Esmeralda Santiago Las Madres Is a Story of Reminiscence, Love, and Puerto Rico

A thick air of melancholy drifts by the beginning of Esmeralda Santiago’s new novel, “Las Madres.” The narrator notes that after protagonist Luz Peña Fuentes left her native Puerto Rico as a teen, the accent mark over the ñ in Peña was omitted in English. With out the tilde, her final title took on a unique definition: Pena Fuentes can imply “Sorrow Fountains,” or “Penalty Fountains” — even “Pity Fountains” or “Shame Fountains.”

“Crossing an ocean made me sadder,” Luz remembers to her daughter, Marysol Ríos Peña, a long time later.

Marysol reminds her 57-year-old mom that Luz is who she believes she is, it doesn’t matter what. “Your name and identity are different things,” she provides.

Luz accepts this as reality and kinds her daughter’s phrases into the Notes app on her telephone. She desires to maintain a document of their dialogue. Some reminiscences might be fleeting, sure. However in Luz’s case, most reminiscences from her earlier life have been cleaned after a automotive accident left her with a mind harm. She was 15 on the time of the crash. Probably the most searing ache of all: her multilingual scientist mother and father, who doted on her and inspired her ballet goals, have been each killed.

Within the aftermath of the tragedy, the brand new orphan discovered herself navigating a brand new chapter with the help of her grandparents and two new buddies named Ada and Shirley.

From the acclaimed writer of the 1993 memoir “When I Was Puerto Rican” comes this richly informed and indelible story about friendship, trauma, restoration, and energy in lots of varieties. Santiago has as soon as once more positioned her deep love for Puerto Rico and its folks on the web page with a narrative that’s as a lot in regards to the island as it’s about her tenderly constructed protagonists.

“Las Madres,” which was launched on Aug. 1 by Knopf, follows 5 girls: There’s “las madres” — Luz and her longtime greatest buddies, homosexual couple Ada and Shirley. And there is “las nenas” — Luz’s daughter, Marysol, and Ada and Shirley’s daughter, Graciela. It is the 12 months 2017, and the ladies resolve to embark on an epic journey to Puerto Rico. Maybe being again on the island the place Luz grew up will unearth some long-buried reminiscences. However whereas there, the ladies discover themselves within the eye of Hurricane Maria — the lethal Class 5 hurricane that may without end change Puerto Rico. It is usually throughout this journey {that a} household secret that has bonded the ladies collectively is revealed.

For this novel, Santiago locations themes of trauma, restoration, resilience, and reminiscence on the forefront. Chapters alternate between Luz’s earlier life as a teen dealing with the lack of her mother and father and the aftershock of a mind harm, and the 12 months 2017, the place we get to know “las nenas” and their relationships with their very own moms. The Puerto Rican writer’s beautiful prose is the spine of “Las Madres” — it is as expansive as it’s involved for the smallest particulars, an train in Santiago’s masterful storytelling.

On reminiscence: as a way to make sense of ourselves and our world, we depend on it. What occurs when somebody would not have that, like Luz? Her starvation to doc her personal life extends to bookshelves in her Bronx dwelling, that are crammed with journals. In them, Luz jots down what she did when, with whom, and the place. The artist will return to them later and declare to herself that that is her life. And on the identical time, she’ll additionally ask: Is that this my life?

Santiago does a fantastic job at portray the dedication that happens when girls are bonded collectively by love (and, on this case, an enormous secret). “Graciela, Ada, Shirley, and Marysol have talked about, argued over, studied, and discussed what’s going on in Luz’s mind, coming up with guesses and theories but few conclusions,” the writer narrates in an early chapter. “She’s sequestered within, unable to profit from or share her intelligence with others but, thankfully, able to express herself (through art).”

With nice ability, Santiago guides readers by Luz’s trauma and restoration from the accident. However we see that she shouldn’t be ever totally recovered. She typically suffers from spells — “achaques” — the place her thoughts is shipped to occasions and locations in her previous.

It is smart that Santiago devoted her novel, “For the Puerto Rican people.” The island is itself a larger-than-life character in “Las Madres.” Puerto Rico shouldn’t be solely the inspiration of the chapters centered on Luz’s adolescence, however it is usually threaded into the chapters from 2017 within the months main as much as Hurricane Maria. And, in fact, it is the place the ladies discover themselves bracing for the lethal storm.

Because the devastation attributable to each Hurricane Irma and Maria, tales have been introduced forth by Puerto Rican writers in image, books, and novels. “Las Madres” is Santiago’s wealthy contribution to those tales.

The chapters set throughout Hurricane Maria are significantly harrowing and heartening. With an eye fixed that’s each unflinching and loving, Santiago tells a narrative of survival, and of a individuals who proceed to maneuver ahead as a result of they don’t have any selection however to. However it’s additionally about extra than simply the devastating hurricane; it is about determining oneself. As a Puerto Rican, Santiago is hyperaware of what it means to navigate identification. In a single chapter titled “Flags,” Santiago writes that Marysol is a Puerto Rican within the Bronx who’s by no means been to Puerto Rico however yearns for a spot she’s by no means seen. She sees Puerto Rican flags in all places within the Bronx throughout the summer season of 2017.

Because the writer writes: “All these Puerto Rican flags are guiding her toward something she’s been missing . . . “

In her novel’s coda and acknowledgments, Santiago writes that she aches for the place the place she was born and “its people, here and there.”

“To be a Puerto Rican wherever we are is to fret over the uncertainty of often violent weather, natural forces, and repressive political directives that have shaped us for more than five hundred years of colonization by Spain and the United States,” she says. However one factor is true about Puerto Ricans, the writer provides. “We do not give up,” she writes. “Nosotros no nos rendimos.”

In the long run, Puerto Ricans type the nucleus of “Las Madres.” The island of Puerto Rico is the connective tissue between “las madres” and their daughters. It looms giant over the novel’s discussions of identification and the place Puerto Ricans within the diaspora match on the archipelago. And, simply as in actual life, it’s the heart of loss of life and destruction by Hurricane Maria.

Via her deeply felt characters and vivid scenes of Puerto Ricans residing (and fending for) their lives, Santiago makes one factor clear: Puerto Ricans — whether or not on the island or within the diaspora — need to be seen, heard, and listened to. “Las Madres” is a deep dive into certainly one of her nice preoccupations: that her folks be made seen.

Although it has been practically six years since Hurricane Maria struck the island, the aftermath lingers on. And from the numerous ripples that adopted, “Las Madres” has cemented its place as a timeless story that may depart readers with a better understanding and appreciation of what it means to navigate life as a Puerto Rican.