Greetings! :)
Read all of the following instructions very carefully! Don't overlook the end.
For this week's posting, please choose a literary element from any of the chapters we have read so far in In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd. You may choose a character, a setting, chapter titles, or other elements such as figurative language, even animals, etc.
How does Menéndez use the element(s) you have chosen? What statement(s) is Menéndez making? For example, if you choose a character, you might ponder the following questions: does she use a particular character to portray exile in a certain light? Does a character lend specificity to the group of stories so that the reader has no choice but to interpret the stories to always be referring to Cuba? Does a character, in fact, do the opposite? Does a character create a sense of nostalgia for the past, or hope for the future?
Take a look at the context in which your chosen element appears. Find some specific textual evidence (read: quotations) to build a case for what you think Menéndez is doing with this element. When you have evidence, write a statement that summarizes your argument/analysis of what Menéndez accomplishes via your selected character.
Once you have these pieces, write a polished paragraph constructing a central argument about what Menéndez is doing, how, and why. Use specific evidence and/or quotations from Menéndez's text to build your argument throughout your own text. Make sure you end on a concluding note. Post your paragraph.
Make sure you get a chance to read your classmates' paragraphs thoroughly (i.e. don't start reading them at 8:15 Monday morning!). Bring in a printed copy of your own paragraph.
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Through her portrayal of Hortencia de la Cruz in “Story of a Parrot”, Menéndez creates a sense of nostalgia for the hopes and dreams of the past. The appearance of the magnificent parrot in her cramped Miami house rekindles Hortencia’s desire to be beautiful and to shine, and it reminds her of her buried ambition to become an actress. Hortencia acknowledges regretfully that she is no longer an aspiring actress in Cuba, but rather “in the middle of her life, in the middle of Miami, and halfway through a story whose ending she could almost touch” (95). Because this realization pains her so much, Hortencia demands that her husband shoo the parrot outside, so it cannot spark her memory. Despite her efforts, the parrot’s appearance leaves an imprint, and Hortencia pines for her lost dream, singing, “Mueren ya las ilusiones de ayer” (98). On a broader scale, Hortencia, a Cuban exile, grieves for what her country could have become. The revolution held such great promises, yet the circumstances worsened once Castro assumed power, forcing Hortencia to escape to the United States.
The chapter entitled In Cuba I Was A German Shepherd is very interesting and holds a lot of significance. The title is a punch line to a joke being told by Maximo conveying the difference between Cuba and the US. It is about a Cuban dog that sees a pretty American poodle and he tells her he wants to marry her but she replies “…your nothing but a short insignificant mutt.” The Cuban dog answers back with “Here in America, I may be a short, insignificant mutt, but in Cuba I was a German shepherd. Maximo is similar to the German shepherd because in Cuba he was a Professor and a well-respected man. However, that all changed as soon as he came to the US. His social status lowered severely and he wasn’t the prestigious great German shepherd anymore. This joke is used to describe the circumstances in which a lot of Cubans met when they came to the U.S. In this chapter I believe Maximo creates a sense of nostalgia of the past. He mentions the celebration of Nochebuena in Havana. Menendez is trying to create a sense of contrast between the two cultures. She makes the setting of this chapter in a small park fenced around American Society. The remaining bit of Cuban culture is held within these fences and is secluded from the rest. There is a big difference between the two cultures and Menendez wants to convey these differences.
A literary element used by Menendez to bring up past stories and memories (specifically those of the author’s parents) is the hurricane of 1972, detailed in the second chapter. Though the author’s family was already living in Miami at the time of the hurricane strike, it allowed the narrator’s father to tell many of his stories from Cuba, such as the hurricane of 1937. Of the father’s stories and memories, I found the one where he describes the hurricane’s aftermath to be a particularly interesting and beautiful portrayal. He says, “In the morning [after the storm], all you noticed was the sky. So much of it suddenly. Palm trees knocked to the floor. Coconuts like pebbles on the street (40).”
I believe this passage captures perfectly the surreal and otherworldly feel of a place that has just been hit by a hurricane. The description also seems incredibly accurate to me, and is very similar to the memories I have of Hong Kong’s typhoons.
