The Story Of Papi In Short Story : Festa, 1980

The story of “Fiesta, 1980” does not sugarcoat anything about the true nature of life and how many families operate. We are given the raw and gory details that are typically left out because most people rather shove them under the rug and deny that they even exist. In the case of

Junot Diaz was born in the Dominican Republic and immigrated with his family to New Jersey, where a collection of his short stories are based from. Out of that collection is a short story “Fiesta, 1980”, which was featured in The Best American Short Stories, 1997. This story is told from the perspective of an adolescent boy, who lives in the Bronx of northern New Jersey with his family. He is having trouble understanding why things are the way they are in his family. Diaz shows Yunior’s character through his cultures, his interaction with his family, and his bitterness toward his father.

“In the story “Fiesta, 1980,” by Junot Diaz, a Dominican boy named Yunior narrates the occasion when his family that consists of his “Papi”, “Mami”, brother and younger sister; drive to New York from New Jersey to have a welcome party for his aunt and uncle that just came from the Dominican Republic. Yunior uses flashbacks to tell the reader how his father is having an affair with a woman and how Yunior’s father is abusive towards him. Diaz develops the character of “Papi” as abusive and as a macho person in “Fiesta, 1980,” through what he says, does, and what others say about him.

“Marlorana. Come here, sweetheart, granny has something to tell you.” She didn’t need to think, she could take the moment to consider Papi, or else she would lose her nerves that was already seeping through her palms and causing them to sweat. It was time to open up a can of shit and reveal the best-kept secret to her granddaughter.

As children grow up in a dysfunctional family, they experience trauma and pain from their parent’s actions, words, and attitudes. With this trauma experienced, they grew up changed; different from other children. The parent’s behavior affects them and whether they like it or not, sometimes it can influence them, and they can react against it or can repeat it. In Junot Díaz’s “Fiesta, 1980”, is presented this theme of the dysfunctional family. The author presents a story of an adolescent Latin boy called Junior, who narrates the chronicles of his dysfunctional family, a family of immigrants from the Dominican Republic driving to a party in the Bronx, New York City. “Papi had been with

The immigration of the family into America proves to be a period where multiple liminal periods fuse together to complicate their once simple lives. The girls struggle to define themselves in the new world in which the find themselves. They did not have a religious upbringing, but were always being ordered to live life a certain way, without exactly knowing why. Mr. and Mrs. Garcia did the best they could in terms of how they viewed parenting, but their efforts always seemed to be in vain. Of the two parents, it is evident that Mami was the more understanding of the pair, maybe for the sole reason that she was a woman. Even the girls agreed that, “… [Papi] got a heavier dose [of the old world] than Mami” (65). Mami was more actively involved in the lives of her girls and supported them at everything they did, even though she sometimes felt differently about the

In “Fiesta 1980” Papi uses the fact that he is Dominican and in his Hispanic culture he can cheat and get away with it. It is understood in most Latin cultures that if the man is the breadwinner and brings home the money then what he should not be questioned. Papi was arrogant and let the fact that he was head of his family cloud his better judgment. Papi should have protected his sons from his lies and infidelity’s. Instead, Papi would use to fact that he was a macho man and the head of the family to show his sons a lesson in cheating. Papi would take them around his mistress and expose them to that side of his life, the side of his life that should have not even existed. “I met the Puerto Rican woman right after Papi had gotten the van” (Diaz,1996,155). Papi would use to van as an excuse and take his son driving, trying to help his car

Instead she pretends not to pay attention. His mother has so much disconnection with her son because of him. On this table were almost all the foods that Yunior enjoyed to eat. Right before he was about to get some of this delicious food, "Oh no you don't, and took the paper plate out of my hand" (Diaz 4076). The aunt asks why his son could not eat and his answer was "Because I said so". That was the end of the conversation. The man was to say what was to happen, no questions asked.

Junot Díaz’s “Fiesta, 1980” relates a story of Yunior, a young Dominican boy, and what he experiences in his family trip to a party. In narrating the story, Yunior employs a unique choice of a cultural shift in diction; there is a continuous change between English and Spanish words, which creates both a sense of familial intimacy and cultural struggle in adjusting to the United States. Additionally, Yunior tells the story in a past-tense narrative, thereby allowing himself the room to express a scene both in an immature perspective as a child, as well as a mature one as an older, more reflective version of himself. Altogether, the integration of two different languages and two different perspectives work together to portray a more holistic picture of Yunior’s childhood experience.

