‘Ordinary Girls’: Featured Nonfiction by Jaquira Díaz

In today’s edition of featured nonfiction—curated by our own Carolyn Quimby—we present an excerpt from Jaquira Díaz’s memoir, Ordinary Girls, out today from Algonquin Books.

Here’s what our own Nick Moran had to say about the book in the Second Half Preview:

In her debut memoir, Jaquira Díaz mines her experiences growing up in Puerto Rico and Miami, grappling with traumas both personal and international, and over time converts them into something approaching hope and self-assurance. For years, Díaz has dazzled in shorter formats—stories, essays, etc.—and her entrée into longer lengths is very welcome.

Beach City 

I.

One August afternoon, the year we started