MARÍA DE ESTRADA Freeze, *****! It’s your mistress bids you halt. Let’s see what trulls the latest nets have trawled. Not bad, sad slave. You’ll fit your new career: A teenage tartlet to refresh their tents. Don Alvarado keeps a natty ring Pranked up with goads, whose stingers top its face, To spur reluctant steeds through rocky rides. You’ll buckle underneath such battery. I hope your yelps won’t stir my husband’s sleep. María de Estrada, at your service, serf. I reign sole victrix of this manly camp, For I’m not fit to mince and kiss my hand, Like all those gingerbread girls back in Spain. No, Cuba was a rowdy, lax frontier Where I was raised to tussle with the boys, And now stand champion in these warlike ranks- For boundaries built up by prejudice Are not reformed by mediocrities. Once I have overmatched your Amazons, I’ll force those tomboy squaws to nurse my brats- If but a single, over-muscled pap Can fortify the husky chaps I’ll breed.
Enter GARRIDO with baggage, and passes over the stage.
Look to your maidhood, miss, or be dismayed. [to Garrido] Hold, boy! You’ve got my bag of needments there. Exit.
MALINALLI What gibberish! So much chin-music to me, But something of her drift I comprehend. I must assert my merit here. But how? My ***? A trump card every girl here holds. But what my prodigy at languages? I’ll trail their chieftain, and my gift of tongues Shall lift his veil unto this ****** world. *Exit.