The Hands of "Fiesta"

"Fiesta, 1980" is a short story about a kid named Yunior growing up in the Bronx with an abusive father.  This short story focusses mainly on the concept of hands.  This motif is used to describe women’s personalities.  Yunior mentions, “one thing about Mami, even when she was nervous, her palms never sweated” (173).  This quote shows Mami’s personality; she is good at hiding her feelings.  A natural reaction to nervousness is sweaty palms, which Mami never seems to have.  She hides her true feelings from Papí in order to stay on his good side.  She acts this way because she knows her children will be beaten if she show anger or fear towards Papí.  However, later on when Yunior is describing the picture of Mami, he realizes how happy she must have been without Papí in her life.  He describes how “you can’t see her hands but I imagined they’re knotting a straw or a bit of thread” (179).  This thought about Mami’s hands prior to meeting Papí symbolizes freedom.  Her hands are able to do whatever they want without the oppressive nature of Papí.  She is able to do something as care-free as knot string and has no one in her way to stop her.  After Mami met Papí, she was never again described as having something of that nature in her hands which means that she is officially ruled by Papí and no longer has her own freedom.  Mami’s “hands adjusted the buckle of her belt over and over again” (171) when she is with Papí, showing more anxiousness in Mami’s nature while she is with her husband.  Repetition of a single action shows nervousness, so the adjusting of the belt leads the reader to believe that she is now an anxious person because of Papí.

Papí is having an affair with the Puerto Rican woman throughout the short story;  Yunior knows about this affair and has met the woman.  He says that she has, “dry papery hands” (176), which show the weakness that she holds.  Paper is a weak object that does not last long amounts of time and there are millions of pieces of paper in the world.  The “papery hands” is a symbol for how replaceable the Puerto Rican woman is.  She will not last long and will soon be replaced by another woman.  She is too weak to have Papí leave Mami for good and too replaceable to even bring up the conversation of it.  If the Puerto Rican woman gets on Papí’s bad side, she know she will be replaced.

**I won the allusion assignment and therefore have to write 400 words**