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| The Hummingbird's Daughter | 
 enlarge | Author: Luis Alberto Urrea
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.99
Buy New: $1.98
You Save: $13.01 (87%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (50 reviews)
Sales Rank: 19775
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 528
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.6 x 1.5
ISBN: 0316154520
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780316154529
ASIN: 0316154520
Publication Date: April 3, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Miracles and passion abound in this mesmerizing novel--hailed everywhere as a masterwork--the story of a remarkable young woman's sudden sainthood in the revolutionary-era Mexico of the late 19th century.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 45 more reviews...
 No Problems October 24, 2008
The book is in great condition. It did take a very long time to arrive. However it was still within the estimated delivery window given. I was in no hurry, so it was not a problem for me.
 Full of Magic and Beauty August 14, 2008
This is an epic tale of a Mexican-Indian girl with healing powers (the Saint of Cabora) who lived on a ranch with her father. This novel is full of magical realism and beautiful writing. I enjoyed the wonderful dialog and the detailed characterization of Thomas Urrea (the father) and Teresa Urrea (the saintly daughter). I found the plot to be a bit wandering at times, but the reading experience was always enjoyable.
A modern classic August 7, 2008
Among the many outstanding qualities of Luis Urrea's magnificent novel, The Hummingbird's Daughter, is that the story is substantially true. It is based on the historical record of his great aunt Teresa Urrea. The dialog and the personalities have been reconstructed, but anyone who cares to research the matter as I have will learn that the incredible life of the Hummingbird's daughter, Teresita Urrea, is accurately depicted.
Born out of wedlock to an illiterate Indian mother, she has no idea that her father is Don Tomas Urrea, rich landowner and freethinker in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. At about age six she is taken under the tutelage of an elderly Indian healer named Huila, whose name means "hummingbird" in the Indian language. From her Teresita learns the uses of healing plants and prayers and discovers an even greater gift: she actually has the power to heal by her touch.
This causes problems. The ranch becomes crowded with thousands of pilgrims bearing the most pitiful ailments and afflictions, and the Mexican government, watchful to suppress any threats to its power, is suspicious of her growing fame. The shattering climax of the story calls that old cliche to mind: you can't make this stuff up. It wasn't! Unbelievable as it is, it happened.
The Hummingbird's Daughter is the story of a girl coming to terms with her destiny, with the power of faith and miracles, and with a father's and daughter's discovery of what love is and the sacrifices it sometimes requires.
The book is densely populated with cowboys, outlaws, wild Indians, men who drink too much, cantina beauties, mercy and cruelty, bravery and cowardice, and nature at its rawest. There are a fair number of Spanish words, untranslated, but these will not detract from the enjoyment of those who do not care to look them up. To add a historical note, the story is a wonderful snapshot of revolutionary Mexico along the American border.
Finally, the prose style is marvelously poetic: easy to read, but magically evoking the character of Mexico in all its color and contradictions. The description of the various ways Mexicans prepare coffee as the sun dawns gradually across the country could be excerpted as a fine poem all by itself. I have read the book three times, and in its own way it has influenced my writing as much as Huckleberry Finn, with which it shares many qualities. I even bought a second copy to lend, so as not to risk my own, precious, annotated copy. I grew up in El Paso. Teresita lived there briefly, yet I had never heard of her. This is a shame: her story and this book deserve to be better known.
Al Past is the author of the Distant Cousin series, reviewer for PODBRAM, and member of the Independent Authors Guild. He lives in south Texas. More about his books is at the Distant Cousin website (dot net). They are available here: Distant Cousin: a novel, Distant Cousin: Repatriation, and Distant Cousin: Reincarnation.
A Strange Story Based in Fact March 3, 2008
"The Hummingbird's Daughter" by Luis Alberto Urrea is a novel based in fact and incidents from his family's history. It tells the story of Teresita, the illegitimate daughter of Tomas Urrea, set in the large haciendas of northern Mexico in the late nineteenth century during the presidency of the dictator Porfirio Diaz.
Teresita is schooled by an old Mayo medicine woman, Huila, a curandera, a kind of female shaman, herbalist, mid-wife, and healer, who trains Teresa in these arts. Because of political troubles and fear of violence, Don Tomas abandons one hacienda and moves his family and a large entourage, including Huila and Teresita, to a different hacienda farther north.
Don Tomas' friend Don Lauro Aguirre, a journalist and political activist, is forced to go to El Paso, Texas, to continue his anti-Diaz campaign, and Teresa adopts his political stance. When word gets out that Teresita can work miracles curing the sick, thousands of pilgrims, who call Teresita a saint, settle in camps around the hacienda of Don Tomas to wait their turn for Teresita's ministrations. One of these pilgrims is a man called Cruz Chavez, the leader of a militia called the Tigers of the Sierra, who styles himself "the Pope of Mexico."
Teresita becomes a problem both for the Church and the government, and she is targeted by spies and potential assassins, and the final part of the book is a long and dangerous train trip with Don Tomas and Teresita held captive in cages, but in the end, they are saved and set free in North America.
The Hummingbird's Daughter February 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Urrea's novelized story of his great aunt, the "Saint of Cabora, Teresita Urrea, is an incredible story of an incredible woman. Teresita came out of utter poverty to become an icon of faith for the Yaqi people, especially, but for all Mexican people as well. She endured abuse by her Aunt Tia, was brutally raped by a ranch hand, and nearly killed by her deranged husband (although that piece is NOT in the novel). Teresita became a rallying point, a Joan of Arc, without her overt participation in the Mexican Revolution.
Teresita was, above all, a curandera, a healer with the same kind of powers that we read of in Christian scripture exhibited by Christ. She died as he did at the age of 33. She lived as Christ did, working with, being with, the poor and the outcast. She spoke as Jesus did, speaking truth to power; and, like Jesus, she became an enemy of the State.
Teresita is in my opinion a saint. However, she will most likely never be canonized by the Vatica since she had challenged the Church and preached a rather unorthodox theology. To canonize Tersita Urrea would mean exposing the hideous warts on the nose of the Church itself. The important thing is that the Mexican people have already "canonized" her!
This is a book which I have read and discussed with two different book discussion groups. It was a near unanimous 5-Star hit with both groups.
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