Under The Mesquite

The family returns to their home and family in Mexico for a weekend visit. However, what used to be the respite from their foreign and consistently changing new home in the United States has now become a sad weekend event. The dynamic of the family has changed, as has their entire outlook on life. The birds, plants, sights, and sounds of Mexico are all familiar to Lupita, but she can’t escape the pervasive sadness of her mother’s impending death. Gabriela and Lupita set off for a hike to the river, and Lupita finally relaxes a little as Mami is being cared for by her sisters. Lupita and Gabriela play volleyball with other teenagers in the school playground, but soon even this moment of fun veers into homesickness, now homesickness for America. Their journey to Mexico is undergirded by Lupita’s memories of how much Mami used to be able to do with them. As the chapter ends, Lupita implies a final good-bye to Mexico.

Late one night, Lupita gets up to close the windows of the house against a storm. She finds Mami sobbing alone in the living room. Lupita and Analiza try to calm Mami down, but there is sheer terror in her eyes. Analiza gets Papi to help console Mami when they discover the real reason for her fear: Mami is convinced she saw La Muerte, the skeleton of death. Mami believes La Muerte looked right at her through the window, that a man dressed in black caught up with La Muerte and they ran off together. Papi says it was probably just teenagers coming back from a party, but Mami is convinced that La Muerte is coming for her.

In drama class, Mr. Cortés lectures Lupita for being distant and uncommitted to the Spring show. Lupita has given up on herself, too saddened and stressed by her home situation. She tries to quit, but Mr. Cortés tells her she’s the only drama student who can cry on cue. Lupita says she isn’t crying because she’s acting, she is actually crying. Lupita tells Mr. Cortés about her mother’s illness and waning life, and about how her younger siblings come to her now at night when they’re sad or scared. Mr. Cortés encourages Lupita to use drama as her vehicle for emotive expression, and Lupita agrees to stay in the play, knowing that acting is her therapy.

It is Spring Break, and Mami is in the hospital. Lupita stays with her mother through Mami’s tears, aches, and delusions. Mami asks for her own mother, and Lupita lies that she has visited but needed to go back to Mexico. When Papi visits Mami, she cries and begs him to take good care of the family. Lupita watches “him grip the metal bar on her hospital bed—the skin on the back of his hands is taut; his knuckles are marbles—as he twists himself into a knot” (142). Lupita comforts her father, too, as they both wait for La Muerte to take Mami away.

When school starts up again, Papi takes over at the hospital. One night, Lupita and Victoria are in bed together practicing for drama. Analiza shouts at them to be quiet, but Lupita and Victoria are giddy with their lines and connection. Suddenly, the phone rings. Analiza, Victoria, and Lupita cautiously approach the phone. Analiza answers and doesn’t need to tell Victoria and Lupita the news, as her tears tell them that Mami has died.

Lupita examines Mami’s grave, where a tiny tin nameplate marks the mother of seven and wife of Papi. Lupita remembers her mother in all her many layers. She calls Mami a “sirena,” a beautiful singer. She remembers Mami as being as comfortable as a warm blanket, but also as dangerous as a scorpion when the children misbehaved in church. Now, Mami is “as silent as a statue,” the last remaining layer of her.