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So Far from God: A Novel

Ana Castillo

"A delightful novel...impossible to resist."—Barbara Kingsolver, Los Angeles Times Book Review
Sofia and her fated daughters, Fe, Esperanza, Caridad, and la Loca, endure hardship and enjoy love in the sleepy New Mexico hamlet of Tome, a town teeming with marvels where the comic and the horrific, the real and the supernatural, reside.
The Underdogs

Mariano Azuela

To save his family, Demetrio Maci+a7as, a peace-loving, naive Indian, becomes swept up in the mounting revolution against the tyranny of dictator Porfirio Diaz, as he rises to become a general in the army of Pancho Villa. Reissue.
The Guardians: A Novel

Ana Castillo

From American Book Award-winning author Ana Castillo comes a suspenseful, moving new novel about a sensuous, smart, and fiercely independent woman. Eking out a living as a teacher’s aide in a small New Mexican border town, Tía Regina is also raising her teenage nephew, Gabo, a hardworking boy who has entered the country illegally and aspires to the priesthood. When Gabo’s father, Rafa, disappears while crossing over from Mexico, Regina fears the worst.

After several days of waiting and with an ominous phone call from a woman who may be connected to a smuggling ring, Regina and Gabo resolve to find Rafa. Help arrives in the form of Miguel, an amorous, recently divorced history teacher; Miguel’s gregarious abuelo Milton; a couple of Gabo’s gangbanger classmates; and a priest of wayward faith. Between the ruthless “coyotes” who exploit Mexicans while smuggling them to America and the border officials who are out to arrest and deport the illegal immigrants, looming threat is a constant companion on the journey.

Ana Castillo brilliantly evokes the beautiful, stark desert landscape and creates vivid characters with strong voices and resilient hearts. “Like Sandra Cisneros’s acclaimed The House on Mango Street,” wrote Barbara Kingsolver when reviewing So Far from God, “Castillo’s writing is seasoned with Mexican aphorisms [and] rich symbolism. . . . Impossible to resist.” The Guardians serves as a remarkable testament to enduring faith, family bonds, cultural pride, and the human experience.

“The Guardians is a rollicking read, with jokes and suspense and joy rides and hearts breaking, mending and breaking again. It has…a deeply rooted urgency, expressed with a compelling mix of bruised indignation and bemused tenderness....This smart, passionate novel deserves a wide audience.” — Los Angeles Times

“Timely and highly readable….Castillo’s most important accomplishment in The Guardians is to give a unique literary voice to questions about what makes up a ‘family,’ Mexican-American or otherwise, where an independent soul can find redemption, particularly in a hostile world, and how we can realistically find ‘faith,’ if we can find it at all, after we have suffered through our personal and political histories, and are still standing on this earth. This is a wonderful novel that does justice to life on the Mexican-American border.” — El Paso Times
“Only a gifted storyteller could portray one family’s tragic struggle to overcome the barriers between nationality and dignity in a way that makes her cause own own. Does Castillo do this? Claro que si.” — New York Daily News
“What drives the novel is its chorus of characters, all, in their own way, witnesses and guardian angels. In the end, Castillo’s unmistakable voice–earthy, impassioned, weaving a ‘hybrid vocabulary for a hybrid people’–is the book’s greatest revelation, even as the search for Rafa races to its dreaded conclusion.” — Time Out New York
“From its lyrical first lines…The Guardians invites you into the story of Regina, a 50ish virgin-widow living in a small town on the border between the U.S. and Mexico; her neighbors; her family; and the dangerous forces that surround them — the narco traffickers, the Border Patrol, the coyotes and the ‘unmerciful desert’ itself. The novel is earning praise for its timeliness in addressing issues of immigration, and for what novelist Cristina Garcia calls its ‘literary magic.’” — Orange County Register
“Castillo's topical, heartbreaking novel blooms from the rugged desert soil along the U.S.-Mexican border, in a small New Mexican town perched on the fault line of the immigration controversy…. [Castillo] allows her characters to speak poignantly to the harsh truths of border life....What if we didn't have passionate, lyrical writers to shine a beacon on injustice and cruelty or remind us of the dignity due all human beings? We would be poorer and more ignorant, indeed.” — Miami Herald “Forecast for Summer Reading”
“The complex and perilous life along the border between the United States and Mexico is the timely subject of this impassioned novel. Castillo uses a classic storytelling format -- the search -- to provide an engaging tale narrated by a poor yet fearless and wise widow trying to find her brother….this spare, sometimes profane novel provides a powerful glimpse of border lives hanging in the everyday balance.” — Seattle Post Intelligencer (one of their “best of the 2007 releases from June, July and August”)

