73 pages • 2 hours read
Julia AlvarezA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
As Filomena listens to his disembodied voice in the cemetery, Manuel (Alma’s father) recounts the story of his early life. He was born of a 49-year-old woman. His father, who didn’t care for him, already had 10 children with his first wife and now 15 with his second. His father, disapproving of Manuel’s love for poetry and his emotional reactions to stories, wanted to send him to military school, but Manuel’s loving mother demanded to homeschool him. She instilled in him a love of reading and stories. However, being homeschooled kept him in constant contact with his father, who often beat him and shamed him. His mother made excuses for his father, saying that he was not in good health or was upset by the American occupation.
Manuel’s father thought believed that Manual was too effeminate and teased him about being gay. One night, his mother proposed that they invent a world where they could escape from his father’s wrath and where every item had a story to tell. Mamá suggested calling this imaginary world Alfa Calenda, combining the first letter of the Greek alphabet with the name of a dance that the Haitian migrant workers would perform; this dance was banned by plantation owners in Haiti, who feared that it might incite a revolution. Thereafter, whenever his father was cruel to him, his mother would put her arms around him and tell a story about Alfa Calenda.
In the present moment, the disembodied voice starts to weaken as Filomena’s thoughts stray. The voice tells her to shake the snow globe again, and she does so, not wanting to disobey el Barón. When she shakes the globe, the voice continues its story.
Manuel talks of becoming a dissident as a young man and condemns El Jefe’s brutality. Filomena thinks of contradicting him, remembering her father’s view that El Jefe was a strong man who made the country safe from thieves. The globe shakes angrily.
Manuel states that someone betrayed his group of comrades, and the authorities rounded them up. Manuel and two others managed to escape to Haiti and boarded a ship for Puerto Rico. Manuel went on to New York. Although he was a licensed doctor, his credentials were not accepted, and he encountered hostility and racism.
The voice goes silent, and Filomena reflects that although the United States is viewed as a paradise, many people have problems there. Filomena reminds herself that everyone’s story is different and backs away from the now-quiet globe.
A call from Lena comes in at the colmado for Filomena. Lena asks if Filomena has heard from Perla. Instead of answering, Filomena asks what’s wrong. Lena tells her that Tesoro has been arrested for the murder of a woman and her son, but he didn’t commit the crime. The police are now looking for Perla. Filomena is somewhat consoled to hear that Jorge and Pepito were not involved. Lena calls Perla a monster and demands that Filomena call her as soon as she hears from her sister. Filomena agrees to this only out of her habit of deferring to an employer. When Filomena returns to the cemetery, she finds Florian sitting on Bienvenida’s marker. He got into the cemetery when she rushed to the colmado and left the door unlocked. He makes suggestive overtures, but she shoos him away and locks the door. Feeling heavy with grief and disappointment, she cries on Bienvenida’s marker.
Bienvenida hears Filomena’s crying, and the narrative shifts to the past as she decides to comfort Filomena with the story of how she met Trujillo, or El Jefe.
In the story, she is just about to turn 22 and has never had a boyfriend, although her cousin Joaquín often gave her novels and poems that filled her mind with romantic ideals. When El Jefe (Trujillo) comes through their town of Monte Cristi as the head of national security, the town council (of which Bienvenida’s father was a member) arranges a reception for him, even though he considers Trujillo a “gangster” (111). As part of a prominent family in Monte Cristi, it is mandatory for Bienvenida to attend. During the dancing, Bienvenida is standing off to the side, getting refreshments with her friend Dinorah. Suddenly, one of El Jefe’s lieutenants approaches to relay a request for a dance. Bienvenida is a good dancer, and El Jefe keeps asking her to dance. During slow songs, he recites poems in her ear. She falls in love.
Every morning for the next week, soldiers bring bouquets of flowers to the house, and each night, she is serenaded. After a week, El Jefe requests a visit. He arrives in his uniform and the whole family gathers. Her parents are entirely against him as a man without principles. Later, her father learns that El Jefe is already married and has a daughter, and this news keeps Bienvenida crying in her room the next time he visits. When El Jefe learns the cause of her distress, he sends a well-regarded town lawyer to explain that the marriage was a youthful mistake and was ended via a civil divorce. He shows notarized documents to prove it. However, because Bienvenida’s family is Catholic, they do not recognize the civil divorce, so El Jefe appeals to the pope to annul that marriage. Meanwhile, Bienvenida’s family hears rumors that he is killing his political rivals and planning a government takeover. Bienvenida disregards the rumors, repeating what El Jefe told her: that he is only reluctantly assuming control of this part of the island, which is something her own father believes to be necessary. Although she is usually malleable, Bienvenida staunchly resists her family’s efforts to break up her romance.
Bienvenida and El Jefe wed in the lawyer’s house, though most of the prominent families in the town do not attend. It is a civil marriage, as they cannot have a church wedding until his first marriage is annulled. Her only family member in attendance is her cousin Joaquín, who recites a poem he wrote. This impresses el Jefe, who hires Joaquín to work on his campaign, thereby launching Joaquín’s political career. A hurricane blows into town during the wedding, so they spend the night elsewhere. El Jefe is offended by his treatment in Monte Cristi, and for decades thereafter, he sides against Monte Cristi in all matters.
The narrative returns to the present moment. The voice of Bienvenida now sees the hurricane as an omen of the heartbreak that awaited her, but at the time, although she had lost everything else, she was so happy to have gained the “pearl of great price” (116) of El Jefe’s love. This phrase jolts Filomena with concern, and she consoles Bienvenida as tears roll down the face of the plaster bust.
Perla is now in a New York jail cell. Tired of the other prisoners’ bullying, she spits on the floor, which leads to a beating. She awakens in the infirmary and is then sent into solitary confinement for attacking another prisoner. She does not tell her lawyer what happened, nor does she defend herself in court. The police officers who arrested her as she tried to buy a ticket to the DR explained her rights in English and Spanish, telling her that she has the right to remain silent. Perla remains silent now because her deepest desire is to trade her life for the life of the boy she killed. She is not happy when her lawyer tells her that New York no longer has the death penalty. She even looks around the infirmary for something with which to die by suicide, but she finds nothing. Pepito visits and explains that because she is not a US citizen, she will probably be deported. Pepito considers this a good thing, as the DR tends to be more forgiving of crimes of passion. However, Perla feels damned even though Pepito tells her that a person is more than the worst deed they have committed. She looks at him with love but remains silent.
The voice of Bienvenida continues her life story. After three years of marriage, El Jefe becomes the president. Bienvenida is an active First Lady, attending functions, being his stand-in, arranging events. She hosts an American First Lady (presumably Eleanor Roosevelt), who is impressed by her capability.
