Cuando una mujer se levanta

by Christine Eber

The Spanish edition of award-winning When a Woman Rises
International Latino Book Award finalist, “Most Inspirational Fiction Book”
2020 New Mexico-Arizona Book Award, Multi-cultural
Silver in Multicultural Fiction, Independent Publisher Book Awards
Zia Book Award finalist
Balcones Fiction Prize finalist
Starred review from School Library Journal
Two Zapatista women, bound by cultural expectations, struggle to express the truth of their lives in the highlands of Chiapas. Magdalena summons the soul of her friend, Lucia, who migrated north to find work and disappeared. She tells daughter Veronica how they yearned to be teachers. How poverty and gender roles stole away their dreams. Yet, each woman remained true to herself, Lucia as a Zapatista leader and curandera; Magdalena as a weaver and community organizer. But poverty is cruel.

Genres: Fiction, Feminism, Contemporary, Friendship, Latinx, Womens

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2018

Reviews

[Elaine Webster]

I met the author, Christine Eber shortly after I moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico. Ms. Eber is a driving force behind "Weaving For Justice" a women's weaving cooperative in highland Chiapas, Mexico. The story she tells is of the deep friendships, spiritual awakenings, struggles, tragedies and hopes of an indigenous Maya community. The story moved me to tears with its authentic voice and spirit. I am blessed to have purchased numerous weavings from these strong and determined woman. After finishing the book, I felt as if I was closer to understanding the differences and similarities between our cultures.

[J.J. Amaworo]

This is a beautifully-written story-within-a-story set in a Mayan community in Chiapas, Mexico. The themes of tradition versus modernity and women's emancipation are woven through the novel seamlessly, and the central figure of Lucia, a healer and a future Zapatista leader, is compelling. It's a tale simply and gently told. Wonderful.

[Christina Butcher]

I love this book! Christine Eber does an excellent job weaving ethnography and storytelling into the narrative, and captured cultural details that give readers a beautiful snapshot into the lives of women in indigenous Maya communities. This book was well worth the wait.

[Tara]

I was keen to read a book about Zapatistas and Chiapas but realised while I was reading that this is written by an American anthropologist from the perspective of an Indigenous woman in a Zapatista community. It tells a beautiful story but it felt inappropriate from this author, although it is is hard to find books from Indigenous authors in Chiapas translated to English

[Noémie Media]

There are some books that entertain you, and then there are books that transform the way you see the world. When a Woman Rises by Christine Eber belongs firmly in the second category. This is a novel that does not simply tell a story; it invites you into a community, a culture, and a set of relationships that feel so real and so deeply felt that you emerge from the final page changed. I finished this book days ago and I find myself still thinking about Magdalena, Lucia, and Veronica as if they were people I actually knew.

The structure of the novel is elegant and deceptively simple. We begin with Veronica, a teenage girl in the Mayan township of Chenalho in Chiapas, Mexico. She is recovering from a disastrous early marriage and finds purpose in a community program that encourages women to tell their stories. Veronica asks her mother, Magdalena, to record the story of her own growing up and that of her best friend, Lucia. What follows is Magdalena's unfolding narrative, a summoning of the soul of her comadre who has disappeared. This story within a story is handled with such grace that you never feel lost or confused. Instead, you feel like you are sitting beside Magdalena as she weaves together memory after memory, pulling the threads of her past into a tapestry that reveals not just her own life but the life of an entire community.

The friendship between Magdalena and Lucia is the beating heart of this book. As young girls, they shared the same dreams. They both wanted to be teachers. They both yearned for something beyond the narrow paths that poverty, cultural beliefs, and rigid gender roles had carved out for them. But life, as it so often does, pulled them in different directions. Magdalena married and bore children, and she found her expression as a community organizer, a woman who channeled her strength into nurturing her family and her village. Lucia, however, took a radically different path. She was gifted as a healing woman, but she fell in love with a man of the cloth, a Catholic priest. This impossible love sent her spiraling into the wilderness, where she joined the Zapatistas and struggled with alcoholism.

