The Farthest Home Is in an Empire of Fire
A Tejano Elegy
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3.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
A family's epic origins in the hinterlands of Mexico that became Texas-and earlier, in Iberia
In his acclaimed 1999 memoir Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation, John Phillip Santos told the story of one Mexican family- his father's-set within the larger story of Mexico itself. In this beautifully written new book, he tells of how another family-this time, his mother's-erased and forgot over time their ancient origins in Spain.
Every family has a forgotten tale of where it came from. Who is driven to tell it and why? Weaving together a highly original mix of autobiography, conquest history, elegy, travel, family remembrance, and time travelling narration, Santos offers an unforgettable testimony to this calling and describes a lifelong quest to find the missing chronicle of his mother's family, one that takes him to various locations in South Texas and Mexico, to New York City, to Spain, and ultimately to the Middle East. Blending genres brilliantly, Santos raises profound questions about whether we can ever find our true homeland and what we can learn from our treasured, shared cultural legacies.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Family history and the lack thereof sparks this vaporous meditation on time, memory, and Chicano heritage. Having traced his father's Mexican-Indian and mestizo roots in Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation, Santos here investigates the Lopez and Vela clans on his mother's side, descended from aristocratic Spanish immigrants who settled the Rio Grande territory in the 18th century. Unfortunately, the Lopez-Vela branches lack the thick culture of his father's side; they are more genteel and assimilated into Anglo society and have few recollections of a past, which the author must reconstruct at a distance. Santos delves into their genealogy, peruses Spanish imperial archives, has his DNA analyzed, and unearths evidence of ancestors from Spain and perhaps even the Holy Land. But with little grounding in lived experience, the story spins away into abstraction and fantasy. The author often lapses into a turgid mysticism As mind is to body, so time is to world and intersperses a science fiction narrative about a time traveler called Cenote Seven, who pontificates on everything from conquistador arrogance to planetary magnetic fields. Santos gives his forebears no flesh-and-blood presence; they seem like figments of an overactive imagination. Photos.
