Prayers for the Stolen

Content Warning: This Important Quotes section contains references to violence and rape.

“Maybe I need to knock out your teeth.”

Ladydi’s mother says this to her as a child. While she does not follow through with the idea, it is one of many methods considered to make the girls of the village seem unattractive as a means of protecting them from the attentions of the drug traffickers. It also shows the tragic conflict facing Rita and the other mothers: They must inflict a certain degree of violence on their daughters, restricting how they look and what they can do, to protect them from greater violence.

“Being in a place without men is like being asleep without dreams.”

Rita’s describes what it is like to live in a village after all the men have left. Her comment suggests that it is an existence that is in some ways deficient or lacking due to the lack of sexual and romantic possibilities and the hopes and dreams that come along with these things.

“I don’t want to be loved, Maria said, so who cares?”

Ladydi’s friend and half-sister, Maria, responds to her own mother telling her that due to her harelip no man will ever love her or want to marry her. On one level, her remark can be interpreted as self-defensive bravado. On another level, it is Maria’s indirect way of saying that she is not interested in the love of a man and instead wants the affection of