Product Description

From American Book Award-winning author Ana Castillo comes a suspenseful, moving new novel about a sensuous, smart, and fiercely independent woman. Eking out a living as a teacher’s aide in a small New Mexican border town, Tía Regina is also raising her teenage nephew, Gabo, a hardworking boy who has entered the country illegally and aspires to the priesthood. When Gabo’s father, Rafa, disappears while crossing over from Mexico, Regina fears the worst.

After several days of waiting and with an ominous phone call from a woman who may be connected to a smuggling ring, Regina and Gabo resolve to find Rafa. Help arrives in the form of Miguel, an amorous, recently divorced history teacher; Miguel’s gregarious abuelo Milton; a couple of Gabo’s gangbanger classmates; and a priest of wayward faith. Between the ruthless “coyotes” who exploit Mexicans while smuggling them to America and the border officials who are out to arrest and deport the illegal immigrants, looming threat is a constant companion on the journey.

Ana Castillo brilliantly evokes the beautiful, stark desert landscape and creates vivid characters with strong voices and resilient hearts. “Like Sandra Cisneros’s acclaimed The House on Mango Street,” wrote Barbara Kingsolver when reviewing So Far from God, “Castillo’s writing is seasoned with Mexican aphorisms [and] rich symbolism. . . . Impossible to resist.” The Guardians serves as a remarkable testament to enduring faith, family bonds, cultural pride, and the human experience.

“The Guardians is a rollicking read, with jokes and suspense and joy rides and hearts breaking, mending and breaking again. It has…a deeply rooted urgency, expressed with a compelling mix of bruised indignation and bemused tenderness....This smart, passionate novel deserves a wide audience.” — Los Angeles Times

“Timely and highly readable….Castillo’s most important accomplishment in The Guardians is to give a unique literary voice to questions about what makes up a ‘family,’ Mexican-American or otherwise, where an independent soul can find redemption, particularly in a hostile world, and how we can realistically find ‘faith,’ if we can find it at all, after we have suffered through our personal and political histories, and are still standing on this earth. This is a wonderful novel that does justice to life on the Mexican-American border.” — El Paso Times
“Only a gifted storyteller could portray one family’s tragic struggle to overcome the barriers between nationality and dignity in a way that makes her cause own own. Does Castillo do this? Claro que si.” — New York Daily News
“What drives the novel is its chorus of characters, all, in their own way, witnesses and guardian angels. In the end, Castillo’s unmistakable voice–earthy, impassioned, weaving a ‘hybrid vocabulary for a hybrid people’–is the book’s greatest revelation, even as the search for Rafa races to its dreaded conclusion.” — Time Out New York
“From its lyrical first lines…The Guardians invites you into the story of Regina, a 50ish virgin-widow living in a small town on the border between the U.S. and Mexico; her neighbors; her family; and the dangerous forces that surround them — the narco traffickers, the Border Patrol, the coyotes and the ‘unmerciful desert’ itself. The novel is earning praise for its timeliness in addressing issues of immigration, and for what novelist Cristina Garcia calls its ‘literary magic.’” — Orange County Register
“Castillo's topical, heartbreaking novel blooms from the rugged desert soil along the U.S.-Mexican border, in a small New Mexican town perched on the fault line of the immigration controversy…. [Castillo] allows her characters to speak poignantly to the harsh truths of border life....What if we didn't have passionate, lyrical writers to shine a beacon on injustice and cruelty or remind us of the dignity due all human beings? We would be poorer and more ignorant, indeed.” — Miami Herald “Forecast for Summer Reading”
“The complex and perilous life along the border between the United States and Mexico is the timely subject of this impassioned novel. Castillo uses a classic storytelling format -- the search -- to provide an engaging tale narrated by a poor yet fearless and wise widow trying to find her brother….this spare, sometimes profane novel provides a powerful glimpse of border lives hanging in the everyday balance.” — Seattle Post Intelligencer (one of their “best of the 2007 releases from June, July and August”)

“Castillo writes fiction and poetry of earthy sensuality, wry social commentary, and lyrical spiritualism that confront the cruel injustices accorded women and Mexicans in America, legal and otherwise….In this tightly coiled and powerful tale….At once shatteringly realistic and dramatically mystical, Castillo's incandescent novel of suffering and love traces life's movement toward the light even in the bleakest of places.” Booklist (starred review)

“A nuanced, vibrant look at the American experience through Mexican-American eyes.” — Kirkus Reviews

