Most of the narrators of the "Woman Hollering Creek" stories are named in the stories; the exceptions are one who seems to be a middle-aged woman, in "Anguiano Religious Articles," an elderly man in "Los Boxers," the child-narrators of "My Lucy Friend Who Smells Like Corn," "Mexican Movies," and "Barbie-Q" — and "Ixchel," the narrator of "One Holy Night," who is in some ways herself a child, in others an ageless woman, representative of some mystical and mythical female principle. The only name by which she identifies herself in the story is that given her by her beloved, Boy Baby, who says his own true name is "Chaq Uxmal Paloquín" and that he is chosen to be the father of a boy who will restore the ancient glory of the Maya people.
Of course, as "Ixchel" and her grandmother learn from Boy Baby's sister, a Carmelite nun, her lover is a man almost 40 years old with no Mayan blood, an accused murderer of women. Seen from her grandmother's point of view, "Ixchel" is a very young girl who has been taken advantage of by a bad man; the grandmother blames not her but her lover — and her uncle Lalo, who ought to have been working on Saturdays himself so that his niece would not have been exposed to the evils that can overcome a girl on the city streets. "Ixchel's" own mother was similarly taken advantage of and was sent to the United States to have her baby, who seems to have been raised from birth by this grandmother. She has been brought up in a very traditional, old-fashioned (but seemingly not terribly strict) — and loving — Mexican style, against which she seems not to have rebelled at all, despite the fact that she is a young teenager living in Chicago. At 13 or 14, her voice is that of a rather sweet, simple-hearted (but not simple-minded) child. When her grandmother takes her out of school, she is happy to be staying home, learning to do fancy crocheting.
