The Hispanic Culture And How It Plays A Part In The Short Story Fiesta 1980

Fiesta 1980, written by Junot Diaz, is about a Hispanic family that lives in New York. Their relatives, tнo (uncle) Miguel and tнa(aunt) Yrma, just moved from the Dominican Republic to the United states and therefore they are throwing their aunt and uncle a party. There is much representation on how the Hispanic people really live embedded within this short story. Such as the different roles of each family member, the extreme since of loyalty, actions that benefit everyone, and the different ways of showing affection and celebrating.

In most Hispanic families, the father is head of the household (ohioline) just as in Fiesta. The father is the one who does most of the discipline and pretty much gives the orders around the home. The mother is mostly responsible for raising the children and taking care of the house (ohioline). Just like in the story the father told everyone how things were going to be done and the mother took care of the kids, cleaned, and cooked supper. Everyone in the family has a moral responsibility to help one another. In the story Yunior and his brother Rafa are always looking out or helping one another except when it came to their father. Every time Yunior was getting in trouble by his father Rafa would look away and act as though he didn't know Yunior.

In the Hispanic culture family members almost feel obligated to help one another. While at the party Yunior's father would not let him eat because he always got car sick during the drive, so Yunior's aunt takes him downstairs to get some ice. While they were outside, the aunt gives Yunior three pastelitos that she had snuck out in her pocketbook to eat and asks him how things are at home. She felt that it was her duty to get Yunior away from his father so that he could get some food in his stomach. Also she tried to get some information out of him about if the family was having any problems, but he simply told her that everything was ok. Even towards the end of the story the mother asks Yunior, out of love, if anything was wrong, but again out of the loyalty for his father he told her he was just having trouble in shool.

Hispanic families have strong feelings of loyalty (Hispanic-research) and therefore could not tell his aunt the truth about how the family was doing back at home. Also when Rafa and Yunior found out about their father's Portia Rican mistress, they kept it a secret because of the respect and loyalty they have for their father and they did not want to jeopardize the well being of the entire family. Hispanic people tend to perform actions that benefit the whole as a group rather than focusing on one's self (literacynet). Therefore by not telling anyone about the Portia Rican woman kept the family together and kept them from fighting with one another. While at the party Yunior was the look out boy for his brother Rafa because he was in the room with one of the neighbors girls, so Yunior was pretty much just helping his brother out by making sure no one came into the room or at least warn Rafa if someone was coming.

Hispanic people love to celebrate many different occasions with music, food, friends and family members, and dancing. The main plot behind this story is that the family