Kantika

Elizabeth Graver uses the motif of song to advance the theme of Cultural Preservation Amidst Change. The novel’s title is the Ladino word for “song,” and the author preserves pieces of the Sephardic community’s history and language by telling a fictionalized version of her family’s story. Although Rebecca is the protagonist, Graver uses third-person omniscient narration to give multiple members of her family a voice in the song. Kantika itself is like a song that preserves the Cohen family’s history and culture.

Within the story, music helps the characters hold onto their culture as well. The songs they sing are connected to the Cohen family’s resilient spirit, language, and faith. During the protagonist’s idyllic childhood, Rebecca, her mother, and her father all love to sing in Ladino, which is the mother tongue of their Sephardic Jewish community: “This, the time before thought, the world arriving not as lists or harkening back or future tense, but as breath-filled music—kantar, sing” (1). The family experiences significant changes when they immigrate from Istanbul to Barcelona. Although they cannot practice their faith openly in Spain, Rebecca preserves her culture by singing at the shop where she works.