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Chapter 7
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 a memorial now outside of Papi’s pool hall, where the bouncers stand. There’s a big picture of Papi. Dre stands behind Yahaira as Yahaira touches all the flowers that people have left for Papi (Papi, however, thought flowers were silly). There are knickknacks, too: a lottery ticket, a Dominican flag, and a baseball card. In history class, Yahaira learned that the Greeks tried to die with a coin in their pocket so they could pay to cross over to the other side. This inspires Yahaira to give Papi a queen chess piece to guide him.
Visiting Papi’s pool hall and the memorial there is a huge step for Yahaira. Finally, she’s beginning to grieve communally—and she does seem to find some solace in this. The memorial also highlights that people have very different ways of grieving. Some think flowers are best, even though Papi wasn’t a flowers person. Yahaira can also give Papi something that’s meaningful to her: a chess piece, to represent their relationship.
Themes
Standing outside the pool hall, Yahaira remembers her last time here. She’d just won a match and Papi, though he didn’t think a pool hall was appropriate for a child, brought Yahaira to show her off to his friends and employees. He surprised her with a cake and a slightly alcoholic drink, and he made the jukebox play bachata for free all night. He left the country a few weeks later, and Yahaira quit chess soon after that.
The last time Yahaira was here seems especially significant now, since everything has changed since then—Yahaira now knows Papi had a second wife, and he’s also died. Still, Yahaira isn’t being entirely forthcoming yet, as it’s still a mystery why exactly she quit chess.
Themes
Yahaira leans silently against Dre’s shoulder on the train ride home. Dre knows Yahaira hates riding the train alone, which is probably why she insisted on coming tonight. The last time that Yahaira played chess, she beat a boy named Manny. Manny always smiled, held Yahaira’s hand too long when they shook, and lost (and won) gracefully, but this story isn’t about Manny. Yahaira felt on top of the world as she carried her trophy to the platform to go home. She was alone, as Papi was in the DR at the time. She got on the train and turned her back to a man who leaned against the doors.
Finally, Yahaira steps back in time to share with readers the reason why she quit chess. From the moment she begins, her story seems to be about men (or boys) who make her uncomfortable: first Manny with his overly long handshakes, and then, possibly, the man leaning against the train doors. Also noteworthy here is that Yahaira is on her own; Papi isn’t here to protect her. For several months out of the year, Yahaira has to take care of herself—and she seems to be uncomfortable with this.
Themes
Yahaira thought it was an accident when she felt the man squeeze her leg. She thought she was mistaken when he ran his hand up her thigh and touched her between her legs. Yahaira dropped her trophy but didn’t scream. She couldn’t win. She was stuck, feeling angry—though “anger has no place on the board.” She tried not to let him see her sweat, but she was sweating. It lasted about three stops, and her body wasn’t her own. When the man finally got off the train, Yahaira didn’t pick her trophy up. She didn’t do anything until she got home. Dre climbed through Yahaira’s window, saw her trembling, and somehow knew. Dre ran a bath and hid Yahaira’s skirt far back in her closet. Yahaira wanted to talk to Papi; he’d know what to do. But he didn’t answer when Yahaira called.
Yahaira describes her assault and her thought process in excruciating detail. As she describes what the man does to her alongside all that she’s learned through playing chess, it becomes clear that Yahaira is trying to rationalize what’s happening and fit it into a framework (that of chess) that makes sense to her. But being assaulted doesn’t make any sense, no matter how hard Yahaira tries—all she can do is attempt to move on afterward and ask Papi and Dre for help. However, while Dre is there to comfort Yahaira, Papi isn't—and this makes Yahaira feel abandoned and alone.
Themes
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Yahaira tried everything to get ahold of Papi, hoping that somehow, the most protective man in her life could undo what happened to her. She had a match coming up and for some reason, she wanted his permission to not go. When he didn’t get back to her for three days, Yahaira dug through his cabinet of business papers and found the sealed envelope.
Prior to Yahaira’s assault, Papi made her feel safe and secure, as though nothing could hurt her. Now, she must accept that she’s vulnerable—and that Papi won’t always be around when she needs him to be. And finally, Yahaira explains why quitting chess and becoming disillusioned with Papi is tied up with discovering his other wife: Yahaira found the marriage certificate while trying to figure out how to contact him.
Themes
After that, and after what happened on the train, Yahaira skipped two tournaments that she’d worked hard to qualify for. The night of a third tournament, Papi called. He was angry after getting an email informing him that Yahaira had been disqualified from summer matches. He didn’t ask if everything was okay, and Yahaira didn’t ask why he read the chess email and not any of her emails or texts. In fact, he wouldn’t let her speak, and he never asked why she answered the phone so angrily.
Yahaira has the whole story about why she skipped these two tournaments. Papi, however, doesn’t—and he shows here that he’s unwilling to listen to Yahaira and ask for more information. This highlights for Yahaira that when Papi is in the Dominican Republic, she isn’t his first priority. The fact that he doesn’t even acknowledge her other emails or texts makes this abundantly clear to her.