“The end of the month brings Ana Castillo's GUARDIANS (Random House), a fictional foray into the world of illegal immigration. The plot revolves around a Mexican man who goes missing during a crossing and his sister's efforts to track the coyotes who may have had a hand in it.”–Houston Chronicle “A Fictional Feast”

"THE GUARDIANS" by Ana Castillo: The author of "Peel My Love Like an Onion" takes on the many issues surrounding illegal immigration in a powerful new novel in which a family's faith is tested. "Wonderful ... moving ... intimate ... epic," Oscar Hijuelos told Amazon.com.–San Antonio Express-News “New Summer Books”

“The acclaimed author of Peel My Love Like an Onion tracks the perilous lives of Mexicans who illegally cross the the U.S. for work…Castillo writes convincingly in the voices of the canny, struggling Regina….the desirous Miguel; the passionately religious Gabo; and El Abuelo Milton, Miguel’s elderly grandfather…[she] takes readers forcefully into the lives of the neglected and abused.” — Publishers Weekly

“Ana Castillo is one of those writers that I always expect not just the best of, but the best of the best of. She certainly doesn’t disappoint in her lyrical new book The Guardians….Castillo weaves into this intricately elegant story the Juarez murders of women, the Minutemen, the politics and the desert border town. It’s an amazing feat. She compels with each word, breathes magic into her words and we’re there.” Blogcritics.org

“A wonderful and moving book that is both intimate and epic in its narrative.” — Oscar Hijuelos, author of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love

“Ana Castillo gives America exactly what it needs - her vision of a border most people never see, and not the border they expect, and a story that will not let us go. Her voice is singular, and her talents are on full display here. Everyone needs to visit her world, and to understand her guardians of love and dignity.” — Susan Straight, author of A Million Nightingales

“Ana Castillo is a fearless storyteller. In The Guardians, she addresses the key issues racking our immigrant nation and hemisphere. This brave, unflinching novel shows the tragic consequences that come from not facing what is happening in our communities to those without true guardians to protect them.” -- Julia Alvarez, author of Saving the World

“Man, what a book.  Blood and awe, laughter and stark fear.  As soon as you see the earth ‘shivering’ in the opening sentences of this potent novel, you will know you are in the right place.  The characters are as real and quirky as your own neighbors, though you start to realize they are also people you have probably never met before.  A vital work of healing and astonishment from a medicine-woman at full power.  America needs to read this story.” — Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The Hummingbird’s Daughter

"THE GUARDIANS, a surprising and powerful novel, captures the vulnerability and stark beauty of life in a small, border town. Castillo instills the voices of her four main characters with such passion and humanity, their vitality practically crackles on the page. Unforgettable and timely,Castillo will charm you once again with her literary magic." — Cristina Garcia, author of A Handbook to Luck

"I’ve been waiting for years for this novel, in this voice. The Guardians is Ana Castillo’s most perfect novel, and one of her most politically significant. Through beautifully drawn characters and their engrossing stories, Castillo brings our government’s dirty little war on Latin American immigrants into our consciousness and demands that we choose sides."
-- Ibis Gomez-Vega, Associate Professor, Northern Illinois University, author of Send My Roots Rain

