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Chicano culture, art, and politics
               

Xicana Book Reviews by Gina Ruiz [book reviews: start]

The first time I read Rain of Gold, I thought to myself, "My God this is my family!" Victor Villasenor has the ability to draw in the readers and make them feel that they are living the story. This is particularly true in Rain of Gold. The book follows two people and their families on their very different journeys through the hard times of the Mexican Revolution, and then into the U.S. and the very different life waiting for them there. They meet new challenges and find each other as they learn about and adjust to make a life in this new country. The book abounds with the mystical love of spirits, nature and God that is so commonplace for us Mexicanos. I believe it is hard for people not of our culture to understand just how real the spirits are to us.
This is not magical realism, but daily life to us. Mr. Villasenor shows that aspect of our culture, our grandmothers, so well that it brought tears to my eyes as I remembered my own mystical, wise and wonderful grandmother. The fact that Victor Villasenor is extremely dyslexic and encountered a myriad of problems in school at a very young age makes this book all the more astounding. He writes with pathos and humor, and his love for his beautiful family shines through it all. His simple style of storytelling makes you feel as if you're sitting on the floor listening to a family member tell a story and you are completely enraptured and caught
up in his spell.
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Elizabeth Salas' Soldaderas in the Mexican Military is a fascinating and useful book. I first came across it when I wanted to find out more about the Soldaderas in the Mexican Revolution. I was shocked to find that there wasn't very much material on the subject except for brief mentions in books about the Mexican Revolution, and of course songs like La Adelita. I was angry that there was so little material on a subject that I believed to be highly overlooked. I bought the book, not expecting much after all the dead ends that I had found on this subject and was blown away by its detail and wealth of information. Ms. Salas' book is an excellent reference tool and an absorbing read. It sheds light on these amazing women who fought bravely for their country. Ms. Salas not only references the Mexican Revolution, she goes from pre-Conquest times and the warrior women who fought then, to the Xicana activism of the 1970's.
Soldaderas in the Mexican Military breaks the stereotype of the soldadera being a camp follower or a basket toting wife of a soldier. Salas tells of women who held high ranks in the military and even drew pension. She lets the reader know just how important these women were and how hard they fought. These women were spies, lieutenants, corporals and generals. They provided food, smuggled in arms and fought just as hard as any man. Viva la Mujer!
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This book is a wonderful folktale from the indigenous people of Chiapas, Mexico. The original text is taken from the communiqué dated October 27, 1994 from Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos to the Mexican People. Originally published in Mexico with illustrations by Domitila Domínguez as La Historia de los Colores © 1996 by Colectivo Callejero, Guadalajara. The amazing thing about this book is the controversy it caused. On March 9, 1999, the National Endowment for the Arts revoked the funding for the book. This was a clear instance of the NEA revoking funding for issues dealing with cultural diversity. Cinco Puntos Press fought to publish and distribute this book. You can read more about Cinco Puntos' fight for this book by visiting their website. Told by Subcommandante Marcos, who is the spokesperson for the indigenous army currently at war with the Mexican Government, The Story of Colors is a lovely folktale written with such virtuosity, that you can imagine sitting at Don Antonio's feet and listening to his voice as he tells how colors came to the world.
Marcos is known for being a wonderful storyteller and he is at his best in this amazing story of the Colors. The illustrations by Domitilla Dominguez, who is indigenous from Oaxaca, are beautiful and quite stunning. They compliment the story perfectly and give a fantastic feel to the book. This book is a treasure in many ways. For me, the biggest pleasure of this book is realizing how it was almost kept from us by the NEA.
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The Mexicans was previously published in hardcover in 1989. I find the book is just as pertinent and important today at the beginning of the new millennium. Patrick Oster, the former Mexico City Bureau Chief for the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain, writes intelligently and with great understanding of a complicated people. This collection of intense, brutally honest stories both compels and chills. We hear about Enrique, a doctor in Nezhualcoyotl struggling to earn a living as well as save babies dying from diarrhea caused by the city's bad water. There is a story of Cuauhtémoc Cardenas and his fight to change Mexico, to become president. He eventually lost to Carlos Salinas-Gotari, but this short story of his quest is profound. The book is a marvelously complex weaving of political intrigue, torture, hunger, dreams or lack thereof, class tensions, angry punk gangs, pick pockets and corruption. It also speaks of both the ugliness and incredible beauty of Mexico. There are stories of illegal border crossings and the tragafuegos or fire eaters who daily shorten their lives by consuming kerosene to breathe fire for a few pesos.
Patrick Oster has written an important book and has an understanding of the Mexican people as a whole that not too many have. His writing is to the point and without emotion, yet compels the emotion and stirs the heart. Some of the stories will make you cry, others will outrage you. Not one story will leave the reader unmoved and each will stay with you forever and change your perspective of this complicated and magical Mexico and its people.
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Becoming Naomi Leon is one of the best children's books that I have read in many years. It is the touching story of a bi-cultural brother and sister abandoned by their mother and living in their Grandmother's trailer named Baby Beluga in Lemon Tree, California. Naomi is a shy, quiet girl who carves soap into animals and makes lists. Owen is an FLK (Funny Looking Kid) who dreams of bicycles and wears tape on his clothes for comfort. Grandma is a feisty, positive thinking, loving woman who tries her best to expose the children to their Mexican culture. They live in relative happiness until one day when their mother shows up. She devotes her time and gifts to Naomi, ignoring Owen in spite of his obvious desire to have her love. As Naomi's mother spends more time in Lemon Tree, her motives for coming to see her children become threatening and Grandma and the wonderful Mexican neighbors band together to protect the children. Becoming Naomi Leon is an eloquent and moving story of an extended family, a mother that is a danger to her children, and a hunt for a father that takes you to Oaxaca and the beauty there.
It is simple and elegant; painful and sweet. This book will touch your heart and show you love in its purest form. Pam Munoz Ryan has written an ageless and beautiful story that will stay with me for a very long time.
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Joe Loya is an ex-convict, and ex-bank robber, turned writer whose correspondence with essayist Richard Rodriguez provides him with an anchor while he is imprisoned. His story is appalling, violent and absolutely riveting. At times, I had to put it down because some of the things that happened to him or that he did were just so disturbing. Mr. Loya writes so well, however, that I kept picking this book back up again to find out what happened.

