Reyna GrandeCritiques

It is such a great memoir about her life and the experiences that led her to where she is now. I couldn't put the book down on how interesting it was.

this is a really well rounded collection, full of different stories from people of different backgrounds, but that all show the humanity of undocumented immigrants. it's essay and poetry and even art. a surprising number of the authors (surprising to me, anyway) identify as lgbtq but i guess the editors reached out to their own circles and maybe that's who they knew best. also there is, of course, such an overlapping intersectionality with the activists in any community, so in that sense it's not surprising to find these communities working together.

the ones that made me think the most or that i felt were the strongest were:
jennif(f)er tamayo's prose poem "& I Came the Way the Birds Came." as she talks about how the crossing at the mexican border into the usa is by a bird sanctuary, and how almost exclusively white people go there to see and watch and exclaim over bird life, but how this same safe, protected area is one of danger and terror for the people crossing there. what we value, how we value. it was a really powerful statement.

this entire poem by laurel chen:
"You Say Citizenship I Say A Country Is A Catastrophe

After Jasmine Reid

We live in a house quieter than our panic.
The front windows are tall and white. The glass is warped from our desire.
We dress the windows with curtains but desire still floods the house in summer.
I open the doors of the fridge when it is too warm with our want.
I crawl inside there until my parents say time's up.
Want hums, warmer than wind or worship.
My father turns off the fridge one night when it sounds so much like cicadas.
The house is so quiet, sometimes I can hear the metal pipes rusting inside it.
My mother and I both cut our hair so that our bangs wave like flags.
I paint my lips red and wear only darkened blues or greens.
My brother waits patiently at the mailbox, want bends his figure in half.
When the phone rings, I feel each note twist in the air.
Even sound is twisted under want.
If I reach out, I can almost touch it when it hums like that.
We hold our breath until our lungs vibrate like refrigerators."

and, i think, most powerful (to me) of all is lucy rodriguez-hanley's essay on giving birth to a baby that needed to stay in the nicu for a short while at the same time of the children being separated from their parents at the border. how the trauma of being separated from her toddler daughter during this time both mirrored and was so totally different from the huge trauma affecting the children and parents who were torn from each other, and may not be back together even today. the way she described how hard it was for her, and compared it to the border families was really really powerful and thought-provoking.

Happy Publication Day! 03/15/2022

4.5/5

Combining fact and fiction, Reyna Grande’s A Ballad of Love and Glory is a beautifully penned novel set against the backdrop of the Mexican American War (1846-1848). The story begins in March 1846 with Ximena Salome Benitez y Catalan, standing at a port on the Gulf of Mexico watching as Yankee ships pass through the inlet and the cavalry of the Army of Occupation of the United States of America make an entrance.

After Texas becomes the twenty-eighth state of the Union, the US looked to expand their territories and a dispute arises around the ownership of the land around the Rio Grande. Joaquin, Ximena’s husband joins the guerilla fighters in defending their homeland and in a tragic turn of events is killed by the Texas Rangers and their home and property destroyed forcing Ximena and her Nana Hortencia to flee and seek shelter with family in Matamoros. She is a gifted healer, having learned at the hands of her grandmother and she eventually becomes a nurse to injured soldiers in the Mexican Army using her knowledge of herbal remedies to ease their pain and suffering even being requested to treat the injuries of the leader/President Mexican general/president Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.

On the other side of the war, we meet John Riley in Fort Texas on the Rio Grande, an Irishman serving the US Army. Originally from Galway, he has left his wife Nelly and young son back in Ireland in hopes of saving earning enough money for the safe passage of his family so that they could begin a better life. After initially enlisting in the British Army, he later moved to North America finally joining the US Army where he and his fellow countrymen are paid poorly and provided the bare minimum despite being promised much more. They also face nativist hostility and humiliation in the hands of the American soldiers and leaders not to mention being given the harshest punishments for minor offenses from being bound and gagged in the harshest of heat to having their skin branded with hot iron if found drunk/hungover. Many immigrant soldiers have defected and joined the Mexican Army who treat them with respect and provide fair compensation and living conditions as compared to their American counterpart. Initially, Riley remains loyal to the vows he took while enlisting for the sake of his honor and thoughts of his family back home in Ireland which is under British dominion with the countrymen suffering in the hands of the British government. Eventually though, after bearing witness to the inhuman treatment meted out to his fellow soldiers, he joins the Mexican Army. The plight of the Mexicans reminds him of that of his homeland which faces similar treatment at the hands of the British . His superiors taking note of his years of military experience encourage him to form The Saint Patrick’s Battalion - the artillery of foreign soldiers under Irish Leadership. Ximena and Riley meet when she rescues and nurses Riley’s friend /fellow countryman Jimmy Riley back to health after he is injured while attempting to cross the river over to the Mexican side with John. They gradually grow closer and become a pillar of support for one another amid the raging war.

