The Guardians

The Guardians is a true snapshot of what life on the Border can be. The Abuelo Milton is an great charachter. The use of the 4 voices is very interesting. It is a novel that made me smile at how realistic it is. I enjoyed this new book by Ana Castillo it is very different from her other books. I look forward to her next book.

Ana Castillo's new novel The Guardians is set against a landscape rich in history and culture yet torn apart by some of today's biggest social dilemmas. The US-Mexican border towns of Cabuche and Juarez and the unforgiving desert that separates them are the backdrop for the story of Regina and her teenage nephew Gabriel and the search for Rafa - Regina's brother, Gabo's father - who has disappeared while illegally crossing the border. The search for Rafa leads to new friendships and crises and explores the effects that the trafficking of humans and drugs has on the lives of ordinary people. The narrative is told in the first-person by four characters: Regina, Gabriel, Miguel, and Miguel's grandfather, Milton. Miguel, a teacher at the school where Regina works, becomes an ally, as does his grandfather. Regardless of the geography, the lives, hopes, dreams and fears of these four people are not only believable, but also easy to relate to, making this a touching, witty and beautiful story. As a first-time reader of Castillo's work, I was enthralled with her unique style of writing. Her mixture of English and Spanish is initially a bit uncomfortable until the storytelling takes over. For readers with no knowledge of Spanish this may make the going difficult, but, in most cases, the narrative itself allows the reader to deduce the translation. Ms. Castillo's writing style reminds me of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Her cadence is lively yet almost poetic, rich in insight yet spoken in an everyman voice.

The Guardians is a moving, suspenseful and engaging novel about family, justice and injustice. It's the story of Regina, a widow and de facto parent of Gabo, a spiritual but troubled teen aged boy whose father, Regina's brother, has disappeared crossing the border from Mexico to America. Regina determines to help Gabo learn what happened to his father and into the mix falls Miguel, a divorced activist attracted to Regina and his tart-tongued grandfather Milton. The characters come from varied circumstances and have different agendas but they all believe in family and in helping each other, and they all want what's best for Gabo, something that he himself does not understand. The narrative mixes varied perspectives and shows how individuals' lives are affected by the larger sweep of history, the desperate things they will do to survive and how little things change for an underclass pushed past the margins.

The Guardians: who are they? And who is protecting who in this world of atrocities? What grave responsibility is it on the shoulders of those who sincerely want to save the world from more tragic deterioration? As always and as her writing habit goes, Ana Castillo in her latest novel forces her readers to consider seriously these issues not only as they are taking place at the Mexican-American borders but also as they are taking place worldwide. Ana's novel--The Guardians--is not a work of fiction; it is a document and a manifesto against the violations committed by the new pirates of the 21st C. who found their power on crushing the unprivileged. Ana dedicates her book to the "underclass throughout the world" hoping that everyone will get equal rights to live with dignity. Her words are an out loud cry--hopefully not in the wilderness--one that would wake our conscientiousness and love to the needy. Simply put, No love, No conscientiousness: No hope in a long-lived civilization.

The story is told through the four main characters: Regina, a fifty-ish, down-to-earth, attractive and very family and history-bound widow who always seems to have a "get rich" scheme going; Gabo, her 16 year-old nephew, who is smart, well-read and converses with God; Miguel, a divorced teacher and community activist and his grandfather Milton, who has a long a varied history as a soldier in WWII and a cantina owner. The story is set in the border area where New Mexico and Texas share the border with Mexico. The story conflict is created when Regina's brother and Gabo's father disappears, who is a migrant worker living in the border area where illegally crossing the border is a common occurrence even though it is a dangerous undertaking. Regina enlists Miguel's help to determine the fate of her brother. This is a powerful story with a very timely subject matter. I like the author's choice of telling the story through the first person narrative of the four different characters. This can be tricky, but it was done beautifully here and the distinct voices come through and slowly form a real image in the reader's mind for each character as the story progresses. Regina, also referred to by Gabo as the "Queen" (very apropos since she studied Latin as a little girl and that is what Regina translates to) embodies the earthly family-connected while Gabo represents the spiritual connection of the people (here the author chose conversations with God) and Miguel, who represent the revolutionary political activist while Milton provides us with the historical context of the Mexicans living in the border area. I liked the interspersed use of English and Spanish language throughout the book. It made the characters more realistic and three-dimensional to me. For some this might be a difficult book to read. First the subject matter isn't comfortable, but it is honest and it is real. Second, it might be a little difficult to get used to the use of Spanish expressions, although, as mentioned I found it enhances the experience. I highly recommend this book and would urge anyone to read it who thinks s/he understands and or has an opinion on immigration with Mexico.