“Castillo writes fiction and poetry of earthy sensuality, wry social commentary, and lyrical spiritualism that confront the cruel injustices accorded women and Mexicans in America, legal and otherwise….In this tightly coiled and powerful tale….At once shatteringly realistic and dramatically mystical, Castillo's incandescent novel of suffering and love traces life's movement toward the light even in the bleakest of places.” Booklist (starred review)

“A nuanced, vibrant look at the American experience through Mexican-American eyes.” — Kirkus Reviews

“The end of the month brings Ana Castillo's GUARDIANS (Random House), a fictional foray into the world of illegal immigration. The plot revolves around a Mexican man who goes missing during a crossing and his sister's efforts to track the coyotes who may have had a hand in it.”–Houston Chronicle “A Fictional Feast”

"THE GUARDIANS" by Ana Castillo: The author of "Peel My Love Like an Onion" takes on the many issues surrounding illegal immigration in a powerful new novel in which a family's faith is tested. "Wonderful ... moving ... intimate ... epic," Oscar Hijuelos told Amazon.com.–San Antonio Express-News “New Summer Books”

“The acclaimed author of Peel My Love Like an Onion tracks the perilous lives of Mexicans who illegally cross the the U.S. for work…Castillo writes convincingly in the voices of the canny, struggling Regina….the desirous Miguel; the passionately religious Gabo; and El Abuelo Milton, Miguel’s elderly grandfather…[she] takes readers forcefully into the lives of the neglected and abused.” — Publishers Weekly

“Ana Castillo is one of those writers that I always expect not just the best of, but the best of the best of. She certainly doesn’t disappoint in her lyrical new book The Guardians….Castillo weaves into this intricately elegant story the Juarez murders of women, the Minutemen, the politics and the desert border town. It’s an amazing feat. She compels with each word, breathes magic into her words and we’re there.” Blogcritics.org

“A wonderful and moving book that is both intimate and epic in its narrative.” — Oscar Hijuelos, author of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love

“Ana Castillo gives America exactly what it needs - her vision of a border most people never see, and not the border they expect, and a story that will not let us go. Her voice is singular, and her talents are on full display here. Everyone needs to visit her world, and to understand her guardians of love and dignity.” — Susan Straight, author of A Million Nightingales

“Ana Castillo is a fearless storyteller. In The Guardians, she addresses the key issues racking our immigrant nation and hemisphere. This brave, unflinching novel shows the tragic consequences that come from not facing what is happening in our communities to those without true guardians to protect them.” -- Julia Alvarez, author of Saving the World

“Man, what a book. Blood and awe, laughter and stark fear. As soon as you see the earth ‘shivering’ in the opening sentences of this potent novel, you will know you are in the right place. The characters are as real and quirky as your own neighbors, though you start to realize they are also people you have probably never met before. A vital work of healing and astonishment from a medicine-woman at full power. America needs to read this story.” — Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The Hummingbird’s Daughter

"THE GUARDIANS, a surprising and powerful novel, captures the vulnerability and stark beauty of life in a small, border town. Castillo instills the voices of her four main characters with such passion and humanity, their vitality practically crackles on the page. Unforgettable and timely,Castillo will charm you once again with her literary magic." — Cristina Garcia, author of A Handbook to Luck

