That's how the blame arrives. I blame Spanish for the fact that I don't know more words in English. I blame her for how bad I feel when the white teachers look at me with some pity in their eyes. I blame Spanish for the hours my mother has to work at the factory.
-- Daisy Hernández (Before Love, Memory paragraph 3)

Importance: In the first chapter, Hernández recalls the difficulties she faced learning English while living in a Spanish-speaking home and how these difficulties caused her to feel a growing distance between herself and her family. She began to associate Spanish with everything that she disliked about her life. This is a comment on the assimilation process and how it may make the assimilating person feel animosity toward their culture of origin.

The white people look whiter than before. Their English sounds sharper. I feel dark, small, and confused, and I begin to suspect, perhaps for the...
-- Daisy Hernández (Before Love, Memory paragraph 1)