“ And the shortcuts through the woods that led to the next barrio where all sorts of pocavergüenzas took place. Esmeralda Santiago
“ I dressed to their murmurs in the other room, their voices soft but strained, and I wondered if men ever talked like this, if their sorrows ever spilled into these secret cadences. Esmeralda Santiago
“ They have no achievements of their own. They've made nothing, created nothing, worked at nothing. They will leave no trace that they ever existed. They have no legacy except for their names, which the… Esmeralda Santiago
“ Envy, Doña Lola had once said, eats at you from the inside and turns your eyes green when you look at the person of whom you’re jealous. Esmeralda Santiago
“ There were more fights, more arguments, more yelling in the night, more long absences. Until it seemed as if anything would be better than living with these people who hated each other. Esmeralda Santiago
“ It seemed too complicated, as if each one of us were really two people, one who was loved and the official one who, I assumed, was not. Esmeralda Santiago
“ I learned you pay for your happiness. That's why I don't expect to be happy all the time. I'd rather be surprised by one moment every so often to remind me that joy is possible, even if I have to pay… Esmeralda Santiago
“ In the Spanish-speaking Americas, Christmas is much more than a one-day event followed by a staggering credit card bill. The festivities last for weeks, beginning well before Christmas, and continuing… Esmeralda Santiago
“ We came to Macun when I was four, to a rectangle of rippled metal sheets on stilts hovering in the middle of a circle of red dirt. Esmeralda Santiago
“ She’d worried at the beginning when she first met them that there were too many patrones. But within weeks she was sure that there was really one boss, and that the other three were working for her. Esmeralda Santiago
“ For me, the person I was becoming when we left was erased, and another one was created. Esmeralda Santiago
“ Another train will come. Why rush? Why worry? Why go crazy? Another train will come. And sure enough, another train going my way was pulling into the station. My bad mood evaporated. I entered the car… Esmeralda Santiago
“ El bohío de la loma, bajo sus alas de paja, siente el frescor mañanero y abre sus ojos al alba. Vuela el pájara del nido. Brinca el gallo de la rama. A los becerros, aislados de las tetas de las vacas… Esmeralda Santiago
“ N the tropical climates of the Caribbean and the temperate climes of South America, where Christmas falls smack in the middle of summer, there is no Santa arriving on a sleigh, no jingle bells in the… Esmeralda Santiago
