Daughter of Fire
Sofia Robleda spotlights the life of a young woman of mixed Spanish/Guatemalan heritage who comes of age in 16th-century colonial Santiago and finds love with an indigenous Mayan king. Catalina de Cerrato is raised by her father, a member of the ruling Spanish elite, but it is her deceased mother who speaks to her soul, urging her to honour the spirits of the K’iche’ and to safeguard the Popol Vuh (Book of Council), handed down through her noble Mayan family. At her 16th birthday party, Catalina is enchanted by Lord Juan de Rojas, cacique (king) de Q’unmarkaj, who demands she return an heirloom jade necklace and the Popol Vuh. When she doesn’t comply, he curses her until she relents, but when she goes to retrieve the book from its hiding place, it has been ruined by damp. Distraught by her failure to live up to her promise to her mother, Catalina agrees to recreate the stories by communing with the ancestor spirits, along with her cousin, Cristóbal, and Lord Juan. Speaking of the old gods or practicing the old religion in any way is heretical according to the new Catholicism, instituted after the conquest of the Aztek Empire in 1521.
Robleda relates Catalina’s quest, and her struggle to accept her heritage and her place in the world, whilst venturing into long scenes of magical realism. For this reader, the story was slow to begin, with an uneven writing style and a few awkward phrases, and the jade necklace felt like a distraction. Some sections are hard work, although others explore fascinating avenues of history. Catalina’s inner turmoil regarding her half-Spanish heritage and allegiance to her father is compassionately explored and makes her more easily accessible to the reader. This is a well-researched novel telling of a time period which doesn’t often appear in fiction.
