Summary

In a heartbreaking letter shortly after she returns to Colombia, Yvette reveals to Yvonne the extent of the abuse by their father. She admits to Yvonne that for years she blamed herself. “[T]here must be something,” she reasoned, “foul in me to awaken those desires in him” (217). She recounts going to confession at a nearby Catholic Church in Dallas and the priest absolving her of any sin because she was not a “willing partner” (219) in the acts. Yvette, however, will not blame her father. He was a “monster,” she admits, but he was a victim of parental abuse, a tyrannical father who drank and then beat him. She confesses to her sister that when she was still at home her father got her pregnant and that, too young to carry a child, she miscarried. She cannot, will not hate him. She admits...