Guardians (07) by Castillo, Ana [Paperback (2008)]

by Ana Castillo

Guardians (07) by Castillo, Ana [Paperback (2008)]

Genres: Fiction, School, American, Literary Fiction, Latinx, Literature, Read For School

Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Ana Castillo (June 15, 1953-) is a celebrated and distinguished poet, novelist, short story writer, essayist, editor, playwright, translator and independent scholar. Castillo was born and raised in Chicago. She has contributed to periodicals and on-line venues (Salon and Oxygen) and national magazines, including More and the Sunday New York Times. Castillo’s writings have been the subject of numerous scholarly investigations and publications. Among her award winning, best sellling titles: novels include So Far From God, The Guardians and Peel My Love like an Onion, among other poetry: I Ask the Impossible. Her novel, Sapogonia was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. She has been profiled and interviewed on National Public Radio and the History Channel and was a radio-essayist with NPR in Chicago. Ana Castillo is editor of La Tolteca, an arts and literary ‘zine dedicated to the advancement of a world without borders and censorship and was on the advisory board of the new American Writers Museum, which opened its door in Chicago, 2017. In 2014 Dr. Castillo held the Lund-Gil Endowed Chair at Dominican University, River Forest, IL and served on the faculty with Bread Loaf Summer Program (Middlebury College) in 2015 and 2016. She also held the first Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Endowed Chair at DePaul University, The Martin Luther King, Jr Distinguished Visiting Scholar post at M.I.T. and was the Poet-in-Residence at Westminster College in Utah in 2012, among other teaching posts throughout her extensive career. Ana Castillo holds an M.A from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D., University of Bremen, Germany in American Studies and an honorary doctorate from Colby College. She received an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation for her first novel, The Mixquiahuala Letters. Her other awards include a Carl Sandburg Award, a Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in fiction and poetry. She was also awarded a 1998 Sor Juana Achievement Award by the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum in Chicago. Dr. Castillo’s So Far From God and Loverboys are two titles on the banned book list controversy with the TUSD in Arizona. 2013 Recipient of the American Studies Association Gloria Anzaldúa Prize to an independent scholar. via www.anacastillo.net

Reviews

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm teaching Castillo in one of my classes. She's coming to campus to speak, and she'll also come to my class to speak to my students. We also read a collection of her poems (I Ask the Impossible) and a story collection (Loverboys). She fills all of her work with strong, quirky, flawed characters. She explores sexuality, identity, relationships in surprisingly fun, funny and heart-wrenching ways.

If you'd like to know what life on the border is like for many people, read this book. The only flaw, and it's such a problem that I almost gave this book 3 stars instead of 4, is the ending. It's rushed. The climax is summarized instead of experienced. However, upon reflection, I thought so many other aspects of the book are so excellent that I bumped it up to a 4.

[Lungstrum Smalls · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't realize how much I was craving a book with real characters--sloppy and contradictory and quirky and small and powerless and powerful and kind--until I started reading this one. I love how the story, while ostensibly focusing on a disappearance, is really about the everyday struggles and triumphs of these people who live on the borders of nation-states, of gang warfare, of police brutality, of Christianity and colonialism, of racism, and of so many other BIG issues. It's a powerful reminder of how, despite the enormity of the problems in the world, it always comes down to us, to our small daily lives, how we treat each other, how we think of ourselves, and how we band together (or don't) to confront the oppressive forces around us.

[Elizabeth Cottrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Goodreads.com site description of this book was quite detailed, so I won't attempt to get into the narrative in this review, except to say that Castillo clearly has well-honed story-telling gifts.

The characters were well-developed, and their "voices" were unique and authentic. The author sprinkled Spanish words mixed with English in the characters' dialogue, and while this was occasionally annoying in the same way that it takes concentration and effort to understand a person with a heavy foreign accent on the phone, it did ring true.

I disagree with one reviewer's use of the word "rollicking" to describe this story. That, to me, would imply something fast and fun, but I felt this story was too dark to fit that description.

