The Other Side of the Ocean — Characters

38 entries from the The Other Side of the Ocean wiki.

Mateus Franco

The Forbidden Fortress · Forbidden Fortress

Also known as Matt, Matty, Elder Wizard, Dino Boy, Dr. Grant, my working man, Mr. Franco

Ch 1Narrator. Brazilian-born, undocumented, and secretly gay. Calls his life “neither a dream nor a nightmare. It was limbo.”
Ch 1Left Fogo Dourado with his family on tourist visas after the family store failed. Calls it “The Great Franco Family Debacle.”
Ch 1Obsessively Googles immigration loopholes and the DREAM Act. Chose Joseph Ferguson because he loves shop week in visual arts.
Ch 1Handle in the group chat: Elder Wizard, because Fa insists his soul is old. She gave him a cheap wizard costume for his birthday; he never wore it.
Ch 1Realized at eleven that he was gay, watching a pirated Brokeback Mountain. Identified with Ennis keeping love secret.
Ch 2Sixteen, brown eyes, brown curls. Draws in conté. Loves faces, especially eyes: “eyes are great at telling secrets.” Favorite composer: Hans Zimmer.
Ch 3Fluent in English within a year; became the family’s phone interpreter (“Mateus, Mateus, Mateus”). His Portuguese is rusty.
Ch 3Tells his father at dinner, “At least I won’t spend all my money trying to prove myself to people who could care less.”
Ch 4Three things that make him him: Brazilian food (pão de queijo is “its ruling queen”), being “a pile of confusion,” and seeing the positive.
Ch 5With Dad when the van is pulled over for a missed stop sign; the officer lets them go.
Ch 8First kiss with James in the Nissan outside his house: “This, this was how a first kiss should feel.”
Ch 9Comes out to James at the park on Arlington and Gordon. It is the first time he says it aloud.
Ch 9At six, saw his drunk father choke his mother in Fogo Dourado and locked Laila in her room to protect her.
Ch 12Spends the night at James’s house; asks “Jamie, you want to be my boyfriend?”
Ch 13Comes out to the Forbidden Fortress at the Crusty Pie: “I’m gay.” Tells James he owns dinosaur toys instead of telling him he is undocumented.
Ch 14Dad catches him kissing James at the Christmas Eve party and calls him “bicha.”
Ch 15Tells James at the Crusty Pie that his whole family is undocumented and leaving in June.
Ch 16Hired at the Crusty Pie with Gabriella’s help; paid cash every Friday. Uses an ITIN instead of a Social Security number.
Ch 18Buys a two-thousand-dollar used car, Paradise, registered under Helton Silva’s name. Offered a full scholarship by the Art Academy in Boston and can’t accept it. First “I love you.”
Ch 20Pulled over for speeding and a missed stop sign; the officer makes him wait for a parent. Comes out to his mother that night.
Ch 21Talks Neb through his plan to go to conversion therapy in Texas.
Ch 23Decides to leave with his mother and sister: “It was time to let it explode.”
Ch 25Tells the Forbidden Fortress the tickets are bought for July 30. Paradise will go to Helton.
Ch 26DACA is announced during the cabin weekend at Hopkinton. Laila texts: “Down to stay? :D”
Ch 27Graduates from Joseph in June 2014 with DACA. Turned down the Boston scholarship for one in New York City.
Ch 2Has a scar on his calf from a barbed-wire gash, got crawling under a fence to escape a stray German shepherd as a child.
Ch 4Prefers realism in his drawing, trying to make every line and texture match the subject.
Ch 8Keeps his sketchpad under his bed with a conté pencil tucked inside; one page holds ten versions of James’s eyes.
Ch 9Naturally walks faster than others and always ends up ahead of whoever he walks beside.
Ch 13Always orders the same coffee at the Crusty Pie: coffee with milk and sugar.
Ch 14Has a stubborn cowlick right on top of his head.
Ch 14Family friends say he looks more like his father as he gets older.
Ch 15Wears a red long-sleeve tee and the green pajama pants he puts on every holiday.
Ch 18Has drawn since age three. Cracks every knuckle when nervous. His portfolio includes a conté portrait of Fa and Diana, a knight before a castle, and a moth.
Ch 20As a boy he slept with his face between the bed and the wall, dinosaurs on the floor and a chewed pen he loved.
Ch 23His sketchbook fills with monsters, crooked trees, hands and eyes.
Ch 24Wears a black button-down, gray jeans and Converse to dinner with James’s parents.
Ch 24Was nine when his family moved to America; Daniel Alberte notes he has no accent.
Ch 27Wears his hair gelled back at graduation; James says he looks like a mix of Jon Snow and Keanu Reeves.

