How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph)
Quote #7
I heard you, Abuelita, I said, stroking her cheek, I heard you. (14)
The narrator is treating her grandmother as though she is a little baby crying in her crib, when in actuality, she's an elderly woman lying dead in her bed. This role-reversal is important: The narrator transforms from the grandchild who needs to be taken care of into the adult who takes care of her grandmother.
Quote #8
The scars on her back which were as thin as the life lines on the palms of her hands made me realize how little I really knew of Abuelita. (14)
While the narrator has spent lots of time with her grandmother in her life, she has never gotten to examine Abuelita's body or realized how little she knows about her past until her grandmother is dead. It's hard to imagine what Abuelita must have gone through (maybe a whipping?) to get the scars, but it also shows that even in tight-knit families, the past can be full of secrets.
Quote #9
She was not as heavy as I thought and when I carried her in my arms, her body fell into a V, and yet my legs were tired, shaky, and I felt as if the distance between the bedroom and bathroom was miles and years away. Amá, where are you? (15)
Again the image of the grandmother as a baby comes into play. The narrator carries her grandmother in her arms, just like an infant. However she doesn't feel like the baby's mother—instead she doesn't know what to do and wishes for her own mother, saying, "Amá, where are you?"