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Noemí Taboada
Catalina is Noemí’s cousin. She married Virgil Doyle after a short engagement—her family hardly had the chance to meet Virgil before he whisked Catalina away to High Place. Catalina’s parents died while she was young, and Noemí’s parents became her guardians. It’s to them that Catalina writes her strange letter, appealing for help. Noemí’s father dismisses Catalina’s letter as melodramatic, but Noemí knows something is wrong with her cousin. Indeed, for much of the novel, Catalina functions as the damsel-in-distress. She’s trapped in the bedroom of an old Gothic mansion, prisoner to her brutish husband and slowly losing her mind to the fungus. Yet, Catalina defeats her easy classification as the damsel-in-distress during her and Noemí’s escape from High Place. Their escape attempt is foiled by Florence, who brings the group to Howard’s bedroom at gunpoint. And it’s just as Howard is about to take over Francis’s body that Catalina stabs him, allowing for Francis, Noemí, and Catalina herself to resume their escape. Thus, through Noemí’s assistance, Catalina is able to regain her agency and demonstrate her power against the people who have been oppressing her.
Catalina Quotes in Mexican Gothic
The Mexican Gothic quotes below are all either spoken by Catalina or refer to Catalina. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3
Quotes
It was the kind of thing she imagined impressing her cousin: an old house atop a hill, with mist and moonlight, like an etching out of a Gothic novel. Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, those were Catalina’s sort of books.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8
Quotes
Of course he had a point. Catalina was his wife, and he was the one who could make choices for her. Why, Mexican women couldn’t even vote. What could Noemí say? What could she do in such a situation? Perhaps it would be best if her father intervened. If he came down here. A man would command more respect. But no, it was as she said: she wasn’t going to back down.
Chapter 9
Quotes
Catalina had told her she expected more. True romance, she said. True feelings. Her cousin had never quite lost that young-girl wonder of the world, her imagination crowded with visions of women greeting passionate lovers by moonlight[…] Noemí wondered if High Place had robbed her of her illusions, or if they were meant to be shattered all along. Marriage could hardly be like the passionate romances one read about in books.
Chapter 13
Quotes
“When the mine was open, he would have been glad to see Catalina married to me. Back then I would have been worthy. He wouldn’t have thought me inconsequential. It must still irk him, and you, to know Catalina picked me. Well, I’m no two-bit fortune hunter, I’m a Doyle. It would be good of you to remember that.”
Chapter 16
Quotes
Once could conclude that this was a case of three silly, nervous women. Physicians of old would have diagnosed it as hysterics. But one thing Noemí was not was hysterical.
Chapter 26
Quotes
“Can you go on?”
“I think so,” he said. “I’m not sure. If I faint—”
“We can stop for a minute,” she offered.
“No, it’s fine,” he said.
“Lean on me. Come on.”
“You’re hurt.”
“So are you.”
He hesitated, but did rest a hand on her shoulder, and they walked together, with Catalina ahead of them.
Get the entire Mexican Gothic LitChart as a printable PDF.
Catalina Quotes in Mexican Gothic
The Mexican Gothic quotes below are all either spoken by Catalina or refer to Catalina. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3
Quotes
It was the kind of thing she imagined impressing her cousin: an old house atop a hill, with mist and moonlight, like an etching out of a Gothic novel. Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, those were Catalina’s sort of books.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8
Quotes
Of course he had a point. Catalina was his wife, and he was the one who could make choices for her. Why, Mexican women couldn’t even vote. What could Noemí say? What could she do in such a situation? Perhaps it would be best if her father intervened. If he came down here. A man would command more respect. But no, it was as she said: she wasn’t going to back down.
Chapter 9
Quotes
Catalina had told her she expected more. True romance, she said. True feelings. Her cousin had never quite lost that young-girl wonder of the world, her imagination crowded with visions of women greeting passionate lovers by moonlight[…] Noemí wondered if High Place had robbed her of her illusions, or if they were meant to be shattered all along. Marriage could hardly be like the passionate romances one read about in books.
Chapter 13
Quotes
“When the mine was open, he would have been glad to see Catalina married to me. Back then I would have been worthy. He wouldn’t have thought me inconsequential. It must still irk him, and you, to know Catalina picked me. Well, I’m no two-bit fortune hunter, I’m a Doyle. It would be good of you to remember that.”
Chapter 16
Quotes
Once could conclude that this was a case of three silly, nervous women. Physicians of old would have diagnosed it as hysterics. But one thing Noemí was not was hysterical.
Chapter 26
Quotes
“Can you go on?”
“I think so,” he said. “I’m not sure. If I faint—”
“We can stop for a minute,” she offered.
“No, it’s fine,” he said.
“Lean on me. Come on.”
“You’re hurt.”
“So are you.”
He hesitated, but did rest a hand on her shoulder, and they walked together, with Catalina ahead of them.
