Previous
Mami / Celina Sotomayor
Titi Aurora is Mami’s eldest sister; she’s about 13 or 14 years older. Titi Aurora marries an older man at age 16 to escape their mother’s household and their mother’s failing health. However, Titi Aurora doesn’t abandon her family—she returns every few weeks to collect piecework from women who sew handkerchiefs, and she asks Mami to hem two-dozen handkerchiefs every week as her contribution to the family. With the proceeds, Titi Aurora provides Mami with shoes and clothing. When Mami’s mother finally dies, Mami goes to live with Titi Aurora in the city. To support her younger sister, Titi Aurora helps procure Mami a false birth certificate so Mami can join the Women’s Army Corps. Titi Aurora is a regular presence in Sonia’s life in the Bronx. Sonia attends church with Titi Aurora when she becomes disillusioned with the priest at Blessed Sacrament following Papi’s death, and when Mami moves the family to Co-op City, Titi Aurora comes to live with them. During this time, Sonia resents Titi Aurora’s presence, as Titi Aurora is frugal to a fault and takes issue with the fact that Mami buys things that she considers luxuries—and on top of that, Sonia believes that Titi Aurora is around to help keep an eye on any teenage rebellion or rule-breaking. Regardless, Sonia recognizes that Titi Aurora and Mami are connected to each other in a deep way that she’ll never fully understand. As Sonia grows up, she begins to place Titi Aurora’s life in the wider context of the Puerto Rican immigrant experience. Titi Aurora works illegally in the garment industry in New York, but she also values honesty, rules, and hard work. The one thing she loves and that allows her to loosen up is pro wrestling, which she watches with Kenny Moy on TV. Titi Aurora dies right after Sonia becomes a judge and Mami moves to Florida with Omar.
Titi Aurora Quotes in My Beloved World
The My Beloved World quotes below are all either spoken by Titi Aurora or refer to Titi Aurora. 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:
).
Chapter 17 Quotes
The experience of hearing my Princeton reading echoed in family recollections had the effect of both making the history more vivid and endowing life as lived with the dignity of something worth studying. When, for instance, I had read that “a woman who takes ten hours to finish two dozen handkerchiefs earns 24 cents for them,” I could picture Titi Aurora holding the needle, my mother leaning over the iron.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
At Princeton, Sonia helps get a course on Puerto Rican history off the ground and finds the class eye opening, not least because she has family stories like that of Titi Aurora and Mami to make the history real to her. This makes it clear to Sonia and to the reader that history isn’t a long distant event that happened to strangers. Sonia’s family lived it. And most importantly, while Sonia also takes history classes that focus on the United States and other parts of the world, she doesn’t necessarily see exactly how those histories pertain to her until she Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus volu
Get the entire My Beloved World LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Titi Aurora Character Timeline in My Beloved World
The timeline below shows where the character Titi Aurora appears in My Beloved World. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...but that’s because of Papi’s drinking. No one visits except for Alfred, who is Titi Aurora’s son and Sonia’s cousin. Alfred is much older than Sonia and the family relies on...
(full context)
Chapter 4
...exit the airport, Sonia and Mami stop for a fresh coconut while Mami and Titi Aurora, her eldest sister, catch up—though Titi Aurora lives in New York, she visits Puerto Rico...
(full context)
...sits to watch. Mami coldly says that she’s Celina, but her father says nothing. Titi Aurora introduces Sonia and then chats to her father. Sonia recognizes that Mami is emotionally wounded....
(full context)
Chapter 5
...than she does about Papi. Monsignor Hart stops in, as does Dr. Fisher. Finally, Titi Aurora tells Sonia to say goodbye to Papi and kiss his cheek. Sonia doesn’t want to,...
(full context)
Chapter 7
...extended family members help out, but Mami’s siblings are really the ones who raise her. Aurora marries at 16 and leaves for the city, but she returns every two weeks to...
(full context)
...reads everything she can. When she’s nine, Mami’s mother dies and Mami moves in with Aurora. Mami loses track of some of her other siblings and continues to hem handkerchiefs. She...
(full context)
The Women’s Army Corps asks Mami to appear in San Juan, and Aurora grudgingly sends her. Mami passes all the tests, and they tell her to reappear in...
(full context)
Chapter 10
...to speak confidently in front of people. So when the church she attends with Titi Aurora asks for volunteers to read the Bible, Sonia volunteers. Her first time reading is terrifying....
(full context)
Chapter 11
...cops are on and remembers how when she was much younger, she’d go with Titi Aurora to her job as a seamstress. Sonia tried to be helpful, even though she was...
(full context)
Chapter 12
...from all different backgrounds move in. Soon, Alfred, Titi Carmen, and others move in—and Titi Aurora moves in with Sonia’s family. Titi Aurora sleeps in the foyer and grumbles if Sonia...
(full context)
Sonia doesn’t understand how Titi Aurora and Mami get along with their differences, but she can tell that they’re oddly bound...
(full context)
...her to work at a Catholic school. Miss Katz speaks reverently of Father Gigante, Titi Aurora’s priest; he’s a tenants’ rights activist. Miss Katz is the first progressive Sonia sees up...
(full context)
Chapter 13
...of the girls’ Forensics Club team at school, visits often to watch wrestling with Titi Aurora. Sonia joins the Forensics Club to work on her public speaking. Ken is an amazing...
(full context)
Chapter 17
...island comes to life—reading about what women who sewed handkerchiefs made, Sonia thinks of Titi Aurora and Mami. Abuelita’s first husband fought in World War I and then rolled tobacco. Sonia...
(full context)
Chapter 29
...finish their drive to Florida, though, Sonia gets a call from Puerto Rico that Titi Aurora died. Titi Aurora moved to Puerto Rico to put her second husband in a nursing...
(full context)