However, rumors of El Jefe’s brutality reach her. Her husband criticizes her soft heart, but she believes that he needs her softening influence to counter the harshness of his lackeys, one of which is her cousin Joaquín. Bienvenida regrets that she cannot produce a child for El Jefe. She receives treatments for her multiple miscarriages, and her actions are closely monitored. El Jefe prohibits her from leaving her quarters, ostensibly for safety reasons, only visiting infrequently. When he does, she fears that her tears drive him away. Her only regular visitor is Joaquín, and he is now Trujillo’s right-hand man. He keeps Bienvenida informed of the news, including that El Jefe has a fiercely jealous mistress. Bienvenida starts to despair about her own future when she learns that the mistress has given birth to a son.
One day, Joaquín announces that Bienvenida will go to Paris to consult with fertility specialists. At first, she is overjoyed, believing that her husband will join her, but Joaquín laughs at her naiveté, saying that El Jefe is too busy. When Bienvenida arrives in France, the ambassador tells her that the Dominican congress just passed a law stating that any marriage that does not produce children after five years is no longer valid. Because her marriage to Trujillo was a civil one, they are now technically divorced. Trujillo’s first marriage, which took place in a church, can only be annulled by the pope, and this occurs a few years later.
Bienvenida stays at the House of Serenity, a convent on the outskirts of Paris that tends to unwed pregnant people. There, she is consoled by a kindly nun named Soeur Odette. The nun cannot answer Bienvenida’s question of why she is punished for doing the right things and giving her husband all her love. Soeur Odette raises a more crucial question for Bienvenida, asking how a kind person like her ended up married to a cruel man like him.
Alma has noticed Filomena’s dedication to Bienvenida’s marker and mentions this to Brava, who suggests that Filomena is more deeply moved by Brava’s artwork than by Bienvenida’s story. Brava supports her argument by saying that some paintings can move people to awe or remind them of a long-lost memory; she observes that most people know nothing about Bienvenida or remember who she was. Alma concedes that Doña María, Trujillo’s third wife, was tenacious in removing all evidence of Bienvenida; the woman removed Bienvenida’s name from schools and roads, but Alma suggests that perhaps Filomena learned the story through other means. She is subtly testing whether Brava, too, has heard the voices. Alma believes that Bienvenida trusts Filomena more than Alma and finds the caretaker to be a good listener—someone who (unlike Alma) does not intend to exploit Bienvenida’s life story for the sake of art. On this point, Alma and Brava disagree; Alma sees art as potentially violent, while Brava sees it as a kind of surrender.
Bienvenida continues her story. She has been at the House of Serenity for a few months and frequently writes letters to El Jefe, then rips them up, believing that they are either too conciliatory or too angry. She has learned some French and talks to Soeur Odette, who suggests that she adopt one of the children born of the unwed mothers. Bienvenida demurs, stating that she would not have a home to give the child
One day, the nun announces that Bienvenida has a visitor: El Jefe. He has come to Paris to get cancer treatments and wanted to see Bienvenida. He recounts the bad things that have happened since their divorce and states that his wife might have cursed him with the help of a voodoo priest. He tells Bienvenida that he didn’t want to divorce her, but congress insisted that he have a legitimate heir. He insists that his plan was always to divorce Doña María and return to Bienvenida.
Bienvenida moves into his medical suite to help care for him and pray for him. Their physical intimacy resumes. A few weeks later, the doctors tell Trujillo that he just had a prostate inflammation, not cancer, and is cleared to travel home. They make love again, but Bienvenida is distraught to realize that he is returning home to his wife. After a few months, Bienvenida realizes that she is pregnant and writes to El Jefe about it. He does not suggest divorcing his current wife again but tells Bienvenida to stay in Paris to get good medical care.
Alma’s sisters call often, checking in on her via Zoom to see if she is writing. She does not reveal much about her cemetery project, but the sisters are glad to hear that she has hired a groundskeeper. Then they start to question whether Alma vetted the groundskeeper’s references and fear possible connections to criminals. Piedad finally brings up the real reason for the latest group Zoom call. The lawyer Martillo, nicknamed the Hammer, has said that the Dominican authorities will not accept DocuSign signatures for the property deeds, so the sisters will have to visit in person to sign the documents. Piedad says that they can make the visit their “sister-cation” (127) that they’ve talked about, but Alma demurs. Not only does she not have her own place, but she has also not fully revealed the nature of her cemetery project. The sisters point out that the cousins’ beach house has room for them all, but if Alma is so preoccupied with her project, they are willing to postpone their visit until a better time.
Bienvenida resumes her story. She marks the passage of time by her daughter Odette’s growth. They move to Miami, and when Odette starts talking, she meets her father for the first time; he has stepped down from the presidency after the outrage over a massacre at the Haitian border. Mother and daughter learn that they may return home the year that Odette starts school. Because El Jefe is still married to Doña María, Bienvenida and Odette live in the outskirts of Santiago.
One day, while Odette is at the convent school, Joaquín arrives with a message. Word has gotten back to El Jefe that a man broke into the clinic where Bienvenida had an appointment for her diabetes. The man intended to kill her but got the wrong room and instead held the nurses hostage until the police came. Under arrest, he admitted that Doña María hired him. Joaquín tells Bienvenida that El Jefe wants to move her to the United States for her own safety, though Odette will board with the nuns of her school. Bienvenida feels ill at the thought of being separated from her child and demands that Joaquín let her speak to Trujillo.
When El Jefe arrives, his demeanor is cold. He tells Bienvenida that he has decided what is best for his daughter. Bienvenida sobs and throws herself at his feet, begging him to reconsider, but he leaves. Joaquín offers her platitudes, but for her there is no comfort.
Filomena’s duties at the cemetery have increased now that a construction crew has started to build Doña Alma’s little house. She still takes time to visit each marker, but Bienvenida’s story interests her most. Filomena sees parallels to her mother’s need to leave her two daughters behind in order to escape a violent, cruel man.
Her worries now lie with Perla, who still awaits trial and deportation in a New York jail. Filomena has accepted Doña Alma’s offer of a cell phone so that Pepito can call her with updates. The story of the double murder is on the radio and TV news in the DR. Filomena cannot believe that her sister would do such a thing, but as she learns more, she understands that if she did commit the crime, then she must not have been in her right mind at the time. Filomena blames Perla’s actions on the sinvergüenza (shameless scoundrel) that she married: Tesoro. After what Tesoro did to Filomena when she was just a girl, Filomena has momentary fantasies of stabbing him or cutting off his genitals. Shocked by her own violent thoughts, she makes the sign of the cross. Thinking of all the stories she has heard in the cemetery, she realizes that people are capable of doing anything.
