More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Money Love Mari,
Papi reads as if the world is running out of books. Sometimes he’s more interested in stories and history than people.
“Money Love Mari. I like that.”
“Career before family? Como una gringa?” “No, Madrina,” I say. “Not like a white girl! Like . . . a woman! Any woman.”
Every book is a different hood, a different country, a different world. Reading is how I visit places and people and ideas. And when something rings true or if I still have a question, I outline it with a bright yellow highlighter so that it’s lit up in my mind, like a lightbulb or a torch leading the way to somewhere new.
My neighborhood is made of love, but it’s money and buildings and food and jobs that keep it alive—and even I have to admit that the new people moving in, with their extra money and dreams, can sometimes make things better. We’ll have to figure out a way to make both sides of Bushwick work.
Anybody who’s been in Bushwick long enough is like a musician, and when they leave, we lose a sound.
Think of the golden sun, she said. It makes everything on earth fall in love—how the ocean kisses land, how land nestles trees, how swaying trees always whisper sweet nothings into our ears.
In fact, I want my family, my block, and my whole hood to see us.
Because the thing about sharp corners is, the right turns can bring you back home.
Pride by Zuri Benitez
Sometimes love is not enough to keep a community together. There needs to be something more tangible, like fair housing, opportunities, and access to resources. Lifeboats and lifelines are not supposed to just be a way for us to get out. They should be ways to let us stay in and survive. And thrive.
She is still as real as breath. She is love. She is with me. Me, daughter of Ochún.
Madrina always said that love connects two people in ways that we can’t even see, but we feel it.
Ah, mija! There you go! Rivers flow. A body of water that remains stagnant is just a cesspool, mi amor! It’s time to move, flow, grow. That is the nature of rivers. That is the nature of love!
