STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS!

Waiting for Snow in Havana Questions
1. Early on, we encounter the author's loss of innocence, as political tensions begin to explode in violence and threaten the almost idyllic world of the Havana elite that Eire inhabits. But even in that idyll, as the author takes part in normal childhood exploits, there is a sense of pleasure and danger resting hand in hand -- a powerful concoction. How do these lessons of Eire's early youth serve him during the dramatic changes of his young adulthood?
a. One example of Carlos playing with pleasure and danger hand in hand is when he shot up a ‘rocket’ with a lizard inside of it and tried to make it reach space. This is pleasing for Carlos and his friends because they love to cause trouble and perform crazy stunts like this one, and it is also very dangerous, because, since it’s not a professional rocket, then what explodes of the plastic and the lizard can shoot down at great speed and cut through someone’s skin. This is only one of the lessons that Carlos learned in his early youth and this served him well during the dramatic changes of his young adulthood because, as he left his home and his family in Cuba with Pedro Plan and headed toward the US, he noticed that these happenings (like the one explained above) leaned more toward the dangerous side than the pleasure one. He learned to keep quiet when told, and obey those who lead him because the consequences now were not getting grounded by his parents, but being left on the streets of Miami alone.
2. How does memory work in Eire's story? How do memories of pleasure and of danger live in him? Do they reconcile each other, or does one trump the other in the end?
a. Memory plays a major role in Eire’s story for the entire book relies on memory; it’s a memoir of his childhood and how the actions he took and places he went formed him into the experienced man he is now. The memory of pleasure and danger combine in him to form a balance in his life; Eire speaks of danger such as Ernesto shooting a rifle at a truck from a rooftop and he also speaks of how that brought him pleasure, but now that he looks at it from an adult point of view, he says that he had fun doing all of this in a sort of sarcastic tone, for he cannot believe he felt pleasure running after trucks and shooting trucks and animals. At the end, I believe that they reconcile each other because, although he has the pleasure of living in a developed country and his life changed for the better (for the most part), he still lives in danger and with the fear of not having a wealthy family to rely on, but to have to be solely independent.
3. History -- particularly the violence of the past -- plays a big part in Eire's parents' imaginations and in how they choose to live. They refer to themselves as Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, and their house is full of objects that project a powerful, almost living sense of Christ's suffering. Then modern violence disrupts the family. How do they both use the lessons of Christ and their "past lives" or alter egos to act in the present crisis?
a. History does play a major role in this novel with Eire’s parents naming themselves after French royalty and with Christian decorations all around the house; it’s kind of like they live in the past and are stuck there. Even though they are stuck in the past, modern happening still affect them such as the revolution. When that man, who was running away from the police, came to beg them for help, they refused because of the danger they would be put in, but they never really looked back or showed any form of mercy. This is because they are ‘French royalty’ and have nothing to do with a poor Cuban; Carlos, on the other hand, does feel terrible for that man and the face of this poor man haunts him for a long time after that. This occurs because Carlos lives in the present and not in the past, like his parents.
4. Eire uses lizards to embody "perfect metaphors" in his memoir. Lizards are often passive, most often despised, and always pitiful victims of others' misguided exercises of power. And yet it is a species of great resilience, powerful in its presence in Cuban lives. Who and what is the lizard ultimately in Eire's imagination?
a. In Carlos Eire’s life, lizards are probably one of the most important animals, and in the novel is probably one of the most important motifs. These lizards, which Carlos is petrified of, symbolize the citizens of Cuba, trapped within themselves (Cuba is shaped in the form of a ‘caiman’- another reptile, close to a lizard), not being able to be freed, even though they do whatever it takes to try to do so. The scene where they trap the lizard in the bottle signifies the lack of power these little animals have in comparison to humans, as well as the lack of power the inhabitants of Cuba have against Fidel Castro.
5. Some readers will understand this as a tale of the innocent victim (because Eire is a child), of a necessary, however flawed, stake at justice for the victims of the Batista regime and of colonialism, as many Black Cubans are the very near descendants of slaves. Eire speaks of how his family profited directly from others' suffering. And then the tables are turned. How do you reconcile the grievances of both groups? Is the author able to transcend his sense of personal rage? How might writing be his own intimate stake at justice?
a. The idea of the “victim” changes in Cuba throughout history. In the beginning of the novel, toward Carlos’s childhood years, he was happy and wealthy with nothing to complain about, until the Revolution came with Fidel Castro, which turned the table. Instead of the poor Black Cubans being the “victims”, they rebelled and were tired of the wealthy ruling, so they made themselves equally, or sometimes even more, powerful. The grievances of both groups are show in this novel because, first we see how, on the way to his grandmother’s house, Carlos always sees the poor on the side of the road and feels terrible, and he then also talks about his wealth and luck in life. This is demonstrated in the novel because, eventually, Carlos looses everything when he leaves Cuba and arrives in Miami empty handed, having to experience life on the other side of the fence, the darker side.
