Where Rabbits Gathered

by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez

In the high desert cliff-dwelling city of Puye, a young astronomer apprentice named Blue Water is about to become a mother. In the Tewa society in which Blue Water lives, women are the keepers of power, property and wisdom. The collective belief system is one of reverence and awe for nature and her many circular cycles. Here, in the warmth of a hardworking philosophical community concerned with balance and beauty, the arid mountainous land provides—corn, beans, and squash from the farmers; deer, elk and buffalo from the hunters; wild onions, chokecherries and more from the gatherers.

But this balance is fragile. Drought forces the 1500 people of Puye (whose name means Where Rabbits Gathered) to leave the cliffs of the massive butte that has been home for 100 generations. Blue Water journeys with the others to Big River, where they build Singing Water Village, a stable adobe farming settlement. Here, Blue Water’s daughter North Star is raised. Wild-hearted, curious, and bold, North Star is a natural biologist, drawn to the creatures that inhabit the land—the reptiles, especially, and the snakes most of all. She dreams, explores, and is free.

But in 1598, everything changes. The arrival of a massive caravan of Spanish invaders—led by the unforgiving Juan de Oñate—brings with it the unfathomable and inflexible brutality of the Inquisition. North Star’s infant daughter Butterfly is separated from her mother during a brutal Spanish raid, and the path that once lay open before her is lost. Raised briefly among the Hopi and later in a Catholic orphanage, Butterfly’s identity is shaped by forces that seek to erase her and her ancestors.

What follows is an epic family saga of resilience and survival, traversing the first 100 years of Spanish colonization of the land now known as New Mexico, told through the lives of Blue Water, North Star, Butterfly and three more generations of Tewa women in the same family line. Each is born into a world rapidly shifting beneath them. Each is bound to the land, to each other, and to the unbroken chain of their grandmothers’ heart-call towards freedom.

404 pages, Paperback

Published April 22, 2025

About the author

Hello! I'm Alisa. I'm a writer and musician from New Mexico. I got my start writing in newspapers for nearly a decade, and then made the move to novels. I write in a variety of genres, though all of my work tends to have something to do with the things that interest me. Whether I'm writing young adult novels or historical fiction for adults, my stories are alike in that they seek to un-erase erased people, cultures and events, and there's usually something supernatural involved, as well as a general awe and reverence for the natural world. Fairness is important to me. Kindness is important to me. Holding monsters accountable is important to me. I try to write about all of that but also to keep things funny. Lots of labels have been placed on me over the years by a staggering variety of sleepwalking souls, but I don't tend to consider myself within such confines. I had a Near Death Experience in 2015 that changed everything for me. Now I know I'm a spirit living temporarily in a body, like everyone else. So I'm sort of existing, listening to the stories that exist all around us, allowing them to come through me to you. That's all. Sometimes my books sell. Mostly, they don't. Writing's a crap way to make a living, especially in this new era of fascism and billionaires. Ah, well. Keep loving those closest to you.

Reviews

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this, but I didn't. it spans such a large time period over so many generations. I didn't have time to become emotionally connected to one character before moving on to the next story. I understand where she wanted to go, but in telling the big picture history, a lot of character development was lost...

[Carol L Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

The untold story of New Mexico's true history

Excellent writing and research of the Native Americans and the early days of the violent Spanish colonization of New Mexico. I can't wait to read the next 3 in this series!