Family

In addition to being careful stewards of their heritage and ancestry in Cuba, discussed below, the Zamora family maintains incredibly strong bonds amongst one another, living lives that rotate almost entirely around supporting and caring for one another. The Zamoras have a tradition of not only holding the extended family together, but also including friends and other members of the community into a larger, if not biological, sense of “family.” This theme is introduced almost immediately in the novel, as Arturo describes how La Cocina de la Isla is almost entirely full even when it is closed down for the Zamora family dinner: “A few of my third cousins, two of my dad’s best friends from high school, and cousins who I called cousins (but weren’t really my cousins) sat around in different spots, waiting for food to be served” (4). Arturo goes on to...