Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings

“I hear caged songbirds

and wild parrots.

Somehow, the feathery voices

help me make my decision to sing

instead of speak, and even though

I sing in a voice more froglike

than winged,

I do dare to sing.”

The narrator uses a metaphor to compare herself to a caged songbird to demonstrate the inspirational effect of the Cuban environment upon her art. The comparison between her froglike voice and the feathery voices of the Cuban birds establishes the metaphor, comparing the early stages of her poetic voice to the croaking of a frog and the latter stages to the wings of a bird when it finally becomes winged.

“My dazzled eyes absorb

the lush beauty of a land so wild

and green that the rippling river

on my great-uncle’s farm /shimmers like a hummingbird.”

The narrator creates a pastoral image that highlights the natural setting of Cuba describing a farm as wild land with a lush beauty. The author uses consonance to emphasize the rippling waters of the river and uses simile to compare iridescent green of the river water to the wings of a hummingbird.

“Fronds and petals wave

 in wild wind.

Climbing orchids dangle

from high branches.

The delicate leaflets

of sensitive mimosa plants

coil and curl, folding up

like the pages

of a wizard’s book,

each time I touch

their rooted magic.”

The author uses pastoral imagery to create a personified sense of the plants and foliage dancing about, fronds and petals waving while mimosa plants coil and curve. The author concludes the stanza with a simile that fits the dancing plants into the theme Pastoral Imagery and Magical Nature comparing the curve of the plants to the pages of a wizard’s book and adding a pun about rooted magic that references the roots of the plants as the source of magic.

“[B]ut Dad says we’ll miss

his parents—my other grandma

and my grandpa, the ones who live

 in Los Angels, and don’t speak any

Spanish at all, just English and Russian

And Yiddish, because they were born

In the Ukraine, a place they fled long ago,

To escape violence.”

In this poem, the author juxtaposes her Ukrainian grandparents with her Cuban grandparents, privileging the role of the grandmother by placing the reference to her at the end of Line 8 and emphasizing the symbolism of Abuelita in the memoir. She reinforces the special influence of her Cuban heritage when she describes the language of her Ukrainian American grandparents as “just English and Russian,” developing the Cultural Dichotomy and Belonging theme through language and symbolism. She concludes the stanza with an allusion to the war and violence of the Holocaust that foreshadows the war and violence that will overwhelm Cuba later in the text.

“Dad teaches art, and paints.

Mami plants flowers,

sews dresses, and listens

to old Cuban love songs,

while Mad and I roam outdoors,

searching for adventure.”

The final stanza of “More and More Homes” is an example of characterization. The author’s characterization of Dad, Mami, herself, and Mad is simplistic using short sentences with an absence of the figurative language most of the narrative uses. This highlights the roll each character plays in shaping the author, referencing Dad’s art, Mami’s flowers and Cuban songs, and Mad’s companionship.

“Dad paints my beautiful mother,

and he paints my pretty sister.

Both of them have big, dark eyes,

so why are min blue-green-gray,

like ocean waves

in changeable

weather?”

Descriptions of the secondary characters also develop the author’s characterization in the memoir. In this instance, a poem about the author’s American father transitions to describe the author’s insecurities in the final two stanzas of the poem. In this passage, the author reveals her desire to look more like her Cuban family describing Mami and Mad as beautiful and pretty with “big, dark eyes” while the author’s “changeable” eyes reinforce her insecurity, developing the Cultural Dichotomy and Belonging theme.

“Spoken stories are no longer enough

to fill my hunger.

I crave a constant supply

Of written ones, too.”

In this poem the author begins to distinguish between oral and written storytelling and illustrates her increasing love of writing by comparing her desire to read to physical hunger. She positions the words hunger and crave in the center of the stanza, establishing the symbolism as the central concept of the poem. This is a key moment of personal development on her academic journey; the title of the poem alludes to the importance of this moment by alluding to the Travel theme through the concept of mapping and “Geography.”

“[V]isits to Cuba,

where Mami can finally see

her family, and I can feel

at home with my second self,

the invisible twin who belongs

to this wild tropical farm

instead of a modern

city.”

