The Spanish Daughter

“After Cristóbal got lost in the Caribbean waters, the nostalgia of our lives together enveloped me like a cloak.”

Puri remembers Cristóbal after he dies falling overboard. She uses a simile to express how her grief and loss surround her, her memories overwhelming her in his absence. The use of “cloak” anticipates that she will dress as her husband in his absence.

“As we advanced into the heart of the plantation, the gurgle of a stream became louder. A mild scent of bananas filled the air.”

Puri and Martin tour the plantation on horseback and advance further into the woods. The author uses imagery—such as the sound of the stream and the smell of bananas—to stress the plantation’s wildness. Together with this imagery, the use of “heart” gestures to the living nature of the plantation itself.

“I knew Angélica was slick as a cat—I’d always known—and yet, I couldn’t resist her. I was simply one more pawn in the long list of people who couldn’t deny Angélica any of her wishes.”

After Angélica tries to convince Catalina to help her with her father’s will, Catalina considers how influential and manipulative her sister can be. She uses a simile to compare Angélica to a cat, charming and impossible to outwit. She compares herself to a pawn, alluding to the game of chess and contrasting herself with Angélica, who would be the queen on the chess board.

“And the magic of the plaza and the impressive architecture were gone. In their place stood the skeletons of what must have been a once-prosperous neighborhood.”

Carmela and Puri walk from the affluent neighborhoods of Vinces to hers, where the apartments and buildings are bare and rundown. These lines suggest how the city functions as a living being, with the metaphor of skeletons signifying the ruins of a neighborhood that has been abandoned by capitalist exploitation.

“I envisioned a dramatic scene of burning furniture and my sister passed out on the floor. Nothing would’ve prepared me for the sight of Catalina sitting on her bed with a long cigarette dangling between her fingers. The room smelled like the cantina in Vinces.”

Returning from fishing with Martin, Puri smells smoke, echoing the novel’s continued description of the fire that harmed the Duarte family. As she opens Catalina’s door, she discovers the saint acting as a sinner, smoking a cigarette. The imagery reinforces this juxtaposition: the room of the woman who saw the Virgin Mary reeks of the cantina where Martin met a sex worker.

“Twisting my body in an unnatural way, I picked up the cigarette. My mother dragged me toward the kitchen as if I were a sack of potatoes.”

In a flashback, Catalina describes her mother’s punishment after catching her smoking. Using a simile, Catalina describes her mother’s handling of her, comparing her body to a lifeless bag of potatoes and highlighting her mother’s harsh actions. Her contorted body mimics the difficulty of adhering to strict gender roles.

“I’d seen him from my bedroom window, from my prison.”

As Catalina’s mother punishes her for smoking, her mother searches for Don Armand her father. Catalina observed him leaving for the warehouse that morning from her bedroom. Using figurative language, she describes her bedroom as a prison, implying that she’s confined to her home after seeing the Virgin Mary six years before.

“The girl, who couldn’t have been older than ten, stared at the camera with a hardened expression, as though she couldn’t stand the thought of having her picture taken. But there was more than anger here. Her expression revealed pain, too, as if she’d been crying minutes before the picture was taken.”

Puri finds a picture of a girl in Angélica’s room. Using imagery, Puri maps out the girl’s emotional state. She sees anger in her “hardened” face, as well as pain. The repetition of similar structures in illustrating these moods—“as though” and “as if”—connect the two different but related emotional states.

“But Angélica would rather sit in the presence of adults, looking as stiff as one of her precious dolls, while they engaged in those boring, never-ending conversations.”

Describing her distance from her sister Angélica, Catalina notes how Angélica spends time with the adults. Alluding to Angélica’s dolls that Catalina can’t play with, she compares Angélica to a living doll, using a simile to suggest she acts as a toy for the adults.

“Juan looked as out of place as a polar bear in the middle of the desert.”

During her 18th birthday party, Angélica recalls seeing Juan, her childhood friend, surrounded by wealthy guests. Using figurative language, she highlights how much he doesn’t fit in by comparing him to a polar bear, which lives in the snow and ice, going to the desert, far from its natural habitat.

“From this angle, the turquoise walls of Palacio Municipal stood out, like an overdecorated cake.”

As they drive into town, Puri notices the scenery. Approaching the Malecon, or walkway along the water, Puri observes the Palacio Municipal, which she compares to a cake with too much decoration. This simile also gestures to the focus on chocolate, sugar, and food in the novel.

“I never thought a small lie would turn into an avalanche, but that was precisely what this was, an avalanche of people following me uphill for a pilgrimage.”

Catalina, led by her mother, climbs a hill to see another vision of the Virgin. Using the metaphor of an avalanche, Catalina refers both to the growing lie about seeing the Virgin, which necessitates more lies, and the throng of pilgrims who follow her.

