Vampires of El Norte

“Apprehension circled over his shoulders like vultures. It spread to Nena. It spread to the rest of the rancho.”

Using a simile to compare Don Feliciano’s apprehension to circling vultures, Cañas emphasizes the palpable nature of his feeling. This comparison also develops the idea that human feelings are an inevitable part of the natural world. Finally, the presence of vultures generally signifies a dead animal, so this comparison foreshadows a deadly situation.

“The rancho was a lively beast with many limbs; lately, she fretted about it. It was tired, stretched thin, its strength paled by sickness at the worst possible time. They could not afford weakness when Anglos breathed down their necks. So she would tend to it with every technique she knew, and would not rest until it was well again.”

Nena compares the rancho to a living beast that she aims to heal. Through this metaphor, Nena emphasizes the theme of the Connection Between All Living Things, which for Nena includes all elements of the rancho, human and nonhuman, animate and inanimate. As she would heal a human body, Nena vows to heal the organism that is the rancho.

“It all made her want to shed her skin like the witch in Abuela’s story, let everything that made her a woman fall to the ground to be salted and ruined as she flew into the night, her bones bare and cold in the starlight.”

Alluding to a folktale that Abuela tells, Nena wishes to shed her skin. She wishes this because it is her body that is supposed to determine her fate: if she was not a woman, she would be free. Her discomfort with her body also connects to the fact that being forced into a marriage for her family’s benefit makes her feel as though her body is being sold like meat.

“Not now, when the memories were awake. They flexed their bright claws and flashed their teeth and sank them into him with greedy victory. There would be no sleep tonight.”

Cañas personifies memories to emphasize their power over Néstor. She gives memories claws and teeth like the vampires he is so afraid of. Like the vampires, Néstor will need to make peace with his memories to heal.

“How could she not care? She was a tree with its roots yanked violently from the soil. She was a bird without its flock, a colt cut off from the herd and lost to the chaparral. The world could not make sense without heaven overhead and earth beneath; so, too, did the world make no sense without Néstor. How could it be that everyone seemed to have forgotten about him? How dare they expect her to do the same?”

Nena’s grief at Néstor leaving is compared to a tree with no roots, a bird without a flock, or a lone calf. All of these living things are fated to a life of misery and, eventually, death without their lifelines. This metaphor emphasizes the extent of Nena’s pain, as well as her deep connection to the natural world.

“His grief had taken root in his legs and kept them running. Nena’s, it seemed, walked hand in hand with anger.”

Néstor begins to understand the difference between his and Nena’s feelings as he personifies their emotions. His compelled him to run away while hers made her feel angry at him. They are different, but both have natural reactions over which they have little control.

“She moved through the world with the same determined tilt to her shoulders and flint in her eyes that drew him to her when he was a boy, a moth to her blazing light. Was she not miraculously resurrected? To see her was enough. To hear her laugh again, even if it was at one of Beto’s long, meandering jokes and not his, was enough.”

Néstor’s pull toward Nena is compared to a moth flying into a light, an animal with no control over its instinct. This metaphor and the repetition in the final two sentences demonstrate Néstor’s acceptance of the idea that it is enough that Nena is alive.

“Fallen bodies were scattered haphazardly around her, some blown open and dismembered by cannon fire. Garish, flayed flesh rippled with crawling horseflies; their hum hung on the air like the cannon smoke, thick and persistent. A vaquero’s hat trampled into the mud. A kerchief, blue as a summer sky, darkened and sticking to a chest wet with blood.”

Cañas uses alliteration to communicate the vivid horror that war created. She also utilizes juxtaposition, describing the kerchief as “blue as a summer sky” and then describing it as “wet with blood” to emphasize the life and beauty that war destroys.

“For a long moment, silence hung between them. He could hear the breeze in the leaves above them, the distant sounds of the river. His own pulse beneath his jaw. The creak of his fate, bending and shifting.”

In this quote, fate is described like other natural phenomenon—a breeze, sounds of the river, a human pulse. This parallel emphasizes the reality of fate as a natural force in Néstor’s mind.

“The smell of the storm nipped at their heels; humidity built until it was close to breaking, heavy and rank on their skin as the breath of a predator.”

A storm brewing acts as a living creature, nipping at their heels and breathing on their skin. This communicates the ominous nature of the storm in addition to the fact that a real predator follows them.

“‘Can I wear a red dress?’ she asked. ‘As red as fruta guadalupana,’ he said. The image in his mind shifted, dressing her in a frock as bright as the fruit’s glistening, ruby seeds. ‘I want it to be bloodred,’ Nena said firmly. ‘And cut so low the tías talk about it for weeks.’”

The color of the fruta guadalupana and the low cut of her imagined dress represents how scandalous Nena wants to become. They joke about this possibility, but it parallels how others would perceive her if she and Néstor were together.

“‘Ever since you left, I’ve been the perfect daughter,’ she said softly. Perhaps because he left. Mamá and Papá’s love was a fragile, fickle thing; Néstor was the one person she had trusted to never stop loving her. To never leave her. With him gone, scarcity seized her life in a brute fist, squeezing her dry: if she disobeyed her parents, if she stepped a toe out of line, she could lose everything they gave. Couldn’t she? ‘I have changed, and I’m tired of it. I’m tired of being good. Of being nice.’”

