Malinche's Children

Title: Malinche's Children
Author: Houston-Davila, David
Place of Publication: USA
Company: Association of American University Presses

Reason, Type and Setting: I selected this book after a close friend of mine referred this book to me. Her teacher is in fact the author of this book at El Camino College in Torrance and this was a book that they were assigned to read. That being said, this book is geared for more of an adult audience since there are some scenes that are a bit explicit. This novel is categorized under historical fiction. This book is a compilation of vignettes broken down into chapters with their titles being the years from 1900 to the last chapter being 1994. It deals with the lives of the Mexican-American immigrants living in Carmelas, California.

Plot: This book is an overall account of the people's lives and problems happening in the small town of Carmelas, which was named after the main character himself, Arnulfo Carmelas. Each vignette is a story of some different character's life and has it's own individual plot. Each chapter is taken place in a different time period and has it's own individual conflict happening between the years of 1900 onward to 1994. One plot story in particular that I found interesting takes place in the vignette entitled Whatever Lola Wants 1934. During that time period, Hollywood was very big and there were many stars that are considered legends today. Unlike her other neighbors in Carmelas, Lola was the only Mexican-American young girl who was able to go to an eilte school with her friend Sandy Hinton, whose parents favored Lola. So during this time, Lola is 18 and against her parents wishes, she sneaks out and ventures off with Sandy to extra in a movie. Though she does end up being a small time actress, she consequently loses the trust of her family and loses her friend Sandy.

Character: Arnulfo Carmelas in the very first chapter, Taking Root 1900, is 45 years old and is married to Gloria Peralta who is left in Mazatlan, Mexico with their children. During this time he had been working for 10 years at Norwalk under Mr. Hinton's farm. He is very hardworking, considering that his job is very laborious. Arnulfo is also very brave, when Mr. Hinton's son fell into the river Arnulfo quickly jumped into the river to save Mr. Hinton's son and in turn, Mr. Hinton gave Arnulfo a piece of land of his choice which thus became the town of Carmelas. Throughout the novel, Arnulfo is the sole founder of this town where all these people are connected in some way with each other and Arnulfo is the constant person whose always been in the town of Carmelas.

Evaluation: I liked how the novel was broken down into small short stories and was during different time periods because although it is in the same town of Carmelas the whole setting in general, with the time period is entirely different and the author gives a feel of what it was like durin those times. I'd say that the book was interesting and informed me a lot of the Mexican-American culture, but I felt a bit uncomfortable reading the book which I think should be geared more for adults and those who can understand general Spanish. The book was very explicit when it came to profanity and sexual scenes that went on, but it was a recurring theme in the book my friend who referred to me said. Also, throughout the novel, there are many phrases that are in Spanish and may be troublesome to those who do not understand basic Spanish.

Author, Context and Trivia: David Houston-Davila has not written other books aside from Malinche's Children but I do know some facts about him since my friend personally knows him as a teacher at El Camino College in Torrance and from going on his website. He is first-generation here in the US, as well as I, and comes from a Mexican mother and Scottish father. I have read a book somewhat like this named House on Mango Street which does have vignettes but it follows one character constantly rather than various peoples stories and is of Mexican-American culture. I really like this style of vignettes and I would like to read more novels like this.