Previous
Titi Aurora
Abuelita is Sonia’s paternal grandmother. Abuelita is the life of every party and the center of her large Puerto Rican family’s universe in the Bronx. She’s extremely devoted to blood family, but in-laws and friends don’t receive the same unconditional love and support. Thus, while Sonia and Nelson are the favorite grandchildren and enjoy her unwavering love and support, Abuelita blames Mami, her daughter-in-law, for Papi’s alcoholism and eventual death. A firm believer in traditional Puerto Rican herbal remedies, she concocts a remedy that she believes will cure Sonia’s diabetes and is shaken when it doesn’t work. Before Papi’s death, Abuelita throws weekly parties on Saturdays for the family. She’s an excellent cook and also has the gift of being able to commune with the spirits. She and her husband, Gallego, hold séances with the spirits at the end of every party, after they’re sure that any children still there are asleep. When Mami moves her family out of the tenements where Abuelita lives and into the projects, Abuelita is angry and incredulous—despite the fact that within a few years, she and the rest of the family follow. She’s shattered when Papi dies; his death heralds the end of her parties and Sonia perceives that it dampens Abuelita’s spirit permanently. Following Gallego’s death several years later, Abuelita immediately moves to a senior home, unwilling to go on alone without him. Throughout Sonia’s first semester at Princeton, Abuelita sends her a dollar every week. The envelopes stop when Abuelita is diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer. She dies while Sonia is home for Christmas after demanding a final cigarette on her deathbed. Even after Abuelita’s death, Sonia feels as though Abuelita is still protecting her. Abuelita also provided a model of how to live one’s life in service to others.
Abuelita Quotes in My Beloved World
The My Beloved World quotes below are all either spoken by Abuelita or refer to Abuelita. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Prologue
Quotes
If my parents couldn’t pick up the syringe without panicking, an even darker prospect loomed: my grandmother wouldn’t be up to the job either. That would be the end of my weekly sleepovers at her apartment and my only escape from the gloom at home. It then dawned on me: if I needed to have these shots every day for the rest of my life, the only way I’d survive was to do it myself.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 21
Quotes
But as when I had described the Kitty Genovese murder in forensics competition, the difference between winning and losing came down to the appeal by emotion rather than fact alone. It was something Abuelita could have told me without ever having gone to law school. And it was something I apparently knew in high school, if only intuitively, before the awareness was pushed aside by years of learning to reason dispassionately at Princeton and Yale.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24
Quotes
Ultimately, I accept that there is no perfect substitute for the claim that a parent and a child have on each other’s heart. But families can be made in other ways, and I marvel at the support and inspiration I’ve derived from the ones I’ve built of interlocking circles of friends. In their constant embrace I have never felt alone.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire My Beloved World LitChart as a printable PDF.
Abuelita Quotes in My Beloved World
The My Beloved World quotes below are all either spoken by Abuelita or refer to Abuelita. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Prologue
Quotes
If my parents couldn’t pick up the syringe without panicking, an even darker prospect loomed: my grandmother wouldn’t be up to the job either. That would be the end of my weekly sleepovers at her apartment and my only escape from the gloom at home. It then dawned on me: if I needed to have these shots every day for the rest of my life, the only way I’d survive was to do it myself.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 21
Quotes
But as when I had described the Kitty Genovese murder in forensics competition, the difference between winning and losing came down to the appeal by emotion rather than fact alone. It was something Abuelita could have told me without ever having gone to law school. And it was something I apparently knew in high school, if only intuitively, before the awareness was pushed aside by years of learning to reason dispassionately at Princeton and Yale.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24
Quotes
Ultimately, I accept that there is no perfect substitute for the claim that a parent and a child have on each other’s heart. But families can be made in other ways, and I marvel at the support and inspiration I’ve derived from the ones I’ve built of interlocking circles of friends. In their constant embrace I have never felt alone.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
