Summer of the Mariposas

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2012

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-10

Chapters 11-15

Chapters 16-19

Chapters 20-22

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Quiz

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Discussion Questions

Character Analysis

Odilia Garza

Odilia is the eldest of five sisters. She is marked by her sense of responsibility for her siblings, especially when their mother goes through tough times. She lives with a constant anxiety that she is not doing enough for her family. While her mother works nights to make ends meet after her husband abandoned the family, Odilia quickly fills a maternal and disciplinary role for her sisters. Second-eldest daughter Juanita initially rebels against her older sister’s authority, but eventually she learns to be grateful for Odilia’s care.

Odilia’s personal journey, especially her maturing perception of her mother, directly informs the story’s exploration of Misunderstood Women. Odilia is initially angry with her mother, feeling abandoned and resenting the burden that falls on her because of her mother’s absence. By learning from the women she meets on her journey, she comes to see that the Garza sisters’ mother has not abandoned them; on the contrary, she is doing everything she can to keep them safe.

La Llorona

In author Guadalupe García McCall’s hands, the legendary La Llorona (The Weeping Woman) is re-envisioned as a woman misunderstood. In the storytelling tradition known to Odilia and her sisters, La Llorona drowned her children in the river as an expression of rage against her cheating husband. This version of the story bears a striking resemblance to Euripides’s Medea, presenting La Llorona as an archetype of female fury. It also encapsulates the girls’ confused feelings about their mother, whom they believe has abandoned them after her husband abandoned her.

La Llorona explains to Odilia that the story people tell about her is not true: Her children drowned by accident, though she nonetheless blames herself for their deaths. She is not a monster but a grieving and guilt-ridden mother. People have been unfair to La Llorona, telling a story about her that does not align with her reality. This realization prompts Odilia to consider that she and her sisters have been similarly unfair to their mother. McCall positions La Llorona as the Garza sisters’ guide, coming to their aid in times of need. This feminist retelling of La Llorona’s legacy highlights the historical peril of women at the hands of men.

Juanita Garza

Juanita begins the book both stubborn and sullen. She instigates the sisters’ journey to Mexico in a thinly veiled attempt to recover their father and, in doing so, their fractured family life. Because she sees herself as the smartest and most intellectually inclined of her sisters, she initially resents her older sister Odilia for stepping into a maternal role as their mother is increasingly absent. Despite this stubbornness, Juanita proves herself to be compassionate and community-minded. Her insistence that they deliver the body of Gabriel Pérdido in person rather than alerting the authorities shows that she has a keen understanding of the political reality of the borderlands and that she is willing to take risks to protect others.

As the sisters encounter dangers and struggles on their journey, Juanita learns to let go of her pride and trust Odilia’s leadership. The book ends with Juanita and Odilia sharing a sisterly bond.

Delia and Velia Garza

Conventionally beautiful twin sisters Delia and Velia are initially depicted as vain, like their father. The reader first encounters them teasing their sister Pita and tying her to a tree. As the novel develops, Delia and Velia learn to let go of their sense of entitlement and harness their energetic natures to save the day on multiple occasions.

Pita Garza

Pita is the baby of the family, but during the journey she begins to grow up, evolving from a coddled youngest sister to a resilient young woman. We see her mature through Odilia’s eyes when she sees that Pita has caught Chencho’s predatory attention.

Tonantzin

In the Nahuatl language, Tonantzin means “our sacred mother.” Tonantzin is an important deity in the Aztec religion. She has many attributes—associated with fertility, with the corn harvest, and with the bounty of nature, she is the ultimate mother, the source of life itself. In contemporary Mexico, it is common to equate Tonantzin with the Virgin of Guadalupe—the incarnation of the Virgin Mary who is said to have appeared to a Nahua man named Juan Diego near Mexico City in 1531. Though the origins of this syncretism are debated among scholars, it likely dates back hundreds of years, establishing a continuity between pre-Columbian religious culture and contemporary Mexican Catholicism. In the novel, Odilia first encounters Tonantzin in a Catholic church, further solidifying her trans-religious and transcultural significance.

In the novel, Tonantzin’s actions are driven by a profound love for her “daughters,” all the women descended from the Aztec people. Crucially, this broad family includes La Llorona. Traditionally, La Llorona is a foil for Tonantzin: Tonantzin is the ideal mother, while La Llorona is the archetype of maternal failure. In the novel, however, Tonantzin is never fooled by the folkloric rumors about La Llorona. She sees her as a fellow mother in need of love and support, which speaks to the novel’s emphasis on Solidarity Among Women. Through the sisters’ quest, Tonantzin seeks to inspire La Llorona’s transformation as well as those of the Garza sisters and their mother. By involving the sisters in something bigger than themselves, Tonantzin shows them that they are part of a greater cultural lineage, as becomes clear at the end of the book when Tonantzin says to Odilia, “You are one of many. You are one of us” (326).