The Aguero Sisters: A Novel

The 1997 novel The Aguero Sisters by Cristina Garcia tells the story of two sisters, Reina and Constancia, who have been estranged for thirty years. Reina, who is described as tall, dark, and beautiful, still lives in her home country of Cuba. Constancia, petite and pale, has moved to the United States.

As the novel opens, Reina Aguero is involved in a freak accident while repairing a water pump when the tree that she is in is struck by lightning. While she is recovering in the hospital, she receives skin grafts from loved ones, and in this way, the accident brings their family closer together.

After Reina makes a full recovery, she decides it is time to visit her sister Constancia, now in Miami, and to make peace with her past. Meanwhile, Constancia is going through some changes of her own. Her husband, Heberto Cruz, has abandoned his successful tobacco business in New York and bought a condo in Key Biscayne in Florida. The plan is for him and Constancia to relocate there and retire together.



However, once they arrive, Heberto begins spending most of his time with his brother, Gonzalo. In spite of Constancia’s wishes, Heberto decides to go off on a counter-revolutionary mission. Upset by the departure of her husband and plagued by strange dreams, Constancia decides to go into business for herself, selling creams and lotions for women. She goes to sleep one night and has a nightmare that a plastic surgeon is operating on her face; the next day, she wakes to find that her face has been replaced with that of her mother. It is at this point that she feels motivated to move forward with the business.

The narrative is interspersed with excerpts of Ignacio Aguero’s diary, revealing his own life’s story. He reminisces about how his father used to read to the workers at the cigar factory and how his own birth brought bad luck on his family. Ignacio’s story continues, and he is being appointed a full professor of general science and biology at the University of Havana. He then meets and falls in love with Blanca Mestre, who becomes his wife.

Constancia and Reina both think back to their own childhood. Constancia remembers her mother leaving when she was very young and only returning years later, and eight months pregnant. They are both still troubled by their mother’s death, feeling unsatisfied by the explanations they received, though neither is aware of the fact that their father is actually responsible for killing their mother.



Constancia’s business, Cuerpo de Cuba, proves itself a success. She markets her line of lotions and creams to women who are nostalgic for their homeland of Cuba, claiming that her products embody the vision each Cuban woman has of herself, that she is deserving of every luxury. While Constancia is making headway with her business, her husband Heberto continues to fight his counter-revolutionary battle in the Florida Everglades. His brother, Gonzalo, who also happens to be Constancia’s first husband, is lying in the hospital on his deathbed.

After Reina arrives in Florida, Constancia’s two children soon show up as well as Reina’s own daughter, Dulce. Reina finds work restoring vintage cars. Constancia’s daughter Isabel is nearly nine months pregnant and has been abandoned by her long-time boyfriend. She gives birth to a baby boy whom she names Raku. Constancia’s son, Silvestre, returns to see his dying father, Gonzalo. Upon seeing him for the first time, he takes a pillow and smothers him with it.

Constancia is told by Santero, a religious man, that the two sisters must go to Cuba. She and Reina decide to heed his advice and immediately set off in a boat to make the journey. During the trip, Reina tells Constancia that it was their father who killed their mother. She explains that their father shot their mother like one of his birds. They end up getting in an argument about what actually happened while each woman struggles to come to peace with her own past.



While at sea, Constancia learns that her husband Heberto has died. She decides to continue on her voyage to Cuba. She wants to collect Heberto’s ashes and bring them to Camagüey, where her father’s papers are buried.

At the end of the novel, Reina becomes pregnant, creating a link to the future for the entire family. Meanwhile, Constancia explores the past when she returns to her mother’s family farmhouse where she discovers her father’s diary. She reads his entire life story. The novel closes with the last installment in Ignacio’s diary, about how the murder of his wife was unplanned, and how after he shot her he held her body and heard her voice stirring in the grass around him.