The Madonnas of Echo Park

Chapter 3 is the story of an encounter with Our Lady of Guadalupe (the Mexican Virgin Mary) told from the perspective of Beatriz, the grandmother of Aurora Esperanza. Beatriz narrates the story of her encounter to a second-person “you” who is waiting with her at the bus stop.

As a child, Beatriz lives with her sisters, her mother, and her grandmother in her Uncle Archie’s house. At night, her Uncle Archie climbs into bed with her sisters and molests them, and Beatriz fears the night he will come for her. She seeks solace in the company of her grandmother, who explains that before Beatriz was born, she thought she would be a boy because she sensed the spirit of a wolf in her (56). Empowered by this wolf spirit, Beatriz leaves a mousetrap under her legs at night and catches her Uncle Archie when he attempts to molest her. As a result, Archie turns Beatriz and her family out of his house. Her mother blames Beatriz for their homelessness and sends her to live in a convent.

A rich man named Gabriel, who donates generously to the convent, buys Beatriz as a wife when she is 16. Beatriz has a daughter by him, Felicia. Because Beatriz has no desire to be a mother and Gabriel has no desire to be a father, she sends Felicia to live with her own mother. After Gabriel dies, her family begs to move in with her, but she refuses to help, coldly ordering them to “find the paths that don’t cross mine” (59).

One day, according to Beatriz, the Virgin of Guadalupe appears at the bus stop wearing a pantsuit and nurse’s shoes. The Virgin asks Beatriz why she insists on being alone, mentioning her daughter, whom no one but Beatriz knows about. She tells Beatriz she is the mother of God and temporarily lifts the weight of Beatriz’s guilt from her, only to let it come crashing back down (62) as she floats away. The Virgin leaves behind a trail of rose petals. A rosebush blooms in the trash can.

Beatriz has repeated dreams in which she wanders through burning weeds, wearing a coat made of rain. In the dream, her daughter, Felicia, sits on an island of blooming jacaranda trees surrounded by a brimstone lake. The adult face of Felicia floats just out of Beatriz’s reach. At the bus stop the next day, the rosebush is gone. In response, Beatriz cries tears which—according to her—turn to rose petals.

After six days of returning to the bus stop, Beatriz goes to see a street priest named Father Alemencio. He respectfully listens to Beatriz’s story but explains that every grandmother sees the Virgin eventually, including his own. He tells her, “If you see Mary again, take her advice and don’t walk a solitary path. There are people out there who love you. I’ve met them” (66).

After visiting Father Alemencio, Beatriz’s skin turns cold and clammy. She puts on many coats but can’t get warm. In a daze, she walks to her porch, where she sees a bundle of newspapers with the headline “BABY MADONNA MURDERED BY HEARTLESS THUGS” (67). She looks at the photo of the girls and their mothers and notices the Virgin Mary in the background.

Beatriz goes to the shrine for Alma at El Guanaco, where the shooting occurred, and looks for the Virgin. The Virgin appears and says that Beatriz’s family’s blood should have been spilled instead of Alma’s. She tells Beatriz, “Without love, you are cold. Without a heart, you are lost” (68). She then tells her that another messenger will eventually come for her, and “they will give you something that means nothing to them but everything to you without question or expectation” (69).