Maria Sirena Present Time Summary

At the “present time” (1963) the novel begins Maria Sirena has no will left to live, but similar to a butterfly trapped in a glass case, she is forcibly preserved with several other sick and dying women in a room in Casa Velazquez, a museum. The water surrounding them is stagnant, they are locked in with no escape, and a storm potentially carrying the uncertain promise of death is threatening them. To an extent this can be representative of classical history in the present day. These women represent a dead/dying past, with social connections cut off, and they are practically sitting in a crypt. It is when Maria Sirena begins to tell her story though that the “dead” past, becomes a living history. Her words give life to the echoes and shadows of other people’s stories that make their way into her own collective one. Each story from then on out ties into the overall one that controls majority of whom Maria Sirena identifies herself as.

For instance, historically women have often been the backbone of almost every war, thanklessly keeping industries running, rearing children, and providing supplies, services, and aid to the men who are customarily sent off to fight (CAU). Acevedo appears to agree with this reality as she points out on page 130, through the character Agustin’s statement “The talleres are run by women and children. They keep the Liberation Army in shape”. Unfortunately though, up until modern day, large swaths of this view of history have gone largely unwritten. This is prevalent and can be easily viewed in almost any history textbook, as more often than not the facts and events recorded, will be primarily focused on the male aspects of the war, such as the actual fights, battles, and