Anna In The Tropics

The act opens with Conchita and Juan Julian on a table at the factory, making love. Juan Julian suggests to Conchita that they meet elsewhere, a hotel or in his room, when they hear Cheché’s voice arguing with Ofelia about the factory. Cheché has brought a cigar-rolling machine into the factory, and Ofelia refuses to accept that “all these other cigar companies have the leads” (49), thanks to their choice to modernize. Marela supports her mother against Cheché and corrects Cheché in front of the workers when he says that the factory has had to lose two employees due to bad sales: “One employee, Cheché. The other one was your wife and she left on her own accord” (50). Chechédisparages the old traditions of cigar rolling, and Palomo enters the discussion on Cheché’s side. Cheché continues his rant against tradition by adding that he “is not interested in giving any more money from my pocket, from my wages to listen to a lector read me romantic novels” (52). Juan Julian defends his role and warns Cheché that “modernity is actually destroying our very own industry. The very act of smoking a cigar” (53). Santiago appears and announces that “[w]e are not getting rid of Juan Julian…and [w]e are coming up with a new cigar brand and it will be called Anna Karenina” (55). After paying Cheché the money he owes him, Santiago tells Cheché that buying machines is “out of the question” (56). Cheché’s becomes despondent, talking about Mildred’s abandonment of their marriage and complaining that “there’s this moron reading the same story every day to remind me of her. And I hate it! I hate him!” (58). Marela comes onto the scene dressed as Anna Karenina, as she will be the model for the new cigar label, and after Santiago and Juan Julian both admire her beauty, she is left alone with Cheché. He talks with her in a suggestive way, disturbing Marela by talking about “the wet lick of [her] tongue” (61) and by trying to touch and kiss her. She violently rejects his advances, leaving the floor of the factory, screaming, “[d]on’t you ever touch me again!” (62).

In Scene 2, Palomo and Conchita discuss Conchita’s affair with the lector as Juan Julian reads from the novel in the background. Palomo wants to know everything about Conchita’s love affair, and she is brutally open with him, even going as far as to say, “[w]hen he pounds so hard inside me as if to kill me” (63). Palomo remarks on how changed Conchita seems, and he asks her to “[s]how me what he did to you and how he did it” (65), and they leave together as Conchita “traces Palomo’s neck and shoulders with her hand” (65).

Scene 3 portrays the factory workers at a party in celebration of the new cigar brand, Anna Karenina. Ofelia feels nervous, explaining that “when I get excited, [my heart] wants to swim out of my chest” (66). Palomo and Cheché enter as Palomo tells Cheché about Conchita’s affair with Juan Julian, which causes Cheché to encourage Palomo to leave town, which Cheché wishes he had done with Mildred, where “there are no lectors and no good-for-nothing love stories, which put ideas into women’s heads and ants inside their pants” (67). When Juan Julian appears, Palomo tries to bait him with questions about Anna’s lover in the novel, and Juan Julian refuses to take the bait, explaining that “[s]he came to him because she thought that he could help her…[h]elp her to love again” (68). When Conchita arrives, Palomo compliments her, and Juan Julian makes a gesture of approval. Marela emerges, looking like Anna Karenina in her black gown, and everyone samples the new cigar. Santiago “propose[s] a gunshot” (73) in giddy celebration.

In the chaos of the gunshots, Palomo’s jealousy rises, and he accuses Conchita of “looking at him the whole night” (74). Then he insists that Conchita “go back to him and tell him you want to make love like a knife…[b]ecause everything has to be killed” (74). Santiago and Ofelia leave the party, happy and slightly inebriated, and Palomo and Conchita exit as well, leaving Marela and Juan Julian to talk privately. Marela confesses her feelings to the lector in metaphors, saying she would like to collect in a jar “[t]he first time you read and the day you walked me to the pharmacy” (77). He responds to Marela’s innocent and adoring words with gentle affection, kissing her face goodnight. Cheché “emerges from the shadows” (78) and “grabs her arm” (78) as Marela reads from Juan Julian’s copy of Anna Karenina.

The next morning, in Scene 4, Conchita and Palomo are at the factory with Santiago and Ofelia, wondering where Cheché might be. Marela arrives, “wearing the long coat” (80), and “in a state of dismay” (81). Juan Julian begins to read as everyone starts to roll cigars, so no one notices when Cheché arrives and “pulls out a gun” (81). He shoots Juan Julian twice, killing him.

Scene 5 takes place three days later. Everyone is back at work at the factory. Ofelia laments the silence: “[c]an someone read? We are listeners!” (82). Santiago comments on the silence as well, explaining that “Juan Julian died before his time, and the shadows of the young are heavier and they linger over the earth like a cloud” (82). Marela tearfully wishes to put a spell on Juan Julian’s spirit so it knows that “he is welcomed in this factory” (82). Palomo responds to the requests for a reader by volunteering to be the lector, and the play ends as he reads a line from Anna Karenina about Anna’s husband, who wants “to write everything he’d been meaning to tell her” in a letter to his wife.