James Alberte

The Forbidden Fortress · Forbidden Fortress

Also known as James, Jamie, Donut Boy, dimple boy, Mr. Dimpled Chin, Sir James, Mr. Alberte, shower boy

Ch 2Transfers from Framingham High on a Thursday in September 2011. Messy dark hair, a dimpled chin, “strutted” in like the world was his.
Ch 2Sits next to Neb in shop and is corralled into Neb’s lunch table. Rides bus forty-nine with Matt. Listens to Hans Zimmer; his playlist “My Escape” opens with the theme to Inception.
Ch 4Hazel eyes. Holds up two fingers as the signal that he needs rescuing. Drags his drafting table across the room to join Matt’s corner.
Ch 4“One owns up to the secret they think the world can’t handle.” Leans toward an abstract style with pops of color.
Ch 5Wins Mr. H’s donut box. Obsessed with DevianArtBook. Drives a gray Nissan before he is eighteen. Cannot wink.
Ch 5,7His “Paradise” playlist opens with Debussy’s “Clair de Lune,” his secret song. Shower song: “Moves Like Jagger.”
Ch 8Curated about fifty playlists while coping with what happened to him; none compare to Paradise. Kisses Matt and says, “Now I win.” Then goes silent overnight.
Ch 9Apologizes at the park for going too far. “Normal is what people call the things that don’t make them think.”
Ch 12Lives in a big house on the north side; his parents are away for weeks at a time. Says his truth “was exposed rather than shared.”
Ch 14Joins the chat as Donut Boy. Recognized by Tania Silva at the Franco Christmas party.
Ch 15Hearing that Matt is leaving: “If six months is what we have, then I’ll take it.”
Ch 17His parents are traveling religious speakers. Tells Matt about Brian, Neb, the conversion sessions with Neb’s father, and the beating in the locker room.
Ch 17“Brian was my hell. You were my paradise.”
Ch 19Feels for Neb: “There’s a fine line between inner struggle and plain evil.”
Ch 21Tells Matt he will support him if he has to leave.
Ch 24His father wants him at a ministry school in Texas; James refuses. Takes Matt to a fallen tree by a lake in the woods where he used to sit during the Brian months.
Ch 27Graduates in 2014, headed to college. His parents attend only after Matt and Ana visit them in person.
Ch 5Presses a fist hard against his dimpled chin when embarrassed; twirls his car keys while walking.
Ch 7Wears his hair gelled and a leather jacket, and smells of cologne.
Ch 9When nervous he scrapes his thumb on his dimpled chin, messes up his hair and cracks every knuckle.
Ch 12Can fold his tongue into the shape of an S.
Ch 12His bedroom has its own bathroom with a glass shower door and a speaker, a bed by a window over the backyard, classic books and a vinyl collection.
Ch 14Arrives at Christmas Eve in a black leather jacket with gelled hair.
Ch 17Often wears beanies, which Matt loves; one day a green one.
Ch 17Struggles to use chopsticks; Matt shows him how to hold them higher.
Ch 19Has a ticklish knee. Ends kisses with a nibble on Matt’s bottom lip before meeting his eyes.
Ch 24Wears a red button-down to the dinner with his parents.
Ch 26Wears short red swimming shorts that sit well above his knees; Matt notices the muscles of his back.
Ch 27In his graduation suit, Matt says he looks like James Bond.

