I felt that by mixing seemingly banal contemporary details (like Jeanette offering Ana a Hot Pocket, or Ana's mother having a picture of Minnie Mouse on her pants) with accounts from other times, Garcia makes something of a statement about how history is made of moments - the novel focuses on these moments rather than the whole picture, and they're defined by the larger tapestry of history rather than the other way around. This upends expectations about how stories about families, immigration, etc. should be told as it opts not to paint history as something mythical and monolithic, but rather something that is linked to everyday life and that isn't disconnected from the present moment. It rejects the idea that history is ever something that is over, or that, in the case of immigration, those in a diaspora are not connected to the struggles of parents, grandparents, etc.