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Padmini Prakash (Queens)
An assistant at the Bronx Art Center where Bronca, Yijing, and Jess work, Veneza is a half-Black, half-Portuguese former art school student from Jersey City, New Jersey. Bronca considers Veneza a great friend and something of a daughter figure. When a right-wing art collective called the Alt Artistes, infected by the Woman in White’s tendrils, attacks Bronca with an interdimensional portal hidden inside a racist painting, Veneza saves her. Because Veneza senses the Woman in White’s presence in a way Bronca’s other colleagues do not, Bronca tells Veneza the truth about the interdimensional attack on New York City, though she warns her to stay out of the fight. Nevertheless, Veneza uses her online savvy to protect Bronca and her colleagues from the Alt Artistes’ online harassment and, later, helps figure out that the Better New York Foundation is part of a global organization seeking to gentrify and thus weaken cities before their births. Before the final confrontation with the Woman in White, Bronca insists that Veneza leave the city for her safety. Veneza complies, but one of the Woman in White’s minions kidnaps her. When Bronca, Brooklyn, Padmini, and Hong arrive at Aislyn’s house to seek her help in the battle against the Woman in White, the Woman threatens Veneza’s life. Aislyn, horrified but loyal to the Woman, banishes Bronca, Brooklyn, Padmini, Hong, and Veneza from Staten Island. Afterward, Veneza travels with Bronca, Brooklyn, and Padmini to join Manny to try to wake New York City’s avatar from his coma. Without Aislyn’s help, though, the other four boroughs can’t wake New York City’s avatar—until Veneza transforms into the avatar of Jersey City, an honorary though not official part of New York. With Veneza’s help, the others wake New York City’s avatar and drive the Woman in White out of every part of the city except Staten Island. Veneza’s transformation into an honorary borough represents how, in the novel, true community is about solidarity in diversity rather than mere legal and political definitions.
Veneza (Jersey City) Quotes in The City We Became
The The City We Became quotes below are all either spoken by Veneza (Jersey City) or refer to Veneza (Jersey City). 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:
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Chapter 6 Quotes
That was what had made the paint-figures so creepy, really. To know that the things she was seeing weren’t just mindless, swirl-faced monsters, but things with minds and feelings? Minds as incomprehensibly alien as Lovecraft once imagined his fellow human beings to be.
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Chapter 7 Quotes
“I keep thinking about how, at the park, she kept switching between ‘we’ and ‘I’ like the pronouns were interchangeable. Like she couldn’t keep the words straight, and they didn’t really matter anyway.”
“Maybe this isn’t her first language.”
That’s partly it. But Manny suspects the problem is less linguistic than contextual. She doesn’t get English because English draws a distinction between the individual self and the collective plural, and wherever she comes from, whatever she is, that difference doesn’t mean the same thing. If there’s a difference at all.
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Chapter 16 Quotes
“Living cities aren’t defined by politics,” he says. It’s almost a shout, so urgently does he speak. “Not by city limits or county lines. They’re made of whatever the people who live in and around them believe.”
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Veneza (Jersey City) Character Timeline in The City We Became
The timeline below shows where the character Veneza (Jersey City) appears in The City We Became. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 6: The Interdimensional Art Critic Dr. White
...collective led by a man she dubs Strawberry Manbun. Jess, Yijing, and the Center’s assistant Veneza are there. After looking at the art, Bronca asks, “Are you fucking with us?” The...
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...their noises—which aren’t human speech. She smells seawater. Suddenly, the entities in the painting charge. Veneza grabs Bronca’s arm, and the painting is just a painting again. Due to the knowledge...
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...the same letter, Lovecraft also expressed virulent prejudice against Black, Jewish, and Portuguese people. When Veneza says, “Shit, even the Portuguese?”, Bronca recalls Veneza is biracial, Black and Portuguese, and has...
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Veneza goes to the reception computer and calls over her coworkers, showing them a YouTube video...
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Veneza tells Bronca there’s something creepy about one of the Center’s bathroom stalls and “everything’s weird...
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Driving, Bronca explains to Veneza what she knows. Though hesitant, Bronca hears the city encouraging her to be honest: “We...
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Veneza asks whether Bronca can make “any part of the city” move. Bronca raises her arm...
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When Veneza asks whether Bronca is talking about the “many-worlds interpretation” in “quantum physics,” Bronca tells her...
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...ideas, and so forth occurring in it, it travels across multiple realities and becomes “alive.” Veneza, awestruck, says that when she saw the city from her roof, she thought she saw...
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Veneza asks about the painting. Bronca says that one of the other realities, for reasons unknown...
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Veneza remembers the creatures in the painting moving. Bronca says that life in other realities doesn’t...
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Bronca and Veneza get in the car and keep driving to Jersey City. Bronca warns Veneza that while...
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Veneza asks why she could see the paint creatures when Yijing, Jess, and the Alt Artistes...
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Veneza points out that if people are already trying to kill Bronca with paint creatures, things...
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Chapter 9: A Better New York Is in Sight
Yijing, Jess, and Veneza are now in the Center. Bronca puts Raul on speakerphone so they can hear the...
