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Book 2: The White Mules
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Death Comes for the Archbishop, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Spirituality vs. the Material World
Friendship and Compromise
Humanity’s Relationship with Nature
Colonialism, Industry, and Loss
Memory, Death, and Afterlives
Summary
Analysis
It is almost summer, and Vaillant and Latour are riding their new white mules through a rainstorm in the Truchas mountains. Vaillant’s sister Philomène often tries to picture her brother and his friend, imagining them like the romantic pictures of St. Francis Xavier. But in reality, the two priests look like anyone else, only distinguished by the collars on their cassocks.
Philomène’s perspective reflects the romantic view many Europeans at this time held of places outside the continent; St. Francis Xavier was an early missionary, known for his dramatic journeys around India. The reality of this early-stage diocese, however, is much more logistical and monotonous than Philomène’s daydreams would allow.
Themes
The priests are on their way to Mora, after a recent raid by indigenous peoples led a group of villagers to take refuge with Mora’s priest; now, Latour wants to do his best to help these refugees. But it is almost nighttime, and Latour and Vaillant have no idea where they will stay. After praying fervently, the two men come upon a small, ugly adobe house. Surprisingly, the man who comes out of the house is not Spanish but American.
Though Latour and Vaillant align themselves with the white settlers in Mora, the brutal underbelly of colonialism is evident in the very fact of the raid. This skirmish thus reminds readers that in order for Latour’s Catholic diocese to exist, thousands of indigenous people are continually being displaced.
Themes
The man (later known as Buck Scales) speaks with a drawling accent, and he looks menacing to the point that Latour hesitates to take refuge here. But it is pouring, so the two priests go inside. The only other inhabitant is a Mexican woman, clearly terrified; though the priests address her in Spanish, greeting her in the name of the Holy Mother, she does not answer. Buck Scales snaps at her, and Latour and Vaillant realize that this woman (Magdalena) is being abused.
As one of the few truly American characters in the novel, Buck Scales’s threatening presence (in contrast to Latour and Vaillant’s soothing tones) perhaps functions as a critique of the newly imperial U.S. Once again, the Holy Mother (Mary) emerges as the central figure in New Mexican Catholicism.
Themes
When Buck’s back is turned, Magdalena makes eye contact with the priests and her face becomes “intense, prophetic, full of awful meaning”; she signals to the two men that they must run away, miming execution by dragging her finger over her throat. Vaillant whispers to Latour to ask if his pistol is loaded, and Latour replies that it has gotten too wet to work.
Perhaps because of her Catholic faith, Magdalena—whose name makes reference to the biblical figure of Mary Magdalene—shares an immediate language with Latour and Vaillant.
Themes
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Quickly, the priests excuse themselves, explaining that they have changed their minds about staying the night. As they ride away, Latour wonders if they are being followed; both men also worry that Magdalena is going to be punished for warning them away. Eventually, they reach Mora, where two refugees have to leave a bed so that the priests can share it.
Though Latour and Vaillant authentically want to help the people they claim to serve, their own material needs often get in the way of their spiritual mission; in taking a bed from the refugees, for example, Latour and Vaillant create inconvenience instead of solace.
Themes
The next morning, Magdalena arrives, dirty and bruised. She explains that when Buck went to get his gun, planning to chase after the priests, she hid in a washout behind the house, eventually running all the way to Mora in fear. Latour instructs the refugee women to help Magdalena clean up, and after a while, she is calm enough to tell her story.
Buck’s quick turn to violence speaks to the still-unsettled nature of this American frontier. As Latour will later complain, many of the men in this desert are accustomed to having unchecked, “lawless personal power.”
Themes
Magdalena was born and raised in Taos. One day, Buck and a party of white hunters and trappers came through town; though Buck was known to be bad news among the Americans, Magdalena thought that marrying a white man could help her advance in the world. They lived together for six years, and in that time, Buck has killed four travelers, burying their bodies in the backyard and selling off their belongings. Magdalena has also had three children over the course of her marriage, and her husband killed them all.
Neither Latour nor Vaillant often acknowledges the role that race and racism play in their new diocese. But Magdalena’s story makes it clear that whiteness is, in 1800s New Mexico, the surest guarantor of power. Not until the very end of the story will Latour actually reckon with the damaging effects of such a hierarchy.
Themes
Finally, Magdalena explains that she was emboldened by the kind faces of the priests to warn them away and make her escape. With the help of a visiting Canadian trapper, the priests organize a search party for Buck, who is captured outside of Taos. The next day, the magistrate arrives, ready to exact Buck’s punishment.
For Magdalena, Latour and Vaillant come to represent—in their very facial features—the possibility of a new, more hopeful life. In some ways, then, parishioners like Magdalena blur the line between the men themselves and the institution they represent, a confusion that speaks to the importance of priestly character.
Themes
One of the men in the magistrate’s party recognizes Magdalena; when she sees who it is, she rejoices that “Cristobal” has found her. The man, introducing himself to Vaillant and Latour as Kit Carson, volunteers to take Magdalena home; he has an indigenous wife, and she will take good care of Magdalena. Kit Carson is not at all what Latour pictured—instead of being large and commanding, he is slight and tender, with a melancholy face.
Kit Carson was a real historical figure, known for his work as an explorer and (perhaps most of all) for his aggressive tactics in conflicts with indigenous tribes. By introducing him in such a sympathetic way, with Magdalena affectionately greeting him as “Cristobal,” the story obscures (at least for now) the darker part of Carson’s legacy.
Themes
Latour introduces himself, saying that he has long admired Carson. On the way back to his house, Carson and Latour ride together, becoming fast (and lifelong) friends. Carson explains that he initially dismissed religion as “a woman’s affair,” especially because so many of the area’s priests were corrupt. However, after he got sick on a recent trip to California, Carson was amazed by the tenderness and care the priests showed him. Privately, Latour marvels that though Carson cannot read, he is very astute about both people and landscapes; “the most reliable map” of the American West exists only in Carson’s brain. Over and over again, Carson laments what has happened to Magdalena.
Latour’s enduring friendship with Carson once more helps to distinguish the bishop from his vicar. Whereas Vaillant makes friends quickly and sometimes struggles to keep in touch, Latour has only a few companions, most of whom stay in his life for decades. And while Latour often goes for months or even years without seeing his closest friends, something that baffles Vaillant, Latour is able to hold onto his admiration for his friends over long periods of time with no contact.
Themes
Buck Scales was hanged after a short trial. A few months later, Latour attended the Provincial Council at Baltimore; on his way back, he brought five nuns to build a religious school in Santa Fé. Magdalena became the cook for these nuns, and she gradually regained the beauty and happiness she had lost with Buck, able to “bloom again in the household of God.”
The eighth Provincial Council of Baltimore, which took place in 1855, was an important time for Latour and other American bishops to gather; only in these conferences could the priests come to a consensus about what Catholicism in America should look like. It is also worth noting Latour’s choice of the word “bloom” to describe Magdalena—this will not be the last time that Latour associates the healing powers of faith with plant growth.
Themes
