Song of the Hummingbird

Huitzitzilin’s story lays bare the tragic consequences of the injustice and powerlessness of Navigating Loss in a Colonized World. The initial devastation of losing her first child sets the stage for a cascading series of losses that chip away at her spirit. Witnessing the destruction of her city and the subjugation of her people amplifies her grief, leaving her feeling utterly powerless. The forced separation from her twins, who represent the remnants of her pre-conquest life and her connection to her heritage, delivers the final crushing blow. Devastated by the loss of her children and stripped of her former life, she feels utterly powerless. Her meticulously crafted plan to imprison Baltazar can be seen as a defiant act of resistance against overwhelming oppression, considering she had limited recourse to justice within the imposed colonial structures. Stripped of her homeland, identity, and now, her children, she asserts her agency in the face of a system that has marginalized her. Her vehement rejection of seeking a priest’s counsel underscores her deep mistrust of colonial power structures. She views a priest not as a spiritual guide, but as an extension of the Spanish regime, and this entity has inflicted immense suffering on her people. Benito’s anticipated response, urging her to accept her pain and offer it as atonement, reinforces her perception of the Church as an instrument of control that would offer no comfort or understanding.

Despite his initial struggle to reconcile his faith with Huitzitzilin’s actions, particularly her vengefulness against Baltazar, Father Benito’s empathy for her suffering ultimately compels him to favor understanding over judgment. As he listens to her story, he gains a deeper appreciation for the depth of her despair and the desperate circumstances that fueled her rage. Benito’s realization about the severed connections between Mexica people and their descendants, a product of Huitzitzilin’s encounter with her daughter Paloma, reflects the broader theme of cultural erasure and loss. Witnessing Paloma’s complete assimilation into Spanish culture underscores the devastating impact of colonization on the transmission of Indigenous languages, traditions, and identities across generations. This encounter personalizes the loss for Benito, and he weighs the human cost of the cultural transformation enforced by the Spanish, Recognizing Bias Through Human Connection.

By the novel’s end, Benito sheds his initial reservations about Huitzitzilin and her actions. He comes to understand that “it was not absolution or even mercy that she had expected of him, but understanding of her life, of her people, and of their beliefs” (217). Huitzitzilin wasn’t seeking absolution or forgiveness within the confines of his faith. Trapped within a system that marginalized her and demonized her culture, Huitzitzilin craved acknowledgment of her humanity and the experiences that shaped her choices. The act of confession was a vehicle for her to reclaim her narrative and challenge the dominant Spanish accounts regarding her people. Her account is symbolic of the struggle of marginalized cultures in reclaiming their narratives and ensuring their experiences are not erased from history. Huitzitzilin represents the countless stories lost or ignored in the face of colonial conquest. Through Benito, who acts as a conduit for preserving her story, the novel offers a glimmer of hope for a more nuanced understanding of The Power of Narrative in colonial accounts.