In the excerpt of the novel Sarita Colonia Comes Flying a poor family has been plagued by an illness that causes people to see ghosts and spirits. The illness is caused by a snake that either is sent by an evil sorcerer or merely by the snakes own will, and can only be cured if the snakes female eggs are burned. However, one cannot know which egg is female and which one male, and thus, the father of the family is looking for Sarita Colonia to help him to find a cure. The story seems to have some traditional links to catholicism as well as a many magical features. For example, the “malicious” animal is a snake, which sounds familiar from christianity, but the snake is invisible until it bites you. Moreover, the snake kills its victims with no visible damage whatsoever. I have read one book that was magical realism in my life (El agua como el chocolate) and I was confused all the way through. I am very bad at interpreting what these kinds of things “mean”, if they mean anything at all, and happen because they just happen? Let me know what you think 🙂

I found it intriguing that Sarita Colonia, who wasn’t anyone significant in her time, became a well known saint in Peru long after she had passed away. I also found it interesting that the snake killed the policeman who came searching for “a treasure”, which he thought the snake was a sign of, but the snake didn’t kill the family whom it had lived with for the past ten years. I thought of this as some kind of lesson about greediness, which is commonly perceived as a sin in christianity, but with a twist.

Question: What is the process by which some individuals, like Sarita Colonia, become saints?