Bienvenida’s story resumes. Shortly after speaking with el Jefe, Bienvenida arrives in New York. She has hoped to return to Miami if she could not stay with Odette, but her cousin tells her that another mistress of Trujillo’s, a former beauty queen, is now staying at his Miami mansion, so instead she takes a suite at the Essex House on Central Park South. It is 1942, and the United States is involved in World War II. Trujillo recently held an election and won the election soundly, saying that the DR needed a strong leader to prevent Germany from bombing them.
Bienvenida spends much of her time writing letters to Trujillo, begging him to let Odette join her. She also writes to Odette, now seven, and delivers the letters to the consulate twice a week. The consul, who arranged her rooms, is officious but tows the line of El Jefe’s dictates regarding Odette. The only people who speak Spanish on her floor are Sandrita and Chela, the two Colombian women who clean her rooms, and Arístides Ramos, a friendly former undercover police officer hired by the hotel management to guard the well-to-do ladies on Bienvenida’s floor. The cleaning women give Bienvenida the gossip about other guests. They tell her that Arístides could retire, but his wife died and his sons are stationed overseas with the army, so he likes to keep busy.
One day, Bienvenida overhears a diplomat speaking in French about trying to get the United States to accept some important Jewish refugees from Europe. Bienvenida remains silent, but she would like to boast that her country volunteered to take in 100,000 Jewish refugees. Trujillo agreed to this in order to repair his poor international image after the massacre at the border, and he also wanted to intermarry more Dominicans with whites in order to erase the “African invasion” (135) from Haiti. Bienvenida has heard about the massacre, which is called el corte. Joaquín tells Bienvenida that El Jefe didn’t know about the massacre, but she knows that El Jefe is aware of everything that happens on the island. For the sake of her daughter, Bienvenida clings to the official report that angry campesinos (peasants, laborers) committed the massacre.
Bienvenida starts to lose hope of ever being reunited with Odette. In despair, she tries to end her own life by taking pills and climbing into her bath. However, when the tub overflows to the apartment below, the front desk clerk sends Arístides up to investigate. He arrives just in time to take her to the hospital. The next morning the consul arrives, upset that he will have to notify El Jefe. In addition, Essex House is no longer willing to have her stay there.
Arístides visits her every day in the hospital. Bienvenida also meets a young Dominican doctor working as an aide until his foreign medical credentials are approved. His name is Dr. Manuel Cruz. Bienvenida remarks that there was a doctor by that name at her clinic in Santiago. She notices a tightening in his expression, but he only tells her that his father is dead and siblings scattered, so he’s not in touch with much of his family. Bienvenida finds this guardedness odd. An older American doctor, Dr. Beale, also speaks Spanish, and she scolds Bienvenida after hearing her story from Dr. Cruz. Dr. Beale knows about El Jefe and says that it would be immoral for Bienvenida to leave Odette to the control of her monstrous ex-husband. This makes Bienvenida resolved to live, in hopes that one day she can save Odette. When Bienvenida checks out of the hospital, she wants to thank Dr. Cruz, whom she hasn’t seen in a while. She suspects that he may be in New York because he is a dissident. She calls to him in the hall, but he merely offers a dismissive wave.
Hearing Bienvenida’s story, Filomena wonders whether the Dr. Manuel Cruz whom Bienvenida mentioned is the same person as the voice that speaks from the snow globe. She temporarily sets aside her immediate concerns about Perla and Pepito to think about Dr. Cruz’s story and wonders whether he ever made it back to see his mother. The stories have reminded her of her own life and her longing for a reunion with Pepito and her mother. Whenever she returns to her country home, she hears rumors about her mother being seen in the area. She yearns for her mother, and when she hears the news about a Black man who was killed by police in the United States (George Floyd) and how he cried out for his mother as he was dying, she realizes that everybody needs a mother. She often examines her cigar box of childhood mementos: a photo of her mother that her father tore up, her mother’s mantilla, her rosary, some good luck stones, and a medal of the Virgencita de la Altagracia. She decides to bury the box in the cemetery, perhaps next to Don Manuel’s box so that el Barón may consider reuniting her with her mother. She will not tell Doña Alma about this in order to avoid awkward questions. Filomena promises to attend to Don Manuel’s marker as much as she does to Bienvenida’s in thanks for allowing the burial. She kisses the globe to activate it.
Manuel is surprised to read the name Bienvenida Trujillo on her chart. He knows that he must be careful, because if it becomes known that he is not being punished in the jungles of the DR but is actually living in the US, his family will be punished. He knows that other Dominican dissidents have disappeared from the US and other countries.
The war has caused a scarcity of medical professionals, so Dr. Beale lets him help out at St. Vincent’s. She presents his case for review to the medical board, but in the meantime, she encourages him to study for his licensure examination. He is the doctor whose name Bienvenida remembers from her clinic in Santiago, but they were not personally known to one another then. He considers her to be a kind person but wonders how she ended up married to someone like El Jefe. He must be careful around her because she might inadvertently reveal something about him. Manuel is especially suspicious of the Puerto Rican former police officer, who asks him a lot of questions. Dr. Beale’s experience in the Spanish Civil War allows her to understand Manuel’s caution. She feels sorry for Bienvenida, though, as sometimes people never realize the significance of their choices until it is too late. She wonders how Bienvenida will fare once she leaves the hospital. Manuel sympathizes with Bienvenida, whom he sees as trapped in a bad marriage, just like his mother. He wonders if Alfa Calenda was as much a refuge for his mother as it was for him.
Bienvenida’s suicide attempt proves to El Jefe that she would rather take her own life than live without her daughter. He is now preoccupied with the war because a German submarine sank a Dominican cargo ship named Presidente Trujillo. Meanwhile, the nuns at Odette’s school report that she been misbehaving, and he agrees to bring Odette with him when he comes to New York in June for a medical visit. Trujillo communicates this through the consul, who is also tasked with finding a house in the suburbs for Bienvenida. She ends up in Forest Hills, and although it is pleasant enough, she feels lonely. Arístides visits often; he quit his job at Essex House ostensibly to find a more convenient situation, but Bienvenida believes that he quit because of how they treated her. He teaches her the names of the flowers in the area and asks what her plans are after she is reunited with Odette. He tells her that she should aim for her own happiness, too, but she still feels under Trujillo’s control. Arístides suggests they get married and raise Odette together, along with his two sons. When she laughs at the idea of this former police officer taking on the power of El Jefe, Arístides kisses her, igniting a passion she forgot she could feel. They move to the bedroom to make love, and she kneels down to remove his boots, as she always did for Trujillo, but Arístides stops her, saying that he wants her at his side, not at his feet.
