Xiomara Batista

Xiomara, whose name means "warrior," is a fifteen-year old Dominican-American with a strong poetic voice and a voluptuous body that she spends most of the time hiding. Nearly sixteen at the time of the novel, Xiomara moves in the novel from being the oppressed, silenced daughter of highly religious mother to being a lauded spoken word poet who comes into her own when she confronts her mother. While Xiomara has several friendships in the novel, the defining relationships in the novel for her are with her mother, Xavier, Aman, and Caridad. Each relationship serves as an important part of the support that enables her to come into her own.

Xiomara's earliest identity is as a "miracle." She and her twin are the unlooked-for children of the Batistas, who had given up on having children at that point in life. Xiomara feels this burden of being a miracle...