How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
No one really knew if he was secretly displeased in his heart of hearts that he had never had a son, for the father always bragged, "Good bulls sire cows," and the mother patted his arm, and the four girls tumbled and skipped and giggled and raced by in yellow and baby blue and pastel pink and white, and strangers counted them, "One, two, three, four girls! No sons?" "No," the mother said, apologetically. "Just the four girls." (1.3.2-3)
"Good bulls sire cows" is the line Papi always uses to reassure everyone that he's not disappointed by not having a son. But that seems like a big, fat lie after we see how excited he gets about his first male grandchild.
Quote #8
For the benefit of an invisible sisterhood, since our aunts and girl cousins consider it very unfeminine for a woman to go around demonstrating for her rights, Yoyo sighs and all of us roll our eyes. (2.1.84)
Yoyo and her sisters are feminists, but they can't get any of their female relatives on the Island to join their cause. That's because their Dominican cousins think it's "unfeminine" to demonstrate for their rights... but does it mean they follow all the gender rules?
Quote #9
When he's in the States, where he went to prep school and is now in college, he's one of us, our buddy. But back on the Island, he struts and turns macho, needling us with the unfair advantage being male here gives him. (2.1.121)
To make matters even more complicated, we can't even rely on a character's attitudes about gender to stay the same. Mundín completely changes his tune depending on whether he's in the U.S. or in the D.R. Do any other characters do this?