[Lucio] had wanted to protect them from what the Explorer had called them: savage, squaw, injun, chief.
-- Narration (Part 1, Chapter 4)

Importance: This line of narration refers to a dynamic in the relationship between Explorer and Rosalinda, Rufina, and Rafa. Throughout the novel, the narrative often hints at the fact that the Explorer was a negative and dysfunctional presence. The above quotation demonstrates one element of that dysfunction, namely the fact that the Explorer held racial prejudices. The Native American characters repeatedly face racial prejudice in the novel.

It wasn’t my fault.
-- Rufina (Part 1, Chapter 5)

Importance: Rufina makes this statement in an imagined conversation with her recently deceased mother. The meaning of this statement is unclear to the reader at the beginning of the novel. By the end of the novel, it is apparent that Rufina is referring to the time that the Explorer raped Rufina, and Rufina became pregnant. Rufina apparently still fears that her mother might...