The last chapters of Ordinary girls show how Diaz tried to overcome her struggles. Diaz went through a depression because of her own mother. Instead of living in violence she just wanted a real family and home. The outcome is she joined the military and even came out about her sexuality when she was there. When Jaquira was in the military she enjoyed it. (“I had loved boot camp,” she writes. “In the Navy, I’d finally felt like I mattered”),(Diaz, 220). Even though Jaquira felt like she belonged in the military she abandoned it and went back to where everything started. She came back to Miami, she even lived with her parents again. She came back to the violent, abusive, toxic home from the beginning. After reading this memoir I understand the importance of family and how it can have an effect on an individual’s life. It ruins the perspective on love and family.
Author Archives: Kedwin Reyes
Ordinary Girls Summary 3
Diaz really never felt loved because of the dysfunction in her family. She always searched for love in friendships or relationships. Growing up she had a friend group that she did everything with. ¨ We wanted to be seen, finally, to exist in the lives we mapped out for ourselves. We were ordinary girls, but we would’ve given anything to be monsters. We weren’t creatures or aliens or women in disguise, but girls. We were girls. (Diaz,147)¨. Diaz felt that her friends were her safe place even if they did negative things like drinking and smoking. When she started high school, she met a boy two years older than her and that was the first boy she liked.¨He was funny as hell, and always asked what I wanted, and I liked everything about him (Diaz,151)¨. She caught feelings for Cheito fast and even wanted to marry him. They met each other’s family really fast and Diaz figured out the difference between their families. Cheitosś family is the definition of a real family and Diaz wanted that.
Ordinary girls summary #2
Ordinary Girls is a first-person memoir about poor lives, wrong choices, and the culture of violence, drugs, and crime. Jaquira Diaz talks concerning their young family living in Puerto Rico and about their attempt to get to Miami Beach for a better world. Diaz portrays the difficulty of a hard life and what it takes to make it better with his history of a mentally disabled mother, sexual assault, depression, and finding her own sexuality.In Page #61 it says” The five of us were the kind of poor you could feel in your bones, in your teeth, in your stomach. Empty-refrigerator poor. Sleeping-on-the-floor-until-somebody-threw-out-a-sofa bed poor. Stirring-sugar-into-water-and-calling-it-lemonade poor. And then we’d take off again, like runaways. One apartment, and then another, and then another, never staying long enough to put up a picture, leaving while the place still smelled like the people who lived there before us.” They came from the struggle and Diaz and her family tried to get themselves out of it. Diaz took the wrong route in her life and she tries to overcome it.
Summary for Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Diaz
In the memoir ordinary girls Jaquira Diaz grows up struggling with poverty and issues with her family as well with her own sexuality. Her father was a drug dealer and her mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Both her parents would usually get into arguments causing them to eventually separate once they moved to Miami for a better life. Even though she was surrounded by love from her friends, the division of her family broke Diaz and led her to make bad decisions in life. Diaz basically struggled to search for identity her whole adult teen years. She was used to the violence and harassment in Puerto Rico so she expected that in Miami.“I was there a couple of years ago. It wasn’t a pleasant experience. I hadn’t been there in a very long time, because everyone who’s ever lived there who has been lucky enough to get out knows that you don’t go back.”
Trusting my voice is my biggest struggle. I have a hard time speaking out and expressing my ideas with others. Usually, when I’m alone or with individuals I am comfortable with ill speak out and share my thoughts.
Racial Justice Reads Post
The authors Keise Laymon, Jaquira Diaz, and Meredith Talusan from Real Justice Reads all created memoirs about a critiqued childhood that has made them into the authors and people they are today. For example Meredith spoke on how at birth she was a boy and transitioned into a women at adulthood, not only that but she was albino so she struggled with her vision so she had problem’s with her vision. In addition in the video she quotes¨ My grandmother assured me that i was meant for a better future than her and her ancestors¨. This shows that her grandmother knew she was destined to become great even despite her differences. Jaquira Diaz struggled with accepting herself as a child because of her grandmother was always criticizing her for her African american features like her hair. Her grandmother made sure she knew she wont ever be like her or her mother. Diaz grandmother mercy would tell her things like ¨ It is your fathers fault, and your black family, and her mothers fault for marrying a negro(African american).¨Laymon already grew up being a black kid in america so he went threw all the violence and hatred that was in society. ¨I only been alive for 17 years and I was already tired of paying for white folks feelings with a generic smile and a manufactured excellence they could not give one fuck about.¨ He claims he felt like he was in battle with white folks because he felt like they stole from him and the black culture. The readings of ¨La Otra,¨ The Cover of my face,¨and¨Quick Feet¨ are similar to these memoirs because they all speak on the struggles they went through in society and to become a writer. The memoir I would choose is ordinary girls because her story by far is most understandable and relatable because she represents a Hispanic setting. What im expecting from when I read ¨Ordinary girls¨is reading about what Diaz had to pull herself out her family struggles and the place she called home.
Expectations Freewrite
This school year ends with my expectations at a high level of GPA. I hope I will take charge and organize my time and tasks for my education. Another expectation is that I always attend classes and create a good environment for myself. In addition, I want to get more independent with everything. Everything I need help, so I need no help, I want to try to do it alone. I wont need to ask for help. I expect my classmates and my teacher to be of the same degree of respect. For instance, I expect that my ideas won’t be disturbed or blocked. Many members of my family helped me to get where I am today. They helped me to become the person I’m a today.They helped me to become the person I am at present. For me and for the future I want to work hard.
