Prayers For The Stolen
by Jennifer Clement
Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2016, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 2015
Date Read: October 25, 2023
The Mexican drug wars have spurred the abduction of thousands of girls, all poor and all beautiful. Ladydi Garcia Martinez and her mother are doing their best to avoid becoming involved. But it seems that everyone, in one way or another, is touched by the atrocities that occur every day.
The women on the rural mountain where the Martinez family lives have done everything they can think of to prevent their daughters from being stolen. They have dug holes for their daughters to hide in. They blacken their daughter’s teeth and rub dirt on them to make them less beautiful. They try their best to hide but word somehow gets out about the beautiful ones. And Paula from Ladydi’s village is stolen. Once a woman is taken, they scar themselves on their wrists so if their bodies are ever found, people will know they were stolen.
Ladydi is a normal girl, trying to grow up in a normal way. Amidst the drug war turmoil, her own life is in turmoil. Her father has left to establish a new life in America. Behind him he has left his mistress and a daughter they conceived who is the same age as Ladydi. Maria and Ladydi are good friends but haven’t known they were half-sisters.
Ladydi and her mother are dirt poor. Her mother, who was once beautiful, is an alcoholic and escapes her circumstances by watching TV. The heat is constantly unbearable and they chill their pillows in the fridge to achieve some comfort at night.
The only escape from this life is a job as a nanny for Ladydi. On the way to the home where she will be a nanny, Mike, a neighbor and friend, stops off at a random point along the journey and locks her in the car. When he returns, he is carrying something and has blood on his clothes. Ladydi can’t help herself but to ask what the hell is going on. She is met with silence.
Ladydi never meets the family she will nanny for. She and the other staff learn that the drug lord who owns the house, his wife and son were murdered along the highway. They decide to stay until they can find other jobs and during this time, Ladydi falls in love with Julio, the gardener. They live an idyllic life near the coast, swimming and hiking and making love.
Ladydi learns that she is wanted by the police for questioning about the murder of a child. She realizes this must be the murder Mike committed while she was locked in the car. Before she can decide to run, the police are at the house and arrest her, flying her back to Mexico City for questioning. She is never really questioned but put into a lady’s prison.
Here at the prison, she learns of other horrors committed against the women here. Some, of course, have committed their own horrors but all of the women here have butted up against the drug wars as well. Only through saving grace does Ladydi’s mother get her out due to Ladydi still being underage. At the end we learn she is pregnant and the only thing her mother says is it better be a boy. No truer words were ever spoken.
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