In Search of Bernabe

by Graciela Limón

Fiction. A novel that humanizes political turmoil of contemporary Central America, IN SEARCH OF BERNABE was the winner of the 1994 American Book Award. Other novels by Graciela Limon carried by SPD include THE DAY OF THE MOON, ERASED FACES, SONG OF THE HUMMINGBIRD, and THE MEMORIES OF ANA CALDERON.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction

168 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1993

About the author

Graciela Limón is the author of eight widely read novels: In Search of Bernabé, The Memories of Ana Calderón, The Song of the Hummingbird, Day of the Moon, Erased Faces, Left Alive, The River Flows North and The Madness of Mamá Carlota. Her writing has received reviews from Publishers Weekly, library Journals and scholarly journals. The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Houston Chronicle and other leading newspapers have reviewed her work, as well as several anthologies. She was the recipient of the prestigious award for U.S. Literature: The Luis Leal Literary Award. The Los Angeles Times listed her as a notable writer for the year 1993. The Life of Ximena Godoy is due to be published in the spring of 2015. Graciela was born in Los Angeles, California, where she has resided until recently relocating to Simi Valley, California. Los Angeles plays a major role in many of her novels.

Reviews

[Ellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another Masters read :)

[Jmlatlit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Graciela Limón’s In Search of Bernabé provides an intrepid mare-scape of El Salvador’s civil war during the 1980s and its attendant atrocities through the strivings and failures of a family cursed by both incest and the times.
Its minimalist structure is never obscurant. This can be seen as both a note of praise and critique, for little is left open-ended. But then neither is the sum violence of the war. Its repercussions on the individuals engaged in it, with intent or as civilians, are patently horrific.
We can guess from page one how the search for Bernabé will end, and this adds to both the hope his mother stands for and the already tragic nature of her quest. We can also assume that if evil takes a formative lifetime to come to fruition, a last minute peripeteia will not alter its continued proliferations.

[Landon Menze · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this novel. Though blunt the language hits you hard. Gives a gut punching account of the fear and turmoil in late 1980s El Salvador.

[Viviana Nunez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Work of art. The ending felt unsatisfactory, unfinished.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this is an important book for understanding the displaced, it didn't impress on me the way that some other similar books have. I'm not sure why. I would still, however, recommend reading it to anyone who seeks to understand the violence that so many people go through in many different places (it all bears a similar theme), people that seek asylum, who are running, who have been separated from loved ones, and people who are just searching for home and identity and peace. Understanding breeds compassion.

[Omar Farooqi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Graciela Limon's narrative In Search of Bernabe, is a harrowing tale that centers around a woman named Luz Delcano, who must search for her son in the aftermath of the assassination of the Archbishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador. The plight of the protagonist, often referred to as an odyssey, is captured in the narrative as we follow Luz from her home in San Salvador to Mexico the United States and back, all in the search of her missing son Bernabe amidst the turmoil of an afflicted and battle torn nation.

The narrative focus does not linger on Luz herself, but shifts through various characters, offering vantage points and varying perspectives while telling a singular narrative of affliction, tragedy and complexity. That the author is able to interweave through various perspectives and characters while retaining narrative focus is a particular strength, and the narrative itself benefits from Limon's direction. The use of biblical allusion throughout the entirety of the text as a resonating theme may prove effective for some, while seeming as a forced distraction for others. I personally found my position to lie in the latter category of this criticism, but in no way does that hamper the effectiveness of the narrative, telling a complex tale that asks us to question the relative nature of man's sins, and in the end much like the character's themselves, whether or not we deserve absolution.

[Mahfuza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Graciela Limon delivers the raw portrait of a tortured soul, a mother in search of her son. The strong female protagonist Luz Delcano is an intricate work of art. She is the medium through which this history is told, the history of a family, of female oppression, of being born poor. Through her we experience violence both physical and emotional, we feel the dying of a nation and the struggle to survive within it. She is also the glue that brings together three other characters that help shape her story: her two sons, who happen to be on opposite sides of a war, and a crooked priest who she confides in and then later leads him to his salvation. The stories of these four characters are cosmically intertwined.

Taking place in the years after the funeral of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, Limon depicts a scene of constant turmoil, death, destruction and ultimately fear that is heavy in the El Salvador air during this brutal civil war. She writes her novel with ample suspense, ensuring that the reader will not be able to put the book down until they have read the very last page. All things considered, In Search of Bernabe is a wonderfully rich text, but the overarching religious allusions were in my opinion it’s only downfall, as it restricts the reader to view and link events biblically.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Graciela Limons novel uses the Salvadorian Civil War as a backdrop to tell the story of a sacrifices, brutalities and deaths that occurred from 1979 to 1992. Readers follow the protagonist Luz Declano as she journeys from El Salvador to Mexico to Los Angeles and back home as she searches for her son Bernabe. The entire novel though does not center around Luz journey for Limons also tells the story of Luz sons but does it in a way to show the relating pain they seem to share and bear in the absence of each other.

Much of the novels attention, though not prominent at first glance, focuses on the laments of Chileans mothers as they watch their children die in their arms in addition (but more so towards the end of the novel) to the contradictory intents of the church, or certain members of it, whom have a great deal of power in their hands. Limon also forces us readers to look and analyze the ways in which not only the soldiers of the wars are affected but also the ways in which the armed guerrilla forces, who are often perceived as the fighting people/ underdogs, are not much different from the uniformed soldiers in their methods of brutality and torture. This book is an easy, and although it doesnt provide a happy ending at all I found it to more enjoyable in being so realistic.

