When We Left Cuba

“Fidel Castro has made beggars of all of us, and for that alone, I’d thrust a knife through his heart.”

This passage introduces the theme of Exile and the Longing for Home, establishes Beatriz’s character motivation, and announces her intention to involve herself in plans for assassination. The image of the knife reflects how Beatriz thinks of herself as hard and dangerous.

“Maybe it’s strange that at twenty-two and female, I am standing on this balcony rather than someone like my father, someone who has spent his life accumulating power and influence, but the very nature of my age and gender makes me an attractive weapon.”

In her first meeting with CIA agent Dwyer, Beatriz acknowledges the irony that she, as a young female, is acting to avenge their family, instead of the head of their family. Her sense of herself as an “attractive weapon” is underscored by other imagery Beatriz uses to describe herself, such as her “diamond” smile.

“It’s different going to a place and fighting, seeing the destruction men can wreak all around you, and then returning home, to the sanctuary of a country that will likely never descend into such madness.”

What connects Nicholas Preston and Beatriz, initially, is their shared experience of war, but Beatriz contrasts Nick’s ability to return to his homeland with her own feelings of exile. This difference comes to represent the other ways they are incompatible.