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Veneza tells the others they’ve been doxed and shows them a forum on her laptop. Yijing,...
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...Artistes. Jess contacts artists associated with the Center who have a substantial online presence, and Veneza asks her “art-school buddies” to contribute. These actions concentrate and amplify support for the Center...
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...to turn down the Better New York Foundation’s donation and keep Bronca as director. While Veneza is overjoyed, Yijing is angry, pointing out that the board was only bowing to internet...
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...a mental danger warning from where she was sleeping on the Center’s third floor with Veneza and the keyholders. She hears a man laughing and liquid splashing. Running downstairs, Bronca sees...
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Bronca sees Veneza behind the collapsed Alt Artistes and realizes she must have seen Bronca fighting the Woman...
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Keyholders come downstairs to check on Bronca and Veneza. Bronca tells them to call the police and says she’ll retrieve the Center’s security footage....
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Chapter 11: Yeah, So, About That Whole Teamwork Thing
Veneza comes into the office and looks at Bronca, who admits she feels too old and...
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...to know the history”—and becomes less angry about their confusion and tardy arrival. She and Veneza take them to the staff break room. There, Bronca tells them they need to find...
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...The living have a responsibility to those who died to fight for survival. Padmini and Veneza’s horrified reactions make Bronca reflect that city people tend not to know where their food...
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Veneza shakes Bronca awake. Bronca finds herself on the Center’s staff meeting room couch. Manny, Padmini,...
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When Veneza asks who the unconscious man is, Hong replies the man is São Paolo: “Who else...
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Veneza, murmuring São Paolo’s name, starts poking through the staff room freezer. Meanwhile, Brooklyn suggests that...
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...that New York City has five boroughs, while the Center currently contains four boroughs and Veneza. Manny argues that Staten Island and São Paolo must have had a “misunderstanding,” since Staten...
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...other boroughs because she’s realized the “danger.” Bronca begins to ask what Hong means when Veneza interrupts, pulling chocolate candies from the freezer. She explains they’re a Brazilian candy called brigadeiro,...
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Veneza gets on Bronca’s computer and starts searching online for Guastavino tiles in Manhattan. Meanwhile, Manny...
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Chapter 13: Beaux Arts, Bitches
...the airport, he saw the tendrils making “structures” and a strange tower on Staten Island. Veneza summons the others to a window and points out a bizarre, organic-architectural structure over Hunts...
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...she’s going for a walk to see what’s happening. Manny insists on going with her. Veneza comes too. As they walk, they spot many New Yorkers infected by the tendrils. They...
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Veneza indicates to Manny and Bronca the tendril growth is all over the now-empty lot. Bronca,...
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Veneza speculates that maybe the Woman in White has constructed similar “traps” in any city she...
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Brooklyn says the boroughs don’t know sacrificing themselves will work without Staten Island. Veneza suggests they go find Staten Island and ask for her help. Manny realizes he dislikes...
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...hers. Brooklyn volunteers to go with Bronca, and Paolo volunteers to go with Manny. When Veneza pulls out her keys and suggests she can drive some people too, Bronca demands she...
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As Veneza is driving toward her father’s place in Philadelphia, she hears a noise from the back...
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Chapter 15: “And lo, the Beast looked upon the face of Beauty”
...Aislyn sees a young woman unconscious and covered in slime a cave. Bronca calls out, “Veneza?” The Woman says that if they want Veneza back safe, they’ll leave Aislyn alone.
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When Padmini reacts with disgust to Veneza’s cave, Aislyn realizes it’s a mouth, belonging to the “Ding Ho,” which may eat Veneza....
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Chapter 16: New York Is Who?
Bronca, Brooklyn, Padmini, and Veneza are all teleported in front of the Bull of Wall Street. When Bronca checks on...
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On the way, Bronca sees many structures made of tendrils. Veneza tells Bronca the Woman in White is an extradimensional city avatar, trying to bring her...
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The Transit Museum director meets Bronca, Veneza, Padmini, and Brooklyn at an entrance to the derelict subway station, where he gives them...
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...city thicken. They’re discussing how the Woman in White’s city will destroy our universe when Veneza interrupts. When they look at her, she’s covered in sweat, and then suddenly they see...
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Bronca, welcoming Veneza into the circle of boroughs around New York City’s avatar, explains to her that people...
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In cityspace, New York’s avatar, Manny, Bronca, Brooklyn, Padmini, and Veneza use New York concepts such as city noise, “sewer fire,” Wall Street employees, muggers, and...
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Coda
...Island boardwalk and contemplating his spirit “conjoined” with those of Manny, Bronca, Brooklyn, Padmini, and Veneza—this conjunction being what his eating them really consisted of. They’re celebrating July 9th, the day...
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Paolo joins New York City’s avatar on the boardwalk, where he’s watching Jojo, Padmini, and Veneza play Marco Polo. Aishwarya, her husband, Bronca, and Manny are sitting on the beach. Manny,...
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...Paolo leaves, Padmini joins New York City’s avatar and brings him onto the beach, where Veneza—complaining that she can sense the avatar’s hunger—hands him a sandwich. The avatar sits down with...
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