Since they could not speak the same language, my parents communicated by passing drawings back and forth, like children in the back of a classroom.
-- Narrator (Four Years Before I Existed paragraph NA)

Importance: Engle describes how her parents fell in love with one another even though her mother spoke Spanish and her father spoke English. The two met when they were attending an art school located near her mother’s hometown.

She rushed to explain, using fingers and facial expressions, that in her old-fashioned town, the rules of romance had been established centuries earlier, at a time when brides were not supposed to seem eager. A marriage proposal must be repeated three times. Saying yes after only two repetitions was my mother’s first act of courage.
-- Narrator (Four Years Before I Existed paragraph NA)

Importance: The differences between the American and Cuban cultures almost ended the relationship between Engle’s mother and father before it even started. In Cuba, women are taught to refuse a proposal...