Fa Andrade

The Forbidden Fortress · Forbidden Fortress

Also known as Fa, Fatima, Lesbian One, Ms. Andrade, Ms. Rio, the original babe from Rio, Rose, biblical whore

Ch 1Born in Rio; arrived at four. Brown and curvy, curly hair, and proud of her figure. Loves calligraphy, the zodiac, and witches.
Ch 1Sends daily quotes to the chat and expects reactions. Promises an offering to the goddess of the sea on New Year’s.
Ch 1Her sweater of the day: “Magic Is Around You.”
Ch 4Subscribed everyone to the Zodiac Daily newsletter.
Ch 6Wears a hoodie that says “Biblical Whore.” Outed with Diana last year when freshmen caught them kissing in the library and sent pictures to their families.
Ch 11“Just make sure the pain you feel is the consequence of your decision.”
Ch 13Sweater: “Just a Heathen in Love.” Cries, under her hood, when Matt comes out.
Ch 14Sweater: “Christmas is a Political Affair.”
Ch 20Furious that Matt went silent after the traffic stop: “Don’t disappear on us when shit gets hard, Matt.”
Ch 25Wears a plain black hoodie the day Matt breaks his news. Plans Tarot readings for the camping trip.
Ch 26Swimsuit reads “I Know You’re Staring.”
Ch 27Graduates in 2014; the group is headed to college with plans to be neighbors.
Ch 1Wears her curly hair in a messy ponytail with black jeans torn at both knees.
Ch 4Speaks in a calm voice suited to a meditation podcast; crosses her legs and rests her chin on her hand when curious.
Ch 26Her “I Know You’re Staring” bathing suit is black, with the slogan across her backside.
Ch 27Wears a black dress with a plunging neckline to graduation.

Diana Melo

The Forbidden Fortress · Forbidden Fortress

Also known as Diana, Lesbian Two, Matty’s coffee-mug friend

Ch 1Born in São Paulo. Dresses in browns and oranges in every season, “like a coffee mug on a foggy fall morning.” Got orange braces to close the gap in her front teeth.
Ch 1“I was two when they brought me over. Two.” Draws colorful landscapes in colored pencil.
Ch 4Her father died in Brazil; lives with her mother and her aunt, Tia Jo.
Ch 6“Being forced to come out is like a baby being born before its time.” Tia Jo was sent the picture of her kissing Fa.
Ch 6“I may be a lesbian, but my mouth still belongs to the Lord.” Almost never swears.
Ch 11Swears for the first time anyone remembers: “You’ll just have new shit to worry about.”
Ch 13Cries when Matt comes out and asks to hug him and James.
Ch 25Proposes the camping trip so the group has something to look forward to besides Matt leaving.
Ch 27Wears the required black dress with an orange pumpkin brooch in protest.
Ch 1Wears her hair in a single braid over her right shoulder.
Ch 4Twirls the tip of her braid between her fingers. The most soft-spoken of the Forbidden Fortress.
Ch 6Wears her red hair in a braid over her shoulder and plays with it while talking.
Ch 6At the Crusty Pie she wears a jacket the same beige as the letters on Fa’s hoodie.

Pedro Santana

The Forbidden Fortress · Forbidden Fortress

Also known as Pedro, Manga Boy, Mr. Santana

Ch 1From Minas Gerais. Loves anime, manga and hentai; draws his own manga in clean lines. Band T-shirts and doodled once-white Converse.
Ch 1Shaved his head to get five extra minutes of sleep.
Ch 4Arrived at three. His father plans to marry a woman for papers; she asked ten thousand dollars.
Ch 4Rescued Matt in third grade, “fresh out of Fogo Dourado,” and helped him learn English.
Ch 6Dates a girl from Framingham High who passes on the rumor about James and the football player.
Ch 11Offers to let Matt live with him and his dad if the Francos leave.
Ch 13“This is my best friend… You be good to him.” Notes that Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf, is gay.
Ch 14Drives his dad’s car with the rattling muffler. Promised to go to a Pride parade with Matt.
Ch 25Hopes to make Tiffany his girlfriend.
Ch 27He and Tiffany broke up. Wears his Converse with his graduation suit; headed to New York.
Ch 4Carries an old backpack with a Pikachu keychain; has puppy eyes.
Ch 6Dresses in full black; his white Converse are covered in anime sketches and Portuguese cuss words.
Ch 13Carries a beat-up Pokémon wallet.
Ch 26Wears an Indiana Jones hat matching his brownish shorts on the canoe trip.