The character of Máximo is very relevant to the theme and title of the book. In the first chapter we learn that Máximo was a “professor at the University” when he lived in Cuba, but after immigrating to Miami he was forced to work “driving a taxi.” This is a perfect example of the downward mobility that most immigrants experience when immigrating to the United States. The skills that Máximo had learned in Cuba were not useful in the United States. “His Spanish and his University of Havana credentials meant nothing here [United States].” Máximo and his wife later began selling food until they were able to open their restaurant in Little Havana. Máximo’s jokes and anecdotes about Cuba also portray the nostalgia that exiles usually feel towards their homeland. Máximo’s character embodies both the difficulty of exile and the desire to keep Cuba alive outside of the island.
Through her use of analogy in “The Perfect Fruit”, Mendendez uses the character Matilde and the bananas to demonstrate sacrifice and desperation. The chapter begins and ends with the banana trees and the events that surround Matilde and her life in America. In the beginning, Matilde wants to get rid of the bananas. They bother her, so she throws them away. But, at the end of the chapter Matilde has used bushels of bananas to make every possible banana recipe to deal with the situation. Matilde talks about her life in the, “She wanted to ask Raul if he too felt his life tilting, everthing sliding away from him” but at the end of the chapter Matilde feels complete absolute desperation as she finds her son is slipping away so she reconciles her sad life “She remembered thinking on her wedding day, that one day she would understand him. Child dreams. We live alone on our own core, flitting over the surface now and then, pretending.” Matilde misses nights in Havana, yet she is stuck in America. She has made use of the bananas and she has accepted that her relationship will never be fixed, but she makes the most with what she has.
In the chapter In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd, Maximo and his friends play dominoes in an area of Little Havana that is not the prominent and only makes the map as a tourist attraction. Meaning that after geting off the boat, most Cubanos had to work harder for the livelihood that they were use to in Havana. However in the park where they play dominoes they reminisce about the days spent in Cuba with the breeze and the swaying of the trees. In the end of the chapter as Maximo tells the story about the dog, Menendez uses that the little dog is "just off the boat from Cuba. He is walking down Brickell Avenue. And he is trying to steady himself....he doesn't know what to expect." This location is particularly important because in Miami, Brickell Avenue is a very prominent area right on the ocean and an area some of the exiles could compare to their bayfront homes in Cuba. Describing the dog as a mutt, but in Cuba as a German Shephard, Menendez uses location as an symbol of the places. This shows the differences between the places.
Menendez uses the character of Matilde to express Cuban identity and exile. Matilde’s character portrays what life is like for a mother in the United States and how culture travels with a person. Through Matilde’s character one can assume that there is nostalgia for both Cuba and her son. As one may know, Cuban family bonds are pretty strong, especially mother and son relationships. One example of Matilde’s nostalgia for Cuba is when she is making all the banana foods for her son, Anselmo. In Cuba the banana is a popular fruit and Matilde re-creates this longing for the fruit by planting bananas all over the front lawn of her house. The food she is making is for her son and his fiancé; this ties in the aspect of a mother and son relationship. Matilde has a longing for her son and sort of feels that she s losing her only hope, she feels as if Meegan is stealing him from her. This is shown on page 53 when the narrator says, “Now this woman walks into the middle of his life as if she’s been there all along.” This shows her feeling of losing Anselmo and a wanting to hold on. This nostalgia is also shown on page 52 when Matilde is talking about Anselmo and his red baseball cap and flan. These are all aspects that Matilde’s character portrays and how a Cuban mother adjusts in a foreign land. Exile is not easy, but mothers will be mothers and that Cuban identity is central to their culture. I think the Menendez use of Matilde is central to the novel because it shows family life and customs, while at the same time shedding light upon the fact that exile can be the downfall of a family (maybe the symbolism of Anselmo and his American fiancé).
