When the Spirits Dance Mambo (Vega) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
1. Abuela tells Cotito the heartbreaking story of being rejected by her own mother because of her skin color. How has this tragedy, and the experience of being raised by her grandmother, Maria de la O, affected Abuela’s life and attitudes as an adult?

2. Cotito is fascinated by the photograph of her grandmother as a young woman, sailing alone to New York. In the photo, Abuela wears a borrowed dress, carries a borrowed suitcase, and watches her gorgeous country slide away from the hold of a ship built "like an enormous metal coffin." She describes this young Abuela as "the woman at the crossroads." In what ways is Cotito herself a young "woman at a crossroads"? What borrowed burdens does she carry, and which ones does she shed in the course of the memoir? What is her "coffin"?

3. What does the drama with Alma in the botanica teach Cotito about male/female relationships? How do the neighbors’ attitudes toward Alma contrast with Abuela’s approach? Why doesn’t Cotito question the strange events she witnesses that day?

4. When Papi decides to take the family to Rockaway Beach instead of their usual destination, Orchard Beach—nicknamed "the Puerto Rican Riviera"—Cotito suffers her first bout of self-hatred and embarrassment about her family’s ethnic ways. She is acutely aware of the spectacle they create by cooking on the beach while other families quietly enjoy "sandwiches neatly packed in plastic bags and picnic baskets with fruit." What defining moment does her meltdown lead to back at the apartment? How does it polarize the family?

5. What conflicting advice do Mami and Chachita give Cotito when she gets her first period? Do you agree with Chachita’s assessment that by keeping information at a minimum, Mami "just wants us to stay her babies. She’s trying to stop us from growing up"? Is it that simple?

6. Cotito receives mixed messages about love from her neighbors in El Barrio. When one man stalks his wife in a jealous rage, paranoid that she is cheating on him, Cotito concludes, "this, I supposed, was love." When Mami enrages Papi by taking driving lessons against his wishes, Cotito overhears her mother’s nervous telephone conversation with a friend: "‘He just loves me too much. That’s why he doesn’t want me to work or go out.’ The thrill in her voice suggested that somehow my father’s anger was an expression of his love." How does Cotito interpret these jarring lessons as she moves into young adulthood?

7. Cotito is repeatedly warned not to talk to Teresa, the neighborhood prostitute. Yet Teresa is summoned by all the neighborhood women when they require help with gowns, makeup, hairdressing, or anything uniquely feminine and presentational. How does this paradox reflect the conflicted way in which the women of El Barrio deal with their sexuality? Why does Teresa’s power over her own body frighten them? Why does Papi allow a prostitute to prepare his daughter for her wedding day?

8. How does the influx of drugs into El Barrio contribute to Abuela’s decline?

9. While Chachita struggles desperately against her parents’ attempt to determine her future for her, and ultimately caves in to their pressure, Cotito strikes out on her own with little resistance other than mild verbal sparring. Why are their experiences so different?

10. Chapter ten opens with: "There is a point in every life when a confluence of forces sets your destiny in motion." What are these events? How does Cotito’s acceptance to the Music and Art High School open her eyes to her mother’s repressed dreams? What gives her the strength to defy her mother’s wishes?

11. As Cotito approaches school for the very first time as a child, she is eager for everyone in El Barrio "to bear witness to how special I looked on my first day of school." How is her sense of pride challenged immediately upon arriving? How does this episode foreshadow her experience at the Music and Art High School years later?

12. Cotito is repeatedly struck by the contrasting ways in which her siblings’ budding sexuality is greeted by their parents. Mami and Papi "encouraged Chachito’s philandering," in part because it banishes any fear of homosexuality and in part because his robust manhood is a continual source of pride. Chachita, on the other hand, is violently castigated for her interest in the opposite sex: "It was as if, just in becoming a woman, she had wounded [Papi] with a knife." Do these conflicting attitudes toward young men and women still exist in the Puerto Rican community today?

13. Immersed in the power of music, Cotito experiences an epiphany about her future while attending a concert of Palladium greats at the Apollo along with her brother. What is this revelation? How does her experience of music differ from her brother’s? From Abuela’s? Are their three distinct experiences equally spiritual?

14. As a girl, Cotito’s ideal of womanhood is a composite of the seductive sensuality of Saint Marta la Dominadora, the powerful legs of Katherine Dunham, the enticing smile of Dorothy Dandridge, the piercing eyes of Abuela, and the sexy hauteur of her brother’s many girlfriends. What features of her own do you imagine the adult Marta Moreno Vega has added to this intoxicating mix?

(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)

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