People do not always get to have the fairytale life they once dreamed of. Life comes with many struggles, but people can overcome them if they really want to. They choose to follow a certain path in their life, which at times it can be good or bad. In the book, “Tijuana Straits”, by Kem Nunn, the author explains the different life experiences of certain characters in the book and how their life ended up. Unlike a fairytale, he gives the different perspective and point of views of the characters. Nunn gave enough information to know how the character’s lives ended up the way it did. The characters, Fahey, Armando, and Magdalena, were each described with a different persona so that each one sticks out different than the other.

To practice machismo, also known as masculinity in a Dominican culture, males have to hide their flaws and act a certain way. If men express their un-masculine nature, they will be seen as expressing their weakness. In Drown written by Junot Díaz, contains many stories about Dominican Republic male struggles as an immigrant in America. One of the struggles Díaz expresses in his text is appearing masculine in society’s eyes. From the story “Drown”, the unnamed narrator expresses what it means to be masculine. “Boyfriend” is a story about another unnamed narrator observing his neighbor’s relationship, and comparing it to his own past. Yunior, the narrator of the story “Negocios”, explains the history of his father Papi, also known as Ramón. Society creates many definitions for what it means to be masculine, leading the narrator from “Drown”, the narrator from “Boyfriend”, and Ramón struggling to choose between doing what they want for themselves, or do what society wants to see.

It is not just the language of the Dominican culture that we find characters struggling to hold onto in Díaz’s Drown. We also find that the characters walk a fine line of defining themselves as newly Dominican American, and it seems they feel pressured to leave behind their old ways and traditions to join their new society. In the short story “Fiesta, 1980,” we find many examples of the family being torn between their Dominican customs and assimilating to their new American life. This story begins with the explanation of Papi’s most prized possession: a brand-new, lime-green, Volkswagen van. Much to Yunior’s chagrin (due to the fact that he gets sick every time he rides in the vehicle), this van means a lot to Papi, because to him, it represents an American family. According to John Riofrio (2008), “it[the van] is the embracing of the American way which has reenabled Papi’s masculinity,” (p. 33). After arriving at their Tia and Tio’s home for the party, Yunior sneers at his relatives’ apartment stating, “the place had been furnished in Contemporary Dominican Tacky” (p. 32). It seems as though Yunior, after only a short period in America, is already feeling embarrassed by his culture’s traditions. This chapter of the book also discusses the betrayal of Yunior’s father to his family, by having an affair with a Puerto Rican woman, whom

Yunior’s attitude regarding women and relationships is an inadvertent consequence of observing his own father’s degradation of their family unit. The little interaction between Yunior and his father seldomly, if ever, give the impression of a loving and nurturing father figure. Yunior himself even goes so far as to mention: “he said little to us that wasn't disciplinary” (Diaz 129). As a result, Yunior’s developing sense of kinship or lack thereof is directly affected by the actions of his father,

My boy grew into a man, my girl long and slender like the blossoming mimosa at the end of the drive. Pedrito took on a certain gravity, became an important man around here. And I, Patria Mercedes? Like every woman of her house, I disappeared into what I loved, coming up now and then for air. I mean, an overnight trip by myself to a girlfriend’s, a special set to my hair, and maybe a yellow dress.

In the short story “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” by Jhumpa Lahiri, Lilia, her parents, and Mr. Pirzada react differently to Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 because of the different cultures in which they grew up. Lilia is a ten-year-old girl growing up in Boston, Massachusetts. The civil war affects her vicariously when she sees her parents and Mr. Pirzada upset. Lilia’s parents are from India and moved to Boston before Lilia was born. They show concern when watching the news of their homeland in peril. Mr. Pirzada is from Pakistan and moves to Boston for one year on a research grant while his wife and seven daughters still live in East Pakistan. The civil war affects him the most because it is his personal property and his direct loved ones that are in the midst of it all.