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The Horse in the Kitchen: Stories of a Mexican-American Family

American Book Awards

The Horse in the Kitchen: Stories of a Mexican-American Family

Ralph M. Flores

A short-story collection about a Mexican American family, organized around family life, immigrant experience, and the gaps between generations. It builds meaning through everyday detail.

short storiesfamilyMexican American life

Work Information

A collection of stories that accumulates a family's history.

The collection portrays the daily life and memory of a Mexican American family through linked stories. Each piece quietly builds a sense of family history and place.

Book Information

Publisher
Univ of New Mexico Pr
Published
2004-04-01
Pages
208 pages
Language
英語
Size
13.44 x 2.13 x 21.18 cm
ISBN-13
9780826333667
ISBN-10
0826333664
Price
10150 JPY
Category
洋書/Literature & Fiction/Genre Fiction/Family Saga

Born in 1908, two years before the start of the Mexican Revolution, Rafael lives in the village of San Cristóbal, in northern Sonora, Mexico, where his father, the village comisario, owns a bar, pool hall, and grocery store. This is a ranching town where vaqueros are heroes, and horses and bulls, as well as coyotes and rattlesnakes, provide thrills and teach lessons that Rafael and his brothers will never forget. The boy's earliest memories are of mounted revolutionaries riding through town and commandeering horses for Pancho Villa's campesino army. When his parents lose their life savings in the revolution, the family crosses the border to Arizona. Life in the north is a struggle, and young Rafael must put aside his dreams of education and work with his brothers picking lettuce wherever laborers are needed. "A heart-warming story of one family's struggles, survival, and eventual triumph. This immigration saga fits in the tradition of Barrio Boy and Y no se lo trago la tierra. So readable you can't put it down. It captures the history of the turbulent times."--Rudolfo Anaya, author of Bless Me, Ultima "Ralph M. Flores's The Horse in the Kitchen: Stories of a Mexican-American Family is an entertaining and inspirational work of fiction based on the life of the author's father who moves with his family from Mexico to Arizona to escape the social upheaval of the Mexican Revolution. It is a heartfelt tribute to his father whose life in Mexico and the United States is marked by courage, wisdom, hard work, love, and integrity--values characteristic of many immigrants."--Francisco Jiménez, author of The Circuit

Ralph M. Flores teaches at Albuquerque's Technical Vocational Institute; he lives in Tomé, New Mexico.

Reviews

  • I gave it to a 15 year old girl with a very diverse multicultural family. I hope she loves it. I did.

  • If you like quirky family stories with the scent of the south, this is for you. Funny, sad, touching, heartwarming.

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