Of Love And Other Demons

The novel opens in a marketplace, in a city on the Gulf of Darien, off the Caribbean Coast of Colombia, in the late 18thcentury. It's the first Saturday in December, and a gray dog with a "white blaze on its forehead" (7) runs through the stalls, causing chaos. It bites four people: three black slaves, and a young girl, Sierva María, who has come to the market with a "mulatta servant" (7) to buy some bells for her twelfth birthday. The woman has taken Sierva farther than they were supposed to go, all the way to the "slum of Getesmaní," (7) where a slave auction is being held. The auction draws attraction because the slaves being sold have come off a ship from Guinea, and the ship’s arrival was delayed by a number of mysterious deaths on board. The crew, in an attempt to hide this, dump the bodies overboard, but they all wash up on the shore, looking diseased and disfigured. The ship finally docks, and the remaining passengers are unloaded and sold at "reduced prices" (7). Despite the fears about illness, food poisoning turns out to be the culprit. 

Dog bites are common in this place and time, so the maid doesn't think twice about Sierva's injury. She cleans it with lemon juice and sulfur, and the two return home. There, Sierva's mother, Bernarda Cabrera, greets them. Once a vivacious woman of great beauty, years of abusing "fermented honey and cacao tablets" (8) have rendered her unrecognizable from her former self. She suffers intestinal issues, including chronic flatulence, and has skin "as bloated and coppery as a three-day-old corpse" (8-9). Despite this, she often goes around the house naked, or in a sheer tunic. The maid doesn't tell Bernarda about the dog bite, but does mention the tall, strikingly beautiful woman, sold at the slave auction, whose price is twice her weight in gold. The town's governor has purchased her. Bernarda comments that the woman might be Abyssinian, but, even then, no woman is worth her weight in gold. Unless, she continues, "she shits diamonds" (9). Bernarda doubts that the governor bought the woman just to work in the kitchen.

From outside come the sounds of horns and firecrackers. Bernardo goes to see what's happening. The noise also rouses her husband, the second Marquis of Casalduero, Don Ygnacio de Alfaro y Duenas, from his hammock nap in the orange grove. A pale and "effeminate man," (10) he disregards his wife's nudity and asks her what all the noise is about. She replies that she doesn't know and asks him the date. He doesn't know, but, as more firecrackers rouse him from his nap, he realizes the occasion for the celebration. Shouting up to the women who live in the Divina Pastora Asylum adjacent to their house, the Marquis asks about the party. They tell him that it's December 7th, the day of Saint Ambrose's feast, and Sierva's twelfth birthday. Upon hearing this, the Marquis sinks back into the hammock.

Sierva María celebrates her birthday with the household slaves in their quarters. Like the house, their quarters were once vibrant, but are now in a state of disrepair. Dominga de Adviento, the slave who ran the Marquis' household, also raised Sierva. She was the only person who had the authority to "mediate between the Marquis and his wife" (11), and to monitor the slaves. Though Dominga has passed away, Sierva continues to live in the slave quarters. She celebrates her twelfth birthday there, away from her birth parents. Though shy and stealthy by nature, Sierva dances and sings along with the slaves, who join in her birthday celebration. In addition to teaching her to dance and speak African languages, Dominga de Adviento ordered the younger slave girls to put black soot on Sierva's face, put Santería necklaces on her, and care for her hair, which has never been cut. 

Two days after Sierva's birthday celebration, the maid tells Bernarda about the dog bite. Bernarda immediately forgets about the bite but remembers the next night, when the mastiffs bark until dawn. She fears that the dogs may have rabies. Bernarda goes to the slave quarters and finds Sierva María asleep in the hammock passed down to her from Dominga de Adviento. Searching the girl's entire body, Bernarda finds the dog bite on Sierva's left ankle, small and nearly healed. 

The town has withstood several outbreaks of rabies, including "the most notorious" (13) in which a street peddler's trained monkey contracted the disease during a "naval siege by the English" (13). The diseased monkey bit the peddler's face, then fled to the hills. The peddler was beaten to death, and two weeks later, a group of rabies-ridden monkeys descended on the town, ravishing the pigs and chickens, then burst into the cathedral during the celebration of the defeat of the English. Mothers in the town still told this story to their children to frighten them. Many more deaths and infections by rabies that occur in the slave population go unheard of outside the town's black community. 