Laila Franco

The Franco family · Franco family

Also known as Laila, Matt’s sister

Ch 1Matt’s sister, thirteen in 2011. Copes with sarcasm. Her Portuguese is “practically nonexistent.” Polices Matt’s swearing.
Ch 3Loves the band Deaf, Jam, and Life. Thinks Ross from Friends is cute.
Ch 11“I feel like a tennis ball.”
Ch 14Has a crush on Italo Dantas. Calls Fogo Dourado “FG.”
Ch 15Burst into her parents’ room after the Christmas fight and found Mom on the floor. Kept Matt out of it on purpose.
Ch 20As a child, slept with a pink teddy bear named Alfonso, later destroyed by the family dog. Asks that James come over.
Ch 23After Italo’s father is arrested, she wants to go back to Brazil: “I’m tired of making the best of it.”
Ch 26Texts Matt after the DACA announcement: “Down to stay? :D”
Ch 27Says Joseph will be her school next year.
Ch 1Looks much older than thirteen; her face has turned chiseled and long. Brown eyes and shoulder-length brown hair, worn loose over her face or in a bun.
Ch 14Shows off a leather jacket for Christmas Eve at thirteen.
Ch 15Picks at the corner of her thumb when nervous, a habit Matt shares.

Ana Franco

The Franco family · Franco family

Also known as Mom, Mãe, Tia, Ana

Ch 1Matt’s mother. Insists the cold gives them thicker skin; Matt thinks she wanted to escape anything like Fogo Dourado.
Ch 3Started as a housekeeper; learned English from CDs while waiting for her first shift at 4:30 a.m. Became catering manager at Mass Scientific. Loves old-school sertanejo.
Ch 3“We are free with conditions that don’t apply to the majority.”
Ch 6,7Fired in October 2011 when her employer verifies her Social Security number.
Ch 9Finds cleaning work: about five houses a day. “Good things should not change. We should nurture them instead.”
Ch 15Asks Claudio for a divorce in front of the children after he hits her. Will not call the police so he won’t be deported.
Ch 20Picks Matt up from the traffic stop with Helton. Tells Matt being gay is “part of the package of being you” and gives both children a say in staying.
Ch 20Explains that Claudio hit her because she threatened divorce if he drank again, not because of the kiss.
Ch 25Buys three tickets to Brazil for July 30; they would stay with an aunt in Rio.
Ch 27Stayed in America. DAPA did not go through, so she is still unprotected.
Ch 3Wears a white button-down with a pinned name tag to her catering job.

Claudio Franco

The Franco family · Franco family

Also known as Dad, Pai, Mr. Franco, Claudio

Ch 1Matt’s father. His store failed and he borrowed from people around town; the debt drove the family to America.
Ch 3Carries marble slabs at Nogueira’s Marble and Granite; has not taken a day off in eight years. His boss Amanda keeps offering him showroom manager.
Ch 3Wears a holey white shirt from one of his last customers “as an ancient relic.” Plans to reopen Magazine Franco.
Ch 5Drives a purple matchbox-shaped van without a license. Asks Matt, “Any girls in your life?”
Ch 7Starts drinking again after Ana loses her job. An angry drunk; violent in the Fogo Dourado years.
Ch 9In Matt’s memory, choked Ana and shouted “Isso tudo é sua culpa.”
Ch 11At Sabor Mineiro: “June. We’re going back. Now plan for it.” Also: “Eu falhei.”
Ch 14Catches Matt kissing James and orders everyone out: “É bicha agora?”
Ch 15Hits Ana after the party. Brings flowers, then throws them in the yard when she asks for a divorce.
Ch 16Moves in with a coworker in Natick and refuses to help with money.
Ch 18Says goodbye in March 2012 and flies back to Brazil the next day.
Ch 19On the phone, blames the divorce on his children.
Ch 3Speaks with a much thicker accent than Ana and struggles with R’s and L’s; cannot pronounce “world.” Snores like a motorboat.
Ch 9In Matt’s memory of that night he stank of booze and sweat, his white linen shirt unbuttoned to the chest.
Ch 14Dresses for Christmas Eve with combed hair and a light blue shirt.
Ch 14When drunk, his skin turns red and his body rocks slowly back and forth.
Ch 18Arrives to say goodbye in wrinkled khakis, in a blue car driven by Pedro from the bakery.

