The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood

Fireflies appear frequently in The Prince of Los Cocuyos. The title of Blanco’s book is a nod to El Cocuyito, the Cuban bodega in which he worked.; Don Gustavo, the owner of the bodega, tells Blanco about how in Cuba, he’d chased fireflies with his father, just as Blanco had done with his own father in Miami, and how young women would “wear cocuyos clipped to their earlobes and their dresses to vie for the attention of caballeros at the village square” (158). The night Blanco helps the men roast the pigs for Christmas, he thinks of how the sunlight makes the “El Cocuyito” sign appear to be “made of fireflies” (180).;Rremembering Don Gustavo’s story, Blancohe thinks that “El Cocuyito wasn’t just a grocery store anymore, it felt like that village to me” (180). After the party where he meets Anita, Blanco sits on his porch wondering why he isn’t attracted to her:; he watches “[T]the Morse code of the cocuyos twinkling like the stars above me, like so many questions I couldn’t answer yet” (194). Later, in Victor’s house, Victor’s mural mesmerizes Blanco. The painting is is mesmerized by a mural Victor had painted: called Los Cocuyitos, and it represents the employees and customers at the bodega, including Blanco himself, “with a halo of fireflies, floating above everything, on your way to see your friend Julio in the other world” (215).