At first, Marta has no idea that her family has a secret magical history. She always knew that her great-aunt, Nena, was a little strange. Nena would tell fortunes and work a little magic for her clients, to the chagrin of the rest of the family. But when Marta starts to see things that no one else—other than Nena can see—she struggles with the idea that she isn’t as normal as she thought. The Witches of El Paso, by Luis Jaramillo, is a wild ride into strange powers and the consequences of relying too much on magic to get one’s way.
We meet Marta when she’s in the middle of a stressful case she’s litigating on behalf of a group of women claiming that their boss has sexually harassed them, her husband’s career is reaching new heights, and her great-aunt Nena has just caused a kitchen fire. Marta has always been the person in her family to take care of things so, naturally, she attempts to take on all of this while also caring for her two boys. It’s a lot. Small wonder that Marta’s temper is fraying and her ability to handle anything and everything is crumbling. This is no time for Nena to start pestering her about La Vista, a powerful but capricious form of magic that Marta has inherited.
The Witches of El Paso, set in both the Texas city and the Mexican city of Juárez, is not just Marta’s tale. Chapters from a much younger Nena’s perspective show us how she became entangled with La Vista. Like Marta, Nena was the person everyone in her family relied on: to take care of nieces and nephews, to run errands, to work for extra money to make rent. In a moment of desperation and exhaustion, Nena called out for something to rescue her and was whisked away by an eighteenth-century witch (who also happens to be a nun, which is fun) to learn how to harness La Vista.
While Marta and Nena wrestle with their newly discovered ability to use La Vista and their many responsibilities, an interesting theme emerges. Where in many fantasies magic offers solutions to apparently unsolvable problems, La Vista has a mind of its own. Its tendency to make things worse makes this magic seem a lot more sentient than I’m used to. It takes Nena and Marta some time to figure this out. When they are drunk with power, it’s far too easy to use La Vista to make problems go away by manipulating and coercing people. La Vista, unfortunately for everyone, has a punishing way of manifesting its users’ wishes.
I admired the unique magic Jaramillo created for his story but I was also puzzled by the romance shoehorned into Nena’s story. The man she falls in love with is an unrepentant rich asshole far too used to getting his own way. I was really surprised by how quickly Nena was able to overlook his faults after he begins to behave a little better. I understand that some kind of romance was necessary for the plot but every time Nena ran into his arms, I couldn’t help but think, “Really? Him?” I’m not sure I can resolve my mixed feelings about this book to recommend it.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.