27 August 2009.
The Desire to Be Seen 11
Ibid.
12
Telephone interview, 10 July 2009.
Young people’s desire to be seen is at the heart of all 13
Ibid.
of Matt’s work, and it’s something Matt understands 14
Ibid.
personally. He talked about what being seen meant to 15
Ibid.
him in relation to the book Mexican WhiteBoy. 16
Blogtalk radio interview with Cyrus Webb, 27 August 2009.
“Danny wants to be a great baseball player so
that his dad will see him. And me, I think I wanted to Works Cited
become a writer so that my family would see me. But “Author Matt de la Peña on Conversations Live!” Host C. A.
the interesting thing is my evolution in terms of that. Webb. Blogtalk Radio. 27 Aug. 2009. Radio.
I don’t expect them to read [the book] anymore. I just Bacon, Shon. “Talkin’ YA with Author Matt de la Peña.” All the
Blog’s a Page. 2 Sept. 2009. Web. 25 September 2009.
expect that it’s out in the world. It’s on a bookshelf.
Bowllan, Amy. “Writers against Racism: Matt de la Peña.” Bowl-
It exists. They exist in that book, or I should say, we lan’s Blog on School Library Journal. 31 Aug. 2009. Web. 25
exist in that book, and that’s enough.”16 Sept. 2009.
For urban teens who feel that their voices have de la Peña, Matt. Telephone interview. 10 July 2009.
gone unheard and the significance of their lives has de la Peña, Matt. “Re: ALAN Review article question.” Message
to the author. 2 Oct. 2009. Email.
gone unrecognized, Matt de la Peña’s novels provide
de la Peña, Matt. “Profile: Matt de la Peña.” Gotham Writers
a powerful space of affirmation. The very existence of Workshop. n.d. Web. 9 July 2009.
Matt’s work is testimony to the fact that these teens’ de la Peña, Matt. Ball Don’t Lie. New York: Delacorte, 2005. Print.
lives and voices matter. But Matt’s novels don’t just de la Peña, Matt. Mexican WhiteBoy. New York: Delacorte,
speak to urban teens. They also challenge readers 2008. Print.
whose lives have been shaped by race and class privi- de la Peña, Matt. We Were Here. New York: Delacorte, 2009. Print.

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