Las hijas del capitán by María Dueñas (review)

María Dueñas, in her fourth and latest novel, Las hijas del capitán (2018), returns to the critically acclaimed success she received with her first historical novel, El tiempo entre costuras (2009). Although she penned two subsequent novels after her initial literary triumph, Misión olvido (2012) and La templanza (2015), her fourth text has the makings of a mini-series much like El tiempo entre costuras because of its universal appeal, given the theme of immigration and its subsequent challenges. Although Dueñas's novels are for popular consumption and not necessarily an elite audience, they are extremely well written, which is not surprising because the author earned her doctorate in English literature and has spent much of her life as a university professor. It is obvious that Dueñas methodically researches the historical backdrop for her novels and often includes characters that are based on real people and events that carry their name. In Las hijas del capitán, the setting is New York City in the 1930s and the book is narrated from the viewpoint of three Spanish immigrant sisters and their widowed mother who are forced to fend for themselves after their father is killed in a senseless accident. The novel provides a fascinating look into the heyday of Spanish immigration in New York City and the various societies that were formed to support an influx of people from distinct socio-economic backgrounds. In her acknowledgments, Dueñas credits NYU professor James Fernández and his significant text, Invisible Immigrants, Spaniards in the US 1868–1945, for the historical background to her novel.

Dueñas employs a third person omniscient narrator to recount the adventure of the three principal characters, Luz, Mona, and Victoria. As in her previous novels, the protagonists in Las hijas del capitán are women who find their strength through adversity and are skillfully portrayed with all of their psychological nuances as they prevail against challenges facing new arrivals to a foreign country. Although the sisters have vastly different personalities, their socio-economic status, combined with a lack of earning potential from their mother, Remedios, obliges them to find employment outside the house. The author artfully depicts the immigrant struggle of the mother to retain social norms and customs of Spain versus those of her daughters who are trapped between old world expectations and new found freedom afforded to women in New York City who aren't observed by gossipy neighbors. Nor do they fear "Lo que dirán," which is a powerful motivator for Remedios, who is consumed with maintaining the traditional values of marriage and motherhood for her three eligible daughters and her state of widowhood in the customary black garb long after her husband's untimely death. Together the sisters try to reopen their father's failing restaurant, anointing it "Las Hijas del Capitán" in honor of their dead father, where they try to create an eatery with musical performances. Although the three principal protagonists work as a team to financially redeem the restaurant, each sister recognizes the importance of outside employment or marriage as a means of income. Victoria's efforts center on her marriage to an older Spaniard who sells cigars, Mona works as a caretaker for a cantankerous Spanish woman, and Luz tries to establish a career as a singer while working in a laundromat owned by a Basque couple.

The cast of secondary characters enliven the novel greatly and are of paramount importance to establishing the historical part of the text. The first born son of the exiled king Alfonso XIII, Alfonso de Borbón y Battenberg, the Count of Covadonga, is painted with historical accuracy as a hemophiliac married to the Cuban, Edelmira Sanpedro, and thus renouncing the crown. He is in Manhattan to recover from his disastrous marriage. Meanwhile, he also holds court in a Spanish restaurant expressing his beliefs regarding the Republican government (supported by Spanish working class immigrants) and to exalt his...