Characters Discussed
Cesar Castillo
Cesar Castillo (SEH-sahr kahs-TEE-yoh), the novel’s protagonist, born and reared in a poor family in Oriente, the eastern section of Cuba. During his childhood, Cesar suffers the violence of his abusive father. In Oriente, Cesar marries Luisa, with whom he has a daughter, Mariela. Their marriage is rather unstable, and after several separations, Cesar finally leaves Luisa permanently and goes to Havana. In 1949, Cesar decides to immigrate to New York City with his brother, Nestor, in the hope of succeeding as a musician. Once in the United States, Cesar and Nestor form the Mambo Kings, an orchestra that enjoys moderate success in dance halls and theaters. Cesar’s greatest accomplishment in show business is his appearance on an episode of I Love Lucy in 1955. Soon after, however, Nestor is killed in a car accident. This event changes Cesar’s personality; he is transformed from an apparently happy fellow into a sad, alcoholic man who tries to become more like his late brother. As Cesar becomes older and less attractive, his already low self-esteem (only temporarily bolstered by his extreme good looks) begins to worsen, and his life sinks into a series of escapes that finally ends in a melancholic remembrance of his past experiences.
Nestor Castillo
Nestor Castillo, the younger of the two Castillo brothers. He spends most of his life mourning for a lost love named María back in Cuba. Although he is mainly a follower of his brother, Cesar, it is Nestor who composes “Beautiful María of My Soul,” the most popular song of the Mambo Kings’ repertoire. In spite of his melancholia, Nestor manages to marry a girl named Delores in New York, and they have two children, Eugenio and Leticia. Nestor tries to overcome his sadness and be a good husband and father, but he is unable to overcome his basically unhappy disposition.
Eugenio Castillo
Eugenio Castillo (eh-ew-HEHN-ee-oh), Nestor and Delores’ son. Eugenio appears in the novel as a sort of alter ego of the author; his role in the story itself is secondary. Eugenio becomes important to the plot only after his father’s death, when he becomes closer to his uncle Cesar. Nevertheless, Eugenio is an important element in the book, because he narrates the prologue and epilogue. In the epilogue, moreover, Eugenio becomes the main character of a brief narrative sequence set in Los Angeles, in which he goes to meet Desi Arnaz after Cesar’s death.
Delores Castillo
Delores Castillo, Nestor’s wife. Delores is an interesting woman who, unlike Nestor and Cesar, is eager to study and attend school. She firmly believes that her role as a mother and wife is not in conflict with her impulse to learn from books. This interest in studying is one of the main causes of her marital problems, but she manages most of the time to do what she wants without provoking a major break with Nestor. After Nestor’s death, she remarries, to a quiet man who is tolerant of her aspirations.
Desi Arnaz
Desi Arnaz (DEH-seeh ahr-NAHS), a real-life musician from Oriente who became the best-known Cuban entertainer in the United States. In The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, the fictional Desi invites Cesar and Nestor to appear on his television show. Years later, both Desi and Eugenio recall the past and express sorrow for a life that does not give any meaning to the act of dying.
Characters
Cesar and Nestor Castillo are the main characters in The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love . Initially, they seem to be opposites: Cesar is self-assured and worldly,...
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while Nestor is sensitive and introverted. Yet, both are driven by their psychological issues to mistreat women. As the story unfolds, Hijuelos reveals that both brothers are haunted by memories of a past they can never change. Hijuelos describes a Castillo man as someone who could suddenly be overwhelmed by "melancholia" and suffer from a "plague of memories." For Cesar and Nestor, these moments of sadness are linked to their childhood. Their father, Pedro Castillo, was a violent and depressive man who physically abused his family. Consequently, Cesar turned his pain outward, adopting a macho persona, while Nestor withdrew inward. To escape their troubled family life, both became musicians early on, embodying the archetype of artists who transform suffering into beauty. Nestor's focus on his song "Bellisima Maria de mi Alma" epitomizes this in the novel. The song reflects his obsession with his lost love, Maria Rivera, and Maria was also the name of their mother. Cesar's relentless pursuit of pleasure, described by the narrator as "rum, rumba, and rump," can be seen as an attempt to recapture a mother's nurturing love.
Contrasting these unrealistic expectations of love are the main women in the novel: Delores Fuentes, Lydia Santos, Vanna Vane, and Maria Rivera. Of these, the reader gains the most insight into Delores and Lydia, who are the most fully developed female characters. Vanna Vane, described as "Miss Mambo for the month of June 1954," is less detailed. She is a curvaceous blonde American who fits the stereotype of a party girl, living for nightlife. Despite Cesar's affairs with other women, she remains his regular girlfriend for several years. He values her for the social status she brings him publicly and the pleasure she provides privately. Although Hijuelos downplays the discrimination Latinos faced in 20th-century New York, he acknowledges the racial dynamics at play—the lighter the skin and hair, the higher the social status. Vanna Vane's appeal to Cesar partly lies in her high-status image. In turn, she indulges in her own fantasies about Latin lovers, drawn to the stereotype of Latinos as more sexually passionate than men from other backgrounds.
The fourth significant female character, Maria Rivera, remains somewhat enigmatic. Nestor is obsessed with her, yet throughout the novel, she is more of an idea than a tangible person. She quickly sheds her last name and is often called Beautiful Maria. This new title aligns with her role in the story as a representation of what has been lost and is irretrievable.
Beyond the novel's core focus, there is an array of supporting characters. These include other members of the Castillo family, Cesar's former girlfriends, musicians from the Mambo Kings, and two real-life celebrities, Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. Among these secondary figures, Eugenio, Nestor's son, stands out as the most developed since he narrates both the beginning and end of the novel. Hijuelos provides brief but vivid sketches of the other minor characters, capturing them like photographs. The reader gains a fleeting insight, enough to identify who they are without revealing everything about them. This method enhances Hijuelos's overall technique of gradually unveiling Cesar and Nestor through a series of fragmented memories that the reader must piece together to create a meaningful narrative.