The Merit System (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780881456691)

Ray Rivers is a young Puerto Rican man on the way up. Everything is going great for him except he doesn't believe he deserves it. Struggling with the cost of assimilation, he walks a tightrope both at the factory, where he has been recently promoted to management, and with his fiancée. When a recently divorced Cuca joins the assembly line, with the sole purpose of making enough money to return to her beloved Puerto Rico, an unexpected friendship between Ray and Cuca develops and finally allows him to accept the part of himself that he's long denied.