The Color of Summer: or The New Garden of Earthly Delights by Reinaldo Arenas Read Free Book Online Page A

angry argument breaks out, and fierce competition arises among those who want to carve her statue. Hundreds of sculptors present their projects to the mayor of Hialeah. It is decided that each sculptor will make a statue and submit it to a jury, which will make the decision. Immediately they all start to carve away at statues of Avellaneda, because there’s very little time. Key West becomes filled with hundreds of gigantic statues—Avellaneda nude, Avellaneda with a long dress and a shield on her head, Avellaneda with a dove on one shoulder and a torch in her hand . . . From out of the hundreds of sample statues, the jury gives the award to the one by Tony López, portraying Avellaneda in a long dress, dripping wet with sea water, sailing through a grove of palm trees. Stars twinkle among the palm fronds, and in the top of one of the palm trees sits a naked black man playing a trumpet. A banner reading WELCOME TULA! runs from one side of the grove of palm trees to the other. A crane deposits this magnificent statue at the entrance to Key West Harbor. But the losers protest so bitterly that the jury declares that all the statues are finalists, and therefore should also be exhibited. Now Key West is one huge mob of statues and people, among whom the Guadalajara Symphony Orchestra continues to play. On each statue, a child with long curly locks is sitting.
    C HORUS OF C HILDREN : (perched on the statues)
Look! Look!
She’s coming! She’s coming!
Another nail
In that pig Fifo’s coffin!
    (The lights on the Malecón come up. Raúl is standing next to Fifo.)
    R AÚL :
Well, I never! Dear me! Did you hear that!
That stubborn Gertrudis just won’t quit!
And adding insult to injury,
those brats are calling you a pig!
I tell you, Fifo—
Why not just cut the old bag loose,
and let me get dressed and go out to cruise?
    F IFO :
That woman is paddling like a speedboat,
and all you can think of is your libido!
    R AÚL :
Well, it’s you and your stupid ideology
that’s made her this heroic prodigy.
    (Looking through a spyglass)
My god—somebody’s even erected her a statue—
though it’s got big feet
    and one heel’s crooked on its shoe.
    F IFO : .
Enough of this chitchat, you fool—
we’ve got to think of something to do.
I know, we’ll do a statue, too, Raúl!
And not just some silly statuette—
I want the biggest statue yet!
A statue of ignominy!
A statue of infamy!
A statue of repudiation!
    R AÚL :
Hey, that’s not a bad solution
but who’s supposed to do the labor?
    F IFO :
Rita Tonga—if she’s available.
    R AÚL :
Available!
Why, your every wish is her command.
I’ll get her right on it.
    F IFO :
Good man.
    While Rita Tonga carves out the statue at full speed, Halisia and her corps de ballet perform the “dance of repudiation.” This is a series of enraged leaps, kicks, spits, and the motions of squashing lice and cockroaches and throwing them into the sea.
    R ITA T ONGA : (completing the statue and bowing to Fifo)
Here’s the statue of Avellaneda.
Look how hideous I made ’er!
    F IFO :
Yes! What an eyesore!
This is priceless!
Rita—this may be your masterpiece!
    R AÚL :
Boy, is that statue ugly! Uff!
The spitting image of Gorbachev!
    F IFO :
How dare you mention that name in my presence!
He’s the one that got us in this mess.
    R AÚL :
Yeah, but Raisa’s got a contract out on him, I hear.
    F IFO :
Hush! Do you want the KGB to hear?
    R AÚL :
Are you kidding? The KGB and the CIA,
have—both of them—seen better days;
no way there’re any agents around here—
and besides—you think they’d listen to some silly queer?
    (Puts hands on hips.)
    F IFO :
Yeah, but still . . . you know about loose lips . . .
Anyway—let’s have a closer look at this.
    (He walks over to the statue of Avellaneda.)
Oh, no! What a disappointment!
It’s got feet instead of stumps,
and tits instead of scorpions—
and I wanted it to be short and squat.
This isn’t what I had in mind at all,
this is not what I