Santiago writes, “ At one moment they were just like any other couple, doing things together, playing with us kids, boasting about our virtues to the neighbors. The next they called each other names, spewed out ugly lists of offenses on both sides” (195). This shows the reader how Negi could not grasp how her parents are so much in love, yet at times it felt that they were not really in love with each other due to the constant day –to day fights that went on in her household. She tries to escape from their fights by escaping to her room where she is aloud to daydream about her fantasy world where love is perfect and the men always comment the women and neither of them fight

As Negi grew older she became aware of how her parents relationship differed from the ones that were described on the television soap operas, the radio-novellas and the romantic novels that she read. Santiago says “ On the radio, love was different. Men with rich voices, who were always tall and dark, won the hearts of young woman who were always petite and innocent ”(194). She liked listening to these stories because it gave her a glimmer of hope that one day she would fall in love and not suffer they way her parents did. “ I would rush home from school every day to sit by the radio for hours listening to the romantic tales of woman with names like Mariana and Sofia, and men such as Armando and Ricardo”. (194) These stories gave her the ability to escape the constant arguing in her house, because they allowed her to fantasize about the way love was supposed to be.

All these fights and long abcences regarding her father impacted Negi because she felt that her parents did not truly love each other and that they tried to stayed together for the sake of the kids. But as she got older she realized that there was a deeper meaning to her parent’s fights. They fought because her father was unfaithful; they also fought because of money and also about the fact that they were not married even though they were together for fourteen years.

Then there were the soap operas that also provided her with a different view on true love. “According to the soap opera, someday I would fall in love at first sight, but my love and I would suffer before we could be happy” (194). This shows how Negi believed that the soap operas were in some way describing her life and what would happen

Some topics in this essay:
Esmeralda Santiago, Armando Ricardo, Raymond Santiago, Armando Ricardo”, , soap operas, fall love, fantasy world, love supposed, models love, love suffer, truly love, parents love, perfect love, constant arguing,