Esmeralda Santiago

Conquistadora Esmeralda Santiago

Even as a young girl in nineteenth-century Spain, Ana Cubillas is drawn to the exotic island of Puerto Rico by the diaries of an ancestor who traveled there with Ponce de León. And in twin brothers Ramón and Inocente—both in love with Ana—she finds a way to get there: she marries Ramón and convinces the brothers that their destiny is in the remote sugar plantation theyve inherited on the island. But Anas fantasies havent prepared her for the unrelenting heat, the dangers of the untamed countryside, and the slave labor on which life at Hacienda Los Gemelos depends. Despite tragedy and hardship, she remains enthralled by the islands romance, and will sacrifice nearly everything to keep hold of the land that has become her true home.