Latinas Quotes

HASTA LA VICTORIA SIEMPRE

She's applying her lipstick; I've always believed that the universe invented the color red solely for Latinas.

I have never bought into the idea that blood is thicker than water. Love and respect are meant to be earned from our children, our spouses, our families, and our friends.

I have always been taught to be proud of being Latina, proud of being Mexican, and I was. I was probably more proud of being a "label" than of being a human being, that's the way most of us were taught.

When we illuminate the road back to our ancestors, they have a way of reaching out, of manifesting themselves...sometimes even physically.

Shakespeare had it right all along: Love will kill you in the end.

Individually, every grain of sand brushing against my hands represents a story, an experience, and a block for me to build upon for the next generation.

I guess it all depends on whom you ask and when you ask. Race, I've learned, is in the eye of the beholder.

I remember feeling that pieces of me were scattered around the world; I belonged to her, Mother Earth.

A mother isn’t the person who births you; it’s the person who rears you and shows you love.

...being Latino means being from everywhere, and that is exactly what America is supposed to be about.

The things that come to us easily, our propensities, are carried on a deep subconscious level into our next life. There are no coincidences.

Why is it women have to bring all this angst into sex? We should be more like men. In. Out. Over. Next.

For some, excavating the past isn’t an adventure, it’s more akin to tearing a Band-Aid off an open wound.

Are Latino-Americans white? Black? Other? Illegal aliens from Mars? Or are we the very face of America?

El desarrollo es un viaje con más náufragos que navegantes.

I wish she’d said something different, but patriarchy is as prevalent around the world as racism and xenophobia are. We can’t hide from it, not even here.

Latinos are here to stay. As citizen Raquel, I'm proud to be Latina.

Cuanto más codiciado por el mercado mundial, mayor es la desgracia que un producto trae consigo al pueblo latinoamericano que, con su sacrificio, lo crea.

While America will always, I think, feel foreign to me, New York City is my home. This is where I can construct my own identity freely and reject labels imposed on me.

In reality, Eduardo hoped the mask would make him appear vulnerable and self conscious, like a wounded animal these stupid women would fight each other over to mend.

Religious disintegration began with colonization.

The hospital room was as cold as dead skin, the hallway crowded with lost souls and reeking of illness.

Women destroy me. I allow them to.

This thing I am feeling, I’m almost certain, is the closest I’ll ever come to standing somewhere in between truth and reconciliation.

Los indios han padecido y padecen - síntesis del drama de toda América Latina- la maldición de su propia riqueza.

El subdesarrollo no es una etapa del desarrollo. Es su consecuencia. El subdesarrollo de América Latina proviene del desarrollo ajeno y continúa alimentándolo.

What about other women of color? For Hispanic and Latina women, Indian women, Middle Eastern women, Asian women, their absence in popular culture is even more pronounced, their need for relief just as palpable and desperate.

¿Qué decir de la gratitud que América Latina debe a la Coca-Cola, que cobra carísimas licencias industriales para proporcionarles una pasta que se disuelve en agua y se mezcla con azúcar y gas?

We aren’t encouraged to think for ourselves and ask questions. We are expected to accept what they teach us as infallible truths.

We travel with the same clan over and over again, from one life to the next, until some ultimate purpose is fulfilled and we no longer need to return.

Our identities are as fluid as our personal experiences are diverse.

If it weren’t for her setting me free, I may still be a caged bird today, holding my own daughter captive on a shit-laden perch.

Only a bitch of color comes to Harvard to get pregnant. White women don't do that. Asian women don't do that. Only fucking black and Latina women. Why go to all the trouble to get into Harvard just to get knocked up? You could have stayed on the block and done that shit.

And while it is okay to acknowledge that all kinds of women, whether white, Black, Indigenous, Latina, Asian, cis, gender nonconforming, trans, queer, bi, or straight might have different experiences, it's not cool to act as though transwomen are in some entirely separate category from the more general category of woman. That is something that feminism needs to be clear on - that it isn't feminism if all women's concerns, particularly the most marginalized women's concerns, aren't taken seriously.

