Review of new Texas horror<\/p>\n

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In July of 2019, Belinda Alvarez returns to her hometown for the wedding of her best friend. Belinda escaped Alice, Texas, as soon as she could. She attended university, was accepted into law school, then hired by a large firm; along the way, Belinda married and had a son. But now her \u201cskin [is] a mere bag to hold [her] tears and alcohol,\u201d and she is otherwise empty after two divorces, a layoff (\u201cjust because your degree is printed on white paper, it doesn\u2019t change those preconceived notions about your brown skin\u201d), and estrangement from her teenage son.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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In 1952 on a farm outside Alice, Milagros Santos, a farmworker from San Luis Potos\u00ed, Mexico, is tortured and murdered because \u201csome people felt entitled to anything they laid their eyes on.\u201d The Anglo power structure is inconvenienced but unmoved\u2014the Bracero Program will provide another Milagros tomorrow. Serendipitously, the wedding in which Belinda is a bridesmaid is taking place at the restored farm where Milagros, now known as La Reina de Las Chicharras, was sacrificed. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The convergence of essential players at the right time and place stirs Mictecac\u00edhuatl, the Aztec goddess of death, who swore vengeance for Milagros all those years ago. Belinda has returned to Alice a shell, but now she can act as a vessel.  <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Queen of the Cicadas<\/span><\/span><\/em> is the newest novel from Violet Castro, a San Antonio native whose great-grandparents were farmworkers. A blend of historical and contemporary fiction, Mexican folklore and modern urban legend, The Queen of the Cicadas<\/em> is powerful, feminist supernatural horror.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The briskly paced action moves between the 1950s and the present. The historical chapters are told from an omniscient, third-person viewpoint. The present-day action is told from Belinda\u2019s first-person perspective, her voice changing from breathless regret as she recounts doing \u201canything to claw a way out from the barrio\u201d to serenity as she decides to fulfill the role offered by the Queen of the Dead.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Castro is skilled at evoking a certain era with tiny details: Aqua Net, pencil-thin eyebrows, and lip liner a shade darker than the lipstick can only mean coming of age in the 1980s (\u201creal chola-like\u201d). She can also stop you in your reading tracks: the cotton fields are \u201ccultivated by the workers\u2019 bodily fluids\u201d; the position of the farmworkers is \u201cghost-like vulnerability\u201d; Milagros likens her family she left in Mexico to the serape she uses as a tent in South Texas, where she is a \u201cloose thread.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The inadequacy of Anglo Christianity, as perceived by an abused and oppressed people, is a theme running throughout this novel, though Mictecac\u00edhuatl acknowledges that she doesn\u2019t want to run afoul of this \u201cjealous god.\u201d A young girl says to her abuela, \u201cI thought Jesus said to turn the other cheek. Revenge is wrong, it\u2019s not the same as justice.\u201d To which her abuela replies, \u201cIt all depends on who owns the hand that repeatedly slaps you.\u201d But redemption is a possibility.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Another theme is entitlement. As Milagros\u2019s murderer declares, \u201cOf course, the case is closed. Because we tell the stories for them.\u201d The irony is rich when the owner of the now-decimated farm is forced to write to his sister to ask if the family can come stay with her. In California. With only the clothes on their backs. Milagros had been planning to leave for California to meet up with a man named Chavez when her options were stolen from her.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Identity is also important to The Queen of the Cicadas<\/em>. It\u2019s essential that the women of this story get to tell us who and what they are, and why. In one memorable chapter, the goddess herself, resplendent in jade, turquoise, gold, and feathers, directly addresses readers, straight outta Mictlan, the Aztec underworld.  <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Castro claims her ingredients from the fertile ground of South Texas Latinx cultures and conjures an original tale that insists upon the power of voices often ignored or silenced. The Queen of the Cicadas <\/em>raises the tiny hairs on the back of your neck (\u201cnext time you hear that scratch or howl . . . it is not science in the room\u201d) and inspires a restiveness I\u2019m not sure I\u2019m ready to name.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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