Curanduras are Latin American holistic healers. They are typically older women. Padrinos are a Spanish word for "Godparents" used in Mexico.

In marrying herself, Twanda does not only wish to connect with herself, but with all that has made her. The earth and those who have come before. Curanduras and Padrinos are both figures who are elders in communities, appointed to guide you.

Music is important to Twanda throughout the entire piece. Carrying the Sony Walkman gives her power: she takes her music wherever she is, even in a traditionally formal place behind the wedding bouquet. The Prince song she is referring to is "I Would Die 4 U" off of the 1984 record Purple Rain. It is a dramatic, catchy love song.

Natalie Wood was an American Actress born in 1938. Her first major role was at eight years old in Miracle on 34th Street. The lyrics "There's a place for us" is from the 1957 musical and 1961 film West Side Story by Stephen Sondheim. Wood plays the main female role, Maria, who sings the duet "Somewhere" with Tony. They are lovers who struggle to be with one another because of the conflicts that surround them and their respective communities. Together they dream of a place for only them, "somewhere" to call their own.

Cariocas stems from an Indigenous Tupi phrase meaning "white man's home" and historians believe it refers to white-stone homes built by European settlers in the colonial period. Today, it refers to all locals of Rio de Jeneiro and occasional Brazilians in general. Brazil is a diverse country with a relatively sizable portion of Brazilians with African backgrounds. Around half of the city identifies themselves as Black or mixed race. It makes sense that Shange, with pride in Latine and African backgrounds would not only love Brazil, but that Brazilians would be accepting and welcoming to her as a Black woman.

Shange's assertion that the Revolution (who is referred to with the feminine pronoun "she" as a connection to Shange's viewpoint of the revolution revolving around coalitions of Black women writers as well as the fact that the Spanish translation "la revolucion" uses the feminine tense) dances connects to her ideas of carnal intellectuality and artistic movement as means of freedom.