Perhaps finding out that we carry New World history in our genes will transcend racial checkboxes altogether and enable Latino-Americans to rethink what America is supposed to look like.

Nobody, she felt, understood her--not her mother, not her father, not her sister or brother, none of the girls or boys at school, nadie--except her man.

Foisting an identity on people rather than allowing them the freedom and space to create their own is shady.

Paradise is a state of being, more than just the name of a suburb or a home.

Even the juncture in history and the zeitgeist we live in is something we choose, setting the scene for the spiritual fodder we need to grow and achieve deeper elevation of our souls.

Listen kid, it’s just you and me now, so let’s help each other out. Always be honest with me, and show me how to be the mother and father I never had. I’ll make a mess of things sometimes, and I’m sorry in advance, but I’ll try. My word is bond.

Marginalized women, specifically Black and Latina women, make up the largest group of laborers in a capitalist system. Our labor historically has been used to make the lives of white women less hectic and more relaxed.

Barbara appraised her with critical eyes. ‘Oh my. Well, this is going to need some work.’ She went right to Carmen’s hips and pulled the unfinished seams open. ‘Yes, we’ll have to take this way out. I’m not sure I have enough fabric. I’ll check when I get back to my office.’ You are a horrible witch, Carmen thought. She knew she looked absolutely awful in the dress. She was part Bourbon Street whore and part Latina first-communion spectacle.

They sounded a lot like me and my old girlfriend Loretta, but I swore to myself that I would stop thinking about her ass, even though every Cleopatra-looking Latina in the city made me stop and wish she would come back to me.

More than anything, this place feels familiar. I bury my hands in the hot sand and think about the embodiment of memory or, more specifically, our natural ability to carry the past in our bodies and minds. Individually, every grain of sand brushing against my hands represents a story, an experience, and a block for me to build upon for the next generation. I quietly thank this ancestor of mine for surviving the trip so that I could one day return.

Lately, Mami’s eyes have been so dark, I don’t like looking into them because I’m afraid I’ll fall in.

You are meant to be, despite how you got here; you’ll see someday.

Come to think of it, maybe God is a He after all, because only a cruel force would create something this beautiful and make it inaccessible to most people.

Cuando el Estado se hace dueño de la principal riqueza de un país, corresponde preguntarse quién es el dueño del Estado.

Hay quienes creen que el destino descansa en las rodillas de los dioses, pero la verdad es que trabaja, como un desafío candente, sobre las conciencias de los hombres.

In 1996, when two-thirds of the crack users were White or Latina/o, 84.5 percent of the defendants convicted of crack possession were Black.

I have thin lips, like two rose petals on top of each other, and I would say I have a Roman nose, but it doesn’t speak Latin.
 Sane, paululum linguae Latinae dico. Caveat emptor!

Que importa a gramática de raiz latina quando duas bocas estão demasiado próximas para que qualquer vocábulo possa ser dito?

Il latino è una lingua precisa, essenziale. Verrà abbandonata non perché inadeguata alle nuove esigenze del progresso, ma perché gli uomini nuovi non saranno più adeguati ad essa. Quando inizierà l’era dei demagoghi, dei ciarlatani, una lingua come quella latina non potrà più servire e qualsiasi cafone potrà impunemente tenere un discorso pubblico e parlare in modo tale da non essere cacciato a calci giù dalla tribuna. E il segreto consisterà nel fatto che egli, sfruttando un frasario approssimativo, elusivo e di gradevole effetto “sonoro” potrà parlare per un’ora senza dire niente. Cosa impossibile col latino.

Soñé que asistía a mi propio entierro, a pie, caminando entre un grupo de amigos vestidos de luto solemne, pero con un ánimo de fiesta. Todos parecíamos dichosos de estar juntos. Y yo más que nadie, por aquella grata oportunidad que me daba la muerte para estar con mis amigos de América Latina, los más antiguos, los más queridos, los que no veía desde hacía más tiempo. Al final de la ceremonia, cuando empezaron a irse, yo intenté acompañarlos, pero uno de ellos me hizo ver con una severidad terminante que para mí se había acabado la fiesta. «Eres el único que no puede irse», me dijo. Sólo entonces comprendí que morir es no estar nunca más con los amigos.

