Aunt Rosana's Rocker by Nicholasa Mohr
"Aunt Rosana's Rocker" by Nicholasa Mohr is a poignant narrative set in the context of Puerto Rican immigrant life in New York. The story revolves around Casto and Zoraida, a married couple facing tensions in their relationship after Zoraida exhibits unusual behavior during her sleep, leading Casto to believe she is possessed by a spirit. This belief causes him significant distress and prompts intervention from family members who suggest seeking the help of a spiritualist. Despite the spiritualist's efforts, Zoraida does not transform into the ideal wife Casto envisions, as she remains emotionally distant. The titular rocking chair, a family heirloom from Zoraida's great-aunt Rosana, symbolizes her connection to her roots and serves as a refuge where she feels free. The story delves into themes of marital expectations, cultural identity, and the struggle between personal desires and familial pressures. Ultimately, it reflects the complexities of love and responsibility within immigrant families, highlighting the differing perspectives on Zoraida's role and Casto's frustrations.
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Aunt Rosana's Rocker by Nicholasa Mohr
First published: 1985
Type of plot: Domestic realism
Time of work: The 1970's
Locale: New York City's Spanish Harlem
Principal Characters:
Casto , a Puerto Rican immigrantZoraida , his wife
The Story
Casto and Zoraida, two Puerto Rican immigrants living in New York, have been married for nine years and have four children. For two months, Zoraida has acted as if possessed by a demon lover during her sleep. As she moans and mimics sexual behavior in bed, Casto paces the floor in the next room trying not to hear her passionate sounds and vainly trying not to imagine her lascivious gestures. Casto married Zoraida because she was frail, sickly, and somewhat plain, not loud and coarse like other girls. He now believes that his wife's nightly behavior is lewd and vulgar, not the kind of behavior in which a decent husband and wife should engage. He believes that his wife enjoys her dream sex, and calls her a happy victim, an animal, and a hypocrite.
After telling his parents about how he is being cuckolded by a spirit possessing Zoraida, Casto is urged to take his wife to a spiritualist who can exorcise the demon lover that visits her nightly. Although the spiritualist's incantation works, Zoraida still does not become the kind of wife Casto wishes to have. Although she is a wonderful housekeeper and a devoted mother, serving dinner on time every night and attending to the children without any problem, whenever Casto approaches her for sex, she sits in a rocking chair and stares into space like a zombie. Casto calls another meeting of the family to help him decide what to do next. His mother, Dona Elvira, thinks that her healthy son is too good for the sickly Zoraida, and Dona Clara, Zoraida's mother, thinks that Casto is a brute of a man who does not deserve anyone as delicate as Zoraida.
Purencia, Casto's sister, thinks that it serves her mother right that because she never thought anyone was good enough for Casto, he now has a sickly wife. She is puzzled about Casto's problems with Zoraida and wonders if Zoraida, whom she calls goody two-shoes, is one of those quiet ones who hide the action. She is curious whether Zoraida is doing something about which nobody knows. Don Isidro, Zoraida's father, can only lament that his daughter still looks like a sickly child. Having been born prematurely, Zoraida was called a miracle baby by the doctors; thus, her parents gave her the middle name of Milagros. Confused by the marital difficulties between Casto and Zoraida, Don Isidro thinks that his daughter is lucky to have found a man that would have her at all.
The rocking chair in which Zoraida sits when Casto wants sex originally belonged to her great-aunt Rosana, who was very beautiful and had many suitors. Part of her family history, the chair reminds Zoraida of Puerto Rico and is the one place where she now feels she can be herself and be free. Her parents decide that to solve Casto's marital problem they will take the chair back home with them. After they leave, Zoraida falls asleep thinking, as if she were her great-aunt Rosana, that she will not be able to sit in the chair any more and meet her suitors. When Casto comes to bed, he feels that a great burden has been lifted from him. He touches Zoraida but, finding her asleep, he turns over, thinking that he can always try again tomorrow.