Tag Archives: Jaquira DIaz

Ordinary Girls: Final thoughts and comments

Finishing Ordinary Girls was a bit bittersweet. 

I guess even if I told myself I didn’t have any expectations, I was still waiting for a fairytale ending. I thought the book was great, something I would have not picked out from the shelf on my own, but I did enjoy it. 

At times, it was hard to read. Not in the way that I couldn’t understand it, but there was so much information to process, a lot was going on in a short amount of time and a lot of touchy subjects.

I have never read a memoir before, so I don’t know if it is typical or just Diaz’s writing style, but I feel like I was reading a diary, but not in the correct order. The subtitles helped to put in context her stories, but the jumping around was confusing at times. The book felt personal, as if she was talking directly to me, which I liked.

As mentioned before, I enjoyed the book. 10/10 would recommend, and I understand why it got so many raving reviews. 

section 4: All so ordinary

section 4 of the book “ordinary girls” covers some of the last chapters in Diaz’s story. a big topic discussed through the end is what happens after the end. The end of movie always has that happy ever after while the more realistic ones just have that end, but what happens in the thereafter? Diaz explores this. While the ending of the initial chapters don’t really have a happy ending Diaz explores what happens further onto her story by explaining in brief where she end up going for the next crucial period in her life, which is right back to where everything in the beginning books took place, Miami. We know the distressing fates of the people around her and get few glimpses of who they were, we know how low Diaz feels as a divorce, college and military dropout, and even exclaims that she is living with her parents again. A bunch of stuff happens towards the end but the point that really drives me was that even if there’s an ending to a story no matter good or bad a question that needs to be answered is what happens after? Diaz definitely answers this in terms of her own story which follows the colorful tone of the book that its carried since the beginning.

not so two-faced girls

“in the hallway between the bathroom and my bedroom, standing right in front of me in nothing but boxer shorts, it wasn’t benny. It was J.R, a kid I went to school with. A kid who’d tortured me since we were sixth graders at fisher. He tried to kiss me once” (Diaz, 119-120) in this section we see more double sided characters that still show themselves as more one-sided than anything. in the statement I’ve shown above we hear more about J.R, a character that already seems scummy at first but then does something that seems as innocent as kiss his crush during a fun event like something out of a Disney channel episode. Even if this was the case you could tell that the fallout of that kiss would be something that is deeply regrettable for Diaz given how she acted when J.R walked around her home so brazenly. what I’m trying to say is that some of the characters in the book who we believe we understand take left turns that seems out of character for them but we realize later on that that’s just on point with who they are for better or for worse. I think that’s something Diaz will keep in mind if she chooses to reconcile with anyone at the end of her story.

Ordinary Girls Section 3

  As Jaquira Diaz keeps on telling her story growing up as a juvenile delinquent  teen, it was not always a negative side there are times where she had good times. When she was 16 years old she met a man named Cheito, both of them fell in love (they had the same family issues and shared things in common)  and started dating. Jaquira introduced Cheito to her family (bad idea since she hates her mother, father and Anthony) and everyone loved him. The family keeps on telling Jaquira that she better not miss it up since her life is already hard enough. When Cheito introduced Jaquira to his family, they were mostly having a bad feeling about her since she is delinquent and dosne;t want him to go down a bad path. But they still accepted that she is Cheito’s girlfriend. When Jaquira sat down to eat with Cheito and his family, she felt something that she never experienced. She felt “love in the room… everyone is smiling.. Saying please and thank you like an ordinary fucking family. This is what a family was supposed to be, people who actually loved each other. I felt robbed” (Diaz, 199). It tells of the realization that Jaquira was missing out on her teen (properly whole life), it was love. She never experiences love in her family since they’re  dysfunctional and the only person she loves is her sister, Alaina. She felt that this is what led her to this path. Without love she was a delinquent and if she was loved by her family she would have been living the good life. 

  It’s sad that it affected Jaquira, but it also affects other people when it comes to not having love. Without love (either romantic, friends or family support) people will feel lost and go down a dangerous path. They do something that they would regret and release that they weren’t loved by others and that’s why they went down a bad path of darkness. People need to be loved in order to maintain a sustainable and good life (unless the person is a criminal, scammer, jerks, psycho and socialpth they don’t need love since they’re already on a path that they can’t return.).

New ordinary girls

a big part of life is about new beginnings, and the memoir of Diaz’s book is no exception. in this section we get a glimpse of how Diaz adjusts to her new life in Luquillo and how that it’s not only affecting her but her family as well. speaking of family we also get a deeper dive into how her family works, their dynamic. How it changed after certain events like before the parents’ divorce or after Alaina was born. To people who experience sudden changes to their families status quo at any point in their life Diaz writes this section as a way of telling those readers that they are not alone in this aspect. That the unordinary is technically ordinary in a way. She talks about her experience using words and phrases like “except in my versions the hero was always an eight-or nine-year-old curly-haired Puerto Rican girl traveling through time,” (Diaz,69). in the second paragraph of page 69 Diaz explains how she imagines herself or her own characters in her favorite books and movies as a way to cope with her life in that moment, except she goes way above beyond script even in her imagination simply because she can. Its an abnormal way of going about it but at the same time being abnormal about it is what makes it normal. Especially for those who use this same way of over imagination when coping with time.

Mental Illnesses in Hispanic Families (Ordinary Girls)

These comments are based on pages 63-142 of Ordinary Girls.

During these passages, Diaz shared parts of her childhood including her complicated family life, difficulty with dealing with her mother’s mental illness, her time in jail, suicide attempt, her sexuality and sexual assault.

 All of these are very tough subjects, and this book is packed with emotions. In fact, I had to stop reading a couple of times to take a breath and empathize with her. What I admire is that she does not write in a way that makes us pity her, but understand her struggles. 

“Maybe the thought that my mother had done this to herself was less frightening than the idea that madness was something that could just happen to you, as it had to my mother, as it had to Mercy before her, as it had to Mercy’s father” (pg. 63 )

From this quote (and other passages), it seems like there is no true understanding of Mental Illnesses in her family, in fact she often referred to her mother’s sickness as being “crazy” and “madness”. One thing I have noticed from hispanic families is that we fail to get educated on the matter, which leads to false stereotypes.

My question to you is, how much do you think your parents/grandparents/aunts/uncles know about mental illnesses? Is there a stigma for those who do try and seek help?

Ordinary girls/ unordinary book

Vulnerability, and humanity. Two key terms that pops up in my head throughout my read of the book. Since this is a memoir of the author you know that there’s a variety of truth to be told but you don’t know how raw that truth will be told. There’s a scene I skipped forward to while initially skimming through the book before my first read where the author, Jaquira Diaz tells us about her experience being pat down with a number of other girls. She and the other girls being searched are seen as nothing more than numbers to be notched. With their dignity and humanity taken away for a moment in the book the author becomes vulnerable to the reader and shows just how taboo her story is. Something that I can’t say the other books have. I am excited to keep reading this book and am excited to talk about it. Its like watching a Netflix show and before a uncensored episode there’s a warning in the beginning for the viewer to have them prepare for something that needs be warned about and those episodes are always the most fun and interesting to watch.

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.”