![]() Tomas Rivera's own history reflects the situation of his characters. Rivera’s story highlights the inequity and poverty of immigrants during this time, but it also points toward a future where things might change. Rivera’s story describes both the pain and pride that the young Jose feels at realizing his community is larger Knowing this gives the boy and his community a bit of hope. It has churches, schools and other standard facilities that Americans too often take for granted. Despite their greater population, the other town has far more wealth. ![]() Jose’s census reveals that there are more people in his “town” than in the nearby town where they get their groceries. The camp is on a farm owned by an American. Jose is a fifteen year old boy who lives in the migrant work camp with many other Mexicans. One of the children, Jose, decides to ward off boredom by taking a census (a population count) to see how many people are in their community. They wake the next day and endlessly repeat the same, excruciatingly boring, cycle. When it’s dark, they go to the market and then back to their meager camp to sleep. The immigrants and their children work in the fields, day after day. Tomas Rivera’s short story, “Zoo Island,” describes how Mexican immigrants suffered in the 1920s and 1930s, but it also offers a bit of hope. But both groups of potential readers must first put aside any misconceptions engendered by the. 316 pages, $14.95.) Both Mormon and non-Mormon readers will be pleased and challenged by what they find here: over two hundred poems and fourteen hymns (most written between 19) by sixty-nine Mormon poets. Edited by Eugene England and Dennis Clark. PATRICIA DE LA FUENTE University of Texas-Pan American Harvest: Contemporary Mormon Poems. “Inside the Window” is of interest because it represents the only available extract of Rivera’s second novel, La casa grande del pueblo, which was cut short at the author’s premature death in 1984. “The Salamanders” introduces biblical imagery in the endless rain which floods the beet fields, while “Looking for Borges” is a complete departure from previous themes in a brief parody of the Argentine writer. The previously unpublished “The Harvest” and “Zoo Island” explore the same themes as Rivera’s novel. The other excluded story, “Eva and Daniel,” told in the same narrative style as an event which has become part of the collective memory of the community, is less successful but characteristically Rivera in its focus on the small private tragedy of a young man whose wife dies in childbirth. While it is true that Pete Fonseca is an unsavory rogue, he is a memorable creation whose evil influence, temporarily cloaked in good will, draws everyone into his net of deceit so that the final betrayal of his unsuspecting bride seems all the more heinous. As a result of this somewhat question able editorial decision, “Pete Fonseca” was later published in several popular anthologies and became one of Rivera’s best known short stories. ![]() The editor explains that the former was excluded because the repre sentation of the protagonist “did not conform to the romanticized portrayal of the pachuco as the rebellious Chicano hero that was appearing in this forma tive period of Chicano literature” (75). Edited by and “Eva and Daniel,” were originally intended as part of. The Harvest: Short Stories by Tomás Rivera. the earth did not part (1971), which examines the experiences of migrant Chicano farmworkers as seen through the consciousness of a young boy, Rivera possessesthat rare ability in writers to convert everyday episodes in the lives of ordinary people into small masterpieces of sparse yet often lyrical prose. Well-known in the field for his popular novel. 135 pages, $8.50.) This bilingual edition of Tomás Rivera’s complete short stories, edited by Julián Olivares, is a welcome addition to the increasing number of available creative works by Mexican-American authors. In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:ħ4 Western American Literature The Harvest: Short Stories by Tomás Rivera.
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