If I Survive You

This story, set in and around an independent living facility for retirees on South Beach, sees Trelawny finally employed. The facility uses predatory practices to squeeze as much money as possible from its residents, and in this way Escoffery continues to explore Intersectionality, Socioeconomic Status, and Race. Colorism and the sexualization of the other also continue to be focal points in “Independent Living,” and Trelawny must navigate complex interpersonal situations. This story is the first and only one to be set on Miami Beach. Escoffery’s representation of the complexities of this area, and how it differs from Kendal, Cutler Ridge, and the Keys, is an important moment of engagement with area history and politics.

Trelawny’s struggle to gain financial stability, especially the kind of stability that would allow him to withstand economic shocks, is interwoven with his social and racial status in the United States. Although Trelawny now has steady employment and a regular paycheck, he continues to live mostly in his Dodge Raider, parked nearby at a lot where the facility pays for its employees to park. On cold nights, he sleeps in the extra unit used by facility staff as a break area. His salary, although steady, is meagre, and he is not yet able to afford rent anywhere, particularly in the area surrounding the independent living center. He could theoretically live in the south suburbs with his father and brother, but that would necessitate an hours-long commute each way, so he chooses to remain in his car. This situation is emblematic of the text’s interest in how socioeconomic status and race intersect. Even though Trelawny has found work, the job is so underpaid that he is not able to secure housing; he cannot join the predominantly white residents of this more affluent housing area. Like so many other immigrants of color in his position, he is trapped in a system that seems designed to keep him out of the middle class.

Trelawny also continues to come into contact with racism in its many forms, which demands consistent confrontations with questions about his racial and cultural identity, building on the theme of Immigration and Cultural Identity. This story contains an accurate representation of a politics of race that is unique to the majority-Cuban community in Miami: Trelawny’s manager, although Cuban, is also Black, and he experiences colorist prejudice from many of the Hispanic residents. Although Afro-Cuban men and women make up an important subset of the Cuban population as a whole, they face discrimination because of their skin color. This prejudice is compounded in Miami, where Cuban immigrants live alongside groups from all over the Caribbean and Latin America. In spite of the city’s diversity, colorism is rampant, and each group of immigrants imports their own set of prejudices when they immigrate. Escoffery wants to “reflect reality,” which entails making his readers uncomfortable at times. Sure enough, his depiction of the prejudices that exist even among “diverse” ethnic groups is both an accurate representation of Miami’s social climate and an unpleasant reminder of how insidious (and widespread) unexamined bias is. Trelawny also encounters the kind of sexualized racism that he has experienced with past girlfriends and that Cukie’s mother Daphne experienced with Cukie’s father, Ox. As Trelawny walks around South Beach’s many bars and clubs, he observes white tourists’ fascination with the mostly brown waitresses and hostesses in the area establishments. Again, Escoffery asks his readers to think beyond overt forms of racism and understand that prejudice is present even in the most subtle and intimate of interpersonal relationships.

South Beach, although technically its own city, is as much a part of the tapestry of Miami as the suburban neighborhoods where Trelawny lives with his family for much of the narrative. Depicting the chaotic complexity of South Beach, Escoffery rounds out his portrait of South Florida and places his collection into the broad and rich tradition of South Florida literature. Trelawny’s exploration of the area restaurants not only illustrates the complex intersection of race and sexuality but also lays bare the seedier side of the tourist industry. Often described as a kind of “new colonialism” in the Caribbean in general, it creates an economic climate in which success depends on an industry that pollutes, exploits, and antagonizes the local population. Tourism’s overt face might be appealing, but its reality is much uglier. This is true both in Jamaica, where Ox’s poster advertises the locals as exotic sex objects, and on South Beach.

Another important aspect of South Beach history is its destination as a retiree community. This aspect has been the case for many years. After World War II, South Beach was for a time home to the world’s highest concentration of Holocaust survivors outside of Israel. Many of those original Jewish retirees were impoverished, and although there are certainly affluent retirement communities on South Beach, the island has long been home to groups of seniors looking for affordable housing. It became a center of Cuban refugees especially following the 1980 Mariel Boatlift, a max exodus of Cubans from Cuba. In setting a portion of this narrative in a retirement home for working class (and working poor) immigrants of color, many of them Cuban, Escoffery therefore tells an important, but oft overlooked, story of the history of Miami Beach. Stereotypical representations of this space often focus on lavish parties, expensive nightclubs, and multi-million dollar mansions. The reality of South Beach is much more complex than that, and Escoffery tells this story with both stark realism and humanity: It is the retirees that Trelawny identifies with, not his employers, the unruly tourists, or the Beach’s more affluent residents.