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Amalia Quiñones

24 memories9 places

2026

1 photoAdded Oct 4, 2026

You went to Mar y Sol?

Sofía was looking through some of my old photographs and found one of Carmen and me when we were young. She asked where it was taken and I said I thought it was Mar y Sol. She said, "What's Mar y Sol?" So I told her. When I got to the part about Carmen telling her mother she was staying at my house and me telling Mami I was staying at Carmen's, Sofía looked at me like she'd never seen me before. "You did that?" I reminded her that I was 21 years old. Apparently this did not make it better. Then she wanted to know everything. Who we saw. Where we slept. What we wore. Whether my mother ever found out. Some of it I knew. Some of it I couldn't remember. And some of it I realized I hadn't thought about in more than fifty years.

San Juan, Puerto Rico

© OpenStreetMap

~2018

1 photoAdded Oct 4, 2026

The reef I remembered

I went back snorkeling in Culebra at a place I remembered from when Carmen and I were young. I spent half the morning trying to decide if I was even in the same spot. I think I was. There was still plenty to see, but it wasn't the reef I remembered. There were places where I remembered coral being everywhere and now there wasn't. Memory is tricky, especially after forty years. Maybe some of what I'm comparing it to has gotten exaggerated in my head. But not all of it. I stayed in the water a long time anyway.

Culebra, Puerto Rico

© OpenStreetMap

~2015

Added Oct 4, 2026

The box of negatives

I found a box of old negatives while cleaning a closet. I almost threw it away because I couldn't tell what was on most of them. Then I started holding them up to the window. Mexico. Culebra. Carmen. My parents. There were photographs I hadn't seen in thirty or forty years. I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on the floor instead of cleaning the closet. There was one photograph of Carmen and me covered in mud that I was convinced was from Mar y Sol. I sent Carmen a picture of it. She immediately called me and said, "That's not Mar y Sol." I said, "Of course it is." She said, "Amalia, look at my hair." We're still arguing about it.

San Juan, Puerto Rico

© OpenStreetMap

~2004

Added Oct 4, 2026

Papá's toolbox

After Papá died we had to go through his things. Rafi and I kept putting it off. His toolbox was still exactly the way he'd left it. Every screwdriver had its place. Little jars with screws and washers. Pieces of wire he had apparently decided might be useful someday. I opened one drawer and the smell of it brought him back immediately. Metal and oil and something I can't describe. I took one of his screwdrivers. Rafi took the toolbox. I still have the screwdriver somewhere.

Santurce, Puerto Rico

© OpenStreetMap

2000

1 photoAdded Oct 4, 2026

Carmen talked me into Vieques

Carmen talked me into going to Vieques. I didn't need convincing about what was happening there. I needed convincing that standing outside in the heat all day was going to accomplish anything. We went anyway. I remember expecting everything to feel very serious and political, and of course parts of it did, but mostly I remember people. Talking, sharing food, complaining about the heat, somebody always knowing somebody else's cousin. Carmen was much more energized by all of it than I was. At one point she looked at me and said, "Aren't you glad you came?" I told her I'd answer after I found some shade.

Vieques, Puerto Rico

© OpenStreetMap

September 21–22, 1998

1 photoAdded Oct 4, 2026

The sound of Georges

What I remember most about Georges is the sound. We had prepared. Everybody had prepared. We had water, food, batteries, the windows covered. None of that prepared me for listening to the house all night. You could hear things hitting outside and sometimes something would make a noise and Tomás and I would look at each other trying to figure out what part of the house it had come from. Water started coming in under one of the windows and we kept putting down towels even though there was obviously no point anymore. Clara was eleven. She was scared but trying very hard not to show it. The next morning was incredibly bright. That's another thing I remember. After all that noise, walking outside into this beautiful blue sky and seeing everything everywhere.

San Juan, Puerto Rico

© OpenStreetMap

~1992

1 photoAdded Oct 4, 2026

Look down

I taught Clara to snorkel when she was about five. She hated the mask. She said it smelled bad and wouldn't breathe through the snorkel because she was convinced water was going to come through it. I suddenly remembered Papá teaching me. Without even thinking about it I told her exactly what he had told me: don't look ahead, just look down. She finally put her face in. A few seconds later she squeezed my hand and started pointing at a fish. I don't think I had thought about that day with Papá in years. Then there I was saying his words.

San Juan, Puerto Rico

© OpenStreetMap

1987

1 photoAdded Oct 4, 2026

Clara

Clara was born in 1987. Everybody told me I would forget the difficult parts afterward. This was a lie. I remember being exhausted and scared and very annoyed at anyone who told me to relax. Then suddenly there she was. Tomás cried immediately. I didn't. I remember looking at her and thinking, very clearly, that's Clara. There wasn't really another name after that.

San Juan, Puerto Rico

© OpenStreetMap

~1983

2 songsAdded Oct 4, 2026

Nobody wanted to hear my records

When I came back from Mexico I brought records with me that almost nobody I knew wanted to listen to. Joy Division, Siouxsie, The Cure. Carmen tolerated them. Rafi said they all sounded miserable. I remember putting Siouxsie on one night and Rafi asking me what had happened to Santana. Nothing had happened to Santana. I still loved Santana. I never understood why people thought liking something new meant you had to stop liking whatever came before it.

