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Rain of Gold
This is the Hispanic Roots, an all-American story of poverty, immigration, struggle and success. It focuses on three generations of Villaseñor's kin, their spiritual and cultural roots in Mexico, their immigration to California and their overcoming the poverty, prejudice and economic exploitation. It is the warm-hearted, humorous and tragic, true story of the wily, wary, persevering forebears of Villaseñor.
551 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1991
About the author
Victor Villaseñor
46 books435 followersVictor Villaseñor is an acclaimed Mexican-American writer, best known for the New York Times bestseller novel Rain of Gold. Villaseñor's works are often taught in American schools. He went on to write Thirteen Senses: A Memoir (2001), a continuation of Rain of Gold. His book Burro Genius: A Memoir (2004) describes his life. The author has received awards and endorsements, including an appointment to serve as the founding Steinbeck Chair at Hartnell College and the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, from February 2003 to March 2004.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 861 reviews
October 27, 2008
This is a non-fiction book of many layers. It's about greed, prejudice, hate and anger, poverty and death. It's also about family, love, relationships, and dreams. Parallel stories are told of two children, both babies of their families, who grow up during the Mexican revolution. Children of war who are driven from their homes in Mexico, hoping for a better life in America. In America, however, they find that the Mexicans are treated no better than dogs. It was interesting to read about prejudice against Hispanics. We hear about prejudice against the blacks all the time, but don't think as much about what the Mexicans have gone through in immigrating to this country over the years.
In the book, both children are raised by mothers with tremendous faith and abundant love, who do anything and everything to protect their children and to survive. One of my favorite quotes in the book gives a glimpse of what parenthood means. "The old woman took a big breath, fully realizing that no one could pass on to anyone the experiences of life. Each had to find their own way. This was, indeed, the frustration and yet the challenge of every parent. She drew Lupe close, giving her all her love. After all, wasn't it love, and only love, that a parent could pass on."
As this book is the history of the author's parents, it's not a spoiler to say that the two children grow up, eventually meet and fall in love. It's a beautiful love story. Although the book ends, the author mercifully tells us a little more about their life together in the "author's notes."
One of my friends recommended this book to me and told me that she thought it should be a required read for everyone. It certainly is one that shouldn't be passed over, there are so many nuggets of inspiration in the story and in the writing.
In the book, both children are raised by mothers with tremendous faith and abundant love, who do anything and everything to protect their children and to survive. One of my favorite quotes in the book gives a glimpse of what parenthood means. "The old woman took a big breath, fully realizing that no one could pass on to anyone the experiences of life. Each had to find their own way. This was, indeed, the frustration and yet the challenge of every parent. She drew Lupe close, giving her all her love. After all, wasn't it love, and only love, that a parent could pass on."
As this book is the history of the author's parents, it's not a spoiler to say that the two children grow up, eventually meet and fall in love. It's a beautiful love story. Although the book ends, the author mercifully tells us a little more about their life together in the "author's notes."
One of my friends recommended this book to me and told me that she thought it should be a required read for everyone. It certainly is one that shouldn't be passed over, there are so many nuggets of inspiration in the story and in the writing.
May 15, 2007
This is a wonderful story, made that much more impressive simply by the fact that it is the true story of the author's family. It is impossible to not feel what the characters are feeling and, as a reader, you become emotionally invested in the story very quickly. I found myself crying when the characters cried, feeling scared when they felt scared, and basically emulating all emotions reflected in the book. It's a bit long and looks like a text book at first glance (with black and white photos of the author's family in the middle of the book), but don't let that discourage you because it flies by. Definitely one of those books that you are sad to be finished reading because you miss the characters.
May 28, 2008
This book was exceptional. The family research the author conducted to put this family story together is amazing. Reading this book gave me a whole new outlook into immigration and Mexican history. The war and revolution that occured in Mexico was so bad that families had to flee in order to save their lives. They didn't want to leave their homes where they had lived, farmed, ranched, etc for generations anymore than we wanted them to come to the U.S. And then they get here and "rent" tents and migrate with the crops just to earn enough money to buy some food. What an enlightening story.
And the characters were wonderful! And knowing that they are real people made it all the better.
I also thought it highly appropriate that I read this book while I was in Mexico (although I did not plan that!).
I highly recommend this book; it is one of those books that, although it is pleasurable to read, it actually enhances your life by having read it.
And the characters were wonderful! And knowing that they are real people made it all the better.
I also thought it highly appropriate that I read this book while I was in Mexico (although I did not plan that!).
I highly recommend this book; it is one of those books that, although it is pleasurable to read, it actually enhances your life by having read it.
January 23, 2009
5***** and a ❤
I read this on a friend's recommendation and was immediately caught up in the story of Villasenor's parents and grandparents. It's nonfiction, but full of old Mexican allegorical stories. There were times when, as I read, I would think "He's telling MY family's story!" After I read it (in English), I bought it for my mother (in Spanish).