As the war continues, we follow Ximena and Riley’s journey from Matamoros to Monterreythen on to San Luis Potosí, Mexico City, and Churubusco. The author delves deep into the volatile political landscape and atrocities of war. Grande’s description of the war marches and the devastation of the cities and the inhabitants are hard to take in.

“This is what conquerors do to the conquered,” Riley said.“They build their empires on the stones and ones of those they defeat.”

This is an extremely well-researched novel that sheds a light on a part of history that isn't much talked about. The author in her notes talks about the historical facts that inspired this work of fiction. John Riley and his battalion are based on the real Private John Riley who deserted the US Army on April 12, 1946 and joined the Mexican Army later forming the Saint Patrick's Battalion. Ximena, the character was based on Ximena a Mexican Woman who “tends to the wounded from both sides of the battlefield” mentioned in John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem, “The Angels of Buena Vista”.

Both Ximena and Riley and their love story will capture your heart as will the characters of Nana Hortencia, Jimmy Maloney and Patrick Dalton. This is a slow-paced but engaging read. The vivid imagery of the landscape, powerful narrative and brilliant characterization will hold you riveted. I enjoyed the historical angle immensely, not having much prior knowledge of the same. The hardships that the army and those accompanying their fighting men face – the hunger, fatigue, exposure to the harshest weather are heartbreaking. The author also sheds a light on the self-serving motives of the leaders who are responsible for the dire conditions and lack of basic amenities these brave men and women are facing and how personal ambition often overshadows concern for the greater good. The author takes special care to acknowledge the contribution and sacrifices of the “Mexican “soldaderas” —wives, mothers, daughters— who followed their men into battle to serve as cooks, laundresses, and nurses, and, when the need arose, even took up arms alongside their men.” This is a story about war and survival, love and sacrifice, faith and resilience. In A Ballad of Love and Glory, the author tells us a story not just about Ximena and Riley but about all the men and women (and their countries) whose lives and destinies are changed irrevocably on account of war and its aftermath.

“Along with the other soldaderas, Ximena remained on the ridge overlooking the battle grounds. As the cannons and muskets crashed and roared, and the crack of the rifles and the clanging hooves of the cavalry reverberated over the battlefield, she thought of the worst storms she’d witnessed in San Antonio de Béxar and the Río Bravo region, when the clapping thunder and vivid flashes of lightning seemed to be splitting the heavens above. She’d never imagined she would one day witness storms even worse than those—with gunpowder flashes and bombs exploding, with a hail of cannon balls falling upon the battlefield. This darkening storm was deadlier and more sinister than any created by nature. For this one was manmade, forged by greed, vanity, tyranny.”

Thanks to Ms. Grande for sending me a digital review copy of this heart-wrenchingly beautiful novel. All opinions expressed here are my own.

tough read, she doesn't pull any punches

Read together with a friend as my first buddy read.

First off, this is a war story with a little romance thrown in. This is part of a Christmas gift I received from my youngest son. Part of the reason I didn't care for it was because of all the blood and gore part. While it is fiction, it is supposed to be of the US and the Mexican War and the greed part of the war.It is heavily balanced on the Mexican side but I don't know by how much. This is not for the under 18 readers and I've given it a 4* rating. There is a lot of violence and nasty talking in this. While it had a lot of feels in it, this is just not what I enjoy reading.

Book Club

Cuando el padre de Reyna Grande deja a su esposa y sus tres hijos atrás en un pueblo de México para hacer el peligroso viaje a través de la frontera a los Estados Unidos, promete que pronto regresará con el dinero suficiente para construir la casa de sus sueños. Sus promesas se vuelven más difíciles de creer cuando los meses de espera se convierten en años. Cuando se lleva a su esposa para reunirse con él, Reyna y sus hermanos son depositados en el hogar ya sobrecargado de su abuela paterna, Evila, una mujer endurecida por la vida.

Los tres hermanos se ven obligados a cuidar de sí mismos. En los juegos infantiles encuentran una manera de olvidar el dolor del abandono y a resolver problemas de adultos. Cuando su madre regresa, la reunión sienta las bases para un capítulo nuevo y dramático en la vida de Reyna: su propio viaje a El otro lado para vivir con el hombre que ha poseído su imaginación durante años— su padre ausente.

En esta memoria extraordinaria, la galardonada escritora Reyna Grande le da vida a sus años tumultuosos, capturando la confusión y las contradicciones de una infancia divida entre dos padres y dos países. Sólo en los libros, en la música y en su rica imaginación ella encontrará consuelo, un refugio momentáneo de un mundo en el que cada lugar se siente como El otro lado. La distancia entre nosotros capta el paso de una niña de la infancia a la adolescencia y más allá. Una divertida, lírica, pero desgarradora historia, nos recuerda que las alegrías y las tristezas de la infancia están siempre con nosotros, impresas en el corazón, recordándonos de ese lugar que fue nuestro primer hogar.

this book pulls out the best and most insightful way to understand the heart of immigration with essays, poetry and prose. I was enlightened and felt there is a compassionate way to look as immigrates as your neighbors and take more action to welcome into our melting pot culture, good read

Love always finds a way. The horrors of war involving a greedy American government are made clear in this novel. The beautiful Mexican landscapes and its people are not very prepared for this assault; their own governmental infighting handicaps them. The hateful racism of the military towards anyone who isn't from America is astounding whereas the Mexican people embrace all. Thank you to Goodreads for a copy for my review.

"But wasn't life just like that? A powerful nation will always hunger for more power. And they will always find men like himself- starving wretches, so far from home and country and desperate to do right by their families- to do the dirty work."

Everytime I read a BIPOC historical fiction book I fall more in love with the genre. A Ballad of Love and Glory by Reyna Grande was no exception. This was one of my most anticipated releases this year and it did not disappoint.

Grande gives you lush storytelling seeped with Mexican history and culture, curanderismo and a love story that simmers slowly. Ximena is a fearless, determined and relentless protagonist. She is a force of nature and a dedicated advocate for her people. I loved Ximena's transformation and she grew her strength from helping to heal her people using her family's traditional medicinal practices. She is the heart and soul of the novel and serves as a gentle reminder that your country lives in your heart and traditions are carried with you regardless of geography. The novel shows us the dangers of trusting the U.S. over your own people and how throughout history U.S. land possessions being called war victories over certain lands were really acts of brute force against innocent people motivated by greed. We see the repercussions all over the Americas even today.

Through her POV you get an in depth look at Mexican history and the unfolding of certain events that transpired during the Mexican American War. I learned so much from viewing the story through her eyes. So mush has been omitted and white washed in history. I found myself underlining so many lines to cross-reference and research. I had never heard of the Irish Battalion that ended up fighting for Mexico after leaving due to being tortured by the U.S. soldiers. It makes me wonder how different Irish-Mexican relations would like if the whole truth had been taught long ago. What would it look like if racism had not severed that relationship as well?

I loved this book and found the storytelling compelling and captivating from the start. I appreciated that the love story wasn't the main focus and that it grew slowly out of heartbreak, loneliness, commonalities and circumstances. There are never winners in war but the biggest victims are the poor and working people who's only wish is to live a peaceful life with their families. There are moments that will make your heart race and then break. Some of my favorite moments were the tender ones between Ximena and her grandmother. I highly recommend this one if you are interested in learning more about Mexican history and you appreciate enthralling storytelling. Thanks to @atriabooks for the gifted copy.

A Ballad of Love and Glory by Reyna Grande is a recommended historical fiction novel set in 1846 during the Mexican-American War.

After Ximena Salomé's husband is killed during the conflict, she becomes a nurse and takes her gift of healing to the front lines of the war over the disputed Río Grande boundary. At the same time, John Riley, an Irish immigrant who is serving in the U.S. Army, but he and his fellow Irish immigrants were treated cruelly by the officers. He deserts and joins the Mexican force where General Santa Anna places him in charge of the St. Patrick’s Battalion, a unit made up of other Irish deserters. He and Ximena meet and fall for each other, beginning an affair that is surely doomed from the start.

This is a literary fiction as well as historical fiction, so it is technically beautifully written but inspired by historical events and figures. The novel does focus on the battles and details of the war. The narrative unfolds through alternate points-of-view and also provides additional information through some flashbacks. It is a slow moving novel at times as it focuses on the details of the war. Additionally, with the focus on the history, there is also a lack of character development and they were hard to connect to while reading.

Obviously Grande takes some liberties while following the facts in order to take the events and historical figures and turn the information into a novel. Historical fiction isn't normally a genre I would chose to read due to the trend to take modern sensibilities and project them into a historical context. Historical context of the era and times matter to me. There is some of this contemporary editorializing present and prepare yourself for an unfavorable view of America.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Atria Books via Edelweiss.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2022/03/a-ballad-of-love-and-glory.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4593854235

Very nice book to read. I knew nothing about this Mexican/US war! Nice to include a little love story in the middle of it. I felt like I was in the story. Well done.

Epic historical fiction set against the backdrop of the Mexican-American War. I got so swept up in the writing and the romance that I hardly noticed I was also getting a history lesson about a nearly forgotten conflict in our nation’s history. It’s worth reading if just for the descriptions of the Mexican landscape alone.

My thanks to the publisher and Goodreads Giveaways for a copy to review.

Many historians consider American’s Mexican War of the 1840s to be an unjust war, one primarily waged to grab land for the extension of slavery and thus of human greed. Because of this motive and rampant nativism in the US Army, many immigrant soldiers deserted the American army to join the Mexican forces. This story tells of these soldiers’ formation of the Saint Patrick’s Battalion (many immigrants were Irish) and of their historical leader John Riley. Atop these historical nuggets of suffering and contention, Grande places a love story with a strong female protagonist.

In this work, Riley, a native of Ireland, and his love Ximena, a native of Mexico, unsuccessfully try to fight off American invaders. Ximena serves the army as a nurse while Riley leads the battalion. Riley’s soldiers have left American forces because of ethnic mistreatment. They fight courageously, and many die at the hands of the Americans. Saint Patrick’s Battalion ends up hanging from nooses in the largest mass execution in US history – a point of American shame.

Of course, as a patriotic American, this story seems to pick the wrong side for me. My studies on the Mexican War have convinced me that it was indeed an unjust war. Even the great president Abraham Lincoln agreed in his objections while in Congress. Nonetheless, this book contains strikingly negative portrayals of Americans – including nativism, hubris, and war crimes. The reader should be prepared for these. I would have liked for Americans to have been painted in a more nuanced light, but I also fear that such a portrayal might not have been reflected in the historical record. It also reminds me of more recent events in my country’s imperfect history.

Precisely because this book hits on such tender points does it deserve to be read today. Further, nativism, immigration, and America’s southern border are political hot points in the news today. Reading this book makes me think that their roots lie in deep history, perhaps embedded in human nature. Regardless, discomfort is a reason to read a book, not to eschew it. Such is true with Grande’s novel. It reminds us that human nobility transcends race, religion, or nationality; instead, it is something bound up with loyal love and glory.

This autobiography is about a young girls (grande) life who lives in Iguala de la Independencia in southern Mexico. Her parents leave her and her brother in her grandmothers care. This is in search of a better life in the US. Grande deals with poverty and abusive in the home that she is in. Her mother comes back but leaves once again, leaving the children in a bad place once again. Eventually the father comes back and takes the children to US. The children deal with pain once again, deportation, learn a new language and cower under their father's abusive treatment. I would not use this book as a read aloud because it deals with very heavy topics. I would have it in my classroom as an option in the library.

I have been trying to remember the name of this book since I first signed up for goodreads , over 6 years ago now. I read this the last semester of college, almost 9 years ago now and the characters and the plot stuck with me (but apparently not the title or the author). I'd like to reread it.

When Reyna Grande’s father leaves his wife and three children behind in a village in Mexico to make the dangerous trek across the border to the United States, he promises he will soon return from “El Otro Lado” (The Other Side) with enough money to build them a dream house where they can all live together. His promises become harder to believe as months turn into years. When he summons his wife to join him, Reyna and her siblings are deposited in the already overburdened household of their stern, unsmiling grandmother.

The three siblings are forced to look out for themselves; in childish games they find a way to forget the pain of abandonment and learn to solve very adult problems. When their mother at last returns, the reunion sets the stage for a dramatic new chapter in Reyna’s young life: her own journey to “El Otro Lado” to live with the man who has haunted her imagination for years, her long-absent father.

In this extraordinary memoir, award-winning writer Reyna Grande vividly brings to life her tumultuous early years, capturing all the confusion and contradictions of childhood, especially one spent torn between two parents and two countries. Elated when she feels the glow of her father’s love and approval, Reyna knows that at any moment he might turn angry or violent. Only in books and music and her rich imaginary life does she find solace, a momentary refuge from a world in which every place feels like “El Otro Lado.”

