Love in L.A.
By Dagoberto Gilb
About the Author
Dagoberto Gilb
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Dagoberto Gilb was born in the city of Los Angeles. His
mother a Mexican who crossed the border illegally,
and his father a Spanish-speaking Anglo raised in East
Los Angeles. They divorced before he began
kindergarten, and Gilb was raised primarily by his
mother. He attended several junior colleges until he
transferred to the University of California, Santa
Barbara, where he studied philosophy and religion
and graduated with both bachelor's and master's
degrees. Since then ,Gilb has spent years between
California and Texas, developing a reputation as one of
the leading voices from the American Southwest.
Gilb's first publication was a small press chapbook out
of El Paso, Winners on the Pass Line (1985), which
came after he won his first literary prize, the James D.
Phelan Award from the San Francisco Foundation. Gilb
went on to earn more recognition, including a
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and the
Texas Institute of Letters' Dobie Paisano Fellowship.
He currently resides in Texas, and has been a visiting
writer at the University of Texas in Austin.
Literary Terms
• Theme –the central idea or
meaning of a story; provides a
unifying point around the
plot, characters, point of view,
symbols, and other elements
of a story
• Setting - the physical and social
context in which the action of a
story occurs; include the
background, atmosphere or
environment in which characters
live and move
• Dialogue - conversation between
characters in a drama or narrative
• Point of view - a way the events of a
story are conveyed to the reader, it is the
“vantage point” from which the narrative
is passed from author to the reader.
• Character - a person who is responsible
for the thoughts and actions within a
story, poem, or other literature.
Notable Quotes
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“Jake could imagine lots of
possibilities when he let himself,
but none that ended up with him
pressed onto a stalled freeway”
(256)
“What if we don’t report it to the
insurance companies? I’ll just fix it
for you” (257)
“Mariana, you are beautiful” (257)
“So maybe we should go out to
breakfast somewhere and talk it
over” (257)
“… though he couldn’t stop the
thought about that FM stereo radio
and crushed velvet interior and the
new car smell that would even
make it better” (258)
Please answer three of the five
questions 
1. Does the setting of L.A affect the story in any way? If
so, how?
2. In your opinion, does Gilb write a love story? Explain.
3. What is/are the major themes in this story?
4. Describe the main character, Jake. How old do you
think he is? Please use supporting evidence to back
your responses.
5. Do you think the author made Mariana the shy and
naïve character she is for a reason? Could her subtle
personality contrast with Jake’s personality, or the
bustling city of LA surrounding them?
What’s your fantasy?
DETAIL IS KEY
“ He needed an FM radio in something better
than is 58’ Buick he drove. It would have
crushed velvet interior with electric controls
for the LA summer, a nice warm heater and
defroster for the winter drives at the beach, a
cruise control for those long trips, mellow
speakers front and rear of course, windows
that hum closed, snuffing out that nasty
exterior noise of freeways.”