Los Lazos Familiares

Often throughout Diaz’s work in Drown, the focus on Dominican manhood comes into very close contact with the family dynamics in the Dominican Republic.  We see through Yunior’s stories, changing in setting from the D.R. to Nueva York, that the unspoken rules governing family structure and its specific hierarchical scheme significantly impact the development of Yunior and Rafa.  As children, Yunior and Rafa have deeply contrasting personalities.  Rafa is physically intimidating and rough-edged, whereas Yunior struggles to detach himself from his relationship to his mother, something that it is made obvious all Dominican boys must do.

Yunior in particular experiences severe emotional strain whenever he feels that the family is becoming separated.  As a child, he throws tantrums when Mami will no longer show him pictures of Papi, although it is clear that she is attempting to shield his emotions from even more severe damage given the unpredictable nature of Papi’s promises.  Yunior is acutely aware that “distances can easily harden” (Aguantando), and he fears that his only stable social system might fall apart at a moment’s notice.  Rafa seems to be less aware of this threatening situation, although it might be more accurate to assume that he merely hides his true awareness behind a rougher façade of masculinity.  Although it appears that Rafa grows weary of his younger brother’s instability, Diaz makes it well-defined that Rafa knows the importance of the family unit.  Upon their reuniting from different sets of tias and tios homes, Rafa makes sure to break any ice that might remain between his brother and him with a playful, “How ya doin’ Yunior, you miss me or what?”, a gesture no doubt appreciated by the more socially cautious younger sibling.

Following the family’s move to Nueva York, these traditional rules of the system carry over in many ways.  Papi maintains a tight grip on the family pocketbook, agenda, and oftentimes morale, even as he proceeds to less than discreetly fool around with the Puerto Rican woman around the block.  Despite knowing this, Yunior and Rafa dare not speak a word to their mother or anyone else, for fear of harsh physical repercussions.  In this family, a secret remains unspoken until the patriarch deems it ready to bring into open forum, and even then the conversation is hardly a balanced one.  The patriarchal role in Dominican family units is one of almost complete judiciary power.  As shown in “Fiesta, 1980”, Papi does not feel it necessary to provide any explanation for his punishment of Yunior, preferring to leave the reasoning to back room whisperings on the topic of his stern disciplinary hand.  As these boys grow older, they inherit this type of behavior from their father, and become what they had always feared as a child.  The cycle continues, and no one asks questions.