Las Madres

June 12, 2023
Santiago (Conquistadora) delivers an immersive intergenerational saga set in New York City, Maine, and Puerto Rico. Lesbian couple Ada and Shirley and their friend Luz are the “las madres” of the title; Luz’s daughter Marysol, whose apartment is across the hall from her mom’s in the Bronx, and Ada and Shirley’s daughter Graciela, who lives near her mothers in coastal Maine, are “las nenas.” Marysol and Graciela were born in the U.S. but feel a visceral attachment to Puerto Rico, their mothers’ “homeland.” As the group prepares for a trip to the island to celebrate Shirley’s 70th birthday in 2017, Graciela, who has been told by Ada and Shirley that she was conceived by Ada in a long-forgotten one-night stand, “wonders whether DNA testing might shed some light on her parentage.” Meanwhile, flashbacks to mid-1970s Puerto Rico recount an accident that left an adolescent Luz with a traumatic brain injury, and when an unexpected turn of events brings the group to familiar Puerto Rican neighborhoods, long-held family secrets threaten to surface. Santiago wrings palpable emotion from her characters, and hauntingly portrays Hurricane María’s devastating effect on the island. There are false notes, including Graciela’s characterization-via-hashtag (“she considers herself #spiritual”), but also a profound sincerity. This tenderhearted story of trauma and recovery has undeniable appeal.