I came away feeling as though I had a much more accurate and informed picture of what life is like for Hispanics who live along the New Mexico/Mexico border, and for the challenges they face, both emotionally and economically. Whether they are legal or illegal, they are often the victims of the Mexican drug cartels and those who get paid to help people cross the border (but who may subject them to inhumane conditions or leave them to die instead) as well as victims of prejudice and xenophobia on the U. S. side. The heartache of families divided between two countries was well conveyed.

[Kamala]

I've taught this and other of Ana Castillo's texts and am currently preparing a paper in which the book figures prominantly. One major draw is the way The Guardians (and most of Ana's work) lives in the (borderlands) reality in which the story is set. The perspective, in this case dispersed between four main characters, is from within lived experience. To me, the Spanish is integral to that aspect of the text, and I love that about it. I appreciate codeswitching because,even if there is a distancing for those without the vocabulary, it makes the text, and our relationship to it, more honest, imo. It allows me to realize I don't know everything about what I am reading. It gives me some humility and perspective. It does the necessary work of suspending and questioning my "belief."

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I struggled with this book for the first half because of the mixture of Spanish words with English words even though I know this is how Mexican immigrants speak--in that combination. I also caught covid while reading which definitely affected my concentration level. It's a short novel and should have been easy to finish in a few days; it took me three weeks!
Eventually, fortunately, I began to relate to the characters, especially the teenagers, who remind me of Mexican students I taught and opened my eyes to the lives they lived outside of school. I am always a little ashamed and always appalled at how the United States can treat anyone, let alone children, like nobodies simply because they are not "white," born in the United States, and poor.
I love the characters in The Guardians and empathize and agonize about their lives and sorrows. Castillo says the characters represent any of the millions of immigrants who cross the border, searching for a better life.
I recommend this book because it's a good story, and because it's eye-opening reality.

[Christine Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book on the strength of a recommendation from my daughter, who enjoyed it during a Southwestern Literature class at her university. I've read oodles of SW lit, but somehow, I've never met with a text by Ana Castillo. Now, I'm glad I did.

The book is compelling; multiple narrators, each with his/her own developed and unique characters, draw the reader through the text:

Regina, the virgin bride (Mary?), who is going through "the change", seems to bestow blessings on everyone and everything she touches, from a rich garden in the desert to a saintly nephew she has parented. Everyone in the book admires Regina, but she is meek and mild and self deprecating. She just doesn't see it.

Miguel, the guardian "archangel", the protester, the activist, is the patron saint of lost causes from his failed marriage to his perceived failure at getting his students to understand the power of history. He admires the wonder that is Regina and adopts her lost cause of finding her brother, while also ruminating on his own politics and the bigger picture.

Gabo, the child-saint, is the sacrificial scapegoat whose powerful devotion to his religion rules his life. His actions are reminiscent of Jesus: washing Regina's feet, adopting a criminal gangster as a friend, confronting the devil and overcoming his own temptation. Having lost a mother to a violent end crossing the border and lost a father who is missing after crossing the border, he stands alone with a small group of adults to try to contain him while he tries to find a way to save them all...spiritually.

El Abuelo Milton, the comic relief, is also like a Greek chorus that speaks wisdom. Blind (during the day only) and essentially deaf (he speaks in capital letters), he is the keeper of experience--the one who kept a saloon for decades along this wild area and who knows how to negotiate it. He adopts them all: he sees Regina's beauty (even though he cannot see), and he becomes Gabo's abuelo as well. He is the one who keeps the faith in the search for the missing, the one who pulls them all out of their darkest hours.

The book is dark...no doubt. The loss of people along the border, those who are disappeared, and the violence of the gangs and cartels all weave their way into the tale. But there is a lightness as well--El Abuelo Milton yelling at a ficus when he's talking to Regina is one of my favorite scenes. And the movement of the novel from dark to light, from violence to romance, from hopelessness to hope, is what made it compelling to me.

