Drown

“Mami shipped me and Rafa out to the campo every summer. She worked long hours at the chocolate factory and didn’t have the time or energy to look after us during the months school was out. Rafa and I stayed with our tíos, in a small wooden house just outside Ocoa; rosebushes blazed around the yard like compass points and the mango trees spread out deep blankets of shade where we could rest and play dominos, but the campo was nothing like our barrio in Santo Domingo. In the campo there was nothing to do, no one to see. You didn’t get television or electricity and Rafa, who was older and expected more, woke up every morning pissy and dissatisfied. He stood out on the patio in his shorts and looked out over the mountains, at the mists that gathered like water, at the brucal trees that blazed like fires on the mountain. This, he said, is shit.” 

In this quote, Yunior hints at the hardship that Virta experienced while raising her two sons on her own. He also showcases his talent for precisely-rendered, highly-evocative concrete detail. Diaz imbues Yunior’s voice with the intelligence and sensitivity to render the beauty of the Dominican countryside in simple, vivid detail. He also captures Rafa’s personality and cadences, setting up Rafa’s rough-and-tumble curtness as the foil to Yunior’s lush, observant sensitivity. 

“I’m from around here, [Ysrael] said. The mask twitched. I realized he was smiling and then my brother brought his arm around and smashed the bottle on top of his head. It exploded, the thick bottom spinning away like a crazed eyeglass and I said, Holy fucking shit. Ysrael stumbled once and slammed into a fence post that had been sunk into the side of the road. Glass crumbled off [Ysrael’s] mask. He spun towards me, then fell down on his stomach. Rafa kicked him in his side. Ysrael seemed not to notice. He had his hands flat in the dirt and was concentrating on pushing himself up. Roll him on his back, my brother said and we did, pushing like crazy. Rafa took off his mask and threw it spinning into the grass.” 

In this quote, Yunior is in the middle of a friendly conversation with Ysrael when Rafa suddenly and savagely attacks Ysrael, which he had been planning to do all along. This climactic point of the story brings both Ysrael’s status as the community scapegoat and Yunior’s outsider status into sharp relief. The two boys have easily slipped into momentary and natural camaraderie, due not only to their outsider status but their mutual innocence and desire for connection. This quietly and subtly tender moment is brutally interrupted by Rafa’s senseless violence and the herd/mob mentality which guides his desire to irrationally hurt Ysrael, who has been made an outcast due to his physical deformity.