UPDATE March 2008
My Hispanic book club chose this book for discussion, and I skimmed through it to refresh my memory
I read this on a friend's recommendation and was immediately caught up in the story of Villasenor's parents and grandparents. It's nonfiction, but full of old Mexican allegorical stories. There were times when, as I read, I would think "He's telling MY family's story!" After I read it (in English), I bought it for my mother (in Spanish).
UPDATE March 2008
My Hispanic book club chose this book for discussion, and I skimmed through it to refresh my memory
December 21, 2013
Rain of Gold is the magnificent saga that took the author, Victor Villasenor, twelve years to write the non-fiction story of his family. It has been said that Rain of Gold is the Hispanic Roots, an all-American story of poverty, immigration, struggle and success. Alex Haley writes that this book “both enhances and enriches the American experience. It is filled with indelible drama and people.” It is a true-life saga of love, family and destiny. It is pulsing with bold vitality, sweeping from the war-ravaged Mexican mountains of Pancho Villa’s revolution to the Prohibition days of California. This is said to be a major work by a Mexican-American writer of extraordinary power, Victor Villasenor.
Rain of Gold begins in 1911 in the high mountains of northwest Mexico in a box canyon of mystical beauty. Lupe Gomez is six years old and the Revolution long has been part of Lupe and her family’s life for as long as she can remember. Over the next few years the village is abandoned and Lupe and her family must leave to go north in pursuit of safety and prosperity in the United States of America. Similarly, Juan Villasenor and his family journeys north and into California. Eventually the twisted paths of fate of Juan and Lupe crossed, both falling in love and eventually wed.
In the Foreward, the author talks about how his maternal grandmother, Dona Guadalupe, would sit him on her lap and tell him stories of the past in Mexico, of the Revolution, and how his mother, Lupe, was just a little girl when the troops of Francisco Villa and Carranza had come fighting into their box canyon in the mountains of Chihuahua. Villasenor’s father was a great storyteller as well and would often talk of his own family and how they escaped from Los Altos de Jalisco during the Revolution and how they had come north to the Texas border. The author relates that it wasn’t until he was thirty and met the woman he wanted to marry, he realized that someday he would want to tell his children about their ancestral roots. It was at this point that he began interviewing his family in earnest over a period of three years followed by his trips to Mexico. Villasenor then began his writing and rewriting in both Spanish and English struggling with the translations and the meanings. I will end with a few quotations from the author, Victor Villasenor, as follows:
Rain of Gold begins in 1911 in the high mountains of northwest Mexico in a box canyon of mystical beauty. Lupe Gomez is six years old and the Revolution long has been part of Lupe and her family’s life for as long as she can remember. Over the next few years the village is abandoned and Lupe and her family must leave to go north in pursuit of safety and prosperity in the United States of America. Similarly, Juan Villasenor and his family journeys north and into California. Eventually the twisted paths of fate of Juan and Lupe crossed, both falling in love and eventually wed.
In the Foreward, the author talks about how his maternal grandmother, Dona Guadalupe, would sit him on her lap and tell him stories of the past in Mexico, of the Revolution, and how his mother, Lupe, was just a little girl when the troops of Francisco Villa and Carranza had come fighting into their box canyon in the mountains of Chihuahua. Villasenor’s father was a great storyteller as well and would often talk of his own family and how they escaped from Los Altos de Jalisco during the Revolution and how they had come north to the Texas border. The author relates that it wasn’t until he was thirty and met the woman he wanted to marry, he realized that someday he would want to tell his children about their ancestral roots. It was at this point that he began interviewing his family in earnest over a period of three years followed by his trips to Mexico. Villasenor then began his writing and rewriting in both Spanish and English struggling with the translations and the meanings. I will end with a few quotations from the author, Victor Villasenor, as follows:
“Or, as my grandmother Dona Margarita once told my father, ‘Do you really think God stopped talking to us, His people, with the Jews and the Bible. Oh no, mi mijito, God lives and He still loves to talk, I tell you. All you have to do is look around and open your eyes and you’ll see his greatness everywhere—the miracles of life, la vida.’”
“This is a history of a people—a tribal heritage, if you will—of my Indian-European culture as handed down to me by my parents, aunts, uncles and godparents. The people in this story are real. The places are true. And the incidents did actually happen. Thank you.”
April 11, 2015
This is family history of the most immediate kind, redeemed from its excess of filial piety and lack of craft by a passion and sense of drama that usually but not always stops just short or melodrama. It helps that the author's family lived in times that were entirely too interesting. One side came from a remote mining village terrorized by the kind of bands of thugs left over when Villa's army disintegrated. The other undertook a harrowing trek across the mountains and deserts. The early part--and I write this as one who has read much of the literature and traveled over some of the unforgiving landscape--has an unusual freshness and immediacy, no doubt because of its roots in family lore and the uncritical passion that the writer brings to the material. Someone who cast a critical eye on these stories would probably have slowed the narrative down, robbed it of the intensity that makes it so readable. The tension slackens some once these families reach the relative safety of the United States but one of the children turns into a bootlegger,which enlivens the later going. In its own way, this novel is a remarkable achievement, as the intensity of its telling overcomes its lack of seasoning.
