Call Me Maria

Throughout this section, the back-and-forth rhythm of the letters between Mami and María mirrors the duality of The Two Islands and Cultural Heritage that María is observing every day from her new perspective in New York City. Mami and María both express longing for each other, just as María observes the people around her feeling longing for something they either don’t know or haven’t experienced in many years: life on the island of Puerto Rico. María’s relationship with her parents is also made more complex in these sections, as she observes her father from a more familiar perspective and her mother from a more distant one. This section of the novel also develops a clear set of tensions or dualities for María: between Mami and Papi, between New York and the Island, and between English and Spanish.

A subtle thematic element that recurs throughout Call Me María is the construction and understanding of masculinity and how it impacts the different men and boys in María’s life. For example, her descriptions of Papi are full of specific descriptors that assign him a kind of idealized masculinity: he is strong, a “Super-Hombre” (31), and “King of the Barrio” (29). Many of these descriptions are paired with observations of how other people think about Papi; he is desired by women and respected by men alike. Papi’s performance of masculinity places him at the top of an invisible hierarchy, which María starts to question as she watches his behavior and his navigation of a sadness that seems to have been pushed down. María’s description of the papi-lindo on the fifth floor of the building complements her thoughts about Papi; as a young teenager, she is developing a deeper understanding of how different versions of masculinity impact how men and boys think about her and treat her. While romance doesn’t feature heavily in the plot of Call Me María, it is clear that part of María’s development is to understand gender, and masculinity in particular, more clearly.

As a poet, both in the quality of her observations and her use of language, María’s voice continues to emerge in this section of the novel. Her desire to learn new words in English stems both from her interest in the language that informs her limited world and from her ability to use language to protect herself. In one of the only poems in this section, María uses short, simple descriptions of food that her father likes to eat and turns it into a narrative about the many ways in which the people of her neighborhood relate to the Puerto Rico that they can no longer see or experience directly. Her ability as a poet begins to transform as she connects small parts of her world to larger ideas and more meaningful portrayals of the profound impact that heritage has upon people’s behavior, well-being, and sense of belonging.