Jubana!
Authors: Gigi Anders
The Awkwardly True and Dazzling Adventures of a Jewish Cubana Goddess
To the memories of my Jubana baby sister, Cecilia,
and to Valerie, my North American WASP cousin who saved me.
Con cariño.
I
t's the classic Latina position: Be pretty, get married, and shut the fuck up.
I am not a classic Latina.
I am a Jubana, a Cuban Jewess.
And when you're a
bride-to-be
Jubana, you have to know you're heading straight into the mondo bizarro jaws of cross-cultural hell. Especially if, like me, you're an only child (which I am, except for my two American-born younger brothers). My mother, Ana, also a Cuban-born only daughter with two brothers, was treated by her indulgent parents like the quintessential Jewish Cuban Princess (JCP) she was and would always be, Fidel Castro's revolution be damned. The princess royal's parents, Boris and Dora, had emigrated as destitute teenagers from Russia and Lithuania to Cuba in the early 1920s. And just like my Polish-born paternal grandparents, Leon and Zelda, they spoke Yiddish and Hebrew with Cuban accents, Spanish with Yiddish accents, and English with Yiddish-Cuban accents.
Boris, born Boruch Benes, was a self-made man and Reform
Jew. He started out selling handkerchiefs, bolts of lace, and fabrics, and eventually became the wildly prosperous owner of Camisetas Perro (literally translated, Dog Undershirtsâit sounds way better in
Español
), sort of the Victoria's (and Victor's) Secret of its day. He and Dora threw their only daughter the grandest marital bash of that winter season. At my mother's 1954 December wedding in Havana there were 750 guests. That's
muchos
silk undies. (Think wedding in
Goodbye, Columbus,
only everyone sounded like Ricky Ricardo or Ricky Ricardo with a Yiddish accent.) Mami's only job on that day was to show up in perfect makeup; a heavy, white, hand-embroidered velvet dress; smile; and do whatever she was told. Which she did. She agreed to have virtually zero input but her attractive presence and choice in groom.
But I've examined Mami's hand-tinted bridal portrait in my parents' Silver Spring, Maryland, living room. I know what really lies behind the twenty-one-year-old bride's crimson-colored smile.
“I'm goheengh to get joo, sohkehr.”
The “joo” would beâ¦who? My father? Well, that was a given. My father, David, has never been able to say the word
no
to my mother. Indeed, that was a very strong selling point to get him on her short list. Because in case of doubt, worship works on JCPs.
Was
I
the sohkehr she was gonna get? Probably, though I wasn't born yet. Mami always said that until she had me, she could wear bikinis. Thanks to me, she, who was otherwise beautiful and perfect, was
deesfeegur-ed
with ugly, permanent stretch marks, and forever relegated to maillots.
That is hard-core guilt. That is the classic Jewish way. Be alive and be guiltyâover what exactly, no one knows and it really doesn't matter anyway. Just be it.
As a result of the disfigurement and due to the presence of my
vulva instead of (the infinitely more desirable, powerful, valuable, and superior) penis, I was subjectedâjust as Mami had been back in her dayâto control and guilt, the respective Latin and Jewish mega-bullies. Not that any of us are bitter or anything.
Now, intellectually, we all in my family realize we've been out of Cuba, our homeland, for well over forty years. We understand things have, you know, changed. Today's typical bride is well past twenty-one and is the primary choreographer of her own damn wedding. The parents' primary contribution is to pay for some or all of it and to consider that payment a gift.
Under normal circumstances, with at least seminormal parents (i.e., parents who aren't the children of Cuban Jews and didn't experience in their own lives yet another generation of political/emotional/geographic dislocation at a tender age, and who, as a result, are terminally nuts), “gift” would mean, uh, “gift.” But in my case, the planning and execution of my wedding is an all-out conflict, an estrogen-espresso-propulsed struggle for power and control.
I'm sitting with my parents in their family room, going over the guest list. My fiancé has wisely chosen to be suddenly indisposed elsewhere in the country. Neither his relatives nor any of our respective friends' names appear on that list. Mami's going for a Kool (she's the only white person I know of who smokes that brand) and her five millionth cup of jet fuel, aka espresso. Papi is spaced out on the couch, absorbed in the Redskins' latest near-perfect losing streak.
“Dahveed!” Mami commands Papi. “Come over here an' look at our lees. We wan' joor eenpoot.”
