Arturo Islas (1938–1991)

For more reviews and bookish posts visit https://www.ManOfLaBook.com

The Rain God by Arturo Islas is a family saga of a Mexican family escaping the 1911 revolution to the United States. Mr. Islas was an English professor who focused on the Chicano cultural experience, he passed away in 1991.

The Angel family is living on the border of Texas and Mexico. They are trying to assimilate themselves without losing their Mexican identity. Through personal triumph and tragedy, the family experiences life, love, and lost.

Even though The Rain God by Arturo Islas is short, it is very complex and layered. I don’t remember where I got the idea to read it, it could have been mentioned in one of the books I’ve read, or an on-line article – nevertheless, I’m glad I found it.
Frankly, this book should be more well known.

The core of this book is family dynamics, which doesn’t always mean blood relations. There are friends who are considered as much as a family as anyone else. This is especially true when you are in an immigrant community in a small town.

Attempting assimilation and hate crimes are part of life in this book. Sadly it’s not just the experience of the Mexican community so these themes, and others, can certainly be transposed to other communities.

I was especially fascinated by complicated relationships the family has with its past and its identity. One of the characters, a police officer, lives a dual life. On the one hand he is trying to be a part of the police force, on the other some of his family sees him as a coward for not taking revenge on a murder.
This type of dual experiences is not uncommon among many immigrants regardless of a place of origin.

The author shows the duality and hypocrisy of religion. The family are, mostly, devout Catholics but do not shy away from “spirits”, as well as affairs. My only conclusion is that he tried to show us how the Mexican culture, or the macho Latin mindset, can encompass two contradictory beliefs, and truly believe them.
Again, not just a Mexican/Latin ability as we can see around the world.… (más)

This was assigned reading for a course, and was a follow up to Faulkner's family saga GO DOWN, MOSES. It was infinitely easier to read (sorry, Faulkner!) and easier to track the family members and associations. At first, getting used to the very natural (but sometimes confusing) flow of information was tricky, but once immersed in the author's style... I found it very easy to go along with it.

The story is wrenching, in parts. It is about family, what they do for and to each other, and the prejudices that are cultivated within families - and how those play out in its members.

I'm certainly curious to read the next book. Islas intended it to be a trilogy, but sadly died before the third book was completed.

Nonetheless, an overall enjoyable read with some very deep rooted issues worth consideration and exploration.… (más)

When Josie Salazar's husband, Harold Newman, decides to get divorced with Josie and leaves his two daughters, Josie "migrates" to California back to her Texas hometown right above the Mexican border. It seems that Josie's husband Harold had good reason to dissolve their marriage, but this novel's nonlinear plot(characters and dialogue going in more than one direction) mainly focuses on revealing the secrets of Josie's clan (introduced in Artuto Islas' first novel, The Rain God). Mama Chona's children and grandchildren are raised to dislike their Mexican dark-skinned heritage, while valuing a supposedly light-skinned Spanish ancestry. Migrant Souls portrays three generations of Mexican-Americans facing prejudice, looking for self-value, and experiencing other hardships.
Different family members vary with their adaptions to the Angel culture. Josie's atheistic father is easy-going. Her religious aunt, Jesus Maria, sees sins everywhere. Her favorite cousin, Miguel Chico, an alcoholic homosexual cousin who became a writer is known as an "ethnic novelist". Josie and Miguel are really close, quite frankly, and have intimate conversations once in a while and they are considered the family's outcasts. "Three generations of the Angel's rich and turbulent history are viewed through the eyes of the family's outcasts" is a quote from this book. In my opinion, this book was a bit humorous and displayed a lot of accurate ideas about being prejudice. This was a sequel saga to Arturo Islas' Rain God novel, so I think that I could've enjoyed this book a little more if I had read Rain God, for I could have known more about certain characters and their families and what their characteristics were compared to this story. Overall I had a decent time reading this book.… (más)