Previous
Chapter 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Clap When You Land, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Family
Secrets
Grief
Money, Security, and Immigration
Growing Up and Sexual Violence
Summary
Analysis
There’s still no news of survivors a day after the crash, but Camino’s friend Carline visits. Carline’s pregnant belly gets in the way of their hug, and Camino is a bit afraid she’ll break her friend—or that she herself will break. Carline has lost many family members and tells Camino that God will help—but Carline still has both parents. Camino doesn’t think Carline can understand what she’s going through, but she keeps thoughts to herself. Carline leaves when her manager at the resort calls, wondering where she is. Once Carline is gone, Tía watches TV, holding Don Mateo’s hands.
Opening this passage with the fact that there’s no news about survivors indicates that Camino is clinging to any hope that Papi might have survived the crash. This is all that feels real and useful to her, so it’s hard to take Carline seriously when Carline tries to offer her support. Still, that Carline visits and tries to help Camino (and that Don Mateo comes to sit with Tía) highlights that Camino has an extensive support network at home.
Themes
Everyone in the neighborhood knew Papi. The hustlers, fruit sellers, and the people Tía has healed all converge outside Tía and Camino’s teal house to hold a vigil. As they pray, Camino tries not to suffocate—it seems like the crowd expects her to fall apart. Camino and Tía’s house is the nicest house in the neighborhood, thanks to Papi. He initially wanted them to move, but Tía insisted on staying and serving the community. So, Papi bought them locks, installed a bathroom, and got them appliances, including a generator. The generator is a big deal, as their house is the only one with electricity when the power goes out. Now, though, it feels like their house is dark.
This poem highlights just how integral Tía, Camino, and Papi are (or were) in their neighborhood. Everyone comes together to begin to grieve—but while others might find this comforting, Camino finds it overbearing and emotionally difficult. At this point, it doesn’t feel to her like communal grieving is going to do anything to help her move on. Papi was also clearly very respectful of Tía’s wishes, hence improving the house rather than insisting that Tía and Camino move.
Themes
Tía and Camino’s house has two bedrooms, a dining room, and a kitchen. There’s a patio, and the floors are tile, not dirt. Papi provided luxuries, like a TV and Wi-Fi. The best thing about the house, though, is that it’s only a few minutes to the beach. It’s not great in times of flood, but it saves Camino’s life by reminding her that “there is a life for [her] beyond the water.” Now, she pulls on her red swimsuit, sneaks out the back door, and hurries to the beach; Vira Lata follows her. Camino passes a few men sitting in front of bars, including El Cero. When Camino turned 13, Papi began paying El Cero to leave her alone. Recently, though, she’s noticed him watching her. Camino ignores his gaze and hurries to the beach, which Papi used to call “Camino’s Playa.” She wades into the water.
Once again, Camino makes it clear that she loves her life in the Dominican Republic, though living in this country sometimes makes life more difficult: it’s great to be so close to her favorite swimming spot, but during hurricane season, staying safe becomes more difficult. Camino’s spotting of El Cero implies that staying safe is going to continue to get harder—it’s impossible to say what will happen now that Papi isn’t around to pay El Cero off. His death (and inability to protect her), and Camino’s burgeoning maturity, are putting Camino at risk.
Themes
Camino is certain that swimming is as close to flying as a person can get. In the water, she understands evolution and how everything came from the water. According to Tía, Camino is probably related to a water saint. Camino’s not sure about that, but she knows she feels at home in the water.
The beach offers Camino a place where she can feel at peace, something she doesn’t seem to regularly feel elsewhere in her neighborhood. Even now, as she’s grieving for Papi, being at the beach helps her feel more secure and in control.
Themes
Get the entire Clap When You Land LitChart as a printable PDF.
Papi learned to swim here and often jumped off the tall cliffs nearby. He taught Camino to swim when she was little, and he insisted it’s best to learn in water “that wants to kill you.” Usually he’d just keep an eye on Camino, but sometimes he’d execute an impressive dive and join her. In the water, he became something else, a water creature. He could cut through any current. Camino is certain the ocean shouldn’t be any different than this. Papi had been practicing to survive a hard dive all his life.
Camino elaborates on why this particular beach is so meaningful to her: it holds happy childhood memories of Papi teaching her to swim. However, given how Papi has probably died, the beach doesn’t make Camino feel as good today as it usually does—it just feeds Camino’s denial and unwillingness to acknowledge that Papi is probably gone.
Themes
Camino swims until she’s exhausted. She considers just letting the ocean take her. But she hears a whistle from the beach—it’s El Cero, and he warns her that the beach is dangerous at night. Somehow, Camino knew this was coming. She plans her route out of the water to avoid El Cero, wishing Vira Lata were more aggressive; El Cero, not the water, is the most dangerous thing here. Calmly, Camino grabs her shorts and heads back toward the neighborhood, Vira Lata at her side. She doesn’t want to go back home to the people praying and whispering about Papi. But she knows it’ll be better than whatever El Cero wants, as he’ll “attach conditions to his condolences.”
The way Camino describes knowing that El Cero’s harassment was coming suggests that El Cero has truly been waiting for the right time to pounce on her and begin intimidating her. As Camino sees it, her age, her sex, and her newfound vulnerability (since Papi can’t protect her) makes her a perfect target for a dangerous man like El Cero. Camino still isn’t interested in grieving with others; she doesn’t want to go home and act appropriately sad for all the neighbors. She’d rather feel (or deny) her grief privately for now.
