The Nine Guardians: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Racial and sexual oppression in Depression-era Mexico
Review: Originally published as "Balun-Canan [Nine Stars]" (referring to the ancient Mayan villages in Chiapas, Mexico, where this novel is set), this thickly plotted, autobiographical novel describes a wealthy family during the 1930s, fifteen years after the Mexican Revolution.

The novel is bookended by lengthy sections told by the landowner's daughter--a never-named seven-year-old girl who resembles Castellanos herself. (The author was also raised on her family's ranch in Chiapas, her brother died young, and she lived a relatively isolated existence under the aloof custody of her father and his overprotective wife.) These chapters introduce the family and the inhabitants of the town of Comitan, as seen through the eyes of the girl, and describe peripherally the ongoing tensions between Mexicans of Spanish descent and those of Indian blood, between the wealthy landowners and the reform government, and between men and women.

While the first and third sections carry the emotional weight of the novel, the middle, longest section contains the "meat" of the plot, told mostly in the third person--although some events are seen from the vantage point of individual characters. The family members travel to their ranch, Chactajal, where the hostilities between opposing social forces finally burst into the open. Goaded by legal reforms introduced by the national government, the Indian workers, almost inevitably, rebel against labor conditions that can be described as close to slavery. Caught in the middle is Felipe, the landowner's illegitimate nephew, whose blood guarantees him certain rights but whose birth prevents him from acquiring any status.

Anyone who knows much about the author's political career will understand that her sympathies lie with the Indians (and with the women), yet she masterfully avoids painting either side as entirely virtuous or villainous. On the one hand, some of the Indians stoop to desperate, even criminal, measures to escape their drudgery; on the other hand, even the mule-headed, racist landowner (who, of course, represents the author's father) seems defeated by forces far out of his control. By the end of this sensitive, heartfelt, and melancholy novel, everyone is a victim of the systemic oppression endured by Mexicans of all races and both sexes.

Rating:
Summary: Very emotional book.
Review: This book was at first very complicated becasue of the way it changes it's setting or happenings, but once you get to the 5 or 6 chapter things beggind to make lots more sense. There is lots of feeling in it's was of describing the thoughts that people are having, there is lots of warmth in this little girl who is the main character. This is the type of book that could be read only by those readers who really want to read not just flip pages.