February 28, 2011
Rain of Gold by Victor Villasenor turned out to be great book, and is by far on my top five! The book is about mainly two characters: Lupe and Juan (Salvador). It tells the story of both families in different places in Mexico in the time during the Mexican Revolution. Both families find it hard to adjust in the life that they are surrounded by with many deaths, and find themselves traveling north to America as a refugee. That's when the story of Juan and Lupe come together and take some twsit and turns.
There are so many ways I can say of how the book was written, but it comes down to marvelous,fantastic, beautiful, etc. While I was reading this book, it kept grabbing me with the usage of the words; it was so..welcoming! I am Mexican, and the way that the characters thought, talked, laugh, pray, joked, basically everything that they did felt so familiar in my heart.
I highly recommend this book to everyone, especially those who would like to take a glimpse in the Mexican culture. There is always a little something for everyone: history, mystery, commedy, revenge, sadness, death, etc.! :)
There are so many ways I can say of how the book was written, but it comes down to marvelous,fantastic, beautiful, etc. While I was reading this book, it kept grabbing me with the usage of the words; it was so..welcoming! I am Mexican, and the way that the characters thought, talked, laugh, pray, joked, basically everything that they did felt so familiar in my heart.
I highly recommend this book to everyone, especially those who would like to take a glimpse in the Mexican culture. There is always a little something for everyone: history, mystery, commedy, revenge, sadness, death, etc.! :)
May 6, 2020
This was simply a masterpiece plain and simple. Its actually a true story, many stories of the author's parents, but it reads like fiction. Its a winding tapestry that begins at a mining community in Mexico, named in Spanish (Rain of Gold). It weaves the story of families hoping for a better life for their children, dreaming of a rain of Gold, and struggling to be the best they can be in a world that impoverishes them, and keeps them at a disadvantage. But this is a book about spirit and dreaming, and mothers and their children, and ultimately about the kind of love you dream of and fight for. And that fact that every story was true, can't fail to blow you away. Very glad it was recommended to me, that it landed on my TBR, and that a challenge allowed me to read it.
This book was published in 1991. It should have the 'tag' of mining, but alas it does not. If mining were not such an obscure tag, and one we all used regularly, it would be on the first page. But I know (for myself) that this is one I can say I have completed. Which feels good.
This book was published in 1991. It should have the 'tag' of mining, but alas it does not. If mining were not such an obscure tag, and one we all used regularly, it would be on the first page. But I know (for myself) that this is one I can say I have completed. Which feels good.
February 12, 2008
This book is quite wonderful. Although listed as a non-fiction book, it reads like a novel. It has feelings. The reader can not read it without becoming attached to the people and events of the story.
Victor Villasenor has traced three generations of his Latino family's history in this book and their migration from Mexico to the U.S. Through tragedies, losses, trials and successes it traces their ability to keep their faith, drive, love, and humor as a suture that binds the family. This book made me have a greater empathy as well as understanding of the background of many Mexicans who have immigrated to the United States.
Dona Margarita, in particular, is one of the oldest matriarchs in the story that has many words of wisdom to keep her family on the good path through its many transitions. For example, Salvador(her son) finds that he becomes full of hate for one of his brothers as well as many of his Latino friends when they fail to lend him dinero and reciprocate his act of loaning money that he has done for them many times over. She says..."You must gain faith in the basic good of mankind and reach out and take the hand of God....Not to fall to the devil's temptation of despair and darkness and these easy thoughts of hate and destruction, but to see beyond these and reach for the stars with the conviction of mind and soul that we, the human species, can only survive in our own house, when we have made peace within ourselves and then with all our fellow human beings on earth!"
Throughout his family history saga, Victor Villasenor provides a positive tone. No matter the situation, humor and good intentions prevail. I recommend this book.
Victor Villasenor has traced three generations of his Latino family's history in this book and their migration from Mexico to the U.S. Through tragedies, losses, trials and successes it traces their ability to keep their faith, drive, love, and humor as a suture that binds the family. This book made me have a greater empathy as well as understanding of the background of many Mexicans who have immigrated to the United States.
Dona Margarita, in particular, is one of the oldest matriarchs in the story that has many words of wisdom to keep her family on the good path through its many transitions. For example, Salvador(her son) finds that he becomes full of hate for one of his brothers as well as many of his Latino friends when they fail to lend him dinero and reciprocate his act of loaning money that he has done for them many times over. She says..."You must gain faith in the basic good of mankind and reach out and take the hand of God....Not to fall to the devil's temptation of despair and darkness and these easy thoughts of hate and destruction, but to see beyond these and reach for the stars with the conviction of mind and soul that we, the human species, can only survive in our own house, when we have made peace within ourselves and then with all our fellow human beings on earth!"
