How we cite our quotes: ("Abbreviated chapter name," page)
Quote #4
"In the final dialogue with her husband, before he took her to the asylum, Celia talked about how the baby had no shadow, how the earth in its hunger had consumed it. She held their child by one leg, handed her to Jorge, and said, 'I will not remember her name.'" ("Palmas Street," 42-43)
Celia's mental state is fragile at this point (thanks to Jorge's program to "break her"), as she has been living in an isolating and hostile family environment. This is also the kind of sentiment we are to hear from Felicia as she descends into delusions.
Quote #5
"Felicia del Pino doesn't know what brings on her delusions...She can hear everything in this world and others, every sneeze and creak and breath in the heavens or the harbor or the gardenia tree down the block. They call to her all at once, grasping here and there for parts of her, hatching blue flames in her brain." ("Fire ," 75)
Planes of existence collide for Felicia and really drag her down. The source of her madness is unclear: lingering syphilis? Emotional hardship? Domestic abuse? General failure to thrive? We can't say for sure. Her heightened perceptions and poetic language, however, make her movements away from general reality breathtaking.
Quote #6
"'Let's speak in green,' his mother says, and they talk about everything that makes them feel green. They do the same with blues and reds and yellows. Ivanito asks her, 'If the grass were black, would the world be different?' But Felicia doesn't answer." ("Fire," 84)
This moment of synesthesia happens after Felicia's world begins to contract down to just herself and Ivanito. The two develop new ways of interacting and communicating with each other—not all of them healthy. This particular brand of banter is the closest thing that comes to normal play for the mother-son pair, even though the scrambling of senses denotes something disordered and dire in their interaction.