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Chapter 7
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
After purchasing all the newspapers at the corner store, Odilia retrieves her sisters from Inés’s house and departs. In the car, she informs the girls of their status as missing children. The news article states that Mamá is a person of interest in the investigation, meaning she is unable to leave the US to look for them. Papá is also wanted for questioning about his daughters’ disappearance. The article includes a picture of him in his mariachi suit. Juanita says she never noticed how conceited Papá is, how aware he is of his handsome features.
Odilia makes an executive decision to leave Inés’s house without telling her sisters why, highlighting her sense of responsibility as the eldest Garza sister. That both Mamá and Papá have been implicated in their disappearance is stressful, as it forces the girls to reckon with the unintended consequences of their brash actions. Juanita’s comment about Papá suggests that knowledge of his abandonment has colored her perception of him.
Themes
Hearing that the FBI is involved in the search for them, the Garza girls suddenly realize the gravity of their situation. Though they agree that the best course of action is to get to Abuelita Remedios’s house and call Mamá, they worry about the potential criminal consequences of their actions. They have failed to report the dead man’s body and even took some of his cash, which they now speculate could be “blood money.” Odilia is furious at herself for not considering how their actions might get Mamá into legal trouble. As the eldest, she feels completely responsible for her sisters’ actions, and regrets listening to La Llorona.
By continuing their journey, the sisters are actively deceiving the authorities and potentially getting their parents into trouble. Considering all the illegal activities their quest has involved, Odilia begins to doubt La Llorona’s plan. Her guilt speaks to the underlying pressures of being the eldest sister in a broken family.
Themes
Odilia continues to drive down an unpaved road, searching for the turnoff for Abuelita’s house as marked on one of Papá’s maps. Suddenly, white smoke pours into the car through the vents; the radiator is broken. Judging that they are closer to their destination than to El Sacrificio, Odilia tells her sisters to gather their things from the car—they will have to walk the rest of the way. With no water, the girls dehydrate quickly under the hot sun. When they hear someone singing through the brush, Odilia’s sisters cry out for help, though she remembers Mamá’s rule about never talking to strangers.
While the broken-down car is not unusual, the event does appear to signal the novel’s transition into a more magical setting. Having to travel without the aid of modern convenience, the Garza girls are literally walking the land of their ancestors. Though Mamá’s rule goes unheeded here, her distrust of strangers seems to foreshadow the dangers that lie ahead.
Themes
The singer is a petite blonde woman dressed in yellow named Cecilia. She fusses over the girls like “a tiny yellow butterfly,” and she leads them to her house to get out of the heat. Cecilia does not have a car, but her house and garden are so beautiful that Odilia feels like they have stepped into a fantasy world. Inside, Cecilia feeds them sweet bread and lemonade. She is a widow who sustains herself off her garden and animals, isolated from the outside world. She seems genuinely excited to have the girls as company. Suddenly exhausted, Odilia and her sisters allow Cecilia to lead them to a den where they can nap.
Cecilia’s idyllic house and ample generosity feel almost magical, hinting that things are not entirely as they seem. Unlike Inés, she lacks the urgency one might expect from someone who discovered five teenagers wandering alone through the wilderness, which seems odd.
Themes
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When the sisters wake, it is dark outside. They find Cecilia watching the news. She offers them a large plate of petit fours and tells them their story has been playing all day. The Garza sisters then watch the news coverage of their own disappearance. The authorities have interviewed Inés and found Papá’s abandoned car. Mamá is interviewed, pleading for the safe return of her daughters, which causes Pita to burst into tears. A Mexican chief of police speculates that the girls were taken by whoever killed Gabriel Pérdido, a known drug dealer and fugitive.
Even while watching the news about the Garza sisters’ disappearance, Cecilia is suspiciously unconcerned, increasing the sense that something is amiss. Mamá’s heartbreak over her missing daughters makes them feel ashamed for putting her through this ordeal, especially after being abandoned by Papá.
Themes
Cecilia tells the girls that the chief of police is corrupt, that he only wants to find them because he thinks they know too much about Gabriel Pérdido. Seeing how frightened the sisters are, she pushes them to eat more sweets. Odilia asks for a phone to call Mamá, but Cecilia ignores her, saying Mamá is lucky not to be in jail after neglecting her daughters. She claims that, if they were her children, she would keep them well fed and clothed and safe. Odilia bristles and defends Mamá’s honor, though she is finding it hard to focus.
Though it does not come up often, Cecilia’s mention of the corrupt chief of police alludes to the historical context of the Mexican drug war, which began in the early 2000s. That her response to the girls’ distress is to feed them rather than offer a phone indicates that she is uninterested in helping them get home. Her criticism of Mamá suggests she believes she would be a better mother to the sisters. Taken in the larger context of her actions, Cecilia’s goal seems to be keeping the girls with her, which is the reason she instructs them to distrust authorities and dismisses Mamá as neglectful.
Themes
Suddenly exhausted again, the girls succumb to Cecilia’s insistence that they have a bath and sleep some more. In her own room, Odilia feels content and does not think of Mamá or Papá at all as she drifts off. She wakes in the night to “el mal aire” (bad air) whispering to her that she will never go home again. Odilia tries to get up, but her head spins and she cannot keep her eyes open. She realizes that Cecilia never offered to help her and her sisters get to Abuelita’s house, and she becomes afraid. She calls out to La Llorona for help.
The fact that the girls grow sleepy right after consuming Cecilia’s food suggests she is drugging them in some way. Although Odilia’s forgetting her parents supports this interpretation, it also draws attention to the way familial stress can sometimes elicit a desire to leave such complicated relationships behind. El mal aire is a Mexican folk illness, referring to the belief that cold or nighttime air can make a body sick. Here, the bad air either warns or threatens Odilia by telling her the truth of her situation: Cecilia does not intend to help the sisters get home.
Themes
