Destiny in Caramelo - Danielle Jago

            Reading this book made me so happy and so sad all at once, which is to say that I absolutely adored it. One of my all-time favorite books is The House on Mango Street (the introduction in it is one of the most beautiful things I have ever read, coming second only to Orhan Pamuk’s Snow) and I am currently in the middle of Woman Hollering Creek, so I am thrilled about getting to read another one of Cisneros’ works. Cisneros has such a way with language, she really does. Also, her character development seems so real. I liken it to Game of Thrones in a way just because even the characters you hate and the people in the narrative you are not rooting for, you still identify with them on some level because you can rationalize their behavior and so you can still see their humanity (for the most part).

            I did not personally have any problems with reading the text, although it did take me longer to read it than a novel of this size typically takes me just because I was trying to find translations for words and phrases I did not understand. I know that in context I could understand the basic meaning, but I wanted more information aside from an educated guess. I did, however, have a multitude of questions that I thought might be answered by the time I finished the novel but they were not. I think because the novel is being told by a girl who does not have all the answers and is filling in the blanks with storytelling of her own, some small details get lost in that. As she says, through all of the lies you can see truth so I think it really is about focusing on the bigger picture.

            In terms of her portrayal of adolescence, I think Cisneros did well. During the portion of the story where Celaya was in adolescence, I noticed quite a few moments that could be relatable for many people in adolescence such as love, her struggle to belong, her yearning for privacy and alone time, her coming to terms with her body image and how the world views her. Her grandmother constantly telling her she has “the body of a man” (256) is something I am sure many adolescents can relate to at one time or another. Every person (at least I do) has that one grandma who always feels this pressing urge to vocalize her hypercritical comments, so I feel that situations like those are things adolescents picking up this novel could understand. Also, Celaya’s struggle with belonging on page 356 where she says “I don’t care, I never belonged here. I don’t know where I belong anymore” is something that adolescents could definitely identify with. Although her struggle with belonging seems to stem largely from this liminal position she occupies due to how her heritage interacts with US society and moving to Texas from Chicago, I think someone not dealing with that necessarily could identify with what she is going through, because despite that the stories told are very specific to Celaya and her family, I think because of the way Cisneros writes they have this universality to them that makes it easy for the reader to mentally place themselves in the situation.

            The text’s references to religion and the characters’ personal relationships to their religion interested me as I was reading. Throughout the story, there plenty of references religion, specifically Catholicism. For example, there are numerous references to the Virgen de Guadalupe, the fact that the kids go to Catholic School (yet they are non-practicing and only go to church occasionally to get reduced tuition), this belief in the divine providence of all things, etc. 

Having a determined path in life, a destiny, is seen often throughout the novel with blatant references like the house that Soledad and Narciso had being on Destiny Street. However, I also find it interesting that the stories of the characters imply that, although we all have a destiny, we have a certain amount of agency within that destiny. On page 106, when telling the story of Soledad and Narciso, Celaya says “We are all born with our destiny. But sometimes we have to help our destiny a little” showing that there is some freedom that we all have despite these fatalistic views.

I find it interesting that Celaya who is not particularly religious at all even believes in a predetermined fate. On page 399, she says “Ernesto. He was my destiny, but not my destination” despite the fact that she admittedly does not frequently pray (403) and refers to Catholicism as “that twisted religion that thinks everything’s evil” (386), she holds on to the belief that there is this higher power orchestrating the events in her life. As she grows up, we see her make comments in which she rejects religion yet she has never seemed to truly reconcile these contradicting beliefs or maybe she has and we just do not get to see it. But I think that is just a result of the style, vignettes give you just a enough information but not too much.