abandoned children Quotes

“The most amazing thing was the way that child held on. From the first moment I picked it up out of its nest of wet blanket, it attached itself to me by its little hands like roots sucking on dry dirt. I think it would have been easier to separate me from my hair.”

“‘You don’t get to be the mother if you show up after the kids are already grown up. She’s like all those animals at the end of the story who show up to eat the Little Red Hen’s bread.’”

“Oh, and she inexplicably mails me a cactus every Valentine’s Day. And I’m like, ‘Thanks a heap, Coyote Ugly. This cactus-gram stings even worse than your abandonment.‘”

“‘People are going to feel sorry for me, and I won’t ever have any normal relationships—and it’s always going to be because I didn’t have a mother. Always. That’s the ultimate kind of broken.’”

“Arcadio was a solitary and frightened child during the insomnia plague, in the midst of Úrsula’s utilitarian fervor, during the delirium of José Arcadio Buendía, the hermetism of Aureliano, and the mortal rivalry between Amaranta and Rebeca. Aureliano had taught him to read and write, thinking about other things, as he would have done with a stranger.”

“Let us admit that some government programs and personnel are efficient and effective, and others are not. Let us acknowledge that when it comes to the treatment of children, some individuals are evil, neglectful, or incompetent, but others are trying to do the best they can against daunting odds and deserve not our contempt but the help only we—through our government—can provide.”

“Chiapas, he says, ‘is a cemetary with no crosses, where people die without even getting a prayer.‘”

“I lost their childhood. Sometimes, you feel bad.”

“People come here to prosper. You have nothing here. What have you accomplished?”

“The conversation is awkward. His mother is a stranger. This is probably expensive.”

“She stares awkwardly down at the kitchen counter. Then, quietly, she tells me about four other children I never knew existed.”

″‘Dónde está mi mami?’ Enrique cries, over and over. ‘Where is my mom?‘”

“The train crawls out of the Tapachula station. From here on, he thinks, nothing bad can happen.”

“He hugs María Isabel and Aunt Rosa Amalia. Then he steps off.”

“Jasmín waves with both hands and calls out, “Adiós, mami. Adiós, mami. Adiós, mami.”