Amalia Quiñones

24 memories9 places

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~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

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~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

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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

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~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

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