Read the passages from “A Smart Cookie” by Sandra Cisneros and from “An Hour with Abuelo” by Judith Ortiz Cofer. You want to know why I quit school? Because I didn’t have any nice clothes. No clothes, but I had brains. Yup, she said disgusted, stirring again. I was a smart cookie then. Abuelo then puts the notebook down on his lap and closes his eyes. “Así es la vida [that’s the way life is] is the title of my book,” he says in a whisper, almost to himself. As Esperanza’s mother and Arturo’s abuelo talk about their choices, what do they have in common?