The Fierce Goddess of the Caribbean

Above the crashing waves of the ocean, stood a hill with a think cliff that curved like a flower petal. Every morning, on this very hill, stood a girl of sixteen. She stood taller than her mother at five feet, eleven inches. Her every feature was that of her country mother’s: pitch black hair that flowed straight down her back, almond shaped eyes as green as the mountains, skin the color of her coffee with milk. Her body, like that of a Greek goddess, like the ocean waves, had slender curves that flowed.

A young angelic voice flowed from her lips, over the ocean, and into the heart of the city. It woke late sleepers and rejuvenated the early workers. It was welcomed by the people more than any other morning call, like the roosters or the church bells.

After her morning singing lesson, as she liked to call it, she reentered the house of her great-grandfather and was greeted by the dozens of servants, her parents, her grandparents, and her three sisters and two brothers. She greeted them all with a warmness that they all believed came from the early morning sun.

Soledad, her twin sister, met her in the front parlor and together they navigated the great old house to reach the western patio, where the family ate breakfast every morning. Their mother, a tall country woman, always dressed every morning as if she was going to church. She felt she had to overcompensate for her lack of last names and a real social class in the city. Her beauty was renowned for it was something that none of the other married ladies could compete with; they were too European looking. As for her daughters, they all shared that unique look: Indian black hair, Indian shaped eyes with a European color, tanned skin from the country sun, and a tallness that could only come from the Spaniards from colonial times.

The twins sat between their older sisters, Thaleia and Thalassa, who were on their way out of the house with their new engagements. They spent as much time together during this period. If Thaleia went out to the market for new hair ornaments, the other three sisters followed and bought matching objects to make their sisterly bond last forever. Not to say that the girls didn’t love their brothers as well. On the contrary! Vaino and Vihtori were the most beloved of the family, especially by the sisters. Teased by their sisters as little “heartbreakers”, they were the handsomest young boys of the city. At twelve and fourteen, they had more girls swooning, no matter what their age, than the best twenty-something suitor that came for their sisters.

Six children kept Vilhelmina, their mother, and Joaquin, their father, extremely proud. In turn, the children were proud of their parents. Their flame of love was still alive and well even after almost thirty years of marriage. They married for love, that was a sure thing. Vilhelmina was a poor country girl who sold love beads at the port of her ruined village. Joaquin was the third son of a wealthy family with a lengthy name. They met at the very port she sold beads. She had been calling out the powers of the beads when he came to her stand asking for a demonstration.

“I don’t understand,” she had said.

“Show me that these beads truly have the power to cause love to appear,” he had said.

He was handsome, she had to admit. She was beautiful, he had to admit. They met again that night and danced at the village dance. One night became the foundation of a love of a lifetime. He brought her back to his city, introduced her to his immediate and extensive family. They agreed her beauty was astonishing but she had no last name, no history, nothing to make a prediction as to what kind of woman she would be. That did not matter to Joaquin. Even without his parent’s consent, he married this country woman in the solitude of a quiet wedding. They fled the Caribbean and made it to Peru. Joaquin’s family was in a melancholy state until he came back five years later with three year old Thaleia and new born Thalassa, who was born on the ship.

The lovers had an extravagant wedding with an after party that lasted for a week. Vilhelmina was embraced into the family, with a few disapproving family members of course, but over all she was considered the wife of Joaquin Fernando Gustavo. Their children soon became all that mattered. Their education and proper marriages into the highest social class was essential. Thaleia and Thalassa had done exceedingly well with their betrothals. But it was the gem of the Caribbean, the middle child of Vilhelmina and Joaquin, that worried them the most. She was the most sought after young lady in the city, maybe even in the providence. Yet her heart was not set on the high class young men that courted her with so much ferocity.

Our little princess Sisel had caught herself in a tangle of impossible love. She loved a boy who had once been the servant of their home. He had been the boy who followed the animals around, who had taught her to ride a horse, who had kept her company those hot summer days in the open fields. Now he was a young man of nineteen. He was now an apprentice to a butcher instead of following his father into the life of a fisherman. The sea made him sick, or at least that is what he had told her.

His name was Ignacio Nahuel Matias.