Family Lore

“I truly became human when I became pregnant with you. Nothing, not even making love, had ever arrived me to my own body like growing another person.”

Here, Acevedo reveals Ona as Flor’s means of grounding herself. Only by creating life can Flor overcome the dehumanizing nature of her death dreams.

“Even in their campo back home, folks had whispered that Matilde might be the sister without magic, but she was also the only of her kin who could fly; her tacones seemingly hovered the ground when an orchestra was in her presence.”

This quote reveals part of Matilde’s tragedy in relation to her family. She is not only denied her sisters’ gifts, but her self-made gift (dancing) will eventually be condemned by Mamá Silvia.

“Before Rafa thrust open the door, and there was the blissful then of a few moments ago, and the impossibly hungry future yawning in front of her, Tía Matilde had just enough wherewithal to understand that she was undergoing a rite of quote, experiencing an in-betweenness, and just like the ceremony she’d undergone to become his wife, this too would undo a former self and would concretize a self not yet formed.”

This quote is the exact moment Rafa begins to destroy Matilde’s hope for a happy marriage. Acevedo implies Matilde is unaware of his infidelity and about to lose her innocence—both in terms of virginity and their future together.

“Still, she refused to be tragic. She knew how to be happy for others. She knew she participated in the world as more than a womb.”

In this quote, Acevedo underscores the complexity of her characters who want children. Like Ona, Matilde is a woman who knows she is a person outside of her capacity to bear children, but is still plagued by her five miscarriages.

“None of the women in my family had language for mental health crisis or postpartum depression back then. And I’ve done very little reading on it myself, but the babies Mamá Silvia lost before and after Pastora seemed to have brought on a heightened rancor that Mamá Silvia reserved exclusively for her fourth child.”

This quote supports the theme of The Cost of Silence. While Silvia was never particularly vocal in her love, her postpartum depression partially explains this tendency. The medical condition would later be acknowledged as a possible symptom after childbirth, but was no less taboo of a topic for the Marte women and other mothers.

“There were so many moments she’d closed and shelved, books she couldn’t finish and had never returned to. And now Ona was running her fingers down all the spines, asking about the titles. Asking to thumb the pages.”

Acevedo uses books as a metaphor for Pastora’s trauma, which she actively suppresses upon being questioned by Ona. This insight adds nuance to the otherwise opinionated woman, as her obsession with “helping” her sisters is born of trauma—of being made to feel like a curse by their mother and other relatives.

“Estranged would not have been the right word for the dynamic Mamá had with her family. More like Mamá Silvia had been exiled several towns over, but with visitation rights.”

This quote captures the Martes’ cycle of intergenerational harm, which can be traced well beyond Silvia’s childrearing. Among the Martes, it is Silvia’s grandchildren, Ona and Yadi, who at least challenge the cycle, if not end it.

“[…] knowing what he was and wasn’t saying despite the mask his words donned. Flor had always told her, when Pastora complained about her lack of supernatural talent, that knowing so much was an expensive cost.”

Pastora discovers her gift of truth-hearing, and though it helps her decipher the Santana boy’s intent, this quote also foreshadows her exile to La Vieja. At times, Acevedo implies lies have a purpose and may not be malicious, but Pastora will only ever know them as such.

“It was a strange bequest, in a family where no one passed down heirlooms, inheriting a taste for limes.”

In this quote, limes connect grandmother (Silvia) and grandchild (Yadi), homeland (the Dominican Republic) and home (North America), creating continuity within the Martes’ cultural identity. Limes also foreshadow Ona’s research project, which will become an heirloom for future generations (including her own baby).

“Her thumb had run over this spot [a Baby Jesus sticker] a thousand, no, tens of thousands of times, and while it might soothe a bit, the air pocket always came back; a bulging, barbed heart that could not be tamed by gentle fingers.”

Here, Acevedo uses a Baby Jesus sticker to represent Rafa and Matilde’s marriage. It is a metaphor for Rafa’s infidelity and Matilde’s desire for children and habit of caressing Rafa, to plead for loyalty.

“It was unspoken in her household that life in general would have been easier if it’d been just me and her. Which is a complicated sentiment to come to terms with when a man is not violent, or a cheater, but is still a man who puts his own desires and addictions over the well-being of those who sacrifice for him time and again.”

This quote reveals Ona’s contentious relationship with her father Pedro. Despite harboring affection for him, their relationship was made toxic by his alcoholism and indirect introduction of pornography.

“Here, in el campo, it was not the official government but an ecosystem of county rules and neighborly codependence that met the needs of the community.”

