The Wait

In “Aguantando” we are given the third story following Rafa and Yunior’s life. Interestingly enough, this particular story takes place in between “Ysrael” and “Fiesta, 1980”, we are aware of what has happened before and after this story. Because having read “Fiesta, 1980”, we already know that the father does return to the family and brings them all to America. So, we are placed in this middle chapter where both the characters and readers are waiting for him to return. It’s interesting to see just how each generational character(s) endure the wait until the father returns home. We have Abuelo who “stared down at the back of his hands, at the long white hairs that covered them. He looked embarrassed” (87). Once the father left, Abuelo was then put in charge of taking care of Mami and her children, making sure that they are okay until the father returns. But, over time, he has grown older, and Papi still has yet to return. He is beginning to fail at taking care of his little girl (Mami) and his grandkids. There’s only so much he can do with his traps to put in his share of keeping the family afloat. He is growing older as the days get longer, and since Mami holds on the fact that Papi will, someday, returns for them, and therefore turns down any and every suitor that approaches her, he doesn’t know what she will do when he is gone.

Next, we have Mami. Now, in this story, I found Mami to be a very compelling character. She and her family are in a very tight financial situation. It even comes to the point where she has to send her kids away in order to earn enough money to keep her kids happy and healthy. She holds on the fact that Papi is, indeed, coming for her and the kids. The wait is what keeps her head up and looking forward. She longs for the day of his return, and works hard until that day will come, because she is convinced it will come. This is why she turns down all her different suitors, because she knows that no one them could promise to provide as much as Papi did. With Papi’s gesture of offering her a cigarette, and then the whole pack, he is promising her that he will be a provider. He won’t let her settle with one cigarette, because with him, she can have it all. Now, obviously, things haven’t working out that way. He has (assumably temporarily) abandoned his family to live in America, and hasn’t provided any financial aid, consequently causing his family to be stuck in the mud in the Dominican Republic.

But Mami still clings to the idea of him returning. Family means a lot to her, and she has two kids with this man. So, when Papi claims that he is returning to her (the first time), Mami gets all excited. She is happy that the wait is over, and that she survived it all and brought her family with her, all in one piece. She’s ready to be lifted up and saved by her husband. She organized a party, even purchased a goat to be slaughtered, only to find out that he, in fact, was not coming home, and that she would have to wait even longer for him. This caused Mami to have a breakdown because it made her inspiration in life, what compels her to move forward, illegitimate. After this, she goes back to waiting for him, but it isn’t the same. Yes, she still won’t accept offers from any suitors, but she also isn’t totally clinging on to the idea that Papi is coming back. This kind of thought doesn’t have the same effect it used to because he let her down, making his return claims seem less realistic. She is left to find other inspirations in life because Papi has proved to be an unreliable one.

Finally, we have the third generation, the boys. Rafa and Yunior have a different view of their father, especially Yunior, who doesn’t even remember the guy. All he knows of his Papi is what he looked like in 1965 due to a picture he has. Because of this, when the boys find out that their father is returning, the two have a sort of fairytale vision of his return. In it, he will be taller, because of all that Northamerican food he has been eating, (although, in present time, I suppose that would only making one wider, rather than taller), he will sweep Mami up off her feet by picking her up in a nice, German car and taking her to see a movie at the place where they met. He would be wearing expensive clothes and jewelry and swarms of crowds would come out to see him in his triumphant return. He would then look at Yunior, his little boy whom he has barely known, trace the scars of his body, and then state his name. I mean, if I hadn’t known better, I would have thought the first half of this vision was a modern version of Shrek or something. It’s like Papi is Mami’s knight in shining armor, and he has come to rescue from her tower and they will live happily ever after. Now, this could very well be the way things happen, but, from having read “Fiesta, 1980”, we know that the family’s life after doesn’t follow the fairytale storyline.

It could be said that Yunior invisions these aspects of his father in contrast to his current situation. He believes his father will have material wealth, something that he and his family do not possess. What’s interesting is that he mentions his Papi having a German car, one that he could pick his family up and take them to the land of prosperity. But, we see in “Fiesta, 1980”, that although he does have a Volkswagen (which is a German car), it makes Yunior carsick. He believes that his father will trace the scars on his arms and head, something that his mother did not care about. “She didn’t want to hear nothing about our problems, the scratches we’d put into our kees, who said what” (73). Finally, he believes his father will call him is own, claim him as his son. Although it is evident that Mami loves Yunior very much, because she is tired all the time from working, she doesn’t show it very often. Especially after her breakdown, she finds it hard to find a connection with anyone in her family, because they all represent Papi and his false comings. Although Yunior invision his father to be this knight in shining armor, unfortunately, he will soon realize that he is not the man he thought he would be, and their family dynamic will change drastically following his return.

All in all, it’s interesting to see how all the characters respectively wait for the return of Papi. Waiting seems to be taking a toll on all of them as the children begin to fantasize, the mother breaks down, and Abuelo’s hairs are turning white. It would be interesting to see what actually happened once the father returned, and if it lived up to Rafa’s and Yunior’s expectations. Unfortunately, we know what the aftermath of his return is and so we could infer that his return wasn’t as spectacular as they had hoped. Even if Papi’s comeback was awful, it seems like Mami has based so much of her life alone in the Dominican Republic, waiting for Papi, that once he returns, she would do anything to stay with him. It would be interesting to see how things pan out after “Fiesa, 1980” as we can already see the inner workings of the family and how it is falling apart, even though Mami has worked so hard to keep it together.