Throughout his family history saga, Victor Villasenor provides a positive tone. No matter the situation, humor and good intentions prevail. I recommend this book.
March 30, 2012
Already being an "I love Mexico" buff this wasn't a hard book to get into but it was really one of the best historical novels I've ever read. It's autobiographical in the sense that it's the family history of the author as passed down through his parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. but it really reads like a book of fiction because of the very mystical strain that runs through his family. Anyone Mexican whose interested in their indigenous roots should read this book. It starts near the beginning of the Mexican Revolution when the two main lovers in the story (the author's parents)are both young children living in separate towns in Mexico. Both of their mothers are Indian who have been separated from their tribes by extermination wars but instill their children with indigenous/Christian values (each one leaning more towards one side of that synthesis)rooted in their homelands. The early part of the book is very magical. The story quickly gets brutal as the two families flee what I never realized was a particularly bloody civil war only to arrive to the United States at a time when the racism against Mexican was truly unchecked. However, the individual survival stories are amazing. I really felt at times that I was sitting talking with an old, wise grandma reading this book. A few times the story veers towards being slightly soap opera-esque but given that its all true you can't blame these people for living intense lives. I loved this book and tried to read the whole thing last Friday night (I was being greedy) but finally gave up around 4:30 in the morning :) I'm really surprised I haven't heard more buzz about this book from my friends given the many, many historical issues it touches on that we all care about. And it's a love story!!! <3 Truly a unique book. If AZ ever gets itself right this should be required reading for anyone who grows up on the border.
April 17, 2014
While reading a review of The Hummingbirds Daughter, a book on my want-to-read list, I was reminded of Rain of Gold which I read almost twenty years ago. The pleasure and grief and great interest I felt while reading it have stayed with me. It is a heartfelt family saga telling the stories of both sides of the family going back to the Spanish Conquistadors in Mexico and eventually ending up in California. It is filled with tragedy, hope, determination, sorrow and laughter. One of the reviewers of Hummingbirds Daughter said it felt like a series of stories the author told while sitting around a campfire. That is how I felt Villasenor told the story. It had that kind of intimacy as well as a sense of the mythic. I know it is a book I will enjoy reading again some day but in the meantime I have carried many of his tales with me as I live and reflect on life.
February 26, 2008
Just not getting all the great reviews for this book.
I'm reading it for my book club and ugh! It's plod, plod, plod, trudge, trudge, trudge...one voice for all the main characters, and a simplistic writing style. My fourth graders wrote this way. There's no depth to or challenge in the ideas. While I understand it's a family history/history of the Mexican Revolution & migration of Mexicans into the United States, I believe the writing could have been much more dynamic. Phrases such as "Lupe found her truelove," make me want to gag.
Update:
I've just completed my reading of this tome (and it was a TOME). The author displayed a truly crisp writing style in his 6 1/2 pages of notes. I suspect he didn't need 552 pages to tell his story...perhaps 252..?
I'm reading it for my book club and ugh! It's plod, plod, plod, trudge, trudge, trudge...one voice for all the main characters, and a simplistic writing style. My fourth graders wrote this way. There's no depth to or challenge in the ideas. While I understand it's a family history/history of the Mexican Revolution & migration of Mexicans into the United States, I believe the writing could have been much more dynamic. Phrases such as "Lupe found her truelove," make me want to gag.
Update:
I've just completed my reading of this tome (and it was a TOME). The author displayed a truly crisp writing style in his 6 1/2 pages of notes. I suspect he didn't need 552 pages to tell his story...perhaps 252..?
November 28, 2012
This book speaks to me. The culture, the choices, the reality of our life is all in there. There are very limited books that can bring this all together without seeming fake and everything in this book was so real I could feel it.
In a time when people tend to omit the "undesirable" parts of family history this story tells it all. I only wish there were more pictures (I am not even joking) I would have liked to see any pictures of his great grandma and more of his parents before they got married. Also seeing a map of where they lived in Mexico. This would make a great book for Mexican American Culture studies.
In a time when people tend to omit the "undesirable" parts of family history this story tells it all. I only wish there were more pictures (I am not even joking) I would have liked to see any pictures of his great grandma and more of his parents before they got married. Also seeing a map of where they lived in Mexico. This would make a great book for Mexican American Culture studies.
March 13, 2008
This book was entertaining, but the writing was poor. Specifically, the author used way too much foreshadowing. It was annoying. And the characters were pretty evil, especially the two Mexican mothers, who bugged me to no end.
