Catalina

Published in 2024, Catalina is the debut novel of Ecuadorian American writer Karla Cornejo Villavicencio. It follows the title character, Catalina Ituralde, through her final year of school at Harvard University. Catalina is living as an undocumented migrant, and as graduation approaches, she must face the impending reality of her uncertain future as she simultaneously navigates Harvard’s social hierarchies, her budding sexuality, and her complex relationship with her grandparents. The novel explores the complexity of living as an undocumented person in the United States, along with themes of The Power of Controlling One’s Own Story, The Intersection of Personal Ambition and Legal Limitations, and The Search for Belonging.

This guide refers to the 2024 Penguin Random House Kindle edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of substance use, sexual content, graphic violence, death, mental illness, disordered eating, death by suicide, self-harm, gender discrimination, antigay bias, and cursing.

Plot Summary

In the summer of 2010, Catalina Ituralde, an aspiring writer, is spending the summer before her senior year at Harvard in Queens, New York, with her grandparents. She is also completing an unpaid internship at a prestigious literary magazine. Catalina was born in Ecuador, and her parents died in a car accident when she was a baby. Thanks to some “miracle,” Catalina survived. She was raised by her aunt and uncle until she was five and then sent to the United States to live with her grandparents. Her grandparents had migrated to the United States some years previously, but “citizenship eluded” them. They are undocumented, and Catalina’s grandfather is “aging out” of the manual labor he has done his entire life. Catalina arrived on a tourist visa that expired when she was still a child. Her grandparents worked hard to make sure that she received an education, and her admission to Harvard has allowed her to largely ignore the reality of being an undocumented adult for the past four years. Catalina spends the summer working at her internship and dating one of the other interns. She desperately wants to fall in love before graduation, but her summer fling is unsatisfying and fizzles out.

For three years at Harvard, Catalina has tried to be humble and respectful. Now, however, she is eager to embrace her “razzle-dazzle coming-of-age at the most famous school in the world” (40). Catalina works in Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. One afternoon, she meets Nathaniel Wheeler, an anthropology major who is working on a thesis on khipus, ancient Incan recording devices. The two begin a flirtatious exchange, but Catalina isn’t sure if she likes Nathaniel or just “like[s] what liking Nathaniel says about [her]” (167).

Catalina is also distracted by the DREAM Act, which would provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented young people like her who arrived in the United States as children. The act has been in and out of Congress since Catalina was in seventh grade, and she no longer believes that it will pass. However, it is still a blow when she watches it get voted down once more. She and Nathaniel continue to spend time together, and one day, he takes her out for lunch with his father. Byron Wheeler is a film director who is well-known for his work on Latin America, and he spends lunch telling Catalina how old Ecuadorian women are always trying to marry him off to their daughters.

While Catalina is home for Thanksgiving break, her uncle in Ecuador dies. Her grandparents are devastated by the loss and their inability to return home for the funeral. When Catalina returns to Harvard for the last weeks of the semester, her grandfather begins drinking heavily. Her grandmother begs her to come home on the weekends to talk to him. Amid this family stress, the DREAM Act fails to pass again, and Catalina throws up when she hears the news. She stops eating and studying; the only responsibility she can manage is her shift at the Peabody. Her friend Delphine Rodriguez finally intervenes, and Catalina completes her finals.

Back in Queens for the holidays, Catalina finds herself “sandwiched between [her] grieving grandparents” (108). Nathaniel is spending the winter term conducting research with his mentor, Dr. Deborah Murphy, in the highlands of Peru and then relaxing on the beach in Colombia. Catalina wishes that Nathaniel had invited her, even though she knows she cannot leave the country. The winter weather means that Catalina’s grandfather’s construction sites are often closed and he can’t work, so things are tense at home. One day, Catalina gets an email from her former boss at her summer internship. He invites her to coffee and offers her a position at the magazine after she graduates. Catalina doesn’t want to share her immigration status and is vague about her plans for after school. After the meeting, she goes home and begins sleeping long hours to cope with the stress of her impending graduation and “impossible” job offers. Her grandparents finally notice her “sadness” and start treating her more gently. However, Catalina can do nothing but sleep, cry, and watch Breaking Bad.

One day, Catalina finds a deportation order for her grandfather in the mail. When she confronts him, he admits that there was an ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) raid on one of his construction sites. Catalina’s despondency is immediately forgotten, and she meets with a pro bono lawyer in the basement of a midtown church. The lawyer admits that her grandfather’s case isn’t promising and encourages Catalina to generate some “good press” that might result in a public outcry. She decides that Byron might be able to help and asks him for a meeting. She admits to him that she is undocumented and that her grandfather is going to be deported. Byron suggests that they make a documentary about Catalina’s final weeks of school. She hesitates, reluctant to become a “poster child” and worried that the focus won’t be on her grandfather’s case, but Byron insists that her story is their “best angle.” They agree to go ahead with the project.

At the start of the spring semester, Catalina is “frozen in fear and inertia” (147). However, she makes an effort to do well in her classes and make progress on her thesis. She spends her Peabody shifts in the Vault, where overflow artifacts are stored, and helps a Brazilian conservator prepare for an upcoming khipu exhibition. Byron sends her a camcorder along with instructions to begin recording clips for their short documentary.

Catalina and Nathaniel also grow closer, and, one weekend, he invites her to go skiing in Vermont. They have sex as soon as they reach the lodge. After Nathaniel falls asleep, Catalina sneaks out to a Denny’s across the street, where she sits next to a strange man in a booth and lets him put his hand under her underwear. Catalina has no intention of actually skiing on the trip and, instead, spends time in the lodge reflecting on the white families she sees there. On the way back to Boston, they stop for snacks, and Nathaniel complains that a woman was holding up the line by buying expensive steaks with “food stamps.” Furious, Catalina calls him “a cliche” and throws herself out of the moving car.

As the end of the semester draws near, Byron and a cameraman come to film in Catalina’s dorm room. She feels like she cannot control her body and cries throughout the filming. A motion to reopen her grandfather’s case has been filed, and Catalina expects “a miracle.” However, she also knows there is a chance her grandfather won’t be there for her graduation, so she invites her grandparents to campus for the opening of the Peabody’s khipu exhibit. They listen to Dr. Murphy describe her fieldwork and thank everyone involved in the exhibition for their hard work. Catalina takes the bus back to New York with her grandparents, feeling an unexpectedly deep love for them.

The next morning, Catalina’s grandfather isn’t in the apartment. By the afternoon, Catalina and her grandmother have begun to worry. Catalina finds a box from her grandfather on her bedside table. It contains a letter telling Catalina that it was time for him to “return home,” his gold chain from military school, and a tiny khipu stolen from the exhibit. Catalina’s grandmother flies into a rage, destroying every trace of her husband, but Catalina finds that she no “longer fe[els] like dying” (191).

When Catalina receives the first cut of her film from Byron, she is satisfied that she looks “beautiful,” but she tells him that she no longer wants to proceed with the project. After graduation, she and Nathaniel split amicably. Catalina moves back in with her grandmother, who dives into her new life as a single woman with vigor. Byron helps Catalina get a job tutoring “rich kids” for cash. She successfully turns in her thesis and “[loses her] mind a little after” (198). Nevertheless, Catalina is determined to “make lemonade out of lemons” (199). She has been abandoned multiple times, but she can still “become the most famous abandoned girl in the world” (199).