There are two scenes involving kites, one near the beginning and the other near the end of the novel. In the beginning of the novel, Sapo and Chino are flying kites on the roof of a tenement building. Although this is an innocent happy childhood game, they have also made it competitive by attaching razors to their kite strings, so they can bring down kites being flown elsewhere in the city.

Symbolically, the kites represent Sapo and Chino’s freedom to fly above their situation and experience a freedom they don’t have in their everyday lives. At one point Chino expresses envy at this freedom, and Sapo is horrified. He tells Chino he can’t imagine why anyone would want to leave the city. Not long after this, Chino is accepted to a magnet high school for the arts outside el barrio and begins expanding his own horizons.

At the end of the story, on the day of Bodega’s funeral, Chino again finds Sapo on top of the tenement building, flying a kite. Their situations are very much changed, and they have both experienced the loss of a person they hold in high regard. For Chino, this is an end of whatever innocence he may have had.