84 pages • 2 hours read
Angie CruzDominicana
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
The Pursuit of the American Dream
The American Dream is a concept that promotes the United States of America as a place where all dreams can be achieved. It exclaims that if an individual works hard, they can become wealthy, successful, and happy and is based on the conception of America as a country that was built by immigrants and runs off immigrant labor. Though the concept of the American Dream is a thorny one (ignoring, for instance, brutalities and injustices such as enslavement and Indigenous genocide), it nevertheless inspires people like the Ruiz family build new lives for their families. The American Dream is first asserted in this novel when Ana is forced to marry Juan for the possibility of visas to America for her entire family. Ana becomes the key to the Canción American dream. She will assimilate, send money back to her home country, and eventually bring her extended family to live and work in America. However, in selecting Ana to pave the way, her family sacrifices Ana’s own sense of agency and support. Ana has no personal dreams of living in America; she agrees to the marriage out of familial duty.
Ana’s first challenge is the language barrier. Free English lessons are not easily accessible, and Ana is intimidated by the chaos of New York City. Adapting to a new city and language is a major roadblock. The only people they trust enough to spend time with are fellow Dominicans, so they replicate the tight-knit communities of Santo Domingo life in America. Because success of the American Dream is only possible if other people are failing, the rat-race mentality creates many divides between communities. Juan, for example, is in competition not only with other Dominicans, but with every other hustler in New York City for resources and employment. Thus, the American Dream is characterized by tension.
The benefit of the Dominican diaspora in New York City is that Ana and the Ruiz brothers do not have to give up everything to become more American. They can preserve their language, food, and customs while creating a second identity that navigates American institutions of power. The title Dominicana symbolizes this balance. Ana is not less Dominican because she learns how to work within New York City. Instead, it is because she has a strong sense of culture that she can be open to adapting to American life. The pursuit of the American Dream places an inordinate amount of pressure on all the characters in this novel, which leads to internal and external conflicts. But the American Dream, when contrasted with the instability and poverty of life in the Dominican Republic, is worth these challenges, and though Ana and Juan are resilient, there is an implication that the younger generation represented by Lenny and Altagracia will face fewer challenges. In Lenny and Altagracia, the adult characters see a life for their loved ones that is freer, with more choice, less poverty, and more happiness. The very publication of the novel is a testament to this idea. Angie Cruz based this novel on her mother’s immigrant experiences, which metaphorically demonstrates that Altagracia does indeed grow up to forge her own path.
Women as Powerful Agents of Change
The titular term “Dominicana” is the female gendered adjective of “Dominican.” From the very start of the novel, Cruz pays homage to the women who created homes and lives amid difficult circumstances. Ana is inspired by strong women like Mamá and Teresa, but she forges her own path to womanhood that is unique to her experiences. In the first parts of the novel, Ana references famous wives like Jackie Kennedy and Betty Shabazz as idols of what she could become. By the end of the novel, however, Ana has learned how to turn to herself for guidance on how to be a woman. Cruz uses the arc of Ana’s character to portray the strength of women.
The women in the novel work to form a good life for themselves and their family. Women are expected to clean, cook, and provide sexual pleasure for the men. Ana finds pleasure and pride in cooking and cleaning, but this gender norm also keeps her tied down to the home and interferes with her potential. Ana’s food-selling business doesn’t distract her from her responsibilities to the home, proving that women are capable of more than domestic duties. Ana doesn’t brag about the money she makes. Instead, she saves her money and uses it to provide for her family. Cruz writes female characters who can work as hard as their men but are held back from gaining too much independence. This dependence on men is important because without it, the men would not be able to exert their own power over their lives. Even though Juan moves Ana to New York with the understanding that she will learn English and get a job, he keeps her sequestered in the home, so she doesn’t develop the confidence to leave him and, perhaps, do better than him. Ana finds her own small ways to assert her power. She keeps secrets from Juan while being privy to his, she makes and saves her own money, and she engages in a sexually fulfilling relationship with Juan’s brother.
Central to the plot development in this novel is Ana’s development into her own version of womanhood. She changes the dynamics of the family by becoming more assertive and proves that women are equal to men in their capacity for work, love, and success. Ana is Juan’s underused tool because he doesn’t see her vast potential. Nevertheless, Ana sees her own potential and uses her own empowerment to create an internal life for herself that is free of Juan’s influence. Though the female characters in this novel are often pitted against one another, they rarely give up each other’s secrets. Their bonds are based in a sisterhood in which they understand the power imbalance between wives and their husbands. Dominicana is a testament to their fortitude and intelligence.
Family Versus the Individual
Some of the novel’s major ideas would be less evident if it weren’t for the constant push-and-pull between individual desires and family responsibilities.
One example of this is the arranged marriage between Juan and Ana. In marrying Juan, Ana secures a life in America for her family and ensures that her father’s failing land will be bought by the Ruiz family. Marriage is constructed as a transactional institution. Ana wants to stay in Santo Domingo and pursue her feelings for Gabriel, but she doesn’t defy her family and marries Juan regardless of her own desires.
Once she is in America, Ana must make her marriage work for the wellbeing of her entire family, though her relationship with Juan is volatile, sad, and occasionally violent. Juan faces his own pressures. He is in love with Caridad, but their marriage would not have been accepted for cultural reasons, and Caridad has no land to offer. Their union would not be pragmatic, so they carry on a torrid affair. Juan must work hard to save money for himself and his entire extended family. The expectations placed on Juan by his family are all-consuming. Though he has more autonomy than Ana, he cannot live for himself, either.
Another example of this theme is the doomed relationship between César and Ana. They fall in love despite their family connection but staying together would mean certain abandonment by their loved ones. Their love is not strong enough to overcome this challenge because they both need and are needed by their families. If Ana runs away with César, she risks ruining the opportunity for her parents and siblings to immigrate. If César whisks Ana away, he loses the safety net of his brothers, who help him in many ways, including bailing him out of jail. Ana does not leave Juan for César because her mother’s security is more important to her than her own happiness. Rather, she has internalized the importance of family and will not ultimately be happy if she acts on her own desires.
In this novel, the family unit is both a blessing and a curse. It provides unconditional love and support, but it also constrains characters and prevents them from achieving their individual ideas of happiness. Angie Cruz dedicates this novel to her own mother, highlighting the appreciation succeeding generations have for the family that came before them. The novel is an homage to the power of family responsibility and love, even if that love demands individual sacrifice.
