How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
As this was Christmas Day, the two friends were speaking in their native tongue. For years they had made it a practice to speak English together, except upon very special occasions, and of late they conversed in Spanish, in which they both needed to gain fluency. (1.3.18)
It's only on rare occasions that Fathers Latour and Vaillant will speak French to one another after moving to New Mexico. That's because the two languages that are most important to know in the United States are Spanish and English… much like today.
Quote #2
There was no way in which he could transfer his own memories of European civilization into the Indian mind, and he was quite willing to believe that behind Jacinto there was a long tradition, a story of experience, which no language could translate to him. (3.2.22)
Father Latour is an open-minded man, and as such, he can admit that there are certain things in Jacinto's experience as a Native American that he'll never be able to understand. Sure, Jacinto can try his best to convert his experience into English or Spanish. But ultimately the translation will never be perfect. There'll always be something lost.
Quote #3
Not once speaking to him or to each other, they bound his feet together and tied his arms to his sides. (3.4.20)
When father Baltazar kills one of his Native American servants, part of him knows that he's going to have to die for his crime. What he doesn't know, though, is how creepily silent the Native American people are going to be when they tie him up and throw him off a cliff. The silence of the scene helps establish that there is something about death and justice that language can never express. No discussion needs to happen here. Baltazar killed a guy, so now he has to die.
Quote #4
Certainly it was a great piece of luck for Father Latour and Father Vaillant, who lived so much among peons and Indians and rough frontiersmen, to be able to converse in their own tongue now and then with a cultivated woman. (6.1.4)
Fathers Latour and Vaillant think they've died and gone to heaven when they meet a cultured woman named Doña Isabella who speaks French. She is pretty much the only person they know in the world who can converse with them in their native language. This language reminds them of home and helps lift their spirits when they feel like they're spending their entire lives in a place that isn't quite "home" to them.
Quote #5
He wrote long letters to his brother and to old friends in France. (7.3.28)
Whenever Father Latour feels lonely or depressed about his life in New Mexico, he likes to sit down and write letters in French to his people back in France. Using the French language helps him reconnect with a sense of home, although it also reminds him just how out-of-place he is in New Mexico.
Quote #6
"The Indians call rainbow flower […] It is early for these." (7.4.9)
Jacinto is Father Latour's guide in the stark and beautiful New Mexico wilderness. He knows both the area and the cultures of the people who live in it. But every time he translates a Native American word for Father Latour, you get the sense that you're only seeing the tip of the iceberg, in terms of how much the guy actually knows. Again, Latour understands that there are many things that Jacinto will never be able to translate for him.
Quote #7
From that moment on, he spoke only French to those about him, and this sudden relaxing of his rule alarmed his household more than anything else about his condition. (9.2.7)
Toward his death, Archbishop Latour only speaks French to the people around him. It looks like his memory is slipping and his first language is all he can remember. This is enough to disturb his servants, since it seems to confirm the idea that he's slipping into death.
Quote #8
When a priest had received bad news from home, or was ill, Father Latour would converse with him in his own language; but at other times he required that all conversation in his house be in Spanish or English. (9.2.7)
Toward the end of his life, Father Latour is only interested in speaking French. His only exception is when someone comes to him needing help with a problem. This suggests that Latour actually has the power to speak Spanish and English, but he chooses not to. Maybe he figures that now that death is coming for him, he might as well be comfortable in both body and mind.
Quote #9
The Mexicans were always Mexicans, the Indians were always Indians. (9.5.11)
Father Latour knows that there are some aspects of life in New Mexico that he'll never be able to change or understand. He's surrounded mostly by Mexican and Native American people, and he knows deep down that there's little point in trying to change these people. They'll always have their own beliefs and their own culture, and all Latour can really do is keep them from acting immorally in the eyes of his God.
Quote #10
[The] old Bishop seemed to become restless, moved a little, and began to murmur; it was in the French tongue, but Bernard, though he caught some words, could make nothing of them. (9.8.4)
Father Latour starts mumbling in French as he loses consciousness for the last time. It'd be nice if he said something poetic or inspiring, but the truth is that all of his words sound like nonsense to Bernard, the only good speaker of French in the room. This just goes to show one last time how language has a way of dancing away from us just when we want to grab hold of it most.