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Sapo
Edwin Nazario is a savvy, streetwise, and cunning lawyer who pairs up with Bodega to realize Bodega’s dreams for the Spanish Harlem. Nazario is highly adept at swindling people and often uses his skills to slyly protect criminals from prosecution. Nazario is highly respected in the Latinx community and a popular figure about town. He used to be a Young Lord activist in his youth. Nazario believes that New York’s powerful elite gained their wealth by stealing land from Latinx people and wiping out Indigenous people when the United States was a bourgeoning nation. Because of this, Nazario has no qualms about using whatever means he can—criminal or otherwise—to achieve his own aims. At the story’s climax, Julio realizes that Nazario has been the antagonist all along. Nazario is behind the story’s murders, and he’s secretly in love with Vera, a woman whom Bodega is infatuated with. Together, Nazario and Vera plot to take over Bodega’s fortune, and Nazario ultimately betrays and kills Bodega. Even as Nazario’s being hauled to prison by the police, he’s already scheming about joining forces with Sapo (who’s likely going to be the next criminal boss of Spanish Harlem).
Edwin Nazario Quotes in Bodega Dreams
The Bodega Dreams quotes below are all either spoken by Edwin Nazario or refer to Edwin Nazario . 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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Book 2, Round 2
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No wonder Bodega’s name had spread like a good smell from a Latin woman’s kitchen.
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Book 2, Round 8
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“Look around, Julio. Every time someone makes a million dollars, he kills some part of the world. That part has been us for so long, and it will continue to be us unless we fight back. The day will come when, lust like the white guy, we will also steal by signing the right papers […] What do you think, it comes from nothing? America is a great nation, I have no doubts about that, but in its early days it had to take some shady steps to get there. Manifest Destiny, that was just another word for genocide.”
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That night Sapo dropped me off at one of the new-old buildings Bodega had renovated on 116th and Lexington. Those buildings had been condemned for years. The City of New York takes so much time to either renovate or bulldoze a condemned building it’s like those guys on Death Row who die of old age rather than execution. Bodega had bought the entire row from the city and had slowly renovated three of them. He had improved the block. Improved the neighborhood. Given people a place to live.
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Edwin Nazario Quotes in Bodega Dreams
The Bodega Dreams quotes below are all either spoken by Edwin Nazario or refer to Edwin Nazario . 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:
).
Book 2, Round 2
Quotes
No wonder Bodega’s name had spread like a good smell from a Latin woman’s kitchen.
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Book 2, Round 8
Quotes
“Look around, Julio. Every time someone makes a million dollars, he kills some part of the world. That part has been us for so long, and it will continue to be us unless we fight back. The day will come when, lust like the white guy, we will also steal by signing the right papers […] What do you think, it comes from nothing? America is a great nation, I have no doubts about that, but in its early days it had to take some shady steps to get there. Manifest Destiny, that was just another word for genocide.”
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Explanation and Analysis:
That night Sapo dropped me off at one of the new-old buildings Bodega had renovated on 116th and Lexington. Those buildings had been condemned for years. The City of New York takes so much time to either renovate or bulldoze a condemned building it’s like those guys on Death Row who die of old age rather than execution. Bodega had bought the entire row from the city and had slowly renovated three of them. He had improved the block. Improved the neighborhood. Given people a place to live.
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