“Hay que ser muy idiota o muy valiente para vivir en una casa embrujada”: A critical review of Mexican Gothic and The Hacienda
Location
PANEL: A State of the Field: Conversations and New Directions in Hispanic Studies
Wilder 101
Moderator: Ana María Díaz Burgos
Document Type
Presentation - Open Access
Start Date
5-1-2026 10:00 AM
End Date
5-1-2026 11:00 AM
Abstract
My project will focus on women’s perspectives in gothic literature, focusing on the books Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and the Hacienda by Isabel Cañas. These books focus on haunted houses as a metaphor for the entrapment of the domestic life for these female protagonists, including having the protagonists question their own sanity over whether the horror is real or imagined. I compare and contrast the two novels and their similarities in setting and plot elements alongside their differences regarding time and the horror present in each respective house. Mexican Gothic is set in the 1950s and focuses on a young woman who goes to the countryside to help her cousin, who has just married a stranger. The Hacienda follows a young woman whose father has just been executed due to the Mexican War of Independence, who marries a stranger to gain his house and his wealth. Both stories deal with issues surrounding colonialism, race, and misogyny.
Though both books have the house as the central horror of their plot, the horror within the house differs. In Mexican Gothic this fear revolves around a fungus that is living in the house and slowly making its occupants go mad. The central horror of the Hacienda is the fate of the previous Mrs. Solorzano, whose ghost begins to haunt the new Mrs. Solorzano. These horrors serve as metaphors for the larger problems present in the book, including the fates of the women who came before the book's protagonists.
Keywords:
Gothic, Spanish, Literature
Recommended Citation
Clark, Anna, "“Hay que ser muy idiota o muy valiente para vivir en una casa embrujada”: A critical review of Mexican Gothic and The Hacienda" (2026). Research Symposium. 5.
https://digitalcommons.oberlin.edu/researchsymp/2026/presentations/5
Major
Hispanic Studies; Creative Writing
Project Mentor(s)
Ana María Díaz Burgos, Hispanic Studies
2026
“Hay que ser muy idiota o muy valiente para vivir en una casa embrujada”: A critical review of Mexican Gothic and The Hacienda
PANEL: A State of the Field: Conversations and New Directions in Hispanic Studies
Wilder 101
Moderator: Ana María Díaz Burgos
My project will focus on women’s perspectives in gothic literature, focusing on the books Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and the Hacienda by Isabel Cañas. These books focus on haunted houses as a metaphor for the entrapment of the domestic life for these female protagonists, including having the protagonists question their own sanity over whether the horror is real or imagined. I compare and contrast the two novels and their similarities in setting and plot elements alongside their differences regarding time and the horror present in each respective house. Mexican Gothic is set in the 1950s and focuses on a young woman who goes to the countryside to help her cousin, who has just married a stranger. The Hacienda follows a young woman whose father has just been executed due to the Mexican War of Independence, who marries a stranger to gain his house and his wealth. Both stories deal with issues surrounding colonialism, race, and misogyny.
Though both books have the house as the central horror of their plot, the horror within the house differs. In Mexican Gothic this fear revolves around a fungus that is living in the house and slowly making its occupants go mad. The central horror of the Hacienda is the fate of the previous Mrs. Solorzano, whose ghost begins to haunt the new Mrs. Solorzano. These horrors serve as metaphors for the larger problems present in the book, including the fates of the women who came before the book's protagonists.
