The titular story in the collection, “In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd,” takes its name from the punch line of a joke Máximo tells his friends about a dog called Juanito. When he arrives in Miami, Juanito feels displaced and overwhelmed. He recalls “a pretty little dog” (26) from home and feels lonely. One day, he meets “an elegant white poodle” and chats her up in Spanish. She tells him to speak English because “[t]his is America” (26). Switching to English, Juanito tells her that he would like to marry her, and she replies that she is “a refined breed of considerable class” while he is “nothing but a short insignificant mutt” (27). Juanito is hurt but rallies with the retort, “Here in America, I may be a short insignificant mutt, but in Cuba I was a German shepherd” (27).

After he tells the joke, Máximo turns away from his friends and reflects on the fragility of life. Juanito represents the Cuban immigrants, like Máximo and the other professionals whom he employs in his restaurant. When they fled Cuba, they lost their professional credentials and identities. The “white poodle” represents European Americans who consider the immigrants as insignificant and beneath them without truly seeing them.