Leaving Home by Lionel G. García

First published: 1985

Type of plot: Psychological realism

Time of work: The early 1940’s

Locale: Southern California

Principal Characters:

• Adolfo, a former major-league baseball pitcher who realizes too late that he has wasted his life
• Maria, Adolfo’s cousin, who wants to keep all of her family at home
• Carmen, the daughter and favorite child of Maria, an intelligent young woman who wants and achieves a better life than anyone in her family
• The Professor (Manuel Garcia), a sidekick of Adolfo, a former elementary-school teacher
• Isabel, Adolfo’s former lover, who takes in Carmen and helps her find a job

The Novel

Lionel G. García’s Leaving Home offers an intimate view of one Latino family in the early 1940’s. The novel examines the pain of breaking family ties, identity crisis, and racism.

In Leaving Home, García is the narrator, telling the story almost entirely in a third-person omniscient voice. At one point in the novel, the author intrudes into the action using the first-person voice, and at another point, he addresses the audience directly in the second person.

As the novel opens, the aging Adolfo, a former major-league baseball pitcher who ruined his career with alcohol, is preparing to move to San Diego, away from the home of his cousin, Maria, in the Imperial Valley. He is a poor man who has little to live for but his memories. He hopes to move in with his former lover, Isabel, the mother of his son. Carmen, Maria’s daughter, goes with Adolfo, hoping to move in with an aunt in order to find a better job. Maria, determined to show her family that no one loves them as much as she does, has burned the letters that Adolfo and Carmen asked her to mail to announce their respective arrivals. Maria hopes that the two will have to move back in with her.

Turned away by her aunt, Carmen is allowed to stay with Isabel. Adolfo, however, is forced to return to Maria’s house. Upon his return, Adolfo discovers that he has been swindled out of his beer joint and that he has no prospects for work. Maria promises to help Adolfo find a job, but he is a proud man who considers himself to be a celebrity, and he refuses to work in the fields. Adolfo finally agrees to work as a gardener for a priest, but he soon finds the work demeaning and quits.

Adolfo then travels to Los Angeles, planning to stay with some old friends. On the trip, he meets Antonia, a con artist who easily persuades Adolfo to move in with her so she can get his pension checks. He lives unhappily with Antonia until he gives in to his craving for alcohol, after which she throws him out. Adolfo then moves in with the Professor, another victim of Antonia’s scam. When the health department condemns the men’s house, Adolfo and the Professor move into a boarding house, at which they pay their rent in the form of sexual favors to the owner, Anna, a widow.

After the United States enters World War II, the Professor decides that he wants to return to Tijuana to avoid the draft. Even though he is much too old to be drafted, he remembers that during World War I, Hispanics were drafted before whites. The Professor plans to live with his sister, Yolanda. Adolfo accompanies him. In Tijuana, after another failed attempt at love, Adolfo marries a prostitute. He soon leaves her, however, and returns to Maria’s house.

While Adolfo travels, Carmen succeeds in improving her life. She contracts tuberculosis while working at a film theater and must go to a state sanitarium to heal, but she discovers through this misfortune that she wants to be a nurse.

Upon her release, Carmen applies for a job at the Navy hospital in San Diego. After some struggle because of her race and her former illness, she is hired to wash pots. She is soon promoted to orderly and shortly thereafter is recommended for nurses’ training in the U.S. Navy. She is graduated at the top of her class and becomes an officer. Although Carmen is capable, her promotion is based on the fact that she is Hispanic.

The Department of Defense uses her as a symbol. While visiting her mother, Carmen realizes the differences between the clean, organized military base and her mother’s dusty house. Although she loves her mother dearly, Carmen suggests that Maria has not been keeping the house clean. Maria knows that the family tie to Carmen has been broken. When Carmen becomes engaged to a white naval officer in the Philippines, Maria believes that she has lost Carmen.

Maria experiences significant changes. She begins to question God’s judgment when Carmen gets sick. When Arnoldo, one of Maria’s sons, is killed in battle, she loses her faith in God. As her family falls apart, so do her beliefs. She is left alone and lonely. When Adolfo returns, Maria feels happy again. The two agree that Adolfo has wasted his life, but they are happy to have each other. The novel ends on this positive note.

