Ask The Dust

Camilla Lopez is a twenty-two-year-old Mexican-American waitress who works at the Columbia Buffet in Los Angeles. She has a tempestuous relationship with Arturo Bandini, who falls in love with her even though he often treats her cruelly. Although she is attracted to Arturo as well, she is in love with Sammy, the quiet bartender who consistently rejects her and abuses her physically and emotionally. Like Arturo, Camilla struggles with her identity as an American since she is a visible minority in a region and era in which Hispanic Americans faceprejudice and abuse. Arturo frequently refers to her as a “Mayan princess,” an allusion to her Mexican ancestry. While Arturo imagines himself as the European conqueror Cortez, however, he never succeeds in conquering Camilla in the way that the Spanish ultimately triumphed over the Maya.

At the beginning of the novel, Camilla appears to be a strong, confident, and relatively happy young woman. She lives on her own, drives her own car, and is confident about her body and sexuality. Over the course of the novel, however, she becomes emotionally unstable. Early signs of this instability can be seen in her volatile temper and reckless driving; gradually, she becomes more dependent on alcohol and marijuana and is eventually place in a mental hospital.

An attraction builds between Arturo and Camilla after their first encounter in the Columbia Buffet. After driving out to the beach together one night, Camilla tries to entice Arturo to have sex with her, but he is notaroused.Nonetheless, he becomes increasingly infatuated with her, but she begins to scorn him and focuses her attentionon Sammy. One night, Sammy beats her after she goes to visit him in the desert. When she returns to Los Angeles, she begins to spend more time with Arturo but also becomes increasingly instable. To Arturo’s concern and disapproval, she also begins to smoke more marijuana. After not seeing Camilla for a few days, Arturo learns from her landlady that she has been taken to the state mental hospital after causing a serious disturbance in her building. After a few months in the Del Maria Institute for the Insane, Camilla escapes and sends Arturo a series of telegrams from various California cities asking him to wire her money. Eventually, she returns to his room in Los Angeles. Realizing that Camilla is in a precarious physical and mental state, Arturo takes her to Laguna Beach where he rents a house for them to stay in while she recovers. Nevertheless, Camilla flees Laguna Beach and goes to find Sammy, who casts her out in the desert. Arturo goes in search of Camilla in the desert but soon realizes that he has no hope of finding her and that she has most likely died of thirst and starvation.

Sammy is the bartender at the Columbia Buffet with whom Camilla is in love. At first, Sammy is simply described as quiet, but in time he is revealed to be cruel and abusive. After learning that he is dying of tuberculosis, he goes to live alone in the Mojave Desert and forbids Camilla from seeing him. He only uses her to get Arturo to read over his short stories and help him get published. Unlike Arturo, however, Sammy is not interested in writing as an art and only cares about the financial side of writing. Arturo reads and comments on the manuscripts for Camilla’s sake but realizes that Sammy lacks talent. He takes out his jealousy and resentment by writing him a letter recommending that he give up writing immediately.One night, Camilla drives to see Sammy in the desert, he punches her in the face and leaves her with bruises and black eye. Even after this incident, however, Camilla keeps trying to see Sammy and even forces Arturo to take her to see him since she knows that he will talk to Arturo even if he will not acknowledge her. During this visit, he treats her despicably, refusing to let her in to escape the cold and then forcing her to cook and clean for him. After Arturo has taken Camilla to live in Laguna Beach after her escape from the mental hospital, she goes back to Sammy’s place in the desert. When he refuses to let her stay, she wanders out into the desert, presumably to her death. Sammy–and the negative model of white American masculinity that he represents–can be seen as partially responsible for Camilla’s demise, first through his emotional and physical abuse and finally through his failure to offer her shelter and assistance when she returns to him after her escape from the hospital.

Vera Rivken is a presumably Jewish, middle-aged woman who pursues Arturo sexually and becomes the inspiration for his first novel. She is described as “attractive and mature” with “nervous black eyes” that are “brilliant” from drinking too much (79). Although she is well-dressed, Arturo later realizes that they are the only clothes she owns. It soon becomes apparent that Vera is lonely, emotionally unstable, and an alcoholic. She appears at Arturo’s room in the Alta Loma Hotel one night and demands that he love her. After drinking together in Solomon’s bar, Arturo slips out the back, but she follows him back to his room, and they spend the evening talking. She eventually explains that she left her husband on the east coast after learning that he was unfaithful to her and now works as a housekeeper for a “rich Jewish family” in Long Beach (85).She is also severely disfigured at the waist and fears that no men will ever find her attractive. While in Arturo’s room, she removes all her clothes to show him her wounds. After Arturo tells her that he is not revolted her wounds, she gives him her address in Long Beach and asks him to visit her. Feeling as if he should seize this opportunity to gain sexual experience, Arturo goes to see her in Long Beach the next day. After telling her about his love for Camilla, Vera tells him to pretend that she is Camilla, and they have sex. Arturo is immediately consumed with guilt for what he has done. After returning to Los Angeles in the aftermath of the earthquake, he decides to write the story of Vera Rivken, which becomes his first novel. The novel does not resolve whether Vera is killed in the earthquake in Long Beach. 

Mrs. Hargraves is the landlady who runs the Alta Loma Hotel. She initially does not want to let Arturo stay in the hotel because she suspects him of having no money and of being a Mexican. She is implicitly racist as she does not allow “Mexicans or Jews” to live in the hotel. She is very lonely and often talks to Arturo about her deceased husband, Bert. At the beginning of the novel, she has just told Arturo to “get out or pay up,” as he is five weeks behind on his rent (11).

Hellfrick is a resident of the Alta Loma Hotel and a neighbor of Arturo Bandini. He is retired from the army and has become an alcoholic. He frequently borrows money from Arturo and almost always fails to pay him back. Early in the novel, he encourages Arturo to take the opportunity to steal milk from his friend’s milk truck while his friend is drinking with him in his room. Later, he takes Arturo with him out of the city and to a barn, where he slaughters a calf for meat. Arturo is horrified by Hellfrick’s actions and cuts off all ties with him after this encounter.

Judy Palmer is a fourteen-year-old girl who briefly stays at the Alta Loma Hotel in Los Angeles with her mother. She is the only resident of the hotel who reads and admires Arturo Bandini’s story, “The Little Dog Laughed.”She visits his room and is awed to be in the presence of a published writer. Arturo is very flattered by the attention, gives her an autographed copy, and asks her to read his work aloud to him. After her mother finds her daughter in Arturo’s room, they leave the hotel. It is implied that the mother suspected Arturo of behaving inappropriately with Judy.