"American History" is a story about a girl in 1963. She is a Puerto Rican girl and she lives in the tenement building El Building. She sits on the fire escape and watches the family in the house beside her, a family from Georgia. Over time, she feels like part of the family. In school, she becomes friends with the boy in the house, Eugene. The day President Kennedy was shot, Eugene had invited her over to study. When she goes over, his mother answers the door. She tells her to go home. She is upset but not because of the dead President. She said "...I could not fight the feeling of elation
             This story was written in the first person point of view. We feel like we are actually in the girl's life. We feel sad when she is hurt by Eugene's mother just because of her race and where she lives. We understand that she was upset but not because of the President. She says "the tears that came up from a deep source inside me were strictly for me". She is too young to know what the President meant to the people.
             In the end, she realizes that the world is not perfect. She realizes the family next door is as far from perfect as her family. Yet, she wants to hide from this reality and picture and watch the perfect world from her fire escape.
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