Cultural Heritage and the Meaning of Home in The Celebrants
The Thematic Claim in The Celebrants: Cultural Heritage and the Meaning of Home
In The Celebrants, cultural heritage and the meaning of home are inseparable from the question of how a person faces the end of life. For Jordan Aarón Vargas, an immigrant who came to the United States from Bogotá, Colombia, at age eight, home is never a single, settled place. It is a layered inheritance: the country his parents left behind, the New York City life he built with his husband Jordy Tosic, and the circle of friends bound by the pact. The novel argues that a person's immigrant background shapes not only where they feel they belong but also where they want to be—literally and emotionally—when life is ending. Jordan's terminal diagnosis forces him to confront what home means, and his answers reveal that home is both a place of origin and a place of chosen belonging.
Tracing the Theme Across the Plot
The Return to Bogotá
In chapter 3, as Jordan's health declines, Jordy suggests a trip to Positano, Italy—a romantic fantasy of beaches and food that echoes their delayed honeymoon. Jordan resists, and instead admits he has been thinking a lot about Colombia. The novel gives us his reasoning directly: it fascinates him that the dangers his parents fled have migrated to America, while the freedoms they sought now exist in Colombia. Random gun violence, political unrest, and supply chain issues have become American problems, while marriage equality, socialized medicine, and reproductive choice are now Colombian. This inversion matters deeply to Jordan. His parents left Colombia to give their children a better life, and now the country they fled has become, in some ways, more aligned with the values they sought. Jordan's urge to return to Bogotá is not nostalgia for a place he barely remembers—he left at eight—but a desire to see where his story began before it ends.
The scene also establishes a tension between Jordy's vision of home and Jordan's. Jordy suggests Big Sur, the place associated with the pact and their friend group. For Jordy, home is the community they built. For Jordan, home is also origin. The novel does not resolve this tension; it holds both possibilities.
The Anniversary Soup
Chapter 5 deepens the cultural dimension of home through food. On their anniversary—the day Jordy arrived in New York with his duffel bag—Jordy makes Jordan's mother's ajiaco, a Colombian potato and chicken soup. He has obtained the recipe from Carmen Vargas and found the signature herb, guascas, at the Latin American grocer where they took Jordan's mother. The soup is a direct act of love that connects Jordan to his heritage. It is also a reminder that home is carried in taste and memory, not just in geography. When Jordan inhales the steam from the pot, he is inhaling his mother's kitchen, his childhood, his culture.
The scene culminates in Jordy's gift: plane tickets from JFK to Bogotá. Jordy has listened, taken Jordan seriously, and acted on his wish. This is a crucial moment because it shows that Jordy's understanding of home has expanded. He may prefer Big Sur, but he honors Jordan's need to return to his origins. The tickets are not just a travel plan; they are an acknowledgment that Jordan's cultural heritage is part of who he is and where he needs to be.
The Belts and the Locusts
Chapter 4 offers a more complicated view of cultural heritage. Jordan is sorting his belongings, trying to decide which belts to keep, and he describes his family as locusts who will try to take everything. He explains that his parents, having once left so much behind, now want to hold on to everything. This is a profound insight into the immigrant experience: the loss of home and possessions in the country of origin creates a compensatory attachment to things in the new country. Jordan's parents' hoarding impulse is not greed; it is a response to displacement. At the same time, Jordan wants to have some say in what happens to his things, asserting control over his legacy even as his body fails him.
This scene complicates the theme by showing that cultural heritage is not only a source of comfort and identity but also a source of friction. Jordan loves his parents, but he also finds their need to hold on suffocating. The novel refuses to sentimentalize heritage; it shows it as a living, sometimes difficult relationship.
The Obituary
Chapter 8, which presents Jordan's obituary, grounds the theme in the public record of a life. The obituary notes that Jordan was born in Bogotá, Colombia, and immigrated to the United States at age eight. It lists his parents, Carmen and Miguel Vargas of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and his brother and niece. It also names his pact members—Naomi Ito, Craig Scheffler, and Marielle Holland-Scheffler—as dear friends. The obituary thus holds both families together: the family of origin and the family of choice. Jordan's cultural heritage is part of his public identity, recorded for posterity, even as his chosen family is equally honored.
Character and Symbol Connections
Jordan Vargas
Jordan is the novel's central figure for this theme. His immigrant background is not incidental; it shapes his entire orientation to home and belonging. He left Colombia at eight, grew up in the United States, built a career in public relations, and married a man he met at Berkeley. Yet at the end of his life, he wants to return to Bogotá. This is not a rejection of his American life; it is a completion of it. He wants to see where it all began.