What struck me most powerfully about this novel is how Eber portrays these diverging paths without judgment. There is no sense that one woman's choices were right and the other's were wrong. Instead, we see two women doing their best to survive and find meaning in a world that is often cruel and unforgiving. The friendship between them endures through it all, through marriage and motherhood, through rebellion and addiction, through joy and despair. It is a testament to the power of female friendship, a bond that can hold even when everything else falls apart.

The title itself, When a Woman Rises, carries so much weight. Eber makes it clear that when one woman rises, she does not rise alone. She lifts her family, her community, and the generations that come after her. Veronica, the teenage daughter, is the living proof of this. She takes her mother's stories and her mother's strength and carries them forward into the future. This theme of intergenerational resilience is woven throughout the book, and it is profoundly moving. You see how the struggles of the grandmothers and mothers echo into the lives of the daughters and granddaughters, and you see how each generation finds new ways to fight, to heal, and to rise.

Eber is an anthropologist, and her academic background shines through in the best possible way. She does not write like a distant observer looking in from the outside. She writes like someone who has lived this life, who has shared daily existence with these women and their families. The cultural details are rich and authentic, from the descriptions of weaving and traditional dress to the spiritual beliefs and rituals that shape everyday life. You can feel the texture of the woven fabric, taste the food, and hear the rhythm of the Mayan language in the cadence of the dialogue. This is ethnography transformed into art. It is storytelling that educates without ever feeling like a textbook.

[Janelle]

I met author Christine Eber while on a board immersion trip to Las Cruces / El Paso. She gave a presentation to our group about Weaving for Justice, an organization that supports indigenous weaving collectives in Chiapas, Mexico. The weavers and their families hope to avoid migration and disruption of their traditional way of life - the infusion of cash from weaving sales helps achieve that goal. This novel is based on her experiences living in the community during her PhD fieldwork.

The novel describes a friendship between two Mayan girls and explores the stresses and joys of their lives. Their paths often run together but also diverge in key ways. Eber deftly depicts how ancient and modern forces impact their families and communities.

I really enjoyed this window into traditional Mayan life. Fiction transports us in a way that academic literature does not!

[Sylvia]

This novel brings attention to the life of the tsotsil women in Chiapas, but also, and most importantly, in storytelling. Veronica is a young tsostil woman who has gotten job recording stories from women in her community; she chooses to record her mother, but her mother decides to talk about her best friend of childhood, Lucía.

With a weaving structure, Christine Eber creates a moving tale about spirituality, culture, religion, politics, traditions, love and friendship -words that, by the way, do not exist, but are greatly understood by these three tsotsil women.

[Susan]

This is a very beautiful, moving book about a family in a village of Chiapas. Mother and daughter are weavers, father works the land. Life is very tough but the love of family and traditions are very strong. I learned a great deal about the Mayan community that I didn't know before. A very touching book.

[Jana]

Some of my favorite novels have been written by anthropologists. This book is filled with so much love and respect, I really enjoyed meeting the women and hearing their stories.

[Bev]

enjoyed

[Charley]

It is written in very simple language, which made it really hard for me in the beginning to get into the flow of the book, but in the end I really liked the book.

[Victoria Wolcott]

A powerful book that takes you into the lives of indigenous communities.

[Lorne Jacob]

Great book giving a special insight into the daily lives of indigenous people in the Chiapas Highlands. Really engaging and made me think a lot about the struggles Australian indigenous people have.

[CYNDY REICHGELT]

Written by a woman anthropologist who lived a year in Chiapas, Mexico among the indigenous people. Lovely portrayal of their beliefs and their lives.

[Lulaa]

Me gustó porque es informativo y nos acerca de una manera muy sutil y humana a una realidad que muchos no vivimos todos los días. Nos permite entender otras culturas y empatizar.
Tal vez por momentos sentí la escritura un poco monótona y sin tantas metáforas, pero es un estilo también y es gracias a él que podemos acercarnos a otras perspectivas de una forma transparente

[Me]

Excellent glimpse into indigenous Maya life