Fiesta 1980 by Junot Diaz

Fiesta 1980 by Junot Diaz is a story about a boy and his family events during their time in their new home. Junot Diaz writes a story about an immigrant family that struggles through changes in culture and other ways, were the only way to survive is to adapt. This story is narrated in 1st person by a Dominican boy, talking about his family experiences while remembering different family memories at the same time. The immigrant family from the Dominican Republic consists of Papi, Mami, Rafa, Mandai and Yunior. The story takes place in Bronx, NY in the 1980’s when Yunior the protagonist of the story and his family decides to visit Tía Yrma and Tío Miguel after Tia Yrma finally made it to the U.S.

Through the entire story the author reminds the reader about the heritage of the family by introducing the reader with some words or spelling that the author uses. For example how he plays with the Y instead of having a J for Junior or the letter I for Irma. This way Junot Diaz tries to connect with the reader by expressing the language of our characters with the correct way of pronunciation in the Spanish form. At the same time our characters use Spanish words in the story at all moment, so we can remember that even though they left their home country behind their culture is still present with them in the United States.

Through the story the author remarks different symbols that have a larger literary meaning, that stand for some ideas and emotions of the characters. One of the symbols seen in the story is the constant vomiting of Yunior in no other car but the lime green VW that his father bought to impress. Yunior even stands out in page 97 in the last paragraph “I´d never had trouble with cars before- That van was like my curse.” The vomiting in the lime green car is a representation of repulsiveness of not very pleasant memories occurred in that same car. In the story in this same setting is when Yunior and his brother Rafa are aware of the relationship