One of the way Lopera showcases her identity is by the voice she presents in her writing. Following the theme of untraditional, the voice she uses is a very personal and informal type of manner that rivals the preferred formal tone used to portray an autobiography. Her …show more content…
The author picked key events in her life that highlights themes of family, love, Religion, and sexuality that helps the reader understand and learn about her identity as a person and a writer. Again she uses use many untraditional tactics of narrative including traditional dialogue with quotations marks but instead italics the dialogue. “Did you cry? I ask her. Do you remember crying? Duh, Juliana, why you asking stupid questions again? She says handing my mama the phone.” (Lopera 13) Again this supports the idea that Lopera isn’t writing a formal essay but as a written version of how she would normality speak during a conversion with people. Her narrative is also carefully structure in a series of essays that follows finding her identity. For example, the first essay “The boy who never cried for me”, is a summary of the day she and her family moved from Colombia to Florida. This essay hints the beginning of self-doubt and searching for herself after a dramatic change when she was young “I call the Goddess to sit with me and hold me, wrap me in that thick, gorgeous mane of hers, and rock me until I’m platano Maduro, until I ripen into something more, something beautiful.” (Lopera 18) The other essays also deals with situations about her sexuality as a Lesbian, fake love, or loss of Religion. Yet, unlike the first three essays the “Quiereme” essay is a series of diary entries that follows a period of four months after breaking up with her serious wife, Laura and plays as one of the most important essay. The reader see her progress in real time or like in an Epistolary novel format rather than from past memories “Bitch, is it a new day or what? Am I feeling better or what?” (Lopera 43) The beginning of the entries Lopera is serious heart broken with her separation from her wife, “Laura left today and I couldn’t sleep last night trying to hug her, reaching for her tits.”