Bernarda keeps to the town's tradition of acting only once the "first irreparable symptoms" (13) appear. She fears that raising alarm about Sierva's possible infection might tarnish the family's reputation in the community. She feels unconcerned about the bite because it's mostly healed. Even seeing the gray dog hanging in the market, a sign that it's died from rabies, doesn't concern Bernarda.

The bad weather that begins December gives way to fairer weather. Good news from Spain makes Christmas celebrations "more joyous" (14), despite that the slave market moves to Havana, Cuba. For six months of the year, galleons carrying African slaves keep the city busy, while during the other six, the city becomes subdued, as it waits for the ships to return.  

No one hears anything about the four dog bite victims until January, when an Indian woman, Sagunta, arrives at the Marquis' house during the siesta hour. An old woman wrapped in a white sheet, walking with a cane, Sagunta is known for restoring virginity, performing abortions, and "knowing Indian secrets that could heal the incurable" (14). Her obtuse speech annoys the Marquis, but she finally reveals that she's come because a "plague of rabies" (15) threatens the city. She claims she is the only one who has "the keys of Saint Hubert," (15) who protects hunters and heals the rabid. The Marquis refutes Sagunta's claim. He says that there have been no signs, like comets or eclipses, and that their sins aren't great enough for God to punish them with such a plague. Sagunta predicts a total eclipse in March and tells him the fates of the three people who were also bitten. Two disappeared, and a third died of rabies. A fourth person, who was not bitten, contracted rabies from the "dog's spittle," (15) and is now dying of it. The chief constable has ordered the execution of one hundred stray dogs. The Marquis responds that he doesn't know what it has to do with him. Sagunta tells him that Sierva was the first person the dog bit. The Marquis denies this, claiming that if it were true, he'd be the first to know. He leaves Sagunta and resumes his siesta.

When he awakens, he goes to look for Sierva María in the slave quarters. He finds her skinning rabbits, barefoot, with her face painted black and her hair wrapped in a red turban, like the slave women. The Marquis asks her if a dog bit her, and she says no. Later that night, he asks Bernarda, who says that the dog did bite Sierva. The Marquis insists they act, since the dog had rabies, but Bernarda disagrees. She says that the dog died not from rabies, but because it bit Sierva, pointing out that their daughter is not sick, but thriving. 

The rumors around the plague force the Marquis and Bernarda to take their "common interest" (16) into account for the first time in many years. The Marquis concludes that though he always thought he loved his daughter, "the fear of rabies" (16) shows that this love was a lie. Bernarda concludes that she never loved her daughter, nor, does she think, did her daughter love her. However, concerned with her own honor, Bernarda agrees to play the part of the "grief-stricken mother" (16), but only if Sierva dies from something other than a "dog's disease" (16). The Marquis decides that Sierva may die, but only if it's the will of God.

On Tuesday, he goes to the Amor de Dios Hospital on San Lázaro Hill, to visit the dying rabies victim about whom Sagunta told him. He finds the rabies victim tied to a pillar. The man is "an old mulatto," with no strength on one side of his body, and massive strength on the other (17). He confirms that he was also infected by the gray dog that bit Sierva María, but only by spittle landing on a chronic ulcer on his leg, not a bite. The Marquis leaves the hospital with "no glimmer of hope for Sierva María" (17).

On his way home, the Marquis comes across a "man of imposing appearance" (17). He sits on a stone, beside a dead horse. The Marquis stops and realizes that it's Abrenuncio de Sa Pereira Cao, "the most notable and controversial physician in the city" (18). Dressed in head-to-toe black, like the "king of clubs" (18), Abrenuncio greets the Marquis in Latin. He explains that his horse's heart burst while they were going down the hill. The Marquis' coachman, Neptuno, tries to take the saddle off the dead horse before helping Abrenuncio into the carriage, but the physician stops him, asking what use he has for a saddle without a horse. Inside the carriage, the Marquis honors the physician by allowing him to sit on his right side. Abrenuncio is preoccupied with his horse's death. He claims that if he could, he would bury the horse on holy ground. The Marquis tells him that there's nothing "easier to resolve" (18) than a horse's death. Abrenuncio tells him that this horse was different: he was one hundred years old. The Marquis disputes this, but the physician claims he can prove it.

