Tag Archives: childhood/youth

Indiana

Week 12: Papi, Saint and Tyrant

Rita Indiana’s Papi was a nostalgic and emotional read for me. My family hails from Santo Domingo, La República Dominicana, like the narrator, and the many allusions to Dominican life and culture were both comforting and amusing. Mentions of mangú, Malecón, polo shirts, palm fronds, merengue, Taino idols, loud speakers mounted to cars, welcoming parties at Las Américas airport, dominoes, discos, and bayrum immediately transported me to the streets of my family’s home.

The excess machismo, U.S. glorification, and consumerism were familiar themes as well. The hyperbolic descriptions of Papi returning from the states like a prince, fawned over by extended family and friends, felt all too real. In particular, this passage in the very beginning made me laugh out loud: “your nieces and nephews, cousins, siblings, friends, your siblings’ siblings-in-law, your nearest and dearest, neighbors, classmates, aunts and uncles, godparents, compatriots, the friends of that guy who’s married to the lady whose brother is some dude who graduated from the navy a year after you” (4). This quote captures the bizarre yet amusing community culture of the Dominican so well; there always seems to be friends of friends of relatives of friends hanging around and calling themselves your uncle or cousin. Everyone is family and therefore everyone feels both entitled and obligated to you. This theme felt present throughout the text.

Without a doubt, my favorite aspect of the book was the musical nature of Indiana’s writing. Her career as a musician felt apparent in this sense. She captured the voice and poetic imagination of an 8-year old so vividly. I read the book in English but found a few chapters of the original Spanish online, and, despite being a very impressive translation, I found that the cadence of the original Spanish was missed. The language is very rhythmic and all-consuming; in addition to the magical realism and mythology throughout, Indiana is able to create this beautiful chorus of music with her words.

As the book progresses, the narrative slowly gains coherence, but it always retains this tumultuous, non-linear nature like one long, extended fever dream. There are lots of unexpected tonal shifts and scene changes that speak to the turbulent upbringing of the narrator with her father. He is a man flooded with contradictions: generous, heroic, and protective yet violent, reckless, and misogynistic. The girl details sweet moments of fatherly love, followed by intense images of violence, drugs, and greed. At a distance, her father is larger than life and too good to be true. As he approaches the narrator and their relationship comes into greater relief, we see that he is actually more of a cruel, inconsiderate despot.

There are many more things I’d like to say about this novel and its reflections of Dominican culture. It’s a text I foresee returning to repeatedly. Question for discussion: What aspect of Dominican culture was most striking to you in Indiana’s imagining? How did it strike you?

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de la Parra

Week 2: Mama Blanca’s Memoirs and the Performance of Beauty

Mama Blanca’s Memoirs by Teresa de la Parra was truly a joy to read. Her description of social interactions and relationships, in particular, made profound of the otherwise mundane. It’s difficult not to quote the entire text for this purpose, but one passage in particular that I think illustrates this talent is about Mama Blanca’s sisters, “My five sisters and I formed a rising staircase stretching from seven months to seven years, and from our enthroned stairway we ruled over all of creation without ostentation.” This quote also highlights a major theme of the text, which is the fantasy of childhood. In both the foreword and the following text, de la Parra takes care to describe the sweet, innocent, tender adventures of youth – a time for both narrators of incredible abundance and magic and absent of any serious preoccupations or anxieties. It was lovely to read about Mama Blanca’s childhood adventures through her own eyes and then return to the foreword and understand that this joyful, mischievous spirit never quite left her.

Another theme I found myself returning to was that of classism and the severe power dynamics of wealth and status. This theme was especially played out through the story of Vicente Cochocho, a “hired hand” of Piedra Azul plantation. Vicente, literally called “louse,” is often described as ugly. It becomes clear throughout the passage that attractiveness and elegance are more than just exterior aesthetics in de la Parra’s world, they are tools for social upward mobility. In this sense, characters described as ugly, including Eleuteria and Aquilina, Vicente’s partners, lack power, not simply because they are poor, but importantly because they lack beauty. In a way, to the others, his ugliness justifies his position on the plantation and his subsequent treatment. Beauty is a major preoccupation of the characters in Mama Blanca’s Memoirs, especially Blanca Nieves’ mother. De la Parra writes, “Far more than in her own person, Mama’s vanity had its abode in our six heads.” Blanca Nieves’ performance of beauty is a significant theme of her early childhood. Over time, she comes to understand that her value lies in her beauty, specifically in her hair, saying, “My honor … had its seat in my hair and in no other part of my person.” In this case, despite the labor it requires, beauty grants Blanca Nieves status and power, in whatever modest sense.

Finally, a theme I found woven throughout every passage of the text was that of law and order, punishment, and justice. This is illustrated through the relationships and power dynamics between parents/caregivers and children, masters and subordinates, and older and younger siblings, to name a few. Blanca Nieves seems to have a keen sense of justice and we can see this especially in her descriptions of the “hired help” working at Piedra Azul: her contempt for caregivers like Evelyn, who are authoritative and harsh, and her admiration for Vicente, who is kind and selfless. Question for discussion: How do you see Blanca Nieves’ sense of justice playing out in the relationships and dynamics of her own family and community as an old woman?

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