47 pages • 1 hour read
Chanel CleetonWhen We Left Cuba
Fiction | Novel | Adult | 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.
Chapters 22-28Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 22 Summary
It’s October 1962. Beatriz likes being in London and feels she has become brave, strong, and independent. She enjoys attending university and working for the CIA. She watches Ramon Martinez, Claudia’s boyfriend, and passes messages to Dwyer. She misses Cuba, Palm Beach, her sisters, and Nick. She suspects Ramon of being a double agent but wants proof, so arranges to meet him for dinner. The night before, she gets an assignment to attend a party and secure a microfilm from a Soviet agent. She goes to the party and sees Nick.
Chapter 23 Summary
They step outside to talk. Nick tells Beatriz he misses her and he is no longer engaged. Nick understands, “We’re still on opposite sides, and we still want different things” (230), but that hasn’t diminished the desire he feels. Beatriz spots the Soviet colonel and also Ramon. She pretends to fall so that colonel can slip her the microfilm; then, she takes a cab with Nick to his hotel. They make love. Beatriz slips away in the morning to go to Hyde Park, but her contact doesn’t meet her. When she returns to her apartment, someone is there.
Chapter 24 Summary
Ramon is waiting in Beatriz’s apartment. He wants the microfilm, and he has a gun. Beatriz pulls out a knife. He knocks the knife from her hand, and as she fights him, the gun goes off.
Chapter 25 Summary
Beatriz hurries away from her flat and goes to Nick’s hotel room. She tells him she shot Ramon and called Dwyer’s people to remove the body. She realizes that she killed a man, but she doesn’t feel guilty, only relieved he didn’t kill her. Nick tells her the Americans have discovered that the Soviets have installed nuclear-capable ballistic missiles in Cuba.
Chapter 26 Summary
Beatriz is terrified at what this might mean for her family and feels she has to return to the United States. As she packs, she recalls leaving Cuba “for a trip that has turned into a never-ending exile” (247). She returns to Washington, DC, with Nick and lives with him at his apartment. She understands that the US is preparing for war, and she wonders if she’s played a part with her involvement with the CIA. She’s frustrated by the role the US has played in destabilizing Cuba, for instance shipping weapons to Batista and “turning a blind eye to his abuses of power and the subjugation of the Cuban people” (252). She feels her loyalties are being pulled in many directions. She falls into a routine of domesticity with Nick.
Chapter 27 Summary
Dwyer waits for Beatriz on Nick’s doorstep. He tells her they cleaned up after her in London. Dwyer says Castro is trying to start revolutions throughout Latin America and the CIA wants Beatriz to go to Cuba to kill him. Dwyer tells Beatriz they will sneak her into the country aboard a fishing vessel. Dwyer hints that Beatriz’s work with the CIA could continue after this assignment, and he mentions her mother’s cousin in Spain. He warns her that things in Cuba won’t return to what she imagines and reminds her how her sisters and family have built lives in America. Dwyer says the Soviets want to destroy the American way of life, and he sees it as his patriotic duty to fight back. Beatriz agrees to go.
Chapter 28 Summary
An American plane is shot down over Cuba, and Nick reports that the US is preparing to invade Cuba. Beatriz reveals that Dwyer wants her to go to Cuba. Nick objects to her risking her life, and Beatriz says she doesn’t need to be taken care of. The Soviets agree to remove the missiles, and peace seems achieved, but Beatriz feels at loose ends. Elisa tells her to build a life for herself, to move forward, to be happy, and invites Beatriz to come home.
Chapters 22-28 Analysis
This section sees Beatriz established in work she enjoys: studying in London as a university student, something she always wanted to do, and making use of her attendance at parties to report any useful information to the CIA. Her instincts and abilities as a spy are improving, as is her resourcefulness, demonstrated by her charade at the party where she manages the handoff of the microfilm. What this microfilm contains isn’t discussed; the incident serves mostly to test Beatriz and see how she will react when her life is in danger, setting her up to feel equipped for a confrontation with Castro.
Shooting Ramon is a turning point for Beatriz. She’s killed a man, but she sees this as a necessary action in the war she’s fighting: a war to regain the Cuba she lost when Castro took over. This action emphasizes the hardness Beatriz felt in herself at the beginning, a hardness at odds with the soft and sheltered life that Nick wants to give her. Though she reunites with Nick once more, she continues to seek Freedom From Gendered Expectations. Their conversations become repetitive as Nick can’t accept what Beatriz wants and makes her explain herself again and again.
This section adds a new dimension to the theme of Exile and the Longing for Home. As Dwyer points out, the nostalgic version of Cuba Beatriz is fighting for no longer exists: The government and the economy have changed. Many families have left. However, Beatriz is not yet ready to accept this truth. The game she plays with Eduardo, about promising that they will return to Havana and dance at the Tropicana, is a fantasy they spin to ease their sorrow over the change and loss.
In London, a new and different setting, Beatriz is able to redefine herself. She appreciates her strength and independence; she is no longer governed by her family name or her place in society. Nick’s reappearance in her life offers Beatriz a possibility of a different future, one of love and comfort and security. When a crisis occurs, and she feels the need to be closer to her family, Beatriz is more like a transient taking shelter with Nick; her exile has not yet ended. Elisa refers to Palm Beach as Beatriz’s home, but Beatriz doesn’t use the same language. She thinks of this time as a charade of domesticity, and she is still ambivalent about her future.
This section foregrounds the theme of Conflicting Loyalties and pushes Beatriz to decide what she will commit to. Ultimately, she decides that her commitment is still to avenge her brother and rescue Cuba from Castro. One of the differences between her and Nick is his ability to separate the personal from the political. For Beatriz, she feels these are connected, and her private life will always be overshadowed by the political. The Cuban missile crisis amplifies this, as Beatriz interprets it as a personal threat on her and her family, a threat foreshadowed by her earlier sense in New York that Castro was invading her sanctuary. Now the Soviets are poised to attack what is becoming her adopted home. Once again Castro has the power to destroy her safe haven, and Beatriz wishes for decisive action. She realizes that anger rules her more powerfully than love.
