The Weight of All Things

The novel opens in El Salvador outside of a cathedral where the funeral for Monsignor Oscar Romero is taking place. Nicolás, a nine-year-old boy, and his mother Letty Veras are taken by surprise when explosions disrupt the funeral and create chaos. Nicolás and his mother are pressed against an iron barricade in full view of Archbishop Romero’s casket. When the bombs explode Letty grabs onto Nicolás’s arm and tries to scramble over the barricade. They are unable to move and Nicolás falls to the ground. His mother uses her arms and elbows to push people off of him and covers him with her own body. She speaks to him through the hysteria, repeating a prayer to Mother Mary. Nicolás feels trapped under his loving, sweaty mother and closes his eyes to imagine himself inside a cave. He has a secret cave behind his home in which he likes to hide for comfort. As Nicolás silently prays he feels his mother’s body go limp against him, unaware or unwilling to accept that she has been struck by a bullet.

Nicolás remains still under his mother’s body. He does not know what has happened, but the reader understands that his mother has died of a bullet wound which struck her in the head and traveled all the way into her stomach. Nicolás hears the sound of running feet and is reminded of the sound of someone making a tortilla. He remembers that he has a small amount of money tucked into his boot, some from his grandfather and from his mother. He imagines he will buy himself fresh tortillas from the nearby food stands.

Footsteps from the Green Cross approach and lift his mother off his body. The Green Cross workers are shocked to find Nicolás underneath her. Nicolás tells them that she is his mother and he thinks she has fainted. As one man drags his mother away, her shoe falls off. Nicolás retrieves the shoe imagining that she will need it soon. The Green Cross explains that they are taking her body inside the cathedral because it is not safe outside. Nicolás looks around the plaza and sees that many bodies are being carried and dragged between volunteers: “To provide cover for those who risked their lives, men from populist organizations lay belly down around the Plaza” (7). Nicolás follows the volunteers and stumbles across a pile of black shoes similar to the one his mother lost. The shoes remind him of boats.

Before he can enter the church a row of policemen stops him. He yells that his mother is inside and he has to get to her, but the police push him away with their rifles. Nicolás finds an entrance inside the church and is overwhelmed by the scene he confronts. The scent of incense, candles, and fear overpower him. There are flashes from journalists’ cameras recording the “sight of open mouthed, bloodied bodies lying on the floor, one against the other like falling logs” (9). Nicolás is reminded of a time when his mother rescued him from a wave in the ocean. He wishes to rescue her from this crowd. He asks everyone where his mother is. People ask him if his mother was wounded and he isn’t sure since he saw no blood. Each person he speaks with gives him a look of sadness and pity. He finally asks a priest where the wounded are being taken. The priest tells Nicolás to look around him, that the dead are all here. Nicolás asks where the wounded are taken. He assumes that his mother is not dead. The priest tells him they are taken to the hospital and Nicolás decides he will head straight there, find her unharmed, and never let her go again.

As Nicolás walks away from the cathedral he remembers the corner store that holds a framed picture of the miraculous virgin. His mother named Nicolás after La Virgen Milagrosa: “Nicolás de La Virgen Veras was his name in full” (11). Nicolás wears a chain with a picture of La Virgen. When he walks by the shop the shutters are closed and most of the shop owners have locked up. There are few people on the streets. Nicolás carries his backpack with his mother’s shoe bumping against him as he goes. He stops at the first place he can find to get something to eat. Nicolás orders fresh tortillas and beans from a grandmotherly woman. He spends a few extra coins on a piece of fresh cheese, noting how rare it is to eat cheese or eggs up in the mountains where he lives with his grandfather.

The shop owner refers to Nicolás as “Chele, which was an adjective for ‘fair one.’” (12). He and his mother are both light skinned with light brown eyes. He learned in school that white people once conquered his region of Chalatenango. He doesn’t respond to being called Chele; he has learned not to. She refills his coffee and leans over to tell him that it is not safe for him to be out. She asks where he lives and exclaims that it is dangerous there. He explains that he came to see the funeral with his mother because she loves El Monsignor. The grandmother asks if his mother lives in town. Nicolás explains that she works as a nanny for a rich family, but he doesn’t know their last name or their address. The grandmother understands that something has happened to his mother at the Cathedral and asks if she was killed. After hearing this question Nicolás’s ears begin to ring and he rushes out of the restaurant. He decides to go back to the cathedral.

When he returns, the scene is calmer than when he left. The bodies have been removed and candles are lit throughout. Nicolás is sure he will find the address of the rich family his mother works for, arrive at their house, and find her alive. This is what he prays for as he walks through the cathedral. He looks up to find a candle lighting a painting of La Virgen Milagrosa. He prays to her just as his mother always taught him to. His mother called the Miraculous Mother his “mother, too” (16). Nicolás curls up under the image of his second mother and falls asleep in the church pew.