No spoilers here, but I will say this regarding the ending; I knew it was coming, just from the patterns on which the characters were developed, but it still saddened me. However, there is hope at the end and a feeling that life does go on. There. That's all you get. Now, go read it.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is contemporary literary fiction. I'm generally more of a genre reader. I'm pleased to say that this book actually works as entertainment. It took me a couple chapters to mesh with Castillo's writing style, but once I started to hear the dialog in my head with a heavy accent, it flowed just fine.

About halfway through the book, I was certain that the book was going to be one huge diatribe along the really stereotypical bleeding-heart doom path I expect from contemporary literary fiction. But I was wrong.

Castillo might share the opinions of some of these characters. But it's not blatantly obvious. These characters are very real, flawed people with their own opinions - some strong, some not. In particular, there were several moments where characters acted hypocritically. This assured me that Castillo was not preaching through the mouths of fictional entities. Hooray!

Some of this book may stick with me. It was unusual enough and I don't read a lot of things like it. Only time will tell if it continues to speak to me.

[Kate Savage · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a shockingly brutal book. If it were written in the style of Cormac McCarthy I would have seen it coming, I would have steeled my heart against it. But throughout it is full of whimsy and antics and I thought everything would more or less work out.

I think there's something really true about this, about how life is all of these things, and when the worst happens you're never prepared for it.

[Phillip Cicero · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful story of life on the borderlands. Heartwarming, traumatic, and very, very real.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tia Regina is a woman who's sort of made it in a humble way, but as a child she became humble in a tragic way. She's an odd duck, but it works (except that Miguel is constantly awed by her stunning beauty. I understand that it's hard assess one's own hotness, but if she is as gorgeous as Miguel thinks she is, it seems like more doors should have opened to her). Regina settled in New Mexico, went to the community college, became an educational assistant at the high school, she's quite self-satisfied about it all, and her nephew is staying with her so he can focus on his education and not shuttle back and forth across the border with his father, who, at the beginning of the book, may or may not be dead. Regina, while pleased that she's managed to go from migrant laborer to teacher's aide, is awed by the teachers and their education and believes they can do anything, so she shyly asks the teacher with the ponytail- Miguel- to help her find her brother. He is thrilled to help this goddess (his words), and they end up entwined in a novel about culture, class, family, and the border. The POV characters are Regina, her St. Francis-wannabe nephew Gabo, Miguel, who provides the political exposition, and Miguel's grandpa, who talks a lot about how things used to be.

Production-wise, this was an interesting trip to a time when books were still on tape, 9-11 had just happened, Miguel has a cellphone, and the internet exists but people only use it to look things up on special occasions. The audio has a tape cassette quality to it and someone missed removing one "turn tape over" when it was switched to digital. Ana Castillo does the reading and she's spectacular. If you like early Barbara Kingsolver, this is that and then some.

The ending was confusing and the denouement seemed to have two conflicting scenarios happen subsequently, but it was also sad and wrapped things up in a way that made a point, I guess. Still a good book.

[Onome · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading Ana Castillo was quite an experience. I would not say the book is a 5 star read but one thing is clear, there are so many issues around immigration especially US and Mexico. The morality of it and the legality of it. I feel that it is this delicate balance that has not been fully reached that has caused a lot of political tension. Quite tragic too...

The story dragged and I believe that the plot would have been tighter. It read most like a social commentary than a novel. It had potential but there was a miss somewhere.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Certainly compelling, but the narrative style (all first person, from the POV of numerous characters) was a bit jarring. It also forced me to rack my brain and even pick up a Spanish dictionary at one point, since I wanted to be absolutely certain that I was reading the frequently interspersed Spanish words correctly.

That, more than anything, was the reason I gave this three stars. While I appreciate what the author was trying to do, the assumption that readers would be able to skim over unknown words was a little much. There were a number of times where meaning wasn't entirely clear through context, and that, I think, detracted quite a bit from the book.

