The Hacienda

“I was a body without a voice, a shadow melting into the walls of a too-crowded house.”

Beatriz reflects on the abuse and discrimination she felt when she lived with Tía Fernanda because she is Mestiza. Her aunt’s treatment made Beatriz feel so dehumanized that she felt like she was nothing more than a shell of herself. This feeling introduces Beatriz’s motivation for marrying Rodolfo: She was losing her sense of identity and desperately trying to regain her individuality.

“Mamá married for love and burnt bridges behind her. I didn’t have that privilege. I couldn’t afford her idealism. Not when I had Rodolfo’s proposal, not when I could get us out of Tía Fernanda’s house […] Rodolfo’s name, his money, his land—these could give us wings to fly.”

This quote reveals Beatriz’s motivation for marrying Rodolfo. Although she wants to fall in love like her mother, she does not feel that has the same privileges because she is a Mestiza woman and must focus on survival. This sets up Beatriz’s inner conflict surrounding her choices about marrying for money over love.

“You’re nearly as lovely as Doña María Catalina, though quite darker. Perhaps you will weather the country better than her. Poor thing. Such a delicate constitution.”

Doña María José says this to Beatriz when she meets her after Mass. This statement exemplifies the racism and colorism that Beatriz faces every day of her life. Despite Beatriz’s obvious beauty, the color of her skin dictates that the Spanish community will never see her as “worthy,” unlike María Catalina. This quote sets up the intrigue and suspense surrounding María Catalina’s fate, as Doña María José insinuates that she died because she had a weak constitution.

“My parents fought to be married despite their differences, despite the prejudice of Mamá’s family, because they had that to fight for. That was what I wanted. Someone who saw me not as darker than someone else, nor not quite as lovely as someone else. Not the daughter of someone. Not a piece to be played in a larger game. Someone who saw me for who I was and treasured me for it.”

This quote foreshadows Beatriz’s love story with Andrés, especially in how it will reflect her parents’ love because her relationship with Andrés will be a type of forbidden love like her parent’s marriage. Beatriz realizes that her husband only sees her as an object, but she wants passion and companionship like what her parents had. Beatriz doubts if that kind of love exists outside of her parents, who experienced a love so strong that they wanted to fight for it.

“I sacrificed that dream because survival was more important than being lonely.”

This quote exemplifies Beatriz’s sense of duty and self-preservation. Because of her father’s execution, Beatriz lost everything. Since she is a woman, her only option to advance her position is through marriage. She chooses to marry for comfort and wealth rather than love because of how her parent’s marriage ended in heartbreak. Beatriz focuses on protecting herself, hoping that this will give her the comfort and peace that she seeks.

“No matter how I tried to ignore her, Tía Fernanda’s voice lingered, a faint smell of rot I could not banish. It echoed every time I put on my wide brimmed hat and gloves, every time I checked my complexion in the mirror. Thanks to her, every time I took Rodolfo’s arm, a small, wounded part of me wanted to shrink away from him, from what I clearly did not deserve.”

This quote shows the long-lasting damage of racism. Even though Beatriz escaped her aunt’s suffocating house, the discrimination that she experienced from her lingers. Tía Fernanda’s treatment makes Beatriz constantly second-guess her worth and humanity. As the narrative continues, Beatriz learns that these types of wounds cannot heal simply by moving away because the damage of racism is permanent.

“They sounded as if they came from unreachably far away, from the unseeable side of a dream, as if reality broke off where the house’s stucco walls did. Or perhaps that was where reality began, and I was the one trapped in an uneven, unending dream.”

In this scene, Beatriz and Juana have just seen the bloody silks in Beatriz’s room, and Beatriz is in a state of shock. In the distance, Beatriz hears dogs barking, but they sound so far away that she questions the reality of what she is experiencing. This quote sets up the theme of The Existence of the Supernatural as reality and dreaming begin to blend, and Beatriz questions her perceptions. Beatriz feels trapped in the house or in a dream, a feeling that continues throughout the narrative, symbolizing how her grief and sorrow over her father’s death have trapped her mentally.

