The Cutter by Virgil Suárez

First published: 1991

Type of plot:Bildungsroman

Time of work: 1969

Locale: Cuba and the United States

Principal Characters:

• Julian Campos, a twenty-year-old university student who seeks an “exit notice” from the Cuban government
• Bernarda Del Rio, Julian’s grandmother
• Carmina, Julian’s housekeeper and friend
• Blancarosa Calderon, the woman who betrays Julian and his friends
• Silvia, Julian’s neighbor and fellow escapee
• Ofelia, Silvia’s daughter

The Novel

The Cutter is the story of a young man’s desperate attempt to leave what he believes to be a repressive Communist regime in Cuba. The novel is divided into five sections that mark the stages of Julian’s journey away from Cuba: “The Notice,” “The Fields,” “The Operation,” “The Shore,” and “The Refuge.” The story is told from the point of view of an omniscient third-person narrator.

The book begins when protagonist Julian Campos is twenty years old. Julian is a university student who has recently returned to Havana after having completed his years of mandatory military service in the Young Pioneers. Julian drifts off into the “freedom of sleep” only to be abruptly awakened by his ailing grandmother, Bernarda Del Rio, who informs Julian that someone is at the door. The visitor is a government official who hands Julian a telegram from the Ministry of the Interior. Julian has been waiting to leave Cuba ever since his parents received an “exit notice” five years earlier. Julian resents the fact that his parents left him behind. Although Elena and Ernesto, Julian’s parents, wanted to take their son with them to the United States, the authorities at the airport demanded that they leave Julian in Cuba or forfeit the privilege of leaving the country themselves.

Although Julian is disenchanted with the government in Cuba, he still believes that the legal system works. He is therefore convinced that if he goes through the proper bureaucratic channels, he will be rewarded with an exit notice from the Ministry of the Interior. Heartened by the receipt of the telegram, Julian plans a new life in the United States for himself and his grandmother, but it is not to be. Julian is told that he must do additional “voluntary work” if he wants to leave Cuba.

In the second section, “The Fields,” Julian spends months cutting cane for Cuba’s “Ten-Million-Ton Sugarcane Program.” The work is slave labor, and Julian and his coworkers are mistreated. The men arise early and work all day, regardless of weather conditions. The workers receive substandard food, live in overcrowded housing, and are monitored by characters reminiscent of cruel overseers on Southern plantations before the Civil War. This section of the novel depicts Cuba at its worst, leading the reader to understand why Julian is compelled to leave the country. Julian grows increasingly despondent about his prospects for leaving Cuba, particularly when he receives the belated news of his grandmother’s death.

When Julian is finally released from the fields and permitted to go home, he realizes that he will never receive an exit notice. He learns from Ofelia, his neighbor, that she and her mother, Silvia, are planning to escape. In the third section, “The Operation,” Julian joins them in this quest. Blancarosa Calderon, Julian’s former classmate, is a key figure in the escape plan and offers her assistance to Silvia, Ofelia, and Julian. Julian and his friends discover too late that Blancarosa works for the government. She betrays the group of escapees, resulting in the deaths of Silvia and Ofelia. Julian, however, survives. “The Shore,” the novel’s fourth section, describes his continued move toward the United States and freedom.

In the novel’s final section, “The Refuge,” Julian reaches the United States. In contrast to most of the Cuban characters, those in the United States are kind to him and are eager to help him adjust to his new country. Padre Marcelo, the priest at the Catholic Refugee Center, finds Julian a temporary job at a small cafe in Miami. Julian clearly enjoys his newfound freedom, and he contemplates the possibility of seeing his parents again. The section implies that the story will have a happy ending. Although Julian appears reluctant to search for his parents, the novel ends with a suggestion that ultimately he will find refuge with them.

The Characters

Julian, the major character, captures the sympathy of the reader at the beginning of the book. He longs for freedom and attempts to attain it legally, but he eventually realizes that he will never be allowed to leave Cuba. Although Julian’s parents were deeply distressed about having to leave their son behind when they left the country, they made the choice to leave. Despite Julian’s own desperation to leave Cuba, he never forgives his parents for leaving for the United States without him. Julian is a good, responsible young man. He cares deeply for his ailing grandmother Bernarda and for Carmina, Bernarda’s housekeeper and nursemaid. Julian tries to do what is right and obtain his freedom legally, but he suffers for his efforts. The novel suggests that there is no justice in Communist Cuba for gusanos, those people who refuse to join the Communist Party.

Bernarda, Julian’s grandmother, represents that group of people who believed in the system but became disillusioned after the repressive government began to retaliate against those who opposed the revolution. Julian’s father, Ernesto, was such a man. After Ernesto was imprisoned for organizing “antirevolutionary activities,” Bernarda renounced Cuba and the revolution. She longed for a reunion with her son in the United States.

