My Broken Language: A Memoir

After her parents separate, Quiara’s father has two more children and buys a house in the suburbs, “ascending in status to proper American family” (186). Over the years, Quiara goes from spending every other week with her father to just making monthly visits, where she feels like she is “ogling a species through glass” at the zoo (186). Her father’s suburban family is “normal” compared to the chaos of the Perezes. Even though she can see the “loneliness” and “bitterness” under Sharon and her father’s happy masks, Quiara longs for “the routine, the constancy, the ubiquity of stories that explained them” (187).

One year, before her father starts forgetting her birthday, he takes Quiara to Circuit City and leads her to the word processor display, telling her to choose any typewriter she likes. Back home, she writes nonstop while her father looks on proudly. However, she soon moves the typewriter to her mother’s house so she can use it more often.

As a high school senior, Quiara is accepted to Yale University. Before leaving, she makes a final visit to her father’s house. Over the years, these visits have become less and less frequent, and Quiara intentionally avoids overnight stays so that she doesn’t feel like a “guest” in her father’s family.