Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings

Central to the narrative is imagery that romanticizes Cuba and represents freedom and inspiration to a young Margarita Engle. Pastoral imagery creates an atmosphere of safety and belonging, where the author does not feel torn between cultural identities. Parts 1 and 2 combine vivid natural descriptions with similes and metaphors describing Cuban flora and fauna to link the author’s romantic point of view to her love of stories, writing, art, and poetry. For example, one of the first poems, “Four Years Before I Existed,” creates a pastoral image of Trinidad, Cuba, with a “colonial plaza, where horsemen still galloped / along cobblestone streets, beneath soaring church bell towers, / against a backdrop of wild green mountains” (Lines 7-9). This paints a storybook image of colonial times, highlighting the romance of the past rather than acknowledging the harsh realities of Spanish colonization. This naïve poetic language highlights the importance of Cuba as a romanticized setting from a child’s perspective. Soaring towers and wild green mountains evoke a fairytale atmosphere where Cuba is a magical place that exists outside of time for the author, who spends much of her childhood in Los Angeles and other major cities.

The poems of Part 3 emphasize the difference between city and rural life, focusing on the author’s appreciation of nature and the magic it holds. The author establishes an initial comparison between the farm in Trinidad and the fantasy land of Oz, a literary allusion to Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, where she “[plans] to turn into / [her] real self” in the poem “Traveling to My Mother’s Hometown” (94). Like Dorothy, who wanted to escape her hometown, Engle flees American society for the magic of Cuba’s rural landscape. It is her fantasy land because she can exist there unburdened by the complex politics of identity that she faces in the city. “Quiet Times” begins to deconstruct this imagery when the author is forbidden from walking barefoot because of heart worms. This episode forces the author to question her romanticized image of the countryside, asking, “How can any place / so peaceful / be so dangerous?” (96). While Cuba and its natural world still feel magical to the author, she is beginning to see that there is no permanent escape from life’s difficulties.

Pastoral imagery bleeds into the fantastical, as the author adds magical creatures such as mermaids to her descriptions, and establishes wings and flight as key symbols of creativity freedom. For instance, Part 1, Poem 3 expresses Cuba’s importance to the narrator as she solidifies the parallelism between natural, pastoral imagery and magical settings, noting “there must be mermaids here, / and talking animals, / the pale, humpbacked Zebu cows / and graceful horses / that roam / peaceful hillsides” (9). As the memoir progresses, the author’s view of Cuba becomes less romanticized and more realistic. She illustrates this change in Parts 3-5 with horse symbolism that alludes to the Quixotic tradition, deconstructing the pastoral atmosphere as part of a bygone era that cannot coexist with the complexities of the present day.

Part 3 develops a more realistic view of Cuba with evidence of war, violence, and discrimination, forcing the author to acknowledge that Cuba also has flaws. “Revolutionary” and “Wonderstruck” establish the changes from the Cuban Revolution as the reason behind the author’s sudden disillusionment. “Revolutionary” appears first, describing soldiers as well as talk about the war. Engle is shocked to see Abuelita and her great-grandmother amidst the crowd discussing the war. “Wonderstruck” juxtaposes this initial view of Cuba by describing her familiar response to the island flora and fauna. The author juxtaposes the lush, Cuban environment with evidence of the violence from the war, however. “Cheerful trees, / colorful dress” contrasts with “Uniforms. / Rifles. / Beards” (71). The ellipses at the end of the first series of lines suggests the author’s inability to focus on the familiar Cuban landscape as she becomes distracted by the changes that have occurred in her absence. The author reinforces this in the next stanza when the “stormy sky explodes / with a rumbling downpour” (71). The storm is symbolic of the impact of these changes upon the author as the disillusionment she begins experiencing transitions the pastoral atmosphere of Cuba to a more realistic view of the country.

In Part 3, the imagery and description of the natural environment are more threatening and less magical, alluding to Cuba’s changing atmosphere. Instead of looking at caged songbirds as in Part 2, the author looks for tarantulas and scorpions just before she finds bullets in her grandmother’s garden. She compares the bullets with secrets that threaten to explode, alluding to her parents whispering together about the war. This further reinforces the author’s changing perception as a part of growing up. “Never Ending” is another poem that serves to represent the impact of the war upon the author’s understanding of Cuba. It also alludes to important cultural context. She is forced to acknowledge the ongoing political strife when confronted with the reality of counterrevolutionaries. This also foreshadows the problems Abuelita writes to the family about once travel between the US and Cuba is no longer allowed.

Part 3, Poems 2-5 allude to the change in atmosphere in depictions of Cuba the war brings. “Midair” alludes to the tension between nations, describing the emptiness of the plane that carries the author, Mami, and Mad to Cuba. In the sixth stanza the author wonders, “If we sink, will there be mermaids / riding sea stallions, / or sharks / with teeth / as sharp as knife blades?” (67). While this continues to develop the travel theme and the Enchanted Air, Wings, and Flight motif, referencing sea stallions and mermaids, the symbolism of Cuba begins to become more threatening, alluding to the disillusionment that represents the deconstruction of the pastoral elements of the Pastoral Imagery and Magical Nature theme. The final stanza establishes the author’s changing perspective about Cuba as a part of growing up comparing the plane to a cocoon and travel as a “spirit / of midair magic” (68). “Fluttering” continues to develop this metaphor as the author exits the plane and her “mind and heart start to flutter” (69), before comparing herself to a “delicate insect” (69).