Throughout Broken Strands there is the idea of escaping and of maps. When Yetsaida is young, she wants crayons so she can colour in a map of the world and get good enough grades to leave and go to Managua along with Miss kety but her father does not buy her crayons and instead abuses her and her mother.By visiting miss Kety’s hair salon she is escaping her home and her abuse for a short while, she gets to be treated kindly and with respect. She does not get the opportunity to get good grades and make her escape when she is young but she still dreams of going to cosmetology school and continuing her education in Miami. But as Yetsaida grows up, she falls into the same cycle that the women around her have been trapped in. Yetsaida is seen from Miss Kety’s perspective in the final sentence of the story, while she is dreaming of moving away to Miami, she has a broken nose and a black eye just like all of Miss Kety’s other customers, who probably also had dreams to escape. Miss kety’s salon is their only real escape in an environment that has been built to keep women trapped in abusive relationships that have been normalized by the broader community. By going to the salon the women get sympathy and understanding from someone who has experienced the same thing and they get a brief moment of peace at Miss Kety’s Beauty Parlour.