The First Rule of Punk

Chapter 1 offers four pages of text followed by eight pages of collage. The first paragraph focuses on Malú’s love of punk music, a love she has inherited from her father. She offers that her mother “says [her] music is a racket,” but for Malú, “it’s like the theme music of [her] life” (1).

Malú then describes her process for creating the collages that are the surplus of the first chapter. A “yellow Whitman’s sampler box” holds many of her supplies (2). Malú’s mom, whom Malú calls “SuperMexican,” enters the room wearing a “HECHO EN MEXICO T-shirt and knee-length gauzy shirt” (2). She says something to Malú, but Malú’s punk music is up too loud for her to hear. Malú goes on to say that she believes her mom is “always trying to school [Malú] on stuff about Mexico and Mexican-American people,” adding that she believes her mom’s “main goal in life is to make [Malú] into her ideal Mexican-American señorita” (2).

Malú and her mom—who is divorced from Malú’s father—are about to move from Gainesville, Florida to Chicago, where Malú’s mom has accepted a teaching position. Malú has packed up most of her things and feels like “someone had taken a giant Pink Pearl eraser and rubbed [her] out of the picture” (3).