''On the first day at my new school, my teacher, Miss Soria, gave me a sticker that said Rene Colato. The sticker was missing my second last name. Maybe Miss Soria's pen ran out of ink. I took my pencil and added it. Now it looked right: Rene Colato Lainez.'' Young Rene is from El Salvador, and he doesn't understand why his name has to be different in the United States. When he writes Colato, he sees his paternal grandparents, Rene and Amelia. When he writes Lainez, he sees his maternal grandparents, Angela and Julio. Without his second ''like a hamburger without the meat or a pizza without cheese or a hot dog without a wiener.'' His new classmates giggle when Rene tells them his name. ''That's a long dinosaur name,'' one says. ''Your name is longer than an anaconda,'' another laughs.
