The Horse in the Kitchen: Stories of a Mexican-American Family

Born in 1908, two years before the start of the Mexican Revolution, Rafael lives in the village of San Crist bal, in northern Sonora, Mexico, where his father, the village comisario, owns a bar, pool hall, and grocery store. This is a ranching town where vaqueros are heroes, and horses and bulls, as well as coyotes and rattlesnakes, provide thrills and teach lessons that Rafael and his brothers will never forget. The boy's earliest memories are of mounted revolutionaries riding through town and commandeering horses for Pancho Villa's campesino army. When his parents lose their life savings in the revolution, the family crosses the border to Arizona. Life in the north is a struggle, and young Rafael must put aside his dreams of education and work with his brothers picking lettuce wherever laborers are needed.

"A heart-warming story of one family's struggles, survival, and eventual triumph. This immigration saga fits in the tradition of Barrio Boy and Y no se lo trago la tierra. So readable you can't put it down. It captures the history of the turbulent times."--Rudolfo Anaya, author of Bless Me, Ultima

"Ralph M. Flores's The Horse in the Kitchen: Stories of a Mexican-American Family is an entertaining and inspirational work of fiction based on the life of the author's father who moves with his family from Mexico to Arizona to escape the social upheaval of the Mexican Revolution. It is a heartfelt tribute to his father whose life in Mexico and the United States is marked by courage, wisdom, hard work, love, and integrity--values characteristic of many immigrants."--Francisco Jim nez, author of The Circuit