Santurce, Puerto Rico

Christine — Siouxsie and the Banshees

A Forest — The Cure

© OpenStreetMap

~1983

1 bookAdded Oct 4, 2026

Clara del Valle

I read La casa de los espíritus not long after I came back from Mexico. I loved Clara. Not because I thought I was anything like her. I just loved the name and the character stayed with me. I lent the book to Carmen afterward and she kept it for months, which was fair considering I still had Miguel's copy of Rayuela. A few years later when I was pregnant and we started talking about names, I suggested Clara. Tomás liked it immediately. I don't think I told him until much later where I'd gotten it.

Santurce, Puerto Rico

La casa de los espíritus — Isabel Allende

© OpenStreetMap

1982

1 photoAdded Oct 4, 2026

Coming home

I knew I was home before I was really outside the airport. The doors opened and the heat hit me. I'd forgotten how heavy the air could feel here. Mexico City could be hot but it wasn't this. This was like walking into something. Mami cried when she saw me. Papá didn't, but he hugged me for a very long time. For the first few weeks everybody kept asking when I was going back to Mexico and I kept saying I didn't know. Eventually I realized I wasn't going back. The strange thing was that Puerto Rico didn't feel exactly like home anymore either. I had spent almost five years missing it and then I came back and felt slightly out of place. That lasted longer than I expected.

Mexico City, Mexico · San Juan, Puerto Rico

© OpenStreetMap

~1980

1 songAdded Oct 4, 2026

Héctor Lavoe in Mexico

Somebody put on “Periódico de Ayer” at a party and I started crying. Not dramatically. I just suddenly had tears in my eyes and had to go to the bathroom because I didn't want anybody asking what was wrong. Nothing was wrong. Héctor Lavoe had been around me for years in Puerto Rico and I barely paid attention. I was the one listening to rock records and making fun of what the grownups listened to. Then I heard him in Mexico and all I could think about was home. I stayed in the bathroom until I stopped crying and then went back out and pretended nothing happened. I don't think anyone noticed.

Mexico City, Mexico

Periódico de Ayer — Héctor Lavoe

© OpenStreetMap

1979

1 songAdded Oct 4, 2026

The record with the white lines

Andrés brought over a record with a black cover and these strange white lines on it. I asked what it was and instead of answering he put it on. It didn't sound like the rock I knew. At first I wasn't even sure I liked it. Then he played it again. I ended up borrowing it and keeping it for weeks until he finally came looking for it. Joy Division sent me down a completely different path with music. Siouxsie and the Banshees came after that, and The Cure. I was 28 and suddenly felt like there was a whole new kind of music I knew nothing about. That was a wonderful feeling.

Mexico City, Mexico

Unknown Pleasures — Joy Division

© OpenStreetMap

~1978

1 photoAdded Oct 4, 2026

The apartment with the terrible water heater

The apartment in Mexico had a water heater that worked whenever it felt like it. You would turn on the shower and wait, and sometimes you got hot water and sometimes you just stood there bargaining with it. There were three of us living there for a while. Nobody ever had any money. The kitchen table was also a desk and a place for developing contact sheets and somewhere to leave records. I don't know why I remember that apartment so fondly. At the time we complained about it constantly. I would probably hate living there now.

Mexico City, Mexico

© OpenStreetMap

1977

1 photo · 1 bookAdded Oct 4, 2026

Six months in Mexico

I went to Mexico thinking I would stay six months. I had a friend of a friend there and somewhere I could sleep when I arrived. That was basically the entire plan. Mami was convinced something terrible was going to happen to me. Papá was quieter about it, which somehow made leaving harder. I remember packing Rayuela because apparently that was essential, while forgetting several things I actually needed. Mexico City overwhelmed me immediately. I had never lived anywhere that big. For the first few weeks I was constantly lost. Six months became a year without me really deciding anything. Then another year. I stayed almost five.

Puerto Rico · Mexico City, Mexico

Rayuela — Julio Cortázar

© OpenStreetMap

~1975

1 photoAdded Oct 4, 2026

The first time I saw Culebra underwater

The first time I went to Culebra with Carmen we hardly had any money. We brought a tent that I don't think belonged to either one of us and far too much canned food. I had been snorkeling since I was a kid, but I had never seen anything like the water there. We stayed out for hours. I remember huge stands of coral and so many fish that after a while you stopped pointing them out. There were parrotfish everywhere. I saw a ray and tried to yell to Carmen through my snorkel. That obviously didn't work. That night I was completely sunburned across my back and couldn't sleep comfortably in the tent. I remember thinking I wanted to come back every year. I didn't come every year, but I came back a lot.

Culebra, Puerto Rico

© OpenStreetMap

~1974

Added Oct 4, 2026

I stopped going

I didn't really decide to leave the university. I just started going less and less until eventually I wasn't going at all. My father kept asking when I was going back. For a while I kept saying next semester. I was working and taking pictures and going out too much and I had no idea what I wanted to study. Everybody else seemed to have some kind of plan, although now I suspect most of them didn't either. For years I was embarrassed that I never finished. I'm not anymore.