"I’ve been waiting for years for this novel, in this voice. The Guardians is Ana Castillo’s most perfect novel, and one of her most politically significant. Through beautifully drawn characters and their engrossing stories, Castillo brings our government’s dirty little war on Latin American immigrants into our consciousness and demands that we choose sides."
-- Ibis Gomez-Vega, Associate Professor, Northern Illinois University, author of Send My Roots Rain
The Mixquiahuala Letters

Ana Castillo

Focusing on the relationship between two fiercely independent women--Teresa, a writer, and Alicia, an artist--this epistolary novel was written as a tribute to Julio Cortázar's Hopscotch and examines Latina forms of love, gender conflict, and female friendship. Ana Castillo's groundbreaking first novel, The Mixquiahuala Letters, received an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation and is widely studied as a feminist text on the nature of self-conflict.
Massacre of the Dreamers: Essays on Xicanisma

Ana Castillo

f the Dreamers points out the omissions and challenges the misconceptions of a society that recognizes race relations as primarily a black-and-white issue. Castillo's essays analyze the 500-year-old history of Mexican and Amerindian women in this country and document the ongoing political and emotional struggles of their descendants.
Peel My Love Like an Onion: A Novel

Ana Castillo
Sapogonia: An Anti-Romance in 3/8 Meter

Ana Castillo

A powerful, complex novel from the author of So Far From God. In the mythological land of Sapogonia--a metaphorical country where all mestizos (those of mixed European/Native Central or South American blood) come from--Maximo Madrigal becomes obsessed with a woman he can never control.
Psst . . .: I Have Something to Tell You, Mi Amor

Ana Castillo

Comprised of both a one-act and a two-act play, this powerful dramatic pairing centers on Sister Dianna Ortiz, who was kidnapped, raped, and tortured by U.S.-sponsored Guatemalan security forces in 1989.
My Daughter, My Son, The Eagle, The Dove

Ana Castillo

Both a blessing to a child and a tribute to parenthood, this superb keepsake book by renowned Chicana poet and author Ana Castillo was inspired by ancient Aztec chants. It's the ideal gift to commemorate any of various momentous events in an older child's life--such as graduation, an important birthday, a quincea-era, or a family occasion. In words and pictures, the book's two sections--one for a daughter and one for a son--trace the milestones of growing up and reflect parental joy and pride in the process. Like an illuminated manuscript in a new-world context, the illustrations by S. Guevara stylistically combine Aztec elements with strong contemporary images on bark. This wholly original creation has a multicultural appeal and a radiance that makes it a book everyone will want to give or receive.
The Squatter and the Don (Modern Library Classics)

Maria Amparo Ruiz De Burton

“The Squatter and the Don, like its author, has come out a survivor,” notes Ana Castillo in her Introduction. “The fact that it has resurfaced after more than a century from its original publication is a testimony to its worthiness.” Inviting comparison to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, María Amparo Ruiz de Burton’s illuminating political novel is also an engaging historical romance. Set in San Diego shortly after the United States’ annexation of California and written from the point of view of a native Californio, the story centers on two families: the Alamars of the landed Mexican gentry, and the Darrells, transplanted New Englanders–and their tumultuous struggles over property, social status, and personal integrity.

This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the first edition of 1885.

