Superstitions and Taboos

Well, at first after leaving the commune Elena is extremely suspicious of anyone suggesting she give her loyalty to anyone other than Ramon Emmanuel. Ramon, meanwhile, wonders if he should have killed her rather than having her go to SF to live as a slave to his sister, Marisol, who he doesn’t fully trust, and with good reason. His sister knows what a nut case he is. At first sis is loyal to Ramon Emmanuel, who she calls “Manny”. Later when she realizes how traumatized Elena is she starts having sympathy for her. Marisol’s beliefs are based on fortune telling and tarot. Her cards tell her that Elena is good but has been surrounded by bad influences. This makes her doubt her brother and so she wants to ask questions to see what it was really like for Elena while living in the commune. The more she learns the less she likes what she hears. Finally Elena has her loyalty instead of Manny.

Marisol’s fortune telling is accurate, but Elena is suspicious of it because of her Christian beliefs and what Ramon Emmanuel taught her. He of course taught her not to trust herself or her inner voice or instincts. He wanted her to trust him alone. So when she sees Marisol doing that she’s frightened. When Marisol warns her that the outcome of the trip to the commune to see her children would be failure, Elena can’t believe it, though it turns out to be true.

While Elena is in SF, Ramon Emmanuel put a fear into the children - a fear that Elena has become sick and is dangerous to interact with. He threatens Pablo with expulsion as well if he doesn’t divorce her and marry Tabitha. Tabitha is someone Elena remembers. Four years before she’d been brought home by Ramon Emmanuel and another commune man, bound in ropes with a gag over her mouth, forced to lie for hours in the back of the wagon. Elena tried to help the girl recover from the ordeal but Tabitha was very hostile and angry when she first got there. Then she became Ramon’s lover and acted like she was the queen of the castle - very haughty and mean.

A taboo: Women weren’t allowed to leave the commune’s grounds but the men were, to take harvests to market. Ramon Emmanuel taught that this was so the women wouldn’t become ‘worldly’ or ‘impure’ after he’d taken so much trouble to purify them upon arrival. He taught that men were to worship the women and keep them safe and pure in their own commune environment. He put women on a pedestal above men, as soon as they were purified. He is considered the king, called the wise one. Because of the taboo the children are afraid to leave the commune. They’re afraid to talk to their defiled mother. But they do want out.

Of course it is a major taboo to speak against Ramon Emmanuel so when Elena's boyfriend arrives there at the end there's a strong possibility he'll be taken out and shot because he's causing problems.