Everything that once brought him joy only become reminders of what happened and why their friendship ended. Yunior tries to bring up old memories of him and Beto but can’t do it without bringing up memories of Beto’s betrayal and sexual encounters. Yunior does place his friendship in past tense and does inform readers that Beto’s sexuality is the reason why. The author Junot Diaz, indicates that Yunior lives both, the past and present. Yunior goes back and forth in time when he speaks about Beto, that shows the long history between them. For Yunior to call Bet that, shows hit little respect for Beto. For instance, when Yunior and his male counterparts go out clubbing, they come across a fag bar, pass by to point a plastic pistol at them, just to see if they’ll run or shit their pants.

It’s all about pride, like they always have to prove their manliness. Boys/men have to always stay tough, shut and out how they feel have a strong sense of masculinity. There is such a big stigma when it comes to Hispanic culture. For a Hispanic male to be called a pato was to degrade his masculinity and associate him with expressions of hate. Pato is a Spanish slang term for a gay having negative connotations to its meaning. After experiencing two sexual encounters with his best friend Beto, Yunior is seemingly fine but once Beto leaves, two years pass without any reconnection, and when Beto comes back into town he continues to avoid him because Beto is a pato.

Drown by Junot Díaz