Overview:
Garcia offers several interesting glimpses into the lives of the Aguero, Cruz and Fuerte families.  While doing so, birds, magic, politics, and philosophy among many other things intertwine to create a unique narrative. Death, birth, and recovery seem to be the dominant themes, while political controversy and family mysteries engage the reader.

Analysis:
Garcia offers several different generational perspectives of the Cuban experience.  Each political perspective drastically changes as a result of the relative time period in which they are encountered.  For instance, when speaking of the Aguero sisters’ great-grandfather Reinaldo, the reader learns of the hostility towards him for being a Spaniard, “a young widow spat at him…her husband had been killed in the Spanish-American war.”  Although some, like the war veteran’s widow may feel hostility towards him, others seem to embrace him as a voice of Spanish culture.  He reads such masterpieces as Don Quixote, the first epic poem of Spain that often reflects the difference between ideals and reality.  As a result, Reinaldo can be seen as a voice re-establishing the ancient philosophical perspectives needed to overcome the social challenges that as history reveals, Cuba would soon have to face.  The question is will the Cuban people fall back on their past or create their own ideals for the future?

Several years later in Miami, we see Constancia worry about Cuban-American nationalism.  After learning of her husband’s strange political involvements, she rips down the Cuban flag revealing that, “Constancia mistrusts flags, understands all too well their steadfast passion for the dead”(81).  Earlier she proclaims, “Men always confuse patriotism with self-love!” and, “In her opinion war should be strictly personal. Like philosophy or sexual preference.”  Perhaps because of the many challenges Constancia faced in Cuba, she is an individualist, not a nationalist.  Perhaps this is a value from her more “Americanized” perspective of life.
 Constanica’s thirty-two year old niece offers a different perspective.  She seems to be politically aware, and offers a very negative perspective of Cuba’s situation.  She identifies the power of propaganda, and the struggle to obtain U.S. currency.  Some Cubans will do anything for the dollar that has come to mean their survival, even if that means selling their bodies to foreigners.  The foreign currency has come to mean much more than more valuable monetary unit, “Dollars mean privileges.  A roll of toilet paper. A bottle of rum.  Pesos mean te jodes”(53).  The hypocrisy of Cuba’s perspective of foreigners (who are able to offer dollars to their hosts,) is revealed when Blanca states, “I was arrested at the bar of a Cuban hotel because I couldn’t produce a foreign passport”(58).  However, even though she takes refuge in foreign currency, and recognizes the unfortunate fates of hard-working Cubans who have nothing to show for it, she expresses her frustrations towards Cuba’s fate, “Leaving. Leaving for dollars. That’s all anybody ever talks about anymore. !Basta ya!”  Ironically, Blanca leaves with a repulsive Spaniard in desperation, “I got booked for prostitution, lost my job coaching volleyball. Worked two hours in a cement plant with no cement before walking out. And decided to marry Abelardo” (58).  With this in mind, Blanca may be seen as the diminished hope of the Cuban people, lost in time and it’s frustrating trials.

Questions:
1) How does the swamp and natural habitat of the birds set the scene for the novel so far?

2) What do you make of the description of Reina’s skin’s texture, smell, and scars?