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In the book, Rain of Gold Victor Villasenior recounts his family's struggles when they leave Mexico. Some of the major struggles were not when they arrived in California but when they were in Mexico beginning in Los Altos de Jalisco and on to Chihuahua and at the borders with Mexico/United States.
He gives such vivid and compelling stories of the hardships they encountered all along the way. He describes how the Americans who ran the mines exploited the natives and how the mothers and abuelas managed to hold the families together when the men left to come to the US in search of a better life. I think most of us can relate to this either as a personal experience or experienced by our parents, grandparents or great grandparents.
I highly recommend this book to all of you if you haven't already read it. See comments below from Amazon.com.
Alicia
From Publishers WeeklyNovelist ( Macho ) and screenwriter Villasenor recounts the adventures and struggles of three generations of his family in this earthy Mexican American saga. His father, Juan Salvador, who fled a Mexico torn by revolution, was imprisoned at the Arizona state penitentiary at age 12 for stealing $6 worth of ore from the mine where he worked. He escaped. The author's mother, Lupe, was born in an exploitative U.S.-run gold mine in Mexico, where her brother was narrowly saved from hanging by their gutsy mother, a Yaqui Indian. Juan and Lupe bought a pool hall in the barrio of Carlsbad, Calif., the year Prohibition ended. Villasenor is a born storyteller, and this Latino Roots , though marred at times by sentimentality and cliches, is a gripping, inspirational epic full of wild adventure, bootlegging, young love, miracles, tragedies, murder and triumph over cultural barriers. 30,000 first printing; $60,000 ad/promo; TV rights to PBS.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.From Library JournalAdvertised as the Hispanic-American Roots , Rain of Gold is the story of three generations of the author's family's migration from revolutionary Mexico in the 20th century to California. But Rain of Gold is no Roots and Villasenor is not Alex Haley. His style is naive and disturbing--he ranges back and forth between his family's historical past and a more contemporary setting. Nevertheless, there is good material in this oral history. Villasenor blends family stories and tales handed down through generations into an uneven narrative but a text which is credible social history. The most visible persona is the author's mother Lupe, who grew up among
soldiers and moved North from her native La Lluvia de Ora, the Mexican gold mine operated by omnipresent American economic colonial interests. The final episodes concern the family's transformation from rural Mexico to heavily Hispanic-populated California. The result is a narrative which reflects the true social fabric of Mexican Americans. Not all the publishers claim, but still recommended for most libraries. A six-hour Corporation for Public Broadcasting series is planned for 1993. - Boyd Childress, Auburn Univ. Lib., Ala.Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.![]() See all Editorial Reviews
Emilie Garcia <auntyemfaustus@...> wrote:
Alberto,
My husband Tony was the great-grandson of guero espanol-mexicanos from Jalisco who did well after settling in El Paso after 1895. They owned grocery stores, butcher shops, taxi companies, bakeries and auto repair shops. Had his parents not divorced, he would still be there attending Catholic schools and colleges, like his cousins who have remained there to this day and are teachers and engineers, etc. Only his great-great-grandfather, his second wife, and one son moved to Los Angeles in 1930. Tony tells me that his life in El Paso was great. He lived like a little prince, and all that came to an end when his mother became a single mom with three kids in Northern California.
Yes, lots of families moved to California in the twenties, thirties and forties and after after the war.(WWII) My father who had immigrated from Jerez, Zac. moved us from our farm in Colorado to Northern California (San Jose) in 1947 where he could work as a welder for Westinghouse and make good money.
I think Tony told me that his father, Enrique Garcia, had known Anthony Quinn and Gilbert Roland (that wasn't his real name) back in the 1920's in El Paso and Juarez right before those guys came to California. Those two actors started out in silent films and met with lots of prejudice at times, but they persevered. I told Tony that he and his brother could have been movie stars too, since they were tall and better looking than any of those others who have made it in the entertainment world, ha, ha. Yes, one just needs the right environment and the luck and help from the right sources in order to succeed.
Emilie Garcia
Port Orchard, WA.
----- Original Message -----
From: Alberto Duarte
Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2005 7:43 AM
To: ranchos@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [ranchos] Pinole
We lived in a one room apartment near Washington Park,
across the street from St. Xavier Catholic church.
The apartment was a dump (dirt floors) with the
bathroom aside shared with other tenants. We were a
very poor family, there were six of us counting my
grandmother.
El Paso at that time offered zero opportunities for
Mexican-Americans, so my dad moved all of us the Los
Angeles. There were many families from El Paso that
moved to Los Angeles back in the early '40s, including
one by the name of Antony Quinn who later won a couple
of Oscars-you see, we can make it if only given the
opportunity.
Alberto.
--- Margarita Vallazza <TeaCozyGran@...> wrote:
> Where did you live in El Paso at that time? I lived
> across from Sacred
> Heart Church and School for the first 8 years of my
> life. As a kid, I
> hated going across the border because it was
so
> unfamiliar to be and
> because of all the noise, the exotic odors, the
> beggars, and the
> language I was always afraid, although no one
> would have harmed me
> but that's how I was then. Now, I can appreciate
> everything about it,
> including the interesting architecture. Marge:)
>
> On Jun 27, 2005, at 4:03 PM, Alberto Duarte wrote:
>
> > Good and sad times:
> > We also went to the Marcado in Juarez back in the
> > early '50sÃ? My mom would buy dry goods which
> were
> > really expensive for us to buy in the United
> States
> > (Los Angeles).Ã? Would you believe that we also
> > purchased young parrots and smuggled them across
> to El
> > Paso!Ã? Later on this turned out to be a sad
> > remembrance for me, when I found out that
>
thousands,
> > maybe millions, of the these beautiful birds were
> > wiped out of the rain forests in Mexico, just
> because
> > of greed and ignorance.
