Daughters of the West Mesa

by Irene Blea

In Daughters of the West Mesa, Dr. Irene Blea continues her tradition as an award winning writer in capturing the vivid stories of characters who navigate through their hardships in a conquered land wracked by historical exclusion. The backdrop is an environment that expresses the beauty of a cultural sunshine on one side, and the darkness of gendered exploitation on the other. Certainly, this is a monumental story. Blea’s descriptive writing pulls one into it immediately. Her knowledge of the area stands out in her description of Dora, her two daughters, and other characters...Here, the author vividly presents the struggles of a single mother and her daughters alongside the gendered exploitation of a people -- and the anger that is often taken out on one's self, or on another.

344 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

Irene Blea is a New Mexico native who earned her Ph. D. in Sociology from the University of Colorado-Boulder. Before her retirement from California State University-Los Angeles, she was an accomplished author of several textbooks, poetry, academic and popular articles. Blea retired as a Tenured, Full Professor and Chairperson of Mexican American Studies. Two of her 7 textbooks, Toward a Chicano Social Science (Praeger, 1981), and La Chicana and the Intersection of Race, Class and Gender (Greenwood, 1983), are classics in her field. Blea has written and published one play and much poetry. After her retirement she published family fiction and memoir. Suzanna is the title of Blea’s first novel in a trilogy about a thirteen-year-old girl married off to a thirty-two-year-old man in 1920’s New Mexico. The second novel, Poor People’s Flowers, continues Suzanna’s story upon arrival in Colorado. The third, Beneath the Super Moon, Suzanna is set free to live life freely after a life predetermined by others. This transformation occurs during the lunar eclipse. Suzanna still strives to reunite with her children, but not before she confronts the darkness and the sorrow of her past. Dr. Blea is an award-winning academic and a New Mexico Humanities Council Scholar.

Reviews

[Andrea Martinez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually haven't finished but I'm rating it 5 stars because it's already touched my soul. I had to stop and look at the real woman of the West Mesa. I think to myself I'm glad me and my friends grew up in Roswell. Because I see myself as one of those young daughters in the story. I was rude and rebellious to my mother. And I don't have to finish it to know that as someone from NM knows somewhere in this book I'm going to breakdown for the mother wondering where her dear Luna is and what is to happen between the relationship with her other daughter.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated the New Mexico-ness of this book. Dr. blea did a good job of bringing up this very real issue in a fictional story. It can help is remember that this crime has not been solved and there are so many missing women of color in Albuquerque.

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Compelling story that would have benefitted from additional editing. As an example, though the story takes place over approximately 20 months, the age of the daughter the story focuses on, fluctuates between 23 to 27. There also seems to be inconsistencies between the age of the two daughters.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not crazy about the style, but it's an important local story of unsolved femicides.