Summary

In Chapter 18, Quiara writes about taking AP English in senior year of high school. She very much admired her teacher, Dr. Phillips, whose reverence for poetry, language, and literature in general further stoked Quiara’s passion for those subjects. At the same time, Quiara’s interest in Puerto Rican art, history, religion, and culture also continued to grow, and she read about those subjects on her own time.

In Chapter 19, Quiara writes about her increasing awareness of racial prejudice during her senior year of high school. A racist, pseudo-intellectual book called The Bell Curve was published that year, and many white men—including white male students at her school—cited the book as proof of the supposed naturalness of white supremacy. She then recalls an incident in a social studies class that year. They had an in-class debate about social programs such as welfare...