Review published in the San Francisco Examiner on September 9, 2018
Fruit of the Drunken Tree is a riveting new novel by talented Bay Area writer, Ingrid Rojas Contreras. It is a powerful and disturbing coming-of-age story set in the Bogotá, Colombia of the 1990s. The book describes the intersecting lives of two young girls, one affluent, one poor, trying to grow up as a cyclone of escalating violence engulfs them. Kidnappings, assassinations, car bombs and the pursuit of Pablo Escobar punctuate their daily lives. The book is ultimately a tale of emotional resilience, as these children come to terms with the frightening disintegration of civil order.
Seven-year-old Chula Santiago lives in Bogotá with her nine-year-old sister Cassandra and her mother and father, Alma and Antonio. Inside her guarded community, Chula lives in comfort, plays with dolls and watches Mexican soap operas. But the threat of violence hovers all around. Anxiety is her constant companion. She tells us early on, “Most people we knew got kidnapped in the routine way: at the hands of guerrillas, held at ransom and then returned, or disappeared.”
Chula’s father works for an American oil company and is often away from home. Chula’s mother hires thirteen-year-old girl, Petrona Sánchez, as a maid. Petrona lives in abject poverty in an invasión, a slum on the outskirts of Bogotá. Her mattress rests on a dirt floor, there is no running water and food is scarce. A paramilitary group had kidnapped her father and older brothers and torched the family’s farmhouse. Petrona now provides for her mother and remaining siblings as best she can.
The narration of the novel rotates back and forth between Chula and Petrona as they absorb each new event in this dystopian world. The girls attempt to learn the names of a bewildering array of drug lords and guerrilla groups. A confused Chula says, “…I couldn’t grasp the simplest of concepts—what was the difference between the guerrillas and the paramilitary? What was a communist? Who was each group fighting?” The girls are living in a war zone. When Petrona becomes involved with a young man who has joined a guerrilla group, Chula and the Santiago family are suddenly more vulnerable.
A foreboding sense of danger and death lurk on every page. As societal norms erode and the poor grow desperate, some people’s behavior become more depraved. The young girls attempt to make sense of the mayhem from their separate perspectives. When Pablo Escobar is captured, Chula’s sister says, “We can go to the movies! We can go out wherever we want now and we won’t have to fear being blow up!” Petrona views it very differently, “People like el Patrón where I’m from.”
Rojas Contreras masterfully places her fictional characters into the real historical events of that tragic time. Her language is rich and beautiful and she deepens our immersion by blending Spanish words and phrases into the story. Like an Isabelle Allende or Gabriel García Márquez novel, Fruit of the Drunken Tree includes captivating moments of magical realism.
By the time the Santiagos flee Colombia, Chula has personally experienced many violent incidents. Not surprisingly, there is a severe psychological toll. Chula’s panic attacks increase and PTSD dominates her daily life. The Santiagos eventually liquidate their assets and leave Colombia for California. But, it is clear that no family member will be able to leave the trauma behind. Petrona has her own scars, but no such possibility of escape.
It is almost too painful to imagine children growing up in this environment, but all too many did. Rojas Contreras was one of them, a testament to her resilience and strength. Many of the events described in this heartbreaking novel are based on her own experience. She does not seek to assign blame for the chaos in Colombia; rather her impressive novel engenders empathy for the children who were robbed of their childhoods.
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