Fruit of the Drunken Tree

by Ingrid Rojas Contreras

We tell some stories because they are entertaining or amusing or exciting, but there are other stories we tell because we must. These necessary stories are often the most difficult to hear – but in her debut novel Fruit of the Drunken Tree, Ingrid Rojas Contreras coats her own tumultuous childhood story in mesmerizing, dream-like prose that brings a raw honesty to her words.

Based on Contreras’ real-life experiences in 1990s Colombia at the height of cartel lord Pablo Escobar’s reign, Fruit of the Drunken Tree explores the impact of social stratification and divided loyalty. Told in alternating perspectives between the young Chula Santiago and her family’s maid, Petrona, dual coming-of-age stories unfold among a milieu of wealth disparity, constant violence, and young love.

Chula is just 7 years old when her wealthy family hires a new maid, Petrona, a young teenager from a poor, guerilla-controlled invasión slum. Petrona’s social status and aloofness are enough to keep most members of the Santiago family at bay, but Chula’s child-like curiosity just makes Petrona a enticing and endearing mystery to solve.

Despite Petrona’s initial reserve, the two girls form an unlikely friendship after enough of Chula’s tenacity. But circumstances complicate their newfound bond. Petrona feels crippled by poverty – she has a life-or-death responsibility to take care of her family, thanks to the demands for women in machismo culture. She must prevent her siblings from falling under the spell of the violent guerilla groups that tantalize young, desperate boys with offers of easy money. Despite her dislike of the guerillas, her aching awareness of her family’s poverty is stronger and compels her to do odd jobs for the violent groups. And she is especially powerless against Gorrión, the guerilla-affiliated boy with rich brown eyes that hold empty promises of the love and acceptance she has always craved.  

Caught in Petrona’s turmoil is Chula. As Petrona, spurred on by Gorrión’s manipulative insistence, becomes tightly trapped under the guerilla’s thumb, she must make a decision that could endanger Chula. The result of that decision changes their relationship, and their individual lives, forever.

The book ends as it began: Chula staring at a photograph of Petrona, wondering at the course their lives have taken and the choices that led them there.

Written in snapshots of time, Fruit of the Drunken Tree only reveals certain moments in the girls’ lives, not always chronologically. As the primary narrator, Chula is the filter through which most of the book is sifted, and her youthfulness is almost a plot device in its own right. Because she is so young, Chula does not understand the political and economic complexities that plague her country. These gaps in knowledge prevent her from fully comprehending some characters’ motivations, intentionally calling the audience to grasp the convolution of the situation in Colombia. But by the same token, her youth begets a clarity that other characters lack. Her childish innocence enables her to forgive those who have wronged her – specifically Petrona.

With a style that resembles the likes of Gabriel García Márquez, Contreras has crafted a truly stirring novel in Fruit of the Drunken Tree that takes a searing look at the power of love in impossible situations.