Nostalgia in “In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd” by Ana Menendez

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Role of Maximo’s nostalgia in the story
Accuracy of Maximo’s memories of Cuba
Significance of Maximo’s jokes
What does Maximo long for?
Impact of Maximo’s family on his sense of nostalgia
The joke about the German shepherd
Conclusion
References

Introduction

Ana Menendez book, In Cuba I Was a German shepherd, is a collection of tales from Fidel Castro’s Cuba. Ana brings out the pains of living in exile in America for most of the Cubans, some of whom had a life in their former homes. In the book In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd for instance, Ana picks on a character, Maximo, whose longing for home is beyond the comprehension of his fellow domino players. According to Ana, “Antonio knew they still didn’t understand all the layers of pain in the Cuban’s jokes.”

Menendez has four old men in a park in Miami playing a game of dominoes. As the foursome play, Maximo tells jokes. The man is formerly a professor at the university in Havana. Like most of his home mates, Maximo is trying to start life afresh in America. Raul is his fellow immigrant while their two playmates, Antonio and Carlos are Dominicans. The writer might be accused of using the two Cubans because of their rich heritage which ignores the lives of the lesser society.

Role of Maximo’s nostalgia in the story

The writer uses Maximo, who is of rich heritage and who together with other immigrants gather often at Domino Park to play games of dominos to paint a picture of Cuban immigrants who have been forced out of their country and heritage to start life afresh in a foreign land. Maximo exhibits a very strong feeling of nostalgia for Cuba. His longing goes beyond what his words in conversation display.

Maximo’s regular longing for a home significantly brings to light the system under which Cuba now operates. His jokes are just a way through which the writer shows discontentment with the Fidel regime. It is evident that from school children to government employees, even including animals, nobody approves of leadership in the revolutionary government. Through his memories of home, we are brought to the reality of a comfortable life before Fidel. A new beginning in Miami is the fate of all the people that managed to escape Cuba.

Pepito is the mirror of Maximo and the general society which feels no differently about Castro. He says that the revolution is actually why they are there. He is probably insinuating that they have to obey the revolutionist laws and be there to see Fidel off. He expresses a desire to be a tourist which possibly reflects a need to be away from home.

One would however claim that Cuba was as much inhabitable for Castro as it was for other people considering the fact that he too wanted to get away to Miami. However, the rafters say that if he is leaving, then they have no need to. They even offer him their rafters to take along and never come back.

Maximo’s longing for home plays a role in convincing the reader that Fidel’s leadership has destroyed the confidence of his subjects. It would appear that everyone was content with the order of things in Cuba until Fidel got his authority and drove statesmen out of their homes and country into new life. Maximo had a comfortable home complete with luxurious furniture, a good job and a happy family to take care of. A lot of bitterness surrounds his change of lifestyle because where his wife had several cooks to prepare meals for them, now she has to cook and sell to former professors and other immigrants in order to make a living, only sitting to enjoy the remaining food after a hard day’s work. Their source of livelihood is now the restaurant.

According to Pepito whom Fidel talks to on his visit to a school in Havana, revolution is the reason why the children are all at the school. This could imply that it is Fidel that has enabled children to acquire an education in Cuba. It is arguably a good move towards the development of the country.

Maximo’s nostalgia is also used to show how family ties have been broken. Before immigrating, Maximo and his family would join their relatives for celebrations, which is no longer possible in the current state of affairs. The nuclear family seems to have as well disintegrated to some degree with children growing up and pursuing various fields of interest in far off regions. “When the children were small, Maximo and Rosa used to spend Nochebuena with his cousins in Cardenas…” Rosa is now dead while Marisa is a lawyer in California and Anabel in New York, the only contact being calls.

This could be disputed by the fact that at one time or the other, the children would have needed to move out and face life and this would have been no different from the separation they face now. However, if they were still in their motherland, there would still be an attachment and the feeling of disintegration would not occur. Once in a while, it would probably be possible to get together with other relatives.

Accuracy of Maximo’s memories of Cuba

Maximo’s memories of Cuba are vivid and clear. He remembers where he lived and how he and others had left Cuba. He remembers the details of his first meeting with Rosa, “He led her around the dance floor, lined with chaperones, and when they turned he whispered that he wanted to follow her laughter to the moon. She laughed again, the notes round and heavy as summer raindrops, and Maximo felt his fingers go cold where they touched hers. The danzon played…” and their years together “It was that year after Rosa died and Maximo didn’t want to tell how he’d begun to see her at the kitchen table as she’d been at twenty-five. Watched one thick strand of her dark hair stuck to her morning face. He saw her at thirty, bending down to wipe the chocolate off the cheeks of their two small daughters…”

However, the writer says that for reasons he told himself he could no longer remember, Maximo said goodbye to no one. Doubts about the accuracy of his memories crop in. In his last joke, he says that Juanito looked up at the tall and shiny buildings dazzled by the mirrors as there is nothing like that in Cuba. Raul disagrees and states in the contrary which drives Maximo to irritation. Years of frustration might therefore have eroded some of his memory of the place he knew as home.

Maximo also tries to put a finger on some of the memories in vain. “The chair, why did he keep the other chair? Even the marigolds reminded him. An image returned again and again. Was it the green-eyed girl?” Most memories seem to revolve around his wife and daughters alone.

Significance of Maximo’s jokes

It is almost routine for Maximo and his friends to begin each game with one of his jokes. For Maximo, however, these are not merely funny anecdotes. They hold some significance that is at times lost to the two Dominicans. They are a link to his former life which Maximo painfully longs for. Some jokes are gibes at Castro. As the writer points out, Antonio knew they still did not understand all the layers of hurt in the Cubans’ jokes. For them, the jokes could have been ways of escaping the reality of exile for Maximo.