The narrative returns to the present. Pepito frequently calls his aunt Filo to keep her apprised of Perla’s situation. Filomena asks to talk to Perla when he visits her in the jail in New York, but Pepito tells her that his mother isn’t talking to anybody. He hopes that she will be deported soon, even though she is past the five-year timeframe when a single crime can get a green cardholder deported. It also looks bad for her case that she is known by the name Perla Pérez, though the name Filomena Altagracia Moronta is on her official documents. Because that is his aunt Filomena’s name, Pepito hopes that this issue will not cause trouble for his aunt in the future. However, Filomena is not concerned about the future; she just wants to see her sister. She even offers to confess to the murders so that she will go to prison in Perla’s place, but Pepito says the laws don’t work that way. He is surprised to learn that Filomena no longer works for his father’s family, and he is curious about Alma’s cemetery. When Filomena tells him that the doña is Alma Cruz, Pepito gets excited. He teaches her novels at the university and has been trying to get an interview with her for years. Filomena offers to introduce him to Alma when he visits, but he tells her it would be best not to mention his name, as he has irritated her agent with his persistent requests.
With the construction of Alma’s casita, Filomena has been busier than usual. When Doña Alma decides to throw a party for the neighborhood, the people pocket many snacks and leave trash, and children play with the snow globe like a piñata until it comes off its base and rolls to a stop next to Bienvenida’s marker. Doña Brava says that she can easily fix the damage with glue. Despite the mess, Doña Alma considers the party successful, as she has garnered the goodwill of the neighbors. Alma asks if Filomena would be willing to do a little housecleaning and cooking for her and even offers to hire an extra person to help her with those added duties. Initially, Filomena plans to refuse the help, but it occurs to her that Perla may need a job after she is released.
While the globe is repaired, Filomena takes advantage of the disturbed ground to bury her own box of keepsakes next to Don Manuel’s box. She plans the lie she will tell if someone finds it: that devotees of el Barón must have put it there. She realizes that hearing all the stories in the cemetery has made her more willing to bend the truth rather than telling it plainly.
The voice of Dr. Manuel Cruz asks Bienvenida if he can tell her a story. It is the story of New Year’s Eve, after Bienvenida has left the hospital. During this time, Manuel is still working in the emergency room and is mourning his mother, who died a month earlier. A young woman comes into the emergency after twisting her ankle while dancing at the Waldorf Astoria. Her English is very good, but she switches to Spanish for his benefit. Her name is Lucía Amelia Castellanos, and she is also from the Dominican Republic. He learns that she went to boarding school in Boston, then started secretarial school in New York. Her parents brought her back to the DR when they found out she had an American boyfriend. However, they returned with her to the US, and she insinuates that their intention was to get away from Trujillo, who has an interest in pretty young ladies.
Manuel is charmed by Lucía and stops by the Waldorf Astoria daily on the pretext of checking her ankle. He starts telling her his stories: everything from his abusive father and Alfa Calenda to paying himself for medical school and becoming a dissident. She is charmed by his stories.
Bienvenida interjects to say that it was like that with her and El Jefe’s poetry. Manuel doesn’t say it, but he believes that Trujillo was barely literate, so the words that wooed her were likely those of her cousin.
Manuel resumes his story. Lucía’s parents do not approve of her interest in Manuel because he is an exile. However, Lucía is stubborn, and her parents eventually give their grudging consent for them to marry. Because Manuel lives in a boarding house and doesn’t make enough money to support a wife, Lucía and her parents will wait in the DR for a few months until he gets his medical license. Unfortunately, the medical board rejects his Dominican credentials shortly after Lucía’s family leaves. Dr. Beale recommends that he go to Canada to get his license there, as Canadian credentials will transfer more easily to the US. This temporary move lasts three years.
Bienvenida recalls seeing Manuel outside the hospital before he left for Canada. She could tell that he was in love. She, too, is in love with Arístides, and they plan to marry in a small civil ceremony. However, a Dominican newspaper learns of their plans and announces it in the society pages. Shortly thereafter, Bienvenida learns that Odette will not be coming because El Jefe does not want his daughter raised in a house with another man. He also stops her allowance, which forces her to find a new place to live because the house is in Trujillo’s name.
Arístides suggests that they simply live together instead, but Bienvenida knows that the situation is impossible because they cannot keep secrets from el Jefe, and Arístides cannot make up for the pain that Bienvenida would feel if she never saw her daughter again. She breaks things off with him, but he keeps coming to the house. She doesn’t let him in, and eventually, he disappears. She learns from Sandrita and Chela that one of his sons was killed in the war at Normandy.
El Jefe now allows Odette to live with Bienvenida, but Bienvenida no longer wants to live in the house where she shared happy memories with Arístides. She suggests moving to Canada, and El Jefe approves. Before she leaves, she visits Dr. Beale to thank her. Bienvenida runs into Manuel outside and learns that he is engaged and will be moving to Canada, too. She notes that he doesn’t reveal his fiancée’s name, and when she suggests that he look them up while in Canada, his face tightens again. Bienvenida understands that he wants to remain hidden from El Jefe’s factions. Odette, who has her father’s demeanor and willfulness, peppers Bienvenida with questions about Manuel. Bienvenida makes a mental note to read all of Odette’s letters home before they are sent.
For the three years that Manuel is in Canada, Lucía’s letters sustain him. Later, he considers giving them to his daughter Alma for the book she wants to write about them, but Lucía protests. She doesn’t trust Alma to be discreet or to present the facts truthfully. Eventually, he gets his license, which is accepted in New York, and he marries Lucía. They live in a small apartment, and when Lucía gets pregnant, her parents pressure the couple to move back to the DR so they can help take care of the young family. Manuel points out that, as a dissident, he will be arrested as soon as he returns. When he suggests that this is what his mother-in-law wants, his comment leads to a terrible argument.
After the war ends, Trujillo announces general amnesty for his critics, along with free elections. Manuel’s wealthy father-in-law pulls some strings to get Manuel a personal pardon. They live in luxury in the DR with Lucía’s family, but Manuel feels guilty that his own relatives and friends are being rounded up under El Jefe’s rule. Soon, he gets involved with dissidents again and even involves Lucía’s brothers. The government surveils the family and makes arrests. Manuel, Lucía, and their girls manage to escape to the US, where Manuel works as an orderly while studying to have his expired medical license reinstated. Lucía’s parents send her money, which she puts into a secret account that he pretends not to know about. After a few months, Manuel gets his license, and the family buys a small house in Queens. With the help of Lucía’s parents, they pay for the girls to go to a boarding school. Missing her daughters, Lucía gets involved with the Dominican Mission in the United Nations.
