Of Women and Salt, Gabriela Garcia
From 19th century Cuba to modern-day Miami, Garcia beautifully depicts intertwining narratives of Latina women, evoking a sense of complex family histories, enduring trauma, and female strength.
Before the narrative begins, readers are shown a simple family tree that depicts the first names of nine women whose lives span five generations: Maria Isabel, Cecilia, Dolores, Carmen, Jeanette, Elena, Maydelis, Gloria, and Ana. These nine names foreshadow the intertwined lyrical narratives that follow, with Garcia placing these nine matriarchs firmly at the heart of this stunning debut.
Of Women and Salt begins in Cuba, soon before the start of its war of independence against Spain. Carmen’s grandmother, María Isabel, works in a cigar factory, where she meets her husband who shares her love of literature. He introduces her to Victor Hugo’s letters to Emilia Casanova de Villaverde – the leader of the Cuban women’s independence movement – and his assurance of tenacity reverberates throughout the novel: ‘We are force. We are more than we think we are.’
As we move to Miami, Jeanette (María Isabel’s great-great-great granddaughter) witnesses an ICE raid in which a mother is taken to a detention centre and separated from her young child, Ana, and she feels compelled to help her. From this point onwards, Garcia’s narratives build cumulatively through a symphony of female voices. In fact, Garcia has written the men out of this story, as they are only present through the pain they inflict onto their wives, lovers, and daughters.
Of Women and Salt illustrates the many ways in which trauma is both inherited and experienced by Latina women; racism and misogyny punctuate the women’s lives, as they are forced to confront challenges of belonging and survival while upholding familial silences: A mother stays with her husband despite his abuse; a daughter doesn’t tell her mother her father is abusing her; a mother doesn’t tell her daughters their father tried to kill her.
Despite many generations of women facing tragedy and legacies of abuse, it is their female ferocity, pride and strength that dominate the narrative, and Garcia’s choice to end her debut with the beginning of an unexpected kinship reinforces how strong the bond between two wounded women can be.
Featured in the Family Issue