Carmina, Bernarda’s faithful housekeeper and friend, nurses Julian’s grandmother until she dies, then takes care of Julian after his return from the work camp. Although Carmina sympathizes with Julian’s desire to leave Cuba and assists him in his efforts, she refuses to leave Cuba. It is her home, and Carmina suggests that she has a kind of freedom there.

Nicanor is in charge of El Comite, “the community watchdog.” He is the only major black character. He is a widower who lost his pregnant wife in a fire ten years before the action of the novel. Before the revolution, Nicanor was unemployed. He refuses a chance to flee Cuba after the revolution, vowing to attain a position in which he is powerful enough to “get even” for his wife’s death. Nicanor watches Julian carefully and suspects, near the end of the novel, that Julian plans to leave Cuba illegally. Nicanor represents the repressive, ruthless government. He is clearly responsible for thwarting Julian’s attempts to leave Cuba legally.

Blancarosa Calderon inspires no sympathy, for she betrays her friends. Although government officials and party sympathizers call Julian a gusano, a traitor, it is clear that Blancarosa is the only traitor in the novel: She deliberately deceives those who entrust their lives to her.

Ofelia, Silvia’s daughter and Julian’s neighbor, tells Julian about the planned escape. Ofelia believes herself to be in love with Julian and is jealous of Blancarosa, toward whom Julian seems to have some romantic inclinations. Fermin, Ofelia’s father, goes to the cane fields with Julian. He and Julian spend time together in the camp jail cell. At the camp, Fermin is caught buying aguardiente, an illegal alcoholic drink. Fermin, who drinks to ease his frustration, tells Julian, while they are in detention, that he wants to die drunk. Fermin dies mysteriously, apparently getting his wish. Silvia and Ofelia are told that Fermin suffered a fatal heart attack.

Critical Context

The Cutter, Virgil Suarez’s second novel, is his attempt to come to grips with his native Cuba and reflects his bitterness toward the country from which he and his parents were exiles. Suarez’s own family left Cuba in 1970, about the time at which this novel is set. Suarez is unrelenting in his criticism of the Cuban government and of Castro’s Cuba as a harsh, repressive, and cruel place where a semblance of freedom exists only for those ruthless characters who follow the Party line. He has no favorable character to speak for or represent the government.

What seems conspicuously absent from the novel, as it is often found in works by writers from the Caribbean, is a detailed description of the island itself. Cuba is a beautiful island, but Suarez chooses not to depict that natural beauty, indicative of his treatment of the entire life and culture of the island. Suarez’s portrayal of Cuba is perhaps too harsh and the novel itself too preachy and melodramatic. It is, however, obviously heartfelt.

Suarez’s first novel, Latin Jazz (1989), was not favorably received and was relatively unsuccessful. The Cutter has had a similar fate.

Bibliography

Frase-Blunt, Martha. “A New Chapter.” Hispanic 5 (September, 1992): 30-34. Frase-Blunt examines the work of a new generation of Hispanic writers, including Virgil Suarez, Oscar Hijuelos, Sandra Cisneros, Julia Alvarez, Francisco Goldman, Ana Castillo, and others. An interesting overview of contemporary Hispanic authors, and the place that Suarez occupies among them.

Kaganoff, Penny. Review of The Cutter, by Virgil Suarez. Publishers Weekly 238 (January 4, 1991): 67. This brief review summarizes the plot of the novel, stating that it shows how ordinary people can be driven to undertake extraordinary risks.

Krist, Gary. “Other Voices, Other Rooms.” The Hudson Review 45 (Spring, 1992): 144-146. Krist discusses Suarez as representing the changing face of American literature, as an author previously “unheard and unpublished.” Krist suggests that the subject of The Cutter is revenge and that the novel is “tainted by politics.”

Los Angeles Times Book Review. Review of The Cutter, by Virgil Suarez. March 31, 1991, 6. Praises the novel as ambitious. Notes that the third-person, present-tense narration creates both distance and immediacy.

Robertson, Deb. Review of The Cutter, by Virgil Suarez. Booklist 87 (December 1, 1990): 718. A brief review giving a plot summary. Calls the book a reminder that oppression is not dead. The book retains its power by avoiding indignation and self-righteousness on the part of the author.

Stavans, Ilan. “The Cutter.” The New York Times Book Review, April 14, 1991, 20. In an unfavorable review, Stavans accuses Suarez of being a “dirty realist” who writes in “cold, unornamented, Hemingwayesque style.” Stavans says that Suarez’s characters are cartoon-like stereotypes and that the novel itself is melodramatic.

Suarez, Virgil. Spared Angola: Memories from a Cuban-American Childhood. Houston, Tex.: Arte Público Press, 1997. A powerful collection of autobiographical stories, essays, and poems from Suarez that reflects his development as a writer and as a human being. Paralleling the themes of The Cutter, it describes the pressures of male expectations, family gender battles, emigration, and adapting to a new culture.