Vampires of El Norte

Vampires of El Norte is a novel by Isabel Cañas that incorporates aspects of historical fiction, romance, horror, and magical realism to tell the story of two star-crossed lovers during the Mexican-American War. Cañas is a Mexican American writer whose first novel, Hacienda, also explored Gothic themes in Mexico. She explores her interest in Gothic literature as it connects to her Mexican heritage through writing speculative fiction. Vampires of El Norte explores themes of the Connection Between All Living Things, the Definition of Home, and the Importance of Freedom. This novel was published by Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House, in 2023.

This guide uses the 2023 Penguin eBook version.

Content Warning: This book contains depictions of sexism and graphic descriptions of war.

Plot Summary

The novel starts in October 1837 when Nena and Néstor are 13 years old. Nena’s father, Don Feliciano, is the patrón of Rancho Los Ojuelos, while Néstor’s uncle Bernabé works as a vaquero (a cowboy), a peón (worker) under patrón (boss) Don Feliciano. A few days earlier, white men had come to Los Ojuelos asking if they knew anywhere to buy land. Nena’s father rejected their proposals, but they are all worried. When Nena and Néstor were young, they were allowed to roam freely with little criticism of their close relationship, but as they have grown their parents forbid them to be alone together. On the night the story begins, they decide to meet in the middle of the night to look for legendary silver. If they find it, Néstor can buy land, advance his societal status, and propose to Nena. As they approach the site of the silver, something attacks Nena. Néstor fights it off, but not before it bites Nena’s neck and leaves her unconscious. Néstor brings her back to la casa mayor, hoping that Abuela, the rancho’s healer and Néstor’s grandmother, will be able to cure Nena. When he arrives, Doña Mercedes declares Nena dead and Don Feliciano points at Néstor, blaming him. Fleeing the consequences of that blame and life at the rancho without Nena, Néstor runs for days.

The story moves forward nine years to 1846. Néstor has been working as a vaquero throughout the surrounding area, from El Paso to Laredo, but has not returned to Los Ojuelos since Nena’s death. Néstor wakes up in the bed of Celeste, a widow who inherited a rancho and often employs Néstor. He has just had a nightmare about Nena. He leaves before Celeste awakens and rides to a camp of other vaqueros including his friend Beto. Beto sees right through him, suggesting that Néstor spend one night resting alone, and Néstor declines.

Meanwhile, Nena has been living at Los Ojuelos training with Abuela to become a healer. Nena believes Néstor left while Néstor believes that Nena died. Nena’s parents pressure her to marry a man from a powerful hacienda to strengthen Los Ojuelos’s ability to defend itself while Nena continues to try to prove her worth as a healer. She often asks her brother, Félix, to speak to her parents on her behalf.

Néstor receives a letter asking him to return to Los Ojuelos to fight against the Yanquis, who are coming from the north to take land by force. At the ranch, Nena convinces her father to let her accompany their ranks as a curandero (healer) on the condition that she marries someone upon her return. She thinks this will prove her worth to her father, making the deal obsolete. Upon Néstor’s arrival at Los Ojuelos with his friend Beto, he sees Nena and feels shocked that she is alive. He tries to talk to her but she slams the door in his face, angry that he left her.

On the nine-day journey to Matamoros to fight the Yanquis, Néstor, Beto, and Néstor’s cousin Casimiro are assigned to protect Nena at all times. Nena is cold toward Néstor, but when Beto is attacked by the same creature that attacked Nena, they are forced to work together to heal him. Nena gathers that the creatures are vampires. Every time vampires are near, her scar tingles. During the battle, Nena tries but fails to keep up with the injured and dying soldiers. As the curanderos are overtaken by Yanquis with their horses and guns, Nena flees and Néstor saves her life on the way. Nena realizes that she could never have proved her worth to her father. She needs to return to Los Ojuelos to protect her family from the vampires. Néstor accompanies her to protect her on the long journey home.

On their first night in an abandoned jacal, a vampire attacks them, using a Yanqui’s body to approach. They kill the vampire and sprinkle salt upon the threshold of the door. During Nena’s watch, a vampire approaches but stops at the salt barrier, proving that salt works to ward them off. Each vampire they see wears a collar. As they travel, Néstor explains why he left, and Nena begins to understand his perspective. With the vampires as their adversaries, they become close on their long journey. Néstor teaches Nena how to shoot a gun, and one night with another group they pretend to be married. They see Yanquis chaining and torturing vampires and they begin to theorize that they are using the creatures as a weapon. On the final night before they return to Los Ojuelos, they sleep together in a cave, and Néstor tells Nena that he has enough money to buy land and marry her if she will have him. She says she trusts him, but she silently remembers that she promised her father she would marry a rich man to strengthen their ranchero. She is torn because she wants to protect her home, but she loves Néstor.

The moment they return to Los Ojuelos, Doña Mercedes expresses her dismay that Nena, as a single woman, traveled home alone with Néstor. She fears that it will ruin Nena’s reputation and ability to make a strong alliance. Néstor usually defers to Doña Mercedes, but he stands up for himself by looking her in the eye. They receive the news that they lost the battle at Matamoros. Nena tries to tell her family that the reason people are getting sick is that vampires are attacking them. She views the vampires as wild creatures, like vultures or wolves, who cannot help what they are. The next day when her brother and father arrive, her father storms to Néstor’s family’s jacal to yell at him for traveling alone with his daughter. Nena follows him, but when Néstor stands up to her father, telling him that she agreed to an engagement, she does not confirm. She says nothing and does nothing as he throws Néstor to the floor and orders him to leave the ranchero or be killed. Néstor leaves and Nena regrets her inaction.

Néstor decides that he cannot flee again and returns to Los Ojuelos. As he arrives, he realizes that the Yanquis are attacking the ranchero. Meanwhile, Nena blocks the doors with furniture and the thresholds with salt. She uses a machete to kill one vampire and then takes a gamble and tells the next one that she does not want to kill it, but she has to defend her family. She gathers that they can understand her because of her scar. The vampire runs away into the night.

When she emerges from la casa mayor, she sees Néstor fighting to defend Los Ojuelos. Based on her theory that they are wild animals being used as weapons, she frees one of the vampires and tells it to run away. The rest follow suit, but the man standing guard over them tries to kill her. The vampire defends Nena and kills the man, but in protecting her it throws her out of the way and knocks her unconscious. Néstor carries her back to la casa mayor and goes inside for the first time in his life. Abuela asks him to call Nena back to consciousness and as soon as she wakes up they both apologize and she asks Néstor to marry her.

In the final chapter, Nena and Néstor are married and living on his plot of land close by. Don Feliciano has even gifted them a piece of land that connects theirs to Los Ojuelos. They are beginning their own ranchero that promises fair wages to its vaqueros. The Yanquis are still closing in on them, but for now, they are happy.