Isabel Fernandez Character Analysis In Refugee - LitCharts

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Refugee Introduction + Context Plot Summary Detailed Summary & Analysis Josef: Berlin, Germany – 1938 Isabel: Outside Havana, Cuba – 1994 (1) Mahmoud: Aleppo, Syria – 2015 (1) Josef: Berlin, Germany – 1939, 1 day Isabel: Havana, Cuba – 1994 Mahmoud: Aleppo, Syria – 2015 (2) Josef: Train to Hamburg – 1939, 1 day Isabel: Outside Havana, Cuba – 1994 (2) Mahmoud: Aleppo, Syria – 2015 (3) Josef: On the Atlantic Ocean – 1939, 6 days Isabel: Outside Havana, Cuba – 1994 (3) Mahmoud: Outside Aleppo – 2015, 1 day Josef: On the Atlantic Ocean – 1939, 8 days Isabel: Straits of Florida – 1994, 1 day (1) Mahmoud: Kilis, Turkey – 2015, 2 days Josef: On the Atlantic Ocean – 1939, 10 days Isabel: Straits of Florida – 1994, 1 day (2) Mahmoud: Izmir, Turkey – 2015, 4 days Josef: On the Atlantic Ocean – 1939, 11 days Isabel: The Straits of Florida – 1994, 1 day (3) Mahmoud: Izmir, Turkey – 2015, 11 days (1) Josef: On the Atlantic Ocean – 1939, 14 days Isabel: The Straits of Florida – 1994, 1 day (4) Mahmoud: Izmir, Turkey – 2015, 11 days (2) Josef: On the Atlantic Ocean – 1939, 17 days Isabel: Straits of Florida – 1994, 2 days Mahmoud: The Mediterranean – 2015, 11 days (1) Josef: Havana Harbor – 1939, 18 days (1) Isabel: Caribbean Sea – 1994, 3 days Mahmoud: The Mediterranean – 2015, 11 days (2) Josef: Havana Harbor – 1939, 18 days (2) Isabel: Between Bahamas and Florida – 1994, 4 days Mahmoud: The Mediterranean – 2015, 11 days (3) Josef: Havana Harbor – 1939, 19 days (2) Isabel: Between Bahamas and Florida – 1994, 5 days (1) Mahmoud: Lesbos to Athens – 2015, 12 days (3) Josef: Havana Harbor – 1939, 21 days Isabel: Between Bahamas and Florida – 1994, 5 days (2) Mahmoud: Macedonia to Serbia – 2015, 14-15 days Josef: American Coast – 1939, 21 days Isabel: Coast of Florida – 1994, 5 days (1) Mahmoud: Serbia to Hungary – 2015, 15-16 days Josef: Atlantic Ocean – 1939, 22 days Isabel: Coast of Florida – 1994, 5 days (2) Mahmoud: Hungary – 2015, 16 days Josef: Antwerp, Belgium – 1939, 36 days Isabel: Coast of Florida – 1994, 5 days (3) Mahmoud: Hungary – 2015, 17 days Josef: Vornay, France – 1940, 1 year, 1 month, 10 days Isabel: Coast of Florida – 1994, 5 days (4) Mahmoud: Hungary to Germany – 2015, 17 days Isabel: Miami, Florida – 1994, Home Mahmoud: Berlin Germany – 2015, Home Themes All Themes Trauma and Coming of Age Injustice and Cruelty vs. Empathy and Social Responsibility Hope vs. Despair Family, Displacement, and Culture Invisibility and the Refugee Experience Quotes Characters All Characters Josef Landau Isabel Fernandez Mahmoud Bishara Ruthie Landau/Rosenberg Lito/Mariano Padron Aaron Landau Geraldo Fernandez Rachel Landau Teresa Fernandez Iván Castillo Fatima Bishara Youssef Bishara Hana Bishara Captain Schroeder Otto Schiendick Samih Nasseer Fidel Castro Waleed Bishara Guillermo Lita Señor Castillo Renata Aber Evelyne Aber Terms All Terms Kristallnacht Bar mitzvah Symbols All Symbols Boats Water Isabel’s Trumpet Download PDF Download Teacher Edition

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Isabel Fernandez Character Analysis

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One of the three protagonists of the book, alongside Josef and Mahmoud. Isabel is 11 years old in 1994, growing up in Havana, Cuba, under Fidel Castro’s regime. Isabel is deeply tied to her Cuban heritage, particularly through her music. She plays the trumpet on the streets of Cuba and especially loves salsa music and other Cuban styles. One issue she experiences, however, is that she is unable to count a Cuban rhythm called clave, which she thinks is supposed to come naturally to Cubans. Like the other two protagonists, Isabel takes on a great of responsibility for her family due to the upheaval in which she lives. When her father, Geraldo, is worried that the police are coming after him, Isabel rallies her own family and another family, the Castillos, to take a boat to Miami and escape the oppression of Cuba. She trades her trumpet for gasoline in order to get the boat to run, demonstrating how she prioritizes her family over her connection to her music and her roots. Among the people who join Isabel on the journey is her grandfather Lito, who is eventually revealed to be Mariano Padron, the Cuban officer who decades ago prevented Josef from entering Havana. Isabel spends much of the dangerous trip acting as an adult: she takes care of her eight-and-a-half-months pregnant mother, Teresa; she saves Señor Castillo when he is tossed overboard; and she spends much of the trip relentlessly bailing out water from their boat so that they can continue their journey. Isabel also deals with a fair share of trauma that expedites this maturity: two years prior, her grandmother Lita drowned during a cyclone in Havana, and on this boat trip Isabel’s best friend, Iván, is killed in the water by sharks. Despite her grief, Isabel is able to persevere and guide her family to reach the shores of Miami. At the end of the book, Isabel is able to reconnect with her heritage when her uncle Guillermo gives her a new trumpet, and Isabel is finally able to count clave. This development proves how Isabel does not need to live in Cuba to be connected to it; family allows Isabel to overcome that displacement and find her roots.

