Power and Control in Anita de Monte Laughs Last

Thematic Claim: The Art of Dominance and the Fight for Autonomy

In Anita de Monte Laughs Last, Xóchitl González crafts a bitter critique of how patriarchal power operates in the art world and intimate relationships. The novel argues that men like Jack Martin and Nick Fitzsimmons exercise control through violence, manipulation, and gatekeeping — claiming ownership over art, women, and historical narratives. Against this, Anita de Monte and Raquel Toro struggle to reclaim their creative agency, often using the very tools of performance, intellect, and persistence that the system tries to strip from them.

Jack Martin’s Domination and Anita’s Resistance

Jack Martin’s control over Anita takes many forms: emotional belittlement, physical abuse, and the erasure of her artistic identity. At the Berkeley retrospective in 1980 (chapter 4), Jack introduces Anita only as his girlfriend and exploits her Cuban family history for cocktail conversation, refusing to acknowledge her as an artist. When Anita later reveals her solo show in Rome at Tilly’s party (chapter 2), Jack attempts to diminish her triumph. Anita fights back by dancing exuberantly with Jomar, reclaiming the room’s attention and transmuting her anger into defiant joy — a moment that becomes iconic just before her mysterious fall.

Their marriage reaches a violent turning point when Jack discovers Anita’s tree-trunk sculptures (chapter 5). He accuses her of stealing his concept, throws her portfolio in her face, and physically assaults her. Anita retaliates by using her affair evidence to threaten divorce (chapter 9), but Jack’s rage escalates to lethal violence — he throws her from a window. Even after her death, Jack continues to control her legacy, allowing her work to languish in storage. The ghostly Anita later haunts him (chapter 34), but ultimately chooses to stop the cycle of vengeance, finding peace only when Raquel restores her art to public view.

Systemic Control: Tilly Barber and the Art World’s Gatekeeping

Power and control also operate through institutional complicity. The epigraph, quoting Janson’s exclusionary preface to History of Art, immediately signals how art historical canons are shaped by white, male gatekeepers. Tilly Barber, Anita’s dealer and Jack’s friend, embodies this systemic control. In chapter 20, Anita’s ghost witnesses Tilly making phone calls to cancel her posthumous exhibitions — deliberately erasing Anita from the art world. Tilly rationalizes her actions by saying, “You are dead and Jack is alive,” prioritizing the living patriarch over the dead female artist. Anita’s powerless rage manifests as supernatural destruction of Tilly’s apartment, yet Tilly remains unmoved. This betrayal underscores how the art establishment, even through women like Tilly, collaborates in maintaining male dominance.

Nick Fitzsimmons and Raquel’s Struggle for Autonomy

Nick Fitzsimmons, a wealthy white sculptor, represents the next generation of inherited power. While he is not overtly violent like Jack, his privilege — his mother sits on the MoMA board — gives him control over opportunities. In chapter 3, Raquel Toro wins a curatorial fellowship and must navigate being a Puerto Rican student from a working-class background amid the “Art History Girls.” At a dinner party (chapter 6), Margot and Claire, friends of Nick, accuse Raquel of stealing their spot through affirmative action, calling her a “talentless nobody.” Raquel experiences the deep humiliation of being seen as undeserving, a form of psychological control that attempts to confine her to a subordinate role.

Yet Raquel fights back through her scholarship and persistence. She writes her honors thesis on Jack and Anita (chapter 33), winning the Department Chair’s Prize and a coauthored feature in Art in America. She declines immediate grad school for an entry-level writing job, choosing to build her own career path rather than play the elite game. The package from Nick’s mother containing an early Anita photograph becomes a powerful symbol: Raquel keeps it as a “daily reminder of her own worth.” She does not accept Nick’s family’s patronage; instead, she redefines the relationship on her terms, claiming connection to Anita’s energy rather than to the Fitzsimmons name.

Symbols of Control and Resistance

Several recurring symbols reinforce the theme. Silver sequins — the dress Anita wears when she dances and dies — represent both her defiant brightness and the fleeting nature of her freedom. The ceiba tree serves as a spiritual artery connecting Anita to her art and power; when her work is hidden in storage, she loses the ability to fly as a bat. The bat form itself is a metaphor: Anita can only become a bat and exert control when her art is in the world (chapter 22). The song “Graceland” becomes a tool of haunting: Anita uses it to terrorize Jack at Tilly’s 2000 party, forcing him to relive memories of her laughter and control.

Complexities and Contradictions

The theme is not without nuance. Anita herself becomes an agent of control as a ghost: she haunts Tilly, disrupts Jack’s peace, and even brings Raquel a mouse as a supernatural gift. Yet in chapter 34 she chooses not to push Jack down the stairs, recognizing that vengeance chains her to the same cycle of misery. Raquel, for all her agency, receives help from Anita’s ghost — the mouse, the photograph — complicating the idea of pure self-reliance. The novel suggests that autonomy often requires collaboration across time and across the line between life and death. Another contradiction: the art world that oppresses women also provides the very stage on which they can reclaim power. Anita’s art regains life through institutional validation (Raquel’s thesis, the Art in America article), even as that same institution originally erased her.

Study Questions and Answers

1. How does Jack Martin’s control over Anita manifest both physically and professionally?
Answer: Jack physically assaults Anita and later throws her from a window. Professionally, he diminishes her artistic achievements, accuses her of stealing his ideas, and after her death, his ally Tilly cancels exhibitions of her work, relegating it to storage.

2. What role does Tilly Barber play in the theme of power and control?
Answer: Tilly acts as a gatekeeper who uses her influence to cancel Anita’s posthumous shows, prioritizing Jack’s career over Anita’s legacy. She represents how even women in the art world can perpetuate patriarchal control.

3. How does Raquel Toro resist the control exercised by Nick Fitzsimmons and his social circle?
Answer: Raquel refuses to internalize the accusations of being a ”talentless nobody.” She wins academic honors, publishes her thesis, chooses a writing job over grad school, and keeps the photograph from Nick’s mother as a symbol of her own worth—not as a favor.

4. What is the significance of the bat and the ceiba tree in relation to power?
Answer: Anita’s ability to fly as a bat depends on her art being ”alive” in the world. The ceiba tree is the portal through which she accesses her power. When her work is hidden, she loses her supernatural agency. The bat thus represents the link between artistic visibility and personal autonomy.

5. How does the epigraph from Janson’s History of Art connect to the theme of control?
Answer: Janson’s defense of excluding non-Western artists from his canon mirrors the novel’s depiction of how those with institutional power decide which artists are remembered. Anita, a Cuban American woman, is doubly excluded — by race and gender — and the epigraph frames the entire novel as a fight against such erasure.