BUILDING THE RAFT

The stage directions translate into a visual image in which unnamed rafters "put the keel through the slit on the platform, set the oars, the mast, the sail, the helm, as they mention the parts" that construct the raft (Fornés 99). Fornés's detailed stage directions provide a clear visualization of the physical labor required to assemble the pieces of the raft. Concurrently, one of the rafters vocalizes details about the materials, announcing:

The repurposing of the school chair and the mismatched tires clarifies the scarcity of material available to the rafters. The integration of tires suggests the shift from land to sea, as the purpose of car tires shifts from supporting a vehicle to supporting a raft. Additionally, the rafters steal canvas from an army warehouse (Fornés 99). This emphasizes the rafters' desperation for material while the willingness to steal from a government facility implies the rafters' underlying resistance to the government.

The specificity of the Florida Straits suggests that the play is reflective of the experience of the Cuban balseros, although the ambiguity of the characters embraces rafters of many identities. Considering that the motivations of Cuban balseros most frequently involved the "search for political and personal freedom" (Ackerman 198), the raft is a means of physical escape from the government, with the construction of the raft itself an act of defiance against the government's suppression of liberty. Despite the rafter's awareness of a "cemetery" (Fornés 97) of rafts confiscated by authorities at the port, the rafters proceed, willing to risk persecution in hopes of escape.

MOVEMENT: SURVIVAL AND ESCAPE

When the rafters are at sea, the construction of a distiller and the movement of the boat further emphasize the rafter’s persistence in leaving the island. The rafters scrounge for material to make the distiller:

The rafter’s carving of the very material on which they float emphasizes the bareness of their boat and possessions. Moreover, the reengineering of so few materials into a life-saving device highlights the rafters’ persistence in crossing the strait. Physical labor parallels creative efforts to stay alive, as the rafters “rowed and rowed / against the current” (Fornés 130), hoping to reach land. The specificity of movement in the play emphasizes the use of repurposing to facilitate physical escape from Cuba.

CONCLUSION

Overall, Manual for a Desperate Crossing engages with the physicality of repurposing through the actors’ movements, while the spoken lines further emphasize the rafters’ resourcefulness and determination. The rafters’ defiance of the government in collecting materials, building the boat, and spatially repositioning themselves reveals that creativity holds leverage against authority.

RESISTANCE IN PLACE

While Fornés captures resistance in relation to moving away from the island, we do not see what happens to those left behind. How do those who remain in Cuba resist political and economic circumstances that persist on the island? To answer this question, we will approach Cuban architecture and the work of Antonio José Ponte with a similar lens.