90 Miles to Havana

Alquilino is the eldest of Julian’s two older brothers. Julian notes Alquilino’s careful nature: “Alquilino thinks forever about the consequences and then sometimes acts. He turns things around and around so much that sometimes he can’t make up his mind” (31). Alquilino is usually responsible for reining in Gordo, protecting Julian, and making peace with Caballo. It is Alquilino’s idea to search the abandoned house for their mother’s pin, and it is he who lies to the director about their uncle to buy them more time together at the camp. Julian looks to Alquilino for security and stability.

Still, Alquilino, too, sometimes overlooks Julian and refuses to listen to his insight because he cannot take him seriously. When Julian tells him of his gut feeling about Caballo before Alquilino and Gordo leave for Miami, Alquilino laughs and dismisses him. He does not believe in Julian because of his age. However, at the end of the novel, Alquilino comes to realize that Julian is capable of thinking and acting for himself. After their mother is upset when she discovers Julian pawned her pin, Alquilino tries to get her to listen to Julian’s explanation. Later, the pin is returned, and Alquilino understands that Julian is not a child anymore.

“Gordo” is the nickname of Julian’s older brother, Eduardo. He is blunt, aggressive, and extremely protective of his family. These values often clash, as his aggression puts his family at risk many times. He throws an almond at the little woman’s son, which ultimately leads to he and his brothers fleeing the country alone. When they arrive at the camp in Miami, he clashes quickly with their old schoolmate, Caballo, which makes Caballo retaliate harshly and make their lives miserable. Julian later reveals that he mostly blames Gordo for their troubles.

Gordo often looks to Alquilino to back him up on his impulsive decisions, which shows how much he values his brother’s support: “No one is going to boss us around, right Alquilino?” (76). They are very different, but later in the novel, he learns to think before acting like Alquilino. When Gordo is pitching to Caballo and is warned that a strike out will get Caballo angry enough to send them away, he lets Caballo win. He swallows his pride because he knows it will keep his brothers together. Slowly, he learns to prioritize family over anger, and Julian respects him more for it.

Caballo is the boys’ old classmate from Havana who they discover is now in charge of keeping order at the refugee camp in Miami. He is brash, vindictive, and obsessed with winning. His real name is Romeo, but he violently forces everyone to call him by his chosen nickname, which means “horse,” and implies he wants people to think he is powerful: “…he was the only kid we knew that chose his own nickname; everybody else had a nickname given to him or her. It was something that followed you around like a stray dog” (63). The children do not respect him, but they fear him because he has the approval of the camp director to enforce his rules however he wants.

Even though he is mostly cruel, we see some developing humanity in him. For example, he shows remorse when he accidentally hurts Angelita and when he cannot convince the director to postpone sending Gordo and Alquilino to Denver. Still, his callous behavior is comparable on a miniature scale to dictatorships in Cuba that pushed its people to revolution. Dolores, the camp cook, easily sees this connection: “[...] Caballo is just like the old dictator that flew away and the one who took over. Nobody voted them in and you can’t vote them out. That’s a dictator for you” (138). She encourages Julian and Angelita to form a revolution based in democracy, much like what the people of Cuba are fighting for.

Later, we learn Caballo has been sent to Denver and is no longer the boss; he has been knocked down by someone bigger.