Hip-hop is storytelling.

This is what I know about my parents. They spent the next several years trying to forget each other, and me.

The truth is usually left for us to hunt and gather independently, if we are so inclined.

Globalization by the way of McDonald’s and KFC has captured the hearts, the minds, and from what I can see through the window, the growing bellies of the folks here.

There are things in our blood that are just naturally passed down to us, whether we want to recognize them or not.

«La muerte es cierta, la hora incierta. Cada cual tiene su tiempo marcado»,

El sistema ha multiplicado el hambre y el miedo; la riqueza continuó concentrándose y la pobreza difundiéndose. Así

The myths of the Strong Black Woman from chapter one, the Wise Indian, the Submissive Asian, and the Sassy Latina do more than show up in bad TV shows. They influence the perception that women who are not white do not experience a full range of emotions, much less suffer from the same mental health issues.

I have always been taught to be proud of being Latina, proud of being Mexican, and I was. I was probably more proud of being a "label" than of being a human being, that's the way most of us were taught. Since the day we enter this world we were a label, a number, a statistic, that's just the way it is. Now if you ask me what race I am, like Zlata, I'll simply say, "I'm a human being.

Escribo y escribiré toda mi vida en español; el francés lo guardo para la correspondencia cuando tengo que escribirle a algún francés. El español es mi lengua de escritor y hoy más que nunca creo que la defensa del español como lengua forma parte de una larga lucha en América Latina que abarca muchos otros temas y muchas otras razones de lucha. La defensa del idioma es absolutamente capital. Si hay un espectáculo penoso es el de latinoamericanos que al cabo de muy poco tiempo en un país extranjero permiten que su idioma se degrade y el segundo idioma comience a entrar; hay una excepción a esto que estoy diciendo y es el caso de las gentes de un nivel mínimo de educación, porque no se les puede exigir de ninguna manera que tengan un control crítico de su lenguaje.

I have no doubt that we will one day abolish the death penalty in America. It will come sooner if people like me who know the truth about executions do our work well and educate the public. It will come slowly if we do not. Because, finally, I know that it is not a question of malice or ill will or meanness of spirit that prompts our citizens to support executions. It is, quite simply, that people don't know the truth of what is going on. That is not by accident. The secrecy surrounding executions makes it possible for executions to continue. I am convinced that if executions were made public, the torture and violence would be unmasked, and we would be shamed into abolishing executions. We would be embarrassed at the brutalization of the crowds that would gather to watch a man or woman be killed. And we would be humiliated to know that visitors from other countries - Japan, Russia, Latina America, Europe - were watching us kill our own citizens - we, who take pride in being the flagship of democracy in the world. (p. 197)

Sometimes opposites attract, or so they say, but Paloma and Rocío were like arroz and mangú: they didn’t really mix well.

I think Dad wanted to feel the pain, to feel his body cry, an urgent reminder that he was still alive. I pretended not to notice.

Hip-hop...has been the proverbial key that’s opened the door for me to roam this breathtaking planet.

To me, travel is more valuable than any stupid piece of bling money can buy.

Discretion is a polite word for hypocrisy. Tea Party Teddy

En América Latina resulta más higiénico y eficaz matar a los guerrilleros en los úteros que en las sierras o en las calles.

As Kimberlé Crenshaw reported1 in 2014, the median wealth, defined as the total value of one’s assets minus one’s debts, of single black women is $100; for single Latina women it is $120; those figures are compared to $41,500 for single white women. And for married white couples? A startling $167,500.2

El duende is literally the goblin wind or force behind a person’s actions and creative life, including the way they walk, the sound of their voice, even the way they lift their little finger. It is a term used in flamenco dance, and is also used to describe the ability to “think” in poetic images. Among Latina curanderas who recollect story, it is understood as the ability to be filled with spirit that is more than one’s own spirit. Whether one is the artist or whether one is the watcher, listener, or reader, when el duende is present, one sees it, hears it, reads it, feels it underneath the dance, the music, the words, the art; one knows it is there. When el duende is not present, one knows that too.

