With the Fire on High

Emoni’s grandmother on her father’s side, whom Emoni calls ’Buela, has raised Emoni by herself in Philadelphia ever since Emoni’s father left. Gloria is a steady and loving presence in Emoni’s life, and she has always been supportive and trusting of her granddaughter, including when Emoni became pregnant at 15 or when she skips school.

In raising Emoni and now helping to raise Emma, Gloria has made many sacrifices. For one, these responsibilities create a financial strain, and Gloria must stretch her earnings from odd jobs and disability checks to support the family. She has also had to put her own happiness on hold. As Emoni comes of age over the course of the novel, Gloria reveals to her that she has been trying to regain some of her own lost freedom. After having told Emoni she was going to doctors’ appointments, she reveals that in fact she just wanted time to herself. Following Emoni’s trip to Spain, she confesses that during those made-up doctors’ appointments, she was actually courting a man named Joseph Jagoda. As Emoni prepares for her new life as a college student and professional chef, ’Buela is preparing to move in with Joseph and start a new chapter of her own. 

Julio, Emoni’s father, visits her once a month every year. She says that at those times she has “a glimpse into the kind of father he might have been if my mother had lived” (81). He is one of the only people who can calm Emma when she is crying. He is kind and caring. Julio is also politically and socially aware. He tries to instill in Emoni a passion for knowledge and for the ideal of community. Nevertheless, he was unwilling to accept full responsibility of her, leaving this task to his mother, Gloria, while he returned to Puerto Rico.

Towards the end of the novel, Julio’s attitude changes. He reveals why he avoided eating Emoni’s cooking: “Every single one of your dishes makes me think of your mother. It kills me to see memories of her face every time I take a bite of something you made” (378). In other words, he was avoiding her, and her food, because they were a continuing reminder of the woman he lost. This realization leads to a decision: Aware that he was running away from Emoni because he was fleeing his grief, he resolves to stay “for a while this time” and help with Emma and financially (379). How long precisely this will be is not made clear, nor is it certain if he will stick to his resolution. However, it is a decisive turning point, and moment of hope, in the relationship between Emoni and her father.