Anita de Monte Laughs Last: 15 Questions and Answers

About This Guide

This companion offers fifteen evidence-grounded questions and answers that probe the narrative, themes, and craft of Xóchitl González's novel. Each entry is built from the supplied chapter outline and retrieved excerpts, never from inference or boilerplate. Use the internal links to explore character arcs, themes of erasure, and the book's ending.

Why does Anita choose to dance instead of confront Jack when she sees him with Ingrid at Tilly's party?

Anita decides to transmute her rage into joyful performance, reclaiming power by refusing to be diminished. She dances exuberantly with Jomar, drawing the room's attention and ruining Jack's night far more effectively than a confrontation would have. This choice marks a turning point in her self-assertion and foreshadows how the world will remember her—laughing, spinning, and impossible to ignore.

In Chapter 2, Anita recalls her decision to grow "thick, coconut-shell skin" impervious to Jack's attempts to crack her joy. When she spots Jack entangled with Ingrid, she feels anger but remembers she has changed her mind. She turns to Jomar and suggests dancing to "Quimbara," deliberately performing for an audience that includes Jack. As she spins, she feels his gaze "hot like fire" and knows she has ruined his night as he ruined so many of hers. The silver sequins of her dress fly upward "like the feathers of a molting bird"—an image that later becomes the last thing witnesses remember before her death. Anita's dance is both a victory and an epitaph, a moment of reclaimed agency that also seals her fate.

What causes Raquel to shift from passive scholar to engaged seeker of Anita de Monte's legacy?

Raquel's unease after hearing Nick's mother dismiss Anita as a "pushy Cuban thing" sparks a research journey that transforms her. In the library, she discovers tabloid coverage of Anita's death but almost nothing about her art. After five hours, she finds the only catalog of Anita's work, and the vibrant images speak to her on a deep level, evoking a sense of belonging she had never felt in academic spaces. This experience turns her from a student who absorbs received knowledge into one who actively seeks out erased histories.

Chapter 21 shows Raquel waking with unease after Mrs. Fitzsimmons's condescending remarks. At the library, she encounters racist language in press coverage and learns how the art world defended Jack Martin. The catalog of Anita's work she finally examines is described as "vibrant" and "loud," connecting Raquel with an embodied sense of place she had been denied in Ivy League classrooms. Later, in Chapter 29, Belinda Kim helps Raquel realize the system taught both of them a lie: that art history began with white men. Raquel's anger turns into purposeful action, culminating in her decision to write a thesis that restores Anita's influence on Jack's work, even when Professor Temple dismisses Anita as a "minor artist."

Why does Jack decide to let Anita leave without a fight the night she dies, and what does this reveal about him?

Jack believes he should let her go after their vicious fight, but his decision is not generosity—it is exhaustion and denial. He recalls loving her like a wounded bird he wanted to save, yet in the present he throws her portfolio at her face and accuses her of copying his work. His passivity masks his refusal to see her as a full person; he loved her need, not her strength.

In Chapter 5, Jack remembers their first meeting: all the paintings in the gallery fell from the walls after Anita defied him, and he found her "so fucking cool." He compares her to a young wren he once saved, loving that she "needed a home." Yet in the present fight, when she laughs after he throws the portfolio and denies stealing his ideas, he simply thinks, "This time… he should just let her go." He never confronts the violence of his accusation or the abuse of throwing objects at her. His decision is not mercy but the cold withdrawal of a man who finds her no longer useful to his self-image.

What does the falling paintings incident at Anita's first solo show symbolize about her relationship with the art world?

The mysterious fall of Anita's framed photographs during the male-dominated panel discussion symbolises the art world's resistance to her presence and the energy of her work insisting on being seen. Anita believes her art reacted to being ignored—that its "energy" caused the shattering. The incident foreshadows how institutional gatekeepers will later erase her entirely, while also revealing her belief that her creativity has a force beyond the physical.

