The Hacienda

“But if God is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, if He is three in one in the Trinity, then God knows nothing of loneliness. God knows nothing of standing with his back to a gray morning, of dropping to his knees in the dust.”

“Words can damn or bless in equal measure, and are never to be used lightly.”

“When a man makes a promise, he makes it on his honor. When a witch makes a promise, they feel it in their bones.”

“Colonialism carved the landscapes of our homes with ghosts, It left gaping wounds that still weep”

“my world was a dark, windowless room, and he was a door.”

“Our relationship was founded on one thing, and one thing only. My world was a dark, windowless room, and he was a door.”

“Industry will rise and fall, men will scorch the earth and slaughter one another for emperors or republics, but they will always want drink.”

“Fate had been unkind to me, but sometimes, its pettiness worked in my favor.”

“Family is all we have when things fall apart,”

“It is said that mortal life is empty without the love of God. That the ache of loneliness's wounds is assuaged by obedience to Him, for in serving God we encounter perfect love and are made whole. But if God is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, if He is three in one in the Trinity, then God knows nothing of loneliness...God knows nothing of loneliness, because God has never tasted companionship as mortals do: clinging to one another in darkness so complete and sharp it scrapes flesh from bone, trusting one another even as the Devil's breath blooms hot on their napes.”

“Juana had always been headstrong, almost churlish, but there was a wildness to her now, one that spoke of something shattered within her.”

“Should is an oddly powerful word. Shame and anger have a way of flying to it like coins to a lodestone.”

“I savored the memory of her voice. The way her whisper held a profane, exquisite power over me, how its brush could send an aching trill down my spine.”

“Bitterly though I admitted it, in one respect, Vicente was perfectly right about me: I had no gift for civilizing, not as criollos like him defined it. Nor had I ever wished for it.”

“And at twenty, I faced a ticking clock: marry soon, when I was seen as fresh and virginal and desirable, or marry not at all.”

“Even when she walked into the most sickened of houses to purify their energy with copal and smudging of burnt herbs on the walls and hearths, houses so diseased she ordered me to stand outside with the inhabitants, the voices rippled off her like water off silver, her aura as impenetrable as a warrior's gleaming shield. She was a prophet in a land that had been stripped of its gods: a healer of the sick, a beacon in the night. She reached into steel-dark clouds to control the storms of the rainy season, seizing lightning as her reins and bending them to her will to turn harvests into gold. She called the voices to heel and banished them. I was not her.”

“My eyes filled with tears. How scornful I had been of Mamá insisting I should marry for love. How convinced I was that I was right to be practical, to sacrifice a loving partnership like she and Papá had for an estate in the country and financial security”

“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.”

“It was right for Beatriz to leave. Just as it was right for me to stay here, on this land, with the people who needed me most. That did not mean saying goodbye would be easy.”

“Bastard, Rodolfo said last night. He threatened to disown Juana. Now he was dead. The woman who would inherit all his property accused of his murder. Who, then, stood to profit from the blood spilled in San Isidro? “Did you know that Doña Juana is a bastard?” I asked Mendoza suddenly.”

“stay out of the sun or you'll never get a husband”

“There is no draft more bitter than that of helplessness”

“Of his enemies in the Church, the insurgent priest said they were Catholic “only to benefit themselves: their God is money. Under the veil of religion and of friendship they want to make you the victims of their insatiable greed.”

“Yo era un cuerpo sin voz una sombra que se fundía con las paredes de una casa demasiado llena de gente”

“All this time, I thought knowing what was right would bring me peace or contentment. Instead, sorrow draped leaden across my shoulders as I watched the empty horizon, every fiber of my being willing the carriage to turn back.”

“The Hacienda is a story about the terrible things people will do to cling to power. A story about resilience and resistance in the face of a world that would strip you of power. A story about a young mestiza woman’s battle of wills with a house and all it represents, a house haunted by both the supernatural and its colonial history.”

“A wink of color caught my attention in the mirror. Two red lights stared at me from a darkened corner beneath the window. I blinked, and they were gone. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. An oily feeling slipped over my shoulders.”

“There is no draft more bitter than that of helplessness.”

“Shh.” I cupped his face in my hands, running my thumbs over his cheeks. I wanted to memorize the feeling of his stubble against my palms, the shape of his lips as they parted. His dark eyelashes, framing eyes that looked up at me with utter trust. With a longing so open and deep it sent an ache through my chest. No looking back. No looking forward. “Then don’t.” I lowered my face to his. “Just be with me now,” I breathed against his lips. “Be.”

“You must cast them out, she would say. You are your mind’s sole master. Banish them. Tell them to mind their own business and leave you be.”