★★★☆☆
(Horror) Yesenia comes home to help care for her dying grandmother, an old woman who spent her life praying for the dead in Purgatory. Which turns out to have consequences. (3,419 words; Time: 11m)
"Madre Nuestra, Que Estás En Maracaibo," by Ana Hurtado [bio] (edited by C.C. Finlay), appeared in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction issue 07-08|20, published on July 7, 2020 by Spilogale Inc.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Review: 2020.379 (A Word for Authors)
Notes: This story has a lot of untranslated Spanish in it, so I’ll help with that a little bit. At the start Abuela (Grandmother) prays “Holy Virgen Mary, queen o Purgatory. I have come to deposit in your Immaculate Heart a prayer on behalf of the holy souls which suffer in the place of atonement . . .”
“¿Ahora sí te paran bola?” means “They pay attention to you now?” (Referring to Yesenia’s children.)
When the neighbor tells them Abuela prayed to the dead souls too much, Matilde’s response translates to “It’s time for you to go now.” (Technically she was praying for them, not to them.)
“Déjanos” means “leave us alone” and “déjamela” means “let me have her” more or less. “Hijo de puta” is “son of a bitch,” so Yesenia essentially calls to the dead father of her friend, telling him to leave her grandmother alone.
Abuela’s final words are to ask Yesenia “Daughter of mine, (is it) on Earth as it is in Heaven?” And her answer is, “(Yes) as it is in heaven.”
Pro: It’s the story of how Yesenia helped her grandmother get to her eternal reward and how she made a place for herself in this one. The dead souls Abuela couldn’t help don’t get to drag her down, nor do their earthly equivalents get to drag Yesenia down.
Con: If you don’t speak Spanish, I think this story will pass you by. Just from a Christian perspective, it’s hard to see how souls in purgatory could do anything to a pious women dying.
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Ana Hurtado Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
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Notes: This story has a lot of untranslated Spanish in it, so I’ll help with that a little bit. At the start Abuela (Grandmother) prays “Holy Virgen Mary, queen o Purgatory. I have come to deposit in your Immaculate Heart a prayer on behalf of the holy souls which suffer in the place of atonement . . .”
“¿Ahora sí te paran bola?” means “They pay attention to you now?” (Referring to Yesenia’s children.)
When the neighbor tells them Abuela prayed to the dead souls too much, Matilde’s response translates to “It’s time for you to go now.” (Technically she was praying for them, not to them.)
“Déjanos” means “leave us alone” and “déjamela” means “let me have her” more or less. “Hijo de puta” is “son of a bitch,” so Yesenia essentially calls to the dead father of her friend, telling him to leave her grandmother alone.
Abuela’s final words are to ask Yesenia “Daughter of mine, (is it) on Earth as it is in Heaven?” And her answer is, “(Yes) as it is in heaven.”
Pro: It’s the story of how Yesenia helped her grandmother get to her eternal reward and how she made a place for herself in this one. The dead souls Abuela couldn’t help don’t get to drag her down, nor do their earthly equivalents get to drag Yesenia down.
Con: If you don’t speak Spanish, I think this story will pass you by. Just from a Christian perspective, it’s hard to see how souls in purgatory could do anything to a pious women dying.
Other Reviews: Search Web
Ana Hurtado Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
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