The Guardians

Ana Castillo does a credible job of creating the vivid, resilient characters who fill Tia Regina's life in New Mexico, where she ekes out a living as a teacher's aide. The various characters include Tia's teenaged nephew, who aspires to a religious life; divorced teacher Miguel; Miguel's gregarious grandfather; and border officials trying to deport illegal immigrants. Overall, Castillo's voice leans toward a monotone. But her sincerity shines through, especially when she describes the beauty of the stark desert landscape. At significant moments, though, her voice lacks emotion, such as when Tia learns that her brother has disappeared during a trip back from Mexico. Still, Castillo's vibrant look at the American experience through Mexican-American eyes makes worthwhile listening. S.C.A. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

April 23, 2007
T
he acclaimed author of Peel My Love Like an Onion
tracks the perilous lives of Mexicans who illegally cross to the U.S. for work. Fifty-something Regina, a poorly paid aide in a public school on the U.S. side, is raising Gabo, the son of her brother, Rafa. Seven years have passed since Gabo’s mother, Ximena, was murdered by “coyotes,” or paid traffickers, during a crossing, her body mutilated for salable organs. As the novel opens, Rafa, who has continued to travel back and forth for work, is due to arrive, but vanishes. With Miguel Betancourt, a divorced teacher at Regina’s school in his mid-30s, Regina tries to confront the coyotes who were supposed to cross Rafa. In alternating first-person chapters, Castillo writes convincingly in the voices of the canny, struggling Regina, who remains a virgin after a being widowed in an unconsummated marriage; the desirous Miguel; the passionately religious Gabo; and El Abuelo Milton, Miguel’s elderly grandfather. All are sucked into a vortex of horror as the search for Rafa consumes them. Castillo takes readers forcefully into the lives of the neglected and abused, but missing is a full emotional connection to the protagonists, who remain strangely absent even as their fates are sealed.