Monday, July 18, 2011

Conquistadora by Esmeralda Santiago

Conquistadora is a grueling journey that follows numerous generations through the adversities of running a sugar plantation in Puerto Rico. The chief character, Ana Cubillas, is cold and occasionally nasty, but the willpower she shows is extraordinary and commendable. I imagine the homestead, Hacienda los Gemelos, as being magnificent and brilliant but also disappointedly, built on slavery. Freedom is a notion that evades all the characters in this tale. Despite their sex, rank, history and wealth, each character is confined and bound by sense of duty, history and nation. Conquistadora is profound, and immersed in the conventional structure of story-telling commonly attached to historical fiction.

5 Stars

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