In this poem the author creates an invisible twin the represents her longing for the tropical farm in Cuba and nature, developing the Cultural Dichotomy and Belonging theme and the dichotomy rural and urban life in the memoir. This is also the first reference the author makes to her invisible twin “who belongs” in Cuba, a recurring image that symbolizes the connection the author feels with Cuba.

“I can’t believe

that Pancho envies me

He thinks my city life

with cars and bicycles

must be so much more

exciting

than his donkey.”

In this poem the author visits Mexico where she encounters a poor Mexican boy who owns little more than a donkey. The author’s love of nature results in an inability to recognize class struggles, focusing instead on the juxtaposition between rural and urban life but not the contrast between wealth and poverty in the places she visits. This encounter is like “Lost in Translation” when an elderly Cuban woman compliments the author’s health by calling her fat and highlighting the impact of hunger in many Central and South American villages, highlighting the author’s first-world privilege and perspective.

“By the time we cross the dusty

US border, we’ve spent every

Centavo of borrowed travel money,

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

and all I ever plan to wear

is my palm-leaf raincoat,

even though the dry fronds

are already

starting

to crumble.”

This poem develops the Travel theme through an ironic inversion of the homecoming trope in literature. Rather than a symbol of comfort and security, the author evokes a mood of disillusionment and despair by comparing her world to the dry fronds of her Mexican raincoat. This image foreshadows how the author’s world crumbles when the Cuban Revolution begins.

“Revolution.

Violence.

Gunfire.

Danger.

. . . . . . . . . . .

People in Cuba are fighting.

It’s a civil war to overthrow

a dictator.”

“News” is a poem that provides historical context about the Cuban Civil War  as seen in the final lines of the poem. The author illustrates the way she first learns about and experiences this context, through the nightly news. The second stanza uses single-word sentences that evoke the starkness of the images, descriptions of revolution, violence, gunfire, and danger which are then punctuated by periods to create an atmosphere of finality that reinforces the severity of the mood.

“Books are enchanted. Books help me travel.

Books help me breathe.”

The passage represents the middle stanza of a poem about refuge during a period of intense emotional struggle. The central placement of the two lines illustrates the significance of books to the author, while the author uses linguistic repetition of the word books to reinforce this significance. She creates an image of enchanted books providing a magical escape through the imagination that alludes to the Enchanted Air, Wings, and Flight motif; this reinforces travel as a symbol of imaginative escape, while the second line of the stanza suggests imaginary refuge through a metaphor where the author breathes enchanted books and enchanted air. and refuge from struggles at home by completing the enchanted air allusion.

“So here they are, in my luggage,

helping me understand how it feels

to slowly grow

hidden wings.”

An example of metaphor, the author compares herself to caterpillars in a cocoon, which she brings with her to Cuba in Part 3. The author builds upon this metaphor in several poems immediately following “The Last-Chance Train” to foreshadow the symbolic significance of this trip on her growth and development.

“Bullets.

Coppery.

Finger-Length.

Shiny.”

An example of structural repetition, the author uses the same single-word sentence structure to describe bullets in “Secrets” that she uses to describe the images of war that she first encounters in Part 2 in “News.” This repetition creates a poetic motif in mood and atmosphere that captures the impact of war upon the author.

“I don’t have any way to know

if he’s swift and heroic,

but just the sight of a horse

is enough to help me feel

like my mind is soaring

in midair, all four hooves

racing”

An important poem in the development of the author’s changing perspective, the horse is a symbol of imaginative inspiration, galloping used as a metaphor for flight. This passage alludes to a similar example in “Wings” and is an example of the poetic repetition the author uses to reinforce key symbolism across poems.

“I know exactly when Mami became Mom,

but Dad is still Dad, painting Don Quixote,

the wistful knight who dreams of courage.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

How long will it be

until the two countries I love

forgive each other and move on

so that I can live on horseback,

like that wistful knight,

the dreamer?”

