A Delicate Marriage by Margarita Barresi
What's It About?
A romantic story of an idealistic coming-of-age couple building a new marriage on their home island of Puerto Rico during a time of great change and political turmoil.Margarita Barresi’s debut novel A Delicate Marriage (Atmosphere Press) weaves a romantic story of an idealistic coming-of-age couple building a new marriage on their home island of Puerto Rico.
Within the 1935-1952 timeframe for the story, Puerto Rico is ripe for its own coming of age, with economic and public health crises spawned by the Great Depression and two recent hurricanes. The island’s struggle to become self-sufficient and self-governing adds unique context and complexity to the unfolding marriage.
An Unexpected Beginning
A short prologue opens the book. As 1928’s Hurricane San Felipe bashes the shores of Yabucoa — worst hurricane since San Ciricao of 1899 — fourteen-year-old Marco Rios goes from being thrilled at seeing his first hurricane to huddling in abject fear with his mother and sister in the town’s cement church building, wondering if he will ever see his father again.
Fast forward six years later to September 1935 and the first chapter, where the beautiful twenty-one-year-old Isabela Soto gets a first glimpse of her future husband. Drawn in by Marco’s liquid brown eyes, shiny dark hair and charming smile she automatically takes note of his economic status. “Suit jacket looked worn, his shirt collar a bit threadbare. Perhaps his family had lost its money in the stock market crash, like so many others.”
Growing up in a city mansion with her father and stepmother, Isabela has “never dated anyone without knowing his entire pedigree.” Her father — a successful businessman who imports luxury items onto the island — will never approve, but if her dating Marco scares him into sending Isa to Mexico for the acting career she longs to have, she’ll be happy.
A Delicate Marriage
Isa correctly predicts her father’s vociferous opposition to the marriage. But Marco manages to win her over, not just by their intense mutual attraction but by his vast ambition to succeed as a businessman, thereby building the island to better others’ lives too. For his part, Marco’s desire for Isabela stays unabated, even after finding out her parentage is less pedigreed than it appears.
As the two navigate married life, Marco builds a real estate empire while losing touch with his populist roots. This hypocrisy does not sit well with Isa who had hoped to be a partner to Marco in his efforts to build a better life for all on the island.
Finding little satisfaction in her traditional wife and mother roles she fashions her own courageous way of giving back to the less fortunate, sometimes bending the rules in ways that threaten not only the couple’s political standing on the island but also their marriage. Both avoid controversy at the price of being open and honest until they realize that without honesty their delicate marriage is doomed.
Fiction Rooted in Reality
The point-of-view shifts between Marco and Isabela showcase a carefully nuanced story. Barresi’s beautiful descriptions of island settings deepen our appreciation of a stunning locale as seen from someone who grew up there herself. This is how she describes the Soto house where Isabela grew up:
A wrought iron fence with mosaic-adorned white cement pillars fronted the Soto house. It enclosed a manicured garden teeming with pink amapolas (aka poppies), yellow bell flowers and red jungle geraniums. A bougainvillea vine laden with a riot of purple blooms scaled the right side of the house and the heady scent of gardenias saturated the air.
The story of Barresi’s grandparents and how they met is what inspired her to write A Delicate Marriage. Her grandfather grew up poor while her grandmother was a debutante whose father “tried to sabotage the lovers.” Just like Marco and Isa, her grandparents honeymooned in El Yunque. Barresi’s grandfather came from Yabucoa, grew up eating mostly viandas, the Puerto Rican word for root vegetables, and banned them from their home once he could afford other foods. Just like Marco.
A Delicate Marriage is well-written historical fiction, with strong research and thought given to the underlying politics and history that give the story energy and appeal.
Barresi ends the story with telling symbolism. Just as a hurricane ushers in the story, another ushers it out. In an epilogue written from the point-of-view of Marco and Isa’s son, Luis describes how Hurricane Maria, the worst natural disaster to strike Puerto Rico in modern history, smashes San Juan in 2017. “When would the Americans arrive? Where was the help?” The delicate relations between a territory and its “owner” turn out to be not that dissimilar from those of a delicate marriage.
About Margarita Barresi:
Raised in Puerto Rico by her grandparents, Margarita Barresi grew up hearing stories about the “good old days” — the genesis for A Delicate Marriage, her first novel. She studied public relations at Boston University, and after a successful career in marketing communications, now devotes her time to writing. Her essays have been published in several literary magazines and compilations. Margarita has two grown daughters and lives in the Boston suburbs with her husband and two Puerto Rican cats, Luna and Rico.