Manuel senses a new distance in his relationship with his daughters, who are now more Americanized and seem to be ashamed of his strong accent and Dominican mannerisms. He starts writing them long letters featuring stories of a character named Babinchi, thereby creating a semi-fictionalized version of his own life. Only Alma responds to these letters, critiquing his writing and fixing mistakes. She critiques Alfa Calenda, too, so he stops writing the letters. Then the girls complain that he doesn’t reveal much about himself and that he always tells the same stories.
When Alma goes to college, Manuel and Lucía decide to surprise her by visiting for parents’ weekend. When they arrive, they learn that she is spending the weekend with her boyfriend, which they have forbidden. That night, Lucía takes a Valium to help her sleep, and Manuel drives around, looking for Alma and contemplating how his wife and children would get along without him if he just disappeared. He reflects that Alfa Calenda was both a refuge for him and a repository of memories, identity, and dreams. He returns to the hotel.
The narrative returns to the present. Just before Easter, Alma’s sisters announce that they are coming for a visit. Piedad adds that Martillo, their parents’ lawyer, has drawn up the documents to settle the estates, but there is still one small matter to discuss. Filomena is happy to hear about the sisters’ visit. Alma asks her not to mention the voices, and Filomena reassures her. Alma thought the voices of her characters would fade after being burned and buried, but they keep coming back.
Piedad calls from right outside the cemetery gate, and this bothers Alma, who doesn’t like surprises. Consuelo keeps pressing the button on the gate, asking how it works. Amparo criticizes Alma for being a proponent of storytelling for everyone, then denying entry to some people who tell a story at the gate. Alma explains that some people use plots from telenovelas or Disney shows instead of telling stories from their own lives. The sisters start telling embarrassing stories about Alma’s early life, and Alma ushers them inside quickly. Piedad states that Martillo wants to see them all together to decide what to do about the automatic monthly payments that their father set up for an undisclosed account. They all head to the lawyer’s office.
Manuel makes a confession to Bienvenida about something that no one else knows. He describes the time when Lucía works for the United Nations and their daughters are off at school or otherwise scattered.
During this era, Manuel tries to take solace in Alfa Calenda, but its power to buoy his spirits fades. He spends long hours at the office to avoid being home alone. One evening, the Dominican cleaning woman, who has a side business making treats that his wife buys periodically, is startled to see him there. Her name is Altagracia, though she goes by Tatica. Manuel finds her figure pleasing and engages her in conversation, learning that she is from a village in the mountains where he used to hunt.
The next evening, he anticipates her arrival, but she doesn’t come. He finds out that she only cleans there twice a week, so he asks to have her clean more often. They start having longer and more frequent chats about life in the DR. On one occasion, he mentions his mother’s dulce de guayaba, and the next evening, she brings him a jar, careful to say that it is for his wife. He decides to eat some right then and invites her to join him. She begins bringing him more treats, which they share together over stories about Manuel’s past. He notices that her stories usually end in her childhood, and she is reluctant to divulge much beyond that time. Tatica is often the one to end their chats. He learns that she also works at a little restaurant, and is paid under the table, as with her cleaning jobs. He adds extra money to her pay.
The narrative returns to the present. Pepito and the lawyers visit Perla in prison. She still refuses to speak, even though her attorneys tell her that confessing to the murders and to falsifying her name will speed up the process and allow her to be sent back to the DR. Perla has not been there in 30 years, and it brings tears to her eyes to think that the one person who has reason to reject her (Filomena) is the one who is willing to take her in without questions. A social worker sometimes visits, trying to determine whether Perla actually committed the crimes, is taking the blame for Tesoro, or has a family history of mental health issues. Pepito reads her expressions and does the talking for her.
Perla also refrains from talking to Pepito because if she did speak to him, she would ruin his mistaken belief that he can help her. She often wakes up screaming. Her other son, Jorge, has taken Tesoro’s side, and neither Tesoro nor Jorge is speaking to her; she does not blame them. The owners of their apartment building have evicted Perla and Tesoro; when Pepito went over to pack up their belongings, he found the first book he gave her—the one about mythology. He shows her the book and begins to read. At first, it is hard for her to pay attention, but eventually, the story intrigues her, striking her with shared grief, suffering, and remorse.
Manuel resumes his narrative. In his story, his family has noticed his withdrawal. The daughters think nothing of it, but Lucía gets suspicious. She starts opening his mail and keeping track of his location. Eventually, she sets her suspicions aside because her United Nations work increases, and she now travels to conferences around the world. She half-heartedly offers to have him join her, and he turns her down a little too sharply.
Manuel doesn’t stay late at work for the first few nights after his wife leaves for China, but he leaves a note for Tatica, claiming to have another commitment. The note remains untouched the next day. He stays late the next night, but when Tatica sees him, she is distant and formal. To lighten the mood, he asks if there are any sweets, and she tells him that the ones she brought went bad. Near tears, she asks if she has offended him. He points out that he left a note for her every night, but she claims not to have seen them. He invites her out to dinner that night at a Dominican restaurant where no one knows him. When she avoids looking over the menu, Manuel realizes that she is illiterate, like many of his patients.
After a few drinks, Manuel presses her for more information about her life. Reluctantly, she admits that she was carried off by an older man when she was 14 and endured his drunken beatings for years before escaping to the capital, where a rich family hired her as a maid. They took her with them on a trip to New York, and she slipped away. For over 20 years, she has been living as an undocumented worker. Manuel offers to help her with her papers so that she can safely visit her home country. His offer thrills her, and she tells him she would do anything to repay him. He reads interest in her expression. She kisses his hand and invites him to her home. He drives her home, and they start kissing while saying their goodbyes, then make love in the back seat of his car. The next evening, they make love in his office. Manuel feels ashamed when Lucía returns, but whenever she leaves town, he has sex with Tatica.
In the present, Manuel begs Bienvenida’s forgiveness for telling such a sordid tale, and she readily forgives him, stating that she must forgive if she wants to be forgiven herself, citing her cowardice and her suicide attempt. She states that men commonly have affairs and that El Jefe had dozens. This offhand comparison that stings Manuel. He insinuates that that his adultery is not his greatest sin.
