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#or the ussr equivalent of i want to go to wisconsin!
meduseld · 4 years
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The Aguilar Sisters aren’t giving up their land, not even for the Seeds.
The Aguilar family emigrated from Yara during whatever in universe equivalent there is for the Mariel boatlift in 1980, but chose not to stay in Florida, partially to leave their past behind and partially because there was increased government scrutiny on the father, Alonso, as he had worked for the Yaran government (he was an agricultural engineer educated in the USSR, and only ever did crops stuff but it was enough) which meant he was moved to a more dedicated processing center in Wisconsin. Their mother, Angustias, who didn’t speak anything but Spanish at the time and had never left Yara’s capital until this, carted her then two daughters, Mercedes (6 years old) and baby Remedios (3 months old), all the way there and then to Montana, where Alonso had a friend of a friend of a friend of a cousin that helped them with a little plot of land in exchange for his know-how and some Russian lessons. 
And they worked it, and grew it, buying from neighbors, and raised their girls, making sure they never forgot where they came from even though Milagros, born 12 years after Remedios, was delivered in Bozeman. Alonso and his wife are long in the grave, but the sisters keep the land in their memory, running it together. They don’t care how badly the Seeds might want it, might envy their success. The Aguilars have survived three governments that hardly cared if they lived or died, and all the trouble being Latina Women can bring in America. They’ll be damned if they lie down and lose their legacy. Zapata might have been a Mexican but their father admired all revolutionaries and they’re ready:  "Mejor morir de pie que vivir arrodilladas".
[Full disclosure, this happened because I love these three actresses and they do in fact look super similar, Google will show you]
The Aguilar Sisters
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[Played by Zharick Leon, born in 1974]
Mercedes, the eldest sister. Always serious and stern, you could say she was never much of a child. She was more of a mother to Milagros than Angustias was, at least in terms of discipline and making sure she did her homework and brushed her teeth, because Angustias’ age and the health issues that plagued her since they left Yara. She was the only other family member present at Milagros’ birth, some kind of omen, as her mother’s health meant she had to be in Bozeman to deliver safely and no one else could be spared the farmwork. 
There’s a lot of trauma she hasn’t acknowledged around having to leave Yara behind, as only she actually remembers it, and having to be the reliable one. Secretly she hates that she can’t let go or have fun, but she’s the woman who bears the burden of leadership. 
Unmarried, she avoids relationships pretending she’s above them, but she’s scared she’s somehow too much, totally unlovable. Smart and sharp, she was a player in local politics and when things turned rough, people looked to her as a leader of the community. Fiercely protective of her sisters, she has a hard time showing affection, mostly scolding them as a way of expressing concern. 
She has no real love for Montana, but she does not allow room for failure, the farm must thrive. Her father’s favorite, she grieved him most and was allowed to listen to his harder stories from home. It annoys her that her sisters have a fantasy version of Yara in their heads but she also can’t bring herself to crush it. 
Speaks the best Spanish, and some Russian thanks to her father. Headstrong and brave and fierce, she is a woman to look up to, even if not like, exactly. 
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[Played by Inma Cuesta, born in 1980]
Remedios was always the peacemaker, the one in the middle looking for compromise, her elder sister’s only confidant, the child that never gave anyone any trouble. Closest to her mother, she cared for her in her final days as Angustias followed Alonso, the love of her life, to the grave less than seven months after he went. Softer spoken than her sisters, and prone to taking a more roundabout route to her goals. Seen as the reasonable one, but just as smart and strong as the other two. Beautiful singing voice, half the boys in her gradeschool were in love with her. The mom friend, the one that reads poetry and recites Lorca (her father loved that), she can’t speak Spanish quite as well as Mercedes but she’s the better reader and writer. 
Didn’t know Yara, but she’s proud to be born there. She has a less romantic view of Yara than her little sister, but loves Montana the most out of all of them. She grew up in refugee camps and motels and spare bedrooms with the four of them crowded in until the farm did well and they had their own little house, now revamped into a big house, in the middle of the land under that big, big, sky. She never wants to leave Montana, and hasn’t, for the most part. She got a few certifications in Bozeman and Billings, but she’s happiest out in the wild country of Hope County. 
The only sister that’s married. To another Yaran emigreé, Brasa, who fits her perfectly. He must love her madly, to live in a house with her and her sisters. 
Excellent at reading people (family peacemaker and even mediator/go between with their Americans neighbors/her sister and school authorities/ her mother and medical authorities/ and sometimes her father and real authorities made her a master at it), she was the first to suspect and distrust the Seeds. Mercedes listens to her above anyone else, and John’s repeated overtures towards them were rebuffed. 
The best shot out of her sisters, because she’s always seens guns as tools for famring and living in somewhere so rural, she’s scared she may have to find a worse outlet for her aim. But for her sisters, her husband and her land, she’ll do anything. 
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[Played by Adria Arjona, born in 1992]
Milagros is the baby of the bunch, flakiest and most romantic, she was spared a lot, in terms of burdens and responsibilities and duties by her parents, who saw her as too young and too unexpected to handle it. She was the wildest, most troublesome child, and she wasn’t actually much of one, but compared to her sisters she was a handful. 
The most American, her Spanish is the worst, which is a constant point of contention between her and her sisters. (She doesn’t want to admit she has actual trouble with it, and Mercedes doesn’t want to admit she’s clinging more to it out of pride and tradition, that she doesn’t have to be so hard on Milagros. Honestly, that’s the thing. She’s almost her mother, but not quite, and demands a bit too much, and doesn’t show enough love, while Milagros wants so badly to live up and resentful that she even wants it, and scared she will never live up to either of her strong and smart and capable sisters. She’s never had any real hardship, not like them. Maybe she really is that soft...). The only one to openly fight with Mercedes, and the only one allowed to try to get her to dance. 
Milagros has no strong feelings about Montana or the farm, her sisters would run it after all,  what she wanted was to travel and have fun, she wants to see Yara, which feels as real to her as Narnia. She made it as far as California, for a bit, and then her dad died. She raced back when they told her it was urgent but he was already gone when her plane landed. She was still reeling when her mom was suddenly gone. And there was so much guilt, for going, for feeling she didn’t love them enough, didn’t get as close to them as she should, that she didn’t mourn them enough. 
So she stayed, trying to really learn the farm work that she was so shielded from as a kid. Mercedes won’t let her forget, what Milagros’ only now learning at her age, she and Remedios were doing at the crack of dawn since they were ten. She always looks to Remedios for comfort, her kind hearted sister, who pities her and comforts her but refuses to coddle her. Always on her side but not quite enough. Milagros wants to prove herself to her sisters but also to step out of their shadows, to finally measure up. 
And now, it seems the Seeds will set her a challenge to rise to. If only she wasn’t scared she can’t. Not that she, a stubborn Aguilar, would ever admit that.
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Во дни сомнений, во дни тягостных раздумий о судьбах моей родины, — ты один мне поддержка и опора, о великий, могучий, правдивый и свободный русский язык! Не будь тебя — как не впасть в отчаяние при виде всего, что совершается дома? Но нельзя верить, чтобы такой язык не был дан великому народу!
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