How we cite our quotes: (Act.Chapter.Section.Paragraph), (Act.Special Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
There are still many, on and off the Island, who offer Beli's near-fatal beating as irrefutable proof that the house of Cabral was indeed victim of a high-level fukú, the local version of House Atreus. Two Truji-líos in one lifetime—what in carajo [the f***] else could it be? But other heads question that logic, arguing that Beli's survival must be evidence to the contrary. Cursed people, after all, tend not to drag themselves out of canefields with a frightening roster of injuries and then happen to be picked up by a van of sympathetic musicians in the middle of the night who ferry them home without delay to a "mother" with mad connections in the medical community. If these serendipities signify anything, say these heads, it is that our Beli was blessed. (1.3.19.1)
Our narrator, Yunior, summarizes the local gossip here. Some people say that the beat-down Beli received from the two Elvises is clear evidence of a high-level fukú. Other people say that the fact Beli survived provides evidence of something else: a blessing. Whatever you think as a reader about the curse vs. blessing controversy, just be aware that Yunior is nudging you toward supernatural explanations for Beli's troubles.
Quote #8
It wasn't just Mr. Friday the Thirteenth you had to worry about, either, it was the whole Chivato Nation he helped spawn, for like every Dark Lord worth his Shadow he had the devotion of his people. (2.5.3.2)
Friday the 13th is a horror movie franchise—we're guessing it's got about ten sequels and remakes?—that started in 1980. The monster in the films, named Jason, has a few supernatural powers. So not only does Díaz compare Trujillo to Sauron from Lord of the Rings, he also compares him to the very scary and powerful main character of this franchise. We're saying a zafa just typing these words right now.
Quote #9
So which was it? you ask. An accident, a conspiracy, or a fukú? The only answer I can give you is the least satisfying: you'll have to decide for yourself. What's certain is that nothing's certain. We are trawling in silences here. Trujillo and Company didn't leave a paper trail—they didn't share their German contemporaries' lust for documentation. And it's not like the fukú itself would leave a memoir or anything. The remaining Cabrals ain't much help, either; on all matters related to Abelard's imprisonment and to the subsequent destruction of the clan there is within the family a silence that stands monument to the generations, that sphinxes all attempts at narrative reconstruction. A whisper here and there but nothing more. (2.5.8.18)
Our narrator tells us that we'll just have to decide for ourselves whether Trujillo put a fukú on the family or not. Wait a second. Doesn't the narrator spend most of the book trying to convince us that everything that happens to this family is the result of a fukú? Isn't the novel itself a zafa against the family curse? So why does the narrator tell us that we have to decide for ourselves if he's so convinced? Discuss.