On the way to Martillo’s law office, Alma tells her sisters to keep their conversation with him as brief as possible because his charges increase by the minute. Martillo greets the sisters warmly, and when they point out that it has taken over two years to settle their father’s estate, he cites their father’s dual citizenship as the complicating factor. He states that the final property deeds and most of the accounts have been liquidated and asks if they want to continue the account with the automatic payments. No one knows what the payments are about, and Alma wants to know more. Martillo says that he cannot divulge any information about the payments, per their father’s instructions. They agree to terminate the payments, but it is too late to fax the form that day, so Martillo will do it in the morning. Alma asks for a copy of the termination form, noting that it is for Banco Santa Cruz in Higüey, not the family’s usual bank. Outside, Alma tells her sisters that they will drive to Banco Santa Cruz early the next morning before the fax comes through. Hopefully they will be able to persuade some low-level clerk to give them more information about the payments. At first, her sisters balk at the idea, but they finally agree to her plan.
Perla flies back to the DR with an immigration agent. Pepito is on the same flight, and on the ramp, he bribes the Dominican authorities to allow him to give her the book that he was reading to her. Perla’s Dominican lawyer has arranged for her to stay in a less crowded jail cell while she awaits a hearing and sentencing. Pepito also arranged for her meals to be catered. Perla guesses that these services must be quite expensive. She vows to work night and day to pay Pepito back, but she is still haunted by the boy whom she killed. She takes solace in reading the stories in Pepito’s book.
That night, however, Perla starts to read a story out loud to the other inmates. The story is about a girl who is pursued by a rapist until a god intervenes and turns the girl into a laurel tree. The youngest girl in the cell asks if the story is true, as she only became a prisoner after stabbing her uncle, who had been raping her and her little sister for years. The next night, Perla reads them a story about a tribe of women warriors who cut off one of their own breasts to gain better marksmanship. The listeners ask Perla questions, but she only reads the stories.
Manuel notices that Filomena becomes more attentive to his marker after she buries her box of trinkets next to his box. He also sees a resemblance between Filomena and his Tatica. He wants to continue his story, though he worries about upsetting Bienvenida with a tale of how he betrayed his wife, just as El Jefe betrayed her. However, he plunges into his story as Filomena approaches.
As his affair with Tatica continues, she becomes comfortable and careless, but Manuel grows more cautious. Filomena interrupts to say that her mother’s name was Tatica, but Manuel points out that it is a very common name. He continues.
One evening as he leaves his office, he sees Lucía waiting in the parking lot. She reminds him that their 33rd anniversary is the next day, but since she has a reception that night, she thought they could celebrate tonight. She also wants to order some food from Tatica for the reception. As far as Manuel can tell, his wife does not suspect him of having an affair. She sees Tatica taking out the trash and calls to her. Manuel realizes that he can’t bear the idea of losing Lucía and reflects that he was happier when he and Tatica were just sharing stories. In the following days, he starts making excuses to avoid her. Every time he tries to break it off with her, she starts sobbing, and her tone gets increasingly desperate. Then she announces that she wants a pregnancy test. She claims that Manuel is the father, but she does not know that he has had a vasectomy; if she is pregnant, then it is clear that she has another lover. Still, Manuel feels some sympathy for her, but when she threatens to tell people about their affair, he quietly utilizes his connections to have her deported to the DR. He then arranges to have monthly payments sent to Tatica in exchange for her silence.
Part of the reason that he retells the same stories to his daughters—so much so that they suspect him of having dementia in his later years—is that he wants to seal off portions of his story. Alma’s sisters often scold her about asking him so many questions, pointing out that it tortures him to be confronted with his lack of memory. In reality, however, he does remember, and the truth of what he did is what actually tortures him.
When Alma arrives at the beach house around seven o’clock to pick up her sisters and tells them to dress like Dominican doñas with obvious signs of status in order to get the lower-level bank employees to do what they want. They eventually arrive in the small town. The armed guard waves them into the bank without checking their documents, as their appearance—including their white skin—indicate to him that they have legitimate business there.
Alma and her sisters convince a teller to give them more information about the unknown account. The teller directs them to the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother Convent: the recipients of the payments that Manuel set up. The guard directs them to a nursing home on the outskirts of town, where they meet an old nun, Sor Corita, and tell her about their father’s payments. The nun speaks fondly of their father; his generous stipend to one of their residents helps them to keep the nursing home open. The place makes the sisters think of Alfa Calenda. They ask to meet the recipient of their father’s payments, and the nun introduces them to Tatica, warning that she has dementia. They see a woman not much older than themselves who is scrubbing a kitchen counter. The nun explains that she thinks she works there. Tatica scowls when Alma says they are the daughters of Dr. Manuel Cruz. The nun explains that Tatica has no known family. She theorizes that Tatica may have been one of Manuel’s patients.
The nun takes the sisters on a tour to see what their father’s money has provided. The high rates of dementia in the DR become a reality to Alma as she sees the residents and knows both of her parents had the condition. She wonders if the same fate awaits her and her sisters and acknowledges that sometimes forgetting is a kindness. Tatica’s bed has two baby dolls that Tatica calls her little girls, though she doesn’t remember their names. The nun invites the sisters to come back, but they will not return. Alma now understands that the secrets of her father’s heart are not hers to unearth.
Before Filomena visits Perla in prison, Pepito tells her that Perla now reads aloud to her fellow inmates. Filomena has also learned to read signs and write her name, thanks to Doña Alma. Pepito also warns Filomena that Perla has changed in the last 30 years. However, he doesn’t realize that Filomena has caught glimpses of them all on their visits. She has seen him grow into a man and Tesoro maintain his good looks. Perla, however, has increasingly looked ill and unhappy. Filomena, on the other hand, has garnered more positive attention for her looks as she aged, as if she and Perla have switched spots. Filomena gets her hair done and dresses in her best clothes for the visit. She is shocked to see her sister’s diminished form, dull eyes, and sluggish movements. All she can do is hold Perla’s hand and repeat her name.
The mystery of their father’s life has brought Alma and her sisters closer together. They hug and exchange long goodbyes at the airport. Afterward, Alma returns to her casita and lies down. She listens to a bird and suddenly thinks of her deceased writer-friend and contemplates the idea that art and storytelling can be a betrayal. She realizes that she only really knew her father as the man she called Papi, and she acknowledges that this was just a small part of the man named Manuel Cruz. She realizes that she will never truly know him or be able to tell his story. However, other unfinished stories of hers, if based on a historical figure like Bienvenida, may yet be resurrected by another writer.
Now that the construction at the cemetery has been finished, Alma basks in the relative silence. However, items start speaking to her and telling their stories: the utensils in the drawer, the water from the tap, the wind blowing in from the ocean. She calls out for Filomena and asks if she hears the voices, too. Filomena answers that she hears the voices from the markers, which comforts Alma somewhat. However, the number of stories increases day by day. Alma complains to Brava that there is no more room in her head for all these stories. Brava suggests writing them down so that the paper can hold what her head cannot. However, the paper tells Alma its story, too. Alma wants to name her compulsion to listen and worries that it might be an early sign of the dementia that both of her parents experienced.
