Abigail Mlina Case Study

Abigail Molina grew up on the humble side of town in El Paso, Texas, on Mango Street. The homes in that neighborhood were not too meager, but they were terribly shy of extravagant. Her home was a small brick house characterized by a large, crooked fig tree which stood in the middle of the front yard. As a young girl, Abigail would marvel at the tree’s crooked disposition as she enjoyed its sweet figs. When the spring came and the unforgiving winds blew, the tree would tilt at a further angle away from the natural position of most trees. Her father thought the tree diverted attention away from the home’s landscape, of which he arduously invested his efforts in, so he tied ropes to the tree to allow it to grow straight. Children are like trees.

She consistently disobeyed her mother, running away at all hours of the night and recklessly risking her safety as she roamed town without supervision. At the age of fourteen, she engrossed in the riskiest escapade of her life. Her older sister, Yolanda, had just gotten married, and she and her husband had planned to spend their honeymoon in Las Vegas, Nevada. Knowing that her parents would never allow her to miss school to join her older sister, Abigail followed Yolanda from home to their final destination. “It was an impulsive and reckless decision. They never noticed I was on their heels the whole route to Vegas,” Abigail recounted with a sense of hilarity and regret. In fact, several years after the incident, Abigail’s family still deemed her trek from Texas to Nevada an enigma. That day is marked in Abigail’s memory as a day of utter loss, not courageous triumph. The day Abigail made that audacious decision to leave home, she lost more than her parent’s trust. She lost her permanent home, for never again did Abigail step foot on Mango Street until she reached

“I was ashamed to confront my parents because of all the pain that I had caused them,” she said. After running away, she returned home to live with her oldest sister, Mary, who by then was employed and married. Mary was a compassionate caretaker. She tended to Abigail as if she was her daughter, and she did so with such grace and willingness. By the time Abigail entered into her senior year of high school, the prospects of her future were obscured by low expectations and pessimistic attitudes. It was clear to Mary that Abigail was an intelligent girl; she was clever and a quick learner, but it was not evident in her performance at school. One day, Mary was called in by the school counselor to discuss Abigail’s graduation requirements. To her surprise, Mary discovered that Abigail had only two credits, and therefore, was not qualified to receive her high school diploma. “The counselor told my sister that I was unfit to attend college, and there was no way that I was going to be able to dig myself out of this hole,” Abigail said. However, this did not discourage Mary from continuing her role as Abigail’s guardian. Mary understood that her younger sister was not hopeless. In fact, Abigail was “fearfully and wonderfully made” to fulfill her purpose as “more than a conqueror,” but in that moment, she was just vulnerable and needed guidance. Without undue delay, Mary took her younger