“The only thing less desirable than the daughter of a traitor was a madwoman. I was not mad. All I wanted, as any devout Catholic would, was for a priest to come and tread his holy, plump feet over my threshold and throw water at things in return for my husband’s money.”

In this quote, Beatriz comments on the misogynistic element of her marriage. Beatriz knows that her image matters so much to her husband that he would not be pleased with his wife having a mental health condition. Beatriz subtly mocks the church’s hypocrisy and questions the validity of the religion by calling the priest’s feet “holy” and “plump” and suggesting that the priest will not do anything other than throw water on the house for profit.

“Part of me yearned for the sensation of my back safely against a wall. Part of me screamed for light. It begged to light a thousand candles, to throw anything that could be burned into the fireplace and set it aflame. Part of me wanted to burn the whole house to the ground.”

This quote reveals the fear and desperation that Beatriz experiences because of the haunting of San Isidro. Beatriz feels the urge to burn everything to the ground and run from the haunted house rather than face the house’s demons and with it, her inner demons. This also foreshadows the fire in the climax, though Beatriz is not the one who starts it.

“They cannot speak the language of the people’s troubles. They can’t see what I am, and it must stay that way. Apan, San Isidro…this is my home. I know these people. Their wives are like my mother, their sons my brothers. I know. And I listen.”

This quote from Andrés explains the duality of his character and why he eventually chooses to accept his cultural heritage. As Spanish people, the other priests cannot understand the depth of the villager’s suffering like Andrés can. Andrés feels a sense of community in Apan and a responsibility to be there for the villagers, just like Titi.

“The Valenzuelas cherished that poisonous Criollo obsession with casta, the belief that any non-peninsular heritage spoiled what was desirable and pure.”

This quote ties into the theme of The Trauma of Colonial Oppression. The casta system indoctrinates the Valenzuelas, Beatriz’s mother’s side of the family. They disowned Beatriz’s mother for marrying a Mestizo man since they considered this union to be “impure.” This quote shows that even with the casta system abolished, this racist propaganda runs deep in Mexican society; even in the wake of independence, society still holds these beliefs.

“Clarity gave me the strength to put my faith in the Christian God—though timidly at first, fearful of being scorned for both my birthright and Titi’s teachings. To my eternal surprise, I found myself accepted. Welcomed, even. Trusted. So long as the sinful parts of my pocked, split soul were crushed into submission, I was given a place to belong. So long as that part of myself was bound with chains, I had His love.”

Andrés struggles with the tension between accepting his cultural identity and his faith in God. When he was at the seminary, he realized that the acceptance he felt from those around him was conditional because he knew that if they knew about his identity, they would condemn him to hell.

“Charlatan. Native superstition. Who did she think she was, to dismiss Andrés so? Couldn’t she see the way the people looked at him, how they needed someone like him? Or did she simply not care? […] His work was a gift. It might have the power to save lives in the battle we waged against the house.”

In this quote, Beatriz reflects on Juana’s dismissive attitude in calling Andrés a “charlatan.” Juana’s dismissiveness reflects her white supremacist mentality because she does not believe that anyone who is not Criollo could possibly know anything that she does not know. Juana calls Andrés’s beliefs “native superstition” because she does not want to face the reality that the spirit of the woman she murdered is out for revenge.

“‘Some illness we cannot cure,’ my grandmother said. ‘Others we can soothe. Sorrow is one of these. Loneliness is another.’ She searched my face. ‘Do you understand? Tending to lost souls is our vocation.’”

This memory of Titi is one of Andrés’s strongest motivations for accepting his cultural identity. He sees the comfort that his grandmother gives to those who are grieving and lost and knows that her death left a void in their lives. Andrés finally realizes that his grandmother’s vocation is no different than his priestly one: They both care for lost souls. Therefore, Andrés accepting his cultural identity is important because he can tend to people as a priest and as a witch.

“It was a sin, and I knew it, and suddenly I realized that I didn’t care. For if sin was all I had standing between myself and the darkness, I would take it.”

Beatriz realizes that she has fallen in love with Andrés and found the love that she longed for at the beginning of the narrative. Beatriz sees their love as the only thing that holds the darkness back from consuming them. Only through their acceptance of each other do they learn to accept themselves and defeat the spirit of María Catalina together.

