Anthurium: A Studies Journal

Volume 13 | Issue 2 Article 4

December 2016 Smoke and Mirrors: Generic Manipulation and Doubling in Dancing to “Almendra” Amanda Ruth Waugh Lagji University of Massachusetts - Amherst, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Lagji, Amanda Ruth Waugh (2016) "Smoke and Mirrors: Generic Manipulation and Doubling in Dancing to “Almendra”," Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal: Vol. 13 : Iss. 2 , Article 4. Available at: http://scholarlyrepository.miami.edu/anthurium/vol13/iss2/4

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarly Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal by an authorized editor of Scholarly Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Smoke and Mirrors: Generic Manipulation and Doubling in Dancing to “Almendra”

Cover Page Acknowledgments I'd like to thank Professor Rachel Mordecai for her feedback on the first draft of this article, as well as the journal's anonymous reviewers.

This article is available in Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal: http://scholarlyrepository.miami.edu/anthurium/vol13/iss2/4 Lagji: Smoke and Mirrors: Generic Manipulation and Doubling in Dancing

“Maybe she’d been creating a smoke screen with the story of Rodney only to hide the details of this other story, a much harsher and more complicated story, from me,” protagonist Joaquin Porrata muses in Mayra Montero’s Dancing to “Almendra” (132). Montero’s novel is alternately structured by Joaquin’s investigation of Umberto Anastasia’s murder in New York (and its connection to ’s gangsters and underground crime network) and his lover Yolanda’s italicized storytelling, which traces her family’s history and presents an additional mystery in the form of family ties. Set in 1957, the novel’s is on the brink of revolution and Castro’s rise to power. The uncertainty of the political landscape is underscored by the novel’s series of mysteries, beginning with how the death of a hippopotamus at the local zoo is tied to Anastasia’s murder in New York. The motifs of smoke and mirrors recur throughout Dancing to “Almendra” as Joaquin confronts several mysterious connections—New York to Havana, Yolanda and Rodney to Trafficante, his brother Santiago to the imminent revolution. The phrase “smoke and mirrors” suggests deception and dissimulation while at the same time reaffirming the existence of underlying truth that is obfuscated in the act (“Smoke and Mirrors”). Colloquially, the phrase is often mobilized in political contexts, but its roots are located in magical illusions, wherein objects are made to appear and disappear by the mirror’s reflection and the smoke’s distraction. “Smoke and mirrors” is thus an apt prism through which to understand Dancing to “Almendra,” which investigates the nature of illusion and reality while sustaining a political investment in social commentary and critique. Throughout Joaquin’s investigation and Yolanda’s storytelling, the “truth” refracted and clouded by the narrative’s smoke and mirrors is never fully revealed. Even at moments where Joaquin receives ostensibly reliable information, such as his conversation with fellow journalist McCrary, he is encircled by “an extraordinary cloud of smoke that seemed to surround only us and not drift anywhere else” (100). The effect, metaphorically and literally, is to circumscribe Joaquin’s vision and preclude a desired objective view of the facts and their connection to one another. The fact that an objective perspective and narrative closure are refused in Dancing to “Almendra” suggests that the novel shares both postmodern aesthetics and politics; the novel is ultimately more focused on