Grandma

The Franco family · Franco family

Ch 9Where Ana ran with the children the night Claudio choked her.
Ch 11Matt would miss her when the family left for America.

Matt’s aunt in Rio

The Franco family · Franco family

Also known as the aunt in Rio

Ch 25The family would have stayed with her for a few weeks after returning. Matt barely remembers her.

Matt’s cousin in Brazil

The Franco family · Franco family

Also known as the cousin who came out

Ch 1Came out the year before; Claudio made clear that no son of his would ever be a “viado.”

Neb Hamwinter

Joseph Ferguson High · Church world

Also known as Neb, Nebuchadnezzar, Mr. Hamwinter, Nebu-fucking-chadnezzar, the religious kid

Ch 2Red hair combed back, plaid, black Converse covered in white crosses and Bible verses. Named after King Nebuchadnezzar. A pastor’s son.
Ch 2Tells everyone about meeting Tyler Perry on a church trip to LA. James thinks it’s a lie.
Ch 4Wears “Salvation Is Here.” Texts Matt: “Careful, Matt. He might be wayyy too interested in you.”
Ch 10Sends Matt screenshots of texts between James and Brian. Once pushed a boy to come out before a hundred people at his church. “The gays are like a virus.”
Ch 17Brings Brian to the Crusty Pie and says James “was doing fine until you came along.”
Ch 17James says Neb caught him and Brian in the church library and sent pictures and videos to James’s father.
Ch 19Caught with his hand on Brian’s thigh during a Bible study at the Crusty Pie. Punches the bathroom wall.
Ch 21Says he is going to a therapy center in Texas. “Free will is a knife.”
Ch 22Transfers out of Joseph. Mr. H reveals Neb came out to him before freshman year.
Ch 24Matt sends him a drawing of Neb smiling, through Mr. H’s contact at the Texas facility.
Ch 27Appears at the 2014 graduation and waves, wearing “the kind of smile I had never seen on his face before.”
Ch 2Has big eyes like round fishbowls that widen further when he talks. Sits very properly, as if at a fancy tea party. Wears a green plaid button-down.
Ch 10Has bushy eyebrows and walks and talks as if the world belongs to him.
Ch 21When nervous he rocks on his tiptoes, bounces his legs and snaps each thumb against a finger.

Mr. H

Joseph Ferguson High · Joseph High

Also known as Mr. H

Ch 2Visual arts shop teacher. Denim overalls, a blue beret, glasses on the tip of his nose, and a curated playlist for every day.
Ch 2Offers a Dunkin’ Donuts box for the best still life.
Ch 18Has been sending Matt’s work to the Art Academy in Boston since freshman year.
Ch 22Used to belong to Neb’s congregation; left as “a divorced man with a queer daughter.” Asks the class to write Neb letters.
Ch 22Knows someone at the Texas facility, “an undercover advocate for queer people,” who can deliver a letter.
Ch 27Wears a black suit with a blue ink blotch on the thigh to graduation. “I’m glad you stuck around.”

Mr. Redland

Joseph Ferguson High · Joseph High

Also known as Mr. Red

Ch 10Matt’s English teacher. Holds class in the library and surfs the web while students work.

Mrs. Crass

Joseph Ferguson High · Joseph High

Ch 10The librarian. Wears eccentric hair pins; on this day shaped like roses.

Mrs. Kram

Joseph Ferguson High · Joseph High

Ch 10Biology teacher; lectures on cellular chemistry.

Ms. Romena

Joseph Ferguson High · Joseph High

Ch 11Fa’s teacher; assigns research from printed books only.

Mr. Vine

Joseph Ferguson High · Joseph High

Ch 18From the Art Academy in Boston. Bald, round glasses, leather binder. Offers Matt a full scholarship after seeing his conté work.
Ch 18Remembers Matt’s first drawing for Mr. H: a woman with tears in her eyes.
Ch 18Wears a suit to his visit; his round glasses rest on the tip of his nose, and light bounces off his bald head.

