Dominicana Quotes
"For years, people stare at me, almost against their will. I’m different than other girls."
"No one could help laughing at his mortality. Even God had had enough."
"Everyone knows who the Ruiz brothers are because they travel to and from New York, returning with pockets full of dollars."
"When Juan proposes, he’s drunk. Slurs, Marry me. I’ll take you to America."
"A man’s heart in a child’s body, that’s Yohnny."
"You don’t need to smoke if you don’t want to, but you can use it to act like one of those movie stars."
"When you fall in love, you have to play it out even if everyone calls you crazy. That’s why they call it falling. We have no control over it."
"Maybe with Juan we can all get the hell out."
"Mamá has lived long enough to learn a man doesn’t know what he thinks until a woman makes him think it."
"Everybody knows that the Ruiz brothers’ word is gold in the bank."
"Everyone’s always telling me to smile, even when there’s nothing to smile about."
"You think I like being the way I am? But your father has no backbone. Never fought for anything in his life. Not even me."
"Think of your Tía Clara—her daughter married a man who works in New York, and every month he sends the family money. He never fails."
"It kills your father to see your sad face all the time."
"Don’t worry, Ana. I won’t let anything bad happen to you. You’re my pajarita."
"Sometimes I smile so that people will leave me alone."
"Be careful at night. The junkies will kill you for a buck. A desperate man is a dangerous one."
"It’s all for the best. It’s all for the best."
"I’ll be back before everyone’s up. Don’t you worry about me, little sister."
"When he’s finished, Mamá and Teresa jump up to clap. A scattered applause."
"I know then that one day the earth will rip open underneath my feet and Juan will take me away."
"I open my eyes wider. Hold my chest higher, and a smile escapes the side of my lips."
"His voice thunders against my back. So warm, so rich, a glaze on my skin."
"I push him away. You don’t need that stuff. You don’t need anything, he says."
"I look to Papá for an answer. Go ahead, answer him, Papá urges."
"Sometimes I send the flock off to check in on my family and they disappear for days. When the pigeons return, letters appear in the mail."
"Learn from her, Mamá advised all her girls. She always says exactly what people want to hear."
"You should be happy, César says, and wraps his arms tight around me, and in that hospital I feel more than ever like a child who needs to be contained."
"The thought of having to return to Juan makes my breakfast come up my throat."
"I’m blinded by the fluorescent lights overhead at the hospital. Overwhelmed by the smell of antiseptic soap."
"I’ll never be the woman in the photo. Juan isn’t as terrible as that."
"In between the lines: We miss you. We miss you. We miss you. Nothing is the same without you here."
"I realize then that one day, I’ll be Marisela’s age, and my daughter will be the age I am now."
"The floors are covered in a pale beige rug. Toys scattered all about. No one has cleaned the rug in months."
"The kitchen is cluttered and small, everything piled on shelves."
"Yrene’s nervousness makes me nervous, as if I’m doing something wrong."
"Ana’s gonna make a beautiful mother, he says."
"My daughter and me, one day running along the water, over the rocks."
"The light through the stained windows bathes my skin red, blue, and yellow."
"I press my purse against my body, thinking about all the things Juan has told me."
"The World’s Fair is two dollars a ticket. We need four dollars to enter."
"Flags, from all the countries represented, flap wildly."
"Pretend, pretend, pretend. Pretend the whippings didn’t hurt. Pretend I was listening. Pretend to care about the stories Juan told me and that I loved him. Pretend that I was happy about leaving my house in Los Guayacanes."
"I hold my belly and speak to it. Soon you’ll have a say with my life too."
"Reality is too depressing. Yohnny never liked school. He never listened. He always did what he wanted to do."
"I’ve trained all my life. Pretend, pretend, pretend."
"I stand there. Feet planted. I pull the sheet off the bed and over me."
"Juan’s sex points to the ceiling. He looks at me befuddled like a stranger."
"Let Juan be mad. Let César think I look ugly. It’s my hair."
"To be angry and not have the power to control your life. To not feel safe."
"Fires rage on television. Santo Domingo burns too."
"The apartment is a shithole, he says. I found a mouse in the toilet."
"Please insert ten cents for another three minutes."
"For something to be born, Papá always says, something has to die."
"I am on a boat crossing a river. Caridad wails from afar like a ship's horn."
"New York looks good on you, he says. You planning to stick around?"