47 pages • 1 hour read
Chanel CleetonWhen We Left Cuba
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 15-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 15 Summary
Beatriz’s sister Isabel is dating an American businessperson, so Mrs. Perez turns her attention to whom Beatriz will marry. The family gathers to watch the results of the US presidential election. Kennedy decries Cuba’s moves toward communism, so he has Beatriz’s support. Beatriz thinks, “Change is all around us, both at home and here, and where I once fought so hard for change, now I must admit I fear it, a bit” (144). Isabel disapproves of Beatriz’s affair with Nick and warns Beatriz not to embarrass the family. Beatriz is glad when Kennedy wins the election.
Chapter 16 Summary
President-elect Kennedy and his family come to Palm Beach for the winter, and the social scene picks up. Beatriz continues to visit the student communist group in Hialeah, but she thinks of them as a harmless social club. As she sits on the beach during a morning walk, Nick joins her. She is excited to see him and congratulates him on his re-election. Beatriz warns him she is still on her mission to return to Cuba, and Nick reveals that he is not in love with his fiancée. He shows Beatriz the house he bought on the beach, and they begin meeting there to spend time together. Nick describes being around Kennedy and the postal worker who was arrested in Palm Beach for planning to assassinate Kennedy. For Christmas, Nick gives Beatriz an expensive diamond bracelet. When he returns to Washington, Nick reports that outgoing President Eisenhower ended diplomatic relations with Cuba, and the American embassy in Havana has been abandoned. There are rumors that the US is planning to invade Cuba. Beatriz says it will take an act of violence to remove Fidel from power.
Chapter 17 Summary
Beatriz spends more time at the Palm Beach home while Nick is gone, avoiding preparations for Isabel’s wedding. Beatriz is scolded by her mother for being gone so often. Her mother warns her not to ruin the family, and Beatriz says they are already ruined. Beatriz reports to Dwyer that she doesn’t see much happening with the Hialeah group. Dwyer informs her that Javier and Sergio’s father worked with Fidel and he believes they are recruiting for him, trying to spread communism around the US. He tells Beatriz to work harder to get information.
Chapter 18 Summary
Beatriz and Nick celebrate Valentine’s Day, though he took his fiancée to the Heart Ball. Nick disapproves of Beatriz working with the communist group in Hialeah, though she is proud of earning money to support herself. Nick wants to work within the diplomatic system and warns Beatriz that the CIA is not interested in her goals, only in securing America’s position in the world. Beatriz still believes she is carrying on her brother’s fight. Their physical intimacy continues despite their different beliefs.
Chapter 19 Summary
Beatriz spends time helping children who have been sent away from Cuba by their families. She accompanies her family to a party and wears the bracelet Nick gave her. Eduardo is there and they dance. Nick is there also, with his fiancée, and he watches her dance with Eduardo. Beatriz is surprised to see Nick because he said he’d be away. Eduardo wants to know why Beatriz is content to be a mistress. Eduardo says he is going away soon, and Beatriz recalls the whispers of a coming coup. They part by repeating their promise that they will meet in Havana and dance at the Tropicana. Eduardo kisses her, and Beatriz is shocked by what she feels for him. In the ladies’ room, Nick’s fiancée, Katherine, approaches Beatriz. She tells Beatriz to keep her relationship with Nick confined to the bedroom.
Chapter 20 Summary
Beatriz, feeling ashamed, leaves her bracelet at the house in Palm Beach. She learns there has indeed been a botched invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. A hundred men were killed and over a thousand captured. She is sure Eduardo was with them. She sees Nick on the beach and they go to the house to talk. Beatriz is frustrated that the US does not attack Cuba with its military might and Nick insists that Kennedy wants to use diplomacy. For Nick this is just politics, but for her, Beatriz insists, “It’s my life. It was my brother’s life” (198). Nick reveals that Eduardo was part of the invasion and has been put in prison. Nick tells Beatriz he loves her. Beatriz reminds him that she’s not looking “to raise a family and have a quiet life” (202). She leaves, feeling the affair is truly over.
Chapter 21 Summary
Isabel confronts Beatriz about her affair with Nick. Mrs. Perez confronts Beatriz as well about ruining the family. She blames Beatriz for encouraging Alejandro in his revolutionary pursuits and pushing him away from his family. She demands that Beatriz go to Spain to live with her cousin, who is married to a diplomat. Dwyer finds Beatriz at the Palm Beach airport and tells her that Eduardo is alive and the government is negotiating for his release. Dwyer wants Beatriz to go to London. Cuba is attempting to spread communism around the world, and Dwyer’s spy, Claudia, a double agent working for him as well as the Cuban government, has been killed. Dwyer wants Beatriz to get close to Claudia’s boyfriend and see if he killed her.
On November 26, 2016, the woman drinking champagne thinks it doesn’t taste as she expected: “Time has tempered the taste of victory, lessening it somehow” (214). She dresses up and slips a diamond bracelet on her wrist, to go with the canary diamond ring she wears. She answers the phone and says, “Hello, Eduardo.”
Chapters 15-21 Analysis
Suspense builds in these chapters as Beatriz continues to spy for the CIA. The historical background plays a larger role in this section as the plot responds to developments in both American and Cuban politics. The democratic process of Kennedy’s election signifies the difference of America from Cuba. Like Fidel, Kennedy brings hope for a new guard and a new order, but his goals are different. Also like Fidel, Kennedy is the target of assassination attempts; the postal worker’s attempt in Palm Beach is a real incident. It also serves as foreshadowing for the shooting of Kennedy and Beatriz’s plans to assassinate Castro.
Renewing her affair with Nick shows Beatriz a possibility of partnership and domesticity that appeals to her on a certain level. The benefits for Beatriz are that she has a place to escape the tensions at home. She feels comfortable with him and enjoys their time together. She understands the consequences for her family if she creates a scandal—and she knows her mother and Isabel are upset about it—but Beatriz chooses to go forward with the affair, thinking she will pay the price later and enjoy what she can for now. As they often quarrel about Beatriz’s involvement with the CIA, it seems the only real basis for their connection is physical intimacy.
The kiss she shares with Eduardo illuminates the theme of Conflicting Loyalties. Beatriz faces a choice between allying herself with Eduardo and attempting to free Cuba from Castro, or remaining with Nick. She knows she does not want to be a mistress, and she doesn’t want to be a political wife either. Nick’s appearance with his fiancée is a reminder of where his future lies, and the fiancée’s dismissal of Beatriz also injures her, as it assigns Beatriz to a role she never wanted in the first place.
As her relationship with Nick stalls, so does her progress with the Hialeah communist group. Beatriz longs for action, and diplomatic solutions are not sufficient for her. The failed Bay of Pigs invasion and Eduardo’s capture are a dire warning of the risks involved in her work, but her mother’s insistence at sending her away becomes an opportunity for Beatriz to part with many disappointments and try something new. Beatriz escapes Palm Beach for London, but this notably is not an exile but a chance to actively rebuild. When she returns the bracelet, she symbolically rejects Nick’s protection and offer of a secure future, instead choosing the action and uncertainty of life as a spy and Freedom From Gendered Expectations.
The flash-forward scene at the end of the section adds more hints that Beatriz is celebrating Castro’s death. The call from Eduardo removes any suspense that he died in prison but creates a different suspense around their relationship now.
