Zyanya Maria Guerrero is a young Mixtec woman based in Oaxaca but in Veracruz at the outset of the story whom Nicolas enlists as a guide and translator. She inherited an extensive Indigenous knowledge of Mexican plants from her mother. Her parents work on the Oaxacan estate of a Creole owner. She is pregnant but seeks an abortion. The peacock flower, a known abortifacient, grows abundantly in Oaxaca. She is married, and though happy in her marriage, she knows her Catholic husband would expect her to birth the child if he found out about her pregnancy.
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Nicolas-Joseph Thiery de Menonville is a French botanist sent by the French crown to steal the cochineal insect from Oaxaca. Cocky and conceited, but, to his credit, bold and driven, with a stereotypical weakness for riches and beautiful women.
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