Abrenuncio explains that on Tuesdays, he goes to the hospital to treat the lepers. Having studied under Juan Méndez Nieto, also a Portuguese Jew who'd fled persecution by the Spanish, Abrenuncio inherited Dr. Nieto's "reputation for necromancy" (18). However, no one disputes Abrenuncio's learning or abilities. He has "incredible successes" and "uncommon methods" (18) that lead to constant disputes with other physicians. One of his uncommon methods is a pill, taken annually, that boosts health and prolongs life, but causes "such mental derangement" (19) for three days after taking it that only Abrenuncio has ever taken it. He doesn't use surgery, and he's able to predict the hour and day that each of his patients will die. His entire reputation, both good and bad, rests on the never-disproven rumor that he once brought a man back from the dead.

The Marquis listens to all Abrenuncio has to say, finally asking him what can be done for the rabies-stricken man. Abrenuncio says decidedly that the only thing to do is "kill him" (19). This shocks the Marquis. The doctor claims that this is what "good Christians" (19) do, referring to the Christians living in poverty who "had the courage" (19) to kill their rabid relatives with poison. The Marquis asks if there's no other way. Abrenuncio says that once rabies symptoms begin, there's no cure. However, he explains, some people don't contract the disease, and it's easy to say that they didn't because of medicine, though that's never been proven. He asks the Marquis why he's so concerned. The Marquis says it's out of pity for the man infected by the rabid dog. 

The carriage pulls into the "walled precincts" (20) of the artisans' quarters, where Abrenuncio lives. With some trouble, due to Neptuno's age and poor sight, they arrive at the doctor's home. He departs with a quote from Horace, in Latin. The Marquis says he doesn’t know the quote, to which Abrenuncio responds, in Latin, that there's no reason he should. Struck by Abrenuncio, the Marquis commits "the most unusual" (21) acts of his life: he orders Neptuno to get the doctor's dead horse, bury it on holy ground, and send the best horse from the stable to Abrenuncio. 

Currently, Bernarda lives in a state of decay, using antimony to purge her intestines, then follows it with multiple enemas and "as many as six hot baths" (21) a day. Before her decline, though, she was a shrewd businesswoman who "devised commercial ventures" (21) with the guidance of a fortune teller. This changed after she met Judas Iscariote, a free, black man, whom willingly sells himself to Bernarda for two hundred and fifty gold pesos. Bernarda first encounters him as a bullfighter, wrestling the animal, nearly naked, with his bare hands. Then, she sees him again at a carnival, where she's dressed as a beggar, with her slaves dressed as marquises. Judas is encircled by people watching him dance with any woman who will pay him for the honor. Bernarda asks him how much it costs, not for a dance, but for the rest of his life. She takes off her beggar's mask and reveals herself. Judas allows her to buy him, and she respects his "condition as a free man" (22) and bullfighter, while installing him to live in her house.

After two weeks of waiting, Judas finally comes into Bernarda's bedroom at night, and they make love. After that, Bernarda thinks there's "nothing else she wanted to do for the rest of her life" (23). They start going out together at night, with Judas dressed in a "frock coat and round hat" (23), and Bernarda first masked, then unmasked. She gives him gifts of jewelry. When she learns that Judas sleeps with any woman who "crossed his path" (23), she feels jealous, but eventually settles for what she can get. One day, during Bernarda's siesta time, Dominga de Adviento enters Bernarda's room and finds she and Judas making love on the floor. Bernarda tells Dominga that she can either come in and join them or get out. Later that night, she summons Dominga and threatens her with the worst punishments should she ever say anything about the affair. Dominga assures Bernarda that she won't say anything but reminds her that no threats can stop her from thinking whatever she wants.

The Marquis remains ignorant, or at least plays at it. Besides their daughter, whom neither parent truly considered theirs, the Marquis no longer has anything in common with his wife. Sierva María spends all her time with the slaves. When Bernarda sees her after an extended time, she no longer recognizes her, and can't get her to speak, though she tries. Bernarda remarks that Sierva is "a freak" (24), just like the Marquis.

