Luis Alberto Urrea’s new novel, “The Hummingbird’s Daughter,” is a masterpiece of storytelling. It is the sort of sweeping historical epic that looms before you like the deepest, darkest ocean, begging you to dive in and explore the vast and wild world below its surface. I eagerly took the plunge, and 500-plus pages later, I still haven’t managed to come up for air. Frankly, I’m not sure I want to.
Writing a review was nearly impossible. It seemed simplistic, and perhaps arrogant, to try to summarize a book that Urrea says in a postscript took “over 20 years of field work, research, travel and interviews to compose.” But it isn’t simply the two decades of creation that make reviewing the work difficult; it’s the work itself.
Part Mexican legend, part historical recount, part family folklore – with a liberal dash of magical realism – Urrea manages the near-impossible by weaving all these literary elements into one expansive and involved saga that is, to its immense credit, both culturally and historically significant while also being a pure, riveting story.
In a body of work that already has garnered Urrea a Pulitzer Prize nomination, an American Book Award, a Lannan Literary Award and induction into the Latino Literary Hall of Fame, “The Hummingbird’s Daughter” stands out as a profound and transcendent achievement.
The magic of “The Hummingbird’s Daughter” isn’t in the big picture, impressive as the view may be. The real gift of this book lies in its astounding and minute details, in its wry humor and in an appealing lack of the sort of sober self-importance that hinders so many historical novels of this magnitude.
The magic comes through the unflinchingly honest portrayal of unique, memorable characters. Through the exploration of politics and religion, of the mystical and the ordinary, the ugly and the beautiful, all set during the Mexican dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz and skillfully juxtaposed against the larger canvas of the world beyond Mexico’s borders.
Indeed, nothing in this review will convey the richness and raw beauty of the writing, or just how accessible and intensely entertaining a story this is.
The book is based on the life of Urrea’s great-aunt Teresita, known through Mexican legend as the Saint of Cabora. Born in the late 1800s to a wealthy rancher and a 14-year-old Indian field worker, Teresita starts her life illegitimate, orphaned, uneducated and poor. She has no prospects until the ranch’s wise and wizened curandera, Huila, looks beyond 5-year-old Teresita’s bleak circumstances and recognizes her innate intelligence, resourcefulness, resiliency and, most of all, her gift for healing. Huila takes Teresita under her wing, nurturing her abilities from child to womanhood.
After a horrific yet transformative experience more than halfway through the story, Teresita’s healing gifts are fully realized, and her life and legend expand far beyond anyone’s expectations. News of her miraculous healing gift spreads across the country, and soon thousands of believers descend upon the ranch in the hopes of being blessed by La Santa de Cabora:
“They walked from the shores of the sea. They ate dogs and stale bread and they ate nothing. They left blood and bandages, pus and teeth, abandoned dead and feces along the trails and roads that led to Cabora, snaky lines in the dirt, where a thousand feet hurried and crept, marching tirelessly to be near Teresita.”
Teresita combines her healing powers with a political message, urging the indigenous people to resist the corrupt Mexican government and hold fast to the land that is rightfully theirs. Her influence leads to an explosive ending that is fully satisfying while leaving you hungry for more.
Peopled with mystics and medicine women, bandidos and buckaroos, peasants and political figures straight out of Mexican history books, “The Hummingbird’s Daughter” is a literary tour de force. Aside from that, however, it’s a beautiful, moving, engulfing and enjoyable novel that absolutely transcends the form.
I would gladly wait 20 more years for a book that affected me as deeply as “The Hummingbird’s Daughter” has.
Freelance reviewer and author Lynda Sandoval is the recipient of the National Readers’ Choice Award and a finalist for the 2005 Colorado Book Award in young adult fiction. Visit her at LyndaSandoval.com.
The Hummingbird’s Daughter
By Luis Alberto Urrea
Little, Brown, 499 pages, $24.95
