Make Your Home Among Strangers

by

Jennine Capó Crucet

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Ricky Ramirez (Lizet’s Father) Character Analysis

Ricky Ramirez is Lizet and Leidy’s father. He is a Cuban immigrant who dropped out of high school to start a family with Lourdes when she became pregnant over twenty years ago. Ricky has always worked hard on behalf of his family and has for a long time been striving to make a better life for them—and yet, when Lizet decides to go off to college, he realizes that his marriage is irreparably flawed and decides to leave the family. Ricky is stoic and emotionally unavailable, and Lizet’s attempts to connect with him are fraught with pain, distrust, and misunderstanding. Ricky’s assertion that Lizet has “betrayed” the family by opting to go off to college is a way of lessening his own betrayal of them in the form of leaving and selling off the home the girls grew up in. Ricky does have a soft spot for Lizet, though, and in the end he is the only one who supports her, even marginally, as she chooses to continue to pursue her education, career, and personal growth away from Miami.

Ricky Ramirez (Lizet’s Father) Quotes in Make Your Home Among Strangers

The Make Your Home Among Strangers quotes below are all either spoken by Ricky Ramirez (Lizet’s Father) or refer to Ricky Ramirez (Lizet’s Father). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Home Theme Icon
).
Chapter 30 Quotes

—We get the news, you know, up there […] do you have any idea how the rest of the country is seeing this? I'm tired of it. We look like a bunch of crazy people.

—What's with this we crap? he said. I'm not with her, you're not even here.

—We as in Cubans, I said. He smiled with only one side of his mouth. He laughed again.

—You're not Cuban, he said. This hurt me more than anything else he could've said—more than Who cares what anyone up there thinks, more than Like there’s anything coming down here is gonna do—and I think he saw it in my face, saw how impossible what he’d just said sounded to me.

—Don't look at me like that! he said. You're American. I'm wrong?

[…]

—Yeah, I said. I'm—what do you mean I'm not Cuban? I was born here, yeah, but I'm Cuban. I'm Latina at least, I said.

—Latinos are Mexicans, Central Americans. You're not that either he said.

—What? Dad, are you—other people think I'm Cuban.

He stood up from the bed and moved out through the door, leaving me alone as he said, Okay, sure you are. Whatever you say, Lizet.

Related Characters: Lizet Ramirez (speaker), Ricky Ramirez (Lizet’s Father) (speaker), Lourdes Ramirez (Lizet’s Mother)
Related Symbols: Ariel Hernandez
Page Number: 314
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 36 Quotes

I already know what each would say should I ever have to tell them about an upcoming research trip to Cuba: my dad would talk about being a little disappointed in me, about the unfairness of me being able to travel to a country he can't enter, but he'd mostly not say anything, only leave me guessing at his meaning […]; my mother would bring out familiar words—betrayal, loyalty, traitor—words that have come to define our relationship no matter how much time passes but whose sting has faded and turned into something I can manage […].

To tell them would also mean inviting them along in a way. We still have family there. […] And when I tell them there'll be no time for that, that this is a work trip, that I'll mostly be on the water, in or under a boat, that what they want me to do takes me clear across an island I don't know: Oh, I see. You don't have time to take a piece of paper and a crayon to your grandmother's headstone? You don't have time to do that for me who will never see it? Oh, that's right, of course you don't. I should've remembered how busy you always are. I shouldn't have even asked.

Related Characters: Lizet Ramirez (speaker), Leidy Ramirez, Lourdes Ramirez (Lizet’s Mother), Ricky Ramirez (Lizet’s Father)
Page Number: 385
Explanation and Analysis:
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Ricky Ramirez (Lizet’s Father) Quotes in Make Your Home Among Strangers

The Make Your Home Among Strangers quotes below are all either spoken by Ricky Ramirez (Lizet’s Father) or refer to Ricky Ramirez (Lizet’s Father). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Home Theme Icon
).
Chapter 30 Quotes

—We get the news, you know, up there […] do you have any idea how the rest of the country is seeing this? I'm tired of it. We look like a bunch of crazy people.

—What's with this we crap? he said. I'm not with her, you're not even here.

—We as in Cubans, I said. He smiled with only one side of his mouth. He laughed again.

—You're not Cuban, he said. This hurt me more than anything else he could've said—more than Who cares what anyone up there thinks, more than Like there’s anything coming down here is gonna do—and I think he saw it in my face, saw how impossible what he’d just said sounded to me.

—Don't look at me like that! he said. You're American. I'm wrong?

[…]

—Yeah, I said. I'm—what do you mean I'm not Cuban? I was born here, yeah, but I'm Cuban. I'm Latina at least, I said.

—Latinos are Mexicans, Central Americans. You're not that either he said.

—What? Dad, are you—other people think I'm Cuban.

He stood up from the bed and moved out through the door, leaving me alone as he said, Okay, sure you are. Whatever you say, Lizet.

Related Characters: Lizet Ramirez (speaker), Ricky Ramirez (Lizet’s Father) (speaker), Lourdes Ramirez (Lizet’s Mother)
Related Symbols: Ariel Hernandez
Page Number: 314
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 36 Quotes

I already know what each would say should I ever have to tell them about an upcoming research trip to Cuba: my dad would talk about being a little disappointed in me, about the unfairness of me being able to travel to a country he can't enter, but he'd mostly not say anything, only leave me guessing at his meaning […]; my mother would bring out familiar words—betrayal, loyalty, traitor—words that have come to define our relationship no matter how much time passes but whose sting has faded and turned into something I can manage […].

To tell them would also mean inviting them along in a way. We still have family there. […] And when I tell them there'll be no time for that, that this is a work trip, that I'll mostly be on the water, in or under a boat, that what they want me to do takes me clear across an island I don't know: Oh, I see. You don't have time to take a piece of paper and a crayon to your grandmother's headstone? You don't have time to do that for me who will never see it? Oh, that's right, of course you don't. I should've remembered how busy you always are. I shouldn't have even asked.

Related Characters: Lizet Ramirez (speaker), Leidy Ramirez, Lourdes Ramirez (Lizet’s Mother), Ricky Ramirez (Lizet’s Father)
Page Number: 385
Explanation and Analysis: