Where Reality Meets Inspiration: The Queen of the Valley

Where Reality Meets Inspiration: The Queen of the Valley

The question people ask me the most in interviews is what inspires my novels. The answer is not so straightforward since most of my stories are a compilation of different things: historical events, family memories, photographs, things I read, and my own imagination, of course.  

My latest novel, The Queen of the Valley, has all of the above, but a strong element of this particular book is my family’s history.

My grandmother was born in Palestine in 1896. When she was fifteen years old, her parents told her she had to travel to Ecuador and marry her second cousin, who’d left for South America a few years prior. There were several problems with this demand: she didn’t know where Ecuador was, she didn’t speak Spanish, and she’d never met her cousin. In spite of these “small” details, she was shipped off to South America with an old uncle of hers.

As soon as she arrived in Ecuador a seamstress took her measurements and started making her wedding gown. A month later, she was married. My grandfather, who’d been the oldest of his siblings, had first ventured in Germany, then Chile, and finally settled in Ecuador, where he liked the weather, the fruit, and the pork. With barely any Spanish knowledge, he started by selling cuts of cashmere, poplin, and gabardine at fairs and marketplaces. He eventually had his own fabric store, which he ran with his sons—my dad included—and became well-known in the city of Ambato, where he had settled. My grandmother went on to have eighteen pregnancies, of which three were miscarriages and fifteen were live births—or so the story goes. She never went back home or saw her parents again. 

In the early 20th century, Latin America welcomed an influx of immigrants from the Middle East, many escaping poverty and the repression of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Ecuador wasn’t the only country where Arab Christians migrated during this first wave. As a matter of fact, they spread all over Latin America and have become a very successful group, not only in business but also in local politics.

In addition to the theme of Arab immigration in Latin America, The Queen of the Valley also explores other issues that are passions of mine, such as photography, a field where I work part-time.

The 1920s saw the rise of photography as an artform as well as its use in journalism. As it started becoming mainstream, it also caused a shift in the world of art. For centuries, artists had been commissioned to paint portraits of influential people: royalty, affluent families, politicians, religious leaders, etc. With the use of the camera, portraits only took seconds to reflect a person’s likeness so painters started to question their role in the art world. They explored other ways of seeing art that weren’t realistic renditions of places, people, and objects. They saw art differently and focused on the process, on the materials, on various perspectives in one single surface, and on what art could communicate. From all these experimentations, new styles emerged. 

My interest in photography plays an important role in my latest book, The Queen of the Valley, and the story of my grandparents inspired me to include a family of Arab immigrants in the novel, which is the sequel to The Spanish Daughter but can also be read as a standalone. One of my narrators, Sister Camila, is the daughter of Palestinian immigrants in Colombia and her older brother, Farid, is also a pivotal character in the story. 

The Queen of the Valley is set near Cali in 1925, five years after The Spanish Daughter ends. Our main character, Puri, now owns a chocolate store in Ecuador and, like my grandmother, she’s never gone back to her native country. However, she has developed a strong attachment to a man she met in Ecuador a few years prior named Martin Sabater. Martin has now moved to a valley in the south of Colombia to purchase the cacao plantation of his dreams, which he called La Reina (The Queen). He’s also Puri’s only supplier of this precious bean. One day the shipments stop coming and Martin vanishes. Puri decides to go to Colombia to find him herself.

After an eventful and dangerous journey which includes a real-life earthquake, Puri arrives in Martin’s hacienda but to her surprise, he’s gone and the place has been turned into a Catholic hospital dealing with earthquake victims and an emerging cholera epidemic.

Puri, who’s now become a master of disguise, poses as a nun in order to stay in the hospital and find out what happened to Martin. Along the way, she’ll meet a few friends from Martin’s past, including Dr. Farid Mansur, Sister Camila, and a photographer named Lucas Ferreira, who claims to be Martin’s best friend while hiding behind the lens of his Kodak Folding Autographic Brownie to uncover secrets about his own family’s past.  

All these so-called friends, and a few others, seem to have motives to want Martin gone. Without knowing who to trust, Puri must carefully sift through secrets and betrayals until she discovers what happened to Martin and more importantly, what is to become of her.

I invite you to discover these world of immigrants, of seekers of truths and trajectories, of adventurers who in the process of solving a mystery will learn more about themselves than they ever thought possible. 

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Lorena Hughes is the award-winning author of The Spanish Daughter and The Sisters of Alameda Street. Born and raised in Ecuador, she moved to the United States when she was eighteen to study fine arts and mass communication & journalism. Publishers Weekly has called her work “as addictive as chocolate” and The Washington Post deems it “imaginative historical drama filled with sibling rivalry and betrayals.” The Spanish Daughter is an Amazon Editors’ Pick and a Publishers Marketplace Buzz Books Selection.

For more info, please visit: www.lorena-hughes.com

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The Queen of the Valley: A Spellbinding Historical Novel Based on True History

“An engrossing, suspenseful family saga.” —Chanel Cleeton, New York Times bestselling author of Next Year in Havana on The Spanish Daughter

Against the backdrop of Colombia’s lush, yet wounded beauty in the wake of the 1925 Cali earthquake, this riveting novel by the award-winning Ecuadorian American author of The Spanish Daughter plunges three strangers – a photographer, a young Spanish chocolatier in disguise, and a Palestinian-Colombian nun – into a perilous search for the missing owner of a coveted hacienda amidst an emerging cholera epidemic.

“Engaging. For fans of historical fiction and works by Christina Baker Kline and Lisa Wingate.” —Booklist

Driven and recklessly daring, Martin Sabater follows his lifelong dream of owning a cacao plantation in Valle del Cauca. But on the night of a spectacular gala, he disappears—and is never seen again. Now his hacienda is a budding Catholic hospital saving lives during an emerging epidemic. And novice nun “Sor Puri” is there to uncover the truth behind Martin’s disappearance. But her real identity—and her past with the heartbreakingly charismatic Martin—will put far more than her perilous search at risk.

A professional photographer, Lucas Ferreira is Martin’s best friend since boyhood. He has his own reasons for helping the determined, alluring nun. But what this reserved man won’t reveal about his thwarted dreams and unrequited passion could prove key to the past—or a lethal trap. Martin was head nurse Sor Camila’s only love—until an unfortunate mistake changed the course of her life forever. Now, Martin’s home is an unexpected chance for her, Lucas, and Puri to set the past right. But with their secrets unearthing explosive memories and wrenching lies, can they survive the truth about Martin—and the consequences that will forever alter their destinies?

“Vivid …This book will appeal to readers who enjoy family conflict, historical details, and the exploration of lost love.”— Library Journal

“A tale as rich and complex as the finest chocolate.” —Marisel Vera, author of The Taste of Sugar

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Category: On Writing