Angie Cruz Quotes

Yes, I was lonely, but I knew then and I know now: I did it because I wanted to change my life. That's what we have to do. We step in the shit on purpose so we're forced to buy new shoes. You know what I'm saying?

Cara, we must not wait to live the life we want. Find a way to be present with the people you love.

A man doesn’t know what he thinks until a woman makes him think it.

Sometimes we need help to not drown in a glass of water.

Maybe if i just lie under the sun long enough I will melt like an ice cube and all my sadness will evaporate into the air so i can start again.

She knew I had to cry until I undrown from the inside.

She said, Don’t worry about me. I’ve done everything I’ve ever wanted to do. Cara, we must not wait to live the life we want. Find a way to be present with the people you love.

I want to forget everything and start again.

How many women get to choose who to marry and can truly dictate their own life? As God is my witness, my daughter will have choices.

I want to let myself die and live in dreams.

...in our lifetimes we have so much to survive.

I remember back to a time when I could walk on the beach without a pass from a hotel. When I was too young to fear getting raped, or hurt or lost.

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. They have a cement floor and a new bathroom.

I have never seen before was in front of the place for the hamburgers. You know the place — if you eat one, it’s OK, but if you eat two, you shit in your panties? Oh, you know it? You like it? Ay. Every time, I get a stomachache.

Nobody needed to know what happened between us. It felt good to keep it private. Like praying. You don’t have to announce that you pray. I don’t need no one to make me feel bad about it. José was the antídoto to some of the most poisonous years of my life. He filled the emptiness of my apartment.

Don’t forget about us. No lights are too bright to forget where you come from. Remember. Remember.

Dreaming is good to do when you're sleeping. But, as long as we're awake, nobody wants to go hungry.

did it because I wanted to change my life. That’s what we have to do. We step in the shit on purpose so we’re forced to buy new shoes.

If you're lucky, you find a man that you don't fall in the hole with.

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.

Lulú talks and talks because she dique knows everything. But when I say something, people listen. This I learned from my father. The less you say, the more the people listen.

Everybody cannot be calm. To be calm is a luxury!

That’s what therapists make you do. They make you spit on your mother. Everything is the mother’s fault.

When Ángela saw me cry, my sister said, You’re drowning in a glass of water.

I may not have a chair to sit on, he often says, but I have my word.

Talking reminds me that no matter how difficult my life is, I have always found a solution to my problems. When I think about this, I am not afraid. We can do this. I can do this.

He talked to me like he did when I was a child, when his voice was clear and melodic, his hair still dark, when he had only wrinkles around his eyes. He held my hand and patted it softly with every word, as if his words could be tattooed in my veins. He said trees grow up because they want to get closer to the stars. He said everybody is the center of their own world and yet they're just a speck in the universe. He said it's everyone's responsibility to not be afraid to love and to be loved. He told me that I was beautiful, that creating me was a good enough reason to live. He said every time he drank he was destroying a part of himself. We're afraid life is so short, we try to take from it as much as we can. We forget everything we need will come in due time. He said people need to have faith they will be taken care of, that people are part of this earth and the earth always gives us what we need.

When Juan gets mad, it's as if my dependence on him fuels the transformation in his body from concern, to anger, to fury. The veins in his neck swell, his eyes bulge, and he yells, You want trouble for us? His voice always rips through me. No, sir. Juan slaps me across the face so hard, blood pools between my teeth. That's so you remember, when I say not to do something, you have to respect it. You hear me? I look at my feet. I hold back my tears, slump my shoulders, and retreat just enough to show deference. I have learned a lot from growing up with animals.

nosotros.

Mamá has lived long enough to learn a man doesn’t know what he thinks until a woman makes him think it.

My sweet, hollow Dominicana will keep all of my secrets: she has no eyes, no lips, no mouth.

Men can only perform like men, mama always says, when women are doing everything. We're invisible little workers so they can puff out their chests.

She had a mouth like a mop: picking up the dirt from all the corners.

In the end, I got the best of that man. I never got the bad; only the sweet. We took good care of each other for many years.