An important poem in the development of the Cultural Dichotomy and Belonging theme, the poem addresses the collapse of relations between the U.S. and Cuba just before the Cuban Missile Crisis. The change in address is a progression from “Hidden” in Part 2 when Mami hides any Cuban artifacts to avoid suspicion of ties to communist Cuba that represents the personal impact of rising tensions. The passage also includes another allusion to the Spanish epic Don Quixote, repeating symbolism that establishes the author and her father as romantics and dreamers.

“Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

from Nigeria.

Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya

from India.

I never find any books

about the beautiful green

crocodile-shaped island

that throbs

at the center of my being.”

“My Library Life” includes the important literary influences the author encounters during this period, specifically noting diverse authors. She establishes a lack of diversity of authors while referring to the image of Cuba as the crocodile-shaped island as she does in “No Where on the Map” to reinforce this lack of Cuban cultural influence. She goes on to describe the impact of this as a painful throb, a physical effect that demonstrates the importance of Cuba to the author’s development.

“I scribble tiny poems.

all over the walls of my room.

Inside those miniature verses,

I feel safe, as if I am a turtle,

and the words

are my shell.”

“Learning” demonstrates the growing importance of writing and poetry to the author as the gets older. In this passage the author compares herself to a turtle and the language and words of the poems she writes to a shell, or armor against the world. This symbolism reinforces the ironic inversion of home as a literary symbol of safety and security since the author poetry as protection while at home as well.

“Nearly two weeks of horror.

Anger. Dread. Visions of doom.

From October 22 to 28.”

In “Waiting to Die,” the author adapts the poetic structure that appear in o previous poems about war and violence to represent the Cuban Missile Crisis, a major event of the Cold War. Unlike earlier descriptions of the Cuban Revolution told in single word sentences that appear in a vertical list, the author uses two single word sentences that appear horizontally before describing them as “visions of doom.” The change in the familiar structure symbolizes the difference between a traditional war and events of the Cold War, the horizontal arrangement of single-word sentences illustrating the dread she feels as time stretches on between October 22 and October 28 as she waits to die.

“During visits to Dad’s relatives,

Long, complicated arguments

about Communism.

Capitalism.

War.

Peace.

Survival.”

While earlier poems allude to suspicions of Communist ties to Cuba, this is the first direct reference to communism in the text. It is an important aspect of her developing perspective as she becomes more aware of the ideological factors that shape the complexity of the cultural dichotomies between America and Cuba, an element emphasized by the reference to her American grandparents that sought refuge in America.

“Two world powers in the Cold War

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

But what about Cuba?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Trapped between Russian missiles

and North American warships.

Surrounded.”

The arrangement of the stanzas on the page places Cuba between “Two world powers” and the final two stanzas of the poem that describe the island as “trapped” and “surrounded.” The author uses this structure to visually reinforce the imagery she creates.

“Mom is nervous. Anxious. Fearful.

She speaks to her rescued plants,

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Our new travel plans are so real,

while memories of Cuba seem

Imaginary.

But the island is not a fantasy.

Poetic letter from Abuelita reveal pain.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Teachers no longer mention

the travel ban or the Missile Crisis

or statelessness

or refugees

or the future.”

“Reality” is an example of intratextual allusion, or parts that refer to each other within a narrative, and structural repetition; this poem alludes to an earlier poem titled “Realidad/Reality.” Removing the Spanish from the bilingual title illustrates the theme of the poem, which describes the way Americans seem to forget about Cuba after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Abuelita appears as a single Spanish reference, symbolic of Cuba and situated between Mom, previously Mami who speaks to rescued plants while the American teachers in the final stanza refuse to mention the island; this suggests America is complicit in Cuba and Abuelita’s oppression through silence.

“We are a family of wanderers.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I no longer feel sullen and sad.

On the road, I am free.”

“Nomadic” concludes the thematic significance of the Travel theme in the memoir when the author describes her family as wanderers. She states the emotional significance of the road as a metaphor for travel that provides freedom, a term with greater contextual significance following the many references of oppression and tyranny that appear in Parts 4 and 5.