Isabel Fernandez Quotes in Refugee

The Refugee quotes below are all either spoken by Isabel Fernandez or refer to Isabel Fernandez. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

). Isabel: Outside Havana, Cuba – 1994 (1) Quotes

Isabel was listening for the clave underneath the music, the mysterious hidden beat inside Cuban music that everybody seemed to hear except her. An irregular rhythm that lay over the top of the regular beat, like a heartbeat beneath the skin. Try as she might, she had never heard it, never felt it. She listened now, intently, trying to hear the heartbeat of Cuba in her own music.

Related Characters: Isabel Fernandez, Geraldo Fernandez, Lito/Mariano Padron Related Symbols: Isabel’s Trumpet Related Themes:

Family, Displacement, and Culture Theme Icon

Page Number and Citation: 11 Cite this Quote Explanation and Analysis:

Isabel: Straits of Florida – 1994, 1 day (1) Quotes

Isabel listened as everyone listed more and more things they were looking forward to in the States. Clothes, food, sports, movies, travel, school, opportunity. It all sounded so wonderful, but when it came down to it, all Isabel really wanted was a place where she and her family could be together, and happy.

Related Characters: Isabel Fernandez Related Themes:

Page Number and Citation: 84 Cite this Quote Explanation and Analysis:

Unlock with LitCharts A+ Isabel: Straits of Florida – 1994, 1 day (2) Quotes

She had never been able to count clave, but she had always assumed it would come to her eventually. That the rhythm of her homeland would one day whisper its secrets to her soul. But would she ever hear it now? Like trading her trumpet, had she swapped the one thing that was really hers—her music—for the chance to keep her family together?

Related Characters: Isabel Fernandez, Lito/Mariano Padron Related Symbols: Boats, Water, Isabel’s Trumpet Related Themes:

Page Number and Citation: 102 Cite this Quote Explanation and Analysis:

Unlock with LitCharts A+ Mahmoud: The Mediterranean – 2015, 11 days (1) Quotes

“Please!” Mahmoud cried. He sobbed with the effort of fighting off the man’s fingers and hanging onto the dinghy. “Please, take us with you!”

“No! No room!”

“At least take my sister!” Mahmoud begged. “She’s a baby. She won’t take up any room!”

Related Characters: Mahmoud Bishara (speaker), Hana Bishara, Fatima Bishara, Josef Landau, Isabel Fernandez Related Symbols: Boats, Water Related Themes:

Page Number and Citation: 162 Cite this Quote Explanation and Analysis:

Unlock with LitCharts A+ Isabel: Caribbean Sea – 1994, 3 days Quotes

“Thank you! Thank you!” Isabel cried. Her heart ached with gratitude toward these people. Just a moment’s kindness from each of them might mean the difference between death and survival for her mother and everyone else on the little raft.

Related Characters: Isabel Fernandez (speaker), Teresa Fernandez, Josef Landau, Mahmoud Bishara Related Themes:

Injustice and Cruelty vs. Empathy and Social Responsibility Theme Icon

Page Number and Citation: 177 Cite this Quote Explanation and Analysis:

Unlock with LitCharts A+ Isabel: Coast of Florida – 1994, 5 days (3) Quotes

“Don’t you see?” Lito said. “The Jewish people on the ship were seeking asylum, just like us. They needed a place to hide from Hitler. From the Nazis. Mañana, we told them. We’ll let you in mañana. But we never did.” Lito was crying now, distraught. “We sent them back to Europe and Hitler and the Holocaust. Back to their deaths. How many of them died because we turned them away? Because I was just doing my job?”

Related Characters: Lito/Mariano Padron (speaker), Isabel Fernandez, Josef Landau, Rachel Landau, Ruthie Landau/Rosenberg, Aaron Landau, Mahmoud Bishara Related Symbols: Boats Related Themes:

Page Number and Citation: 276 Cite this Quote Explanation and Analysis:

Unlock with LitCharts A+ Isabel: Miami, Florida – 1994, Home Quotes

She was finally counting clave.

Lito was wrong. She didn’t have to be in Havana to hear it. To feel it. She had brought Cuba with her to Miami.

Related Characters: Isabel Fernandez, Lito/Mariano Padron, Guillermo Related Symbols: Isabel’s Trumpet Related Themes:

Page Number and Citation: 308 Cite this Quote Explanation and Analysis:

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