Anna In The Tropics

“Look at what happened to Rosario, she put a spell on her lover and the man died. And not only did she lose her man; she’s gone to hell herself.”

Conchita unknowingly foreshadows the death of Juan Julian, the lector and her own soon-to-be lover, before even meeting him. Unlike Rosario, however, Conchita loses her lover, but she does not lose her man and go to a figurative hell; Palomo, Conchita’s husband, and Conchita reconcile, and the marriage appears to have been strengthened by Conchita’s affair, rather than ruined by it.

“Then write it down. Write it down. I want it in writing.”

Cheché reluctantly loans money to Santiago, who recklessly borrows more and more from his half-brother after losing while gambling at the cockfight. At this moment, Santiago has just promised Cheché a part of the cigar factory Santiago inherited from his father as collateral if Santiago is unable to pay Cheché back. Chechétakes Santiago seriously and insists that Santiago carve the promise in the sole of Cheché’s shoe. 

“Oh dear! But you’ve wet yourself, like a child.”

Ofelia is alarmed to see that Marela has lost control and urinated out of nervousness upon meeting Juan Julian for the first time. The sound of Marela urinating on stage is indicated in the stage direction, as well as the fact that Ofelia, Conchita, and Juan Julian all notice Marela’s childlike behavior. This moment in the play establishes Marela as a very young -year-old, innocent like a child and prone to immaturity. 

“We call him Cheché. He is my husband’s half-brother. We didn’t know he was part of the family, but one day he showed up at the factory with a birth certificate and said he was my father-in-law’s son. So we took him in, and ever since, he’s been part of the family.”

Ofelia’s factual description of Cheché’s position in the family suggests that she feels little warmth towards him. Cheché’s unannounced arrival to the factory with a document proving his identity implies that his intention in coming had more to do with the financial side of his connection to Santiago, and less with the familial side.

“Well, there are many kinds of light. The light of fires. The light of stars. The light that reflects off rivers. Light that penetrates through cracks. Then there’s the type of light that reflects off the skin.”

Marela’s romantic list of different kinds of light concludes with an unintentionally-suggestive image that reveals Marela’s attraction to Juan Julian. According to the stage directions at this moment in the play, Ofelia and Conchita laugh nervously while Marela tries to engage Juan Julian in a deep metaphorical conversation about light and dark.

“As a child I remember sitting in the back and listening to the stories. That has always been our pride. Some of us cigar workers might not be able to read or write, but we can recite lines from Don Quixote or Jane Eyre.”

Ofelia mentions two classic works of literature in this passage, revealing the educational experience of listening to the lector. The lector’s traditional role in a cigar factory was not just one of entertainer, it was also one of educator. Ofelia values her time listening to the lector as it has given her insight and knowledge not usually ascribed to uneducated factory workers.

“They’re not very literary, Chester.”

Marela calls Cheché “Chester” here and throughout the play, and her use of the American formal name, rather than the Cuban diminutive, keeps him at a distance. She, like Ofelia, does not feel much warmth to Cheché, and here she gently mocks his preference for detective stories, implying that he is somewhat less sophisticated than the workers who prefer love stories and significantly less sophisticated than Juan Julian, the lector himself.

“Yes. Anna said it herself. It’s like a curse, she said. She was talking about it at the end, when she said that her kisses have been brought by her shame. She’s got to be miserable.”

Conchita identifies with the character of Anna Karenina even before she starts her affair with Juan Julian, explaining that having an affair does not guarantee happiness. The shame of having to go outside one’s own marriage for true passion is humiliating to Anna, and Conchita understands this nuance very well as she contemplates starting an affair herself.

“I think of the money all those people have.”

Palomo is having a serious discussion with his wife, Conchita, that started with her confronting him about his infidelity. She compares their situation to that of the characters in Anna Karenina, and while she wants to talk about their emotional lives, Palomo focuses on the practical. This emphasis on pragmatism may reveal an anxiety in Palomo; after all, he has married into a family led by Santiago, whose gambling and unreliable leadership at the factory may mean financial trouble for his workers.

“And if I tell you that I want to cut my hair, change the way I dress and take on a lover.”

Conchita shocks Palomo with this threat as she seizes control of her life as a sexual, desirable woman. Rather than be broken by his unfaithfulness, Conchita has taken his actions as permission for her to do the same thing, a drastic departure from the predictability of traditional gender roles in marriage. Instead of simply enduring her husband’s affair, Conchita has decided to make some changes herself and find a lover of her own, maintaining a balance in their power dynamic.

“You can fight without me!”

Marela leaves the house in frustration after yet another experience mediating her parents’ argument. Marela still lives at home with Santiago and Ofelia, and though this living situation keeps her young and childlike, she holds the very grown-up role of peacekeeper when her parents descend into immature fights like this one.

“I’ve acted like a fool, Ofelia. I’m ashamed of myself and I’m angry and bitter. And I can’t shake…this damn agony!”

This confession of Santiago’s communicates the dynamic nature of his character. At the beginning of the play, Santiago displays the reckless and hedonistic side of his personality, gambling and drinking and losing money, but while arguing with his wife about his transgressions, he realizes he has let his family down with this behavior and vows to make a change. The agony he experiences is the agony of the gambler who loses his self-respect every time he places a bet.

