Cleofilas longs for "passion in its purest crystalline essence. The kind the books and songs and telenovelas describe when one finds, finally, the great love of one's life, and does whatever one can, must do, at whatever cost." Because, she believes, "to suffer for love is good. The pain all sweet somehow." Unhappily, the passive acceptance of suffering for love that Cleofilas learns as she grows up makes her especially vulnerable to her abusive husband. She had always believed that "she would strike back if a man, any man, were to strike her." Instead, when Juan Pedro first hits her, "she had been so stunned, it left her speechless, motionless, numb." Unbelieving and forgiving when the abuse begins, Cleofilas wonders why her pain goes beyond the sweet pain of her soap opera.....
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