1. “We Came All the Way
From Cuba So You Could
Dress Like This?”
Presented by Marilyn Pinto and Kelly Sanchez

2. General Themes
 Migration to the U.S. from socialist Cuba
 Machismo, Feminism and Homosexuality
 Political Issues
 Cuban Americans
 Discrimination
 Nostalgia

3. Elements of the Story
 What is different about the way that Obeja narrates
the story?
 She is telling the future as she sees it
 “But this is a long way off, of course.”
 She does not put special emphasis on any one part of
her persona. She is not JUST Latina, JUST a Cuban
immigrant or JUST a lesbian.

4. Elements of the Story
 When you first started reading the story, did you
know if the narrator was male or female?
 It is not until her father refers to her as “she” and
“her”
 Even after we know she is a female, her language is
still very genderless

5. Elements of the Story
 Do you feel like her gender is almost “chosen” for
her? Do you remember what was given to her in at
the “processing center”?
 “oatmeal cookies, a plastic doll with blonde hair and a
blue dress and a rosary made of white plastic beads”
 Plastic doll = preparing her for her domestic future? A
child?
 Rosary = forcing her to be religious?

6. Elements of the Story
 Do you think the narrator is lesbian, bisexual,
straight or curious?
 Why?
 “For all the blond boyfriends I will have, there will
be only two yellow-haired lovers. One doesn’t really
count – a boy in the military academy… The other
will be Martha, perceived by the whole lesbian
community as a gold-digger” (115)

7. Elements of the Story
 Do you think the father was a hero?
 What characteristics does the father have?
 Role of a rescuer to his wife and child
 Saves his patria
 “Protector” though abusive
 What does he want for his daughter? Career goals?
 Things a father would want for a son, typically
 Blames daughter for everything
 Where do you see machismo present in this story?

8. Elements of the Story
 What is the relationship between father and
daughter like?
 “My father does not imagine me… as a wife or mother
because to do so would be to imagine someone else
closer to than he is, and he cannot endure that” (Obeja
117)
 Gives her permission to act outside of the normal
“female” roles/behavior
 When they get into that argument, does she
questions his “heroic” deeds?

9. Elements of the Story
 What about the mother? What does she want the
narrator to be?
 “Owner of many appliances; mother of two
mischievous children; the wife of a boyishly
handsome North American man; a career woman
with a well-paying position in local broadcasting”
 What do you think about this dream?
 “double shift”

10. In Relation to Chapter 9
 Do you see this as a coming out tale? Or Does Obeja
just talk about Latino/as sexuality?
 “Obejas makes no apologies and offers no excuses
as a lesbian and does not place her ethnic and sexual
selves oppositionally – rather, they exist, as the
should, as facts of her identity, not as deciding and
ruling factors (Quiroga and Lopez 144)

11. Final Thoughts
 “And then there’s a noise – a screech out in the alley
followed by what sounds like a hyena’s laughter –
and my father leaps up and looks out the window,
then starts laughing, too… Only in America, echoes
my mother”
 What do you think they saw?
 What none of us can measure yet is how much of
the voyage is already behind us (Obeja 131)
 What does this quote mean to you? To the narrator?

12. References
 Cooper, Sara. “Queering Family: Achy Obeja’s “We
Came All the Way from Cuba so That You Could
Dress Like This?” Chasqui, Vol 32. 76-88. 2003. Print.
 Obeja, Achy. We Came All the Way from Cuba So You
Could Dress Like This. 113-131. Pittsburgh: Cleis P,
1994. Print.
 Quiroga, Jose, and Melanie Lopez Frank. “Cultural
Production of Knowledge on Latina/o Sexualities.”
Latina/o Sexualities. New Brunswick: Rutgers P.,
2010. 137-49. Print