The Republic of East L.A. Quotes

“...he felt this gnawing emptiness cradled in anger, like he was owed something.”
― Luis J. Rodríguez, The Republic of East L.A.

“The way the girls used the word, "chueca" stood for bent lives, bent minds -- not the narrow, straight existence that girls were expected to have. Not these girls -- abused by drunken fathers, humiliated by scornful mothers, beaten by raging brothers. They were pushed into all kinds of shape by forces stronger than their innocence could withstand. They also felt harder than most girls, survivors, who took the worst beatings, sexual assaults, putdowns, and were still able to stand up without tears and declare, "You ain't changed me."

Their hearts were bent, but not broken.”
― Luis J. Rodríguez, The Republic of East L.A.

“...saying her name the way she did, it felt like being baptized all over again.”
― Luis J. Rodríguez, The Republic of East L.A.

“Not hard to figure out, just hard to help.”
― Luis J. Rodríguez, The Republic of East L.A.

“Something inside Rudy clambered to rise out of him, something alive and astonishing -- he hardly ever felt this way.”
― Luis J. Rodríguez, The Republic of East L.A.

“He only moved to his own impulses, leaving his wife a cold, lonely and withered woman. This bothered Clarita for years -- how her father treated her mother with a lack of emotion, of connection. Santos never beat her mother, but he would give her a devastating look that caused her to wilt like a water-starved flower. Clarita recalled how as a little girl, she hid away in her room, beneath blankets surrounded by dirt-caked dolls, distressed that Santos would come in and destroy her with such a look.”
― Luis J. Rodríguez, The Republic of East L.A.

“I can see she's a sad lonely person, despite her job. Somewhere she's made some wrong turns, met some wrong people, and now she can't see her way out of this except in a dream of money -- what everybody tends to do. Money, though, is an illusion with green faces. I think this is so money has personality -- like the way our deities end up with traits like the rest of us. People create money and then they let money create them. Money is a facade but it has a force greater than nature.”
― Luis J. Rodríguez, The Republic of East L.A.

“In her heart stirs a revolution...a true revolutionary believes in the best in people, in their courage and brains.”
― Luis J. Rodríguez, The Republic of East L.A.