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The Aguero Sisters
The Aguero Sisters, by Cristina Garcia was a book that related a lot towards Cuban history. Yet it also contained many aspects that related to American history and the material that has been discussed in history class as well.
The book is about two sisters who each lead very different lives. Reina lives in Cuba and was very involved in the revolution until she was electrocuted very badly. Constancia is living in the United States and grasps the many opportunities that are given to her in this country. The Aguero Sisters talks a lot about the Spanish American War, which was studied in class. Reina is very loyal to her country and wants to make it better. This book also shows the vast opportunities that America has to offer through the character Constancia. Constancia has a very successful business and makes a great amount of money selling her beauty products, which is something she could have never accomplished if she were to stay in Cuba.
Although I somewhat enjoyed reading this book I do not think that it really influenced me a great deal. The book helped me learn more about the Cuban culture but I do not think that directly the book influenced me at all. Yet I do think that it did inspire me to keep taking Spanish so I can understand more of the little Spanish blurbs that were included throughout the book.
This book was written in a way that kept the reader interested. Personally I couldn’t put the book down because I wanted to see what was going to happen next. The book was written in the different voices of the characters in the book. Almost like a diary of personal experiences, which also made the book very interesting. In doing this the author let the reader see how everyone is feeling as opposed to how the other characters envision that they’re feeling. The thing that kept me hooked in this book was uncovering the “mystery” on how/why Reina and Constiancia’s mother died. I felt that each chapter I became closer to figuring out the motivation for her death.
Being so interested in why their father killed their mother kept me reading on and on until the last chapter of this novel. Yet I was VERY disappointed when I finally did get to that very last chapter that I was waiting so eagerly for. When the father finally uncovers why he killed his wife in one of his journal entries he simply states in his own words that it was an accident and he meant to kill a humming bird, which was positioned slightly above his wife’s head. This ending was horrible and in fact the greatest weakness of the book. I felt like I read the whole book for no reason. It was almost like the author tricked you into thinking that there was some great big motivation as [next page]