Vampires of El Norte

In the final section of the novel, the characters redefine their fates. The vampires, which were once terrifying, unknown creatures, become helpless prisoners. As Nena takes the risk of a lifetime to free the vampires from the grasp of the Anglos, she notices that a “muzzle was fastened with a buckle on the back of its skull. This was what kept it from killing the Rinches who had brought it here. The thin, delicate skin of the beast’s head was scabbed and blackened; beneath the leather strap, open sores wept in the torchlight” (341). Cañas’s diction expresses Nena’s newfound sympathy for the creature: its skin is “delicate,” easily hurt, and its sores “wept,” expressing pain as a human would and reinforcing the Connection Between All Living Things. Nena sees the vampires as animals who can hurt and be hurt rather than monsters who exist to harm humans. The vampires recognize this shift in mindset in her and defend her from Rinches as if they are fighting for the same thing. Nena’s choice also connects to the theme of the Importance of Freedom: though the vampires still pose a threat to her as predators, Nena recognizes that they deserve to be free rather than to be imprisoned. By showing compassion to the vampires instead of exploiting them, Nena makes allies of them against their common enemy.

Nena and Néstor nearly let the politics of Los Ojuelos get in between them again when Don Feliciano banishes Néstor and Nena stands by without intervening. To be together and forge a new Definition of Home, they each must free themselves from their fears and defy the class and gender expectations that stand in the way of their freedom. As he rides away from the rancho, Néstor realizes that if a “path to the future lay at their feet, it was pocked and marred with difficulties. But he could withstand it. If he bit down on his fear, if he fought hard enough for it, perhaps they both could withstand it” (324). Even in the moment of Nena’s betrayal, Néstor recognizes that if he leaves, it means letting fear win. Seeing the emotion as something to fight back against, he thinks that if he can control it rather than being controlled by it, he and Nena might stand a chance. Seeing their relationship as imperfect frees Néstor from his own unspoken expectations to forgive Nena for not standing up to her father and return to Los Ojuelos without fear. He once again chooses to free himself from his fears at the end of the battle at Los Ojuelos when he carries Nena’s lifeless body back to la casa mayor, as he had when he was 13. As Néstor loses himself to panic, he remembers being “thirteen, staring at Nena, covered in blood, lying on the floor of this very room. No. He had watched from the doorway, paralyzed by fear. Now he was here at her side, taking a cloth someone pushed into his hands and pressing it against the bleeding to staunch it” (350). Flashbacks plague him, but he chooses a different fate this time. He steps into la casa mayor, stays by her side, and refuses to leave her when her family tries to separate them. Claiming his right to be inside la casa mayor with Nena shows that Néstor has overcome the internalized class rules that dictate that he is not worthy of occupying that space. He frees himself from social hierarchy and claims his place by Nena’s side.

Nena, too, chooses a fate different from the last time by choosing Néstor over her family and their gendered and classed expectations of her. She reflects that “Néstor’s disappearance had planted the seeds of fears […] that if she was not obedient or perfect enough, those she loved would vanish with their love or snatch it away, leaving her empty and aching. For years, they had trapped her” (354). This reflection represents a transformation in Nena’s thinking: she realizes that she was not trapped by her family but by her own fear of not being loved. Freeing herself from that fear allows her to subvert gender norms and parental expectations by asking Néstor to marry her despite her parents’ disapproval. Rancho Las Flores, the home that she builds with Néstor, represents Nena’s final re-definition of home. Nena’s new home includes not only Néstor and their friends and family but also eschews the class hierarchies that kept Nena and Néstor apart and caused unrest on her father’s rancho. Nena builds a home that centers on love, equality, and the Connection Between All Living Things, symbolized by Nena’s peaceful coexistence with the vampires living on the Rancho.