Ilse Alva

“It's both creepy and out of my control, this ability I have to notice so much about other people when I'm positive no one notices anything at all about me.”
― Kate Elizabeth Russell, My Dark Vanessa

“People will risk everything for a little bit of something beautiful,”
― Kate Elizabeth Russell, My Dark Vanessa

“The twisted inversion that many children of immigrants know is that, at some point, your parents become your children, and your own personal American dream becomes making sure they age and die with dignity in a country that has never wanted them.”
― Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, The Undocumented Americans

“I don’t feel forced, and I know I have the power to say no, but that isn’t the same as being in charge.”
― Kate Elizabeth Russell, My Dark Vanessa