Maximo, who appears in the first Chapter of the book sets the tone of nostalgia and true Cuban heritage as the stories unravel. Menendez introduces Maximo first by saying "one man carried a box of plastic dominoes". These dominoes represent a classic game played by elder Cuban men traditionally in their homeland. In America, these men continue this tradition by playing in a small park in Little Havana which is visited by tourists because of its natural Cuban feel. Maximo was a professor in his homeland, but came to America and found only the position of a taxi driver available to him despite his keen intellect. We then learn that he and his wife opened and run their own business in Miami thus showing they have made a home in their new land. Maximo seems to be a leader in transition among his family and friends and Menendez has him symbolize a memory of what was and a character that has moved on to continue Cuban traditions in a new land.
In the chapter, "Hurricane Stories," Ana Menendez creates a very strange portrayal of the situation involving the anonymous female narrator, her father, and her lover. The first person narration from the view of the anonymous woman is the key element of this particular story. "Hurricane Stories" takes place in Florida, but the story itself does deal with memories of Cuba. The portrayal of exile in this tale is not just exile from a nation, but a strange sort of exile from relationships. This new sense of exile is created by the narrator's portrayal of her relationships with both her father and her lover. The key to the relationship with her father is the feeling of embarrassment. There are two quotes I've chosen that best describe the relationship with her father: "Do you suppose he says after a moment, "that your father's stories were true?" and "I was embarrassed for our house, standing there like that in the dark." The first quote in large part makes the narrator re-contemplate everything her father has said. In addition, it leads to her lover "opening up" about his relationship with his own father. The second quote is her reaction to the question, and it shows the massive embarrassment that she felt for her dad. There is one quote in particular I found that demonstrates the exile that she feels from the relationship with her lover: "His voice grows soft, like an apology. It is nothing; the night is the same. But I know that he will very soon return to the shore without me..." At this point, it has become clear to her that her lover will not return, and has perhaps lost interest altogether. These eloquent lines created by the narrator are central to creating a strong meaning to this story. Despite the ubiquitous anonymity that occurs in this chapter, the feeling of exile is wholly apparent. Her depictions of the two most important men in her life create an unusual and very potent view of exile.
Toni Morrison’s theme of rememory resonates in Ana Menéndez’s novel, In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd. Although both authors … rememory in different forms, it serves a similar purpose. Morrison explicitly uses the word in the text and Menéndez hides the concept in basket of tricks on memory. These tricks emerge in bundles of dreams and blatant inability to remember the past. Chapter one uses third person omniscient narrator to introduce the audience to the character, Maxímo. Likewise, he is the first character to exhibit characteristics of rememory. However, the theme is hidden in nostalgia that commonly begins with the words, “In Cuba I remember.” On page seven, the narrator illustrates Maxímo and Raúl’s joyful memories becoming painful as their faulty present brutally contrast their prefect past. Their nostalgia causes sleepless nights for Maxímo, in which he wakes up “unable to remember his dreams.” The character’s restless night symbolizes pain and inner turmoil associated with rememory. Endless possibilities of what life would be/ could be if he were still in Cuba emerge simultaneously with his nostalgia. His mind, unwilling to deal with the agony refuses to acknowledge the dream, thereby ignoring the rememories. Like Maxímo, female character, Hortencia de la Cruz, feels nostalgic for the life she lived in Cuba, one filled of family wealth. On pages 94-95, Hortencia’s memory also rejects a dream, it states, “She awoke with an unsettled feeling, as if she’d been through a nightmare so terrible that memory too, had rejected it.” Ironically, following this episode, she experiences a burst of rememory, in which she unexpectedly remembers the words to an old song, a song of the past (96). As she sings this song, she dreams. Dreams that appear to be memories so some sort of concoction of both history and dreams combined. As a result, her present life changes as represented in her ability to “find the old comfort angle.” (97) In these two examples, Menéndez’s play on memory destroys the immediate connection between the present and the past by means of rememory or lack thereof; they cannot flourish simultaneously. The past lives in their dreams and their mind struggles (the tossing and turning, the nightmares) to keep them in that location. However, they cannot physically remain in that location, in that dream. Once awake, the mind rejects rememory in order to avoid the pain and the hurt at the present holds.
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