THE CROWN MAKER takes place over a 60-year span from the 1940s to 2003. It is structured as a series of corridos or scenes that mark major milestones in Eva’s life.
1. Corrido de los Pajarillos
By a campfire near a river, Fidel and Conchita weave a magical story about their family’s history for their little girl, Eva. They tell her of their romance, the tragic deaths of all her elder siblings, and her miraculous birth marking their new beginnings.
2. Corrido de Amor Y Familia
Eva meets Teo, a handsome stranger who upends her parents’ plans for her when she marries him. Eva’s sister, Teresa, tells us that Eva and her family were estranged for a time because of her decision—until Eva becomes pregnant. The family comes together to work the fields. Fidel then announces plans to move the family from Pharr, Texas to Nyssa, Oregon, where they can stay and find a variety of work all year round. Eva and her family celebrate their love and the addition of her first child.
3. Corrido de las Coronas
Eva and Teo visit his hometown of Guadalajara, enjoying the exciting sights and sounds of the city. There Eva becomes fascinated by an artist creating coronas (crowns) of paper and wax flowers. The artist explains that the coronas are worn for special moments and that the type of flower used marks the meaning of the moment. Eva discovers her calling and becomes a crown maker.
4. The Crown Maker
Diana brings her niece Lucy over a long distance to visit Eva, hoping that Eva will make Lucy a corona for her quinceañera. Eva reminisces about her own simple quince and encourages Lucy to realize that she is a powerful young woman. Eva’s reputation and family grow.
5. Birthing and New Beginnings
Eva struggles to deliver her ninth child—while doctors struggle to save her and her baby boy, Cami, Eva argues with Santa Muerte. The two agree that Eva and Cami will return to the land of the living, but that Eva’s life will no longer be her own. As Eva tells her baby boy about herself and her family, she realizes that she is going to become a curandera (healer) as her parents were.
6. Corrido de la Curandera
People line up for Eva’s cures as her healing, kindness and compassion bind her community together.
7. Flowers of Grief
Tragedy strikes the family when Eva and Teo’s 15-year-old son, Toe, is killed in a car accident. Eva struggles to continue her work as a curandera and crown maker while she works through her grief and anger. Her father, Fidel, helps her to ground herself in her garden with the herbs and flowers that give her solace.
8. The Phoenix
Eva sings to the herbs as she gardens, listing their qualities with love, when she smells smoke and realizes that her home and workshop are on fire. Everything is destroyed, and Eva wonders if she has the strength to rebuild, but her children and community rally around her and pledge that as she has cared for them, they will now care for her.