Chapter 7 recounts the Venus Collective show where Leslie Golub organized a panel with Jack Martin and Arnold Golub to draw crowds, which Anita resented. During the panel, she stood to challenge the men but was ignored. Then her photographs "mysteriously fell and shattered." Anita interprets this as her art's energy reacting to being dismissed, not as an accident. The scene parallels the epigraph's critique of canon formation: the art world literally cannot contain her, so it breaks her work. Later, Jack remembers this incident as part of what drew him to her, but he also uses it to frame her as unstable during his murder defense in Chapter 11, where his lawyer decides to portray her as irrational.

How does Anita's performance of the stereotypical Cuban "novia" at Jack's Berkeley opening function as an act of rebellion?

Anita's drunken mock-toast impersonating a stereotypical Cuban girlfriend is a calculated act of exposure—she publicly performs the role Jack has reduced her to, making visible the demeaning way he treats her Cuban heritage as cocktail conversation. The performance reclaims her agency by forcing the room to witness the caricature she has been made into, rather than silently enduring it.

In Chapter 4, at Jack's midcareer retrospective opening at Berkeley, Anita reflects on how Jack introduces her only as his girlfriend and exploits her family history for social capital. After a tense conversation with Tilly, who advises her to simply "choose" comfort over ambition, Anita makes a drunken toast mimicking a stereotypical "novia." Jack drags her from the restaurant and throws her into a car, telling the driver to take her home. This humiliation solidifies her decision: she will never put Jack before herself again. The scene reveals the power imbalance in their marriage and foreshadows her later resolve to divorce him and take half his money, as detailed in Chapter 9.

Why does Raquel decide to end her relationship with Nick, and what role does Anita's legacy play in that decision?

Raquel ends the relationship after Nick refuses to leave Tilly Barber's gallery, which profited from Jack Martin's murder of Anita. Nick's demand that Raquel accept his connection to the system that erased Anita forces her to choose between her integrity and his approval. Anita's ghost, stirred by Raquel's defiance, decides to stay with her, marking the moment when Raquel's personal awakening and Anita's haunting converge.

Chapter 30 shows Raquel confronting Nick about his connection to Tilly's gallery. She has just discovered documentation of Anita's land art at RISD and recognized the figurative shape from Jack's catalog. Belinda Kim has begun emailing curators about Anita's work. When Nick refuses to leave Tilly, Raquel walks away. Anita's ghost, watching, notes that Raquel "throbbed with wild ambition" and decides to stay with her rather than continue haunting Jack. Earlier, in Chapter 27, Raquel had already begun to understand how institutional bias shaped her deference to Nick after studying Anita's work in the library. The haircut incident in Chapter 25—where Nick cuts far more than she asked—was the first rupture; the choice between Nick and Anita's truth completes the break.

What does the ceiba tree represent as a liminal space in Anita's afterlife?

The ceiba tree at Varadero Beach serves as a portal between the spirit world and the living world, allowing Anita to observe, intervene, and transform into bat form. It anchors her to her Cuban homeland while also giving her access to the spaces where her art remains active. The tree is both a prison and a launchpad—she must return to it when her energy fades, but from its branches she can fly anywhere her name is spoken with emotion.

In Chapter 17, after Jack pushes her out the window, Anita's ghost appears under a ceiba tree on Varadero Beach. She learns that people summon her by talking about her or her work emotionally, and she can only travel to places that made her happy. A bat—the deceased lover of Marco—reveals she can take physical form by first falling, like a bat. In Chapter 20, when Tilly begins canceling Anita's retrospective, Anita hears the ceiba call with Tilly's name and climbs to intervene. By Chapter 26, the tree has become a place of depression when no one thinks of her; she sits eating guavas until she hears a name that stirs her. In Chapter 34, she returns to the tree after choosing not to kill Jack, using it as a perch from which she can still help Raquel.

How does Tilly Barber's complicity in erasing Anita's legacy complicate the novel's view of the art world's power structures?

Tilly acts against her own moral judgment, knowing she is wrong yet making calls to cancel Anita's retrospective because Jack pressures her. Her complicity reveals that erasure is not always the work of villains but of people who prioritize relationships and institutional comfort over justice. Tilly's self-disgust as she makes those calls shows that the system corrupts even those who might otherwise be allies.

