One Holy Night by Sandra Cisneros
"One Holy Night" is a poignant narrative by Sandra Cisneros that explores themes of love, identity, and the complexities of adolescence through the lens of a young narrator living in a dusty Mexican town. The story unfolds as the narrator reflects on her passionate yet tumultuous relationship with Chaq Uxmal Paloquin, a young man who claims a noble Mayan lineage. Their connection deepens amidst the backdrop of her life selling produce from a pushcart in the United States, where the narrator grapples with her feelings toward Chaq, viewing him as both an innocent boy and a mature man. As their relationship progresses, the narrator experiences her first sexual encounter, imbued with a sense of significance and longing for something special.
However, the story takes a darker turn when the narrator's grandmother, Abuelita, discovers the truth about Chaq's identity and his troubling past, revealing that he is not who he professed to be. The narrative culminates in the narrator's anticipation of motherhood, as she confronts the harsh realities of her choices and the life that lies ahead. The themes of love, betrayal, and the search for self-identity resonate throughout the story, providing a rich exploration of the struggles faced by young women in navigating their desires and societal expectations. Ultimately, "One Holy Night" serves as a thoughtful reflection on the interplay of love, family, and the quest for personal truth.
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One Holy Night by Sandra Cisneros
First published: 1991
Type of plot: Social realism
Time of work: The twentieth century
Locale: Somewhere in the United States and Mexico
Principal Characters:
The unnamed narrator , a young Mexican girlChato , her lover, also known as ChaqAbuelita , her grandmother
The Story
The narrator has been sent to a dusty town in Mexico to live with her cousins. She describes her lover, Chaq Uxmal Paloquin, who claims to be descended from Mayan kings, and explains that her grandmother, Abuelita, has burned her pushcart and chased Chaq away with a broom. The narrator met Chaq while selling cucumbers and other produce from a pushcart in front of a food store in the United States. She explains that she was not the first to go bad in this way; her mother also "took the crooked walk." She struggles to describe her feelings for Chaq, seeing him as boy, baby, and man simultaneously. She says that she did not want her first sexual encounter to be like a prostitute's and knew that it would be special with Chaq. Each Saturday, Chaq would come to buy fruit from her cart, and at night he would take her to his small room in back of Esparza & Sons Auto Repair. There he brushes her hair, tells the history of his people, and shows her his guns. He tells her how the stars foretell the birth of the boy-child who will restore the Mayan civilization. One night on his dirty cot, with the moon shining through the pink plastic curtains, Chaq initiates her after admonishing her not to tell; she feels that she is his queen and a part of that mainstream that all women wait to enter. On the way home, she wonders if any of the people on the street can tell that she is different.
Unfortunately, the narrator forgets to take the pushcart home with her that night. She lies to Abuelita and her uncle, saying that some children have stolen the cart, but the truth gradually comes out. Neighbor women tell of the dark Indian who pushes the cart behind Esparza & Sons on Saturday nights, and Abuelita finds the pushcart there. Esparza reports that Chaq has packed his things and left, and Abuelita forces the entire truth from her granddaughter. After learning that the girl is pregnant, Abuelita burns the pushcart, sprinkles her granddaughter with holy water, and goes early each morning to Esparza & Sons, hoping to find mail for Chaq. Finally a letter arrives from a convent in Tampico, and Abuelita sends an inquiry.
A reply is long in coming. In the meantime, Abuelita removes her granddaughter from the school, at which she is in the eighth grade. When the letter from the convent does arrive, it brings the truth: Chaq's real name is Chato, and Mayan blood does not run in his veins.
In Mexico, the girl learns from Abuelita's letters that Chaq had returned but was chased away. A later letter contains an article revealing a terrible truth about Chaq: He was arrested for the murder of eleven women. The narrator still loves him and cannot bear to look at the picture.
As the story ends, the narrator is waiting in Mexico for her baby to be born. When her cousins want to know what it is like to be with a perfect man she tells them they will be sorry when they find out. They discuss the meaning of love; the narrator compares it to a mute man she once saw, who kept a harmonica in his mouth all day and walked around wheezing in and out. She says she will have five children, and she will name this first baby Alegre, which means happy, because she knows that life will be hard.
Bibliography
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Jussawalla, Ferosz, and Reed W. Dasenbrock, eds. Interviews with Writers of the Post-Colonial World. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1992.
Kevane, Bridget A., and Juanita Heredia. "A Home in the Heart—An Interview with Sandra Cisneros." In Latina Self-Portraits: Interviews with Contemporary Women. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2000.
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Rodriguez-Aranda, Pilar E. "On the Solitary Fate of Being Mexican, Female, Wicked, and Thirty-Three: An Interview with Writer Sandra Cisneros." The Americas Review 18 (Spring, 1990): 64-80.
Tompkins, Cynthia. "Sandra Cisneros." In American Novelists Since World War II, 4th Series, edited by James and Wanda Giles. Vol. 152 in Dictionary of Literary Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1995.
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