Is it Fuku or LIfe?

From the preface to the very end of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao the idea of fuku is constantly brought up and interwoven into the story. The premise seems to be that since Abelard's refusal to bring his daughter to Trujillo's party, his family and descendants have been plagued by an awful curse or fuku. While many of the older generation of the Dominican may strongly believe in fuku in its powers, Lola brings up the point that this curse might just actually be the way life is when she writes, "The curse some of you will say. Life is what I say, life" (209). Diaz, and through his narrator, Yunior, leave readers questioning whether it is this fuku causing the struggles in the characters' lives or if it is simply the life and circumstances these Dominicans face that are to blame. Although an answer is not ever really given, I interpreted that life is the cause of these unfortunate events and that the fuku is a tool Diaz uses to illustrate this idea.
This can first be seen when looking at the Cabral family. As stated, "this great fall" and introduction of the fuku into his family occurs after Abelard refuses to give Trujillo his daughter. After this incident, things certainly do take a very bad turn for the worse. His wife "blinded by her grief" and suffering from "postpartum depression" commits suicide and Jackie shortly after does the same (248). The rest of his family, excluding Beli, dies in weird accidents and even his mistress and servant die shortly after. The fuku is seen continuing on into the next generation, as Oscar endlessly struggles with women and dies willing to have a chance at what he believes to be true love. However, bad things didn't start occurring only after Abelard was defiant to Trujillo; there were still struggles before this whole incident.  While, yes the Cabral family was very wealthy and appears pretty functional, they were facing many problems and issues and the conflict with Trujillo seems to be the tipping point rather than the start of their problems. For example, Abelard's marriage is far from happy. His wife seems to be appalled at many things Abelard does by telling him things like "he resembled a dog sniffing a turd" when exploring the beach (213). Abelard himself does not seem satisfied with the marriage either considering he sought out a mistress and falls to tell his wife any of his concerns with Trujillo. Abelard and his family also always lived in constant fear of Trujillo, even before the incident. It is clear that the family was going through many struggles before the conflict with Trujillo and that the conflict merely magnified these problems.
Another way life seems to be the one to blame is seen in the way Oscar is treated. It seems very likely that it was the way he was raised and treated by his friends that are mostly to blame for his struggles in life and untimely death. Oscar is a far cry from the stereotypical Dominican man. From the very beginning of Oscar's life he "was encouraged by blood and friends alike" to be a "'normal' Dominican boy" (11). Even after it becomes clear that Oscar is not a typical Dominican guy, his family and friends still try hard to change who he is. While Oscar loves to write, this is strange to his mother and she constantly tries to get him to go outside and do things "normal" boys would do. In college, Yunior tries to turn Oscar into a ladies man like himself by trying to get him to lose weight and not be so forward with women. These things cause Oscar never really feel accepted by anyone since everyone wants to change who he is. For this reason, Oscar falls hard for Anna, the gothic girl, and Ybon because for him, they are the only people that don't want to change him and accept him as he is. If Oscar had been raised in a different environment or society where he was more accepted, he likely wouldn't have fallen for Ybon and been willing to die for her and ultimately, he probably wouldn't have died so young. If Oscar had been born in a different life situation, things likely would have been much better for him, regardless of fuku.