Othering

“We were, my father and I, ALLIED in the business of becoming AMERICAN.”

“My experience left me culturally CONFUSED. And it made me someone who WATCHES and listens.”

“I think everybody feels like an OUTSIDER regardless, at some point in their life.”

"I haven’t met anyone who does not have this IMPOSTER SYNDROME."

"I didn’t know to miss what I didn’t know was POSSIBLE."

"When you are used to being on the periphery, used to being viewed as an OUTSIDER, you also understand that it gives you certain kinds of CLARITY."

"Much of my writing has to do with TRANSLATING one world, one situation for the other so that each can UNDERSTAND it."

"Not one day in my life have I felt that I was LESS THAN a WHITE person."

"I always figured if you’re gonna TOKENIZE me, well, I’m NOT gonna let you do that."

"It just felt like somewhere where a Latino's VOICE wasn't VALUED."

"Just like my other part of being bilingual and bicultural, you can be EVERYTHING. That's the BEAUTY of it. You can be all of it."

"I always felt very DIFFERENT. I always had a rich inner life. I always felt extremely SENSITIVE to everything. And I had interests that no one else had."