Bird of Paradise Quotes

“I have never bought into the idea that blood is thicker than water. Love and respect are meant to be earned from our children, our spouses, our families, and our friends.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“When we illuminate the road back to our ancestors, they have a way of reaching out, of manifesting themselves...sometimes even physically.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“Shakespeare had it right all along: Love will kill you in the end.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“Individually, every grain of sand brushing against my hands represents a story, an experience, and a block for me to build upon for the next generation.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“I guess it all depends on whom you ask and when you ask. Race, I've learned, is in the eye of the beholder.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“I remember feeling that pieces of me were scattered around the world; I belonged to her, Mother Earth.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“A mother isn’t the person who births you; it’s the person who rears you and shows you love.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“The things that come to us easily, our propensities, are carried on a deep subconscious level into our next life. There are no coincidences.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“More than anything, this place feels familiar. I bury my hands in the hot sand and think about the embodiment of memory or, more specifically, our natural ability to carry the past in our bodies and minds. Individually, every grain of sand brushing against my hands represents a story, an experience, and a block for me to build upon for the next generation. I quietly thank this ancestor of mine for surviving the trip so that I could one day return.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“For some, excavating the past isn’t an adventure, it’s more akin to tearing a Band-Aid off an open wound.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“I wish she’d said something different, but patriarchy is as prevalent around the world as racism and xenophobia are. We can’t hide from it, not even here.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“While America will always, I think, feel foreign to me, New York City is my home. This is where I can construct my own identity freely and reject labels imposed on me.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“...being Latino means being from everywhere, and that is exactly what America is supposed to be about.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“In reality, Eduardo hoped the mask would make him appear vulnerable and self conscious, like a wounded animal these stupid women would fight each other over to mend.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“This thing I am feeling, I’m almost certain, is the closest I’ll ever come to standing somewhere in between truth and reconciliation.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“Women destroy me. I allow them to.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“The hospital room was as cold as dead skin, the hallway crowded with lost souls and reeking of illness.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“We travel with the same clan over and over again, from one life to the next, until some ultimate purpose is fulfilled and we no longer need to return.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“We aren’t encouraged to think for ourselves and ask questions. We are expected to accept what they teach us as infallible truths.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“Our identities are as fluid as our personal experiences are diverse.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“Listen kid, it’s just you and me now, so let’s help each other out. Always be honest with me, and show me how to be the mother and father I never had. I’ll make a mess of things sometimes, and I’m sorry in advance, but I’ll try. My word is bond.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“If it weren’t for her setting me free, I may still be a caged bird today, holding my own daughter captive on a shit-laden perch.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“Even the juncture in history and the zeitgeist we live in is something we choose, setting the scene for the spiritual fodder we need to grow and achieve deeper elevation of our souls.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“Are Latino-Americans white? Black? Other? Illegal aliens from Mars? Or are we the very face of America?”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“Foisting an identity on people rather than allowing them the freedom and space to create their own is shady.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“Nobody, she felt, understood her--not her mother, not her father, not her sister or brother, none of the girls or boys at school, nadie--except her man.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“Paradise is a state of being, more than just the name of a suburb or a home.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“You are meant to be, despite how you got here; you’ll see someday.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“Come to think of it, maybe God is a He after all, because only a cruel force would create something this beautiful and make it inaccessible to most people.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“Lately, Mami’s eyes have been so dark, I don’t like looking into them because I’m afraid I’ll fall in.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina