Summary
Esmeralda’s family prepares for Hurricane Santa Clara, which hit Puerto Rico in 1956. Her parents pack up the house, plugging up holes in the wall and boarding up windows. Together with three other families they shelter at Doña Ana’s house, a neighbor whose house is made of cement rather than the less durable zinc sheets. While the storm rages outside, they pass the night companionably, the children quietly playing amidst the aroma of cooking. When the storm passes, the families tentatively head outside to survey the damage: roofs, outhouses, and less sturdy structures have flown away, trees have been ripped out of the ground, and farm animals have died. Pablo repairs the family’s house after the outside kitchen and outhouse were destroyed. Everyone in Macún is preoccupied with how they’ll get the money to rebuild; everyone from adults to children takes on extra work to come up with the money.
For her part, Ramona decides to get a job sewing at a new factory near Macún. As Esmeralda watches her mother get ready, she is shocked and upset by how different her mother looks: heavy makeup, cinched waist, and high heels instead of bare feet. Since their mother is out all day, the children are left with a neighbor named Gloria. Esmeralda takes advantage of Ramona’s absence to explore the wilder parts of Macún with her friend Tato. Tato is Doña Lola’s son, who is adventurous and mischievous. Ramona scolds Esmeralda for running wild with boys, but Esmeralda finds girls her age boring. One day, Tato and Esmeralda dare one another to show their genitals. Tato begins making lewd comments and Esmeralda runs away disgusted. They continue with the same game another day when Tato begins to touch himself. Repulsed, Esmeralda repeats something she’s heard from many women in her life, “Men are such pigs!” Tato tries to touch her and enraged she kicks him in the genitals. Ramona comes running and when she realizes what they’ve been doing she takes Esmeralda home and beats her with a frying pan. Esmeralda learns about menstruation one day after throwing out a pad for Gloria. As Gloria explains about becoming a señorita (young woman), Esmeralda makes the connection between what she’s observed her whole life, animals reproducing, and the sounds she hears from her parents’ bed at night.
Ramona’s choice to get a job outside the home is met with disapproval by those in Macún. Adults shun their family, spreading gossip, and children taunt Esmeralda at school. Ramona dismisses them, saying they’re jealous that she’s trying to create a better life. With all the responsibilities piling up at home, Ramona decides that Esmeralda will take over in her place: watching her siblings, making meals, and cleaning the house while Ramona is at work. Esmeralda hates these duties and often gets in trouble for neglecting her chores or not living up to Ramona’s standards. By contrast, her cousin Jenny lives an ideal life. As an only child she is spoiled by her parents and has no responsibilities; Esmeralda is extremely jealous of her. One day, Jenny is showing off her new bicycle. Esmeralda is forced to play the bossy sister, telling her siblings they have to go home. Rebelling, they stay and Raymond, the youngest, falls off Jenny’s bicycle and mangles his leg. The resulting injury is so serious that Ramona is forced to quit her job to take care of him, shepherding him from doctor to doctor. The tension mounts between Esmeralda’s parents, leading to fights and more of Pablo’s long absences from home. One day, Ramona decides to move back to Santurce with the children.
The family moves back to San Juan, but this time to a neighborhood called El Mangle, where they live in Doña Andrea’s home. The neighborhood is built on top of a black lagoon which, due to a lack of sanitation infrastructure, is full of sewage and garbage. On their first night, Esmeralda is terrified to use the bathroom which is simply a large hole in the floor that opens into the contaminated lagoon below. Seeing the dark water flow under her feet, Esmeralda imagines falling in or a dead person pulling her into the dirty water below. At first, Ramona patiently tries to help Esmeralda; but after Doña Andrea laughs at Esmeralda, Ramona joins in. Crying and embarrassed, Esmeralda punches her mother and ends up wetting herself. Doña Andrea scolds Esmeralda the next day for hitting Ramona.
Life is hard in El Mangle. The houses are constructed on piers above the water; with no safe place to play, the children are stuck inside all day. School, a place Esmeralda normally loves, is equally bleak. Señora Leona is a harsh teacher and seems to make a point of humiliating Esmeralda in front of her classmates, calling her an ignorant jíbaro who went to a backward country school. Ashamed of where she lives, Esmeralda walks home alone looking at the nice homes where her classmates live, whose mothers greet them at the door. While her mother’s at work, Esmeralda does her homework, helps her siblings with theirs, and draws pictures of trees and butterflies to tape up on the walls in their new home.
Esmeralda is asked to help with a sacred task, to close the eyes of a baby who died with its eyes open. The mother believes that only once her baby’s eyes close can its soul go up into heaven. Scared, Esmeralda imagines all sorts of horrifying scenarios but eventually she's pressured by her mother to accept. Dressed innocently in a white dress, Esmeralda and Ramona are greeted by the curandera, a woman healer, who guides Esmeralda through the ceremony. The curandera recites Catholic prayers and calls for protection from powerful spirits before dipping Esmeralda’s hands in holy water. Then Esmeralda fearfully closes the baby’s eyelids. Feeling panicky, Esmeralda urges Ramona to go home, eventually running out without saying goodbye. At home she jumps in the shower and scrubs herself but cannot shake the feeling of death that clings to her.
One day, Pablo shows up at Esmeralda’s school and she confides in him how horrible school and their new home are. He talks to Señora Leona and, while the talk appears cordial, upon leaving the school Señora Leona pretends to spit in Esmeralda’s direction. Afterward, Pablo and Ramona make up and the family moves to another part of Santurce, on a busy avenue. The nine-person family lives in a cramped two-room apartment which is behind a bar, divided only by a flimsy wall through which they can hear sounds of men drunkenly laughing, fighting, and yelling obscenities at night. Ramona warns the children to never go into the bar, but on the way to school they must hop over puddles of vomit and urine in their yard from the bar’s customers.
Raymond, now five, still has problems with his foot after the bicycle accident. Doctors suggest it might be best to amputate his foot. Pablo accepts the doctor’s expertise but Ramona is appalled, accusing the doctors of just giving up. Again, Ramona is forced to quit her job to take care of Raymond but she takes in laundry at home for extra money. Esmeralda sees her mother ironing one day, a task Ramona hates, and offers to help. Ramona teaches Esmeralda how to iron and, surprisingly, Esmeralda enjoys the task and is good at it.
Ramona announces that Esmeralda will be staying with her cousins, Gladys and Angie. Their father owns a successful business, Lalo’s Cafetin, where he makes Puerto Rican fast food and sweets. Gladys is plain, gaunt, and timid while Angie is pretty, lively, and spoiled. Angie shows Esmeralda her room which is pink, full of dolls, a record player, a vanity, and a whole slew of beautiful things Esmeralda has never had. Esmeralda finds out her Uncle Lalo and his family are evangelicals and worries they’ll try and convert her. She imagines a dull life without dancing, the radio, or popular novels. Sitting down to dinner, Ramona reveals she is going to New York to see a specialist for Raymond’s foot. Esmeralda is shocked and pushes Ramona to give her the exact date she’ll come back for Esmeralda. Esmeralda spends the two weeks with her cousins peeling potatoes under her uncle Lalo’s watchful eye. On the Sunday of Ramona’s return, Esmeralda wakes up early and puts on her best dress. She tries to look well-behaved as she waits for her mother. The day passes and Esmeralda has a sinking feeling, and with a smile Uncle Lalo informs her that Ramona has extended her trip in New York. Esmeralda rushes into her cousin's room and bursts into tears. Ramona finally returns bearing gifts and excitedly shares about life in New York. The doctors there claim that with the proper treatment Raymond’s foot will be as good as new. On the way home, Ramona informs Esmeralda that they have moved.
Analysis
After the hurricane strikes Macún, everyone is worried about money. Many in the community already struggle to make ends meet and now they must rebuild without government support. Yet the community is self-sufficient, everyone chipping in and finding a way to survive. Ramona gets a job outside of the home, an unusual choice for women at that time in Macún. She’s expected to fulfill all her duties in the home: cooking, preparing the children for school, and laundry all before heading off to work. Pablo disapproves of his wife’s choice and is home even less.
At first, Esmeralda enjoys her mother’s absence. She takes advantage of the freedom and notices that Ramona comes home in a good mood, proud that her sewing skill is being acknowledged at the factory. However, the double workload becomes too much for Ramona and she tells Esmeralda that as the oldest it’s her turn to step up. In this chapter, Santiago explores the strict gender roles and expectations that girls and women are held to. At only ten or so years old, Esmeralda is expected to take over the household duties and is berated by Ramona when she does not fulfill these expectations. Esmeralda looks at her younger sisters who can make perfect rice or sweep the floor with precision and wonders what’s wrong with her. Yet Ramona too is punished by the community for straying from society’s expectations. Her decision to find a job outside the home is met with strong disapproval. The work brings Ramona a sense of pride and independence but all the community can see is her failings as a woman, wife, and mother.
Esmeralda’s games with Tato reveal how much of a child she still is. She knows that showing her genitals to a boy is forbidden but does not fully understand the implications of what they’re playing at. Tato however does, and his lewd gestures and remarks scare her. Ramona punishes Esmeralda severely, wanting to make sure her daughter never lets a boy see her naked again. As Esmeralda often does in traumatic situations, she dissociates, describing how a “part of me left my body.” She watches Ramona beat her as if from outside herself as a way of coping. While no one blames Esmeralda directly for Raymond’s injury, she internalizes the guilt. Esmeralda was responsible for watching her siblings but got frustrated when they would not listen and left her brother. Raymond’s injury creates more tension between her parents. Ramona frantically searches for treatment while Pablo, feeling helpless, creates distance from the family. Esmeralda feels that anything would be better than living with two people who hate each other.
Once again, Ramona picks up the children and leaves Macún. Ramona’s options are limited as a single mother with seven children and no job. Their living situation is both hazardous and unpleasant, there’s no room outside to play and the constant smell of sewage permeates everything around them. Santiago explores the themes of family conflict and poverty and how the combination of the two leads to a lot of instability in her upbringing. Ramona tries to escape an unhappy marriage and find a better life for herself and her children, but her lack of opportunity leads to a precarious situation for her children. Santiago contrasts the poverty of the country with poverty in the city: in Macún the family didn’t have running water or electricity but had access to fresh air, fresh food, and space to run and play. In El Mangle, all of that is taken away. The discrimination Esmeralda faced the last time they lived in the city continues, this time coming from her teacher. Señora Leonora enjoys humiliating Esmeralda in front of her classmates, as if trying to prove jíbaros' inferiority. To escape, Esmeralda draws pictures from her life back in Macún: grassy hills, hummingbirds, and hibiscus blossoms.
Seeing how his family is living, Pablo makes up with Ramona and the family moves. Their next apartment behind a bar is not ideal but Ramona tries to make the best of it, pointing out that they have electricity and running water unlike in Macún. Pablo and Ramona’s dysfunctional relationship continues. When Esmeralda asks Ramona to teach her how to iron, they are both surprised by the result. Their relationship is often contentious, and Esmeralda savors this rare moment of closeness with her mother. The fact that Esmeralda is able to help Ramona with a chore Ramona finds so odious brings out a more patient and softer side in her.
Ramona is determined that her son Raymond will not live with a life-long disability. Despite being told that nothing can be done, she goes all the way to New York to find a cure. The theme of abandonment arises again when Esmeralda has to stay with her cousins. Having experienced Pablo’s abandonment periodically throughout her childhood, Esmeralda worries that Ramona will never come back. Esmeralda fears the family will try to convert her. Not having grown up in a religious household, Esmeralda finds her cousin’s family life strict and dull, the food bland. After Ramona’s return is delayed, Esmeralda’s fear of being abandoned intensifies. These fears are exacerbated by the lack of communication from the adults in her life; without information about what’s going on, her imagination plays out her worst fears. However, Ramona eventually does come back. Her hope and excitement about life in New York foreshadow the family’s eventual move.
