The Hacienda

The Hacienda is a 2022 suspense novel by Isabel Cañas. Cañas is a Mexican American speculative fiction author who writes novels exploring her heritage and history. The book reimagines elements of Gothic literature to explore themes of colonization and racism in the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence. It was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for First Novel.

The novel follows Beatriz Hernández Valenzuela, a Mestiza woman who marries Rodolfo Solórzano to ensure a life of safety. When she arrives at Hacienda San Isidro, she senses a vengeful spirit and soon realizes that the house is haunted. With the help of Padre Andrés, a priest with a secret, Beatriz battles the supernatural forces at work in the house, which forces her to face her own traumatic past.

This study guide refers to the 2022 Penguin Random House print edition.

Content Warning: The book contains depictions of sexual assault and sexual exploitation. Additionally, the source material contains instances of racism, colorism, graphic violence, and gore. This guide also replicates the book’s use of terms within the Spanish Empire’s caste system, such as Criollo and Mestiza.

Plot Summary

In 1823, Beatriz Hernández Valenzuela, a Mestiza woman, arrives at Hacienda San Isidro, Mexico, with her Criollo husband, Don Rodolfo Solórzano. The Spanish Empire had an exacting caste (casta) system that classified people based on their ethnicity; Mestizo/a meant someone with one Indigenous and one Spanish parent, though the novel uses this term to refer to people with diverse racial backgrounds more broadly, and Criollo/a referred to a Spanish person who was born in the Americas. Though Mexico has won its independence from Spain, these racial classifications persist. Beatriz hopes that San Isidro will be a haven for her after her father’s death.

At San Isidro, Beatriz meets Juana, Rodolfo’s unmarried sister. Beatriz feels a presence in the house watching her, but no one else seems aware of it. Rodolfo returns to the capital, and Beatriz explores the house. She experiences hallucinations and sees a skeleton hidden in the walls. When Juana checks the wall, the skeleton is gone. Beatriz is convinced that the house is haunted, so she asks the village priests to exorcise the spirit. The Criollo priest refuses to do anything other than bless the house, but the Mestizo priest, Padre Andrés, believes Beatriz and agrees to help her.

Andrés stays with Beatriz in the hacienda. After the house attacks them, Andrés fights it off with magic. Beatriz realizes that he is a witch, but he keeps his identity a secret because of the Spanish Inquisition. After they make it through the night, Andrés decides to exorcise the spirit from the house. The incantation goes wrong, and the spirit attacks Andrés and breaks loose from the house. Andrés tells Beatriz that the spirit is the ghost of María Catalina, Rodolfo’s first wife and the woman who banished Andrés from San Isidro. With the help of his cousin, Paloma, Andrés remembers the words to the incantation and forces María Catalina’s spirit back into the house.

Andrés remembers the events surrounding his banishment from San Isidro. Paloma told Andrés that Rodolfo raped her friend, Mariana, and she asked for his help aborting the resulting pregnancy. María Catalina discovered what they were doing and threatened to report Andrés to the Inquisition. Paloma burned the evidence of their involvement with the abortion. However, María banished Andrés from the house and threatened to turn Paloma over to the Inquisition if Andrés ever returned.

In the present, Paloma tells Beatriz about Rodolfo’s sexual assault. She believes that María Catalina murdered Mariana when she discovered Mariana’s pregnancy. Beatriz fears for her life when Rodolfo returns to the hacienda. Juana gets drunk at dinner, and Rodolfo takes her into another room and slaps her. Andrés and Beatriz overhear that Juana is Rodolfo’s illegitimate sister. Rodolfo threatens to disown her if she continues to embarrass him. That night, the house torments Beatriz. She escapes to the chapel, and Andrés watches over her while she sleeps. The next morning, Beatriz goes back into the house to find Rodolfo murdered in their bed.

When the officials investigate Rodolfo’s murder, Beatriz realizes that Juana killed him and María Catalina because they threatened to take away her authority at the hacienda. Before Beatriz can tell anyone, Juana accuses her of Rodolfo’s murder, and the officials place her under house arrest. The military officials lock Beatriz in the bedroom at night, and the house attacks her again. She fights off María Catalina’s spirit as Juana climbs into the rafters from the roof and drops a torch in the room to kill her. Andrés sees that the roof is on fire and unleashes his full power by calling on storm clouds to rain on the house. María Catalina’s spirit attacks Juana and pushes her into the flames, but Andrés breaks down the bedroom door with his magic and rescues Beatriz.

The authorities absolve Beatriz of Rodolfo’s murder because they find the murder weapon in Juana’s room. Beatriz learns that her mother has been writing to her for months, but Rodolfo was keeping the letters from her. Beatriz decides to move back to the capital to live with her mother. Beatriz asks Andrés to come with her, but he does not want to abandon his community, especially after accepting his identity as a witch. Beatriz leaves San Isidro, and Andrés writes to her. After a few weeks, she writes back to him.