> >
> > Alberto.
> >
> > --- Margarita Vallazza <TeaCozyGran@...>
> wrote:
> >
> > > When I was a kid, we would cross the border
> into
> > > Juarez with my aunts
> > > and mother to go shopping at the Mercado, and
> one of
> > > the merchants had
> > > a display of pinoleÃ? It was sold in paper
> > > cones--sometimes piÃ?Æ?Ã?±ata-type
> > > paper and sometimes newspaper.Ã? I liked
> it...didn't
> > > get it too often,
> > > though.Ã? Marge:)
> > > On Jun 27, 2005, at 11:03 AM, Irma
GomezLucero
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > Ã?â??Ã? Pinole is great with a little milk--sort
> of a
> > > mush.Ã?â??Ã? Love it for
> > > >Ã? breakfast.Ã?â??Ã? Has anyone heard the
> following
> > > _expression_:
> > > >
> > > >Ã? Ã?â??Ã? Ã?â??Ã? Ã?â??Ã? Ã?â??Ã? Ã?â??Ã? El que tiene mas
> saliva, come mas
> > > pinole.
> > > >
> > > >Ã? Sorry didn't use accents even after the
> flood of
> > > emails on the
> > > > subject.Ã?â??Ã? My
> > > >Ã? engineer and architect cousins from Mexico
> D.F.
> > > don't either in their
> > > >Ã? letters to me. When asked about this,
they
> > > responded that they knew
> > > > how to
> > > >Ã? pronounce the words without the accents,
> etc.,
> > > >
> > > >Ã? -----Original Message-----
> > > >Ã? From: lrapido [mailto:1gnzlz@...]
> > > >Ã? Sent: Saturday, June 25, 2005 4:35 PM
> > > >Ã? To: ranchos@yahoogroups.com
> > > >Ã? Subject: [ranchos] Pinole
> > > >
> > > >Ã? Talking about food...
> > > >Ã? I wonder how many of our members have heard
> of
> > > "Pinole" ? Pinole is a
> > > > high
> > > >Ã? energy food made from dry roasted corn
> ground-up
> > > and mixed with brown
> > > >
sugar
> > > >Ã? (Piloncillo, o panocha) and cinnamon and
> > > sometimes either lemon or
> > > > orange
> > > >Ã? peel for flavoring. The Tarahumara indians
> of
> > > Chihuahua use it as a
> > > > staple
> > > >Ã? food. Tarahumaras are basically
> vegetarians, with
> > > meat accounting for
> > > > about
> > > >Ã? less than 10% of their diet. They eat
> Pinole it
> > > or drink it ( can be
> > > > mixed
> > > >Ã? with water or ? ) before they run the ultra
> > > marathons.Ã?â??Ã? Pinole is a
> > > > very
> > > >Ã? convinient high energy food because in its
> powder
> > > form can keep
for
> > > > months.
> > > >Ã? It is carried in a pouch during long trips
> and is
> > > used to sometimes
> > > > replace
> > > >Ã? whole meals. The Tarahumaras are
> universally
> > > known as runners.
> > > > Tarahumaras
> > > >Ã? have run the 100 mile marathon from Nevada
> to
> > > California.Ã?â??Ã? They think
> > > >Ã? nothing of running 50 miles or more to go
> visit
> > > friends or relatives
> > > > in a
> > > >Ã? distant village.Ã?â??Ã? When was the last time
> you did
> > > that!
> > > >Ã? They hunt by running animals until the
> animal
> > > gets tired and gives
>
> > > up. That
> > > >Ã? includes deer, rabbits and whatever animal
> they
> > > choose to chase.
> > > >Ã? Pinole is very sweet and very tasty. Try
> it, next
> > > time you go to
> > > > Mexico, or
> > > >Ã? better yet, make your own! In Mexico it is
> sold
> > > at just about any
> > > > grocery
> > > >Ã? store, kids love it, just make sure you
> plan a
> > > high energy activity
> > > > for
> > > >Ã? them. If you are runner or into high energy
> > > sports, you should give
> > > > it a
> > > >Ã? try.
> > > >
> > > >Ã? John Gonzalez
> > >
>
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >Ã? Yahoo! Groups Links
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
> > > >
> > > > Ã? Ã? Ã? Ã? Ã? Ã?¢ââ?¬â??Ã?ª Ã? Ã? Ã? Ã? Ã? Ã?â??Ã? Visit your
> group "ranchos" on the web.
> > > > Ã?â??Ã?
> > > > Ã? Ã? Ã? Ã? Ã? Ã?¢ââ?¬â??Ã?ª Ã? Ã? Ã? Ã? Ã? Ã?â??Ã? To
> unsubscribe from this group, send an
> > > email to:
> > > >
Ã?â??Ã? ranchos-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
> > > > Ã?â??Ã?
> > > > Ã? Ã? Ã? Ã? Ã? Ã?¢ââ?¬â??Ã?ª Ã? Ã? Ã? Ã? Ã? Ã?â??Ã? Your use of
> Yahoo! Groups is subject to
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> > > > Service.
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
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>
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