Conquistadora
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3.7 • 279 Ratings
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An epic novel of love, discovery, and adventure by the author of the award-winning, bestselling memoir When I Was Puerto Rican. • “Santiago’s storytelling is thrilling.... A triumph.” —The Washington Post
As a young girl growing up in Spain, Ana Larragoity Cubillas is powerfully drawn to Puerto Rico by the diaries of an ancestor who traveled there with Ponce de León. And in handsome twin brothers Ramón and Inocente—both in love with Ana—she finds a way to get there. She marries Ramón, and in 1844, just eighteen, she travels across the ocean to a remote sugar plantation the brothers have inherited on the island.
Ana faces unrelenting heat, disease and isolation, and the dangers of the untamed countryside even as she relishes the challenge of running Hacienda los Gemelos. But when the Civil War breaks out in the United States, Ana finds her livelihood, and perhaps even her life, threatened by the very people on whose backs her wealth has been built: the hacienda’s slaves, whose richly drawn stories unfold alongside her own. And when at last Ana falls for a man who may be her destiny—a once-forbidden love—she will sacrifice nearly everything to keep hold of the land that has become her true home.
This is a sensual, riveting tale, set in a place where human passions and cruelties collide: thrilling history that has never before been brought so vividly and unforgettably to life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Santiago (When I Was Puerto Rican) brings passion, color, and historical detail to this Puerto Rican Gone with the Wind, featuring a hard-as-nails heroine more devoted to her plantation than to any of the men in her life. Gloriosa Ana Mar a de los ngeles Larragoity Cubillas Nieves de Donostia (or, more simply, Ana) grows up in southwest Spain, the willful daughter of aristocratic parents during the waning years of Spain's colonial era. Ana, a not-so-innocent convent girl, marries her best friend's fianc 's twin brother, then heads to Puerto Rico without her friend but with both twins in tow. The young men intend to make their fortunes managing a sugar plantation, but it is Ana who has the business-savvy and determination to persevere through hurricanes, slave revolts, cholera, and any other challenge the island has to offer, relying on an assortment of slaves, servants, and employees, among them mayordomo Severo Fuentes, who dares to want Ana for his wife. Santiago makes Caribbean history come alive through characters as human as they are iconic. The richness of her imagination and the lushness of her language will serve saga enthusiasts well, and she provides readers a massive panorama of plantation life, plus all you could ever want to know and more about growing sugar cane.
Customer Reviews
What an adventure
I couldn't put this book down - I read it in a day and a half. I was captivated by the history it represented and the manner in which it was presented. It helped me to visualize a picture to the stories told by family members, like my Abuela born in 1873 - who spoke of these very things, campesinos, fincas etc. The next time I go back home to visit the Island and have the opportunity to go up to the finca in Ponce I will see it with brand new eyes....Thank you Esmeralda Santiago
Conquistadora
A great page turner. The history, characters, romance and Santiagos's beautiful and knowledgable writing style kept me captivated. It is a worthwhile and stimulating saga. It ended too soon.
Enthralling
I've been a fan of Isabel Allende for years now, and for others who enjoy her rich story telling should appreciate Santiago's tragic but illustrious saga. In the same vein as Allende's novel, Conquistadora is about a young woman seeking autonomy and purpose in her life.
Ana, the heroine is strong, ambitious, and calculating. Her dreams of autonomy take her from the rigid and oppressive society in Spain, to the America's where fortune and glory are determined by grit and not one's sex. Santiago artfully weaves the historical and personal with aplomb.
I highly recommend this to anyone who loves historical fiction, family saga's, or adventure!