Upon returning from the Amor de Dios hospital, the Marquis tells Bernarda he intends to resume control of the house "with a warlike hand" (24). This takes Bernarda aback. Before doing anything else, the Marquis installs Sierva María in her old bedroom, which had belonged to her grandmother. Next, the Marquis rouses the dozing slaves from the arcades, and threatens corporal punishment for any slave found relieving themselves or gambling in the house's dark corners. These rules, established years before and enforced by Bernarda and Dominga de Adviento, have relaxed since Bernarda's crippling cacao addiction and Dominga's death. The slaves begin to come back into the house with their children, seeking refuge from the heat. This frightens Bernarda, who fears "the specter of ruin" (25) and sends the slaves out to beg in the streets. She frees all but a few house servants. The Marquis stops her, saying that if the slaves are going to starve, better that they starve in the house than on the street, "among strangers" (25). 

Under his new regime, the Marquis gives "certain powers" (25) to the slave he deems the most trustworthy. He gives this man orders "so harsh they shocked even Bernarda" (25). After re-establishing authority and order to his house, the Marquis goes out to the slave quarters to get Sierva María. He finds her sleeping in a shack with a few other black women, each in their own hammock. He wakes them all and announces that from this day on, Sierva will live in the house with her family.

Sierva resists her father as he carries her into her bedroom, then changes her out of her burlap dress and into a nightdress. Sierva says nothing while the Marquis struggles to button her nightdress. Watching them, Bernarda jokes that the two of them should get married and start a business breeding "American-born marquises with chicken feet" (26), then sell them to a circus. Ignored by both, she leaves. After she's gone, the Marquis tells Sierva that her mother is a "sow" (26). Seeing a flicker of reaction in her face, he asks her if she knows what a sow is, but Sierva doesn't respond. The Marquis puts her to bed, pulling the blankets up to her knees, but she still doesn't regard him. He asks her if she prays before going to sleep, but she doesn't reply. Used to sleeping in the hammock, she curls into a ball and falls asleep "without saying good night" (26). The Marquis draws the mosquito netting closed around her bed so that bats won't bite her as she sleeps. Outside, the women in the asylum have begun to sing.

The Marquis then lets his mastiffs loose and they charge the grandmother's bedroom, sniffing and yelping at the closed door. He tells them, with pleasure, that it's Sierva's room now. He can't sleep well, as he’s subject to the women's singing until two in the morning. At dawn, he goes to Sierva's room to check on her, but finds her gone. He finds her back in her hammock in the slave shack. One of the slave women awakens and tells the Marquis that Sierva went there of her own accord. He knows this is true. He asks which woman was with Sierva when the dog bit her. The terrified woman, Caridad del Cobre, identifies herself. The Marquis tasks her with taking charge of Sierva "as if you were Dominga de Adviento" (27). This care entails not letting Sierva out of her sight and treating her with "affection and understanding" (27) that isn't too pampering. The Marquis tells Caridad that Sierva must never cross the "thornbush fence" (27) he will be putting between the slave yard and the house later that day. Caridad will also report to the Marquis on Sierva both first thing in the morningand just before bed. The Marquis warns Caridad to "be careful what you do and how you do it" (27), as she will be Sierva's sole caretaker. 

After leaving the slave yard, the Marquis kennels his mastiffs and sets out for Abrenuncio's. The doctor, having neither slaves nor servants, answers his own door. Aware of his visit's early hour, the Marquis apologizes. Abrenuncio, however, pleased by the Marquis' horse gift, shows him into his courtyard. He walks the Marquis over to an old shed where he's keeping the new horse, which, in unfamiliar surroundings, has become restless. Abrenuncio pets its cheek and whispers "empty promises in Latin" (28) into the horse's ear. The Marquis tells Abrenuncio that he had the doctor's horse buried in the hospital's former garden, which had been "consecrated as a cemetery for the wealthy during the cholera plague" (28). Abrenuncio thanks him. Noticeably uneasy around the horse, the Marquis confesses that he is as afraid of horses, as he is of chickens. Abrenuncio replies that it's a shame, since humans' lack of communication with horses "has impeded human progress" (28). He claims that if communication could ever happen, centaurs could be produced.

