The German Girl

Hannah’s mother returns from Cuba with her newborn son, Gustav. Hortensia says he looks like “a grouchy old man” (236). The baby changes Alma’s behavior. She allows the windows in the house to be open and the kitchen radio to be turned on to soap operas. On New Year’s, Alma, Hannah, and baby Gustav fall asleep together early in Alma’s room. While Hannah and her mother speak to Gustav in English, Hortensia speaks to him in Spanish. By the time he is two, he already seems to be more Cuban than German. He displays his emotions openly rather than reservedly. Hanna observes that “to him, Spanish was the language of affection, games, tastes, and smells. English meant order and discipline. Mother and I obviously were part of the latter” (241). His name slowly becomes Gustavo instead of Gustav. A few years pass. Hannah is “as tall as an adult woman” (242), but is taunted by boys in her class who still see her as a Polack. One afternoon, the family lawyer, Señor Dannón appears at the house with important news. It is implied that her father has been forced into a concentration camp back in Europe. Although she doesn’t fully understand it, Hannah weeps at the news.