Of Women and Salt

Although revolution is in the background throughout the novel, it’s particularly central to the events in two chapters. The first chapter, “Dance Not Beyond the Distant Mountain,” takes place at the onset of the Ten Years’ War, which ran from 1868 to 1878; although the chapter begins in 1866, the novel portrays the beginnings of citizens’ serious discontent with the Spanish government and the first steps toward war; these developments are most evident through the character of Antonio. As the factory lector, Antonio can both read the news from Havana and steer the workers’ choice of novels; his revolutionary sympathies drive him to go out of his way to ensure that the workers are aware of the battle for independence. As a result, as the chapter shows, the government and the factory owners work to censor that information as the revolution picks up steam, and Antonio’s zeal leads to his dismissal and, eventually, his death.

María’s perspective offers a necessary counterpoint, however: Through her eyes the novel shows the death and the town’s destruction when the Spanish government retaliates. In addition, her view of her relationship with Antonio illustrates the fears and human costs of the fight for independence—a fight that leaves María a widow just as her daughter is born. The narrative notes that María is not opposed to the revolution, and her actions suggest that her views align with Antonio’s but are more measured and grounded. (It’s worth reiterating here that this revolution ultimately failed: Cuba did not gain independence from Spain until the end of the 19th century and only gained true independence—this time from the US—a few years after that.)

The next chronological revolution—and the one that had a more important, more relevant impact on modern-day Cuba—was the one in the background of Dolores’s chapter, “That Bombs Would Rain.” The Cuban Revolution of the 1950s, led by Fidel Castro, exiled President Batista and installed a socialist government that is still in place today, and the response to this revolution led to an exodus of mostly wealthy Cubans to the US. At the time, Cuba had a close relationship with the US; after the revolution, however, that relationship quickly cooled, resulting in the long-standing trade embargo first established under President Kennedy’s administration in 1962. (These sanctions mostly continue today, though President Obama’s administration weakened them considerably.) As a result, Cuba has long been a symbolic and literal target of US policy—symbolic as an ally of the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War and literal because the US tried to remove Castro from power on several occasions. Even after the Soviet Union’s fall, however, relations between the US and Cuba have remained complex at best, in part because of the Cuban American community’s anti-Castro, anti-socialist fervor, which Carmen’s generation represents in the novel.

In their respective chapters, María and Dolores similarly deal with the effects of political unrest: Like María, Dolores sympathizes with the revolutionaries; however, she fears what revolution might bring to her family, particularly her two daughters. Dolores and the other townspeople know well that Batista’s reprisals are as violent as the earlier Spanish government’s: Stories of families disappearing in the middle of the night run rampant through the community. Moreover, “People Like That” shows the hardening of Dolores’s views in favor of the revolution: She dismisses the younger generation’s interest in the US as misguided, warning that if capitalism were to come to Cuba, they’d see just how horrible it is.

However, the two revolutions differ notably, both in their historical reality and in how the novel represents them. The first, in María’s time, is more overtly violent: She sees bodies strewn across the fields after the government attempts to suppress it, and her chapter, “Dance Not Beyond the Distant Mountain,” ends with Antonio’s execution. On the other hand, the revolutionary violence in Dolores’s time, in “That Bombs Would Rain,” is more hidden: The fighting all takes place in the mountains, far from the town, and families disappear rather than being executed. The visible violence instead takes place at home: Daniel’s revolutionary fighting occurs in the mountains, but his violence toward Dolores is first-hand. The other major difference is the outcome: Whereas the Ten Years’ War failed, the Cuban Revolution succeeded.

Although these are the only two chapters that deal directly with revolution, because of the socialist revolution’s success, its specter hangs heavily over the characters in the later generations. The exodus of mostly wealthy Cubans to the US created a strong base of Cuban American immigrants (many of whom, as the novel notes, expected to be in the US only until the revolution failed, never expecting Castro to retain power for decades to come). This exodus and the ensuing sanctions have split families like Jeanette’s: Some relatives are in Cuba, while others are in the US, and those in one country are often unable to stay in touch with those in the other. In addition, time has complicated the relationship between these two groups anyway, as younger generations have lost the edge and animosity that their parents and grandparents had. For example, Jeanette’s generation is much more sympathetic to Cuban life and politics on the US side, while Maydelis’s generation longs for the comforts of American life. Both sides, however, create fantasies about what the other side is like, and neither can escape the revolution’s impact on their lives and families.