One Crazy Summer

When the girls return home that night, they once again have Chinese takeout for dinner. Over dinner, Delphine and her sisters ask Cecile about her name. Cecile tells them that "Nzila" is her pen name and that it means “the path” (76) in Yoruba, a language spoken in West Africa. Cecile says that she named herself and that she has the ability to do so at any time. When Delphine points out that constant name changes might make it impossible for people to recognize Cecile as the author of her poems, Cecile explains that her poems are “‘the people’s art’” (77), and that she is not concerned about fame. 

When Fern and Vonetta point out that Cecile might become famous and unable to remain anonymous, Cecile rants about how the FBI and American counterintelligence sometimes interrogate an individual's family to gain compromising information about that person. When Delphine interrupts her by pointing out that children wouldn’t be interrogated, Cecile counters her claim by stating that children informed on their parents during a revolution in China.

Delphine thinks changing one’s name is disturbing because she believes given names are too important to change on a whim: “Your name is who you are and how you’re known even when you do something great or something dumb” (80).