I, Juan de Pareja

“I was in the same category as her little tan-and-white dog, Toto, which she alternately cuffed and cuddled.”

This is the first example of Juan’s association with animals, which will continue to suggest Juan’s deeper innocence throughout the novel. In treating Juan and Toto the same and subjecting them both to her whims, Doña Emilia hints at her own ignorance. To Emilia, Juan and other enslaved people are little more than pets.

“There’s pest in the city […] It came in with a boatload of slaves and ivory from Africa.”

In including this dialogue, de Treviño fleshes out Seville’s reputation as a bustling port hub and major stop-off in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Also, in associating slavery with the plague—a highly communicable disease that previously ravaged European populations—de Treviño underscores both slavery’s pervasiveness and its deeper immorality. Like the plague, slavery has infected Europe. The comparison between enslaved people and ivory underlines the dehumanization of slavery, reducing captives to commodities.

“‘Have you made your first Communion?’ ‘Oh yes,’ I answered promptly, ‘Mistress saw to that. And I used to go to Mass with her. Every day.’”

In referring to Emilia as “Mistress,” Juan introduces a style of address that he retains throughout the novel, similarly referring to Diego as “Master” and Juana as “Mistress.” In mentioning his frequent churchgoing to Brother Isidro, Juan introduces the importance of Christianity to this society. This illuminates the Spanish Catholic custom of baptizing enslaved people, though it also highlights how the Church was complicit with slavery.