A Snake Falls to Earth

Content Warning: This section contains references to colonialism and the genocide of Indigenous Americans.

“The first time Rosita said historia, the phone app had translated the word as ‘story.’ Now, it translated the word as ‘history.’ Which version did her great-great-grandma mean?”

This quote sets the stage for The Importance of Stories/histories throughout the novel. Rosita’s historia is both story and history, making Nina’s initial confusion a source of insight into how historias function.

“Creator, I was so young when my parents died. Now, I carry sounds without the meaning. Isn’t that sad?”

Rosita’s sorrow foreshadows Nina’s feelings about the historia she has been gifted with. Nina, like her great-great grandmother, also carries sound without the meaning. It is not an easy task to carry on cultural legacies when the original meanings are obscured or lost.

“Nina often wondered if she’d like the Earth one hundred years from now. The future could be a wondrous place of androids, cloned dinosaurs, and VR glasses. That’s what Nina wanted to believe. However, when the anxious hum of the evening news slipped into her bedroom, carrying prophesies of disease and pain, it seemed more likely that the future would be a place of nightmares.”

This quote highlights the theme of Climate Change and the Natural World: Nina lives in an environment of climate anxiety. Even at a young age, Nina feels dread for the future of the world.