Cheche’s View on Life

Cheche, the half-brother of Santiago in Anna in the Tropics has a very extreme view on life, particularly
when comparing his views with Marela, the other extreme in the novel. Cheche has a very hands-on-
approach on life. He is a motivated man, determined to take over the majority share of the factory and
bringing it to a more productive state. This demonstrates how little he values tradition and culture. His
character is very materialistic; putting aside any sort of education upgrade for his workers, deciding it
hurts the efficiency of the factory. In the Cuban culture, every cigar is rolled in an exceptional way, but
Cheche is not from that culture entirely, he only sees quantity, not the quality as important. He is
extremely shallow (in a spiritual way), very realistic. He believes in vengeance, punishing his wife’s love
for a lector on Juan Julian, indicating lack of morality and ethics. Cheche is a character that never
forgets, rather grudges, any action directly influencing him. He seems to act on basic instinct. Cheche’s
view on life is very American, compared to the rest of the characters involved in the play. His main goal
is capital, while the others have some sort of compassion for religion, tradition and culture.