Marisabel

“A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It's where the rich use public transportation.”
― Gustavo Petro

“All these literary patriarchs paraded their woe like it was some main event. Hamlet brooded, Romeo beat his chest, Willy went mad. Why didn’t they dance like the Perez women? Were they so above the fray? No billboards or sitcoms had declared my Perez cousins queen, and I now saw freedom in this. No false thrones, just the shitstorm of life. Grab a shovel and sing a work song. Build a throne that’s real.”
― Quiara Alegría Hudes, My Broken Language

“Language was not what connected us as a family. A dinner table ritual, where people gather to discuss news of the day, was not at the heart of how we communicated. Bodies were the mother tongue at Abuela’s, with Spanish second and English third. Dancing and ass-slapping, palmfuls of rice, ponytail-pulling and wound-dressing, banging a pot to the clave beat. Hands didn’t get lost in translation. Hips bridged gaps where words failed.”
― Quiara Alegría Hudes, My Broken Language

“Zipping my lips meant swallowing my contradictions and confusions, guarding the flavor for only myself.”
― Quiara Alegría Hudes, My Broken Language