Chapters 5-10

In chapters 5 through 10, Esperanza meets new friends. Her first new friend was named Cathy. Cathy has lots of cats and claims to be the great great grand cousin of the queen of France. Then she goes on and tells Esperanza who's who in the neighborhood. She promises to be Esperanza's friend until next Tuesday because her and her family were moving out of the neighborhood due to the bad conditions. But she doesn't realize that it is insulting to Esperanza to hear that from her, since Esperanza's family had just moved into a house on Mango Street. Then, she meets two other girls named Lucy and Rachel, whom Cathy says that "smell like brooms" and tells her not to befriend them. They all shared one bike because they chipped in money to buy it and rode it around the neighborhood laughing together. Then the narrator explains that Esperanza and her younger sister, Nenny are alike in a couple ways, like the way they laugh. They went to a junk store in the neighborhood and Nenny asked the owner about a music box that played a beautiful sound. Esperanza was intrigued by it, but she pretended not to care because she didn't want to be embarrassed in front of Nenny. Nenny wanted it, but it wasn't for sale. One day, Cathy and her family moved away and a new family moved into her house. One of the boys who lived there was named Meme Ortiz, also known as Juan. Meme's family rents out their basement to a Puerto Rican family. Louie is the oldest child of that family. Louie's cousin told the kids to hop into his car to take a ride around the block. Then he saw the cops and had all the kids get out of his car. He ran into a lamppost when he tried running from the cops. He ended up getting caught by them.