Mami and Papi ("Fiesta, 1980")
"In the darkness, I saw that Papi had a hand on Mami's knee and that the two of them were quiet and still. They weren't slumped back or anything; they were both wide awake, bolted into their seats. I couldn't see either of their faces and no matter how hard I tried I could not imagine their expressions. Neither of them moved. Every now and then the van was filled with the bright rush of somebody else's headlights." ("Fiesta, 1980," 43)
This image comes at the final moments of "Fiesta, 1980," when the entire family is headed home to New Jersey after a housewarming party for Tío Miguel and Tía Yrma in the Bronx. Yunior has spent the entire story thinking about his mother's relationship with his father and reveals that he has met his father's mistress, a Puerto Rican woman, several times. Throughout the party, Yunior watches his parents and tries to determine what they are thinking and feeling based on how they interact with each other and the other partygoers. This image evocatively demonstrates his inability to truly know his parents and what they are feeling, despite how much he wants to. Instead, all he has access to are their backs and their reserved body language.
They fulfill their traditional roles within the family's VW van: Papi, as the head of the family, is driving, and Mami is in the passenger seat. These traditional gender roles were reinforced by Mami and Papi throughout "Fiesta, 1980," as Papi takes on the job of disciplining Yunior and Mami spends the first part of the party cooking in the kitchen with her sister.
The "bright lights" that enter the van from passing cars are a foreign intrusion into the family's private space. Here, Díaz subverts the traditional associations of light with knowledge and illumination, associating it instead to Yunior's feeling of distance from his parents as he watches from the backseat.
The image is a clear representation of Mami's relationship with Papi: there is very little affection being expressed between them besides Papi's hand on her knee. Additionally, neither Papi nor Mami are relaxed, and instead their backs are rigid as they fill the space of the van in a completely normative and expected way. Yunior, who yearns to know them intimately, particularly his mother, gets very little clarity from the picture they paint in front of him. However, the rigidness of their bodies also suggests the distance that is forming between Mami and Papi. Yunior has already revealed to us that in a few years time, Mami and Papi will separate.
Water ("Aguantando")
"Since our zinc roof leaked, almost everything we owned was water-stained: our clothes, Mami's Bible, her makeup, whatever food we had, Abuelo's tools, our cheap wooden furniture. It was only because of that plastic bag that any pictures of my father survived." ("Aguantando," 69)
This image, which comes from the opening of "Aguantando," works on a literal and figurative level. When we read it literally, we shown the poverty that defines Yunior and his family's living situation in Santo Domingo. Their lack of access to a solid roof results in everything they have getting ruined by water, which they are forced to live with as if it were the norm. This water "stains" everything they own, from their clothes to their furniture to their food. It is understandably not a pleasant situation to be living in.
The only things that are safe from the torrent of water are photographs of Papi, which are encased in a plastic bag and tucked under Mami's bed. On a figurative level, this image demonstrates the emotional aguantando that Yunior's family endures while they wait for Papi's return. They are all affected by this emotional turmoil, except for Papi, who is represented by an old photograph of him and is the only one protected by this aguantando because of his absence. In a sense, he is the one who created it—as Yunior later explains, "he'd abandoned us"—but he is also the one exempt from it as the rest of the family is forced to survive and make do without him. Nevertheless, the entire family keeps Papi in their hearts and looks forward to the day that he comes home, the same way that Mami protects his photograph under her bed.
Ysrael's Surrounding and Shadow ("No Face")
"He runs past the water hose and the pasture, and then he says FLIGHT and jumps up and his shadow knifes over the tops of the trees and he can see his family's fence and his mother washing his little brother, scrubbing his face and his feet." ("No Face," 153)
This image from "No Face" is evocative because Ysrael includes his own shadow as part of the landscape. As a narrator, Ysrael has a keen eye for his surroundings, and he often takes the time to describe the everyday beauty that surrounds him. For example, in the closing moments of the story, he looks over the countryside and it reminds him of his friend Lou: "He's tired and aching but he looks out over the valley, and the way the land curves away to hide itself reminds him of the way Lou hides his dominos when they play" (160). Like this image, the image above pays careful attention to the environment around Ysrael. Remarkably, Ysrael sees himself as part of the landscape, describing his shadow in the same breath as he describes the nature around him: "He runs past the water hose and the pasture... and his shadow knifes over the tops of the trees." Here, the image suggests that Ysrael is part of the symbiotic order of the landscape; his shadow is simply another element in his visual field. This image is also notable because it is emblematic of Ysrael's relationship with his surroundings. He is often ignored by his neighbors unless they are tormenting them, and he passes through life behind his mask very similar to "a shadow." While his mother takes special care of his little brother, he simply exists as "a shadow" in his home and personal life; they rarely see him, and when they do, he is already in the process of running away.
Mangoes ("Negocios")
"It was November, the mangoes were thudding from the trees." ("Negocios," 164)
This image appears early in "Negocios" when Papi is getting ready to leave Santo Domingo for the United States. It is couched within his conversation with Abuelo, during which he is asking for Abuelo's money even though he has just been caught cheating on Mami. The image reflects this period of Papi's life: his time in Santo Domingo is winding down, coming to an end. In other words, he is in the winter of this period of his life. This image also contains a bit of foreboding—the mangos are thudding to the ground because they are overripe, past their prime—which suggests that Papi's lofty dreams for the United States may not be realized.