In this quote, Acevedo highlights America’s shortcomings. Despite the country having an official governing body, in the end, it is smaller communities that maintain the safety of their members.

“Although she had been a girl when the rabble and rubble Americans had occupied the Dominican Republic the first time, Mamá Silvia never talked about the memories of the soldiers with wide smiles and big guns and very little honor, as evidenced by how they’d terrorized the countryside. All dark-skinned, blue-eyed folks in this area knew exactly how they’d been begotten.”

Here, Acevedo refers to the American occupation of the Dominican Republic in 1916-1924. Under the pretense of forcing Dominican people to repay their debts to European creditors, troops were deployed, and civilian unrest followed. Only when Horacio Vásquez Lajara, a US ally, won the presidential election did the occupation end. This history is meant to contextualize Silvia’s life before having her own children.

“Matilde felt it was a kind of vindication; their kids returned and grabbed hold of what had slipped through the older generation’s fingers.”

Matilde believes Yadi and Ona are actively reclaiming their cultural identities through their respective projects. Yadi’s shop enshrines Dominican food within New York as opposed to letting it be forgotten, while Ona pursues a research project on the family.

“The need for safety, for freedom, is one so many young ethnically Latine and Black boys (especially) have had hardwired since the first rupture that made peopling so complicated in this hemisphere.”

In this quote, Acevedo uses America’s history of enslavement to contextualize humans’ natural desire to belong. To her, when individual desire meets a societal desire to exploit, it is only natural to seek out others for freedom and safety.

“But in this life, very few of Flor’s fantasies ever became real. What she should have told him that day was that she knew she would not die by mis-chewed sweetness.”

In this quote, Acevedo hints at Flor’s growing certainty in her power and The Limitations of Foreknowledge. Though she has her own dreams, she never acts on them because she believes in a predetermined fate.

“I have never heard my aunt shy from saying anything that needed to be said, but she can’t say her aunt’s name to this day. Some folks’ names need not be uttered back to us.”

Pastora’s inability to use her mother’s full name is reflective of her trauma, as Silvia was verbally abusive to her younger self. As someone taught to endure hardships no matter how painful, her only recourse in this case is silence.

“Mamá Silvia would have far flung all her children to extended family on both sides, as if her offspring’s petty labor would earn back the warmth her people had rescinded. Or perhaps because she truly thought she was doing best by her blood.”

Ironically, Silvia’s true self has been lost to silence and death due to her parenting style. As per Ona’s ongoing project, her story is one of many to be documented.

“That Pastora knows of, this instance of saviorship was the only time her sister ever intervened to thwart the outcomes of one of her dreams.”

In this quote, Acevedo implies Flor has the ability to modify the future should she so choose. She takes predicted deaths for granted, but saved Pastora from La Vieja—implying she saw her sister endure a different fate and thus chose to intervene. This moment also reinforces her empathy for others despite years of detachment—especially Pastora and Ona.

“There were the ones who arrived with spittle hanging from their mouths, hungry for humans’ sixth sense: belonging.”

Like Important Quote #16, Acevedo highlights humans’ natural desire to belong through Ona’s research project. As she grapples with the meaning of life, culture, and her career, her family’s missing stories drive her to dig deeper—and in the process, rediscover herself.

“Since the day Pastora had first understood her gift, she’d never questioned it. She just knew what there was to know. But what if the same way the gifts arrived, the gifts left, or faded? What if the gift wasn’t infallible? Pastora pressed a dizzying hand to her stomach.”

This quote supports The Cost of Silence and The Limitations of Foreknowledge. Though the Marte women accept their gifts, their knowledge is limited because they lack clear instructions—mirroring their collective reluctance to share grievances.

“They made me lose one girl. That family won’t cost me another. We need to get you married.”

Due to being a child at the time of her exile, Pastora believes Silvia willingly abandoned her. Both characters are flawed, as the adult Pastora fails to recognize the cost of her actions as a child, while Silvia protected her children in toxic ways. Ultimately, Silvia regrets not stopping the Santana family from accusing Pastora of theft—and attempts to stop history from repeating itself by forcing Camila to marry a stable man.

“It was a practice Flor found more curious than heartbreaking, the way her mother could never show concerns for the child in front of her, except to ask about her after she’d left. As if showing softness in the face of a person would render her, what, weak? Soft? Motherly?”

Despite her harsh façade, Silvia expresses love indirectly. Strength has been so ingrained in her that she is unable to show tenderness for her children—which they internalize in toxic ways.