6. Justice is something passionately sought by many in his family: by his aunt who is a consummate activist; by his father, the judge and Louis XVI incarnate; by his uncle who offers an ultimate insult in the face of the firing squad. How do they inform Eire's struggle?
a. Justice is something that’s heavily looked for throughout Carlos’s family for all of his family members have string personalities that will not let them back down and will keep them fighting for justice until they get what they want. Also, we can see the struggle for justice merely by looking at Carlos’s father’s occupation: a judge, one who seeks justice. All of his family members form part of Eire’s struggle for justice because they make up pieces of his memoir, that which he wrote to free himself and find self-justice.
7. How do you piece together Eire's deep and complicated sense of rage for his father, who is symbolized by and is a symbol for his fatherland?
a. Eire’s relationship with his father, who truly believes he is Louis XVI in this life and symbolizes fatherland, is a complicated and perplexing one. In the beginning of the novel, Carlos always wants to be like his father with placing his overalls over his shoes, the firecrackers, Chinatown, until slowly, his father kept deceiving him and shoving him into little corners in order so he wouldn’t have to deal with him. Finally, at the end of the novel, his father stays in revolutionary Cuba letting his whole family go, without looking back; this is something Carlos was hurt by for many years.
8. Eire is keenly aware of race and color. But he does not have a true understanding of the psychological and economic costs of racial/ethnic bigotry and oppression until he is on American soil, where he becomes poor and a "Spic." What does he do with this new understanding?
a. The drastic transition from a wealthy boy in a good community in Cuba to nothing but a “Spic” in the hoods of South Miami made Carlos think and ponder about his entire life. He finally understands how it felt to be dependent, how to be free, but also how to be poor, hungry and hated. These new feeling shot at him without a warning and without a parent to protect him from such things; maybe this is why Carlos grew up to be so strong, because he had to rely on himself and no one else to survive.
9. Eire reveals his anger and contempt for his adopted brother Ernesto who, though it is somewhat cryptically relayed, has sexually molested him. He says that the revelation of this abuse causes his father to turn against him, in favor of Ernesto. These events coincide with Castro's revolution and his sense of violation by his fatherland. This is followed by his father's more ultimate act -- feverishly collecting personal treasures -- artifacts -- as he passively allows his sons to be swept away from him. It is a struggle that is resonant with Biblical events and almost Biblical in proportion. What do you make of this difficulty of reconciling such deep and inseparable betrayals?
a. Carlos was betrayed several times throughout his life: by Blackie whom he thought would never hurt him and later bit him in the butt, by his father who left him at Chichi’s party alone with his mother, by Ernesto who raped him, and, eventually, by his country, which is over ruled by the socialist rebels and he is ‘kicked out’ and sent to the US.
10. Eire talks about his parents' different legacies: his mother is the daughter of Spanish émigrés, conceived on their transatlantic passage, while his father's family has been rooted in Cuba for many generations. His mother's impulse is to be forward-looking, privileging the modern, and, as its symbol, the American. His father "favored the past, fought against the present, ignored the future." How do these impulses play out in the family's ultimate dissolution?
a. These impulses play out in the family’s ultimate dissolution because these two conflicting cultures and habits of mind don’t correspond with one another and it’s impossible to think the same way when you are of two completely distinct cultures. Carlos’s father, who lived all his in Cuba as well as his entire family, differs from his mother, who is a Spanish immigrant; his father will stay fighting for Cuba until the day that he dies, but Eire’s mother sees the world out of a clearer glass and knows that it’s better for the safety and future of everyone of they leave and go to the US.
11. The author struggles with the past, seeking understanding in Biblical ideas, and in the idea he introduces on p. 64 -- that conflict and journey are inevitable and are sparks of love. In the end, do you feel he is to achieve this reconciliation? What lessons do we learn that may help us in our own struggles to come to terms with the tragedies in our own lives?
a. Carlos Eire underwent many struggles throughout his life in order to achieve a perfect balance, one of his major ones included Pedro Plan that took him to the US from Cuba. There are many mistakes that he committed and would have liked not to have done them, but the lesson here is that there is no turning back and that dwelling on the past is completely useless. Instead, Carlos tries to form a new life in the US to make up for his shitty (sorry for the bad word) life in Cuba.