The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora

Caridad Zamora—referred to as “Cari”—is Arturo’s mother, Abuela’s daughter, and the eldest of her siblings, Aunt Tuti and Uncle Carlos. Before marrying Robert, Arturo’s father, she worked “for a few years in fancy New York restaurants” (183). Her cooking talents are widely recognized and earned her first prize in a competition “on the Food Is Life network” (19-20). When Abuela’s illness forced her to step down as head chef at La Cocina, Cari assumed the role, not simply as a skillful cook, but also as the custodian of her parents’ values.

Just as Abuela believes that “[l]ove and faith are most important” (57), Cari maintains the Zamoras can only defeat Wilfrido’s threat to their restaurant by ensuring their customers feel welcome and cared for. Her younger sister, Tuti, who is prone to hysterics, calls for aggressive action, as does Arturo at one point, but Cari refuses to attack Wilfrido. Abuela’s restaurant, La Cocina, is a beloved cornerstone of their community because it fosters a sense of family among its guests. Cari understands that if they engage in an ugly battle with Wilfrido, they will undermine the values of love and care that guide their business practices. To borrow Carmen’s words, Cari is sincerely “interested in focusing on the good things” (75) La Cocina offers their neighborhood, “rather than all the criticisms” (75) they could hurl at Wilfrido.

While Cari models the wisdom of Abuela in many ways, she learns the importance of advocating for oneself from Arturo’s example. Faced with Wilfrido’s formidable campaign to win over the residents of Canal Grove, Cari’s first impulse is to disregard him—and the greed he represents—and focus, instead, on making their restaurant as welcoming as possible. Should this strategy fail, she is prepared to surrender the property to Wilfrido and simply relocate their business. Meanwhile, Arturo is developing the courage to speak up for himself and against injustice and does so, most notably, by confronting Wilfrido at the end of his festival. This impresses Cari, and when Arturo expresses worry that their neighborhood will change, she says, “Things have already changed, Arturo […]. We’ll just keep fighting to protect our place in that change. You showed me that” (229).

Carmen is 13 years old, and almost as tall as Arturo. She lives in Madrid, Spain, but is staying with the Zamora family for the summer because her mother, who was Cari’s best friend and a celebrated food writer, has recently died. Arturo remembers vacationing in Spain with Carmen’s family many years ago, when she was a “lanky, mutant-fast cheetah girl” (7) he played tag with. Upon her arrival in Canal Grove for her summer stay, Arturo notes that she “had changed […]. Her hair was really long and wavy” (8), and she sports colorful braces. He is immediately smitten with her.

Arturo regards Carmen as everything he’s not, but wishes to be. She is decisive and takes charge of situations with self-assurance, as when she plots their reconnaissance operation at Wilfrido’s office and directs a baffled Arturo to wear a disguise. She is always poised and articulate, and when Arturo hears her speaking Spanish with his mother and Abuela, he regrets not having mastered it himself. Moreover, she is knowledgeable about social issues and passionate about the Cuban revolutionary and poet, José Martí, as was Arturo’s abuelo.

Carmen is, in many respects, Abuelo’s kindred spirit. In his letters to Arturo, Abuelo shares Martí’s thoughts on love and his accomplishments as a young poet. Because Abuelo discovered the strength of his own voice through poetry, he wishes the same for Arturo and writes, “Find your voice. Find your story. And remember: sometimes life’s answers are hidden in poetry” (91). Carmen, likewise, believes Martí’s poetry offers answers about life, justice, and personal responsibility. She repeats Martí’s declaration that “[w]e are free, but not to be evil” (142), which Arturo, in turn, invokes during his confrontation with Wilfrido at the festival. As if doing Abuelo’s bidding, Carmen helps Arturo find his voice, particularly when she persuades him to speak at the public forum.

Abuela is Arturo’s grandmother and the matriarch of the Zamora family. She was born in Cuba, into a “family [that] ran a paladar, which was a restaurant inside” (101) their home. By the time she was 20, Abuela had gained widespread recognition as an excellent cook. In 1972, she met Arturo Zamora, a taxi driver, and they married a year later. They decided to leave Cuba in 1979, and with their three children—Caridad, Tuti, and Carlos—escaped to Florida “in a rickety boat” (130). Although Abuela initially found work as a housekeeper, her employer soon discovered her cooking skills and bankrolled Abuela and Abuelo’s purchase of a restaurant. Over the course of nearly two decades, their restaurant, La Cocina de la Isla, has become a beloved institution in their Cuban neighborhood, Canal Grove.