“If I were killed in this house, would I, too, linger in an unholy way, and watch the perverted fairy tale repeat itself as the gleaming prince brought home a new wife? Watch her emerge from the carriage, all shining silks and a face open with trust, only to be brought to my waiting jaws like a sacrifice?”

This quote sets up the novel’s climax as the house starts to affect how Beatriz perceives events. Beatriz begins to lose touch with reality because of María Catalina’s hold on the house. She sees the absurdity of her life choices and wonders if her life will repeat after she dies with another poor young woman that the house will haunt.

“He was Janus-faced, my husband. A creature of rage and violence on one side, a serene, gilded prince on the other. He was a staunch defender of the Republic and casta abolitionist who raped women who worked on his property.”

In ancient Roman mythology, Janus is the god of duality, depicted as having two faces. In this quote, Beatriz uses this imagery to highlight Rodolfo’s duplicitous nature because he has convinced everyone, including her, of his altruism when he actually uses his power to abuse women and gain more power.

“I was going to die in this house. The knowing swept through me, heavy with grief, cold and oracular as the whispered words of a saint. San Isidro was my tomb. But not tonight.”

Cañas uses religious imagery of saints and tombs to highlight Beatriz’s certainty that the house will kill her if she does not escape it. However, Beatriz steels herself against this knowledge and decides to fight against the insidious nature of the house toward the safety that she finds with Andrés.

“‘My word against yours, Padre—to whom do you think he will listen?’ There is no draft more bitter than that of helplessness. It bruised my throat as I looked at my cousin held fast, her proud head hung.”

This quote reveals the twisted nature of racism as María Catalina uses her advantage as a Criolla to extort Andrés. Andrés feels the sting of colonial oppression because he knows he cannot fight her when systemic racism is set in place to work against him.

“As if we had no other identity but the legacy of the Spanish foreman forcing himself on an hacienda maid and being ordered to marry her. That name was a living, breathing scar on the criollo stranglehold of this land. At times like these, I wanted to strip it from my body like so much flesh and burn it.”

Andrés hates that his father’s name carries the memory of his mother’s rape. This quote emphasizes the theme of The Trauma of Colonial Oppression because the duality of Andrés’s ancestry burdens him: His name will always carry the history of both the oppressed and the oppressor.

“The casta system was abolished, of course, but the courts outside the capitol carried on with business as usual: legally, the word of a criollo like Juana was still worth that of two Indios in court. The word of hacienda workers against their hacendado? Worthless. The word of a low-ranking mestizo cure like me? Not enough.”

This quote mirrors the interaction between María Catalina and Andrés earlier in the narrative, which only furthers his sense of helplessness about systemic racism. Despite Andrés knowing the truth about who killed Rodolfo, his word would never hold up in court because of Juana’s identity as a Criolla. This highlights the broken system that continues to exist, even with the casta system officially abolished.

“I was a sinner. I was a witch. I had sinned and would sin again, like all men. But whatever my decisions meant for life after death was between me and the Lord. All I could do was serve the home and people I loved using every gift I was born with.”

Andrés decides to come to accept his cultural heritage as well as his Christian faith. This quote highlights the theme of The Importance of Honoring Cultural Identity as Andrés finally that no one can decide the fate of his soul but God. Even though some people will look at him differently because of his identity as a witch, he is at peace with the fact that their opinions are not contingent on whether he goes to heaven or hell.

“If it belongs to anyone, it was to the people who lived here, like Paloma and Ana Luisa and Mendoza. To Andrés. Or perhaps it belonged to no one, and would forever remain a willful, ancient domain unto itself.”

As Beatriz leaves San Isidro, she realizes something that sets her apart from the other patrons and patron’s wives. She understands that San Isidro belongs to the Indigenous population and not to anyone occupying its land. With this conclusion, Beatriz avoids becoming an oppressor like María Catalina or Tía Fernanda because she returns the land to its rightful owners. Even though she is not a Criolla, she understands that her title and wealth give her power. Rather than oppressing people, she wants to use this power to give the villagers of Apan some of their land back. This represents a path toward a more just and equal world.