Chapter 20 details Tilly's phone calls to curators and journalists. Anita's ghost watches from Tilly's loft, feeling Tilly's "upset and sadness and shame and loyalty." Tilly sips scotch, scrapes polish off her nails with her teeth, and after each call sighs with "repugnance" and "self-disgrace." When Anita throws a glass against the door, Tilly says her name without shock—she knows who is haunting her. Yet she continues, telling Anita, "You're dead and Jack is alive." In Chapter 19, Jack pressures Tilly into staging his own concurrent retrospective to compete with Anita's, and she complies. Her role complicates the novel's critique: the system depends on people like Tilly who see injustice but feel powerless to disrupt it.

What is the significance of Raquel receiving an early Anita de Monte photograph from Linda Fitzsimmons at the end of the novel?

The photograph—from Anita's Iowa work, before she met Jack—symbolizes Raquel's integration of Anita's legacy into her own life. It is not returned to a museum or storage but becomes a daily object in Raquel's Brooklyn apartment, a personal totem of worth and continuity. Raquel decides to keep it as a reminder that she is "not the first to walk this path, nor would she be the last."

In Chapter 33, after delivering her honors thesis and winning the Department Chair's Prize, Raquel declines immediate grad school to take an entry-level writing job at Art in America. A messenger delivers a package from Linda Fitzsimmons containing the photograph, described as showing flowers "that grew from her breasts and eyes and pubis and legs." Raquel feels "the pure, wild energy" of Anita before Jack ever knew her. The image will not go back into a vault but stay with Raquel, connecting her daily to Anita's ferocious vitality. This moment echoes Chapter 30, where Anita's ghost watched Belinda and Raquel unwrap her land art; now Anita's work resides not in an institution but in the home of a young scholar who has committed to restoring her place in art history.

Why does Anita stop herself from pushing Jack down the stairs at Tilly's party in 2000, and what does this decision mean for her afterlife?

Anita chooses to stop the cycle of vengeance because her restored art has lessened her anger. Seeing Raquel's successful thesis and the Excavating Anita exhibition makes her realize she has already won—Jack's ability to erase her is broken. By sparing him, she transforms from vengeful ghost to protective guardian, using her remaining power to help Raquel rather than destroy Jack.

In Chapter 34, Anita haunts Tilly's party full of aging artists, changes the music to "Graceland," and panics the room. Jack flees and she chases him toward a staircase with the intention of pushing him to his death. At the last moment she stops, "tired of the cycle of vengeance." Her art has been restored by Raquel, which she says lessens her anger. After the party, she stops active haunting, visiting her sister and niece, watching Jomar's career, and occasionally seeing Tilly. She uses her ghostly powers to bring Raquel a mouse as thanks. This transition completes the arc from the enraged spirit of Chapter 20, who screamed that she wanted to be alive, to a guardian who accepts the power her posthumous recognition has given her.

How does John Temple's resistance to Raquel's thesis on Anita de Monte illuminate institutional gatekeeping in art history?

Temple argues that Jack Martin's domestic violence is irrelevant to his art and that Anita was a "minor artist" without enough scholarship to support Raquel's claims. His resistance shows how the academy protects canonical figures by dismissing the work of women of color as unworthy of study, while treating any challenge to the curriculum as "identity politics" poisoning the well.

In Chapter 31, Raquel confronts Temple after he omits Jack's murder trial from lectures. He tells her that mentioning van Gogh's ear or Lautrec's dwarfism is "relevant to the way they saw the world," but claims Jack's art "didn't suddenly become about grieving his wife." When Raquel shows him an image of Anita's Cuban cave sculpture from 1981, Temple's face reveals he has never seen her work. He calls her "a minor artist." Only after Raquel's emotional plea—"Was I supposed to come here and pretend to have had the same life you did?"—does he grant her permission to be advised by Belinda Kim. Temple's grudging concession exposes the gatekeeping that allows canonical figures to remain unexamined while the erased stay invisible.

What role does the bat serve as a supernatural guide and symbol in Anita's haunting?

