How we cite our quotes: (Act.Chapter.Section.Paragraph), (Act.Special Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
For f***'s sake, we were at Rutgers—Rutgers was just girls everywhere, and there was Oscar, keeping me up at night talking about the Green Lantern. Wondering aloud, If we were orcs, wouldn't we, at a racial level, imagine ourselves to look like elves? (1.4.1.64)
We love this insight of Oscar's. Let us break it down for you, Shmoopsters. First of all, it helps to know that orcs are those troll-like creatures in Lord of the Rings)—a super ugly and not-so-smart lot—and elves are, well, elves. So Oscar worries that he and Yunior are imaging "better" versions of themselves, versions that are closer to what other people would like to see in them. That is, that they think they can "pass" for native-born, white Americans a lot more often than they actually do.
Quote #8
It was only when I got on the plane that I started crying. [...]. I felt sorriest for the viejo [old man] next to us. You could tell he'd been visiting his family. He had on a little fedora and his best-pressed chacabana [a type of button-down shirt]. It's OK, muchacha [girl], he said, patting my back. Santo Domingo will always be there. It was in the beginning and it will be there at the end. (2.preface.46-2.preface.48)
Lola is leaving Santo Domingo to go back to New Jersey. She's pretty distraught. An old man sitting next to her says that Santo Domingo will always be there. So she can return whenever she wants. It's a comforting thought. However, we don't think the novel really supports what this guy says. Flip ahead to Oscar's visit to the Dominican Republic at the end of Act 2. Santo Domingo has changed. Places and people change. You can't go back to Santo Domingo because it'll be a different Santo Domingo. Go head, get out your Kleenex.
Quote #9
In 1937, for example, while the Friends of the Dominican Republic were perejiling Haitans and Haitian-Dominicans and Haitian-looking Dominicans to death, while genocide was, in fact, in the making, Abelard kept his head, eyes, and nose safely tucked into his books (let his wife take care of hiding his servants, didn't ask her nothing about it) and when survivors staggered into his surgery with unspeakable machete wounds, he fixed them up as best as he could without making any comments as to the ghastliness of their wounds. (2.5.1.7)
Trujillo was a maniacal, cruel man. Because Haitains had darker skin, spoke different Spanish, and were from or originated in another country, the Haitians were massacred. This is about as blatant an example of cruelty to another race and/or nationality as you'll find anywhere. It's what we'd call genocide, straightup.