And would have stayed invisible too if the summer of sophomore year she'd not hit the biochemical jackpot, not experienced a Summer of Her Secondary Sex Characteristics, not been transformed utterly (a terrible beauty has been born). Where before Beli had been a gangly ibis of a girl, pretty in a typical sort of way, by summer's end she'd become un mujerón total [full-grown woman], acquiring that body of hers that made her famous in Baní. (1.3.5.9)

Later, after [Beli'd] been with The Gangster, she would realize how little respect Pujols had for her. But since she had nothing to compare it to at this time she assumed f***ing was supposed to feel like she was being run through with a cutlass. The first time she was scared s***less and it hurt bad (4d10), but nothing could obliterate the feeling she had that finally she was on her way, the sense of a journey starting, of a first step taken, of the beginning of something big. (1.3.7.1)

Skilled our Gangster became in many a perfidy, but where our man truly excelled, where he smashed records and grabbed gold, was in the flesh trade. Then, like now, Santo Domingo was to popóla [slang for female genitalia] what Switzerland was to chocolate. And there was something about the binding, selling, and degradation of women that brought out the best in The Gangster; he had an instinct for it, a talent – call him the Caracaracol of Culo [Trickster of Ass]. (1.3.9.6)