The House of Broken Angels

“Wildflowers after rain the heart breaks open and little bright seeds fall out.”

Heartbreak

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“When you died, you died in small doses. You had trouble speaking. You forgot who was beside you. You were suddenly furious and in a panic of outrage. You wished you could be saintly. You wished you weren't so weak. You suddenly felt better and fooled yourself into believing that a miracle was about to happen. Well, wasn't that all a dirty rotten thing to pull on somebody.”

DeathDyingCancerIllnessOld Age

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“Miguel Angel," he said, "It isn't hard to die. Everybody does it. Even flies do it. Everyone here is doing it. We're all terminal." He had a tear in his eye; Big Angel could see it brimming. "Your schedule is just different from mine.”

DeathTimeDying

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“He was nearly erased by all the tragedy falling upon him. His Mamá had still ironed his shirts until she was taken ill. Everything on Earth was filled with sorrow. Little yellow weeds that broke through the tarmac made him feel weepy. The moon, like some pale paper cutout in the morning sky, overwhelmed him.”

SadnessSorrowTragedy

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“No way of knowing how language re-created a family. His own children didn't want to learn Spanish, when he had given everything to learn English.”

LanguageFamily

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“How come,’ Big Angel said, ‘we never kissed?’ ‘Kissed?’ ‘Don’t families kiss?’ ‘Like, brothers? Kissing?’ ‘Why not?’ They pondered the new possibility.”

FamilyBrothers

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“Do gringos kiss?’ Big Angel asked. ‘Some,’ Little Angel said. ‘I know guys. Kiss their dads.’ ‘Everybody kisses moms, though.’ ‘Kissing moms doesn’t count. It’s required.’ ‘Right, right. If you don’t kiss your mom, forget it, man.’ ‘Right? You don’t get to heaven if you don’t kiss your mom.”

Family

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“He felt the burden of being their living witness. Somehow the silliest details of their days were, to him, sacred. And he believed that if only the dominant culture could see these small moments, they would see their own human lives reflected in the other.”

CultureIdentityMexicanAmerican

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“He, who endlessly combated his family's reliance on 'Mexican time.' They drove him crazy. If a dinner gathering was announced for six o'clock, he could be sure it wouldn't start until nine. They'd walk in as if they were early. Or worse, they'd say 'What?' as if he were the one with a problem. You know you're Mexican when lunch doesn't show up till ten at night.”

Mexicans

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