[Shanti Doobay · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Graciela Limóns, In Search of Bernabé, the reader is introduced to the life of Luz Delcano, the protagonist who will prove her strength and determination throughout the book. We learn of each of the characters as Limón switches not only from past to present, but from thoughts of remembrance to confessions. Her ability to present these characters’ challenges and feelings with detail, emotion and imagery leaves the reader in suspense. Limón also introduces history through the characters perspectives, which does not only inform the reader of particular historical events, but the manner in which she does this allows the reader to visualize and understand emotionally what is/was reality for many individuals.
As the book progresses, we see how the characters have matured and/or changed as a result of the horrific shooting at the funeral of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero. This text presents the idea of violence as a cycle that engulfs anyone filled with anger, hatred, and pain at the loss of loved ones. On the contrary, it also illustrates hope, faith and acceptance. While some of the outcomes are anticipated the way in which Limón presents the reality of these characters is commendable.

[Jkhyvfdfcbn khkjh · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Search of Bernabe is a heartbreaking novel that tells the story of a tortured mother in her endless search of her son in the midst of the chaos in El Salvador during the 1980s. The narrator that Limón provides readers tells the story in a beautiful simplistic way, suggesting that the narration is that of a literal translation of Spanish without the grammar errors. Limón does not only play around with language, but with perspective by using various characters’ point of view. Somehow, each character in the novel is interlocked in this sick and twisted way. By providing these different vantage points, the author helps readers understand the complexity of the frenzied emotions that many natives and residents of El Salvador felt during this horrific moment that would become history.

The novel seems interested in theme like the importance of church in the Latin American community, repentance from sin, mother-and-son relationships, ideas about family, civil strife and tumult, death, and rape. In Search of Bernabe is a book that keeps the reader turning the page, looking for their hunger of suspense to be fed. The novel is a sensational view into the struggle of many Latin American countries that have suffered from tremendous civil strife as El Salvador has.

[Anthea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Graciela Limon depicts a horrifically realistic account of a mother who loses her child amidst a war. In losing Bernabe, Luz Delcano travels north reaching all the way to Los Angeles and back to El Salvador in search for her son. During her journey, Limon introduces the multiple faces of war by giving the many different yet similar accounts of those who have been affected. Luz encounters sons, priests, mothers and soldiers along her journey, revealing for the reader the realistic truth that good and evil are not as equally divided as we would like to think.

Limon also introduces religious themes in her novel, retelling the story of Christ, Virgin Mary, Cain and Abel throughout Luz’s journey. By incorporating religious themes, the story acquires an underlying tone of redemption, betrayal, and salvation. All in all, In Search of Bernabe is a great novel that will enlighten its readers on the hopeful yet dark truths of war and love.

[Deanna Shelor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heard Limon read a passage from this book at a conference in Houston in 1998. Her courage in carrying out her research and her candid protrayal of El Salvador during the early ninties' rebellion impressed me tremendously. This is a gripping tale.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed the story and the message.

[Cory Resendiz]

My book is in the search of bernabe. The authoris Graciela limon is book was originally published in 1993. Well the settings are El Salvador Baja California los angeles. The characters are bernabe delcano luz priest and more people but they are the main characters.my opinion of the book it was a pretty good book i liked the story the it gave to me i would recommend this book to my classmates.
Bernabe is lost and everyone is trying to find her i think she was taken by the death squad a group of El Salvadorans so bernabe family is trying to find her and their family is going through all of salvador and Mexico and California.
My overall opinion on this book is that this was a really good book to being with and it has very unique story i never heard story like this like i said i would recommend this book to classmates. I would rate this book 7/10 it had an amazing story my closing thoughts on this book is that you would have to read this to you can hear the amazing story.

[Natalie]

I took a whole month to write a review for this book, and I still have no idea how to rate it. Mainly, it's because my thoughts are summarized in a simple statement: this book was very upsetting. I can't objectively rate it because of how difficult I found the reading experience to be. Let me elaborate on that.

Almost from page one, I wanted to stop reading this book. The very beginning of this novel has a rape scene involving a grandfather and their grandchild, and it was so disturbing that it fucked with my reading experience from the get go. It didn't exactly get any better after that. It was just more pain and suffering explained in excruciating detail, and it almost drove me mad. While I read it, it felt like torture porn for me. There was too much of it, and it did feel a bit gratuitous. Maybe I was just too sensitive for it. I was reading this for class towards the end of my uni semester, and my anxiety was at an all-time high. This book did not help at all with my anxiety. It made it quite worse.

My next point will probably fall under spoilers, so read at your own discretion.

It really bothered me that this book had the trope that children that are born of some sort of incestuous relationship are bound to be evil. It rubbed me the wrong way. I know part of the point the author was trying to make was that if the character had grown up in a more nurturing environment he might have been different, but it still remains that he falls into the trope. It wasn't his fault how he was conceived! I'm sick and tired of authors making these kinds of children all fucked up and evil. Like, what the fuck kind of message is that? I don't want it.

Regardless, I genuinely appreciated what the author was trying to do with Luz and Father Hugh. The two of them were genuinely interesting characters with character arcs I respected. Luz went through hell, and it made me sick to my stomach to follow her experiences, but I understood what the author was trying to do by making her go through so many ordeals. On the other hand, the critique the author was doing with Father Hugh's character was fantastic. I thought it was rather effective.

Finally, I think this is genuinely one of the few books I've read that I felt relieved when it was over. I finished it faster than I had scheduled because I just wanted to be done with it. The in-class discussions on it made me appreciate a bit more what was going on in this book, but I still thought it was far too disturbing to handle.

To be honest, I'll be more than happy if I never read this book again. I can see why it has merit in Latinx literature, but it doesn't mean I have to want to read it again. Sure, I didn't read this while in the proper head-space, but I don't care. I don't want to risk reading this again and being even more upset.