Puffer fish inflate into a ball when they feel threatened as a warning to predators. The males work endlessly on designing their territories to attract a mate. Burrowing diligently with their fins, reorganizing shells. They work twenty-four hours and many many days without taking a break. The males have many mates and reign over multiple female territories. Once the female is in his territory and tries to leave he will bite her. The female is only allowed a visitor if the visiting fish mutes its bright blue, yellow, and orange spots so that the king puffer fish doesn’t feel threatened. You get what I’m saying, Ana?

Sometimes we need help to not drown in a glass of water.

no matter how difficult my life is, I have always found a solution to my problems. When I think about this, I am not afraid. We can do this. I can do it.

Dreaming is good to do when you’re sleeping. But as long as we’re awake, nobody wants to go hungry.

I don’t care if I die right there. I want him to thrust inside of me forever. Let this be our last day. Let us die right here.

Love, love, love. What good is it, if it can’t put food on the table.

To love you has blinded me from paying attention to my goals. Somehow love has made me soft and stupid.

To be angry and not have the power to control your life. To not feel safe. To depend on a person who reminds you how they can hurt you, even kill you, at their whim. I understand.

If a person seems inflexible, yield, then slip in sideways and get what you want.

I look at my feet. I hold back my tears, slump my shoulders, and retreat just enough to show deference. I have learned a lot from growing up with animals.

Welcome, Anita, to the club of mothers. Only we know what it’s like to carry another human being. At first it’s the size of a pea, then a grape, an apple, an avocado, then it’s as big as a papaya. To think something so big comes out of something so small. When I had my first one, ugh, I thought it would kill me, but I pushed and pushed, ready to die for the baby that I already loved like I’ve never loved anything else before. It’s extraordinary to stand on the edge of life and death. You’ll see. You’ll see.

She says if she surrounded herself with work by mediocre artists all day she’d slit her wrist with frustration. What do you mean? I find it inspiring. When was the last time you saw a Latina artist in a gallery? I never thought about it like that.

She said to me, I should’ve not lost so much time being afraid of her dying. But that’s normal, I told her. It’s difficult to lose your friend. Everybody gets afraid. We should be more like the animals, she said. The animals don’t think of the future or the past; they pay attention to what is happening in the present. It is enough to sit with a person. To brush the hair. To massage the feet. To bring them what they need. We can’t fight what we can’t control. She said she missed her.

Then I saw a photo of Adonis on Lulú's wall, and I became a fountain. Lulú gave me a box of Kleenex. She turned on the radio. She turned on the stove to make me dinner and told me that I can stay there as long as I needed, para desahogarme. You have never heard of that word? You said you're dominicana. You don't understand Spanish? Oh, just a little. OK. Desahogar: to undrown, to cry until you don't need to cry no more.

Talking reminds me that no matter how difficult my life is, I have always found a solution my problems. When I think about this, I am not afraid. We can do this. I can do this.

Why? You know why? Because I have an accent. I look dominicana. Do you feel American? Yes. Interesting. I don’t know, I think to get the papers is like marrying someone who has no feelings for me. But also sometimes getting married has benefits.

Sometimes life feels very small and other times it feels very rich. And when it feels small I think it’s because I don’t let myself, you know, enjoy the life.

Yes, I know, I have real problems. But it’s good to have people to remind us that we have survived a lot more than this.

you try to fix something that somebody do not want to fix they will hate you for it. To offer help is OK. To push, no.

How could mothers be happy when their children suffer? Impossible.

Ramón’s wife’s brother’s cousin’s sister,

Leave wreckage by the roadside. Burn all decayed tissue. Tightrope from which we emerge. —DAWN LUNDY MARTIN, GOOD STOCK STRANGE BLOOD

César picks it up and pulls out a chicken by its neck. Welcome to America, he says. He hands it to me. I look into its glassed-over eyes. . . . I've held plenty of chickens before, plucked, chopped, and cooked them too. But here, I want to save the chicken from its fate.

Puffer fish inflate into a ball when they feel threatened as a warning to predators. The males work endlessly on designing their territories to attract a mate. Burrowing diligently with their fins, reorganizing shells. They work twenty-four hours and many many days without taking a break. The males have many mates and reign over multiple female territories. Once the female is in his territory and tries to leave he will bite her. The female is only allowed a visitor if the visiting fish mutes its bright blue, yellow, and orange spots so that the king puffer fish doesn't feel threatened. You get what I'm saying, Ana?