Susana sees Father Renteria as if in a vision, “A diffuse light burns in the place of its heart, a tiny heart pulsing like a flickering flame”, then when she can see more clearly we learn he is holding a candle with cupped hands in front of him.
This blending of real and unreal is in everything: San Pascual, the King of the Graveyard, the Pulque as milk-like but alcoholic.
Everything’s mystical perception.
How dare they put it on a map!
I love the image of the short wave radio as they travel up the river and the American music playing, as if like a voice from heaven, and them saying ‘Praise the Lord’ into the overgrowth and stinking rottenness of the jungle.
Then they see the overgrown cross but refuse to clean it because it’s a Catholic cross. Same god, different cross, apparently.
They really hate the jungle