The Distance Between Us captures one girl’s passage from childhood to adolescence and beyond. A funny, heartbreaking, lyrical story, it reminds us that the joys and sorrows of childhood are always with us, invisible to the eye but imprinted on the heart, forever calling out to us of those places we first called home.

Reyna Grande writes about her childhood experiences of being the child of illegal immigrants to the United States. In the beginning she and her siblings are left behind as her family is ripped apart by her parents illegal immigration. Later she is reunited with her parents but she grows up within a system that is not usually fair, safe or healthy. Reyna's story shows the dangers and heartbreak of the American Dream for immigrants. It also explores a complicated and heartbreaking relationship with the author's parents.

This is one of the best books I have ever read. Reyna really makes you feel as if you are apart of her world. I found myself feeling for her heartbreak, celebrating in her victories and loving her success. Her writing style is amazing and really makes you feel engaged. I am glad that this is the first book that I have read of hers because I now know how she came to be and feel as though I will engage and connect on a different level with her other books. Adding her to my list of favorite authors. Thank you for the opportunity to see a bit of your world.

It was an interesting memoir and covers a hot topic in today's news. But like most memoirs I have a problem with it because most authors can't be objective about their own life. It is hard to figure out how much is a bit overstated. It would be interesting to find out what her family members would say about the memoir.

This books deals with common or familiar issues to many Hispanics/Latinos such as immigration issues, family separation, family dysfunction, poverty, learning a new language and adjusting to a new school. This is memoir of one girl’s experience who escapes poverty and overcomes significant obstacles to achieve success in the US. Students will find this book inspirational and will be able to identify with the issues she encountered.

A very timely read. In the states one would have to living under a rock to not realize how the immigration is dividing our country. I'm not going to offer my opinion on this issue, just state my thoughts on this memoir.

Her father came first, than her mother, finally when she was nine her father came back for the three children. All illegal, they were caught twice by patrols and sent back to Tijuana, the third time they made it. They settled in California, but by now her family was fractured, her father a difficult, hard drinking man. Reyna vowed she would make something of herself, work hard, go to college and make the most of her opportunities here in America.

She does, and in a honest, no holds barred voice, she tells us of her journey, book mentally and physically. Never feeling like she fit anywhere, her difficulties in defining herself, her heritage, culture. The fear of being illegal, though that has been remedied, of getting caught, sent back. Her fear of not making it, not being strong enough, smart enough. Working hard,while in school, taking other jobs,smsll shared apartments, having to watch how every penny was spent. Her struggle with her family, trying to make them proud of her but never succeeding no matter how much she thrived. She does learn more about their own upbringing later, that helps her understand their actions. Her fisits back to the poor village she was from to see her grandmother, other family that still lived there. Realizing she now didn't fully fit in either place.

Such an interesting and heartfelt story, putting a face to those who come here to escape poverty, for opportunities. I admire her moxie, and if you read this I think you will too.

I was looking at this book primarily for the dance culture standpoint but I found it to be instead about people, young and old, making bad choices, and about immigration. The dancing is just a setting for the constant foolish actions of all but three of the characters, and only one of those wise ones is among the half dozen main characters.

There is still a little about the love of dancing but for me, not enough to offset the deluge of beatings, infidelity, lying and theft for the dance picture to carry the book.

However the memoir by the same author is a very motivational and an exciting story, well worth reading

Although I find the writer very clear at expressing thoughts, I have two reasons for not rating this novel higher.

First, during the first third of the book, all the character's names or nicknames start with 'A" or "J" and I could not keep them straight, even 50 pages into the book.

Secondly, the story is so grim that the goal, even if reached, does not seem to be worth it, so why read the book?

On the plus side, the ending is very unique and I remember that part very well, and will for a ling time.

The regular version is not fit for children due to the endless cruelty. The Young Adult version I have not read but the internet shows it as the same page length so must still have all that cruelty.

Probably the best use of this book is to get a detailed view of what it is like to live on the other side of the border, to try to cross the border and to try to live in the United States without parental encouragement of financial help either at home or in the states. However for that purpose I recommend the author's nonfiction, her own memoir. That one also has a more pleasant journey towards a dream. Because the memoir is true, the author has not fully reached her goals so the ending in the memoir is not quite as dramatic as in the novel, but more worthwhile given the circumstances encountered by the real person of the memoir and the novel's main character.