Jordy Tosic
Jordy represents the American-born partner whose sense of home is rooted in the life they built together. He suggests Big Sur, the place of the pact, because for him home is the community of friends. His journey in these chapters is one of learning to honor Jordan's different understanding of home. By making the ajiaco and buying the Bogotá tickets, he demonstrates that love means expanding one's own definition of home to include the other person's heritage.
The Pact and Big Sur
The pact—the promise to throw living funerals for one another—is itself a form of home. It is a chosen family created after Alec Swigert's death, a way of ensuring that no one is left to wonder about their impact. Big Sur, the place associated with the pact, represents the home the friends built together. Jordan's resistance to Big Sur in chapter 3 is significant: he does not want to be seen in his current state, and he does not want the pity of a fake funeral. But the pact is also a form of belonging, and ultimately Jordan does activate it, texting the group—the group text chain named NANA'S HUNGRY LITTLE PIE EATERS—to begin the process.
The Ajiaco Soup
The soup is the novel's most powerful symbol of cultural heritage as home. It is a dish Jordan's mother made, a taste of Colombia that Jordy recreates with the recipe and the guascas from the Latin American grocer. The soup connects Jordan to his mother, his childhood, and his country of origin. It is also an act of love from Jordy, who learns to make it so that Jordan can taste home in his final months.
The Ouija Board
The Ouija board Jordan gives Jordy is a darker symbol. Jordan presents it as a way to continue the conversation after he is gone, but Jordy is not amused. The board represents Jordan's attempt to bridge the gap between life and death, to maintain connection beyond the end. It also reflects his cultural background in a complicated way: the board is a commercial American game, not a Colombian tradition, and its presence in the scene suggests that Jordan's attempts to manage his own ending are improvisational and sometimes clumsy. The Ouija board fails as a comfort because it cannot replace the real presence of the person.
Complexity and Contradiction
The novel is careful not to present cultural heritage as a simple source of comfort. Jordan's relationship with his heritage is ambivalent. He wants to return to Bogotá, but he also describes his parents as locusts. He loves his mother's soup, but he also finds his family's need to hold on to things suffocating. The novel shows that heritage is not a static inheritance but a living, contested relationship.
There is also a contradiction in the geography of home. Jordan's parents left Colombia to escape violence and instability, but now the things they sought—marriage equality, socialized medicine—are available in Colombia, while the problems they fled have arrived in America. This inversion means that home is not a simple binary of here and there. It is a shifting landscape of values, opportunities, and risks. Jordan's desire to return to Bogotá is not a rejection of America; it is an acknowledgment that his origins and his present are both part of who he is.
Finally, the novel holds two definitions of home in tension: the home of origin (Colombia, parents, heritage) and the home of choice (New York, Jordy, the pact). Jordan does not have to choose between them. The obituary lists both families. The anniversary dinner includes both the ajiaco and the plane tickets. The novel's vision of home is capacious enough to include both the place you came from and the place you made.
Study Questions and Answers
1. How does Jordan's immigrant background shape his understanding of home and belonging?
Jordan's immigration from Colombia at age eight means he carries two homes within him. His parents left Bogotá to escape instability, but Jordan's terminal diagnosis makes him want to return to see where his story began. His understanding of home is layered: it includes the country of origin, the American life he built, and the chosen family of the pact. The novel shows that for immigrants, home is never singular.
2. Why does Jordan resist Jordy's suggestion of Big Sur in favor of Bogotá?
Big Sur represents the pact and the friend group—the chosen family. But Jordan does not want to be seen in his declining state, and he does not want the pity of a living funeral. Bogotá represents origin and completion. He wants to see where his life began before it ends. The resistance is not a rejection of his friends but a need to reconcile with his heritage.
3. How does the ajiaco soup function as a symbol of cultural heritage?
The soup is a taste of Colombia that Jordy recreates using Jordan's mother's recipe and guascas from the Latin American grocer. It connects Jordan to his mother, his childhood, and his country of origin. It also shows Jordy's love: he learns to make the soup so Jordan can experience home in his final months.
4. In what ways does the novel complicate the idea of home as a single, fixed place?
Jordan observes that the dangers his parents fled are now American problems, while the freedoms they sought are now Colombian. This inversion means home is not a simple binary. The novel also shows Jordan's ambivalence toward his family—he loves them but finds their need to hold on to things suffocating. Home is a shifting landscape of values and relationships.
5. How does the obituary in chapter 8 bring together Jordan's family of origin and his family of choice?
The obituary lists Jordan's parents, brother, and niece alongside his pact members as dear friends. It records his birth in Bogotá and his immigration at age eight. By holding both families together, the obituary suggests that home is not a single place or group but the full network of origin and choice that makes a life.