Page 83 - 2023-bfw-FLL-2e

Alvarez writes, “The litmus test
was dancing merengue, our
national, fast-moving, lots-of- central text
hip-action dance.”
In what ways does this
image capture Alvarez’s /
descriptions of merengue? Julia Alvarez

WANDYCZ Kasia/Getty Images

Down on the street, every Saturday night, the a borrowed car to dance merengue and see what
9
little conjunto that Eladio and Mangú had hired everyone else was doing. What we were doing
10
would serenade us with romantic canciones. was looking for people to fill up our silence with
We were not supposed to show our faces, but their talk.
Dilita and I always snuck out on the balcony in One night, Mangú drove out towards Utcho’s
our baby dolls to talk to the guys. Looking down chicken farm and pulled over at a spot where
at Mangú from above, I could see the stiffness often the four of us had stopped to look at the
of the white dress shirt his mother had starched stars. We got out of the car and leaned against
and ironed for him. I felt a pang of tenderness the side, enjoying the breeze. In the dark, peri-
and regret. What was wrong with me, I won- odically broken by the lights of passing cars,
dered, that I wasn’t falling in love with him? Mangú began to talk about our future.
After the presentation ball, Dilita left for 25 I didn’t know what to say to him. Or actu-
Puerto Rico to attend a cousin’s wedding. It was ally, in English, I could have said half a dozen
then, when I was left alone with Manuel Gustavo, ambivalent, soothing things. But not having
that I realized that the problem was not me, but a complicated vocabulary in Spanish, I didn’t
me and Manuel Gustavo. know the fancy, smooth-talking ways of delaying
Rather than move back to the lonely and deterring. Like a child, I could just blurt out
boonies, I stayed on in town with Dilita’s aunt what I was thinking. “Somos diferente, Mangú.”
for the two weeks remaining of my visit. But We are so different. The comment came out
without Dilita, town life was as lonely as life on sounding inane.
a chicken farm. Evenings, Mangú would come “No, we’re not,” he argued back. “We’re both
over, and we’d sit on the patio and try to make Dominicans. Our families come from the same
conversation or drive out to the country club in hometown.”
“But we left,” I said, looking up at the 30
stars. From this tropical perspective, the stars
9 Conjunto: “band” in Spanish. —Eds.
10 Canciones: “songs” in Spanish. —Eds. seemed to form different constellations in
Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample. 181
Copyright © Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.

06_SheaFLL2e_40926_ch05_130_243_6PP.indd 181 28/06/22 8:57 AM