The Ceiba Tree: Portal, Power, and Rebirth in Anita de Monte Laughs Last

What Is the Ceiba Tree?

In Xóchitl González’s Anita de Monte Laughs Last, the ceiba tree is a sacred Afro-Cuban symbol that serves as a literal and metaphorical portal between the living world and Anita’s afterlife. The tree first appears in Chapter 17, after Anita’s ghost has been thrown from a window by her husband Jack. She passes through the roof of a building and emerges on a beach in Varadero, Cuba, where she finds the ceiba: “big and shadowy, just off the dunes and the clusters of sea grape and hibiscus.” Its ancient roots spread wide, its trunk bears horn-shaped thorns, and its crown of leaves is so high that “you began to lose perspective when you looked up.” Anita describes the eyes on the trunk as “kind, the way you hope a mother’s are.” From this moment, the ceiba becomes the central geographical anchor of her ghostly existence.

The ceiba is both a place of solace and a mechanism of travel. Anita explains that she can climb the tree to reach locations connected to strong emotions—whether the prison where Jack is held, her childhood home in Havana, or the American Academy in Rome. The tree never sends her to America, only to “places that made me happy.” This restriction ties the ceiba to joy and belonging, distinguishing it from the trauma she associates with her life in New York.

Where the Ceiba Tree Recurs

The ceiba appears in every chapter narrated by Anita after her death (Chapters 17, 22, 24, 26, 34). Each recurrence marks a shift in her emotional state and power.

Chapter 17 (1985, after death): Anita first discovers the ceiba on Varadero beach. She climbs it to reach Jack’s jail cell and later learns that people’s talk of her draws her up or down the tree. She uses it to visit her sister, Rome, and other happy places. This chapter establishes the tree as a conduit for hauntings tied to remembrance.
Chapter 22 (1987): After her retrospective party, Anita’s art is packed away, and she tries to transform into a bat by letting go from the ceiba’s branches. She fails and hits the roots. The old bat Roberto explains that bat form requires her art to be active. The ceiba becomes a place of frustration and lesson.
Chapter 26 (1998): Anita is depressed and rarely climbs the ceiba. When she hears a name from the tree with feelings of sycophancy, she goes up to find her work stored in a penthouse drawer. The tree reveals the burial of her legacy.
Chapter 34 (2000): Anita’s power returns after Raquel helps restore her art. She climbs the ceiba and descends into Tilly’s loft to torment Jack. At the climax, she chooses not to push him down the stairs, deciding she is “tired of it.” The ceiba then becomes a place of release and guardian spirit—she returns to “fly among the ceiba trees” and visit loved ones.

How the Ceiba’s Meaning Changes

Initially, the ceiba represents peace and a bridge to a joyful afterlife. Anita’s first climb is instinctive and fearless—she is not harmed by the thorns. The tree feels maternal, a sanctuary from the violence of her death.

As the novel progresses, the ceiba becomes a measure of Anita’s agency. When her art is hidden, she cannot become a bat, and the tree becomes a place of painful repetition (“I climbed back up. Fast. Fast. Fast.”). The tree’s roots, once comforting, become a hard landing when she loses power.

In the later chapters, the ceiba transforms into a vehicle for both vengeance and release. Anita uses it to fly into Tilly’s party, but she also chooses not to kill Jack from its heights. The final meaning is one of enduring connection: Anita remains linked to the ceiba as a source of flight and belonging, even after she stops active haunting. She claims she is “happier now” because her art is back in the world, and the ceiba still offers her the ability to visit those she loves.

Character and Theme Connections

Anita de Monte: The ceiba is her spiritual home. It mirrors her own journey from victim to empowered ghost to forgiving guardian. Her ability to climb reflects her rejection of fear—she had not climbed a tree since childhood but now ascends without hesitation. The tree’s thorns and height become extensions of her own resilience.

Raquel Toro: Although Raquel never physically visits the ceiba, her research and emotional connection to Anita’s art indirectly empower the tree. In Chapter 34, Anita credits Raquel: “Raquel had helped me with that: little by little everything began to come back. My work, my name, my art!” By restoring Anita’s legacy, Raquel reopens the portal that gives Anita bat form and flight. The ceiba thus links the living scholar to the dead artist.

Jack Martin: He never sees the ceiba, but he is its antithesis. The tree sends Anita to places of happiness; Jack represents the trauma she escapes. Anita uses the tree to reach Jack’s prison and later to haunt his parties. Jack’s fear of the bat—Anita’s physical form from the ceiba—shows his inability to control the supernatural legacy.

Themes: The ceiba directly supports the themes of haunting and legacy. It is the mechanism through which Anita’s art and memory persist. It also connects to identity and belonging because it only sends Anita to joyful places in Cuba and Rome, not to America—rooting her ghost in her cultural and emotional homeland. The theme of erasure of women artists is countered by the ceiba’s role: when Anita’s work is hidden, she loses power; when it is rediscovered, she flies again.

The Bat Transformation and the Ceiba

A key sub-symbol within the ceiba is the bat. In Chapter 17, the ghost of Marco’s lover, a bat, teaches Anita that she can become a bat by first falling from the tree. The bat’s explanation—“the only way to soar is to first allow yourself to fall”—mirrors Anita’s own death. To take physical form, she must trust the fall. This paradox of release before flight echoes her journey from victim to agent.

Later, in Chapter 22, the old bat Roberto explains that only artists and muses can become bats, and only while their art is active. When Anita’s art is packed away, she loses this ability. The ceiba is thus directly tied to the survival of her creative legacy. The bat power returns only after Raquel’s work brings Anita’s art back into public view.

Study Questions with Answers

How does the ceiba tree function as a portal, and what limitations does it impose on Anita’s ghost?
The ceiba allows Anita to travel between the afterlife and specific locations that evoke strong emotion, but only to places that made her happy—never to America. She climbs the tree to reach Jack’s prison, her sister’s home, Havana, and Rome. The portal activates when people think or speak of her work with emotion, drawing her up or down the tree.
What is the relationship between the ceiba tree and Anita’s ability to become a bat?
Anita can transform into a bat only when her art is active and visible in the world. To become a bat, she must fall from the tree’s branches, spreading her wings at the right moment. When her art is stored in crates, she loses this power and hits the roots. The bat form returns when Raquel helps restore Anita’s legacy.
How does the ceiba tree reflect Anita’s emotional state throughout the novel?
Early after death, the ceiba is a place of awe and protection. Later, when her work is hidden, it becomes a site of frustration and failure (she cannot become a bat). In the final chapter, the tree is again a source of power and release, as Anita chooses not to kill Jack and instead flies away, finding peace.
In what ways does Raquel Toro indirectly influence the ceiba tree’s power?
Raquel’s research and writing about Anita de Monte, particularly her honors thesis and subsequent magazine feature, bring Anita’s art back into public consciousness. Anita explicitly states that Raquel helped her regain power: “my work, my name, my art! … And also, my power.” By restoring the art’s visibility, Raquel reopens the ceiba’s portal, allowing Anita to fly again as a bat.

Conclusion

The ceiba tree is the central symbol of Anita de Monte Laughs Last, anchoring Anita’s afterlife and her eventual redemption. It represents not only a portal but also the condition of being remembered. Through its sacred roots and soaring branches, González weaves together themes of legacy, joy, and the cost of erasure. The tree’s final gift to Anita is not revenge but the ability to let go—and to fly.