Night at the Fiestas

Content Warning: Both the source text and this section of the guide contain descriptions of alcohol abuse and addiction, domestic violence, attempted suicide, anti-gay bias, gun violence, child abandonment, and murder.

Maria thinks back to early memories of time spent with her cousin, Nemecia. Nemecia came to live with Maria’s family because her own mother could not care for her. Maria recalls that such nontraditional family arrangements were common in her New Mexican community. Nemecia was seven years old when Maria was born, and Maria remembers hearing a story about Nemecia smashing her porcelain doll when she was first introduced to baby Maria. Maria’s father repaired the doll, but the glue darkened along the cracks, and it never looked right again. Maria felt that Nemecia cultivated an air of mystery, and now, she remembers her cousin blackening her eyes with kohl and becoming obsessed with various film stars even though she never saw a movie. Nemecia was also a ravenous eater, but she never gained a pound despite her many midnight trips to the pantry.

Maria also remembers that Nemecia claimed to have killed her grandfather and put her mother into a coma. The young Maria asked her how she had done it and inquired whether or not she had also killed her father.