I fall in love with Paraíso. It’s like a giant playground where I’m never scolded for running around recklessly, where I’m almost overwhelmed with the amount of attention and love I receive from Mami’s family. In New York, I’m invisible.

The tension between people is palpable, and the ideal of what it means to be and look American becomes a preoccupation to folks around the country, including me.

The gaping hole in her heart is amplified when she catches a glimpse of the strands of silver hair framing her once young face in the mirror.

If Aphrodite chills at home in Cyprus for most of the year, then Fez must be the goddess’s playground.

Hip-hop, this thing we love that loves us back, is our lingua franca.

Constituimos una sola raza mestiza que desde México hasta el estrecho de Magallanes presenta notables similitudes etnográficas.

«Sería curioso que del seno mismo de los Estados Unidos, de donde nos viene el mal, naciese también el remedio».

La causa nacional latinoamericana es, ante todo, una causa social: para que América Latina pueda nacer de nuevo, habrá que empezar por derribar a sus dueños, país por país. Se abren tiempos de rebelión y de cambio. Hay quienes creen que el destino descansa en las rodillas de los dioses, pero la verdad es que trabaja, como un desafío candente, sobre las conciencias de los hombres. Montevideo, fines de 1970.

Estoy convencido de que nunca nos sucede nada que no hayamos previsto, nada para lo que no estemos preparados. Nos han tocado malos tiempos, como a todos los hombres, y hay que aprender a vivir sin ilusiones

io, mio caro, non credo nell'amore universale. L'amore esiste in dosi modiche. Si possono amare forse cinque fra uomini e donne, dieci magari, talvolta financo quindici. E anche questo solo assai di rado. Ma se uno arriva e mi dice che ama tutto il Terzo mondo, o ama l'America Latina, o ama il sesso femminile, quello non è amore ma retorica. Pura demagogia. Slogan. Non siamo nati per amare più di una manciata di persone.

Alice’s razor-thin blond hair is what people in Santo Domingo call bueno, but I don’t understand how that kind of hair can be good. It doesn’t move at all, or ripple like the water in Boca Chica when I throw shells at it.

She looks like an empty shell of a woman with her soul hovering above her. We believe in spiritual guías in Santo Domingo. Hers is her own self. I can see Mami’s soul desperately trying to find its way back into her small body.

Uno escribe para tratar de responder a las preguntas que le zumban en la cabeza, moscas tenaces que perturban el sueño, y lo que uno escribe puede cobrar sentido colectivo cuando de alguna manera coincide con la necesidad social de respuesta.

la próxima vez que te encuentres con el Che Guevara en una camiseta, en la portada de un álbum de rock o en el bikini de una modelo, ve ahí la buena noticia. La imagen es una prueba de que vives en un sistema más libre que el defendido por el Che.

The Dominican Republic is my holy land, my Mecca.

