How we cite our quotes: ("Abbreviated chapter name," page)
Quote #7
"Solitude, Celia realizes now, exists for us not to remember but to forget. On the long train ride from the countryside, Celia lost her mother's face, the lies that had complicated her mouth. The life Celia was leaving seemed no longer significant." ("Fire," 92)
While Celia generally thinks fondly of living with Tía Alicia, there is a deep-seated ache in her at the loss of her natal family. Again, it is an issue of abandonment, a kind of familial exile from which she is never released.
Quote #8
"Most days Cuba is kind of dead to me. But every once in a while, a wave of longing will hit me and it's all I can do not to hijack a plane to Havana or something. I resent the hell out of the politicians and the generals who force events on us that rupture our lives, that dictate the memories we'll have when we're old." ("Attitude," 137-38)
Pilar is recovering from her teenage love affair with Cuba, but finds that her longing to know the land of her birth and be reconnected with her grandmother still remains. Her own indifference is a symptom of her inability to access the island—she is hoping to lose her longing for a place she cannot have.
Quote #9
"I felt that I was meant to live in this colder world, a world that preserved history. In Cuba, everything seemed temporal, distorted by the sun." ("Baskets," 146)
While his cousin Pilar is in a cold place thinking about how much she belongs in the tropics, Ivanito fantasizes (as Lourdes did) of a place that is the total opposite of Cuba. We're not sure why he believes the colder world does a better or more honorable job with history (other than the remarks made by his errant Russian teacher), but he clearly is a boy with ideas.