“Otravida, Otravez” is narrated by Yasmin, a young Dominican woman. She works hard in her role as a hospital laundry room supervisor, explaining, “I work two blocks away at St. Peter’s Hospital. Never late. Never leave the laundry room. Never leave the heat. I’m in charge of four other workers, I make an American wage, but it’s a donkey job” (54).

Yasmin’s boyfriend is Ramon, a chubby Dominican man who left his wife and son in the Dominican Republic. He is trying to buy a house with Yasmin. She has anxiety about his two romantic worlds and secretly reads the letters from his wife, revealing, “He claims that he stopped writing letters to her the year before, but that’s not true” (59). Eventually, Ramon purchases a house and they move in together. Before long, Yasmin is pregnant with Ramon’s child. Yasmin plans to discuss how to put her foot down about the letters with her former landlady Ana Iris. Before she can tell her, however, Ana Iris confesses she must send for her children soon because her heart is too weary from being apart from them. When Yasmin hears this, she comforts Ana Iris and does not bring up Ramon.