The Characters

Adolfo, the former baseball pitcher, is full of contradictions. At once comic and pathetic, he cannot see himself as others see him, as an old man who lives in the past and talks too much. He is absurdly fastidious, as can be seen when he is offended by the sound of his lover urinating, yet he wants to project a macho image. He sees himself as a ladies’ man, but at one point he is described as wearing a shrunken wool suit and canvas shoes with holes purposely cut in them to allow room for his corns. He frequently fails to wear his dentures. He is disgusted by ignorance but can barely read. Adolfo is a dreamer, and as such, he leaves the stability of Maria’s house in search of a better, more prosperous life of love and leisure. Having been born talented, he believes he deserves such a life. He also believes that Carmen deserves a better life and encourages her to stay with Isabel to gain opportunities. By the end of the novel, Adolfo recognizes himself as a failure and returns to Maria’s house. García uses interior monologues to show Adolfo’s development.

Maria is the hub of the family, trying to keep the family connected. She does not have strong matriarchal qualities, but she is a strong woman who survives many hardships, including the judgment of the Hispanic community against women such as herself who become pregnant out of wedlock. She wants desperately to keep her family together to keep from being alone. Through her conversations, she reveals a belief in witchcraft that coexists with her belief in God. She sees herself as able to punish God by ignoring Him or breaking a promise to Him, but she fears divine power. She relies on God to keep her family safe, and when she thinks that God has begun taking family members from her, she becomes angry with Him. She begins not to care what her children do because she believes that they have forsaken her. By the end of the novel, Maria has grown bitter.

Carmen changes from a shy, indecisive child to a mature woman who knows what she wants. Carmen is Maria’s favorite child. Although she loves her mother, Carmen feels no sadness when she leaves Maria. Carmen understands that in order to break out of the poverty in which she has grown up, she must move to the city and find more profitable work. In the sanitarium, she meets Luz, who tells her to do more than is expected of women, to make something of her life rather than accept the common fate. The Professor, Adolfo’s friend, is a flat character, but he is important in advancing the plot. The former elementary-school teacher shares his money with Adolfo, listens to Adolfo’s stories, and takes him to Tijuana, where Adolfo meets a woman whom he believes he loves more than he loves Isabel. After being spurned by the Professor’s sister and marrying a prostitute, Adolfo decides to return to Maria’s house.

Critical Context

Leaving Home is García’s first published novel. While the novel was in progress, García won the 1983 PEN Southwest Discovery Prize. Leaving Home was well received by critics, who forecast a promising future for García. His ability to create believable, sympathetic characters can be seen in his short stories.

In this novel, García uses several literary techniques. A shifting point of view is evident in the author’s use of third-person omniscient, first-person, and second-person points of view. The author also uses indirect interior monologue. Fragmented time sequences add complexity to the novel. García’s theme of moving out of poverty is prevalent in his other novels A Shroud in the Family (1987) and Hardscrub (1990). The author bases his works on human experiences and is inspired by his own familial experiences. Leaving Home is part of the body of literary social criticism that examines racism, poverty, and the family. A practicing veterinarian in Seabrook, Texas, García writes and publishes regularly. Several of his short stories have been published in various magazines. By the early 1990’s, he had begun writing and publishing reminiscences revealing the strong ties in his own family.

Bibliography

García, Lionel. “Table Manners.” Texas Monthly 18 (October, 1990): 44-45, 49-50. Although this article does not directly relate to Leaving Home, its reminiscences describe real people who bear a strong resemblance to the characters in the novel. For example, the depiction of Tío Nano carrying two heavy suitcases is similar to a scene in which Adolfo carries suitcases for Antonia. The grandmother in the reminiscence, always willing to help the less fortunate, is very much like Maria.

García, Lionel. “The Wedding.” In Cuentos Chicanos: A Short Story Anthology, edited by Rudolfo A. Anaya and Antonio Marquez. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1984. A short story by García. The section of this anthology describing the contributors provides valuable information on García’s life but contains no information on Leaving Home. The information is useful for some types of criticism.

“Leaving Home.” Booklist 81 (August, 1985): 1630. This favorable review gives a brief summary for a general audience. The review is helpful for understanding the plot and suggests that the work is important because it is about a group of people who need more attention from society.

Southwell, Sam. “Lionel García, American Novelist.” The Americas Review 22 (Fall/Winter, 1994): 110-113. Profiles García and details the themes and motifs in his novels that juxtapose myth and contemporary realism. Southwell asserts that García’s works are tributes to his ethnic heritage but are also laments for the death of the traditions and culture of his southwestern Texas homeland.

Taylor, Pat E. “Sons and Lovers.” Texas Observer, April 20, 1990, 16. Ellis’s review focuses on García’s novel Hardscrub, but there is some discussion of Leaving Home. The review suggests a common theme of the two novels of upward socioeconomic mobility.

Wilson, Patricia J. “An Interview with Lionel G. García.” Texas Library Journal 68 (Spring, 1992): 22-24. Provides insight into García’s writing techniques. The article contains little information on Leaving Home, but García discusses where he gets ideas for his characters.