“Your father! And why not your husband? It should be an honor for any man...[i]f I were your husband I would find an old, wise, banyan tree and I would bury your hair by its roots, and I’m sure it would accept the offering like rainwater.”

Thanks to his close relationship with literature, Juan Julian speaks beautifully and poetically, and here, with Conchita, his ornate language encourages Conchita as she attempts to seduce the lector. Later, at the end of this scene, Conchita asks Juan Julian to cut her hair, and he responds by touching her hair gently and kissing her shoulder. Their affair begins with these intimate gestures.

“Then we should meet in a hospital, because sometimes I detect sad trees in your eyes after we make love.” 

Juan Julian speaks in metaphor with Conchita after they make love in the factory on a table. They talk about meeting elsewhere for their trysts, and when Juan Julian suggests a hotel, Conchita rejects the idea as cold, like hospitals. Because Conchita mentions needing a remedy for something bothering her, Juan Julian gently jokes about meeting in a hospital to make love so that she can get the care she needs. 

“If working with machines means being modern then we’re not interested in the modern world.”

Ofelia rejects the idea of automating the cigar-rolling process, preferring to live and work in the traditional way. Her rejection ofCheché’s idea represents her rejection of him, and his American-minded attitudes towards progress at the risk of losing the old ways. Though Ofelia lives and works in Florida, she is still very much a Cuban in her heart and soul, and Cubans roll Cuban cigars by hand. 

“Obviously I’m not an Indian, but as a lector I am a distant relative of the Cacique, the Chief Indian, who used to translate the sacred words of the deities.”

Juan Julian identifies with the Chief Indian, who had a special way with language, and his claim draws a parallel between the deities respected by the Cacique and the writers of the literature he reads to the factory workers. Like the Chief Indian, Juan Julian is able to translate and interpret the language of literature, which he deems as sacred and powerful for others who lack the ability to access the messages.

“Here are some clothes for you to wear.”

Santiago presents Marela with clothing for her to wear when she models for the drawing of Anna Karenina that will decorate the new cigar label. She finds a warm coat amongst the items of clothing, and here, she wears the coat happily, flattered by the attention she receives for her youth and beauty. This coat foreshadows the coat she dons at the end of the play, when she feels she needs to cover herself and hide her body from view.

“And then when I come here there’s this moron reading the same story every day to remind me of her. And I hate it! I hate him! It’s like there’s no end to it and I just want to...”

Cheché’s emotional outburst reveals his deep and irrational feelings of anger and resentment towards Juan Julian, the lector who reminds Cheché of the lector with whom his wife ran away years before. Mildred hurt Cheché badly, and she wounded his ego, when she left him; Cheché blames the lector, who read love stories out loud that inspired Mildred to do something about her dissatisfaction with her marriage to Cheché. Cheché hates all lectors as a result, and Juan Julian in particular is a target for him because Marela is infatuated with him and Cheché has a lascivious attachment to his young half-niece. He trails off at the end of his outburst, suggesting a sinister plan may be brewing.

“Is that what it is, little Marela, you’re playing with some man in your mind and you forget that you’re bringing a cigar to your mouth and licking it, instead of pasting it?”

Cheché talks with Marela in a suggestive way, leering at her and communicating his sexual interest in her in this scene. Cheché is not feeling particularly stable at this moment, having just confessed to Santiago his terrible feelings towards his wife and towards lectors, and so he cannot control himself when he finds himself alone with Marela, who inspires inappropriate lust in him. Marela is disgusted and horrified, and she runs away from him when he tries to touch her.

“Actors surrender. They stop playing themselves and they give in. You would have to let go of yourself and enter the life of another human being, and in this case it would have to be me.”

Conchita speaks frankly with Palomo about her love affair with Juan Julian, revealing to her husband what she needs him to do in order to make her happy. She compares lovers to actors who think about how someone else lives, and she asks Palomo to do that for her in order to communicate his love for her and to learn how she wants to be loved.

“Alcohol is prohibited in this country because alcohol is like literature. Literature brings out the best and the worst part of ourselves. If you’re angry it brings out your anger. If you are sad, it brings out your sadness. And some of us are ..[l]et’s just say, not very happy.”

Palomo admits his unhappiness while acknowledging the unhappiness of others as he compares the power of alcohol to the power of literature. Both reflect emotion and enhance the impact of that emotion. Palomo’s thoughtful insight reveals a change in Palomo’s character; he thinks more deeply and meaningfully about his life and the lives of others now than before.

“Little moments I could save in a jar and keep forever, like now talking to you.”

Marela’s innocent and loving words to Juan Julian communicate the depth of her tender feelings towards him. She too has a romantic and flowery way with language, likely influenced by the literature she has listened to and read by Juan Julian himself. The simple sincerity of her words is witnessed by Cheché, whose jealousy of Juan Julian flares up yet again as another woman he desires prefers the attention of a lector over him.

“No. Some coats keep winter inside them. You wear them and you find pockets full of December, January and February. All those months that cover the earth with snow and make everything still. That’s how I want to be, layered and still.”

Marela’s innocence is lost after Cheché’s assault, and to feel safe and protected, she covers her whole body, her youth, and her beauty with a large coat that is completely unsuitable to the warm temperatures and humidity of Tampa. She is shocked by the attack, and left emotionally cold, like Anna Karenina herself.