payment page
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
Communion Wafers
In the novel, communion wafers symbolize subservience and acquiescence of self to the higher order of religion. Xiomara sees the act of taking communion as accepting God and being obedient to the Catholic faith. When Xiomara takes communion, she does so out of obedience rather than as an affirmation of a faith she embraces. She understands that it is performative on her part but continues to take communion because she’s afraid of confronting Mami. When Xiomara refuses to rise and go to the altar for communion, the act indicates an open rebellion not only against the church but against Mami. After being chastised and threatened by Mami, Xiomara goes back to accepting the wafers, but she secretly spits them out.
By continuing to give the appearance of a faith she does not feel, Xiomara shows that while she knows she does not accept her mother’s religion, she is not ready to continue openly challenging and defying Mami. Like the poetry in her notebook, Xiomara’s rejection of Catholicism is something she is not ready to share and fight for. However, when Father Sean tells Mami that Xiomara should not be forced to participate in confirmation, she begins secretly going to poetry club instead of confirmation class. Like spitting out and hiding the communion wafers, Xiomara’s participation in poetry club represents steps on her journey to autonomy and independence. Choosing not to take communion leads to Xiomara taking further steps away from the church and closer to what she ultimately considers her expression of faith and spirituality, her writing.
The Smoke Park
The smoke park symbolizes escape and forbidden desire. It's a secluded place away from her mother’s watchful eye where Xiomara can spend time with Aman is an Edenic place of perfection for Xiomara. At the smoke park, Xiomara has a place where she can share her poetry for the first time. Like the Biblical figure of Eve, however, Xiomara lives in a state of unsustainable naivety. Just as Eve explored curiosities about the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, so, too, does Xiomara in the smoke park. It is here that Xiomara tests the boundaries of her beliefs about her body and explores a physical relationship with her first boyfriend, progressing from holding hands to kissing to making out. Fueled by the forbidden fruits of desire and physical connection, Xiomara pushes through boundaries Mami has conditioned her to believe are necessary for her soul to remain pure. Instead of being a temptress for others to sin like Eve in the Biblical Eden who seduced Adam with the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, Xiomara is the one being tempted. Still, she gains knowledge and has control over her ability to define her own definition of what she considers good and acceptable.
Xiomara’s Baby Bracelet
The baby bracelet symbolizes the unbreakable mother / daughter bond between Xiomara and Mami. When Mami gives Xiomara the bracelet as a child, it is engraved with my daughter. The bracelet is one of Xiomara’s most treasured childhood possessions, but when Mami has the bracelet resized and gifts it to Xiomara as a Christmas gift early in the novel, the bracelet symbolizes ownership over her daughter. Mami neither recognizes nor affirms her teenage daughter’s autonomy. To Mami, Xiomara is an extension of her, and Xiomara has no right to her identity. When Mami burns Xiomara’s notebook, symbolically trying to obliterate all the things she does not approve of in Xiomara, the baby bracelet breaks, indicating a severance in their relationship due to Mami’s rejection of Xiomara.
However, once Mami and Xiomara enter counseling with Father Sean and begin trying to repair their relationship, Mami has the bracelet mended and returns it to Xiomara, showing she wants to also mend their relationship. For Xiomara, she sees the bracelet as symbolic because it was broken and will always bear the mark of the break, but the effort Mami took to have it fixed shows they can move forward in their relationship just as Xiomara can once again wear the bracelet.
The Virgin Mary
The Virgin Mary symbolizes Xiomara’s disillusionment with how women are perceived within the Catholic faith. Mary is representative of the perfect vessel for God’s love, a figure Mami aspires to and that Xiomara falls short next to. During Mass, Xiomara observes the irony that Mary, her intended role model, is a pregnant teenage virgin and who was likely terrified. Xiomara also reflects that Mary looks nothing like her, making it even more difficult to connect with or relate to such an image of holy perfection. Later, when Mami forces Xiomara to kneel in front of her statue of the Virgin Mary, Xiomara is face to face with the symbol that makes her feel the weight of all her own imperfections. Instead of being inspired and encouraged by Mary, Xiomara feels small and insignificant, relating herself to an ant. Since Mary is a symbol of peace and love’s perfection, Mami’s abuse of Xiomara at the base of the altar is truly ironic.