Themes
Yahaira isn’t sure if she would’ve told Papi the truth about the man putting his hand in her underwear or about the marriage certificate that day. But now, she’ll never know what she might’ve said, since he lectured her instead of asking what was wrong. When he hung up, Yahaira whispered how disappointed she was in Papi, and she vowed that she wouldn’t speak to him. When he got home a few weeks later, she’d just leave when he started ranting about how stubborn she was.
Because Papi never decided to ask Yahaira what happened, he continues to see her as a headstrong, misbehaving teen—when really, Yahaira feels (understandably) hurt and betrayed. Their unwillingness to speak openly with each other prevents them from resolving this conflict, meaning that Papi ultimately dies not knowing the truth about his daughter.
Themes
Twenty-One Days After. It’s the last day of school, and Yahaira feels like an alien has invaded her body. It’s hard to pick up her report card or sign herself out. Dre appears beside Yahaira and reminds her that she can do this and to keep breathing. Breathing is so much work now, though. Yahaira feels like maybe, if she stops moving, remembering that Papi is dead won’t hurt as much.
For now, Yahaira is accepting a bit more help and support than she was a few days ago: she allows Dre to guide her through the final days of school and make sure she gets home okay. Still, Yahaira struggles to voice any of her grief, which means she’s still dealing with it mostly on her own.
Themes
Tío Jorge and Tía Mabel come to support Mami when insurance representatives for the airline come to visit. Nobody listens to Yahaira when she suggests that they should get a lawyer who practices here (Jorge has only practiced law in the Dominican Republic.) The representatives go over the findings from the National Transportation Safety board and then look around expectantly. Yahaira translates for Mami: the airline wants to give them an advance payment of a half-million dollars. Mami weeps.
Yahaira suspects that the airline insurance representatives aren’t necessarily coming in good faith: it was their failure that killed Papi, after all, so she’s naturally distrustful of them. However, given Yahaira’s youth, nobody takes her seriously. The half-million dollar payment is a bombshell for Yahaira’s family, which is well off but seemingly not extraordinarily wealthy.
Themes
The airline representatives say things like “grievance” and “mechanical failure” and “insurance policy,” but they won’t say Papi’s name or that he’s dead. They don’t say they’re sorry, either—even when Yahaira asks them to. You can buy a lot of things with a half-million dollars, like a fancy car, a mansion, four years of college, and a lot of flights to the Dominican Republic. Apparently, that much will also buy a father. Thinking of game shows, Yahaira wishes she could phone a friend. This is more money than Mami and Papi ever made. It’s more than Yahaira and Mami can understand.
A half-million dollars is a lot of money—but as Yahaira sees it, it doesn’t make up for Papi’s death. And it hurts even more when the representatives refuse to acknowledge that they’re talking about a person who died, someone whom Yahaira wants to remember and keep alive through her memories. Yahaira also recognizes that the money will fundamentally change her life and make things much easier for her in the future—but the question remains of whether this is a fair price for a person’s life.
Themes
Tío Jorge says they should still sue the airline, since they’re due a settlement. He offers to handle the finances, sell the pool hall, and set up a trust fund for Yahaira. They can set money aside from taxes, pay for the funeral, and they shouldn’t tell “the family” about the advance. At this, Mami cuts him off. She says that she appreciates his advice, but Papi needed his advice when he was still alive. Yahaira is confused; what is her family not saying here? Do Mami and Tío know about the certificate? Mami backtracks and says that she really means that she and Yahaira will figure this out themselves. She’s never been so brisk with Tío Jorge. He leaves silently.
For now, it’s somewhat unclear who Tío Jorge is referring to when he says they shouldn’t tell the family about the money. Is he referring to the rest of the family in the New York area, or is he perhaps referring to Tía and Camino as well? When Mami dismisses Tío Jorge so forcefully, it implies again that she knows more than she’s letting on. For the time being, Yahaira remains in the dark about what her family members know—and with Mami being unwilling to speak about anything, she has no real way of finding information out for herself.
Themes
Dre isn’t answering her phone or at home, so Yahaira knows she’ll find her at the community garden. It’s Dre’s happy place, and Dre is Yahaira’s happy place. Yahaira sits on a bench and watches Dre work. Dre is probably listening to Nina Simone, her favorite artist who, according to Dre, is appropriate for every situation. Nina’s the answer when Dre misses her dad, or when she sees videos of black boys shot, or when LGBTQ kids are hurt or bullied. Yahaira wants to scream and tear the world apart, but Dre would rather repot everyone in a better, happier world—watered and warmed by Nina Simone. At this thought Yahaira snorts, which attracts Dre’s attention. Dre sticks one earbud in Yahaira’s ear and goes back to her basil.
Though Yahaira seems to find Dre’s love of Nina Simone somewhat ridiculous, it’s worth noting that listening to music seems to give Dre a healthy outlet to deal with her difficult emotions. Yahaira, on the other hand, wants to get upset and break things, though she never actually does this. This suggests that Yahaira habitually keeps her feelings inside and hasn’t yet found an outlet for her emotions when things get rough. She can coexist with Dre and borrow Dre’s outlet in this passage, but Yahaira doesn’t seem to feel much better with Dre’s earbud.
Themes