One of the jokes is that of Bill Clinton. He dies in office and his body is frozen. Later technology makes it possible for him to awaken many years later and by this time, things have changed a lot. Clinton learns from a Jew that in the Middle East, storms have settled and everyone now gets along. There is now only one Ireland and there is peace there as well. A Cuban tells him that soon, Castro will fall.

From this joke, Maximo seems to have a longing for when the world will be conducive to live in. People will coexist peacefully alongside each other. The oppressive regime under the reign of Castro is the only thing that has not become part of the past and this might be the ultimate salvation for the Cubans. For Maximo, it could be argued that the joke only reflects his bitterness at having been forced out of a comfortable life. It might have nothing to do with the world or anyone else but himself and his family. His yearning for the togetherness they had before fate dealt them the unfortunate blow.

In another joke, Maximo talks about rafters on their way out of Cuba. The men are looking for some escape into better life which in this case might only be possible in Miami. Miami is where Maximo has been forced to seek refuge. On the beach, Fidel happens to make an appearance and on inquiring, the rafters learn that he is also sailing out to Miami. This makes them change their minds and only proves that he is the reason why everyone is moving out. A deeper analysis of the same could nevertheless reveal that there is a plan to expel Fidel out of Cuba or Maximo’s wish for the removal of the latter from authority.

Still revolving around Fidel is the third joke where Fidel wants to meet the young people. His visit to a school in Havana reveals how far removed he is from his subjects as he only manages to be seen around. He realizes this later and the only boy he talks to expresses contempt towards the revolution. Pepito is perhaps the mirror of Maximo and the general society which feels no differently. He says that the revolution is actually why they are there. He is probably insinuating that they have to obey the revolutionist laws and be there to see Fidel off. He expresses a desire to be a tourist which reflects a need to be away from home.

One might argue though that Menendez uses the joke to show the significance of the revolution to the lives of Cubans. Fidel is responsible for the education of the nationals and is interested in their progress. He might be a thoughtful leader after all.

What does Maximo long for?

Maximo’s memories as brought out by Menendez show that he longs for the peaceful past life. Before the revolution, life was easy. Maximo was a professor at the university two blocks from his home. His family was evidently of rich heritage. The writer puts it down that the family left behind a row house of long shiny windows, the piano, the mahogany furniture and a pension. It is not just the property he left behind that pains him but also memories of life with his family. He has fond memories of Rosa, his wife and calls her ‘she of stately homes and multiple cooks’. Maximo longs for home and what it was. He says the thunder of Miami is like that at home and therefore feels home was as good as Miami but for the revolution. A fragment of Maximo’s pain is the unavailability of the geography he was used to, the smells and weather.

A critic might put in an argument that it is not really the luxuries that Maximo longs for but the prestige that came with his status. In Miami, Maximo managed to put up a small restaurant but is now retired. Before that, “Maximo tried driving a taxi, but the streets were a web of foreign names and winding curves that could one day lead to glitter and another to the hollow end of a pistol. His Spanish and his University of Havana credentials meant nothing here. And he was too old to cut sugarcane with the younger men who began arriving in the spring of 1961.” As they play dominos one day, a tourist trolley passes and the guide says that the domino players are ‘keeping alive the traditions of their Cuban homeland.’ Maximo feels that he has been reduced to a mere spectacle for tourists to gape at, treatment the same as that afforded animals in a zoo. The adjustment to a low life in Miami is a hurdle difficult for Maximo to jump.

Impact of Maximo’s family on his sense of nostalgia

From what the writer says Maximo is depressed about what his family has been plunged into. He remembers the privileged life they all led and often reminisces on days with his wife. At one point, Maximo is brought to near tears by memories of his daughter. This happens when Antonio shows them a gift from his daughter whom he says should be home for Christmas. Maximo says “My daughter is a district attorney in Los Angeles. December is one of the busiest months.” It is clear that she will not be coming home as well for Christmas. Maximo remembers how, when the children were young, they would spend Nochebuena in Cardenas with his cousins.

Maximo’s daughter reminds him of Rosa by her looks and behavior. The green-eyed girl also tortures his memory as he flashes back on the first time he met Rosa. All these draw Maximo to the days when his family enjoyed the peace of their country and heritage. After Rosa died, the memories were more vivid as nightmares took him through years long gone.

The joke about the German shepherd

Juanito is a Cuban dog that has just got off a boat. He is smitten by a beautiful white dog who snobs him. Juanito asserts, “Here in America, I may be a short insignificant mutt but in Cuba I was a German Shepherd.” The joke could have been used to reflect on the changed lifestyles of the majority of Cuban immigrants. Maximo himself is an example of altered heritage having been brought down from a prestigious background to one of a hustler.

Considering his feelings towards his present life however, it could be assumed that the joke is used to refer to himself. It is an attempt to assert his position among the group and to convince himself that he is still a significant figure.

Conclusion

We could assume that Maximo’s frustrations have led him into this game of dominos which keep him busy daily and probably is his way of escaping the reality of his exile. He longs more for a time when Fidel will fall than for what he left behind. Then he can go back home and pick the pieces from where he left. This might however take eternity or remain a dream for him and other immigrants. When he left Cuba, he hoped he would return in two year’s time or three if things were serious. He has now spent many years in Miami and there might not be any hope of a new dawn, a hope that Maximo voices for the greater majority in his wish for the downfall of Fidel.

References

Menendez A., (2001) In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd. Santa Barbara: Grove Press

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