Filomena notices a change in Doña Alma, who calls out frantically for Filomena, only to ask about the voices. Filomena does not tell Alma all that she knows about Dr. Manuel Cruz and Bienvenida, feeling that it is not her place to disclose stories that they decided to take to their graves. When Dr. Cruz mentions Tatica, Filomena thinks of her mother, whose story she doesn’t know. She realizes that she understands the doctor and the dictator’s ex-wife better than she understands her own family, as she cannot make sense of what Perla did. Filomena also decides not to tell Alma about the anguished screams and voices in a different language that she hears from the machete-shaped marker, fearing that would disturb her.
Filomena visits Perla every week. Though her sister remains silent, Filomena speaks to her of happier times when they were younger and describes her work, where Perla could also work upon her release. Filomena feels a little guilty that she has not confessed to the priest about burying her box without permission or about hearing the voices, even the ones that sound like demons. She fears he would make her burn her box or stop working at the cemetery, where she is happiest. Thinking about the stories she has heard, she realizes that sometimes people only get small morsels of happiness, but this can be enough to get them through life.
After Filomena completes her chores, she checks Doña Alma’s mood before turning on the radio. The meals she cooks for Alma go uneaten, with Alma claiming to be distracted. Worried about how thin her employer is getting, Filomena stays with her during meals, but Alma, not wanting to be a “comesolo” (person who eats alone), invites Filomena to join her. This is a new phenomenon for Filomena, but even with Filomena’s company, Alma does not eat much, as she is too busy asking questions. She asks Filomena if she knows that her name comes from a story about a girl who turns into a bird after her brother-in-law rapes her and cuts out her tongue to prevent her from accusing him. This startles Filomena. She realizes that if she wants Alma to eat instead of talk, she must be the one telling stories.
Pepito is staying with his aunt Filomena, who apologizes for the lack of modern conveniences in her house. Pepito actually enjoys some of the rustic, traditional practices in his aunt’s lifestyle. His partner, Richard, prefers more luxurious accommodations, so Pepito books him a room in a hotel. Pepito has found it difficult to concentrate on his project, especially with his mother’s trials. His project involves linking Latinx writers to stories from classical or canonical literature, but he would prefer to write a historical novel. Tesoro has stopped speaking to Pepito, largely because of his support of Perla, but Pepito suspects that Tesoro disapproves of the fact that Pepito is gay.
His aunt Filomena has been a tremendous support. He would also like his aunt to ask Doña Alma to let him interview her, but she doesn’t dare ask. Doña Alma has become more reclusive and sees no visitors. Pepito wonders if Alma is writing a new book by Scheherazade, but Filomena doesn’t know. Sometimes, she finds Alma simply looking out the window and listening to the voices.
Bienvenida chides Manuel for not visiting her when they lived in Canada. He apologizes, saying that he didn’t want to register with the consulate and risk having El Jefe’s forces track him down. He clarifies that it was the other Dominicans there, not Bienvenida, whom he worried would report him. She tells him that at first many Dominicans were wary of her, a former first lady, but they eventually began to trust her, even taking care of Odette on the many occasions when Bienvenida was in the hospital. Her diabetes got so bad that her leg had to be amputated, and Joaquín told her that El Jefe had a tomb prepared for her after hearing of her health concerns. With the leg amputated, Bienvenida moved with Odette to Miami. Over the years, Odette had some problems, as evidenced by her many divorces. Manuel and Bienvenida never met again in real life.
Now, Manuel senses that their stories are coming to an end. He tells Bienvenida that their storyteller is his daughter. Initially, Manuel was disappointed that Alma never wrote a book about him as she promised, but later, he agreed with his wife’s point of view and didn’t want their secrets revealed to the world. He also was uncomfortable with the idea of being “remade in someone else’s image” (213). He recalls a happy month being in love with Lucía, and reminisces about the early days with Tatica. However, because both of those moments led to sorrow, he theorizes that happiness is “circulatory,” and that the stories that bring joy need to circulate, or else they die. He states that his final months in the nursing home were his happiest.
Bienvenida asks what happened with Tatica. Manuel explains the payments he made. Tatica never spoke out about his betrayal, which compounded his guilt and loneliness. When he learned that she had dementia, he arranged for some nuns to care for her. He says that though the official report is that he died of a heart attack, he actually died of shame over what he did to Tatica. Bienvenida asks if he believes that El Jefe really loved her. Although the dictator was Manuel’s worst enemy, he tells her that he thinks maybe Trujillo did love Bienvenida.
Bienvenida senses Manuel’s reluctance to reassure her about her past choices. She resumes her story, explaining that she has always tried to shield Odette and her grandchildren from the stories about the Trujillo regime, fearing that they would hate themselves for being related to a brutal dictator.
In her story, Joaquín tells her that El Jefe has died, and although she feels free, she knows that it is too late to start her life over again. She cries for all the many people who suffered under her ex-husband. One day, one of her grandchildren learns about Trujillo in school and tells her that it was a good thing she divorced him and left.
In the present, Manuel tries to console her about her regrets. She explains that she still doesn’t understand why she was so drawn to him. Filomena comes by, and her nephew calls to her from the other side of the wall. He will be returning to New York in a few days and begs his aunt to introduce him to Alma. She refuses but agrees to show him around the cemetery. When they stop at Bienvenida’s marker, he wonders why anyone would want to write about such a docile, uninteresting woman. Filomena, who knows that Bienvenida’s story is anything but dull, makes a noncommittal reply. Later that night, the nephew uses a ladder to climb the wall.
Pepito rents a ladder from his aunt’s neighbor. He knocks on Alma’s door lightly, not wanting to interrupt her if she is writing. As Alma approaches the door, he thinks about his unsuccessful sabbatical year, during which he gave so much of his attention to his mother. Perla has been convicted of manslaughter by reason of insanity and is now at a women’s prison near Higüey. An interview with Scheherazade may be Pepito’s chance to salvage his sabbatical.
Pepito is shocked by Alma’s diminished appearance. He decides to hide his professorship and fandom and instead tell her that he is Filomena’s nephew. This softens Scheherazade. He lies, claiming to have told a story at the gate to get in. Alma suspects something but lets him in anyway. When they sit, she tells him to tell her the story that he told at the gate. The only story in his mind is what has been happening with his mother, so he tells her. When he finishes, she tells him to write the story down.
