In Cuba I was a German shepherd

1.

In the story, “The Party” Menendez makes use of the two most outstanding characters who are Ernesto and Maximo. They are characters that she depends upon so much in the novel as she makes use of them in various stories throughout the book. In a rather creative way, the author manages to drive the two characters away from the perception that the reader had of them in previous stories. She manages to make the readers see the growth in the two characters from the conceptual naïve characters that they were in other stories to people who are rather compassionate and who care about the people that they relate with as opposed to the way that they were presented in the very first stories in the novel. It is probably the reason that the story is named the party because it is the celebration of people whose lives have been changed as the novel progresses.

Ernesto in the story is one individual whose character has instrumentally changed. He is one of the characters whose view of life was one that was inclined towards making other people feel unworthy in the past. However, in the current situation, Ernesto is a changed human being. He is often an individual who is tired of being a wrong person and desires to be a better person. Menendez states, “Ernesto sits by the door. He wants to be the first to see Joaquin. He has decided he will hug him” (Menéndez, 2007). In the prior stories, Ernesto would never relate with people who were his previous enemies. He had a deflated sense of self-belonging as opposed to who he was before.  He is more of compassionate because he believes that everybody is just like. He always wants to relate with even people whom he had issues meaning that he has turned into more of a peacemaker than the trouble maker that he was before.

On the same note, people like Maximo who never wanted anyone to compete with them now relate with them. He is a man who is concerned with the welfare of other people like Ernesto people whom he could never associate with in the past. He is more concerned about their affairs such as whether they have fed among other essential details. He, for instance, welcomes Ernesto and wants to understand whether he is hungry or fed. He asks him, “Why don’t you help yourself to some food eh…” (Menéndez, 2007). He is, therefore, a changed person that cares for the wellness of others as opposed to the man who thought that others were always competing with him. 

2.

The reason that Menendez completes with the short story, “Her Mothers’ House” is because it is a story that concludes the whole issue about Cuba. It is a story that where the tension in the story is concluded, and everyone in the story seems settled with their existence in Cuba. It is a story where two daughters can put away their differences and everything that they encountered in Cuba to ensure that they work in a new way that is opposed to the previous approach that their mother used. They, for instance, acknowledge that due to the hard livelihood that their mother encountered, she cannot even remember the physical location of her house. Lisette believes that “The house of someone else’s imagining, a different story” (Menéndez, 2007). The story is, therefore, a recollection of the experiences in Cuba that made people move into exile and witness hard times even when they were in exile. It was thus a great story that Menendez used to complete the novel of the Cuba experience.  

Menendez uses the story to show the real meaning of what it meant to be a German shepherd in Cuba. It was an issue where people used to make use of their personal recollected knowledge to survive amidst the problems they faced. The mother of the two daughters, for instance, was able to survive because she was able to use self-deception as her weapon (Menéndez, 2007). She managed to hide her identity such that she was able to make a living even when she was in exile because she understood that the danger that lied ahead of her if she could not make herself comfortable amidst the struggle. The Cuba crisis required such a stable mind that could discern situations for survival. The two daughters, therefore, explain to the reader the whole theme of the people who lived in Cuba during the crisis.

Though it would have been a grand idea to conclude her novel with the story, “The Party,” Menendez finds it good, to complete the novel with the story, “Her Mother’s House.” The choice of the story to conclude with must have been deeply embedded in the manner that she wished to make the readers have a real sense of the Cuban issue. She used the story as a conclusion because of it a story of rethinking of the future and making ample plans for it regardless of the scathing history. “Her Mother’s House” was thus the best story to conclude the novel with. 

References

Menéndez, A. (2007). In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd. Grove/Atlantic, Inc..