Content Warning: The Symbols and Motifs entry on Masks and Concealment contains references to sex trafficking and rape.

Chemicals and poisons are a recurring motif in Prayers for the Stolen. Deadly scorpions and snakes that live in and around Chulavista are defined by their poisons. The herbicide Paraquat is dropped over the surrounding countryside, ostensibly to destroy heroin crops. Much of this, in reality, is simply dumped near the village, as the helicopter pilots are afraid of being shot down if they fly too close to the poppy fields. As Ladydi says, after a drop “we could smell the ammonia scent in everything and our eyes burned for days” (39). The Paraquat chemical is not merely an irritant; it can also blind and kill, and it is only the intervention of her classmates that saves Paula from being killed by it. The chemical also, as Ladydi explains, “would continue to burn through the land for decades” (131). It poisons the local habitat for years and is associated with both respiratory illnesses, as seen in Rita’s cough, and with birth defects, such as Maria’s harelip.

Other poisons are used throughout the novel. Ladydi remarks that the house in Acapulco “smelled like rotten lemons from constant fumigations” (128).