What They Said About Luisa by Erika Rummel

Publisher:  Dundurn Press (June 18, 2024)
Category: Historical Fiction, African American Historical Fiction, Women’s Literature
Tour Dates September 10-October 3, 2024
ISBN: 978-1459752771
Available in Print and ebook, 306 pages

Description What They Said About Luisa by Erika Rummel

An enchanting telling of the complex and fascinating life of real-life Luisa Abrego of Seville, who forges a new life after freedom from slavery in colonial Mexico and gets caught in the far-reaching Spanish Inquisition.

Luisa Abrego, a slave in Seville, is set free upon her master’s death and marries a white man. After boarding Luisa’s illegitimate child with the nuns of St. Clare, the couple sets out for Mexico. There Luisa is accused of bigamy and tried in the court of the Inquisition.

The narratives here are not Luisa’s own. They are those of witnesses who encountered her: housewives, nuns, miners, lawyers, inquisitors.  These are European voices,  in whose accounts, a fractured portrait of a fascinating and complex woman emerges, like glimpses of a figure moving past a mirror.

Based on 16th century trial records of the real Luisa, this novel is not just one woman’s life in fragments, but a carefully researched imagining, told in vivid, distinct voices, of how the Inquisition affected the Spanish colonies.

Praise For What They Said About Luisa by Erika Rummel

Bookbub: listed among 10 best historical fiction books of 2024

“A deep dive into 16th century Spain and Mexico, during the dangerous times of the Spanish Inquisition, superbly crafted by an experienced historical novelist. A must read.”-Pam Royl, author of The Last Secret

“Rummel’s whole novel is marvellous, full of wisdom, learning, and insight.”-Jonathan Locke Hart, historian, literary scholar, and poet

“a captivating and meticulously researched historical novel that offers a vivid and compelling portrayal of the life of Luisa Abrego, an emancipated woman who forges a new future for herself in colonial Mexico. an intriguing subject and narrative approach, making it a literary masterpiece that deserves to be cherished and experienced. Rummel’s storytelling is both enchanting and thought-provoking, as she weaves a complex and fascinating tale of Luisa’s life, from her emancipation in Seville to her journey to colonial Mexico. The author’s attention to historical detail and her carefully researched imagining of Luisa’s life bring the sixteenth-century setting to life, offering readers a rich and immersive reading experience.”-Trishita Das, GluedToBook

“Overall, this was a very enjoyable read. The characters are wonderfully flushed out and realized, and the history in it is vivid and ever-present. I would highly recommend this book.”- Colleen Earle, Goodreads

“an illuminating novel of historical fiction set in Seville, Spain during the 16th century and the Spanish Inquisition. Refreshing. Brilliantly told from multiple perspectives.”-Dizzy, Goodreads

Excerpt What They Said About Luisa by Erika Rummel

Seville, 1575, Ana Rodriguez’ house

This morning Eugenia dropped in for a visit.

“My dear Ana,” she said, grasping my hand and kissing me on both cheeks. “You won’t believe what I just heard.” She paused and looked at me expectantly as if I could read her mind.

“Well, what have you heard?”

“Luisa is back from Mexico!”

 “No! That little minx  — she is back?”

 “Yes, and she has opened a candle shop in San Bernardo.” Eugenia was breathless with excitement. “She must have struck it rich in Mexico.”

“If she’s got money, I bet she made it by selling her body,” I said, bile rising in my throat. “I hate that girl.”

“I don’t blame you,” Eugenia said. “After what she put you through. Or rather what your husband put you through– may his soul rest in peace — but that’s men for you. You give them everything, you bear them a son, and they cheat on you with a young girl, a mulatta by preference, because they say they are better at – well, I won’t say any more. All men are ingrates.”

I had known about the affair of course. Everyone did. A blind man couldn’t have missed what was going on between Diego and Luisa, but I thought: Let him have his fun with one of the house slaves. They don’t count. And they can be had for free. Better that way than spending his money in one of those houses of infamy and picking up some awful disease from a whore. Besides, God knows I had done my duty by him, and was tired of being pawed in bed when I would rather sleep. Only sometimes I think, if I had been more loving to Diego – but, no, it wasn’t my fault. Luisa knew how to rouse a man’s desire. She was only twelve or thirteen when Diego bought her, and already strutting her wares, her budding breasts and her mobile hips. A beautiful face, yes, but the devil within, and sneaky too, never said a word more than she had to, just looked at you with those large eyes full of hidden plots.