To the ancients, bears symbolized resurrection. The creature goes to sleep for a long time, its heartbeat decreases to almost nothing. The male often impregnates the female right before hibernation, but miraculously, egg and sperm do not unite right away. They float separately in her uterine broth until much later. Near the end of hibernation, the egg and sperm unite and cell division begins, so that the cubs will be born in the spring when the mother is awakening, just in time to care for and teach her new offspring. Not only by reason of awakening from hibernation as though from death, but much more so because the she-bear awakens with new young, this creature is a profound metaphor for our lives, for return and increase coming from something that seemed deadened. The bear is associated with many huntress Goddesses: Artemis and Diana in Greece and Rome, and Muerte and Hecoteptl, mud women deities in the Latina cultures. These Goddesses bestowed upon women the power of tracking, knowing, 'digging out' the psychic aspects of all things. To the Japanese the bear is the symbol of loyalty, wisdom, and strength. In northern Japan where the Ainu tribe lives, the bear is one who can talk to God directly and bring messages back for humans. The cresent moon bear is considered a sacred being, one who was given the white mark on his throat by the Buddhist Goddess Kwan-Yin, whose emblem is the crescent moon. Kwan-Yin is the Goddess of Deep Compassion and the bear is her emissary. "In the psyche, the bear can be understood as the ability to regulate one's life, especially one's feeling life. Bearish power is the ability to move in cycles, be fully alert, or quiet down into a hibernative sleep that renews one's energy for the next cycle. The bear image teaches that it is possible to maintain a kind of pressure gauge for one's emotional life, and most especially that one can be fierce and generous at the same time. One can be reticent and valuable. One can protect one's territory, make one's boundaries clear, shake the sky if need be, yet be available, accessible, engendering all the same.

De acuerdo con los términos de este breve pero jugoso manifiesto capitalista, la ley de la selva es el código que naturalmente rige la vida humana y la injusticia no existe, puesto que lo que conocemos por injusticia no es más que la expresión de la cruel armonía del universo: son países son pobres, son pobres porque... son pobres; el destino está escrito en los astros y solo nacemos para cumplirlo: unos, condenados a obedecer; otros señalados para mandar. El autor fue el artífice de la política del Fondo Monetario Internacional en Brasil.

Besos Hay besos que pronuncian por sí solos la sentencia de amor condenatoria, hay besos que se dan con la mirada hay besos que se dan con la memoria. Hay besos silenciosos, besos nobles hay besos enigmáticos, sinceros hay besos que se dan sólo las almas hay besos por prohibidos, verdaderos. Hay besos que calcinan y que hieren, hay besos que arrebatan los sentidos, hay besos misteriosos que han dejado mil sueños errantes y perdidos. Hay besos problemáticos que encierran una clave que nadie ha descifrado, hay besos que engendran la tragedia cuantas rosas en broche han deshojado. Hay besos perfumados, besos tibios que palpitan en íntimos anhelos, hay besos que en los labios dejan huellas como un campo de sol entre dos hielos. Hay besos que parecen azucenas por sublimes, ingenuos y por puros, hay besos traicioneros y cobardes, hay besos maldecidos y perjuros. Judas besa a Jesús y deja impresa en su rostro de Dios, la felonía, mientras la Magdalena con sus besos fortifica piadosa su agonía. Desde entonces en los besos palpita el amor, la traición y los dolores, en las bodas humanas se parecen a la brisa que juega con las flores. Hay besos que producen desvaríos de amorosa pasión ardiente y loca, tú los conoces bien son besos míos inventados por mí, para tu boca. Besos de llama que en rastro impreso llevan los surcos de un amor vedado, besos de tempestad, salvajes besos que solo nuestros labios han probado. ¿Te acuerdas del primero...? Indefinible; cubrió tu faz de cárdenos sonrojos y en los espasmos de emoción terrible, llenáronse de lágrimas tus ojos. ¿Te acuerdas que una tarde en loco exceso te vi celoso imaginando agravios, te suspendí en mis brazos... vibró un beso, y qué viste después...? Sangre en mis labios. Yo te enseñé a besar: los besos fríos son de impasible corazón de roca, yo te enseñé a besar con besos míos inventados por mí, para tu boca. Este maravilloso poema de Gabriela Mistral, nos describe de una manera muy simple y sentida, una de las grandes expresiones de amor o quizas las principal. Me he tomado el trabajo de narrarlo, asumiendo el riesgo de no ser capaz de transmitir la verdadera intensidad o altura que tienen las palabras de esta destacada artista de las letras. Lucila de María Godoy Alcayaga, conocida como Gabriela Mistral. Nacida en Vicuña, Chile el 7 de abril de 1889 y fallecida Nueva York, el 10 de enero de 1957, Poetisa, diplomática, y pedagoga. Gabriela Mistral, una de las principales figuras de la literatura chilena y latinoamericana, fue la primera persona de América Latina en ganar el Premio Nobel de Literatura,2 que recibió en 1945.

