Pollution
Lizet explains, “My dad: every single drop of motor oil drained from any of the dozen or so cars he’s owned and sold over the years; a stack of loose CDs I once left on the couch and forgot, for days and days to put away….My mom: a dead hamster, cage and all, the failed project of my older sister Leidy…any obvious junk of mail ,before I knew to grab the brochures from colleges out of her hands…; dried-out water colors, homemade tape recordings of her own voice, parched hunks of white clay.” Manifestly, Lizet’s family polluted the canal through disposal of various wastes in it. They were unconscious of their destructive undertakings on the canal. Perchance, the careless disposals are partly contributory to the deterioration of imperiled coral reefs.
Family
Lizet explores the dynamics of her family, “WE DIDN’T SEE MY MOM’S whole family often- mostly just at Noche Buena, weddings and births, funerals- but we acted like we did. That half of my family was big and messy, sprawled around the city and good at pretending we cared about lives we knew little about.” Lizet portrays her family as outright dysfunctional. The operations of the family are grounded on manifest pretense and appearances. Her dysfunctional nature cannot be remedied through the brief assemblies which are not intimate. The family members are profoundly, emotionally estranged.
