He never finished that line because he did not curse in her presence. Instead he’d give her a sly smile from beneath his Clark Gable mustache and Sofi would blush.) He also did magic tricks for her, making a coin appear from behind her ear, a bouquet of paper roses for her from out of his sleeve, a real dove from inside his jacket.

Ayy! And how that sinvergüenzo could dance!

When he left her with their four daughters all she could think of was that thank God her mother (que en paz descanse) had not lived to see that day, for she surely would not have let her live it down, with constant reminders of how everyone tried to tell her that he was no good. What honorable man would pretend to be crazy so as not to go do his duty in the Army? Not to mention the fact that he had little by little hocked all of Sofi’s jewelry, the silver-and-green-turquoise necklace she had been given on her wedding day that had been passed down to her from her great-grandmother, and the sapphire ring that her father had bought her for her fifteenth birthday? Worst of all, Domingo had sold the ten acres parceled out to them by Sofi’s grandfather as a wedding present without even consulting Sofi At least, Sofi thought to herself over the years, he had had enough sense to leave her the house so that she could have a home for their children when he left.

It was at the feast day dance of Santa Flora de Cordova in Belen that she first met Domingo. She and her sister, her sister’s comprometido, and their parents and grandparents had all gone. She was wearing one of her sister’s fiesta dresses because her older sister, being engaged, had been going to social functions with her novio that year and Sofi, who was not quite fifteen and had not yet had her quinceañera, had no need for party dresses.

It wasn’t until a girl had her coming-out ball at fifteen that she got to go out and be seen at such events, but because the rest of the familia was going to the dance, Sofi’s father reluctantly gave his approval. So in a soft pink chiffon dress and pink pumps (she and her only sister wore the same size in everything—at least back then), Sofi made her unofficial debut.