The Eyes of Youth

The Eyes of Youth is a waltz whose return joins two pivotal dances: Tita and Pedro’s intimate reunion after the long delay imposed by Pedro’s marriage to Rosaura, and Esperanza and Alex’s wedding. First associated with the memory of a hoped-for proposal, the song becomes a thread connecting thwarted love with a younger generation’s celebration.

The First Dance and a Delayed Proposal

At Esperanza and Alex’s wedding, the orchestra plays The Eyes of Youth at Pedro’s request. Tita, thirty-nine and still described as fresh as a newly cut cucumber, dances with him; twenty-two years have passed since Pedro married Rosaura. Their closeness is physical as well as remembered: Pedro touches his cheek to Tita’s, and his hand at her waist feels hotter than ever. Watching them, John Brown’s affectionate look carries a hint of resignation.

The dance brings back the first time Tita and Pedro heard the song. Pedro recalls that he could not sleep that night because he was thinking of asking for her hand, though he did not know it would take twenty-two years before he could ask her to be his wife. He now asks if she will marry him seriously, explaining that he does not want to die without making her his and has always dreamed of walking with her into a church full of white flowers. The remembered song thus frames a proposal long postponed, spoken at a wedding that gathers the consequences of that delay into the present.

A Motif Across Two Weddings

The song returns later in the account of Esperanza and Alex’s wedding. Tita takes pride in seeing Esperanza self-confident, intelligent, prepared, and happy, and watches her dance with Alex to The Eyes of Youth. The repetition places the younger couple’s wedding beside Tita and Pedro’s dance: the same waltz accompanies different pairings, while Tita’s presence connects the two scenes.

That recurrence also contrasts with the wedding invitations Esperanza and Alex have made by following old recipes. Their carefully crafted invitations are described as works of art belonging to crafts that have gone out of style, like long dresses and love letters; the waltz, by contrast, remains alive in the novel’s present. The Eyes of Youth carries an earlier memory into a later celebration, giving the song a continuity that the surrounding customs are said to have lost.