{"author":"Raquel Cepeda","author_id":"Raquel+Cepeda","total_quotes":43,"quotes":[{"text":"Nobody, she felt, understood her--not her mother, not her father, not her sister or brother, none of the girls or boys at school, nadie--except her man.","author":"Raquel Cepeda","tags":["adolescence","first-love","infatuation","love","lust","teenage-love","teenagers"],"id":2087,"author_id":"Raquel+Cepeda"},{"text":"I guess it all depends on whom you ask and when you ask. Race, I've learned, is in the eye of the beholder.","author":"Raquel Cepeda","tags":["hispanic","hispanic-american","identity","latina","latina-american","latino-american","race","race-as-concept","racial-ambiguity","racism"],"id":7276,"author_id":"Raquel+Cepeda"},{"text":"While America will always, I think, feel foreign to me, New York City is my home. This is where I can construct my own identity freely and reject labels imposed on me.","author":"Raquel Cepeda","tags":["america","foreign","freedom","freedom-of-choice","freedom-of-thought","home","homeland","identity","labels","new-york-city","race","racial-constructs","racism","self-awareness","united-states"],"id":30727,"author_id":"Raquel+Cepeda"},{"text":"I think Dad wanted to feel the pain, to feel his body cry, an urgent reminder that he was still alive. I pretended not to notice.","author":"Raquel Cepeda","tags":["alive","father","father-and-daughter","mortality","pain"],"id":31332,"author_id":"Raquel+Cepeda"},{"text":"Are Latino-Americans white? Black? Other? Illegal aliens from Mars? Or are we the very face of America?","author":"Raquel Cepeda","tags":["america","hispanic","hispanic-american","hyphenated-identities","identity","latina-american","latino-american","political","race","racial-ambiguity","racism-in-the-west"],"id":31873,"author_id":"Raquel+Cepeda"},{"text":"Individually, every grain of sand brushing against my hands represents a story, an experience, and a block for me to build upon for the next generation.","author":"Raquel Cepeda","tags":["ancestors","ancestry","build","building-blocks","globe-trotting","inspiration","journey","life-experience","morocco","sahara","sahara-desert","sand","spiritual-journey","trek","trekking"],"id":41471,"author_id":"Raquel+Cepeda"},{"text":"Even the juncture in history and the zeitgeist we live in is something we choose, setting the scene for the spiritual fodder we need to grow and achieve deeper elevation of our souls.","author":"Raquel Cepeda","tags":["choices","deeper-elevation","elevation","freedom-of-choice","history","journey","kabbalah","kabbalistic","reincarnation","sojourner","soul","spirit","spiritual-elevation","spiritual-growth","spirituality","spirituality-religion","zeitgeist"],"id":44543,"author_id":"Raquel+Cepeda"},{"text":"I have never bought into the idea that blood is thicker than water. Love and respect are meant to be earned from our children, our spouses, our families, and our friends.","author":"Raquel Cepeda","tags":["blood-is-thicker-than-water","friendship","love","relationship-advice","relationships","respecting-others","spousal-love"],"id":67675,"author_id":"Raquel+Cepeda"},{"text":"I wish she’d said something different, but patriarchy is as prevalent around the world as racism and xenophobia are. We can’t hide from it, not even here.","author":"Raquel Cepeda","tags":["amazigh-girl","atlas-mountains","morocco","patriarchy","travel","traveling"],"id":87029,"author_id":"Raquel+Cepeda"},{"text":"She looks like an empty shell of a woman with her soul hovering above her. We believe in spiritual guías in Santo Domingo. Hers is her own self. I can see Mami’s soul desperately trying to find its way back into her small body.","author":"Raquel Cepeda","tags":["lost","lost-innocence","mami","spiritual-guides","spirituality"],"id":92862,"author_id":"Raquel+Cepeda"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":43,"pages":5,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}