December 19, 2013
In the beginning of the book it starts of with Espirito a poor man that tries to sell sweet water to help his people with food and clothing.When he tries to trade in the water the man rejects his offer. Espirito not only did he have the water but golden rocks that the business man was very interested in receiving. Espirito let him know that they would be no digging undergrounds for these golden eggs.
Then this is where Lupe comes out a young six year old girl that lives in La Lluiva de Oro . La Lluvia de Oro is a place in Mexico North Central where it is surrounded by mountains where they discover a vein of gold that could change the environment in just a little time. An American mining company purchases the mine and develops the valley into large industrial operation.Later though out the story it talks about how Lupe's sister Sophia and Lupe work in the southern fields where they are refused to get some of their paid . It leads to Sophia to go on strike for low wadges.
It all leads up to a group of generations that struggle an example for all families that travel for a better life. Its all laid of a bunch of family trees that connect each other. How a vein a gold can change a the world in a bad way and a good way.
I would definitely recommend this book to people that love hearing generation stories. The Rain of Gold isn't just a book that has three generation but a hole lot of adventures and conflicts through out the book. When I started reading this book I could not but it down for one second. I loved it and almost done with it .(less) "
Then this is where Lupe comes out a young six year old girl that lives in La Lluiva de Oro . La Lluvia de Oro is a place in Mexico North Central where it is surrounded by mountains where they discover a vein of gold that could change the environment in just a little time. An American mining company purchases the mine and develops the valley into large industrial operation.Later though out the story it talks about how Lupe's sister Sophia and Lupe work in the southern fields where they are refused to get some of their paid . It leads to Sophia to go on strike for low wadges.
It all leads up to a group of generations that struggle an example for all families that travel for a better life. Its all laid of a bunch of family trees that connect each other. How a vein a gold can change a the world in a bad way and a good way.
I would definitely recommend this book to people that love hearing generation stories. The Rain of Gold isn't just a book that has three generation but a hole lot of adventures and conflicts through out the book. When I started reading this book I could not but it down for one second. I loved it and almost done with it .(less) "
February 1, 2014
A grand story, of epic proportions. What a roller coaster ride--a bit too detailed at times, but full of rich, powerful emotion.
Overall, I felt like I was on the journey with these two families every step of the way, and that I lived their entire lifetime with them. I was a bit disappointed that the author's generation was not covered in nearly as much detail, even though he would have had his own memories to draw from, instead of having to conduct interviews.
What happened to: Duel, Mark, the "Tom Mix" fellow (what was his deal, anyway?), his cousins (Juan Salvador's nephews), the daughter left behind by the redhead, Archie (and Carlota)? How did Victor become a writer? I wondered if he originally wrote it in Spanish because of particular turns in phrases, but he says he wrote it in English on paper. How did his father learn to read (and was it in Spanish and/or English)? So many stories left untold.
I guess one would just have to buy his next book...
Overall, I felt like I was on the journey with these two families every step of the way, and that I lived their entire lifetime with them. I was a bit disappointed that the author's generation was not covered in nearly as much detail, even though he would have had his own memories to draw from, instead of having to conduct interviews.
What happened to: Duel, Mark, the "Tom Mix" fellow (what was his deal, anyway?), his cousins (Juan Salvador's nephews), the daughter left behind by the redhead, Archie (and Carlota)? How did Victor become a writer? I wondered if he originally wrote it in Spanish because of particular turns in phrases, but he says he wrote it in English on paper. How did his father learn to read (and was it in Spanish and/or English)? So many stories left untold.
I guess one would just have to buy his next book...
April 1, 2011
This book was a little of what I expected and a lot of what I didn't. I'd heard that it was a great tale of Mexican history and traditions, and that it was hopeful and full of Chicana(o) pride. The book was all these things and so much more. Most of all though, it was filled with such truths that it's almost impossible for someone to be unable to connect with this book. Throughout the book, we learn of the horrors of war, the drama and dysfunction that meets many families along the way, and the incredible spiritual power behind two women who raised their families up out of the hate and taught them about love. Throughout the book, even at the darkest moments, there are spiritual lessons being learned and love is shown as a tool that grows both our hearts and minds...
{Read more at http://www.biculturalmom.com}
{Read more at http://www.biculturalmom.com}
September 11, 2013
Oh, why did this have to end? I was completely lost (in a good way) in this story of the author's family. This book demonstrates the importance of family stories, family heritage, family legacy. We are a sum of all the things our families have gone through, all the struggles, all the happy times, all its accomplishments.
The love comes pouring out as the author tells the story of his mother and father. Two families that were uprooted from the homes they loved in Mexico during the Revolution in order to offer their children a future.
I am in love with Villasenor's family and so happy to have the author share his family's legacy with me. I only wish there had been more pictures in the book to get a good idea of what the family looked like. I look forward to reading more by this author. Fantastic book.
The love comes pouring out as the author tells the story of his mother and father. Two families that were uprooted from the homes they loved in Mexico during the Revolution in order to offer their children a future.
I am in love with Villasenor's family and so happy to have the author share his family's legacy with me. I only wish there had been more pictures in the book to get a good idea of what the family looked like. I look forward to reading more by this author. Fantastic book.
June 20, 2017
full 5 stars and a full ❤
This book is amazing. It will take you through an emotional roller coaster. It will let you experience poverty and misery, hunger and hatred, prejudice and all things bad done in the name of survival. But it will also show you love and redemption, strong family ties and kindheartedness as well as all things good that make us humans. It will make you question most of what you thought was right and wrong as well as humanity itself.
It is non-fiction and based on real events but reads like a novel, beautifully written at that. It completely swept me off my feet and I highly recommend it.
This book is amazing. It will take you through an emotional roller coaster. It will let you experience poverty and misery, hunger and hatred, prejudice and all things bad done in the name of survival. But it will also show you love and redemption, strong family ties and kindheartedness as well as all things good that make us humans. It will make you question most of what you thought was right and wrong as well as humanity itself.
It is non-fiction and based on real events but reads like a novel, beautifully written at that. It completely swept me off my feet and I highly recommend it.
September 15, 2011
I read this ages ago, but was reminded of it again because with all the controversy over American Dirt, a lot of people have been talking about their favorite books by Mexican and Mexican-American authors. (I loved American Dirt, as you can see from my review, but have found all the reading recommendations a positive byproduct of the sometimes-toxic controversy!) On that note, I wanted to give Rain of Gold a shout-out because I remember it being one of my top favorite books of all time, and it probably was a way-back inspiration for me to eventually try my own hand at writing magical realist historical fiction. I think that was a much newer concept for fiction back when Villasenor did it, and Villasenor's beautiful writing and his philosophy of faith and hope, along with the unforgettable events he describes, all combined to blow my mind. I really need to go back and re-read it, because I remember the first time I read it I was still at a time in my life when I thought a lot about religion and the meaning of faith. Now that I have more distance from those years and am comfortable in my secular humanism, will that part of the book still seem as insightful to me?
August 29, 2018
I really enjoyed this book, in the way that I did when reading Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. I enjoyed the sweeping, multi-generational scope of this Mexican-American family’s story. I enjoyed the landscape imagery, both in Mexico and in California. Every page brought new twists and turns that sometimes are hard to believe they are nonfiction and not just invented plot twists in a work of fiction. Countless times I found myself shocked in disbelief, or laughing, or shaking my head at both the events of the story and the lovable characters. And I have to say, Dona Margarita is probably my favorite character in all the nonfiction I’ve read.
The book is not perfect, as other reviewers have noted, but it tells an important story that is shared by so many immigrant and refugee families. While it is one family’s origin story, consisting of the two families that came together to create it, it has so many elements that undoubtedly can be found in varying degrees in the stories of every other migrant family.
There are many themes to that would appeal to a range of readers. Given the current attitudes on immigration and giving refuge, this book effectively humanizes those who would simply seek a safe haven in which to raise their families as contributing members of society.
The book is not perfect, as other reviewers have noted, but it tells an important story that is shared by so many immigrant and refugee families. While it is one family’s origin story, consisting of the two families that came together to create it, it has so many elements that undoubtedly can be found in varying degrees in the stories of every other migrant family.
There are many themes to that would appeal to a range of readers. Given the current attitudes on immigration and giving refuge, this book effectively humanizes those who would simply seek a safe haven in which to raise their families as contributing members of society.
January 10, 2020
“Rain of Gold”, by Victor Villasenor, was given to me by a good friend who told me that it is his favorite book. I don’t normally read non-fiction, but I was hooked from the first page. It reads like a novel, something Villasenor understood before he undertook writing this family history: that some of what happened was so spectacular that it would seem unbelievable! But his research showed him otherwise.
“Rain of Gold” is VERY fast-paced. Something is always happening; it is action-packed! It’s also full of love and loss, faith, and endurance.
For a modern look at a similar subject I highly recommend the novel, “American Dirt”, by Jeanine Cummins.
“Rain of Gold” is VERY fast-paced. Something is always happening; it is action-packed! It’s also full of love and loss, faith, and endurance.
For a modern look at a similar subject I highly recommend the novel, “American Dirt”, by Jeanine Cummins.
July 2, 2007
La lluvia de Oro...puede leer en espanol tambien.
I read this book back during the undergrad years, and absolutely fell in love with it. I hesitate to call it fiction, because it it based on the stories of the author's grandparents journey from Mexico to the U.S. I saw Victor Villasenor speak, and he said that as a child, he always assumed his grandparents were making the stories up, since they were so far-fetched, however after returning the Mexico and following their stories, he came to find out they were true.