“Parasite? The insult took me away, for a few seconds, from the trance his fingers were putting me in as he rubbed the nape of my neck.”

As Angélica and Juan (Martin) stand by the tree, Angélica recoils after he calls Laurent a parasite. This metaphor suggests something that Angélica learns later—Laurent has only his name and no fortune. Laurent lives off her fortune while dismissing her and her country’s people as backward, representing the way white supremacy infects social structures, even after the colonial power has left.

“My body had turned into a noodle, a slave to someone else’s will. Whereas seconds ago, I’d been somewhat repulsed by Franco’s intimacy, I now craved his proximity. Oh, God, I was being taken over by carnal desire.”

After her initial reluctance to kiss Franco, Catalina suddenly feels her desire take over. Using figurative language, this quote highlights her lack of resistance and her body’s willingness in two ways—by comparing it first to a noodle and then to a slave.

“As I knelt down as a first sign of humility, a sort of serenity descended upon me. My body became light, as if floating, and an enormous peace took over me—not unlike the feeling you get when you leave a cold building and the first rays of sun hit your cheeks.”

Alberto explains the origins of his religious belief and the epiphany he has in the church as he prays for God to be real. Using imagery—including the mention of the sun and its warmth and the cold of a building—Alberto highlights how his conversion changes his body and life. The figurative language he uses to describe his body as light and floating further supports this depiction of conversion.

“I spotted a flash of blond hair flying about. It could only be Angélica’s. She didn’t see me as she opened the door and left the house, mingling with the shadows of the night.”

As Puri crosses the patio, heading back to her room, she sees Angélica leave. The imagery in this quotation suggests something foreboding or secretive about her actions, especially how she loses herself in the “shadows of the night” which is juxtaposed with the mention of her “flash of blond hair” (213). This foreshadows the reveal that Angélica is having a secret affair with Martin.

“From time to time, our hands accidentally touched. I recoiled as if his fingers were flames. As much as I liked his proximity, I had an image, a reputation to maintain. And so did he.”

After Puri and Martin leave the party, they go to the cantina, where they have drinks. Indicative of their desire, they long to touch, but she recoils. Dressed as a man and careful with her status as well as Martin’s, Puri avoids his hands. Puri uses figurative language to compare his hands to fire, which echoes other instances that blend fire and desire, such as the scene between Catalina and Franco.

“I woke up like one of those heroines in a fairy tale: the sun filtering in through the translucent curtains, the sounds of the birds in the forest vivid and sharp, a soft sheet covering my nakedness.”

After having sex with Martin, Puri awakes as though she’s in a fantasy of true love. Using a simile to describe the sensation, Puri compares herself to a female protagonist from a fairy tale—listing the generic characteristics of the heroine waking up in total bliss. The allusions to fairy tales hint that this happy state is false and will not last.

“My head had been spinning all night with thoughts of Martin. He was not only my sister’s lover; he was apparently the lover of every pair of legs in town.”

After discovering Angélica and Martin’s affair, Puri feels unmoored. The extent of his amorous activities comes into focus, and Puri uses synecdoche to refer to all the women he sleeps with. Every pair of legs refers to every woman, using a part of them to represent the whole. This rhetorical device also echoes the pairs of legs Puri saw in Angélica’s room when Laurent and his lover come in while she hides under the bed.

“As I removed my jacket, so relieved as if I’d been unlocking a pair of handcuffs from my wrists, I spoke with my regular voice. ‘I’m Maria Purificación.’”

At the family meeting, Puri learns Cristóbal’s body has been recovered, and she responds to Laurent’s claims that she’s trying to swindle them out of Armand’s fortune. Removing her clothes and assuming her normal voice, she compares masculinity and her performance to prison or confinement, linking the jacket to handcuffs.

“The news felt like a bucket of iced water thrown in my face.”

Puri visits Tomás in Guayaquil, discovering that Elisa has been arrested for Cristóbal’s murder and that her siblings have banded together to disinherit her. Processing the news, she employs a simile linking the news to the shock of cold water being thrown on her face. While she knows they weren’t happy to discover her alive, she didn’t expect such a hateful act.

“The sight of my husband’s casket unleashed a turmoil of emotions. It was like opening a faucet; out poured all the pain and tears I’d been suppressing for weeks.”

At her husband’s funeral in Panama, the sight of his casket causes Puri to lose control of her emotions as she takes stock of all the pain she has experienced and caused. Using a simile, Puri compares these emotions to a faucet; once opened, nothing stops the water that has been held back.

“I looked around me: leaves were withering, pods were filing with fungus, the entire region was rotting, like my family.”

After hearing that the cacao plants have been infected, Puri investigates for herself. Discovering the mold and fungus contaminating the plants, she likens the decay to her family, using a simile to link the two.