A Cross and a Star: Memoirs of a Jewish Girl in Chile

by Marjorie Agosín, Ruth Behar (Foreword), Celeste Kostopulos-Cooperman (Translator)

In this classic memoir that explores the Nazi presence in the south of Chile after the war, Marjorie Agosín writes in the voice of her mother, Frida, who grew up as the daughter of European Jewish immigrants in Chile in the World War II era. Woven into the narrative are the stories of Frida's father, who had to leave Vienna in 1920 because he fell in love with a Christian cabaret dancer; of her paternal grandmother, who arrived in Chile later with a number tattooed on her arm; and of her great-grandmother from Odessa, who loved the Spanish language so much that she repeated its harmonious sounds even in her sleep. Agosín's A Cross and a Star is a moving testament to endurance and to the power of memory and words.

This edition includes a collection of important new photographs, a new afterword by the author, and a foreword by Ruth Behar.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Judaica, Biography Memoir, Jewish

232 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1995

About the author

Marjorie Agosín was born in Maryland and raised in Chile. She and her parents, Moises and Frida Agosín, moved to the United States due to the overthrow of the Chilean government by General Pinochet's military coup. Coming from a South American country and being Jewish, Agosín's writings demonstrate a unique blending of these cultures.

Agosín is well known as a poet, critic, and human activist. She is also a well-known spokesperson for the plight and priorities of women in Third World countries. Her deep social concerns and accomplishments have earned her many awards and recognitions, and she has gained an international reputation among contemporary women of color.

Agosín, a passionate writer, has received critical acclaim for her poetry collections, her close reflections on her parents and family, and her multi-layered stories. Within every novel, story, or poem, she captures the very essence of Jewish women at their best. Agosín's works reveal the experiences of pain and anguish of Jewish refugees. She writes about the Holocaust as well as anti-Semitic events that occurred in her native land.

Agosín has many fascinating works and is recognized in both North and South America as one of the most versatile and provocative Latin American writers. Agosín became a writer to make a difference: "I wanted to change the world through peace and beauty," she said. Today she is not only a writer, but also a Spanish professor at Wellesley College.

Reviews

[Robert Teeter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marjorie Agosin has written a memoir, not of her own life, but that of her mother, Frida. Her family were among the few Jews in the southern Chilean city of Osorno. Among the other residents are Nazis and Nazi sympathizers who still have pictures of Hitler in their homes and schools long after the war. In Agosin's own family are relatives who got out of Europe either just before or after the Holocaust; others weren't so lucky.

The memoir is written in short anecdotes -- many of them about Agosin's female relatives -- of a few paragraphs each, strung together out of chronological order. (This will annoy some readers.) There are contradictions in the book. As Agosin says, "I didn't invent anything or perhaps I invented everything."

Read it if you're interested in women's/family history or life in a Jewish diaspora community we don't often hear about. Not for everybody, though.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, and I had moments of doing so, but most of the time I was wondering what was going on. Really, I wanted it to be a more traditional memoir, and instead it is a collection of impressionistic vignettes. I shouldn't judge a book for being what it is instead of what I want it to be, but I just wasn't a fan of what it was. (I'm tempted into a reworking of Artemus Ward's quip: "For people who like this sort of book, this is the sort of book they will like.")

[Kain · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were moments when I was confused since this is in snippets of memory but this was an emotional and heavy read.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was really nothing particularly interesting about this book. It is not, as I thought it was going to be, a story of a Holocaust survivor who imigrated to Chile. Not that I think that the Holocaust was good, but it does make for some deeply touching stories. It was just the random thoughts of a girl who was Jewish and happened to live in Chile.

I thought that this book was very strangely put together until I read the little author bio on the back flap. The author is a poet. I just don't get poetry, aside from Shel Siverstein or Skippy Jon Jones. There were sub-headings for nearly every paragraph and rarely did the story flow from one heading to another. They were all just random bits and thoughts, like short poems but in paragraph form. That is a-ok if you are a poetry reader and like the little glimpses. I, however, like a beefier and more filled out story.

[Ash · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a memoir in a traditional sense. More of a poetic compilation of the mother's memories rewritten by the daughter.

[Ietrio · Rating 2 out of 5]

A long and boring list of memories from the Jewish community in Chile.