Inside Abrenuncio's house, the Marquis notices the place's fastidiousness. The tools of the doctor's trade, including porcelain flasks labeled in Latin, a gold harp, and many books, are arranged with care. The smell of balms hangs in the air, encouraging "belief in the efficacy of medicine" (28). The Marquis comments that, "All knowledge must be in this room" (28). Abrenuncio jokes that books have no worth; he says that it's not booksbut life that has helped him cure "the diseases that other doctors cause with their medicines" (28). He then removes his cat from the armchair in which it's been sleeping, offering it to the Marquis. As he sits, Abrenuncio begins to talk about various medical experiences. The Marquis suddenly loses interest and rises, standing with his back to Abrenuncio, facing the sea beyond the house's windows. 

The Marquis solemnly confesses that his daughter, Sierva María, was bitten by the rabid dog. Abrenuncio says that he knows this and supposes that is why the Marquis came to see him so early in the morning. The Marquis again asks Abrenuncio what can be done. Abrenuncio asks to see the girl and returns to the house with the Marquis in his carriage. Once there, the Marquis finds Bernarda dressing herself with care for the first time since the two of them had "made love for the last time" (29). She asks the Marquis who they are to "go around giving away horses as presents" (29). The Marquis ignores the question and throws a simple tunic at his wife, ordering her to get dressed because the doctor has come. At first Bernarda thinks the Marquis has brought the doctor for her sake, but he tells her that Abrenuncio has come for Sierva María. Bernarda says it won't do any good, claiming that their daughter will either dieor not die. Still, she asks who the doctor is. Upon hearing Abrenuncio's name, Bernarda declares that she would rather die "alone and naked" (30) than to trust a "grasping Jew" (30). She claims that Abrenuncio was her parents' doctor, and that they had disowned him for sharing their health conditions with other doctors to glorify himself. 

The Marquis tells Bernarda that as much as he hates it, she is Sierva María's mother. Because of this, he needs her consent for Abrenuncio to examine their daughter. Bernarda gives it, adding that she doesn't care what they do since she is "a dead woman" (30) anyway. Sierva María tolerates the doctor's exam with no resistance, even smiling when Abrenuncio tells her that doctors "see with their hands" (30). He finds her physically in perfect health, and she responds to his questions with authority. None of her answers are true, though "one would have to know her very well" (31) to know that. She tenses when Abrenuncio touches the ankle where the dog bit her. He asks if she fell and she says that she did, from a swing. The doctor beings muttering to himself in Latin, and the Marquis tells him to say it in Spanish. Abrenuncio claims that he thinks "in Low Latin" (31). When Abrenuncio puts his ear to Sierva María's bare chest to hear her heart, the girl gets scared. Her heart begins to pound, and she breaks out into a cold sweat that smells of onions.  

After the examination, Abrenuncio tells the Marquis that Sierva knew the dog was rabid. The Marquis says that his daughter told the doctor many lies, but that was not one of them. Abrenuncio replies that Sierva didn't tell him, "her heart did" (31). Intrigued by his daughter's capacity for lying, the Marquis reflects that perhaps Sierva will be a poet. Abrenuncio disagrees that lying is "an attribute of the arts" (31). Confused by her scent of onions, Abrenuncio discounts it as a symptom of her illness. Later, Caridad reveals to the Marquis that Sierva acted under the slaves' advice to "chew a paste of manajú" (32) and stand naked in the onion cellar to combat the rabies.

Abrenuncio advises the Marquis that, because the dog bite was so far from her brain and so superficial, it's likely that Sierva will not contract rabies. He claims that since signs of the illness haven't yet started and the wound did not bleed much, Sierva will likely survive. On the off chance that she doesn't, Abrenuncio warns the Marquis, the "only legal thing" (32) to do would be to turn her over to the care of the Amor de Dios Hospital, where a trained Senegalese nurse cares for the "heretics and raging maniacs" (32). The other option would be to chain her to the bed and let her die on her own. The Marquis resolves that Sierva should die at home, no matter the cost to him or his home. Abrenuncio tells the Marquis that he would expect no less from a noble gentleman and assures him that he "will have the strength to endure" (32). 

Leaving on a positive note, Abrenuncio reiterates that it's probable Sierva will not contract rabies. The Marquis asks the doctor what they should do "in the meantime" (32). Abrenuncio responds that they should make her life as happy as possible, giving her flowers, playing her music, and letting her watch the sunsets over the ocean. He adds a phrase in Latin, which he kindly translates for the Marquis: "No medicine cures what happiness cannot" (33).