Judith L. Gille

I received The View from Casa Chepitos as part of a Goodreads giveaway.

After her Seattle store goes out of business mere months after 9/11, a depressed Judith Gille visits Mexico and buys a home on a whim. Over the next several years, the family--Gille, her husband and two teenage/young adult children--settles into life in a small Mexican town, forging relationships with both expat and Mexican residents.

The book is about the relationships between Gille, her family, and the callejon de Chepito community. he chapters are quite short and anecdotal. Of particular interest are the chapters in which she touches on issues of US-Mexican immigration, when a family to whom the Gilles are close become embroiled in the harsh realities of American immigration policies. There are a few flashbacks to Gille's young adulthood in the 1970s that seem a bit jarring and out of place, but all in all, it's a well-placed, interesting, and worthwhile read.

Recommended.… (más)

There are so many things to love about this book. The first is the author, Judith. She begins the story with the brave, and open rendering of the massive fall-back her business faced, required her to down-size, lay off beloved workers and close stores. We feel her heart break as communities turn against her for shutting down some branches of her women owned hardware/mercantile stores in Seattle. We feel all the hard work and passion she put into building her business, and her disappointment as she must restructure and downsize to survive. Immediately, we are cheering for her.

It is just after this crisis that Judith travels to Mexico and falls in love with a house down a narrow alley in San Miguel de Allende. As a reader, you can't help but fall in love with the house, the neighbors and the community as well. We witness first-hand the building of a life in a new community, very different from chilly Seattle.

Some travel writers focus on the beauty of a place, or the architecture, or the history or culture. Judith writes best of the people. We experience this new place mostly through relationships and experiences with the people Judith meets. We get an intimate look at the lives of families in this interesting town, through marriages, through illness, through poverty, through celebrations.

When reading The View from Casa Chepitos, the world looks both much broader and incredibly close at the same time.… (más)