Brian

Neb’s church · Church world

Also known as the football player, Mr. Matcha Eyes

Ch 10Appears first in screenshots Neb sends Matt: “He seduced me, dude.”
Ch 17Well built, hair buzzed on the sides, matcha-green eyes, “a voice perfect to narrate trailers.”
Ch 17A freshman at Framingham High from upstate New York; his parents work at Neb’s church.
Ch 17Kissed James in the gym locker room, then punched him and called him a fag when other boys came in.
Ch 17Neb says he is “now as straight as a surfboard” after counseling.
Ch 19Seen with Neb’s hand on his thigh during Bible study.
Ch 24James’s father: “Brian is doing so well. You should see him now.”

Pastor Paul

Neb’s church · Church world

Also known as the sweater man, Neb’s mentor

Ch 19A man in a black sweater who buys three coffees and three bagels and reads the Bible to Neb and Brian. Neb names him as Pastor Paul.
Ch 19Brought Neb to the Crusty Pie to face “the guy who tempted me.”
Ch 21Encouraged Neb to transfer schools.

Neb’s father

Neb’s church · Church world

Also known as the pastor

Ch 10A pastor; Neb claims he heard about James through the church.
Ch 17Ran the separate counseling sessions for James and Brian.
Ch 21Neb’s family leads one of the largest churches in Massachusetts, with campuses around the country.
Ch 21The church website shows Neb’s parents laughing together under a tree.

Daniel Alberte

Neb’s church · Church world

Also known as Mr. Alberte, James’s dad, Daniel

Ch 17A traveling religious speaker; sells books and DVDs. James has his dimpled chin.
Ch 17Did not believe James about the locker room. Made him attend counseling.
Ch 24Calls Matt “the special friend.” Asks whether the Francos swam a river to get here. Wanted to do art before ministry.
Ch 24“To Mrs. Alberte and me, you’ll always be James’s friend. Nothing more.”
Ch 27Attends the graduation after Matt and Ana talk him into it; sits “still as a statue.”
Ch 17Matt finds both of James’s parents very good-looking in a phone photo.
Ch 24Dressed in black for the dinner with Matt; his face flushes as he loses his temper.

Sophia Alberte

Neb’s church · Church world

Also known as Mrs. Alberte, James’s mom, Sophia

Ch 17James has her eyes. “Mom was neutral so Dad wouldn’t be upset.”
Ch 24Cooks chicken parm, James’s childhood favorite. Asks Matt to call her Sophia. Stays on the porch watching after James storms out.
Ch 27Attends the graduation.
Ch 17Very good-looking, by Matt’s view of a phone photo.
Ch 24Dressed in black for the dinner; looks Matt up and down like airport security.

Mr. Oliver

The Crusty Pie · Crusty Pie

Also known as Mr. O

Ch 16Owner of the Crusty Pie. Always wears a hat, sometimes bright yellow. Hires Matt on the spot and pays him in cash envelopes on Fridays.
Ch 17Never asks about papers. Confesses he kissed a boy in his twenties. Extends Matt’s fifteen percent discount to the whole Fortress.
Ch 25Puts the group’s food on the house the day Matt breaks his news.
Ch 16His hats are sometimes black, sometimes bold yellow or bright blue. Wears big glasses arched above bushy brows.
Ch 16Slides his glasses to the tip of his nose and calls Matt “son.”

Gabriella

The Crusty Pie · Crusty Pie

Also known as Gabby, Gabriella

Ch 6Barista at the Crusty Pie. Left Matt a letter freshman year with stick figures and a “yes/no” box for coffee. He never answered.
Ch 6Helping her mother with bills after her father hurt his back.
Ch 16Undocumented too: crossed the border from Colombia at about two. Moving to Bogotá to study medicine before she turns eighteen.
Ch 16Moved to Natick rather than leaving Joseph over Matt. Calls him “Brazileño.” Recommends him to Mr. Oliver as her replacement.
Ch 17Never accepts Matt’s friend request; she told him she was leaving later than she did.
Ch 6Has long black hair, big brown eyes and a slight accent; works the counter in an apron.
Ch 16Has brown eyes that look lighter in sunlight.
Ch 16Picks at the side of her thumb while talking about leaving.