I read this book back during the undergrad years, and absolutely fell in love with it. I hesitate to call it fiction, because it it based on the stories of the author's grandparents journey from Mexico to the U.S. I saw Victor Villasenor speak, and he said that as a child, he always assumed his grandparents were making the stories up, since they were so far-fetched, however after returning the Mexico and following their stories, he came to find out they were true.
October 6, 2011
*sigh* What a great book. Thanks to my sis-in-law Stacey's recommendation, I didn't get to live a life of having never read this book. I soaked in the beautiful descriptions of Mexico and the rich culture of Lupe and Juan's families, and I fell in love with their stories as each page to me closer to their wedding. When they said I do, I felt like I had suffered, rejoiced, and grown with them in their journeys. It was remarkable to look back to where the tale began and how far we all had grown and changed. The best part is that this was a true story! Remarkable. Don't miss out on reading this!
July 20, 2012
Victor Villasenor is dyslexic and has written a great autobiography called Burro Genius that describes his miserable experience in school (and how many rejection letters he received before ever getting a book published). My midwife recommended Rain of Gold to pass the time while I was awaiting the birth of my baby. I loved this book. Villasenor traces the story of his family on both his mother's and his father's side, leading up to how they met and married. The beautiful storytelling completely draws you in. I was sad when I hit the last page...
March 23, 2008
An absolute favorite book about three generations of imigrants. powerfully written. A must read.
January 5, 2023
Pretty powerful. Pretty religious
October 19, 2020
Incredible story- even more so since it is based on the true life story of the author’s parents and their independent journeys from Mexico to the US.
The story has a range of drama, romance, idealistic characters and ruthless pragmatists. It captured the complex relationships immigrants - especially visible minority immigrants with a complicated relationship with their own compatriots - can have, and the psychological scars it can leave.
The length of the book gave it runway to deeply explain the family culture and ideals taught and lived by the strong matriarchs in either family and gave the dance of their eventually courtship an excitement that makes it hard to believe real life could be unpredictable in such dramatic ways.
Even the Author’s afterword shows that the twists and turns of the story continued past where he left it.
It is also a fair example of an “American Dream” idea. Where the unlucky immigrant pulls himself up through his own risk, ingenuity and by cultivating the right friendships and business dealings.
Overall I really enjoyed it. First long book I’ve read (rather than listening to an audiobook) in a while. The time was worth it. Im sure theres even more to appreciate in the book that currently escapes me
but I highly recommend.
The story has a range of drama, romance, idealistic characters and ruthless pragmatists. It captured the complex relationships immigrants - especially visible minority immigrants with a complicated relationship with their own compatriots - can have, and the psychological scars it can leave.
The length of the book gave it runway to deeply explain the family culture and ideals taught and lived by the strong matriarchs in either family and gave the dance of their eventually courtship an excitement that makes it hard to believe real life could be unpredictable in such dramatic ways.
Even the Author’s afterword shows that the twists and turns of the story continued past where he left it.
It is also a fair example of an “American Dream” idea. Where the unlucky immigrant pulls himself up through his own risk, ingenuity and by cultivating the right friendships and business dealings.
Overall I really enjoyed it. First long book I’ve read (rather than listening to an audiobook) in a while. The time was worth it. Im sure theres even more to appreciate in the book that currently escapes me
but I highly recommend.
October 4, 2013
If this book hadn't been recommended to me for that last twenty years by numerous relatives, I would not have read it through to the end. The story was compelling and captured my imagination to the point where I read compulsively for the first 300 pages, unable to wait until tomorrow to find out what would happen. And this despite the horrible writing! Very few of the characters have defined speaking voices. Both of the old mothers sound the same, the mean white guys sound alike, the nice white guys sound extremely generic, and the bratty sisters sound alike. All of the Mexican men sound interchangeable. This makes for an especially mediocre read since we never have privileged access to the inner thoughts of anyone but Juan Salvador and Lupe. To the author's credit, Juan Salvador is a fully realized character (probably the only one in the book), but that also should not have been too hard since he was also the author's father whom he knew for decades. Lupe comes across as very flat and naive to the point of seeming dumb. This is a shame because we are told that she is so intelligent she rises from 3rd grade to 7th grade in less than two months, she hangs outside the library talking books with her Anglo boyfriend, and she is so capable of accounting that she makes a large family business thrive during the latter part of the Great Depression.
Around the time that Juan Salvador finally starts courting Lupe, the book becomes a real drag. We know that this is a story of the author's parents, so there is never any true suspense about whether they will finally marry or not. The author also chooses to not dramatize two scenes I had most looked forward to: Lupe breaking up with Mark, and Juan Salvador's confession about Duel. As often as Duel and Katherine are mentioned, the author should have spent a little more time writing about Juan Salvador's Montana life.
