Later, Leona reappears again when she’s one of the only adults who doesn’t treat Maricela poorly for being a pregnant teen. This helps her show the officials there how important it is to get the garbage removed-and impresses upon them that real people live in the neighborhood. To do this, Leona packs a bag full of putrid garbage from the lot and goes to the local health department to give them a whiff. Over the two days that Leona spends on the phone with the city, the state, and the federal government, she comes to the conclusion that in order to be successful, she’ll need to make herself real to the people she’s speaking to. But she also spearheads the project of getting the lot cleaned because, as the mother of two boys who attend a high school “with more guns than books,” she’s experienced when it comes to making phone calls and convincing people in official positions to take action. Leona takes on this task in part because she wants to grow goldenrod, which reminds her of her Granny-as it is with many of the novel’s characters, the garden is a way for Leona to connect to her past and family. She’s the person responsible for getting the garbage cleared from the vacant lot. Leona is a middle-aged Black woman and one of the novel’s narrators.
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