While Abuela’s irresistible Cuban cooking is a key part of La Cocina’s success, an even more central factor is her warm, caring engagement with everyone she encounters. As she tells Arturo, she believes “[l]ove and faith are most important” (57), and this conviction informs all of her relationships, whether business or personal. Her love for her family comes through in her attention to their needs and in her commitment to maintaining an atmosphere of peace and calm. Because Abuela treats her restaurant guests with the same responsiveness and concern, they feel loved, too, like family.

While Abuela is a devout Catholic, when she affirms the importance of faith, she is arguably referring to a secular belief in the potential goodness of people, nature, and the world. This is exemplified in the faith she has in her floribunda bush. Although it has never bloomed, she continues to tend to it, because, as Arturo says, “[s]he keeps thinking they’re going to bloom soon” (53). Such faith also powers her steadfast attentiveness to people.

For most of his life, Arturo has only known his maternal grandfather, Abuelo, as an urn that sits “on the small service bar next to the dinner table” (4) during their Sunday family meal. When Abuela gives Arturo a box of letters Abuelo wrote him before he died, Arturo learns “every challenge, failure, triumph, and success” of his grandfather’s “journey” (88). He also discovers that Abuelo loved poetry, particularly that of José Martí, and that he had given much thought to matters of love, faith, and courage.

As for the challenges Abuelo faced, he concedes that fleeing Cuba “in a rickety boat” (130) with Abuela and their small children was dangerous, but “not the most courageous thing” (129) he ever did. That distinction he reserves for the first time he professed his love to Abuela. He first saw her when he was driving a taxi in Havana, and they married within a year. This success he attributes to Martí’s poetry and writings, through which he acquired an understanding of love that emphasizes nurturing, compassion, and faith in one another’s strength. Following Martí’s lead, Abuelo wrote a poem to Abuela, and in doing so, found the words—and the courage—to voice his love for Abuela. Arturo reads Abuelo’s letters at a pivotal moment in his life, and they guide his own efforts to speak up.

Wilfrido is a real estate developer who has already built luxury high-rises in 10 other tight-knit communities and now has his sights set on Canal Grove. More specifically, he’s aiming to take over the property where, 19 years ago, Abuela and Abuelo established La Cocina, the neighborhood’s cherished family restaurant. With his sunglasses, “stupendously gelled hair” (2), and “loudest, brightest outfit[s]” (206), Wilfrido is the very picture of a self-important, belligerent, and shallow fortune-hunter.

He is also a pure villain, without any redeeming aspects to his character. He publicly taunts Arturo at his festival and then has him thrown into a holding cell. Later, when the Zamoras find him at La Cocina with a bulldozer, his evil air skyrockets as he cackles that the restaurant is “on borrowed time—like an asteroid on a collision course with the earth” (206). As Wilfrido’s sugar-starved assistant, Claudio, makes clear, Wilfrido takes pleasure in taking pleasures from others (like sugary desserts). The only explanation for Wilfrido’s heartlessness is his allusion to an unhappy childhood, during which he competed with his siblings to win his parents’ favor.

Vanessa is Aunt Tuti’s daughter. Only six months older than her cousin Arturo, she is mature and socially conscious beyond her years and is the youngest recipient ever of Canal Grove’s “outstanding community citizen award” (20). She is also the leader of the Green Teens, a group of students who organize rallies and circulate “all kinds of petitions—from making drinking water safer to protecting the Key Largo woodrat […]” (134).

When Wilfrido’s splashy promotion of his upcoming festival demoralizes the Zamoras, Vanessa encourages them to become advocates for La Cocina. She quickly organizes her Green Teens to make pamphlets supporting the restaurant and denouncing high-rise buildings as environmentally costly. The morning of the festival, she briefs the family on their legal right to protest and supplies everyone with leaflets to distribute to festival-goers. In contrast to Arturo, Vanessa has strong convictions and a strong voice to match. After Arturo helps prepare Abuela’s memorial dinner, however, Vanessa recognizes his potential and suggests he join the Green Teens next year.

Bren is Arturo’s close friend and an ardent fan of the rap artist, Pitbull. He styles himself after Pitbull in every way possible, from his hair, to his clothing, to his speech. His friend Mop—also Arturo’s friend—often reacts with exasperation to Bren’s “Pitbull” act and exclaims, “Stop talking like Pitbull. You are not Pitbull!” (5). Like Arturo, Bren is at an age when childhood identity starts to transform, and he, too, is searching for his voice. Moreover, Bren’s fixation on the words and expressions of Pitbull is comparable to Carmen’s passion for José Martí’s poetry. Both are exploring ways of thinking, as expressed by different cultural icons, to arrive at their own values and beliefs.