The story overall is fairly strong, but the writing undermines it. The narration (I think it's limited omniscient, I don't think that it's supposed to be the author specifically) often sounds like the spoken word, so perhaps this would have been nice to hear as an audiobook instead, if only there were one available! The characters are all there, I can see what the author is trying to do, but he does not have the skills to pull it off. So instead, everyone, particularly the women, come off as no more than archetypes. I suppose this serves to mythologize the author's family, but these characters exist in every Mexican family's mythology. If I read a 550 page novel, I want to come away from it understanding something deeper about life. This is especially true if it is about my own people. I will not take pleasure in a mediocre story just because I find something recognizable in it, or because I'm so starved to have my family's experience mirrored back to me. I'm not saying that every novel of war, citizenship, family and racism has to be as difficult as Faulkner's "Go Down Moses" or Toni Morrison's "Beloved". But what I wouldn't give to have a Chicano writer who approaches the level of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. If you know of any, please write your suggestions in the comments below.
I feel like somehow I have paid some kind of karmic debt to my family for finally reading this, though I can't imagine what I did to deserve such an assignment. More likely, I am suffering because I've known true joy and wonderment by reading an abundance of great literature, and I felt obligated to read and finish this undernourished and overlong claptrap.
Around the time that Juan Salvador finally starts courting Lupe, the book becomes a real drag. We know that this is a story of the author's parents, so there is never any true suspense about whether they will finally marry or not. The author also chooses to not dramatize two scenes I had most looked forward to: Lupe breaking up with Mark, and Juan Salvador's confession about Duel. As often as Duel and Katherine are mentioned, the author should have spent a little more time writing about Juan Salvador's Montana life.
The story overall is fairly strong, but the writing undermines it. The narration (I think it's limited omniscient, I don't think that it's supposed to be the author specifically) often sounds like the spoken word, so perhaps this would have been nice to hear as an audiobook instead, if only there were one available! The characters are all there, I can see what the author is trying to do, but he does not have the skills to pull it off. So instead, everyone, particularly the women, come off as no more than archetypes. I suppose this serves to mythologize the author's family, but these characters exist in every Mexican family's mythology. If I read a 550 page novel, I want to come away from it understanding something deeper about life. This is especially true if it is about my own people. I will not take pleasure in a mediocre story just because I find something recognizable in it, or because I'm so starved to have my family's experience mirrored back to me. I'm not saying that every novel of war, citizenship, family and racism has to be as difficult as Faulkner's "Go Down Moses" or Toni Morrison's "Beloved". But what I wouldn't give to have a Chicano writer who approaches the level of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. If you know of any, please write your suggestions in the comments below.
I feel like somehow I have paid some kind of karmic debt to my family for finally reading this, though I can't imagine what I did to deserve such an assignment. More likely, I am suffering because I've known true joy and wonderment by reading an abundance of great literature, and I felt obligated to read and finish this undernourished and overlong claptrap.
August 18, 2018
Pros: Started out really liking this book and story until I got to Book Two. Felt that Lupe's story was phenomenal, including the way her home was described, the smells of the family cooking, the plight and hardships the family undertook and the precarious line between survival and death. The story as a whole is captivating and especially important the are the horrid effects war has on civilians. Fabulous strong women characters (both mothers) and liked the photos of the authors family included in the middle of the book. I appreciate that this book discusses greed, poverty, prejudice, war, hate, anger, war and contrasts that to family love, hope and dreams. Also appreciate the way it is discussed multiple times about how women earned less wages working in the fields to their men counterparts, even though is was the exact same backbreaking work. All justified so the men "wouldn't be insulted by the women" earning the same salary. Awesome points. Am grateful for the perspectives, but it's not told in a way that easily clicked with me. I feel I am missing something huge by not loving this book! Faugh!
Cons: For me, the dialogue was a bit stilted, the actions of some of the characters repetitive (especially later in the book about the bootlegging sagas) and felt the story could have been edited quite a bit. For example on page 431: .... Lupe blushed. "But why do you ask, child?" ... Just didn't flow for me. Although important, Juan's family didn't hold my interest like Lupe's family did. Found it hard to believe that a 6 year old would fall so drastically in love with an adult (the Colonel) but that, again, may be my own lack of understanding. Maybe I am unjustly comparing this work (i.e. Villasenor) to Isabel Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez and magical realism.
Cover art: 5 out 5: Great use of design and colors
Cons: For me, the dialogue was a bit stilted, the actions of some of the characters repetitive (especially later in the book about the bootlegging sagas) and felt the story could have been edited quite a bit. For example on page 431: .... Lupe blushed. "But why do you ask, child?" ... Just didn't flow for me. Although important, Juan's family didn't hold my interest like Lupe's family did. Found it hard to believe that a 6 year old would fall so drastically in love with an adult (the Colonel) but that, again, may be my own lack of understanding. Maybe I am unjustly comparing this work (i.e. Villasenor) to Isabel Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez and magical realism.
Cover art: 5 out 5: Great use of design and colors
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