[J.M. Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful read; tender, funny, dead-on, sharp. It's all the things that make a book its own separate and valid world, a place that you fall into, where you meet new people that you will love and hate. Each time that I read this novel, I cry and scream, and in my mind, I rewrite the characters' fates over and over again. "Ay, mi muchacho!" And Regina and I light a candle for the soul departed, and wish that it could be different, and in the aftermath of knowing that nothing can be changed that has already passed, we struggle to make a difference for those who remain. My most recent re-read was June 25, 2015.

[Cynthia Ortega · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read for a book club, and struggle to get through it. The characters were not very believable. The story is about borders and migration, the struggles of Chicanos in the USA, and family loss. There was so much story that could have been written. The author throws in Spanish, with not a lot of translations so may slow your reading down if you aren't fluent in Spanish. The words used in Spanish were not that meaningful and didn't really impact the book in regards to building culture. Not my fave and will say it wasn't well written.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a heartbreaking account of Mexican familes (both illegal immigrants and third generation) who live in a border town. I loved the characters in this book although something about the writing was not compelling.

[Sierra Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is a fantastic portrayal of Southwest culture, and especially for that within New Mexico. The psychological impact the text exemplifies through the characters of Tia Regina and Gabo, and even through Abuelo Milton. The mental scarring Regina has from losing person after person in her life is present in how comfortable she feels in being alone and how desperately she holds onto the last person left, Gabo. Her character, though seeming to belong to a different book entirely (a rom-com book, where the biggest misfortune is the girl doesn't get the guy of her dreams), is humane and well-thought out, even if at times she does act out. However, that is when she is the most human of a character, when her fears reach her, and she acts without thinking prior because that is what everyone does. She represents that part of the population that tries to live a life considered "normal" by traditional Western standards. As for Gabo, he represents the portion of the community that turns to religion to take refuge in when times of strife arrive, but he is a very extreme example. Abuelo Milton is the last part of the puzzle, where he is the population that has accepted the violence that happens around him, and chooses to live with it, to integrate gunshots and murders into the normal environment of the corner of the world he inhabits. The very idea "not my business" is what Abuelo Milton represents.
I used this book as part of my essay for my Southwest Literature course in how violence is normalized in the American Southwest and Borderlands, and this book does an extremely excellent job of having violence present but not making it the forefront of the story. There is always something else that is happening, always another conversation to be had before addressing what is happening in the background.
My only critique is it feels like it ends too quickly, and the turn-around for Tia Regina after the death of Gabo to the adoption of the baby seems like another story that was spliced on at the end. Too abrupt, with far too little clarity revolving around the situation, but perhaps that is the part of the story that is so beautiful, so purposeful. The event happens quickly, and the world around seems to move too fast, but the story needs to end and Regina needs to have something left because she can legitimately not have any other ending.

[Mo · Rating 5 out of 5]

How is everything Ana Castillo writes so good? The ways she wrote about what it can mean to be undocumented and/or living near the US/Mexico border feel timely, even though this book was published in 2007. Each of the four main narrative points-of-view is a distinct, three-dimensional, fallible character. There are many secondary characters, and they too feel alive and individual. Then there is Castillo's use of language—Just on a sentence-to-sentence, word-to-word level, this is beautiful writing. I also love how accessibly she writes about complex histories and issues while staying true to the characters' voices.

The Guardians is a fairly short novel. I kept double-checking my place on the audiobook because it seems impossible to create so much depth in so little space.

This is my fourth book by Ana Castillo, but it's the first one I've listened to as an audiobook. Her narration is utterly gorgeous. You know the way some writers make you feel like they're speaking directly to you at their readings, no matter how large the audience is or how far back you're sitting? That's what this author-narration felt like to me.

[Mimi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Regina's brother is missing and she knows she can't go to the cops.
Rafa an undocumented migrant who is routinely smuggled in to see his son that Regina is taking care of.
She knows he's missing but she isn't sure who she can go to for help.
Ultimately she goes to her coworker, Miguel, in hopes he can help her and as they search for Rafa, things become even more twisted.
----------------------------
This book was so good but the ending was really depressing!
It was kind of expected but still.
I read this book for class so I already spent a lot of time analyzing this book so I'm not going to do a long review.
I liked the Spanglish in this book because it felt natural. I've read plenty of books were the Spanglish felt off and this one felt natural.
I wouldn't say this is a funny book because it deals with a lot of heavy themes but it tries to be lighthearted at times because of how difficult their life is and they were trying to soften it any way they could.

