The Hummingbird's Daughter

“Every Mexican was a diluted Indian, invaded by milk like the coffee in Cayetana’s cup. Afraid, after the Conquest and the Inquisition, of their own brown wrappers, they colored their faces with powder, covered their skins in perfumes and European silks and American habits.”

Although some of the terminology in this quote is now outmoded, the passage implies that Mexico is a nation in which the levels of society separate along racial lines, particularly among those drawn with Indigenous peoples. This excerpt shows the societal shift toward valuing European and American styles and appearances over those associated with Indigenous identity.

“Military men appeared one day with a deed from the government that his land had been sold to a gringo investor who intended to run sheep on the land and harvest peaches irrigated with Yaqui River water. When the old man had resisted, he had been tied to a fence and horsewhipped.”

The issue of the Mexican government’s land policies is a major conflict that drives the plot of The Hummingbird’s Daughter. In this instance, the government sells this man’s land without his permission, and when he resists, he is violently put down. This scene therefore demonstrates the violent lengths to which the government will go to enrich its holdings and political power.

“Tomás gazed at them through the blue glass. He knew they were being dragged north to Guaymas or south to Culiacán or to some field somewhere to be executed. This was the way of the world—Tomás didn’t know yet to feel bad for them.”

A major aspect of Tomás’s development in The Hummingbird’s Daughter is his growing awareness of the issues plaguing Indigenous people, and the more he learns, the more his sympathy for them grows. At this early stage in the novel, however, he sees the abuses against Indigenous people and simply dismisses them as normal, believing that nothing can be done.