Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories

Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories

by

Sandra Cisneros

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories makes teaching easy.

Chaq Uxmal Paloquín (“Boy Baby”) Character Analysis

A man in “One Holy Night” who claims to be the descendant of Mayan kings, though this is a lie. Boy Baby seduces Ixchel even though he’s 37 and she’s only in eighth grade. He even shows her his collection of guns, telling her that he wants her to “understand” what kind of person he is, but this doesn’t scare her away. When Abuelita comes looking for him after he impregnates Ixchel, he’s nowhere to be found. Later, he’s arrested for having killed eleven girls in the past seven years and putting them in caves known as the Caves of the Hidden Girl.

Chaq Uxmal Paloquín (“Boy Baby”) Quotes in Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories

The Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories quotes below are all either spoken by Chaq Uxmal Paloquín (“Boy Baby”) or refer to Chaq Uxmal Paloquín (“Boy Baby”). 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:
Love, The Joy of Life, & Interconnection Theme Icon
).
One Holy Night Quotes

About the truth, if you give it to a person, then he has power over you. And if someone gives it to you, then they have made themselves your slave. It is a strong magic. You can never take it back.

Related Characters: Chaq Uxmal Paloquín (“Boy Baby”) (speaker), Ixchel
Page Number: 27
Explanation and Analysis:

I’m not saying I’m not bad. I’m not saying I’m special. But I’m not like the Allport Street girls, who stand in doorways and go with men into alleys.

All I know is I didn’t want it like that. Not against the bricks or hunkering in somebody’s car. I wanted it come undone like gold thread, like a tent full of birds. The way it’s supposed to be, the way I knew it would be when I met Boy Baby.

But you must know, I was no girl back then. And Boy Baby was no boy. Chaq Uxmal Paloquín. Boy Baby was a man. When I asked him how old he was he said he didn’t know. The past and the future are the same thing. So he seemed boy and baby and man all at once, and the way he looked at me, how do I explain?

Related Characters: Ixchel (speaker), Chaq Uxmal Paloquín (“Boy Baby”)
Page Number: 28
Explanation and Analysis:

The truth is, it wasn’t a big deal. It wasn’t any deal at all. I put my bloody panties inside my T-shirt and ran home hugging myself. I thought about a lot of things on the way home. I thought about all the world and how suddenly I became a part of history and wondered if everyone on the street, the sewing machine lady and the panadería saleswoman and the woman with two kids sitting on the bus bench didn’t all know. Did I look any different? Could they tell? We were all the same somehow, laughing behind our hands, waiting the way all women wait, and when we find out, we wonder why the world and a million years made such a big deal over nothing.

I know I was supposed to feel ashamed, but I wasn’t ashamed. I wanted to stand on top of the highest building, the top-top floor, and yell, I know.

Related Characters: Ixchel (speaker), Chaq Uxmal Paloquín (“Boy Baby”)
Page Number: 30
Explanation and Analysis:
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Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories PDF

Chaq Uxmal Paloquín (“Boy Baby”) Quotes in Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories

The Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories quotes below are all either spoken by Chaq Uxmal Paloquín (“Boy Baby”) or refer to Chaq Uxmal Paloquín (“Boy Baby”). 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:
Love, The Joy of Life, & Interconnection Theme Icon
).
One Holy Night Quotes

About the truth, if you give it to a person, then he has power over you. And if someone gives it to you, then they have made themselves your slave. It is a strong magic. You can never take it back.

Related Characters: Chaq Uxmal Paloquín (“Boy Baby”) (speaker), Ixchel
Page Number: 27
Explanation and Analysis:

I’m not saying I’m not bad. I’m not saying I’m special. But I’m not like the Allport Street girls, who stand in doorways and go with men into alleys.

All I know is I didn’t want it like that. Not against the bricks or hunkering in somebody’s car. I wanted it come undone like gold thread, like a tent full of birds. The way it’s supposed to be, the way I knew it would be when I met Boy Baby.

But you must know, I was no girl back then. And Boy Baby was no boy. Chaq Uxmal Paloquín. Boy Baby was a man. When I asked him how old he was he said he didn’t know. The past and the future are the same thing. So he seemed boy and baby and man all at once, and the way he looked at me, how do I explain?

Related Characters: Ixchel (speaker), Chaq Uxmal Paloquín (“Boy Baby”)
Page Number: 28
Explanation and Analysis:

The truth is, it wasn’t a big deal. It wasn’t any deal at all. I put my bloody panties inside my T-shirt and ran home hugging myself. I thought about a lot of things on the way home. I thought about all the world and how suddenly I became a part of history and wondered if everyone on the street, the sewing machine lady and the panadería saleswoman and the woman with two kids sitting on the bus bench didn’t all know. Did I look any different? Could they tell? We were all the same somehow, laughing behind our hands, waiting the way all women wait, and when we find out, we wonder why the world and a million years made such a big deal over nothing.

I know I was supposed to feel ashamed, but I wasn’t ashamed. I wanted to stand on top of the highest building, the top-top floor, and yell, I know.

Related Characters: Ixchel (speaker), Chaq Uxmal Paloquín (“Boy Baby”)
Page Number: 30
Explanation and Analysis: