A Cup of Water Under My Bed

“To believe that my story, our story, any story stood by itself was dangerous. Feminists taught me this. Journalism confirmed it.”

Hernández’s memoir is not just the story of her life and her relationship with her family. Rather, their story is one of many that form a composite of the experience of immigrant families throughout the Unites States and the story of family tension as it relates to class, race, gender, and sexuality. She learned to see her own story in such a way through feminism’s emphasis on intersectionality and her work as a journalist, where she saw herself and her family in the stories of the people she interviewed. 

“Before language, there is love. Before love, memory.”

Hernández’s memoir begins with the author being sent to elementary school, where she learned English, rejected Spanish, and pulled away from her family. She recalls memories of her childhood, before “the beginning of the end” (4), where everything in her life, good or bad, happened in the Spanish language.

“Terrible things happen in Spanish.”

Hernández associates the Spanish language with tragic memories from her childhood, including her father’s excessive drinking, anger, and abuse, behavior that is not exclusive to her family in their Union City, New Jersey neighborhood.