“No we don't,” I tell her, lighting a Parliament and reaching for a TaB. So delicious and soothing, this ritual. My vegetable and carbonated-water diet has kept me going for a good thirty years. I consider it a religion, really. I've actually turned down jobs and
spurned relationships because they weren't located near TaB access.
Mami scowls at me.
“Dad,” I continue, exhaling, “couldn't care less.”
“Dad kehrz! He kehrz a LOT. Dahveed! Show joor daughter joo KEHR.”
Dad looks up wanly and reluctantly joins us.
“Now look,” Mami says, pushing the huge list in front of him. It's on a legal pad she stole from work. Mami isn't one to “buy” things. Actually, she resents having to pay for anything. She believes she should be exempt because Castro took everything away from her. Therefore, she's special. Very special. Castro made her an exiled victim, and she's pissed about it. Cubanly pissed. The kind of pissed you don't get over. And that's why she feels entitled to steal. People who pay for things, like people who voluntarily slow down at yellow lights, are “total sohkehrz.”
Papi barely glances at the list. I know what he's thinking:
I love Gigi but my Redskins are on and this is girlie shit and I'm gonna wind up having to sell one or both of my
huevos
to finance this fucking fiesta. But if I don't, I'll feel too guilty to live. Why do broads make such a fuss overâHey! Was that OUR touchdown or theirs?!?
“Dahveed! Where are joo goheengh?”
Dad's back on the couch, body coiled, fist in mouth, remote at the ready.
“Mom, he wants to watch the game. Forget it, okay? Now let's get back to this list. What about my friends? What about my man's friends and family? I don't see them on here. That's at least another fifty, sixty guests right there.”
“What friends? Hees who? Anyway, dat ees sooo totally boreengh. Less move ON.”
She pulls out a fresh sheet of paper.
“Okay, less focus on de foo'. I lohv stahrteengh weeth gehfeelteh feeshy.”
“Are you insane? We're Reform. We are not having gefilte fish as an appetizer. I'm sorry, it's gross. Gefilte fish isâ¦
gray.
It's suspended in
gelatin.
It comes in a
jar.
It's like Fish Food, like, the Mystery Fish. You know how, like, at the supermarket they have that cheese called âCheese Food'? That's what this is.”
As usual, my mother has absolutely no idea what I'm talking about and even less interest. The woman does not believe in groceries. I don't mean she steals food at the supermarket. I mean she does not believe in groceries. As long as she's got her espresso, Kools, and a table in the smoking section at the Cheese-cake Factory, she's good to go.
“I lohv gehfeelteh feeshy,” Mami continues, oblivious to all but her own preferences. “Ees dehleeshohs. Ees one of my favoreet foo's. Actually, I weesh I ate eet all jear aroun', ees so goo'.”
For the nine billionth time, I realize that I, like poor dead JFK during the misbegotten 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, am deluded to think I have any real chance of reaching compromise, much less victory over the dictator. Yet I, designated sohkehr, foolishly press on, thus ensuring I'll be got. Just like my fellow Cuban refugee sohkehrz who were haplessly overwhelmed and killed by Castro's army. The lucky ones got taken prisoner and had to drink their own urine to stay alive.
“I was thinking,” I said, reaching for another TaB, “that since this is a Jewish AND Cuban wedding, it's key to serve typically Cuban foods. Tell you what. I'll give youâuchâgefilte fish if you'll let me have shrimp in
mojito
[garlic, onion, and olive oil] sauce and
croquetas de jamón
[ham croquettes].”
“Are joo KREHSEE?” she cried. “Chehlfeesh and pork at a Jeweesh weddeengh? Weeth de RABBI der?
Estás loca?”
Are you crazy?
“Why? We're REFORM Jew Cubans. I mean, hello. This is
whose
wedding?”
“Mine! Ees all mine, mine, mine!
El que paga, manda.
Whoever has de money has de power!”
Â
Since I am a Jubana, my culturally imposed and sole raison d'être is to replicate all things Mami, who is deemed the archetype of Jewish and Latina femininity. However, I personally cannot recall a single instance in my youth when I fantasized about my wedding day. Not the dress, not the ring, not the groom,
nada.
Obviously, that meant there was something wrong with me. I was interested in books, poetry, writing, animals, TaB, fashion and celebrity magazines, TV, music, cooking, cigarettes, and movies. But Mami
had
imagined that magical conjugal scenario for me, right down to the gehfeelteh feeshy, over and over from the moment of my conceptionâone of the only times the woman has ever planned ahead. That was what her mother had done with her, and her mother before her, and so on and so on, all the way to Creation.
