Daniel Wallace
Ms. Dunlevy and Mr. Wallace
AP English
Drown Essay
July 1, 2011
Learn, Muchacho: Personal and Societal Scars in “Aguantando”
Like many stories in Junot Diaz’s Drown, “Aguantando” is about a family responding to
the actions of a man. Yunior, the narrator, is deeply affected by the past. The central event of the
story is, in fact, a past event: his father “had left for Nueva York when [Yunior] was four” (70).
Personal and societal pasts coalesce as Yunior and his family contend with the fact of Papi’s
abandonment.
Yunior certainly struggles with the past as it affects his family’s financial situation.
Mami, Abuelo, Yunior, and his brother Rafa live in a wooden house under a leaky zinc roof in a
neighborhood he describes as “not the safest of places” (73). Mami must work “ten-, twelve-hour
shifts for almost no money at all” at a factory because she is the family’s sole source of income
(71). They are not able to “eat meat or beans,” and have to skimp on dinner to afford the
“Verminox” needed to pass “long gray parasites” from their digestive systems (70, 71). In
Yunior’s words, “[t]he only way we could have been poorer was to have lived in the campo or to
have been Haitian immigrants” (70). Papi leaves his family in this situation when he goes to the
United States without bothering to send back money. By abandoning them, he deprives them of a
much-needed source of income, and poverty erodes the family.
As Yunior’s family contends with abandonment and poverty, their relationships are
strained. Mami’s brutal factory schedule leaves her exhausted and forces distance between her
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and her sons. She wakes up early and comes home “after sunset,” too tired to engage with her
family in motherly ways (73). When money gets particularly tight, Mami sends Rafa and Yunior
away to relatives for extended periods of time. This is perhaps the clearest effect Papi’s
abandonment has on Yunior. Had Papi stayed, the family might have remained poor, but
Yunior’s relationship with Mami would have had a better chance to flourish. Mami’s palpable
pain at being forced into this life acts as a wedge between her and Yunior. When Papi promises
to return the first time and then reneges, “the heaviness” of his rejection pushes Mami and
Yunior irrevocably apart (83). Yunior begs to see Papi’s photo; Mami refuses. Yunior screams
and throws himself around; Mami slaps him, locks him in his room, and then leaves town, unable
to handle Papi’s rejection coupled with an “inconsolable” son (83). She comes back, but
thereafter she and Yunior “were no longer close” (84). Papi’s abandonment lingers among the
family, adversely affecting their relationships with each other. The financial and personal effects
Papi’s actions have on Yunior and his family are undeniable, and Papi could have taken steps to
alleviate much of their suffering by sending money or returning sooner.
It is important to acknowledge, however, that Papi acts within the context of history. His
abandonment is the central event of the story, but he is practically forced to leave the island for
the United States by larger events. The US invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965 is a
piece of history that frames the personal story of Yunior’s family. Before the invasion, Papi was
a soldier, Abuelo “could still see well enough to hold a job,” and Mami was pregnant (69). Soon
after the invasion, Papi leaves for New York to find work, Abuelo becomes largely useless, and
Mami struggles to care for what remains of her family in spite of physical and emotional scars.
At one point, Yunior notes that Abuelo repeatedly tells him how good it was before the invasion
“when a man could still make a living from his finca, when the United States wasn’t something
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people planned on” (72-73). Here Abuelo indirectly excuses Papi’s leaving by acknowledging
how difficult it is for men to make a living in their society. After the invasion, immigrating to the
United States becomes a necessary step for many to take if they are going to support themselves.
This does not excuse Papi’s abandonment of his family, but rather locates it within the larger
context of history.
Mami’s scars speak to the resonating effects of this history. A US rocket left significant
scarring on her stomach, and the reader is left to infer that her unborn child probably died in the
attack. Societal past coalesces with personal past in the character of Mami, who can thus be read
as a symbol for the island. The US invasion scarred her, pushed Papi to leave, and attacked her
family, just as it scarred the island, took its men, and destroyed many of its families. Yunior
remains conscious of how such larger societal factors contribute to his family’s personal
struggles, even though he does not excuse Papi’s abandonment and dishonesty. Toward the end
of the story, Mami dresses up and takes the family out for the evening. Yunior notes that “[t]he
waves” they see that night “were tremendous and some parts of George Washington were
flooded” (86). This image is quite significant. A road called “George Washington” covered by
waves is freighted with the symbolic meaning that scars left on the island by the American
invasion can fade. And Mami, her own scars covered by beautiful clothes, seems content with
Yunior and the family in this moment.
Ultimately, Yunior’s struggle with the past leads to larger meaning in the story. On the
day Papi’s second letter arrives, Mami tries to teach Yunior a painful lesson that she knows all
too well: what scars the island scars its people. He tries to stab their mango tree, and Mami
punishes him by making him kneel on pebbles. She then tells him “[y]ou better learn, muchacho,
or you’ll be kneeling the rest of your life” (78). Those who kneel are like Papi, bowing to larger
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forces at the expense of their own people and complicit in the scars that result. Yunior seems to
learn this, even as he longs for Papi to come back. In the only piece of “Aguantando” not written
in past tense, Yunior describes what he imagines his father’s return would be like, and it
culminates with Papi “[s]quatting down” to “trace the scars on my arms and head” (88). In
Yunior’s ideal picture of his father’s return, Papi must humble himself and acknowledge the pain
he has caused, the scars that remain.