Chapter 20: Novenas — Nine Days of Prayer and the Weight of Grief
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
The chapter opens with Olga's ritual visit home. She sneaks into Prieto's room and checks the closet where her grandmother's altar has been preserved—Prieto kept it intact at her request. The altar sits on a milk crate covered with a lace doily, presided over by a statue of Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del Cobre, surrounded by photos, candle remnants, a bottle of Bacardi, and a small St. Anthony statue. Olga takes the black obsidian rosary and pockets it.
She walks to Our Lady of Perpetual Help for Saturday mass, slipping into the tenth pew from the front on the left, marked with a bronze plaque bearing her grandmother's name, Isabel Alicea Ortiz. After Abuelita died, claiming and marking this pew was one of Olga's first acts.
The narrative shifts to childhood. Olga's parents forbade church attendance, viewing religion as a bourgeois tool for keeping the proletariat submissive and the Catholic church as complicit in colonization. Abuelita moved her altar into the closet to avoid their criticism. She taught Olga the Hail Mary and the Our Father—the only things Olga could say confidently in Spanish.
When Olga was six or seven, Abuelita, pressed for time before Saturday vigil mass, asked if she could keep a good kind of secret, using their neighbor Constantina as an example: Constantina had men visit while her husband was away, but she also fed stray animals and never bragged about it. Olga agreed, and they attended Saturday mass together weekly, buying soda and ice on the way home to cover their tracks.
Olga was enchanted by the church—the statues, the incense, the organ, the sense of order, the veil of secrecy. She envied cousin Mabel's First Holy Communion, not for the dress but because Mabel would taste the Body and Blood of Christ.
After her mother left, Olga built her own altar with an Infant of Prague statue, buying seasonal robes with money earned at Tío Richie's car dealership. She lit candles before her mother's photo and said novenas for her safety.
At thirteen, she begged for catechism. Abuelita arranged private lessons with a nun, but on the day of Olga's special release, her father appeared at the church school, high on crack, ranting about brainwashing. Prieto had brought him. Olga called her brother a worm, the word their parents used for sellouts. Sister Kate, compassionate but bound by law, refused to prepare Olga because her father didn't consent. That night, Olga put Nair in Prieto's shampoo. They never spoke of it again. Abuelita went to confession for her lie but felt no remorse.
Three years later, Olga's father died of AIDS. No neighborhood funeral parlor would take his body. Abuelita found his baptism, confirmation, and a church marriage certificate to Olga's mother. Sixteen-year-old Olga went to Sister Kate, arguing that even Catholics with AIDS deserved decent funerals. Sister Kate made calls, and they held a proper wake in Greenwich Village. Prieto never thanked them.
The chapter reflects on Abuelita as a hustler who bent the truth for her grandchildren—special tutoring, scholarships, whatever was needed. The two women mirrored each other.
When Abuelita died, Olga's mother didn't return. At the funeral mass, Olga received communion for the first time but felt nothing—a profound emptiness that never truly left her. She kept returning to church, hope fading into ritual and superstition.
In the present, kneading the obsidian rosary, the ritual feels silly. She looks up and prays to feel loved again.
Key Events
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Olga retrieves the black obsidian rosary from the preserved altar in Prieto's room
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She attends mass in the pew marked with Abuelita's name
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Flashback: Abuelita introduces Olga to secret church attendance as a child
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Olga builds her own altar and prays novenas for her absent mother
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At thirteen, her father confronts Sister Kate; Prieto is revealed as the one who brought him
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Sister Kate refuses to prepare Olga without parental consent
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Olga retaliates by putting Nair in Prieto's shampoo
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After her father's AIDS death, Olga secures a Catholic funeral using his certificates
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At Abuelita's funeral, Olga receives communion for the first time but feels nothing
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Present: Olga prays to feel loved again
Character Development
Olga — The chapter traces her spiritual arc from enchanted child to grieving adult. Her childhood faith was intertwined with her love for Abuelita and the thrill of secrecy. After her mother's departure, she channeled longing into material devotion and novenas. The failed catechism and her father's death hardened her. By the present, faith has become ritual without feeling.
Abuelita — A pragmatic hustler who bends truth for family. Her faith is tied to superstition—she attends mass to keep her household healthy. She lies to the nuns without remorse and teaches Olga that some secrets are good.
Prieto — His betrayal is framed as people-pleasing. He's of sound mind while their father is barely functional, making his act deliberate. He never thanks Olga for securing their father's funeral.
Sister Kate — Compassionate but bound by law. She refuses Olga despite sympathy, then later helps secure the funeral.
The Father — High on crack, embarrassing but harmless. His AIDS death and the stigma reveal the era's prejudice. The marriage certificate shows he and Blanca were church-married despite their anti-religious stance.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
Secret faith vs. political ideology — The parents' Marxist critique conflicts with Abuelita's faith; the altar moves to the closet; church becomes a secret.
The altar as anchor of constancy — Its sameness amid change is explicit; it survives Prieto's takeover of the house.
The pew as inherited sacred space — Olga claims and marks Abuelita's pew, making physical space a legacy.
Good secrets vs. bad secrets — Abuelita's Constantina lesson frames the moral calculus: some lies serve family.
Ritual and superstition — Abuelita's faith borders on superstition; Olga's later attendance becomes ritual without feeling.
Material devotion — The Infant of Prague's seasonal robes, candles, rosaries—devotion expressed through objects.
AIDS stigma and dignified burial — Funeral parlors refuse the body; Olga fights for a proper Catholic service.
Grief and spiritual emptiness — The first communion yields nothing; the emptiness never heals.
The search for love — The chapter ends with Olga's prayer to feel loved again.
Why This Chapter Matters
This chapter is the emotional and spiritual core of Olga's backstory. It explains her relationship with faith—forged in secret, shaped by loss, now hollow. It deepens the family portrait: the parents' ideology, Abuelita's pragmatism, Prieto's betrayal, and the AIDS stigma surrounding her father's death. The final prayer connects her spiritual emptiness to her broader emotional arc.
Study Questions
1. How does Abuelita's concept of good secrets shape Olga's moral framework?
Abuelita's lesson about Constantina teaches Olga that truth is negotiable when family is at stake. This frames her later actions: lying to the nuns, securing her father's funeral with documents revealing a church marriage her parents never acknowledged. The chapter notes the two women mirror each other in their laissez-faire relationship with rules.
2. Why does Olga feel nothing at her first communion at Abuelita's funeral?
Olga had pined for the sacraments since childhood. But by the time she receives at Abuelita's funeral, the moment is hollow—she's lost her grandmother, her mother is absent, and the faith that once felt alive has become ritual. The emptiness reveals that her longing was never purely spiritual; it was tied to belonging and to Abuelita. Without those connections, the sacrament offers nothing.
3. How does the chapter use the altar and the pew as symbols of constancy and inheritance?
The altar survives Prieto's takeover, an anchor of constancy amid a torrent of change. The pew is claimed after Abuelita's death and marked with her name. Both objects connect Olga to her grandmother across time, but they also highlight what's lost: the altar is now in a closet, the pew is a memorial, and the rituals that once felt alive now feel silly.