Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings

“Four Years Before I Existed” consists of a single narrative poem that tells the story of the first meeting between the narrator’s mother and father in Cuba. Her father is an art student from Los Angeles, California, who speaks English, and her mother is an artist from Trinidad, Cuba, who speaks Spanish.

Despite speaking a different language, her father patiently courts her mother before asking her to marry him. She rejects the proposal. He proposes once again. As he is about to give up, her mother explains that it is the tradition of her small village to reject a suitor three times before accepting marriage to illustrate the value of the woman’s hand. The narrator describes her mother’s acceptance as her mother’s first act of bravery.

“Flight” through “More Love at First Sight” describe the narrator’s first visit to Cuba when she and her sister are very young. “Flight” describes the trip by plane as well as her first impression of Abuelita and the people of Cuba. It concludes by comparing Cuba to a “fairy-tale kingdom” (7). “Voice” describes the sound of the exotic songbirds kept in cages all around. The narrator compares her