How we cite our quotes: (Act.Chapter.Section.Paragraph), (Act.Special Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
The Gangster romanced the girl like only middle-aged n*****s know how: chipped at her reservation with cool aplomb and unself-conscious cursí-ness. Rained on her head enough flowers to garland Azua, bonfires of roses at the job and her house. [...]. He escorted her to the most exclusive restaurants of the capital, took her to the clubs that had never tolerated a nonmusician prieta [black girl] inside their door before [...]. (1.3.9.12)
Dominicans have treated darker-skinned Haitians really, really badly. Native Dominicans with dark skin don't get much love either. On Beli's home island, fellow Dominicans consider her an "other" because of her dark skin. Of course, things don't get much better when Beli moves to New Jersey.
Quote #5
[La Inca:] You don't understand, hija [daughter]. You have to leave the country. They'll kill you if you don't.
Beli laughed.
Oh, Beli; not so rashly, not so rashly: What did you know about states or diasporas? What did you know about Nueba Yol [New York] or unheated "old law" tenements or children whose self-hate short-circuited their minds? What did you know, madame, about immigration? Don't laugh, mi negrita [my little dark one], for your world is about to be changed. (1.3.21.23-1.3.21.25)
Beli laughs when La Inca tells her that she'll have to leave the Dominican Repbulic. It's just what she wanted. But our narrator basically tells Beli to slow her roll. Don't get too excited. When you emigrate, you risk not only feeling homesick, but also getting discriminated against in your new country.
Quote #6
She is sixteen and her skin is the darkness before the black, the plum of the day's last light, her breasts like sunsets trapped beneath her skin, but for all her youth and beauty she has a sour distrusting expression that only dissolves under the weight of immense pleasure. Her dreams are spare, lack the propulsion of a mission, her ambition is without traction. Her fiercest hope? That she will find a man. What she doesn't yet know: the cold, the backbreaking drudgery of the factorías, the loneliness of Diaspora, that she will never again live in Santo Domingo, her own heart. (1.3.22.22)
This description appears right before Beli's plane lands in New York. Beli will never live in Santo Domingo again, which sounds bad enough on its own. But Díaz also compares Santo Domingo to Beli's heart. Meaning, Beli will be exiled from her own heart. When will things turn around for these characters?