It's a good book but it's a heavy one at times.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The trauma of border life is depicted poignantly in this novel by Ana Castillo. Her characters are flawed, relatable people who are just trying to survive. I resonated with the pain of mourning and loss throughout the story and enjoyed the different character’s perspectives in each chapter. Gabo’s death after getting involved with the wrong crowd of people in a desperate search to find his father was both sad and realistic given the dangerous circumstances living close to the border. Castillo does a wonderful job of fleshing out characters of various generations and with varying levels of affinity with México. As a woman who is growing into her 30s, I appreciated the descriptions of Regina’s beauty even as she aged and her fiery attitude that so often served as the fuel to continue fighting for many of the characters in the novel.

[Danny Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

The mix of Spanish and English was a bit jarring at first, but after a while, I got used to it. I did keep Google Translate open though. The characters were well written and I liked that we got to see from several perspectives. Milton and Regina were both funny yet sad. Looking back, Gabo's story is a bit ridiculous, but I developed a certain fondness for him. I'm not sure how I feel about the ending. There was a lot in there and I almost feel like it was a bit rushed. I am also not sure what to make of the religious and political aspects of the story. I feel like they are interconnected, but I can't come to a conclusion that satisfies me.

[Erin Mcleod · Rating 4 out of 5]

An illuminating look at contemporary Mexican society and culture, as told by Regina, an intelligent woman eking out a living as a teacher's aide in a town near the U.S. border. I loved the strong narrative voice in Castillo's work, and her unflinching gaze as she shares the difficulties and beauty of Regina's world. Border issues, the violence of machismo culture, and racism are well documented. I would have like to hear more about Regina's relationship with her nephew, Gabo, and understand his journey better.

[Debbi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book again, a little older and wiser than I was when it first came out. It resonates even more- the boundaries we create, invisible lines between on land and between cultures. It made me miss new Mexico’s own Spanglish, so different in the north where it evolved independently of Mexico’s organic Spanish language changes. I brilliant short book that is really about everything including the many faces of love, religion, family. All the important grand life themes.

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

An emotional work of fiction presenting a tale of the trauma experienced by an already-broken family resulting from the violence among drug and human trafficking gangs in the U.S. Southwest and bordering Mexico. Worth reading, unique and captivating perspectives of characters Regina, her nephew Gabo, a schoolteacher Miguel, and his grandfather Milton.

[Farrah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic Castillo. Her border tongue is effortless and enjoyable to read, even when she is telling heartbreaking and important stories like this (about the environment, about living in/on a borderland, about Ciudad Juarez). The one problem is the ending, which is too rushed for all that has come before it.

[Lorraine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really did not like this book. There was too much Spanish which was annoying. I do not know why there were not foot notes at the bottom of the pages to translate the Spanish words. The characters were not that well drawn for me, so I really did not care about them. The whole book was rather depressing and the ending was just bleak.

[Aimee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books that I would not otherwise have read if it were not for my book club. It is different from anything that I have read before because it is from the perspective of the Hispanic community and deals with the horrors they face on a daily basis.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ana Castillo's exquisite story-telling comes through again in this sad and endearing story about a family being torn apart by the border. The characters are rich and beautifully written in a way that makes them so real. Topical and tragic, it is a art telling the consequences of politics.

[Nora · Rating 5 out of 5]

**5/5 stars**
I don’t have time to really say what I want so here’s a summary:

[Audiobook Accomplice (Gillian) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh good golly gosh—Loved the stories, loved the use of language. What a wonderful surprise! A high 4 star rating!
My Full Review

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first book by Ana Castillo. I enjoyed every minute of it. Reminded me of the younger days when I stayed with my grandmother ever summer in the small border town of Hidalgo. Brought back a lot of memories.