How we cite our quotes: (Act.Chapter.Section.Paragraph), (Act.Special Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
I didn't bother with the romance. I let him take me to a love motel on our first "date." He was one of those vain politicos, a peledeísta [part of the Democratic Liberation Party], had his own big air-conditioned jípeta [SUV]. When I pulled my pants down you never saw anybody so happy.
Until I asked him for two thousand dollars. American, I emphasized. (2.preface.8-2.preface.12)
When Lola and Beli hit puberty and turn into really sexy women, they talk about their newfound power. This is an example of Lola taking a man for everything he's worth. She's not proud of it; this isn't one of her best moments. That said, she does give the money to Max's grieving mother. Which is a pretty good cause, in our opinion.
Quote #8
The first feel of a woman's body pressing against yours – who among us can ever forget that? And that first kiss – well, to be honest, I've forgotten both of these firsts, but Oscar never would. For a second, he was in disbelief. This is it, this is really it! Her [Ybón] lips plush and pliant, and her tongue pushing into his mouth. And then there were lights all around them and he thought I'm going to transcend! Transcendence is miiine! (2.6.14.6)
Oscar is about to get a beatdown from Ybón's capitán boyfriend, but we can't help but feel happy for Oscar in this moment. He's waited so long to kiss a woman. Or just to be close to a woman. Now it's finally happening. It is just a kiss, but given how long Oscar has to wait for the kiss, this moment warrants a word, like "transcendence."
Quote #9
He [Oscar] wrote that Ybón had little hairs coming up to her almost her bellybutton and that she crossed her eyes when he entered her but what really got him was not the bam-bam-bam of sex – it was the little intimacies that he'd never in his whole life anticipated, like combing her hair or getting her underwear off a line or watching her walk naked to the bathroom or the way she would suddenly sit on his lap and put her face into his neck. The intimacies like listening to her tell him about being a little girl and him telling her that he'd been a virgin all his life. He wrote that he couldn't believe he'd had to wait for this so goddamn long. (Ybón was the one who suggested calling the wait something else. Yeah, like what? Maybe, she said, you could call it life.) He wrote: So this is what everybody's always talking about! Diablo [devil]! If only I'd known. The beauty! The beauty! (3.final letter.4)
In this last paragraph of the novel, we discover that Oscar does have sex with Ybón. More importantly, we find out that Ybón did love Oscar. We find all of this pretty darn moving. Díaz spends so much of the book documenting the forces of evil in this world—despair, loneliness, colonialism, Trujillo—but he ends it all with this passage. He ends it all with a letter that affirms life and beauty and unicorns and rainbows.