The Cemetery of Untold Stories

People in the barrio describe Filomena as “un alma de Dios,” a servile woman who is “none too bright” and “seldom speaks” (41). Her silence leads people to believe that she has nothing of significance in her past or her future. Therefore, the neighbors are surprised when Alma selects her to be the cemetery’s caretaker.

Throughout much of the story, Filomena remains mostly satisfied with her lowly position in life and works as a maid, caretaker, and church custodian. She never leans to read or write, but Alma praises her imagination after hearing her stories. However, Alma doesn’t fully realize that Filomena has not yet developed the capacity to lie or invent stories; instead, she sees the world very literally. Her character development exposes her to many stories, and she learns to spin a few stories herself, although she is pious enough to feel guilt over uttering an untruth. The stories change her as she becomes more absorbed in the ideas that the voices express. Their stories open her mind to other experiences and perspectives, allowing her to increase her empathy with others in the real world.

All her life, Filomena has sought love, clinging to Perla in the absence of their mother and accepting Tesoro’s molestations because of her deep need for some form of love or attention. Perla’s son Pepito therefore becomes like her own son, but when Perla and Tesoro take Pepito back to New York, she unintentionally sabotages the relationship with her sister when she reveals the fact that Tesoro sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager. Thus, she learns that telling her story only causes her to lose everyone she loves, so she becomes resigned to decades of near-silence. In the end, however, even Perla sees that Filomena embodies goodness and has an abundance of compassion and forgiveness.

Manuel is Alma’s father. He is initially characterized as a charmer, someone in his nursing home who “became a favorite of the aides, an exotic creature in his Panama hat, gallantly kissing their hands, complimenting them” (12-13). However, despite his charm, he has avoided talking about his life, even to his daughters. As Alma states, “If Mami was an open book, Papi wasn’t even in the library” (14). When he becomes a disembodied voice in Alma’s cemetery and shares his story with Filomena and Bienvenida, it becomes clear that Manuel’s reticence is both learned and well-earned. He first learns to conceal his thoughts from his father, about whom he states:

It irritated him that I loved poetry, that I cried if told a sad story. He tried to beat my nature out of me, and when that didn’t work, he shipped me off to a military school. The harsh discipline, the unquestioned obedience to stupidity—I was miserable (104).

Only with his mother can he be himself, as they both find refuge in the stories they create about the fantastical land of Alfa Calenda. He puts himself through medical school in the DR, but his involvement in the resistance against Trujillo’s brutality forces him to leave the country. The fact that twice he becomes involved with dissidents suggests that Manuel has a sense of justice and is willing to take risks to fight against dictators, for his father was his earliest experience of violent oppression.

However, he faces a different sort of oppression in New York, where he feels constantly judged and unwelcome. Wary of divulging his dissident past with other Dominicans, he becomes lonely and isolated despite periods of happiness with his wife, Lucía. After his daughters are grown and have American lives, Manuel’s yearning for connection and understanding deepens, leading to his affair with Tatica. Later, his combined guilt over betraying his wife and shame over deporting Tatica solidify his reticence to talk about his past. As he states, “I’ve built up a wall of silence they cannot climb over. […] Only Alma persists in scaling the wall of my storied self, peppering me with questions. […] It is torture to be reminded of what I cannot forget or forgive myself for having done” (190). However, as he speaks with Bienvenida and confesses his sins, he finds some solace in sharing his story. Although he doesn’t regret telling his secrets to Bienvenida and Filomena, he is saddened to realize that his daughters will never fully understand him.