Cubana

The first story in Cubana confused me at first because I did not read the title. I thought the story made no sense and I was thoroughly confused. Once I read the title it understood it more. “Internal Monologue of on a Corner in Havana” give the story meaning however when I read it without reading the title it still felt like a monologue to me it just read like a monologue of someone that wanted write something but had no idea of how to do so or what to write about.

“The Scent of Limes” is about a young girl that lives with her mom. This would be a story I would categories as a mom struggle story because it is all about a mom that is taking care of her daughter and in the beginning seems to be struggling with it. The mom, Iris, having her daughter young is a main factor in this story as it is the reason for them struggling. Her daughter calls her Iris. I feel whenever there is a story whether it be a movie or a book and a child calls their parent by their first name it’s because their parents had them young and they don’t want to be called mom or dad. It’s like it put s certain responsibility on them they don’t want however they still feel like it’s their responsibility to take care of them. Unlike the first story I read the title however I couldn’t figure out why it was called that until it came to that part. It makes me wonder if she now associates the scent of limes with the trauma of what happened or maybe she associates it with bad things now. When Aníbal mysteriously leaves I feel like Iris may have killed him for what he did to her daughter. There is a mention of them going to the beach but he doesn’t come back. I’m speculating that Iris drowned Aníbal, there really isn’t anything in the story that points to this but that’s my thoughts.