Huang 1

Annie Huang

English 1B Negus

Research Analysis Paper - Rough Draft

6 August 2017

Cigars & Culture

Characters in different types of literature can oftentimes help audiences understand the

specific impact of large scope societal changes on a smaller scale setting. Nilo Cruz's Anna in the

Tropics reveals the divided effects of mechanical modernization on traditional culture in 1920's

America in terms of Cuban immigrant factory workers. While one of the main characters,

Cheche, relative of the owner(s) of the central Cuban cigar company, adamantly encourages

everyone to mechanize and change their process with the new era, other characters such as the

companys newly hired lector, Juan Julian, characterizes the other half of the peers to continue

traditional methods of rolling cigars and thus staying true to culture during these shifting times.

When cigar companies and other businesses in America during the 1920s started to

mechanize and replace much of the industry labor with machines, people reacted in different

ways. In Anna in the Tropics, Cheche, half-brother of the Cuban cigar company featured in the

play, pushes for modernization with these methods and wants to leave the tradition of

implementing lectors, those who tell stories to the workers, behind with manual labor of rolling

cigars. Cheche represents the affinity to move forward with the rest of contemporary businesses,

by declaring, We are stuck because we are not part of the new century. Because we are still

rolling cigars the same way that Indians rolled them hundreds of years ago (Cruz 51). With

this way of thinking, Cheche would rather keep up with other businesses with faster machines

and less human work than continue his familys tradition and culture of cigar rolling.
 Huang 2

In contrast, people during this time of change worked hard to preserve the tradition and

cultural importance of cigar rolling, with the use of lectors to paint stories for the workers and

the spirit of smoking cigars themselves. In this way, Juan Julian, the primary lector for the

company, represents the traditional values of the cigar company and the desire to preserve

original culture and roots. Juan Julian describes the impact of modernization to challenge

Cheches desire to mechanize when he states, So you see, Chester, you want modernity, and

modernity is actually destroying our very own industry. The very act of smoking a cigar. (Cruz

53). Even though aspects of modernization serve to increase mass production and create more

business value during this mechanical age, the sacrifice is of the cultural aspect of the product

itself, especially in terms of cigars to the Cuban immigrant community.

Characters from Anna in the Tropics illustrate different sides of modernization versus

traditional preservation, both with their individual respective benefits and consequences. Thus,

the dissonance between two ideas of thinking highlight much of the social and cultural change

that transpired during 1920s America with immigrant business and the like. Change affects

people of different backgrounds and values, and the balance between modernity and tradition is

delicate yet continues to be a balance that people in many communities seek.