Belizean author Zee Edgell tells
the story of a woman scorned in
The Festival of San Joaquin.

“I am out of gaol now.” This is how Zee Edgell starts her third novel, The Festival of San Joaquin, recently reissued by Macmillan Caribbean. This is Luz Marina’s story. It is the Cinderella story gone awry.

Luz, a member of one of Belize’s minority classes, rescues Dona Catalina, the matriarch of the wealthy Casal family. She offers Luz a job and appears to welcome her into the Casal household. However, when Luz falls in love with her manic-depressive son, Salvador, Dona Catalina quickly grows sour. Luz kills Salvador. From that moment, Dona Catalina plots to ruin Luz’s life. Her story demonstrates how fragile human relationships are - one event can cause a best friend to become your worst enemy.

Edgell uses the first person narrative to tell Luz’s story. This technique is effective because the reader is invited to empathise with Luz, because he is privy to her private thoughts and emotions. Although her writing seems deceptively simple, Edgell tells a complex story, interlocking serious issues like the environment and women’s role in the society within the narrative. She uses a vivid visual style, making it effortless for the reader to imagine the scene. The author also effectively uses Luz’s flashbacks to allow the reader to meet her now dead husband, Salvador.

Although Luz says, “We’ve tried so hard and they win every time,” her tenacity to rebuild her life is admirable. Even when she makes the ultimate sacrifice, the reader understands that she must do this to survive. She says, “The fear of poverty had led us towards a pact that seemed to me beyond shame.” Luz gives a female perspective of the ex-prisoner attempting to reintegrate into society, despite its prejudices. Edgell’s narrative also examines relationships between women. She contrasts the supportive bond between Luz and her mother, Mama Sofia, with the estranged one between her and Dona Catalina.

It also highlights the status of women in Belize. When Mama Sofia says, “Here in San Joaquin we are always to blame, Luz Marina, whether we do or we don’t. It must be our fate, a part of the good and the bad of our lives as daughters and mothers” the reader understands why Luz appears a victim of fate and sometimes feels powerless to fight society. Despite the trials Luz faces, readers be assured, there is a happy ending.