a privilege to remember

"There was a dream, however, that did haunt her. Where she walked alone through a vast, empty house whose roof was being tattooed by rain.  Whose house was it?  She had not a clue. But she could hear the voices of children in it.
At first year´s end, the teacher asked her to come to the board and fill in the date, a privilege that only the "best" children in the class were given.  She is a giant at the board and in their minds the children are calling her what they call her in the world:  variations on La Prieta Quemada or La Fea Quemada.  When Beli sat down the teacher over her scrawl and said, Well done, Señorita Cabral! She would never forget that day, even when she became the Queen of Diaspora.

Well done, Señorita Cabral !

She would never forget. She was nine years, eleven months. It was the Era of Trujillo."

The brief and wondrous life of Oscar Wao - Junot Díaz