Romance, terror, and the supernatural in Isabel Cañas' debut novel 'The Hacienda'

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Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 2 January 2023

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

In the aftermath of the Mexican war for independence, a new bride finds herself alone in a haunted house surrounded by people who don't believe her. It's the plot of Isabel Cañas' debut novel The Hacienda, where she blends romance, terror, and the supernatural to tell a story highly embedded with Mexican culture. In an interview with Weekend Edition Sunday, Cañas told Ayesha Rascoe about the themes she wanted to explore in her novel – colonialism, social status, the syncretism of Catholicism and indigenous practices – and her own fear of darkness.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaung. Today's interview is extremely validating for
0:09.4	grown adults who are maybe still a little scared of the dark. I mean, how could you not be
0:15.4	afraid of basements, right? It's with writer Isabel Cagnas about her debut novel, The Hacienda.
0:21.6	It takes place in the aftermath of the Mexican War for Independence, which means it's dealing with colonialism and class and status, while also dealing with witches and a haunted house.
0:34.4	Canyas tells Empire's Ayesha Rosco about being inspired by how the Day of the Dead
0:39.1	pulls influences from Catholic and indigenous traditions and how melding the two isn't usually
0:45.6	seen in what we call genre fiction. In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from
0:53.2	daily life.
0:58.2	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
1:00.6	On our new show, Sources and Methods.
1:04.0	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,
1:07.2	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
1:12.1	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:18.3	Beatrice has limited options in her young life.
1:24.1	Her father, a general, was arrested after the Mexican War for Independence and executed.
1:26.5	Her house burned to the ground.
1:29.6	She and her mother make it out just in time.
1:35.3	Unsympathetic relatives take them in, so when the chance comes to marry a handsome rich man,
1:43.2	Beatrice jumps. But she never asked what really happened to his first wife. Rookie mistake.
1:47.6	That's how the action starts in the hacienda, and it just doesn't stop. This is Isabel Kanye's debut novel, and she joins us now to talk about it. Welcome.
1:55.0	Thank you so much for having me, Aisha. Let's talk about this. It's not just the fate of the first wife that she should have asked some more questions about.
2:05.7	But there are problems evident from the moment Beatrice arrives at Rudolfo's estate.
	...

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