Some of my sweetest childhood memories are of being a little “fly on the wall,” tucked into a corner at family gatherings, invisible but completely enthralled. I loved listening to the women—mis abuelas, tías, comadres, and vecinas—who formed the protective web of my upbringing. They were the community’s disciplinarians, the ones whose raised eyebrow or tight-lipped smirk could stop you mid-mischief and remind you that being a malcreada—or a metiche—was never an option.
These mujeres, nearly all of them madres, carried our family’s stories the way others carry heirlooms. They swapped memories, complained about aches and pains, and somehow always had un remedio ready, whether it came from a pharmacy or from the front yard garden. Most of all, they had the tea on everyone and everything. I learned early how to hold my breath, stay still, and let their wave of feminine energy wash over me. If I were lucky, I could soak it all in before someone noticed me and shooed me out of the room.
That is exactly the experience awaiting the reader of Las Madres, the feeling of being that wide-eyed granddaughter, niece, or godchild listening in from the doorway. You carry the chisme back to your primos, or you tuck these moments away for adulthood, for the day when a familiar pain arrives, and you instantly know what your curandera abuela would do. The novel invites you back into that sacred circle of women, where memory, wisdom, and love are always brewing just beneath the tea leaves.
LAS MADRES by Esmeralda Santiago
From the award-winning, best-selling author of When I Was Puerto Rican, this compelling novel explores themes of family, race, faith, sex, and disaster, shifting between Puerto Rico and the Bronx. It uncovers the lives and loves of five women and a secret that connects them.
They call themselves “las Madres,” a tight-knit group of women who, along with their daughters, have formed a family rooted in friendship and blood ties. Their story starts in Puerto Rico in 1975, when fifteen-year-old Luz—the tallest girl at her dance academy and the only Black student among petite, light-skinned, delicate dancers—is seriously injured in a car accident. Tragically, her brilliant, multilingual scientist parents died in the crash. Now orphaned, Luz faces the challenges of adolescence and copes with the aftereffects of a brain injury. When two new friends enter her life, Ada and Shirley, her days are filled with aches and pains, her memory of the accident erased, yet she experiences episodes that transport her to times and places she cannot share.
Fast-forward to 2017 in the Bronx, where Luz’s adult daughter, Marysol, wishes she had understood her better. But how can she when her mother barely remembers her own life? To help bridge the gap, Ada and Shirley’s daughter, Graciela, suggests a vacation in Puerto Rico for the extended group. It’s meant to be an opportunity for Luz to unearth long-buried memories and for Marysol to learn more about her mother’s early years. Despite thorough planning, two hurricanes strike back-to-back, disrupting their plans and revealing a secret that changes everything. With warmth, humor, friendship, and pride, celebrated author Esmeralda Santiago weaves a story of women’s sexuality, shame, disability, and love set against a community shaken by disaster.
Paperback, $18.00
Audiobook, $22.50
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