The Spanish Daughter

Puri gets a ride back to the mansion, where she plays Cuarenta, a popular Ecuadorian card game that is won by reaching 40 points. Laurent dismisses the game, and repeats what other local aristocrats say: it’s a game for the unsophisticated. Angélica and Laurent win, and Puri asks Angélica whether she has traveled out of the country. She hasn’t but says she wants to go to France. Puri admits she has not been there, which surprises Angélica.

Puri meets Martin where the beans are fermented, riding again on Pacha. She finds Pacha difficult to ride still but manages to avoid getting thrown again. Martin explains the fermentation process and lets her taste the bitter and sweet cacao beans. Puri decides that if he didn’t kill her father, she will make him chocolate for the first time. She tries to find out more information about the man with the burned face and his family, confessing to Martin that a similar-looking man traveled from Cuba to Ecuador on her ship.

As they talk, a neighboring landowner, Don Fernando del Río, rides up and interrogates Martin about a lawsuit regarding a contested border. Don Fernando rides off to confront Angélica, and Martin follows in hot pursuit. Puri asks another worker, Don Pepe, about the man with the burned face. He tells her someone set the fire deliberately and that the mother of Franco Duarte, the man with the burned face, lives in town. She works as a “curandera” (87), a female folk healer.

At night, Puri awakes to find a poisonous snake crawling across her face, silencing her scream. Putting on her beard and glasses, she finds Julia, who retrieves the snake. Julia claims the snake attacks when it smells fear.

The narrative jumps back to 1907, 13 years earlier, from Angélica’s perspective. Angélica speaks to a 15-year-old boy named Juan, who collects bugs and spiders and saved Angélica when she lost her balance on the bridge the day before. She considers how boys often talk to her brother but not to her. Juan, unlike those boys, spends time with her.

He shows her a snake, Lola, which he keeps as a pet. He pets her, and Angélica asks to pet her as well. After she bends down and touches Lola, Juan helps her back up and lightly kisses her. He kisses her again, putting his tongue in her mouth, but she pushes him away. She tells him she didn’t anticipate that. Embarrassed, he leaves to help his father. Angélica notes that Juan’s father’s only interest is playing chess.

Puri visits Soledad Duarte, the curandera whose son killed Cristóbal. She notices Soledad’s injuries from the fire and tells her that’s she writing a book. Explaining her visit, Puri tells Soledad that she has lost someone and feels melancholic. Soledad gives her some herbs to make tea, and Puri asks about a picture of a boy on the altar, trying to prolong the visit. Soledad tells Puri that Franco grew up but is missing, and the authorities won’t help. She asks for Puri’s help, noticing her fancy clothes and money.

Soledad tells Puri that Franco began to act differently as soon as he fell in love with a woman, whom Soledad never met. Puri then asks about the house fire, explaining that if she can help Soledad, she needs to know everything. Soledad confesses that she went out for food, and Franco told her he had plans. She returned to find the house on fire but thought it was empty. However, her husband, Pedro, had come home sick and was trapped in the house with Franco. She heard Franco and saved him but saw that Pedro couldn’t be saved. She admits that Pedro had betrayed Don Armand and moved the fence between his land and Don Fernando del Río’s. However, Puri’s father forgave him.

Soledad remarks that Puri is lucky to be staying with Catalina, a saint, when they hear a knock. Angélica is at the door.

After seeing Angélica at the curandera’s, Puri has dinner with her, Catalina, and Laurent. None of the sisters speak very much, and Laurent monopolizes the conversation, speaking in Spanish and French. With a French father, she can understand him, but she lacks confidence as a speaker. Puri recollects her father’s ability to learn languages and how her mother met her father. Puri’s maternal grandmother convinced Don Armand that the future lay in cacao beans, and Puri’s mother blamed her for his long absence in Ecuador.

After Laurent leaves to play games with fellow local aristocrats, Julia clears the table, speaking only to Angélica, as she always does. After Angélica and Catalina excuse themselves, Puri investigates the house for clues. She finds her father’s study and unlocks a compartment on his desk to find a journal written in French. Interrupted by Angélica, Puri explains that she needs something to read to deal with insomnia. Angélica offers her a novel, telling her that Don Armand didn’t like others touching his private papers and books. Puri chooses The Count of Monte Cristo.

On Sunday, Martin invites Puri to go fishing, which he calls his version of church. She begins to ask again about the fire, but he ignores her, telling her to get worms out of the ground for fishing. Obviously disgusted, she manages to pull one out. Martin challenges her to a contest for the largest worm, and she overtakes him in speed, pushing past her disgust. She wins, pulling out a large worm. He catches bigger fish, and they clean them as they discuss his father’s death. He notes that Don Armand paid for him to attend college in Colombia.

They cook the fish at Martin’s house. Shocked by the beauty of his A-frame house and his striking profile as he cleans and cooks fish, Puri feels attracted to him and ashamed of this desire so soon after Cristóbal’s death. They discuss marriage, and he asserts that women infantilize their husbands, using Angélica and Laurent as examples.

Puri returns to the house after dark and smells fire in Catalina’s room. Puri finds her smoking and reading a forbidden Spanish novel. They talk about Puri, and Puri regrets her disguise and deception. Catalina tells Puri their father encouraged them to be interested more in the family business.

The novel flashed back to 1913. Catalina describes how her mother caught her smoking and punished her severely. Likening her home to a prison, Catalina notes how seeing the Virgin Mary six years before limits her life as a 15-year-old. As her mother drags her before an altar, Catalina recalls all the pain she has experienced since the vision. Her mother tells her only sex workers smoke, makes her eat a cigarette, and demands the rest of her cigarettes.

She remembers how Franco Duarte offered her a cigarette and how she’s craved them ever since, when he was 13 years old and she was 12 years old. They began to spend time together despite their class differences. During this first meeting, they talked about her seeing the Virgin Mary and his mother’s magical abilities. She also found out that he couldn’t read. They played dominoes, and she vowed to teach him.

Puri recalls that after she left Catalina’s room the night before, she heard Angélica crying in her room and Laurent consoling her. Knowing now where Angélica’s room is, Puri plans to investigate it later in the day, after the couples arrive to play bingo. Certain that Julia will be occupied serving guests, Puri decides she will slip away unnoticed. During the party, she sees Angélica acting as the hostess and momentarily feels envy. As bingo rings out, Puri exits unnoticed and goes to Angélica’s room, where Ramona flies around asking for cacao beans.

Puri finds a gathering of letters from Angélica’s devotees, tied with a red ribbon. She also sees a picture of a young girl with a darker complexion than either Angélica or Catalina and a sad, angry expression. Puri notices that the same snake she found in her bed is in a cage, just as someone turns the doorknob.