Last Night in Brooklyn

La Garza is the novel’s deuteragonist and tragic hero, a dynamic and round character whose charisma and ambition cast a powerful spell over the narrative. A self-made fashion designer from the Farragut housing projects, she builds an empire on her talent, grit, and a carefully constructed public persona of glamorous invincibility. Like F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jay Gatsby, La Garza is a figure of myth, hosting legendary parties and cultivating an air of mystery to obscure a painful, working-class past. Her chosen public name “La Garza” is Spanish for “the heron,” an animal that traditionally symbolized patience and nobility. La Garza embraces these traits to underscore her years-long effort to ascend to the social status that would have allowed her to stop Devon from abandoning her. Gonzalez gives her this name to underscore the two identities La Garza deftly navigates: the private one (Garza Rivera), which is deeply rooted in her past and in her working-class Brooklyn community, and the public one (La Garza), an enigmatic figure whose name is representative of the persona she projects into the world. 

La Garza is fiercely proud of her Brooklyn roots, initially framing her decision to base her business there as a way of “showing my seams” (104), proof of the quality of her work and her history. However, this pride is coupled with a deep-seated vulnerability and a desperate need for legitimacy in a world that consistently underestimates her. This internal conflict makes her susceptible to the destructive allure of her past relationship with Devon Forten, the man who represents the elite validation she craves. La Garza’s primary motivation is to transcend her origins and achieve a level of success that renders her impervious to the judgment and limitations of class. While she projects an image of fierce independence, her actions are ultimately governed by the unresolved trauma of Devon’s initial abandonment. Her devotion to him is her tragic flaw; her desire to win him back and prove her worth on his terms compromises the very autonomy she fought so hard to achieve. In her pursuit, she sanitizes her own history for public consumption and leverages her relationships, including her newfound connection with Alicia, to regain access to him. 

This quest for validation illustrates The Illusion of the American Dream, as La Garza’s professional success does not protect her from the emotional and physical dangers tied to re-entering Devon’s world. Her demise is a direct result of the morally ambiguous alliances she makes to fuel her ambition and the emotional recklessness of her affair, making her a cautionary figure of immense talent undone by a single, obsessive desire.

Devon Forten serves as La Garza’s romantic interest, a static and round character who embodies the casual cruelty and entitlement of the monied elite. As Alicia’s cousin, he is a product of the wealthy, established Forten family, a background that has instilled in him an unshakeable self-absorption and a belief that the world and the people in it are his to consume. His character parallels that of Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby; he is a powerful, privileged man who indulges in an affair but ultimately retreats to the safety of his class and marriage, leaving destruction in his wake without facing consequences. Devon’s charm and ambition are a thin veneer for his moral weakness. He is drawn to La Garza’s talent and authenticity, viewing her as an exciting, exotic asset that adds to his own cachet, but he is unwilling to threaten his comfortable social standing for her. When confronted with a choice between his responsibilities to his class and his passion for La Garza, he reveals his cowardice, proving he is ultimately a product of the system he claims to have mastered.

Devon’s motivation is the preservation of his status and the fulfillment of his ego. He desires both the respectable, class-appropriate partnership he has with his wife, Marla, and the passionate, validating affair with La Garza. He is not driven by love so much as by a need for possession. This is evident in his business dealings as well; his plan to demolish several brownstones to build luxury condos reveals a predatory view of Brooklyn, seeing it as a commodity to be exploited for profit, which exemplifies The Erasure of Working-Class Spaces. His relationship with Alicia is similarly utilitarian; he uses her connection to the “cool” side of Brooklyn when it suits him. Devon’s inability to change, and his ultimate abandonment of La Garza for a second time, emphasizes the novel’s critique of a social class that insulates its members from accountability, allowing them to destroy others’ lives with impunity.

Matteo Jones, also known as DJ Tayo, is a round, static character who is a moral compass and a romantic interest for Alicia. A financier by day and a DJ by night, Matteo navigates the worlds of corporate Manhattan and creative Brooklyn with a grounded integrity that sets him apart from characters like Devon. Though he is successful, he remains connected to his community and wary of the moral compromises demanded by the pursuit of wealth and status. He struggles with his own “insuperiority complex,” a manifestation of the pressures of being a person of color in predominantly white elite spaces, but this struggle does not corrupt his core values. He is perceptive and honest, often serving as a clear-eyed observer who warns both Alicia and La Garza of the dangers they are courting.

As a DJ, Matteo represents the theme of Finding Authentic Connection Through Art and Culture. His musical sets are acts of community-building, weaving together diverse genres to create a shared space of joy and history that transcends social division. His relationship with Alicia offers her a model of a partnership based on mutual respect and genuine understanding, a contrast to the transactional and performative relationships that define the Forten world. His refusal to get involved with La Garza’s IPO because of Augusts’s shady reputation demonstrates his strong ethical code, one that prioritizes integrity over profit. Matteo is a steadying presence in the novel, a character who understands the system but refuses to be defined or destroyed by it, choosing instead to create and inhabit spaces of authenticity.

Marla Forten is a static character who acts as a foil to La Garza and represents the calculated ambition of the society wife. Like Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby, she is the woman from Devon’s own elite class whom he chooses to protect his social standing. Though initially presented as aloof and preoccupied with appearances, Marla reveals a capacity for cold-blooded self-preservation when her marriage and status are threatened. Her life is a performance of class-appropriate interests, from her fabricated interior design career to her strategic social climbing in the Hamptons. Her marriage to Devon is fundamentally transactional; she provides him with the correct social pedigree, and he provides her with the wealth and access she craves. When she discovers Devon’s affair, her response is one of strategic warfare, using her influence and Devon’s family to eliminate the threat La Garza poses to her carefully constructed life. Her actions demonstrate that behind her polished facade lies a ruthless determination to maintain her position within the privileged world she occupies.