The Red Umbrella

Chapter 1 is set in Puerto Mijares, Cuba, in 1961. The Alvarez family lives in a nice neighborhood in a spacious home. The story begins innocuously, with protagonist Lucia Alvarez’s first-person account of a day at the beach. Lucia is 14 years old and, in typical teenage fashion, thinks she is much more sophisticated and grown up than she is. She longs for more independence from her parents and thinks she has a better understanding of the political situation than they do, which reveals her immaturity. Her 15th birthday is six months away, and she is more concerned with that and an upcoming school dance than anything else. Though she wants to be treated like an adult, Lucia is still a young girl.

Several other key players are introduced in these chapters. Lucia’s younger brother Frankie Alvarez is seven years old. Frankie is a playful and happy little boy. He loves to play at the beach, and he is excited for time away from school. After witnessing the soldiers’ aggressive behavior in the schoolyard, Frankie seems scared, but he quickly reverts to his playful self. Mama stays home while Papa works. Mama is kind but strict with Lucia. She wants the kids to understand that Castro is not “more powerful than God.” She and Papa are concerned about the state of Cuban politics and about the revolution.

Another important character is Lucia’s best friend Ivette. This friendship is tested throughout the story, as Lucia and Ivette find themselves on opposite sides of the novel’s main conflict. Early on, Ivette is not interested in politics or the revolution. By the end of the story, she is a staunch revolutionary. Lucia and Ivette’s diverging beliefs and strained friendship parallel the division between the revolutionists and the anti-revolutionists in Cuba, demonstrating how such conflicts erode friendships and fracture communities. The situation also positions the two girls as foils. Like Ivette, Lucia is initially disengaged with the conflict; she and Frankie quickly revert to their daily routines and childish concerns after witnessing soldiers abuse the detained man in the schoolyard. But as Ivette becomes more entrenched in the revolution, Lucia becomes more aware of and opposed to Castro’s oppressive government.

The novel is full of rich sensory descriptions. In Chapter 1, for example, Lucia observes how a white heron “circled the beach and then headed north toward the open waters of the tropics. The lone bird flapped its wings, gradually disappearing into the pink-and-orange-streaked sky” (10). Another example of sensory description includes Lucia’s account of the military trucks making a “thunder-like noise.” Given the political tensions thrumming throughout the country, these descriptions demonstrate Lucia’s childlike naivete. She notes that the military trucks sound like thunder but does not realize what their presence signifies. Lucia’s immaturity is further reflected in her unquestioning acceptance of newspaper propaganda. Lucia’s increasing awareness of Cuba’s dark reality will become a marker of her maturation throughout the story.

These descriptions also paint a vivid picture, imbuing the text with a sense of verisimilitude that allows readers to see Cuba as Lucia does: a place thrumming with life and natural beauty. This imagery also provides a rich depiction of Cuban culture, which is central to the novel and to Lucia’s family. Diction further enhances this picture of Cuban culture, as Spanish words and phrases are threaded throughout the writing, including quinces, gusano, and phrases like “que falta de respeto!,” meaning “what disrespect!” (40). Food also emerges as an important part of Lucia’s culture, and the mention of her mother’s cooking reveals how Lucia and Frankie take comfort in certain dishes and how significant family dinner is in their culture.

While Lucia’s limited point of view paints a hopeful and optimistic picture, the chapter titles reveal that the United States is reporting a very different perspective of the revolution. The US newspaper headlines clearly show that Castro is stripping away the freedoms of the Cuban people and quelling opportunities for rebellion. The US reports that Castro has abolished elections, expelled non-Cuban priests, and criminalized the possession of non-Cuban money. From the US perspective, Castro is creating an oppressive communist state, though many Cubans, including Lucia, believe things will change for the better.

Mama’s bright red umbrella emerges as a significant symbol in this conflict. Lucia is embarrassed when her mother carries the red umbrella; to her, it signifies her mother’s odd behavior. She wishes her mother would carry a “plain black one” and tries to convince Mama to leave the umbrella by claiming that “red is the color of the revolution” (43). Mama says, “No, Lucia. The revolution may have taken over a lot of things, but it doesn’t own a color” (43). Mama’s choice to carry the red umbrella is one small way she can rebel against the government and maintain her identity.

The word gusano, meaning “worm,” is another symbol of the conflict, one that identifies characters as revolutionists who support Castro’s government. This term is used often by soldiers when identifying an anti-revolutionist or someone they deem to be against the government. The word first appears in Chapter 3, when Lucia and Frankie are spying on the soldiers who detained Papa’s boss. The soldiers hit a man in the head with a rifle after calling him a gusano (27). Later, Ivette refers to a girl at school as a “stupid gusano” after her father is arrested for being an anti-revolutionist (37). Use of this word signals a character’s political allegiance and beliefs. When Ivette uses it, this foreshadows that she will later become an active participant in the revolution and that she believes Castro’s rhetoric and propaganda.