Gathering the Indigo Maidens
Cecilia VelAstegui
9780983745846
328 pages
Libros Publishing LLC
Overview
Modern day human traffickers and art thieves extort a wealthy Laguna Beach, California art collector, Paloma Zubiondo, by offering to release a young Ecuadorian sex-slave in exchange for one of Paloma's treasured 17th century Spanish Colonial paintings, purportedly a stolen painting of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. An epic tale of interwoven narratives that connects art theft and sex trafficking to the palpable triumphs and pathos of three historical indigo maidens: artist, Isabel Santiago from 1699 Ecuador; printing heiress, Maria de Rivera Calderon y Benavides from 1754 Mexico City; and social activist sentenced to San Quentin prison, Modesta Ávila from 1889 San Juan Capistrano.
