Set simultaneously in both New York and Cuba, Maria Irene Fornes’s play, Letters From Cuba follows two siblings, Fran and Luis, who were separated after Fran Emigrated to the United States. The two communicate through letters, and much of the play consists of Fran and Louis reading the letters that they write to each other. The letters and the poems have a significant effect on the tone of play. They give the play a tone of longing and hope, and they also allow the viewers to understand just how the characters are feeling without including a lot of action or speech.
It is important to look at the literary medium of letters, and analyze how the letters mean something different than a call would. Firstly, letters symbolize true distance. One does not send letters to someone who is only a few miles from them. But more than this physical distance, the letters highlight the emotional distance between Louis and Fran. Louis writes to Fran, “Enrique Ferrara was born December 20th” (Fornes 13). The fact that Enrique had to share the life changing news of his son’s death in a letter represents the painful distance that is between them. Secondly, letters often represent love and longing. When people think of letters they think of love letters. Letters are so significant because they are a real tangible thing that can be held. Fran touches the same paper that Louis holds when she receives his letter, giving the play a sense of hope, and a feeling that there might be hope that the siblings will be reunited one day.
The letters are also extremely useful for logistical purposes. In a short, emotional play that does not include a lot of action and activity, it is difficult to give the audience a sense for how the characters are feeling. The letters give the characters words and feelings, and it helps the audience to better understand what is happening. The audience can then contrast these words with the characters actions. For example, we know from Louis’s letter how he struggles with wanting to come to America. He ends a letter he writes to his sister, “Ana and I may now try to leave the country with our newly born”(Fornes 13). The letter allows viewers to understand the struggle that Louis has with wanting to leave to America while also feeling stuck and afraid to leave Cuba. The letters provide context and explanation, and help viewers understand how the characters are feeling.
Like the letters, the poems also help make the play emotional, and relay how the characters are feeling. Marc, one of Fran’s roommates, writes a poem. He says, “Life is tender as an infant…./ We expect things from it./ But it’s us who have to take care of it./ We ask it to do things for us./ But we should do things for it” (Fornes 12). This poem helps convey Louis’s struggle, and the way that he continues to be passive, but needs to be active in order to get what he wants. The comparison of life to an infant also suggests a reference to Erique, remindinding the viewer of the difficult way that Enrique wants to leave Cuba, but Louis really does not. The letters and the poem help the viewers better understand the story, and add a more layered and emotional perspective on the characters.
Works Cited
Fornes, Maria Irene. Letters From Cuba. PAJ publications, 2007.
I love the quotes you used from Luis’s letters because it helped me understand the breadth of functions that a letter can have or express – one being that Luis gets to bridge the emotional gap between him and Fran by writing a poetic image of what it means to celebrate and work in the heavy heat of Cuba. He gets the opportunity to create an imagination of Cuba that helps them connect over Cuba. It also helps him express his pride in their nationality amid latent insecurities and anxieties about her possibly changing in America (or it’s simply because they both share this pride). I love the comparison of letters to poems because the way Luis expresses his thoughts is very poetic and I also love how you mentioned Marc’s poem and how that parallels other characters lives because it beautifully epitomizes what the play is all about: creating words is analogous to creating life and having something to pass down and in Luis’s case, you are spot on to suggest that Luis is tending to his son’s life through following his desires and wishes to be in America.
This is an incredibly well written post detailing how the letters serve as an attempt to close the distance between the two siblings even though they are far apart. I also agree with your statement of letters being used in a way to inform us of what the characters are feeling. Your example of Luis sharing life altering news through a letter to Fran shows how both siblings seem to live in distinct worlds; one seems to be tethered to their home land and one seems ready to take on and embrace a new life. The letters in the play are very brief and emotionally charged and you have done a great job at succinctly writing the complicated relationships the characters have with each other.