My point, and I swear to God I have one, is that there are really only three things you can do with a Jubana baby daughter, and these were all premeditated while I was still floating blissfully unaware in Mami's womb:
- Control Gigi's life and appearance (somebody's got to).
- Plan out Gigi's wedding (a party for Mami and her 750 closest friends!).
- Figure out how to afterward cram said 750 into
la sala,
the living room, for the baby shower(s).
That's the drill, that's the deal, that's the traditional Juban Way. The only way for a girl.
That's why I'm here.
Verdad?
You might think that by now assimilation would have smoothed out all my Jubanity. Honey, I've tried melting into that so-called melting pot. Nothing happened. I stuck out like an unkillable pig bone in a stew of mushy black beans, or frizz-prone hair on a rainy day. As Mami Dearest says, “Honey, joo could put a paper bag over joor hayt an' guess what? Jood steel be conspeekuohs.”
Â
Life has its rules, and the first one I learned is that it's never too early to worry about your appearance. How else are you gonna get some high-income sohkehr to marry you? So this is what you need to understand about Juban girl babyhood: You learn pretty much everything you need to know about life long before your third birthday. For starters, you automatically have your ears pierced before you ever leave the maternity ward with your mother. They give you about one carefree postbirth day of infant fun and thenâPRICK. It's the female equivalent of a bris. There is no such thing as a Jubana baby without pierced ears bearing tiny pearls/diamonds/gold balls. That teaches us gals that beauty equals pain and you'll have many different kinds and degrees of it for the rest of your life.
For even the humblest of Jubanasâand trust me, humility is not a salient feature of our personality profileâbeing obsessively meticulous about beauty is a given. Beauty is never frivolous. In our scheme of priorities, lipstick always trumps, like, food. About that, Mami Dearest would say, “Das so ohbveeohs, ees reh
deecoolohs.” What some unfortunate non-Jubanas might consider self-indulgentâunderstanding the concept of and need for bidets; eschewing hair coloring you can buy at the drugstore; and always wearing good perfume on your body AND in your hair (even if you're alone)âis for us imperative.
That last item can start right at birth, sometimes even BEFORE the ear piercing, depending on a Jubana baby's hair presence or lack thereof. When I was born, I emerged into La Habana's pretty world and what would have been a charmed life, had Feedehl Castro not happened, with an abnormally huge head (it runs in the family) full of thick auburn hair with golden-red highlights. This was a source of intense pride and excitement for my glamorous redheaded Mami, who considers any hint of red in hair ohbveeohsly superior. She sent for the Agua de Violetas at once.
Hair is good. Hair with Agua de Violetas in it is better. Agua de Violetas. Violet water. A topaz-colored eau de cologne for the hair. As Dora had done for her, Mami anointed me with the lovely solution that streamed in cool rivulets down my scalp, flushing the air with the refreshing, comforting fragrance of cut oranges and fresh violets.
When Mami and her girlfriends were growing up in the forties and fifties, they all wore it, and when they had their babies, they'd give bottles of Violetas as shower gifts. Piled on the mothers' beds were the rectangular boxes containing the elegant bottles, the “Fragrance for the Young,” as it reads on every label. Back then, it was known as Violetas Russas, Russian Violets. And the lettering on the labels of the bottles was done in 24-karat gold leaf. Yet it wasn't expensive: about $2 for a five-ounce bottle. A Havana perfumer named AgustÃn Reyes created it in the 1920s, and it became an instant, permanent hit all across the island. (It wasn't only for babies' hair, either. Men used it as an aftershave and women sprinkled their bed linens with it.)
The initiation into Jubana femininity and identity officially began with Violetas. Later in life, Americanos would always comment on the “exotic” smell of my hair. Even now, if I need that Proustian madeleine-itude, I just reach for the bottleâof Violetasâand twist off the cap. I take a deep breath. My whole body relaxes. It's almost as good as Ativan, my pharmaceutical sedative of choice. Holly Golightly required a taxi ride to Tiffany to calm her nerves. She said something like, “Isn't [Tiffany's] marvelous? You feel as though nothing bad could ever happen to you here.” That's how Agua de Violetas makes me feel (although I totally respect the Tiffany's mentality, too). Speaking of which, Mami loved
Breakfast at Tiffany's
so much that she nicknamed me Lulamae, Audrey Hepburn's character's “real” name. She still starts e-mails to me with
“Querida Lula Mae”
or
“Querida Luli,”
insisting that Truman Capote and Hollywood misspelled it, not she.