Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings

The narrative includes a motif of Storytelling and Poetry that emphasizes the influence of storytelling and books upon the author, which develops into a love of writing and poetry. This motif develops multiple themes in the memoir through symbolism for imagination, inspiration, and creativity.

In Part 3’s “Storytellers,” the author describes the different storytellers and stories that she hears. This highlights the oral storytelling tradition and develops the Storytelling and Poetry motif. While she describes the importance of oral stories in sharing the oral history of her family, the final stanza of “Storytellers” also relies upon the recurring image of bearded men as soldiers and evidence of the war who tell stories that “scare [her] a lot more than spiders” (81). This alludes to “Tarantulas and Scorpions,” which appears just after “Los Barbudos/The Bearded Ones” earlier in Part 3, reinforcing the unity of the rising action as a series of juxtapositions between isolation and belonging as well as a growing atmosphere of disillusionment.

Part 3, Poem 16 completes the development of this motif by distinguishing between the oral and written influence in the author’s life. She describes her disbelief that she can survive an entire summer without “finding / the familiar / old magic / of books” (82). She follows this by noting that “storytelling seems / like magic too—a new form” (82). The word choice in “More and More Stories” is another example of writing as magic, reinforcing Cuba as a symbol of inspiration to the author, who wonders if she will “ever be brave enough / to tell old-new tales / in [her] own way” (82).

Horses are a symbol of freedom that sometimes juxtaposes and sometimes parallels flight within the Enchanted Air, Wings, and Flight motif and the Travel theme. The arrangement of three poems hint at the dual function of this symbolism in “Horse Crazy,” “Earth Bound,” and “Runaway Horses.”

In “Horse Crazy,” the author links her love of horseback riding with daydreaming, comparing the galloping of horses to flying, an image that alludes to “Wings,” a poem that describes the galloping of horses as moments of flight: “Four hooves in the sky. / Then down again. / Winged” (34). “Earthbound” immediately juxtaposes the imagery introduced in “Horse Crazy” by describing their vacation to Mexico that year as “flightless” to convey her disappointment in the change in travel plans. “Runaway Horses” follows “Earthbound” and describes the terror she feels when the horse her family rents becomes frightened and gallops back down the side of a volcano. Her description of “galloping / back downhill” contrasts with galloping as a metaphor for flight and freedom (38). This arrangement foreshadows an important change in symbolism that demonstrates the author’s changing perspective throughout the memoir. The transition in horse symbolism occurs when the author acquires a less nostalgic view of Cuba, and horses replace Cuba as a symbol for freedom and inspiration, especially within the Storytelling and Poetry motif.

In Part 3, “El Rodeo/The Roundup,” “Waiting My Turn,” “My Grandmother’s Mare,” and “Breath” complete the transition of inspirational symbolism from Cuba to Horses. After accepting the harsh realities of Cuban life, horses become a more important symbol of inspiration. Horses represent freedom and creativity to the author once she accepts that cultural oppression and other everyday problems and strife exist in Cuba as well as the US.