Río Piedras, Puerto Rico

© OpenStreetMap

~1973

1 bookAdded Oct 4, 2026

The book I never returned

A guy in one of my classes lent me Rayuela. I can't remember his last name anymore. His first name was Miguel and he was very serious about books, the kind of person who made you feel like you had read everything incorrectly. He explained to me that you could read it in different orders. I thought this was the greatest thing I had ever heard. I took the book home and never gave it back. For years I felt slightly guilty whenever I saw it on the shelf. Then enough time passed that returning it would have been stranger than keeping it. I still have it. Miguel, wherever you are, I'm sorry.

Río Piedras, Puerto Rico

Rayuela — Julio Cortázar

© OpenStreetMap

April 1–3, 1972

1 photoAdded Oct 4, 2026

Mar y Sol

Carmen's mother thought she was sleeping at my house and Mami thought I was sleeping at Carmen's. We were 21 years old, which sounds ridiculous now, but neither one of us was going to tell our parents we were going to spend the weekend at Mar y Sol. We went with some friends in a car that I can't believe made it there. I remember we brought almost nothing useful. No proper rain clothes, not enough food, nothing sensible to sleep on. We thought we were very prepared. Then it rained. There was mud everywhere. Everything was wet. At some point I stopped caring. I remember being exhausted and dirty and incredibly happy. For hours people kept saying Black Sabbath was coming. Then somebody said they couldn't get through the traffic. I don't know when we finally believed they weren't coming. I remember the Allman Brothers much more clearly. Or at least I think I do. That's the strange thing after all these years. I don't remember the performances in order. Some of them I probably only think I remember because I've seen the names so many times since. But I remember the crowd. I remember looking around and thinking I had never seen so many people like us in one place before. And I remember Carmen turning to me at some point and saying, "Your mother is going to kill you." She didn't. She was much more interested in why everything I owned was covered in mud.

Los Tubos / Manatí, Puerto Rico

© OpenStreetMap

1970

1 songAdded Oct 4, 2026

The first record I bought myself

The first record I remember buying with my own money was Abraxas by Santana. I had bought singles before but an album felt like a serious purchase. I must have been 19. I think I bought it partly because I loved the cover. I brought it home and Rafi immediately wanted to know where I got the money for it, which annoyed me because I was working by then. I played it constantly. Black Magic Woman especially, over and over. Rafi eventually told me I was going to ruin it. This from the person who had spent years telling me not to touch his records.

Santurce, Puerto Rico

Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen — Santana

© OpenStreetMap

1968

1 filmAdded Oct 4, 2026

2001

Carmen and I went to see 2001 and I don't think either one of us had any idea what we were going to see. Carmen hated it. She kept asking me what was happening and I didn't know either. I remember walking out feeling almost irritated by it, but then I couldn't stop thinking about it. Especially the ending. I wanted somebody to explain it to me and at the same time I didn't want it explained. Carmen still says it was the longest movie she ever saw in her life.

San Juan, Puerto Rico

2001: A Space Odyssey — Stanley Kubrick

© OpenStreetMap

~1965

Added Oct 4, 2026

Rafi's records

Rafi was five years older than me and his records were absolutely forbidden. Naturally I listened to them whenever he wasn't home. His room had a little record player and he kept the albums standing against the wall. I would sit on the floor and try to put everything back exactly where it was so he wouldn't know I'd been there. He always knew. I scratched one of his records once and blamed it on one of his friends. I don't remember which record it was anymore, although Rafi probably does. That's where I heard a lot of music for the first time. The Beatles, the Stones, Dylan. Later Hendrix. I didn't understand half of what they were singing about. It didn't matter. The funny thing is that Rafi wasn't especially patient with me about anything else, but sometimes he'd come home and find me there and instead of throwing me out he'd put something on and say, "Listen to this one."

Santurce, Puerto Rico

© OpenStreetMap

~1960

1 photoAdded Oct 4, 2026

Papá teaching me to snorkel

I don't know exactly when this was. I must have been about nine. Papá taught me to snorkel at Escambrón. We had one of those rubber masks that covered your eyes and nose and smelled terrible. I was scared to put my face in the water because breathing through the tube felt completely wrong. He held my hand and told me not to look ahead, just look down. I remember the moment I finally did it. There were little fish right underneath us and suddenly I forgot I was scared. I wanted to stay in until my fingers got wrinkled. For years I thought the water had been incredibly deep. I went back much later and realized we were probably standing in four feet of water.

Escambrón, San Juan, Puerto Rico

© OpenStreetMap

~1958

Added Oct 4, 2026

The blackout at Abuela's

I don't know how old I was, maybe six or seven. The electricity went out at Abuela's and everybody ended up sitting outside on the balcony because it was too hot inside. I remember the candles and the mosquitoes more than anything. The whole neighborhood was dark but you could hear people talking from the other houses. The grownups stayed up much later than usual and I was allowed to stay with them. I don't remember what they were talking about. I just remember liking that nobody could send me inside to bed because it was hotter in there.

Santurce, Puerto Rico

© OpenStreetMap