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #383191 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-31
• Released on: 2007-07-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The acclaimed author of Peel My Love Like an Onion tracks the perilous lives of Mexicans who illegally cross to the U.S. for work. Fifty-something Regina, a poorly paid aide in a public school on the U.S. side, is raising Gabo, the son of her brother, Rafa. Seven years have passed since Gabo's mother, Ximena, was murdered by coyotes, or paid traffickers, during a crossing, her body mutilated for salable organs. As the novel opens, Rafa, who has continued to travel back and forth for work, is due to arrive, but vanishes. With Miguel Betancourt, a divorced teacher at Regina's school in his mid-30s, Regina tries to confront the coyotes who were supposed to cross Rafa. In alternating first-person chapters, Castillo writes convincingly in the voices of the canny, struggling Regina, who remains a virgin after a being widowed in an unconsummated marriage; the desirous Miguel; the passionately religious Gabo; and El Abuelo Milton, Miguel's elderly grandfather. All are sucked into a vortex of horror as the search for Rafa consumes them. Castillo takes readers forcefully into the lives of the neglected and abused, but missing is a full emotional connection to the protagonists, who remain strangely absent even as their fates are sealed. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* "I don't think they could come up with a horror movie worse than the situation we got going on en la frontera," muses Milton, a man who has seen it all and now, in old age, is nearly blind. Milton is one of four transfixing voices telling the grim story of life along the border between the U.S and Mexico. Castillo writes fiction and poetry of earthy sensuality, wry social commentary, and lyrical spiritualism that confront the cruel injustices accorded women and Mexicans in America, legal and otherwise. In this tightly coiled and powerful tale, Regina, a virgin-widow in her fifties living in rural New Mexico, cares for her unusually disciplined teenage nephew, Gabo, who believes he's destined for the priesthood. Gabo's father often crosses the border to visit, but this time something has gone wrong, and given the gruesome fate of Gabo's mother, there is cause for alarm. As Gabo intensifies his prayers and penance, Regina, a teacher's aide unaware of her allure, asks Miguel, a chivalrous activist history teacher, for help, and he, in turn, enlists his covertly resourceful grandfather, Milton. At once shatteringly realistic and dramatically mystical, Castillo's incandescent novel of suffering and love traces life's movement toward the light even in the bleakest of places. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Ana Castillo is the author of Peel My Love Like an Onion, So Far from God (a New York Times Notable Book), Sapogonia, and The Mixquiahuala Letters (winner of the American Book Award), as well as the short-story collection Loverboys. Her books of poetry include My Father Was a Toltec, I Ask the Impossible, and Watercolor Women Opaque Men (a novel in verse). She is the recipient of a Carl Sandburg Prize and a Southwestern Booksellers Award. She lives in New Mexico.

Customer Reviews

Difficult to finish
The best thing I can say about this book is that I finished it. Normally, if a book doesn't grab me within the first 50 pages, I allow myself to set it aside and move on. Unfortunately, I received an ARC that I promised to review so I felt an obligation to finish.

The characters were one-dimensional archetypes - the spinster, the teenage boy torn between god and the devil (in the form of his buddies in a gang), the bumbling do-gooder/hero, etc. That would have been acceptable if the story arc was compelling. However, I found the multiple narrator voices distracting, the relationships between the characters lacking emotion, and the plot stretched thin. It felt like the book started as a short story but somewhere along the way the author tried to turn it into a full length novel without really adding any content.

I have lived in both California and Texas and was able to manage most of the Spanish words without trouble. But, it felt like the author was experimenting with a literary exercise. It was more like Spanglish - adding El before random English words, for example. Do people really talk like this? No Mexicans I know do, regardless of how long they've lived in the US.

In the end, I just didn't find the characters or the story believable, enlightening, or compelling. I probably wouldn't pick up anything by the author again,and wouldn't recommend her to others.

i expected to like this novel - the cover blurbs are great and the themes are urgent, but . . .
i expected to like this novel. The cover blurbs are great and the themes are urgent. Unfortunately, the novel itself veers between long stretches of dreadful plotlessness, highly improbable events that (finally) drive the plot forward, and seemingly endless pages filled with characters' musings to themselves.

It's not as if Ana Castillo's topics aren't engaging. She's telling a story about a family living on and fractured by the Mexican-American border. The characters include a man who vanished crossing the border with coyotes to rejoin his sister and son in the U.S. Years before, coyotes separated him from his wife, harvested her organs, and left her lying dead in the desert. The man's surviving son dreams of becoming a priest and finding his father as he navigates a gang-infested school. His guardian aunt, a teacher's aide, dreams of starting a business and relaxes by working in her garden. The aunt has body issues and is still a virgin since she did not consummate her marriage the day before her husband was sent overseas and killed in the military.

Castillo's didacticism is pronounced and inescapable. Characters constantly provide the details of their pasts and their reactions to current events in long monologues. Two of the main characters are schoolteachers and one of the teachers mourns how little the young people know about their own past. And so, the readers receive Castillo's history lessons and opinions about Mexican-American politics throughout the book.

The author's politics are equally unavoidable. Characters muse that we are brothers and sisters on both sides of the border and there should be no restrictions on people traveling north for economic reasons. Castillo's characters never consider the effect that the influx of low-wage, low-skill workers has on the job market and the wages and opportunities of Americans who are also trying to make a living working minimum wage jobs. She bolsters her opinions by having God himself provide a miraculous vision to two of her characters. Heavy-handed to say the least.

All in all, Castillo submits her readers to a tendentious session of proselytizing that often feels like a diatribe. One wishes the author was better able to make the truly pressing border issues come alive for her readers.

BRAVA ANA (An applause from Cairo, Egypt)
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.