Hip-hop, this thing we love that loves us back, is our lingua franca.

— Raquel Cepeda

I fall in love with Paris. It’s like a giant playground where I’m never scolded for running around recklessly, where I’m almost overwhelmed with the amount of attention and love I receive from Mami’s family. In New York, I’m invisible.

— Raquel Cepeda

If Aphrodite chills at home in Cyprus for most of the year, then Fez must be the goddess’s playground.

— Raquel Cepeda

If it weren’t for her setting me free, I may still be a caged bird today, holding my own daughter captive on a shit-laden perch.

— Raquel Cepeda

I guess it all depends on whom you ask and when you ask. Race, I've learned, is in the eye of the beholder.

— Raquel Cepeda

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.

— Raquel Cepeda

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.

— Raquel Cepeda

I remember feeling that pieces of me were scattered around the world; I belonged to her, Mother Earth.

— Raquel Cepeda

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.

— Raquel Cepeda

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.

— Raquel Cepeda