The bat is both a guide who teaches Anita to manifest physically and a form she adopts to enact vengeance. A deceased former lover of Marco's explains she can become visible by falling, like a bat. Anita then learns to transform to attack Tilly, confront Jack, and eventually choose not to kill him. The bat represents her adaptation to the liminal space between life and death—neither bird nor mammal, she exists in the margins of the living world.

In Chapter 17, after Jack pushes her out the window, Anita meets a bat who reveals it is Marco's deceased lover. The bat tells her she can take physical form by first falling—a lesson she practices repeatedly. In Chapter 20, she transforms into a bat to attack Tilly, swooping into her loft and picking at her hair. In Chapter 16, a bat enters Jack's borrowed cabin, turns on the stereo, and attacks him sexually, confirming his belief that Anita's spirit pursues him. By Chapter 34, Anita has mastered the form enough to fly without falling, choosing to use it for protection rather than vengeance.

How does Anita's 1980 return to Cuba reshape her artistic identity and her understanding of authenticity?

In Cuba, Anita realizes her earlier art was a performance for approval rather than an authentic expression. A fellow artist, Marco, shows her secret nude paintings made only for himself, forcing her to confront her own need for external validation. During a rainstorm, she performs a ritual of covering herself with red earth and letting the rain wash her clean—her first true silueta—marking her shift from creating for an audience to creating for herself.

Chapter 12 recounts Anita's return to Cuba as part of a US artist delegation in 1980. At a welcome dinner, she feels out of place among both Americans and Cubans. Marco shows her paintings he made only for himself, not for approval, forcing her to recognize her own art was a "performance for acceptance." During a rainstorm, she strips, covers herself with red earth, and lets the rain wash her clean—her first authentic silueta. She bribes guide Rezza with Jack's diamond earrings to stay for a year, reconnecting with family, learning about her orishas, and creating cave sculptures that she allows to be destroyed by nature. This experience gives her the spiritual grounding that later sustains her ghost and explains why her art feels "raw and pure" to Raquel.

Why does Jack believe Anita's ghost has altered his art, and what does this say about his psychology?

Jack's conviction that Anita's spirit softens his minimalist shapes and adds circular forms to his installations reveals his guilt and his inability to control her legacy. He projects his fear onto her ghost, but the alterations may also be his subconscious acknowledgment of her influence—the very influence he spent decades denying. His paranoia shows the fragility of his constructed genius.

In Chapter 23 (1989 Madrid), Jack celebrates his Reina Sofia exhibition but seethes because he believes Anita's ghost has changed his work, adding "softer shapes." He confesses to Tilly that her spirit moves objects and modifies his installations. When Tilly shows him an advertisement for a body art auction featuring Anita's work, Jack panics, begging her to make Anita's art disappear. Earlier, in Chapter 11, Jack had refused responsibility, allowing his lawyer to smear Anita as unstable. His haunting reveals that his arrogance masks deep insecurity: he needs Anita to be forgettable, yet he cannot forget her. The novel never confirms whether the ghost actually changes his art or whether Jack imagines it, keeping the ambiguity alive.

What is the function of the epigraph from Anthony F. Janson's preface to History of Art, Volume II?

The epigraph frames the entire novel's critique of canon formation. Janson defends excluding non-Western artists by claiming his choice favors universality over ethnocentricity. This argument—that exclusion is neutral or necessary—becomes the ideology Anita and Raquel fight against. The epigraph announces that the novel will examine who gets to decide what matters in art and whose stories are erased in the name of tradition.

Chapter 1 presents the epigraph from Janson's 1994 preface, in which he justifies omitting non-Western artists from his edition on the grounds of "universality." The novel never returns to Janson directly, but his logic echoes throughout: Jack's claim that his art is "about nothing," John Temple's dismissal of Anita as a "minor artist," and Tilly's collusion in canceling Anita's retrospective. Raquel's thesis title, "Form and Figure: Revisiting Jack Martin and Anita de Monte," directly challenges the kind of canon-building Janson represents. The epigraph is not narrative but ideological—it is the wall Raquel and Anita must dismantle.