It's an amazing look into the psyche of this precocious little boy who, through the abuse he suffers from his father, slowly evolves into this manipulative criminal. This book shows us so clearly how violence and abuse affect society as a whole. The boy's father is dealing with his own pain and demons due to the loss of his wife.
Mr. Loya's transition from bible verse spouting boy to manipulative, lying young man, to bank robber, to prisoner, and finally, to writer is a journey into a life we rarely, if ever see or want to see. It is a beautifully written and detailed account of his life.
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Victor Villasenor is an incredible, wonderful writer. He is all the more so when you read this biography and learn of the immense challenges he faced from the educational system, his extreme dyslexia, and from bigotry. Mr. Villasenor writes with pathos about growing up during a time when Mexicans were thought of as dirty, lazy and sub-standard. Forced to not speak Spanish in school, he was taught to be ashamed of his parents, ashamed of being Mexican. The teachers were horrible and abusive. I can't believe that a child that was so abused and mistreated grew up to be such an astounding writer.

As I read this book, I became more and more aware of how important it is as a Mexican-American, or as I refer to myself as a Mexica, to keep our culture, to speak our Spanish, to teach our children who they are and where they come from. So much was taken from us in ways such as you will read in this book that we can't let any more be taken.
We have to make a stand and start taking back what belongs to us, starting with our culture. This astounding book will make you laugh, cry and become incredibly angry. It should be required reading in any school and certainly for anyone with Mexican heritage.
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The Queen Jade is a story of the love between a mother and daughter, Lola and Juana Sanchez. Juana, the mother, is an adventurous archeologist, while Lola, her daughter, is content to read her books and supervise D&D tournaments in her quiet little bookshop, The Red Lion. When Juana turns up missing during a hurricane in Guatemala, Lola, along with Eric Gomorra, Juana's colleague and rival begin to search for clues. They discover that Juana has gone off in search of The Queen Jade, a mythical blue jade stone of the ancient Maya said to impart its possessor with incredible power.

Lola and Eric set off to Guatemala in search of Juana, but to find Juana they must unlock the clues to finding the Queen Jade. The book takes the reader on a gorgeous tour of Guatemala and into the mind of the ancient Mayan. This is post-civil war Guatemala and there are still tensions between the soldiers and the people and the author touches this in such a way that it leaves an indelible mark on the reader.
This is a story of love and loss, of friendships broken and repaired, of secrets and lies, of discovery of ones self as well as of a country and a legend. The women in this book are strong, intelligent problem-solvers. They are multi-faceted and complicated, funny, loving and true. The book is riveting and fun. There are puzzles and riddles, poetry and legend. I found this book to be marvelously written and well researched. Yxta Maya Murray has outdone herself.
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On the Seventh Anniversary of the Zapatista Uprising Subcommandante Marcos and Comandante David write:

Indigenous Brothers and Sisters of Mexico:
In this, the seventh year of the war against oblivion, we repeat who we are.
We are wind, we are. Not the breast that breathes for us.
We are word, we are. Not the lips which speak to us.
We are steps, we are. Not the foot that moves us.
We are heartbeat, we are. Not the foot that moves us.
We are a bridge, we are. Not the lands that form a union.
We are road, we are. Not the point or arrival or departure.
We are place, we are. Not those who occupy that place.

We do not exist, we are. We only are.
Seven times we are. Seven times we are.
We are the reflection, we are.
The hand that just opened the window, we are.
We are the timid knock at the door of tomorrow.

So begins the amazing Questions and Swords: Folktales of the Zapatista Revolution. Once again, Subcommandante Marcos and the incomparable Don Antonio color our minds, hearts and souls with their beautiful folktales. Don Antonio tells of Votan Zapata, a story of water winning over sword, and the story of questions with such simple beauty and grace that they pack a powerful punch. The artwork of Domitila Dominguez, the indigenous Oaxacan woman is luminous, primitive and astounding. With essays by Native American poet Simon Ortiz and the incomparable Elena Poniatowska, Mexico's grand dame of letters, the book is a revolution that you hold in your hands. It teaches, it entertains, it enlightens. Once again, Cinco Puntos Press and the Colectivo Callejero have worked together to bring these powerful works, our history
to the light.
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Xispas Columnist Gina "Mar y Sol" Ruiz is a Danzante Azteca, writer and activist