When We Make It Quotes

“& I'm writing my own story
so that I can remember it accurately

in case someone else
tries to tell it for me.”
― Elisabet Velasquez, When We Make It

“CAN I BE PUERTO RICAN? If I was born in Brooklyn? If I’ve never been to Puerto Rico? If I mix my English with my Spanish? If I cop quenepas from the Chino spot? If I don’t know the Boricua national anthem? If I can’t name our national heroes? Can I be Puerto Rican? If the closest I’ve come to the beach is la pompa? If I can’t dance salsa? If all I got is a feeling? Can I be Puerto Rican? If all I got is a feeling?”
― Elisabet Velasquez, When We Make It

“Anyways, if we are just a game
that somebody in the real world
is playing I wish they'd hurry up
and tell me if I win or lose.”
― Elisabet Velasquez, When We Make It

“In other words white needs the other colors to simply exist but those other colors never get any credit.”
― Elisabet Velasquez, When We Make It

“If you care to look closely
the war on drugs
is also a war on people.
But in Bushwick,
no one cares to look closely.”
― Elisabet Velasquez, When We Make It

“She tells me I am so, so beautiful
and since I am her mirror
I tell her that she's beautiful back.”
― Elisabet Velasquez, When We Make It

“We can tell who is from the neighborhood and who isn’t by the way they pronounce street names. We pronounce Graham Avenue not like the cracker (GRAM) but like if the first half of the word got stuck in your mouth and you had to breathe out to let out the second (GRAA-HAM).”
― Elisabet Velasquez, When We Make It