Themes
Papi has never liked that Camino has attracted boys since she was 12, but he was never around to stop her from flirting. Camino ignores the boys in the neighborhood, opting to flirt with American boys at the International School instead. They’re usually obnoxious and fetishize Camino’s “gutter-slick tongue and brownness,” but they’re “safe.” They can’t dance bachata and know nothing about the Dominican Republic. They’ll never be able to understand Camino, so she knows they won’t ever distract her.
Earlier, Camino implied that she resented Papi for being absent so much. Now, however, she suggests that she was grateful that he wasn’t around to police her activities with boys. Camino also implies that she’s not genuinely interested in romance right now; she just wants to have fun with boys who are too mean or ignorant to capture her heart.
Themes
Papi was a hustler, the kind who could “sell water to a fire hydrant.” He’s from this neighborhood and has always made sure Camino and Tía have everything they need. So, though Camino and Tía are better off than their neighbors, they’re poorer than Camino’s classmates. They rely on Western Union for money and wait for Papi to send secondhand sneakers. But Papi worked hard so Camino would “have a throne to inherit.”
Camino describes Papi in reverent, glowing terms: sure, he could probably rip people off if he’s such a skilled salesman, but if he did, he did so to help his daughter and Tía. In other words, Papi does what he does so he can serve others and support his family; being a hustler isn’t self-serving or just an ego boost for him.
Themes
El Cero is a hustler, too, but unlike Papi, he “hustles bodies.” He draws girls in around age 10 with kindness and groceries, and as soon as they start puberty, he “plucks them for his team.” Most people around here think women should be able to engage in sex work if they want—but not if a man is making them. El Cero “gets a first taste” of his girls, and then he takes them to the resort. Foreign men in the country for “sun and sex” then “give thumbs-up or -down to his wares.” They’re still just girls, and they make El Cero’s money for him. As Camino walks away from El Cero and the beach, he calls out that he’s here for her now that Papi is gone. Camino feels cold. She’s sure El Cero still expects payment—and he’d accept something other than money.
Camino didn’t say exactly what kind a hustler Papi was, but she makes it clear that he and El Cero are not at all on the same level. This is mostly because El Cero traffics girls into sex work, something that Camino and many others find abhorrent. She also describes how El Cero targets girls who have no other ways to fulfill their basic needs, so sex work seems like their only option to make ends meet. In this context, Camino sees growing up as a dangerous proposition for girls in her neighborhood: it makes them vulnerable to El Cero and other men like him.
Themes
Camino knows what El Cero sees in her. She has curly hair, is thin but well-fed, and swimming has made her strong and sharp. Her skin is like Mamá and Tía’s, lighter than Papi’s. She looks like a girl, not a woman. And this is El Cero’s typical prey: girls who are easy to convince to work for him, even if they don’t want to.
Here, Camino isn’t cagey at all as she describes how El Cero targets vulnerable girls. Without Papi around to protect her, Camino is suddenly far more vulnerable. Now, she’s in danger—though she also implies that unlike El Cero’s usual targets, she’s physically stronger and has a better support network, which means she’s better equipped to evade him.
Themes
Camino used to go to school with El Cero’s sister, Emily, back when El Cero was just Alejandro. That was before the fever and before Papi put Camino in private school. Emily was Camino’s friend; she was smart and friendly. The dengue fever arrived with the rain, and Tía couldn’t save everyone—she couldn’t save Mamá or Emily. Apparently, Alejandro wasn’t the same after Emily’s death. But even now, Camino thinks of one memory of him from before. He’d always come to pick Emily up, and she’d run to him. El Cero would swing her around—and Camino was always jealous that she didn’t have a male role model like El Cero around.
El Cero hasn’t always been this one-dimensional, predatory villain: he once was a doting older brother. His grief for his sister, however, changed him and turned him into the monster he is today. Camino doesn’t share how exactly Alejandro’s grief turned him into El Cero, but this offers a chilling warning as to what can happen when a person doesn’t address their grief. And in contrast, Camino lost both her friend and her mother, and she emerged from these losses with her humanity still intact.
Themes
It’s been three days since the plane crash. Tía still has the TV on, and the candles lit under Papi’s picture on the ancestral altar are still burning. This morning, divers started to bring up pieces of the plane. News coverage is already dying down, and nobody expects survivors at this point. But Papi could hold his breath longer than anyone. It’s Monday, and Camino goes to school. She craves normalcy, but her teachers don’t ask for her homework. El Cero is waiting near her bus stop after school, and later Camino has to walk past him to get to the beach. He’s everywhere, and Camino doesn’t feel safe. But she knows he’s not going anywhere, since his “dealings” happen at the resort nearby. Camino and Tía aren’t hoping for a miracle anymore, but they can’t speak of “it” and make the truth real.
Though Camino seems to understand on one level that Papi is dead, she’s still avoiding confronting the truth and her emotions surrounding Papi’s death (which is the “it” Tía and Camino can’t mention). However, things aren’t normal—despite Camino’s desire for everything to feel normal, her teachers are clearly giving her extra space and treating her differently than they would normally. El Cero’s constant presence creates a sense of foreboding, as it’s looking more and more like he’s trying to pressure and scare Camino into agreeing to work for him.
Themes
Camino and Tía act like not talking about “it” will keep it from being true. Sometimes, Camino catches Tía on the phone. Tía always hangs up quickly—she’s probably making funeral arrangements, but she knows Camino isn’t ready to hear that yet.
For now, at least, Tía respects Camino’s desire to not confront the truth—and Camino is certain that her aunt is trying to protect her. This makes Camino feel supported and loved, rather than like Tía is keeping something from her, which reflects their trusting relationship.
Themes
