1) The play Anna in the Tropics explores the impact of literature on a family of Cuban cigar rollers in 1920s Florida. As their new lector reads Tolstoy's Anna Karenina aloud each day, the characters find their lives profoundly changed as themes like tradition vs modernity, gender roles, infidelity, and jealousy are awakened. 2) The play illustrates the machismo of Cuban culture, where men's affairs are accepted but women are punished for the same behavior. This double standard leads to tensions and tragedy as the characters emulate the scandals in the novel. 3) Ultimately, the lector's reading of Anna Karenina arouses passions that cannot be contained, as jealousies

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Anna in the Tropics
Literature has the power to affect even the humblest of lives.
Anna in the Tropics
presents the story of a family of Cuban cigar rollers whose lives
in the 1920s Florida are
brightened up and disturbed at the same time by a stranger, a
lector, who reads aloud about
the passions of Tolstoy and his heroine Anna Karenina. It is
common practice for employees
at the factory run by this Cuban family to be entertained by as
they carry out the mundane
chores at hand – those of rolling of cigars and sorting tobacco
leaves. But as those in the
factory begin to get caught up in Tolstoy’s classic, willingly or
not, the book begins to work
subtle and profound changes in their emotional lives. This essay

2. will analyze the themes
covered in Anna in the Tropics, even as it seeks to explore the
various ways in which the
play’s characters are affected as the lector reads to them – along
with their fellow workers, to
educate and stimulate their minds in the course of the doldrums
of their repetitive tasks.
One of the very first things to note in this story is how certain
tensions between old
traditions and new ways are reflected. The factory workers, for
instance, are threatened by
new, mechanical cigar rolling machines because they
themselves roll cigars by hand, which is
the traditional way (Cruz 19). It is not just the workers whose
future is uncertain, however.
Even the very tradition of the lector, who reads out loud to the
cigar rollers so that any tedium
in the factory may be broken, while at the same time facilitating
the ease of passing time, is at
risk (Cruz 8). Since listening to the lector is often the closest
thing to a formal education that
cigar-rollers might experience, the ending of this tradition, in
particular, could signify the
demise of an informal method of learning (Aiello).

3. The significance of the lector is not only about giving factory
workers some
semblance of an informal education, however, but it is also
reflective of the theme of Cuban
heritage that is present throughout the play. The Cuban culture
and traditions comprise a key
theme because first, the play is set within the Cuban American
community which is living in
Ybor City in Tampa, Florida (Cruz 2). Second, it is apparent
that Cuban Americans prefer to
stay within their own cultural community whenever they can
help it, which explains how they
have been able to keep their old traditions. Their cigar-rolling
factory, for instance, is not run
in the same fashion that American companies are, what with a
lector being availed to
entertain the workers – as demanded by Cuban traditions (Cruz
9). The characters in this
story are defined and destroyed against the standard of Cuban
heritage.
As the play begins, the previous lector has just died of old age,
and some women

4. anxiously await the arrival of his replacement while the men
pass time and gamble their
money at the cockfights. Juan Julian, the new lector, arrives
with the novel Anna Karenina in
hand, a classic Russian novel that serves to awaken the
women’s sexuality while inflaming
the men’s jealousy (Schwartz). With awakened sexuality comes
the theme of infidelity,
showcased by the fact that quite a bit of the character in the
novel seems to be carrying on
with affairs. Palomo, for instance, carries on as if he were
unmarried, and his wife Conchita
soon follows suit, taking for herself the lector Juan Julian who
embodies the sensitivity and
passionate temperament she so desires from her own husband
(Cruz). It appears that the
choice by Julian to read Anna Karenina causes his audience to
imitate the various scandals
illustrated in the novel, thus leading to the wreaking of havoc
on the working families, and
the challenging of family ties and values. It is this same
infidelity that catalyzes the
downward spiral that the lives of the play’s characters take,
leading, ultimately, to Julian’s

5. death.
But even as some of these characters engage in wanton
infidelity, the next major
theme that stands out is the manner in which men’s and
women’s affairs are viewed in this
society. Chauvinism is alive and very well, as demonstrated by
how Palomo does not think it
to be of any consequence, keeping a mistress for himself. He is,
however, horrified by the
very thought of his wife taking a lover for herself. In this
society, then, there appear to be
different rules about what is acceptable for men and women,
thus belying its chauvinistic
nature. There is wide acceptance of the fact that men can be
involved with women outside of
their marriages. When Conchita tells Palomo that she too will
be taking a lover as he has
done, he becomes annoyed and claims that he would rather they
divorced (Cruz 16). The
rules at play in this Cuban society, then, are those that are
firmly rooted in machismo – some
of which end up bringing tragedy in no small measure by the
play’s end (Aiello).

6. It is this unhinged male aggression, brought about by the crucial
theme that is
jealousy, which sees the cuckolded Cheche brandish the fateful
pistol and dispatch Julian into
the afterlife for seducing the very niece that Cheche has been
making the moves on (Cruz 40).
It is not just Cheche who chokes with envy, but Santiago and
Palomo too, as they envision
how the characters in Anna Karenina manage to enrapture their
wives. The Cuban women, on
their part, are jealous of Julian’s characters in the Russian
classic he reads, for these women
have passion and dreams. The women in the family, after all,
lead such dull lives that they
can hardly handle any excitement. Marcela illustrates this point
beautifully when she wets
herself, grown woman as she is, upon seeing Julian since she is
quite unaccustomed to seeing
new and exciting people (Cruz 8).
Anna in the Tropics is a stimulating play which beautifully
illustrates how a small
Cuban community is affected by literature. As their lector reads
for them the adventures of

7. Tolstoy and Anna, the characters are affected in various ways,
as jealousies are aroused, a
struggle with chauvinism ensues, infidelities abound, and the
traditions of old Cuba make war
with the advancement of the times. In the end, all of the play’s
characters are profoundly
affected by the reading of Anna Karenina, even as they draw
parallels between themselves
and the characters in that book. Anna in the Tropics, then, does
a remarkable job of
demonstrating the themes and place of literature, tradition
versus change, the male
perspective versus the female perspective, Cuban heritage,
infidelity, jealousy, and at the very
end as Palomo takes over the reading of the story where the
lector had left off before he was
killed, love.
Works Cited
Aiello, Stephen E. "The Tragedy of Becoming: Hegel in Cruz’s
Anna in the Tropics." Journal
of Arts & Humanities, vol. 5, no. 1, 2016,
doi:10.18533/journal.v5i1.892.

8. Cruz, Nilo. Anna in the Tropics. Theatre Communications
Group, 2003,
www.york.cuny.edu/Members/tamrhein/Anna%20Script%20and
%20Notes.pdf.
Schwartz, Jonas. "Anna in the Tropics." Reviews, Theater
Mania, 7 Oct. 2003,
www.theatermania.com/los-angeles-theater/reviews/anna-in-the-
tropics_3964.html.