The Wind Knows My Name

These chapters introduce the coronavirus, a global pandemic that began in early 2020 and continued to impact daily life for years afterward. The pandemic resulted in an initial quarantine, which in the novel brings Leticia and Samuel closer together but alienates Anita further from any opportunity to build a community for herself in the US. Anita’s struggles expand as she moves through two different foster homes, emphasizing the theme of The Gendered Differences in Violent Oppression, as both her first foster mother, Maria, and her second foster father, Mr. Rick, take advantage of Anita’s vulnerability in different ways. The root of Maria’s issues with Anita is her refusal to accept the foster family as a new, permanent family, as Anita notes: “She also didn’t like when I told her she can’t adopt me” (160). Maria’s reaction is to call Anita “rude” and “stubborn,” reflecting how Maria views her foster children as lacking in agency. Because the children are in a desperate situation, she doesn’t perceive Anita as having any willpower regarding issues like adoption. When it becomes clear that Anita won’t give in to whatever demands Maria makes of her, Maria resorts to punishing her, locking her in a closet and taking her doll, Didi. Mr. Rick, however, seems to have no interest in his foster children, leaving their care to his wife, Susan. Nonetheless, Mr. Rick tries to sexually assault Anita, which reflects the increased rates of the sexual abuse of minors in the foster care system and the immigration system. When Anita bites Mr. Rick’s hand, he’s shocked and can’t compose himself in time to hide his crime, and this likely reflects a perception similar to Maria’s, that these children lack agency and can be abused without consequences. Anita successfully refutes both abusers by relying on Frank and Selena, highlighting how crucial support systems are for people, especially children, in desperate situations.

Samuel and Leticia’s story continues to explore the theme of Family as the Greatest Strength when they’re forced to quarantine, which prevents them from connecting with their own families. Even without quarantine, Nadine’s death and Camille and Martin’s ideological affiliation imply that Samuel doesn’t have much family. Interestingly, Samuel accuses Martin of being a fascist, a political ideology that concentrates power into a single-party government that uses violence to remove opposition and expand government power, which is the same ideology that led to the events of Kristallnacht. However, when Samuel compares Martin to a specific fascist, he chooses Mussolini, the fascist leader of Italy during the years 1922-1943. In England, Samuel seemed to shed his past as an Austrian and as a Jewish man, and, in the present, he seems to disconnect himself from his own past and the past of his family and community by citing Mussolini instead of Adolf Hitler, the fascist leader of Germany during the years 1933-1945. The violence Samuel experienced in Austria, as well as the need for his immigration to England, were a result of oppression by Hitler and the Nazi party, yet Samuel doesn’t reach first to his own experience with fascism. In part, Samuel’s failure to share his past with his daughter and grandson may explain their so mysteriously turning to materialism and fascism: They don’t know the impact that such practices had on their family’s past. Leticia, through her rejection of politics, also seems to ignore her family’s past: She opposes politics in a general sense, showing that the battalion that attacked El Mozote to silence potential political opposition somewhat achieved that purpose. In each case, it seems that a lack of communicating history might enable the repetition of past violence and oppression.

Additionally, Leticia discovers more information on Nadine’s history, revealing that she was involved in operations to help people from Central and South America immigrate to the US. Although Leticia may be building a “legend” out of Nadine, as she accuses Samuel of doing, Leticia’s comments like “[i]t’s as if Senora Nadine were playing spy” (188) convey her appreciation for the impact of a wealthy, dedicated ally in assisting those trying to immigrate to the US.