Cañas personifies scarcity to show the influence of the fear it creates in Nena. When her trust in Néstor was shattered, so too was her trust that anyone would stay. Yet the fear squeezes her dry anyway, leaving her with the approval of her family but tired of acting.

“On his deathbed, he would remember this image: Nena’s long plaits gleaming in the firelight and shifting over the back of her sweat-stained white shirt—his shirt, and his trousers—as she turned to shoot him a look over her shoulder. Though he feared the claws of the darkness beyond the jacal, there was a boldness in her stance and in her firm grip on the machete. She would protect him. She was just as capable of watching his back as he was hers.”

Néstor describes in detail Nena’s clothing and stance that lead him to conclude that she is capable of protecting him. In his compromised, injured state, this image of Nena comforts him in the moment and beyond. His description shows that Néstor sees Nena as his equal, which will be important when they establish their new home.

“If the vampire returned and wrenched his arm back out of its socket, it would hurt less than hearing the break in her voice.”

The comparison of physical and emotional pain shows the importance of Néstor’s emotional connection to Nena. Néstor is injured and terrified, but in the face of that, Nena’s sadness is what hurts him the most.

“Her voice was soft. ‘You don’t have to cry.’ How long had it been since he wept for her? Years? He kept his feelings close to his chest, where they were safe from the harsh light of day. Not anymore. There was no rebuilding his walls, not now. ‘No, I do,’ he said. ‘I think I really do.’ He wept. Her hand stayed on his leg until he caught his breath.”

This dialogue reveals the changes Néstor’s emotional capacity has undergone. Néstor has gone years refusing to cry, at least consciously, but in this moment with Nena, he lets his guard down to sob for all of the years of grief he kept within.

“Nine years divided them, but time meant nothing to hands: her fingers interlaced with his as naturally as if they were eight years old, or ten, or thirteen. Palm to palm, thumb over thumb. A bridge between them. She drew their clasped hands down to rest on his thigh.”

Even though their journey together is tenuous, their bodies know each other. Their bodies know each other and hold their memories whether or not their conscious minds do. Their hands connect them in a way their minds are unable to.

“Something fierce and alive bound them, taut as ropes, so palpable Nena felt as if she could reach out and hold it.”

Nena and Néstor’s connection is so real that it feels alive and physical. By seeing it as a physical force, Nena is able to better understand why she feels that she cannot walk away from it.

“Néstor mimed walking up to her as if she were a stranger with an exaggerated tip of the hat. ‘Buenas tardes, señor,’ he said, voice falsely bright. ‘I am a poor vaquero with a sordid history, and this beautiful woman is the daughter of some rancho’s patrón. What’s that, you ask? Why are we alone in the chaparral, looking very much worse for the wear and clearly running from something? Well, for that I have a perfectly reasonable answer. Vampires, señor. We are running from vampires.’”

Using sarcasm, Néstor acts out a conversation that expresses the reality of their situation, showing how ridiculous it is. This demonstration convinces Nena at the moment that they must pretend to be married, but it also reminds them both of how unlikely it is that they will be able to end up together by articulating the class barriers between them.

“It was all she wanted to hear. It was what she dreaded hearing. She would only disappoint him. She would only hurt him, and she cared for him too deeply to wound him. She might not be strong enough to prevent herself from hurting him. She had to be honest with him.”

The juxtaposition of Nena’s shifting emotions shows the complexity of her situation. She wants what she cannot have, but she cannot find the strength to be honest with Néstor or stand up to her parents.

“Hope lit his features from within. ‘Then don’t cry, mi Nena. We’re together, and we’ll always be,’ he said. ‘That alone is a miracle. You are my miracle.’ When he brought his lips to hers, their touch was a promise. An oath sealed.”

Néstor feels that their kiss symbolizes a promise between them. Nena’s silence does not communicate the fact that she does not agree to the promise at this moment, knowing she first has to break her promise to her father. This moment shows the difference in their points of view.

“She stepped back, flustered, and made a vain attempt to collect herself. Smoothed her skirt, tucked a lock of hair away. It fell back out again at once, tickling her cheek. ‘We have to be careful.’”

The appearance of Nena’s hair reflects Nena’s journey. She tries to smooth herself out, and make herself presentable and proper, but her natural state is unbound and free.

“There was nothing Abuela could do. But Nena could stand up to her father. Nena could step forward and intervene. If Nena were being treated this way, Néstor would have thrown himself in front of a charging bull. He had dismounted and put her on his own horse in the middle of a battle to make sure she was safe. He had faced a monster against whom guns were useless, placed himself between Nena and its machete-like claws. But she hung back. She stayed behind her father, her shoulders curled in. She said nothing to defend him. Nothing to confront Don Feliciano.”

Néstor reflects upon the way he protected Nena during battle and against vampires. Compared to those situations, it should be easy for Nena to stand up to her father, he believes, but she is unable to do so. This parallel again puts emotional and physical fear against each other, suggesting that emotional fear is the stronger force.

“Amid the talk of Yanquis and honor and her parents bearing down on her, she had caved. She was spineless. She was weak. And this was her reward: she would be trapped like a rodent in the ground all her life, kept from the air, kept from the light, voiceless and suffocating.”

Cañas uses a simile to compare Nena to a rodent in the ground. This comparison shows how insignificant and trapped Nena feels at the thought of her future without personal freedom, while also reinforcing her connection to the land and its creatures.