Giannina Braschi, United States of Banana (2011)
“

If I were Joan of Arc I would become governor of Puerto Rico and make my island a state — and then become president of the United States of Banana — and head south to conquer all of Latin America and the Caribbean — and swoop back north to take over Canada. I could do all that — if only I could decide between three options: Wishy, Wishy-Washy, and Washy.

— Giannina Braschi on Joan of Arc

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "If I were Joan of Arc I would become governor of Puerto Rico and make my island a state — and then become president of the United States of Banana — and head south to conquer all of Latin America and the Caribbean — and swoop back north to take over Canada. I could do all that — if only I could decide between three options: Wishy, Wishy-Washy, and Washy." in the context of "Giannina Braschi, United States of Banana (2011)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Joan of Arc" (Quotes about Joan of Arc: Sorted alphabetically by author or source) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Giannina Braschi

About Giannina Braschi

Giannina Braschi (born February 5, 1953) is a Puerto Rican poet, novelist, and political philosopher. She wrote the postmodern poetry epic "Empire of Dreams" (1988), the Spanglish classic "Yo-Yo Boing!" (1998), and geopolitical tragicomedy "United States of Banana" (2011) on the collapse of the American empire.