“To the latecomers are left the bones.”
The quote means if you are late, you are left nothing. First come, first serve.
The literal meaning of the quote is if you are late to arrive you will get bones. When
looking at the deeper figurative meaning, the quote means people who arrive or react too
late are typically left with nothing.
This quote first appears on page 219 and is written by Jacquelyn. She writes it every
morning in her notebook as a means of motivating herself to achieve her goal of being a
doctor. She wants to follow in her father’s footsteps and study medicine at a prestigious
school in France. By writing this she is telling herself to continue to work hard so she is
not left with “the bones.”
This quote also connects with Abelard. Trujillo is known for desiring and seducing young
women. His latest scheme is for Jacquelyn. He invites Abelard, Socorro, and Jacquelyn to
a party and underlines Jacquelyn’s name, fully expecting her to be there. Abelard fretted
over this for weeks. He had many opportunities to protect his daughter but failed to take
any of them. One opportunity was to send his daughter to Cuba with his mistress, Lydia.
She would live there safely with her family and be out of Trujillo’s reach. Another
opportunity Abelard had was to leave Dominican Republic with his family and cross the
border into Haiti. Instead of reacting, Abelard chose to drink, worry and keep Jacquelyn
home from the party. As a result, he is wrongfully accused and arrested. He is therefore
“left the bones.”
One way this quote relates to the bigger themes of the story is through the Dominican
curse, the FUKU. The entire Cabral family is affected by the curse that is said to have
come from Abelard and the bad thing he said about Trujillo. As a result of not reacting
properly to the situation, Abelard and his family were cursed for many generations.
Another family member affected by the curse and the quote at hand is Abelard’s
grandson, Oscar. Not only was Oscar cursed at a young age, he failed to take an
opportunity when it presented itself. He was close with a girl from his SAT class, Ana,
and didn’t tell her how he truly felt until it was too late. Because of his failure to react,
she got back together with Manny and Oscar was “left the bones.”
The language that this quote was originally written in before translating is not English or
Spanish. When I researched further, I found that it was an ancient Latin proverb. I also
noted that it was said three times. This repetition shows the importance of its meaning.