Animal? Ao pensar nesse termo sentiu um leve embaraço. Era um animal, Luisito? Ou era algo diferente? O que era afinal um animal? No desdém do uso comum, as pessoas esqueciam-se muito facilmente da essência dessa palavra. Anima, o termo latina para alma. Sim, o animal era alguém que possuía alma. Por outro lado, não estava muito certa de que se pudesse dizer a mesma coisa da maior parte dos seres humanos." In "Um companheiro inesquecível", página 34

Este o crima, o rusine pentru fiecare om sa stie ca exista pe lume doua sute cincizeci de milioane de copii exploatati. Obligati sa munceasca de la cinci-sase ani, in locuri insalubre, sa presteze zile de munca istovitoare pentru cativa banuti cand au noroc, deoarece multi copii lucreaza in stare de sclavie sau semisclavie, fara protectie legala sau medicala. Aceste milioane de copii analfabeti, mai slabi si mai scunzi decat copiii nostri care merg la scoala, sufera de boli infectioase, rani, amputari si umilinte de toate felurile. Ii intalnim atat in marile orase ale lumii, cat si in tarile cele mai sarace. In America Latina exista cincisprezece milioane de copii exploatati.

Anger and tears create the space for the work of the Spirit. They are the groaning of the Spirit for renewal or creation and an expression of compassion thus revealing a deep spiritual well. To fear our tears or to suppress our anger is to block the power of the spirit springing forth from within our spiritual wells to resist death and to sustain and renew life.

Traveling further ingrained my desire to connect to a place other than an island that is slightly older, in a New World way, than the United States, especially after I found characteristics of my face in the faces of the people in my global community.

Por el camino hasta perdimos el derecho de llamarnos americanos, aunque los haitianos y los cubanos ya habían asomado a la historia, como pueblos nuevos, un siglo antes de que los peregrinos del Mayflower se establecieran en las costas de Plymouth. Ahora América es, para el resto del mundo, nada mas que los Estados Unidos: nosotros habitamos, a lo sumo, una sub América, una América de segunda clases, de nebulosa identificación.

At Harvard, the strong and savvy and confident thrived, while the nice or shy or quaintly moral were just bit players. In Ysleta, you believed in God because you were poor and needed something to hold on to. At Harvard, you believed in your good luck or bad luck, in all-nighters, in your political savvy.

Hoy día, para abrir una empresa en Irlanda hacen falta sólo tres procedimientos legales que se realizan en un promedio de doce días, según las tablas del Banco Mundial.4 Comparada con México, donde se requieren siete trámites legales y cincuenta y un días, o la Argentina, donde hacen falta quince trámites burocráticos y sesenta y ocho días, Irlanda es un paraíso para las inversiones extranjeras.

Qual è il colmo degli errori di traduzione? Non lo immaginate? Ce lo dice il filologo Maurizio Bettini, autore di un magistrale saggio sulla traduzione nelle culture del passato [...]. Per non farla troppo lunga, il colmo degli errori di traduzione è che...il significato attuale del verbo "tradurre", inteso come "volgere da una lingua all'altra", deriva da un clamoroso errore di traduzione. [...] "Traductum" significa "introdotto". Senonché, l'umanista Leonardo Bruni fraintese "traductum", forse confondendolo con "translatum", e lo rese non con "introdotto", come avrebbe dovuto fare correttamente, ma con "tradotto". Non solo, ma da allora prese ad usare sistematicamente "traducere" nel senso di "tradurre", significato che nella lingua latina non aveva mai avuto. [...] Per un gioco del destino, quindi, la stessa esistenza del verbo "tradurre", che diamo per scontata e pacifica, deriva da un errore di traduzione, compiuto da un singolo individuo, poi propagatosi a macchia d'olio in tutto il mondo occidentale! Sorprendente, no? ("111 errori di traduzione che hanno cambiato il mondo", pagg. 230-231)