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Mar 14, 2015 Leonide Martin rated it 4 of 5 starsRecommends it for: Those interested in Mayas and Yucatan. Lyrical story of family secrets and generational intrigues of a upper class family from Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. Prophetic glimpses of the unfolding events are given through Mayan legends. The story moves between two time periods, the mid-1980s and circa 1915. During this period of change and turmoil in Mexico, a friendship between the rich family's daughter and her Mayan servant takes shape among forays into political struggles involving the Maya people's champion, Felipe Carrillo Puerto and hiLyrical story of family secrets and generational intrigues of a upper class family from Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. Prophetic glimpses of the unfolding events are given through Mayan legends. The story moves between two time periods, the mid-1980s and circa 1915. During this period of change and turmoil in Mexico, a friendship between the rich family's daughter and her Mayan servant takes shape among forays into political struggles involving the Maya people's champion, Felipe Carrillo Puerto and his American reporter girlfriend. Having lived in Merida several years, I especially enjoyed descriptions of the city and its elegant culture deriving from the wealth of the henequen haciendas around the turn of the 20th century. A family drama develops fraught with misunderstandings and hidden motives, involving a well-kept secret that could re-shape the lives of descendants.
John Horst rated it 5 of 5 stars Xtabentum: A Novel Of Yucatan is a story set in a period of history known to few Americans. It is refreshing to read a story from an author who has intimate knowledge of both Mexican and American culture, and Rosy Hugener has woven a fiction that neither vilifies nor lionizes either culture, but rather explores the reality of how both peoples have interacted over most of the twentieth century. With our continued and growing relationship with the peoples of Mexico, stories such as Xtabentum: A NoXtabentum: A Novel Of Yucatan is a story set in a period of history known to few Americans. It is refreshing to read a story from an author who has intimate knowledge of both Mexican and American culture, and Rosy Hugener has woven a fiction that neither vilifies nor lionizes either culture, but rather explores the reality of how both peoples have interacted over most of the twentieth century. With our continued and growing relationship with the peoples of Mexico, stories such as Xtabentum: A Novel Of Yucatan can only help increase our understanding and respect for our neighbors to the south. In addition to being rewarded with a fine and intriguing love story, the reader will enjoy a lesson in the history of this fascinating land and people, and hopefully come away with a new respect and appreciation for this fine and fascinating culture. Xtabentum is a must-read for anyone interested in Mexico and Mexican culture.
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Wonderful love story set in early 20th century Merida, Yucatan.
The story begins in 1985 when the narrator of the story returns to her family home in Mexico City from Chicago to see her dying grandmother. Her grandmother had always carried keys to her wardrobe and refused any family member to look inside. Once her grandmother dies, the family open the wardrobe like little children opening Christmas presents. Inside they find an old photograph of the grandmother as a young women with her aunt and two strange men. They also find her father's birth certificate but the dates are different and different middle & last names. She starts a two year search on her grandmother's early life in Merida. We, the readers, are taken back in time to the 1920's to the Revolution and chaotic times when de la Huerta took power. The grandmother, Amanda, grew up in a liberal, well-to-do family in Merida. Her best friend, Carmen or Cacho, was the daughter of one of the family's servants. They met Felipe Carillo Puerto, historical figure who was the governor of Yucatan, and several of his friends including the Ancona family. Alma Reed, another historical figure, was a friend of the family and the lover of Carillo Puerto. One of the men who would stop by the family home was Carlos Ancona (fictional character although the other Anconas are historical figures). One day Cacho is sent to work for the evil neighbor widow who flogs her senselessly. The widow is found dead the next morning. This happens the same time that Carillo Puerto is arrested by the de la Huerta's and thrown in jail. Carlos turns himself in as the killer of the widow and is sent to the same jail as Carillo Puerto. Although Carillo Puerto is executed, Carlos Ancona escapes. He learns that Cacho has been sent to live in the United States and pursues her. Amanda decides it's time for her to go to University in the US but also wants to find Cacho. They meet in Chicago but Cacho is pregnant. Who is the father? Carlos? Prison guard? An American? I won't tell but I cried at the end. I loved how each chapter begins with either a Mayan legend or a story from the Popol Vuh. Very appropriate to Amanda's story. |