Ana Castillo is a poet, essayist, and novelist whose works include the recent poetry collection I Ask the Impossible and the novel Peel My Love Like an Onion. She lives in Chicago and teaches at DePaul University.
Esta Puente, Mi Espalda: Voces De Mujeres Tercermundisats En Los Estados Unidos

Cherrie Moraga

Antología de ensayos, narraciones personales y poemas escritos por mujeres de ascendencia chicana, latina, indígena, asiática y africana --en suma, mujeres de color-- que viven en los Estados Unidos. Esta puente, mi espalda es la traducción y adaptación al español de la antología This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color que redactaron y recopilaron Cherríe Moraga y Gloria Anzaldúa, chicanas geniales e innovadoras de familias humildes. Las múltiples autoras de Esta puente, mi espalda manifiestan una amplia variedad de perspectivas culturales y planteamientos de feminismo que van mucho más allá de las preocupaciones de feministas de las clases profesionales y adineradas.
Las redactoras chicanas de Esta puente, mi espalda han reavivado la forma femenina de puente que se vio en la poesía del castellano antiguo. ************************************************************
Esta puente, mi espalda is the Spanish translation of This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, edited by Cherríe Moraga with translations by Ana Castillo and Norma Alarcón. Adapted for a Chicana and Latina readership, Esta puente, mi espalda contains personal narratives, essays, and poems by radical women of color in the U.S. -- including Barbara Smith, Gloria Anzaldúa, Chrystos, Nellie Wong, Aurora Levins Morales, and many more.
The Chicana editors of Esta puente, mi espalda have rekindled the feminine form of puente (bridge) that existed poetically in old Spanish.
Loverboys

Ana Castillo
Tan lejos de Dios

Ana Castillo

Tome is a small, outwardly sleepy hamlet in central New Mexico. In Ana Castillo's hands, however, it stands wondrously revealed as a place teeming with life and with all manner of collisions: the past with the present, the real with the supernatural, the comic with the horrific, the Native American with the Latino and the Anglo, and the women with the men. With her talkative, intimate voice and stylistic narrative freedom, Castillo relates the story of two crowded decades in the life of a Chicano family.

"Engaging . . . the author tells an important story and she tells it with inventiveness and verve."--Washington Post Book World
Carmen la Coja

Ana Castillo

Published to coincide with the Anchor Books edition of Peel My Love Like an Onion, this Spanish translation is a major addition to the Vintage Español list.

Equal parts soap opera, tragicomedy, and rhapsody, Carmen la coja is Ana Castillo's imaginative variation on the themes of Bizet's Carmen, set in the Latin community of Chicago and the seductive world of flamenco. Carmen "La Coja" Santos is a renowned local dancer who has long maintained an affair with the great Agustín, the married director of her troupe. An angry rivalry is sparked when she begins a passionate new liaison with Agusín's grandson, the gifted Manolo; her childhood polio returns; and her already aggravating relationship with her mother takes a difficult turn. But in the end, Carmen, unlike her namesake, finds her way back to happiness.
La Diosa de las Américas

Una ilustradora colección de escritos en torno al icono más grande de la fe latinoamericana, por algunos de los más importantes escritores latinos contemporáneos.

Santa patrona de México, diosa maternal, protectora divina, el símbolo de la Virgen de Guadalupe ha sido reverenciado en el mundo entero. En esta colección, Ana Castillo ha reunido ensayos originales, escritos históricos, ficción, drama y poesía tan diversos como el modo en que cada individuo celebra a esta poderosa deidad.

Con obras de:
Sandra Cisneros, Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D., Rosario Ferré, Francisco Goldman, Richard Rodríguez, Elena Poniatowska, y 21 escritores extraordinarios.
Mi hija, mi hijo, el aguila, la paloma

Ana Castillo, Susan Guevara

Both a blessing to a child and a tribute to parenthood, this superb keepsake book by renowned Chicana poet and author Ana Castillo was inspired by ancient Aztec chants. It's the ideal gift to commemorate any of various momentous events in an older child's life--such as graduation, an important birthday, a quincea-era, or a family occasion. In words and pictures, the book's two sections--one for a daughter and one for a son--trace the milestones of growing up and reflect parental joy and pride in the process. Like an illuminated manuscript in a new-world context, the illustrations by S. Guevara stylistically combine Aztec elements with strong contemporary images on bark. This wholly original creation has a multicultural appeal and a radiance that makes it a book everyone will want to give or receive.