Fiesta, 1980 by Junot Díaz

Fiesta, 1980 Reviews

• 
  Alex

  I really, really hated this story. Beyond the relentlessly bleak characterization of the despicable excuse of a father who won't let his son eat before car trips and who beats him for getting carsick, and beyond the unsatisfying resolution, there are flippant remarks about casually listening to the upstairs neighbors "beating the crap out of their kids" for an entire afternoon. To me, depicting child abuse in such a nonchalant way is not adding gritty realism to the piece--it's just disgusting. It desensitizes people to the true horror of child abuse and makes it seem like it's something that we can (should) shrug our shoulders at. And for those of us who experienced real child abuse firsthand growing up, it's a trigger to relive those traumatic moments.
  
  Contrary to popular belief, stories like these are not a credit to the writing profession simply because they shamelessly play with our emotions through the cheapest of possible means. This is a cheap story by a talented author who should know better.
• 
  Jennifer Wachowski

  I’m not sure if the copy I got wasn’t complete, but I would’ve loved to see the final outcome of what happened. I would’ve loved it even more if Yunior’s mother would’ve beaten the shit out of her husbands whore.
• 
  Anthony

  A tale told by twelve year old Yunior who suffers from motion sickness, whenever he rides in his father's van. As the family prepares to attend a party at his Tio, and Tia's house who has recently arrived from the Dominican Republic, Yunior's abusive Papi refuses to let him eat anything before, or during the party. Yunior spends most of the party alone recalling his Papi's affair with a Puerto Rican woman, that both he and his older brother is aware of.
• 
  Jonathan

  A boy's account of his toxic father on the evening of a family party. I love the raw language, the strong voice of the character, and how so much is encapsulated in one evening.
• 
  Gertrud Soone

  "papi was a voracious reader, couldn't even go cheating without a paperback in his pocket."
• 
  Niki Rowland

  "Papi was a voracious reader, couldn't even go cheating without a paperback in his pocket."
• 
  Alekhya Bhat

  I loved the emphasis on how change has been integrated into this family and is tied to resentment in its performative-ness (the van: "brand-new, lime-green and bought to impress"). I also liked the emphasis on machismo and pride, and the stereotypes associated with the familial roles, with the machismo tied with infidelity and abuse. I also enjoyed the awareness that the way that Mami and Papi interact with each other and others is less determined by themselves and more a result of their cultural notions about how men and women are meant to interact with each other based on these familial stereotypes. I want to know what the balance was like in terms of creating a child with self-awareness without the background knowledge of societal implications and the assumptions based on "tradition," and would love to have a broader discussion on Yunior's feminist (?) sentiments associated with recognizing that the ways in which the family interacts as predetermined or specific to their family.
• 
  Laurie

  The pain and hardship in the life of a young boy whose family are immigrants from the Dominican Republic is palpable. Yunior, his siblings, and his mom have to be careful around his violent and temperamental father. On a night his family visits relatives across town for dinner and dancing, it should be fun for Yunior but there is no guarantee as he knows all too well.
• 
  Amanda

  The passiveness of all the characters in this story was disturbing. It made abuse seem like a regular, everyday thing and like the abusive father was the victim instead of the people he was abusing. The lack of resolution to the story made it worse.
• 
  Liana

  i truly enjoyed the characterization and the writing style and the connection i felt to the Spanish culture presented in the reading
• 
  Sophia

  I'll never be tired of nausea as a metaphor