“I was prepared to overlook it for the sake of keeping the peace,” I said to Eugenia. “But what a shock when the lawyer read Diego’s last will to us!”

I still run hot and cold when I think that Diego left that girl a hundred ducats and set her free. A hundred ducats! Enough to buy a pair of mulattos. I still feel choked at the thought of my helpless jealousy and the indignity I had to suffer and that girl raking in a hundred ducats. Although it’s almost ten years ago that Diego died, the memory still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. How he carried on! To see him give Luisa a radiant smile and look through me as if I didn’t exist. My heart throbbed with pain. Some nights I cried myself to sleep. I was tired of his passions, yes, but I was not tired of love, and I missed his endearments. 

Diego had been in the best of health until the day his horse shied and threw him off. He struck his head on a stone balustrade and split it open, spilling his life blood on the pavement. After the servants carried him into the house, he lived for two more days, and at the very end asked for Luisa to come and see him.

I was scandalized and had a good mind to defy him and refuse to fetch the girl, but my son said:

“Let it be, mother. Let the old man have his last bit of fun.”

So I asked the girl to go to Diego, trusting that he was too weak for any fun, although I wasn’t so sure about that, especially when I heard her singing in there.

She was with him for a good half hour, while I sat in the corridor with an aching heart, crying for shame because he preferred her to me even when he was staring death in the face. When she finally came out, I dug my fingers into her arm and gave it a yank.

“You hussy,” I said. “Singing in a dying man’s room!”

“He asked me to,” she said, looking at me in the mulish way those half-castes have.

All that went through my head when I heard Eugenia say that Luisa was back. I pulled myself together.

“That little chit!” I said. “She had a way of looking at men demurely from under her eyelashes — that’s how she trapped them.”

“Yes, there was something demure about her,” Eugenia said. “She was a very quiet girl, hardly ever said a word at all.”

“She was close-mouthed, alright. Didn’t give anything away,” I said.

“But you know what I remember about her? That her embroidery was superb, and that she made the most delicious quince preserves. I never could get my cook to produce the likes of it.”

“The quince preserve was good. I give you that,” I said.

“And, you must admit,” she went on, rubbing salt into my wounds, “Luisa was handy for entertaining your guests at a fiesta. Such a beautiful singing voice she had, and the way she danced the Zarabanda or the Chacona.  There was something charming about that girl. And although she didn’t talk much, she was always pleasant and smiling, unlike the others, who are sullen and scowl at you when you tell them to do their work.”

“She was good at wiggling her rear end, you mean, and the men couldn’t take their eyes off her,” I said, impatient with Eugenia paying compliments to a hussy who didn’t deserve them.

That’s Ana Rodriguez’ point of view, but when you read on, you discover that other witnesses to Luisa’s life have widely diverging opinions of her. Some describe Luisa as shy or mysterious or even saintly. Others say that she was upright and courageous, and a loving wife and mother. I leave it to the reader to decide who understood her best and to answer the question: Who was Luisa?

(c) Erika Rummel

About Erika Rummel

Award winning author, Erika Rummel is the author of more than a dozen non-fiction books and ten novels. Her tenth novel, ‘’What They Said About Luisa’  was published on June 18, 2024..

She won the Random House Creative Writing Award (2011) for a chapter from ‘The Effects of Isolation on the Brain’ and The Colorado Independent Publishers’ Association’ Award for Best Historical Novel, in 2018. She is the recipient of a Getty Fellowship and the Killam Award.

Erika grew up in Vienna, emigrated to Canada and obtained a PhD from the University of Toronto. She taught at Wilfrid Laurier and U of Toronto.  She divides her time between Toronto and Los Angeles and has lived in Argentina, Romania, and Bulgaria.

Erika’s Website: http://www.erikarummel.com/
Erika’s Blog: http://rummelsincrediblestories.blogspot.ca/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/historycracks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/erikarummelauthor

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