The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2020

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-6

Chapters 7-12

Chapters 13-19

Chapters 20-26

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Themes

Navigating the Challenges of Military Family Life

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains themes of displacement and challenges of military family life, including references to military deployment in conflict zones, military weapons, and fatality.

The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez blends magic and reality to bring to life the challenges of growing up in a military family. From never feeling settled to resenting “wannabe” military kids like Brandon, Nestor’s status as the child of a deployed soldier is central to his experience. Even as Nestor gets sucked into a magical adventure trying to catch the tule vieja, the realities of war and separation from Nestor’s father while he’s on deployment are never far from Nestor’s mind.

As the child of a soldier, Nestor has extra considerations and responsibilities to balance. When he writes letters to his father, he adheres to his mother’s mantra of “Always Be Positive. Always Be Happy” so as not to worry his father (43). However, this means Nestor often has to hold back from truly expressing himself or sharing his life with his father:

It doesn’t matter that I drew a complete blank today when my math teacher asked where I was from […] While Dad is halfway across the world, as far as he’s concerned, everything is fine. I know that when Dad is deployed, he views himself as a soldier, husband, and father, in that order. He has to so he can do his job. And mom says we have to help Dad to do his job the best he can. But sometimes it really sucks being his last priority (43).

Throughout the novel, Nestor battles with what he wants to say and what he ends up saying while crafting letters and emails to his father. This tension is elevated by the conflict between Nestor and the tule vieja. As Nestor faces more and more danger, he longs to seek guidance from his father but must instead pretend that everything is normal.

Nestor takes his self-editing further by hiding his ability to talk to animals from his parents since they “don’t need a freak kid to worry about” in addition to worrying about Nestor’s father being “thousands of miles away, dodging bullets and bombs” (55-56). Nestor’s ability to talk to animals—and inability to share this with his family—emphasizes Nestor’s loneliness. Speaking to animals serves as an outlet for Nestor since he’s able to communicate with them in a way he can’t with others. This is highlighted when Nestor shares his fears and concerns about his first day of school with the animals he meets in the woods on his way. The animals also look out for Nestor, helping him battle day-to-day challenges like Brandon’s bullying, so Nestor knows he’s not alone.

The novel also highlights the heavier realities of military family life, such as the grief Maria Carmen’s family has gone through after losing her brother in Iraq and Nestor’s mother’s emotional reaction to the ROTC students on the family’s doorstep and her mistaking them for soldiers bearing tragic news about Nestor’s father. This is all part of the “middle” experience—long periods of worry and separation while a loved one is deployed: “People forget the middle […] There are always parades when he leaves and parties when he comes back. But nobody talks about the middle” (153). Cuevas emphasizes the prolonged nature of this experience by keeping Nestor’s father deployed throughout the novel. Rather than portraying a reunion, Cuevas depicts Nestor navigating these challenges and finding other happy endings—such as finding “home” in New Haven—all the while.

While Cuevas doesn’t shy away from the realities of military family life, she also highlights the unique bonding and joy that can be found throughout the middle experience. Nestor and his father share many special activities during deployment, such as quizzing each other on trivia in their letters or exchanging beloved books while adding to one another’s handwritten notes. In this way, Cuevas shows the full gamut of experiences for military children. By blending magic and reality, Cuevas brings attention to the authentic experiences of military life while juxtaposing these experiences with magical adventure to amplify Nestor’s inner world and experience navigating these challenges.

Celebrating Family Legacy and Cultural Heritage

Nestor’s Cuban heritage is a strong influence in his world. Both of his parents are Cuban American, and Abuela immigrated to the US from Cuba by herself at the age of 14. Abuela keeps Cuban cultural tradition alive through food and drink, cultural references, and Spanish sayings. She makes café con leche and pastelitos, nicknames Nestor “Joselito” in reference to Cuba’s first painter (José Nicolás de la Escalera), and has a tradition of saying goodbye to Nestor with a saying in Spanish that references ration cards once used in Cuba. These traditions celebrate their cultural and familial pride. This celebration of family and cultural legacy is also a source of comfort and strength for the family, holding them together during difficult moments. Cuevas emphasizes this in the novel when Nestor, his mother, and Abuela spend a weekend together watching telenovelas and eating ham croquetas in Chapter 14 while supporting each other through the aftermath of thinking Nestor’s father might be dead. Furthermore, Abuela’s immigration experience also helps her empathize with Nestor’s struggles with his father’s deployment.

