Possessing La Santa de Cabora: The Union of Sacred, Human, and Transnational Identities

Abstract

In the novel La insólita historia de la Santa de Cabora (The Astonishing Story of the Saint of Cabora 1990), the Mexican writer Brianda Domecq portrays Teresa Urrea, “La Santa de Cabora” of Sonora, Mexico, demanding entrance at the heavenly gates shortly after her death. The scene that ensues reflects the ambiguity and contradiction that surrounded Urrea during her life and after her death. The gatekeeper angel and God engage in a comical debate, for they cannot find Cabora, her former home, on the registry of global place names, nor can they find her name on the official list of saints: “‘She said she wanted to see you, that you would know who she was if I told you she was Saint Teresa of Cabora.’ ‘Doesn’t ring a bell. Let’s see, bring me the list of saints; maybe one slipped by without my noticing. There are so many of them now!’”(1). Muttering that there are so many saints nowadays that even he cannot keep track of them, God then dismisses her as an “apocryphal saint” of the kind that arises during popular rebellions on earth. He then sends the angel to turn Teresa away, instructing him not to fall prey to any feminine tricks, such as tears or the display of a false hymen to prove virginal martyrdom. His ultimatum is this: “If she makes a fuss, ask her for her genealogy.

We are defined by life itself and only in life can we see ourselves reflected. And I? I have been a little bit of everything: a little saint, a little virgin, a little married, a little in love, a little idealist, a little revolutionary, a little visionary. Who am I, after all?

—Brianda Domecq¹