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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Summer of the Mariposas, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Sisterhood, Motherhood, and Family
Magic, Myth, and Deception
Gender Dynamics and Female Solidarity
Kindness, Mercy, and Morality
Ancestral and Cultural Appreciation
Summary
Analysis
The next morning, the girls prepare to return home. Abuelita Remedios gifts several seed packets to Odilia so she can start a garden of her own, and invites them to come back for the holidays with Mamá. Abuelita drives the girls in her truck, advising them to keep their supernatural experiences to themselves, as people are cynical and unlikely to believe them. She buys them new clothing and lunch, reaching Piedras Negras mid-afternoon. Abuelita gives them money for a taxi since she has no green card, and asks where their papers are. Stricken, the girls realize they were in such a rush to leave the US, they left their birth certificates behind.
In gifting Odilia the seed packets, Abuelita literally passes down healing knowledge to her descendants. Her advice to keep the magical aspects of their journey a secret seems to acknowledge that modern society has left behind an ancestral belief in magic, turning cynical. On another note, the girls’ distress over their birth certificates is a real-world reference to the difficulty people of Mexican descent have crossing the border into the United States.
Themes
Abuelita Remedios tells the girls they can talk to the border officials and explain the situation; given the media coverage, they will want to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Delia and Velia refuse, fearing mistreatment at the hands of corrupt officers. Juanita also points out that things could get even worse for Mamá if Child Protection Services is called. Suddenly, Odilia realizes where they are: the Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, the sanctuary of the Virgin. She leads her sisters inside, intending to ask for a miracle.
The girls’ fear of government corruption and unforeseen complications in getting home demonstrates how their journey has made them more aware of deception. This newfound suspicion of the authorities is a strange indicator of maturity, as the girls now have a better understanding of how the world can harm them. That the sisters find themselves exactly where they need to be to ask for help—the sanctuary of the Virgen—feels fated. Like Odysseus, the Garzas’ magical journey is not over until they are home.
Themes
Inside the church, Odilia leads her sisters and Abuelita to the virgin’s altar before spinning the ear pendant a final time. She calls upon Tonantzin, proclaiming that she and her sisters have done what was asked of them, and asking her for assistance getting home to Mamá. When Odilia opens her eyes, they are standing before a moonlit path that leads upward into the sky. Accepting this dream or hallucination, Abuelita and the girls follow the path toward the stars. Reaching the summit, they see white clouds and a cactus patch, and Tonantzin waiting for them, surrounded by mariposas.
Calling for Tonantzin’s aid at her altar invokes an atmosphere of spiritual reverence and holiness. While the goddess’s help has been obviously magical, the vision she grants to Abuelita and the sisters here demonstrates the vast depth of her power. That a being so mighty and separate from humanity would take the time to guide the sisters on their journey speaks to the significance of their family story. The presence of the mariposas once again frames Tonantzin’s magic as ancestral and indicates that the girls’ collective metamorphosis is nearly at its end.
Themes
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Tonantzin is proud of the sisters, but Odilia regrets their journey because Pita and Mamá have been hurt. Tonantzin states that mothers are creators whose faith in their offspring is always alive. The girls are confused and ask why Papá left them. Tonantzin responds that their father is “like the sun, splendid to behold, but he must descend.” Again, the girls cannot understand her meaning. Odilia asks why Tonantzin sent them on this journey, and the goddess replies that she needed the sisters’ assistance, and they have learned many important lessons along the way.
Tonantzin attempts to reassure the girls—who are worried Mamá will never trust them again—by characterizing maternal love as eternal and regenerative, constantly alive. Papá’s love, on the other hand, rises and sets like the sun, providing only sporadic warmth. Having yet to confront Papá, the girls cannot quite understand her, indicating that the final illusion is yet to be exposed. In addition to firming up the bonds of their sisterhood, Tonantzin suggests the girls have assisted her—perhaps in bringing closure to the Pérdido family.
Themes
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Tonantzin asks Odilia for one last favor: “to remind the mother that she is the flower, the bud, the giver of life.” She assures the girls that everything will make sense when their journey comes to an end. Behind them, the earth rises up to show them a patch of rosebushes on the hill near their home. Tonantzin instructs Odilia to give the roses to “the mother” to remind her of who she is and transform her, creating new life in the universe. Odilia assumes the goddess is talking about giving the roses to Mamá. Tonantzin disappears, and the girls and Abuelita descend the moonlit path toward a shoreline below.
Tonantzin’s last request is for Odilia to remind “the mother” of her creative power, implying that this person has forgotten their true identity and is, like the girls, in need of transformation. The roses at the center of this task seem to represent the “new life” Tonantzin talks about, rooting her magic in more natural imagery.
Themes
