Conquistadora - Esmeralda Santiago [0]
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THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF
Copyright © 2011 by Esmeralda Santiago
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
www.aaknopf.com
Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to New Directions Publishing Corp. for permission to reprint an excerpt from “Adam” by William Carlos Williams from The Collected Poems: Volume I: 1909–1939, copyright © 1938 by New Directions Publishing Corp.
Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Santiago, Esmeralda.
Conquistadora : a novel / Esmeralda Santiago. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-59677-2
1. Women plantation owners—Fiction. 2. Sugar plantations—
Fiction. 3. Plantation life—Fiction. 4. Spanish—Puerto Rico—
Fiction. 5. Puerto Rico—History—19th century—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3569.A5452C66 2011
813′.54—dc22
2010051324
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Jacket art: Fuensanta by Julio Romero de Torres Córdoba. Courtesy of
Sotheby’s Picture Library, private collection, Madrid
Jacket design by Carol Devine Carson
v3.1_r1
For Lucas and Ila
Underneath the whisperings
of tropic nights
there is a darker whispering
that death invents especially
for northern men
whom the tropics
have come to hold.
—WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS, “ADAM”
Contents
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
El Encuentro/The Encounter: November 19, 1493
I: Conquistadores 1826–1849
Conquistadores
Her First Love
A Compromise
Vice Versa
Her Small Person
Hacienda Los Gemelos
A Voice in His Head
Brazos for the Fields
A Song for Mother Forest
“Whom the Tropics Has Come to Hold …”
El Tiempo Muerto
Desesperado
I Don’t Know What to Tell You
El Bando Negro
II: 1844–1863
News From San Juan
El Caminante
Women’s Work
The Trade
Conciencia La Jorobá
What to Do About the Campesinos
A Poet and His Muse—San Juan
Huracán
Conciencia’s Visions
Nuestra Gente
Eyes That Do Not See, Heart That Does Not Feel
Miguel Gets Alivio
Mr. Worthy’s Suggestion
III: 1860–1865
Visions and Illusions
Segundo
Jacobo, Yayo, and Quique
An Evening in Guares
The Fire Calls
Eyes in the Sky
Mr. Worthy’s Journey
Amen
Reading Group Guide
Acknowledgments
A Note About the Author
EL ENCUENTRO/THE ENCOUNTER:
NOVEMBER 19, 1493
They came from the sea, their battered sails and black hull menacing the indigo horizon. The vessel was many times taller and longer than the people’s canoes and from them came the stench of unwashed bodies and pine tar. The men who dropped from the ship were monstrous creatures with shiny carapaces on their chests, upon their heads, and around their arms and shins. They carried spears, flags, and crosses.
The people of Borínquen were afraid to reveal themselves because their villages had been ravaged so many times that they knew nothing good ever came to their shores unbidden from the sea. The mighty goddess Guabancex often unleashed huracán winds and heavy rains from the ocean to sweep away their bohíos, flood their cassava plots, and change the course of rivers. Fearsome caribe warriors paddled their long canoes to raid their land, steal their food, kidnap their women, and slaughter their men.
Although they were frightened, borinqueños were a brave, hospitable, and hopeful people. They