The Cuban Swimmer and Religion

Milcha Sanchez-Scott's The Cuban Swimmer starts in media res: Margarita Suárez, a 19-year-old swimmer, is competitively swimming in a race from San Pedro to San Catalina while her family guides her way from a boat. With the support and on-going praise of her loved ones and her passion for the sport, Margarita Suárez vigorously pushes herself through the cold Pacific Ocean not only to achieve her hopes, dreams, and the prize, but also to bring her family pride and honor. While she does stand up for her own cultural identity as Cuban immigrants against an unaccepting American society, Margarita Suárez is more than just a cultural hero and testament of a strong family bond - she is an allegorical figure of the savior, Jesus Christ. Margarita and the others around her are biblical figures fleshed out, given real human emotion and real human fault. They are personable people whose traits mold the biblical figures into characters one can relate to.
Margarita Suárez is an adept swimmer, graced with the skill of speed and mastery over the water. She is one with the ocean, as her mammalian relative, the "seal" (40). Aida Suárez, her mother, is awe-struck by her daughters sheer talent, and believes "a spirit, an ocean spirit, must have entered [her] body while [she] was carrying her" (41), remniscent of Jesus' virginal conception. She is not able to begin to "think that a daughter of" (40) hers would grow up to be such a special, unique child. Her quiet surprise and delight is similar to how Jesus' mother, Mary, must have felt. Both mothers of two important children, Mary and Aida are one of the same person; Aida Suárez is the Cuban Virgin Mary.
Mary is the ideal woman figure of the Bible. Born an eternal virgin free from sin, she is obedient to every whim of God, humble, and kind. Yet unlike the complacent, submissive Mary seen in stained glass windows and the Bible, Aida is passionate, aggressive, and full of emotion. She is Mary set in a raw reality, raging with sharp