Filomena awakes to hear Pepito crashing into things in the dark. She knows that he worries about his mother and is saddened that his father and brother are no longer speaking to him. On the way to visit Perla that morning, Filomena tries to lift his spirits with tales of Perla from their childhood. She makes their father seem kinder than he was, but when she corrects him about Tatica, his grandmother, saying that she didn’t die but left a violent marriage, Pepito is stunned. Filomena confesses that she made up this story. The real story is that their father would sometimes get drunk and molest the girls. Perla defended him, saving her anger for their mother, who left. One night, Filomena heard light footsteps in her room. It was their mother, who kissed her, promised to return, and placed her medal of the Virgencita on Filomena and her ring on Perla. Perla threw the ring into the river the next day. She has never found an answer as to why her mother never came back.
When Pepito remarks that Filomena and Perla had a rough life, Filomena dismisses it. After hearing all the stories in the cemetery, she realizes that everybody experiences sadness. She may not approve of people’s choices, but she can understand them and empathize. Pepito admits that his mother told him that Filomena tried to break up her marriage and never liked Tesoro. Filomena says that she just didn’t understand him.
When they return from the prison visit, Pepito is forced to confess to his aunt about his visit and notes that Scheherazade seems “spacey” (225). Filomena states that Alma’s head is filled with stories, so Filomena has to do some of the listening for her. Pepito makes her promise to send him reports about Perla and Doña Alma’s welfare.
Over the years, Filomena tells him that Doña Alma has appointed her sisters and Doña Brava to be the trustees of her estate. The cemetery is to be a park for the neighborhood, with Filomena as its manager. She decides that the gates will be open to anyone who tells a story. Pepito ingratiates himself with Alma and is granted a series of interviews with her. She grants his request to become her literary executor, but she stipulates that the undestroyed stories in the cemetery must stay there and the royalties from her work must go to the park maintenance and to a nursing home in Higüey. On Perla’s behalf, Pepito contacts a trauma counselor who says that sometimes people speak when they tell the story of what happened. Filomena advises that they should listen, as sometimes the stories are in the silence.
As Doña Alma’s health declines, Filomena’s care duties increase, so she hires Perla to listen to the voices at the markers. Perla remains silent. One day, a tiguerito (“little tiger,” or an unhoused child) comes into the cemetery, and Perla beckons him to her. She uses his hand to trace the letters on the markers, telling him the names. He brings some of his friends the next day. More and more children come to learn their letters from Perla.
Pepito writes and lectures about Scheherazade’s work. When asked about her habits or later silence, he either refers to her sisters or makes something up, as she might have done. He recalls that in his one and only in-person interview, he asked what she was working on. She showed him her notebook, which was hard to read, but one line stood out: the idea that everything tells her its story. Later, she referenced seeing El Jefe at a dance in Monte Cristi in 1927. When Pepito pointed out that she wasn’t alive then, she said that she was when she wrote about it. They stopped in front of Bienvenida’s marker, and Pepito read the inscription aloud. Scheherazade grew agitated and asked if he could hear the wailing. Before he could say no, he heard a bird. When she asked what its name was, he told her it was a nightingale, but she knew that he was lying. He calmed her by stroking her hand.
In this part of the novel, the concept of Using Stories to Heal and Connect become more prominent as Filomena begins to understand what stories can do for people. As she listens raptly to the voices in the cemetery, the complex stories of Manuel and Bienvenida take center stage, and their disembodied voices reflect on their lives as they both take comfort from the understanding and absolution that they gain from each other. On the surface, Manuel’s and Bienvenida’s stories differ greatly; he had an impoverished childhood while she lived in comfort, and she loved El Jefe—Trujillo—for many years, while Manuel despised him. However, the underlying similarities of their lives allow them to empathize with each other. For example, Trujillo forced both characters into exile for different reasons, and they both struggled with loneliness, which opened them up to experiencing a second love. Most importantly, however, both characters feel shame about their past decisions, and they both find refuge in storytelling.
Manuel’s focus on Using Stories to Heal and Connect is prominent even during his lifetime, and the theme develops quite early in his narrative when his mother invents Alfa Calenda as “a charmed place to escape Papá’s rages” and “[a] world where every single thing, not just people, tells a story” (105). Given that Alma’s quasi-magical cemetery also functions according to these rules, Manuel’s lifelong pattern of storytelling implies that his entire family—and indeed, his culture—is deeply invested in using stories as a repository for memory. In his early years, his imaginary worlds allow him to assert a form of control, and as Manuel grows, he uses his stories to honor his Dominican side and to counter the constant racism and injustice that he experiences in the US. Notably, even his affair with Tatica is rooted in the importance of storytelling, for he basks in the stories they share of their childhood in the DR. However, he must also contend with the idea of Stories as a Force of Destruction, for he suffers considerably when his daughters’ reject his stories. As he tells Bienvenida, his daughters’ rejection marks “the end of Alfa Calenda as [he] had known it” (214). Ironically, although he mourns the death of his stories, he remains most haunted by the stories and decisions of his own life, for his choice to have Tatica deported haunts him and leads to his eventual demise. As he admits, “The memory of my betrayal was a private hell inside me, replacing Alfa Calenda […] They say I died of a heart attack. I died of shame, simple as that” (214-15).
Manuel’s lingering anguish finds a counterpoint in the narrative of Bienvenida, for although she also takes refuge in storytelling, her deliberately rosy stories are designed to keep her from seeing the truth of her own situation. From the time she first meets el Jefe, her family tries to warn her about him, but to no avail, and as more evidence of his brutality appears, she chooses to believe that the people around him are to blame and insists that her husband is simply doing the best he can. Thus, even her self-deception is cast as a sort of story, further emphasizing the power of Stories as a Force of Destruction. As Bienvenida finally admits, “I fell in love with the story I wanted to believe about mi Jefe” (216). Similarly, when she learns of the Haitian massacre, she finds that it is easier to believe rosy stories about her husband because the facts would require her to take action and thus risk the life she has. As she admits to Manuel, “More and more my eyes are being opened [in my exile], but with my daughter as hostage, I squeeze them shut” (144). Her experience acts as a direct contrast to Manuel’s, for while he openly acknowledges his failings and his “shame,” Bienvenida is explicitly characterized as “[a] fragile soul” who “can’t bear to face the truth, and as Dr. Beale observes, “Just a glimpse would kill her […]. Sometimes we need our stories, even if they are lies” (142-43). Thus, at various points, both Manuel and Bienvenida hesitate to tell the more painful parts of their pasts. However, when they finally tell their stories honestly, they find an unexpected balm for their troubled souls. As Bienvenida puts it, “Sometimes the best handkerchief is a story” (110), for telling each other about the truths of their lives allows them to embrace The Importance of Being Seen.
By Julia Alvarez