Despite his father’s absence, Nestor discovers traces of his family’s past, including his father’s childhood, throughout Abuela’s home: “There are lines on the doorframe in the dining room marking Dad’s height as he grew up […] Her house has a history. It’s a home” (18). These leftover marks from Nestor’s father’s childhood appear in unexpected places throughout the house, bringing joy to Nestor when he finds them. He finds Raúl’s old hiding spot, marked “Trespassers beware”; an old animal encyclopedia made by hand full of strange facts Nestor’s father learned from Abuela; and some Hot Wheels Raúl played with as a kid. These discoveries help Nestor learn more about his father and bridge the distance between the two in his absence.

Nestor’s family legacy is also imbued with magic through the ability to speak to animals. Nestor grows up thinking he’s the only one in his family with this ability. He keeps his gift a secret, not wanting his parents to worry that they have a “freak kid,” which adds to Nestor’s loneliness. However, Nestor learns that Abuela shares his gift. The perspective of Abuela, who views their magical ability as a blessing, helps Nestor embrace his gift and celebrate this unconventional part of his family legacy. This shared ability also forges an even deeper bond between Nestor and Abuela.

Family legacy becomes a powerful force in stopping the tule vieja, further celebrating the strength of heritage and family ties. Abuela uses Panamanian folklore about tule viejas she heard growing up to figure out what lives in the woods. Furthermore, Nestor and Abuela both use their gift of animal communication to help animals escape and, ultimately, to stop the tule vieja. Through knowledge passed down through generations, Nestor is ultimately able to save the town.

When navigating the challenge of being distant from family, traditions and legacy thus help the Lopez family members feel connected to their loved ones. By amplifying cultural traditions and family legacy in the novel, Cuevas helps celebrate these traditions while showing the power of family to help conquer life’s biggest challenges.

Finding One’s Place in the World

The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez follows Nestor on a coming-of-age journey as he seeks to find his place in the world. At the start of the novel, Nestor struggles with a fragmented sense of identity and belonging. Having grown up in a military family that has to constantly move, Nestor has never had a place he calls “home.” He feels even more out of place when he moves to New Haven to live with Abuela, which is the first place Nestor has lived that wasn’t a military base. This change makes him feel like an outsider: “Now Mom’s moved me to a town where I’m a circus freak. An alien from a distant planet” (14). Nestor also struggles with feeling different from his peers due to his ability to talk to animals. He keeps this ability secret while flying under the radar at school. His goal is to disrupt his classes as little as possible since he expects he’ll move away before too long anyway.

While these motivations are self-conscious and inwardly focused, the strange events he encounters in New Haven quickly force him to shift his focus to problems outside himself. From Brandon’s relentless bullying to disappearing animals and a malevolent tule vieja, an escalating set of conflicts challenges Nestor’s perception of himself and his worldview. While Nestor usually avoids participating in school activities or getting too attached to new friends, he finds himself taking charge and leading his new friends on an adventure to save the town from the tule vieja. In all the excitement, Nestor hardly even notices when he goes from being an aloof military kid prepared to move again to someone who is finally attached to his new friends and community.

As Nestor faces these challenges, he longs for his father’s guidance. However, as Nestor comes of age, he must learn to navigate these obstacles on his own. Cuevas emphasizes this point when Nestor’s mother leaves for a conference, leaving Nestor with Abuela. Nestor plans to seek help from Abuela: “My abuela can help us […] She knows all about the tule vieja. Maybe she has some ideas on how to get rid of her” (215). However, by the time Nestor gets home, Abuela is missing—leaving Nestor alone, with only his friends to help him. In order to defeat the tule vieja, Nestor has to reveal his secret ability and use it to save the day. However, instead of alienating him from his friends as he anticipated, this ability brings them all closer together as they succeed in stopping the tule vieja, giving Nestor a sense of identity and belonging.

By the end of the novel, the battles Nestor faces leave him with valuable lessons. He’s learned to fully accept himself—powers and all. He has also learned to reckon with the fears and vulnerabilities that come with life, such as the possibility of something happening to loved ones, being completely alone, or losing a beloved community because your family has to move. These lessons help Nestor establish a more stable sense of identity and belonging. The novel ends with Nestor taking in the beautiful friendships he has made and realizing that New Haven has become “home”—showing that Nestor has found his place in the world.