Rain of Gold

Victor Villaseñor

mar 2015 · Arte Publico Press

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Rain of Gold is a true-life saga of love, family and destiny, pulsing with bold vitality, sweeping from the war-ravaged Mexican mountains of Pancho Villa's revolution to the days of Prohibition in California. It all began when the author's maternal grandmother sat him down in their little home in the barrio of Carlsbad, California, and gave him sweet bread and told him the story of their past. Of his mother Lupe, the most beautiful girl in the whole village, no more than a child when Villa's men came shooting into their canyon. And of his father Juan and his family, reduced to rags and starvation by the Revolution as they ran a tireless race against extinction to escape across the border into the United States, where they believed that endless opportunity awaited them. But Juan found that the doors to the promised land are often closed to those from south of the border. There were times when a man had to take the law into his own hands. But Lupe, law-abiding and extremely religious, learned early in her war-plagued life that love was more powerful than violence, and she refused to bend. It became a struggle of iron wills and deepest passion, a story of love told with humor and poetry that celebrates the triumph of the human spirit.

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Victor Villaseñor is a writer whose works have brought Mexican-American culture and literature to a wide audience. The Los Angeles Times compared his first novel, Macho! (Arte Público Press, 1973, 2003), to the best work of John Steinbeck. He is the author of the highly acclaimed best-sellers Burro Genius: A Memoir (Rayo, 2004); Rain of Gold (Arte Público Press, 1991), which details the saga of his family's immigration to the U.S. from Mexico; and Thirteen Senses: A Memoir (Rayo, 2002). His other non-fiction works include Wild Steps of Heaven (Delta Books, 1995), Jury: The People vs. Juan Corona (Little Brown and Company, 1976), and the screenplay for the award-winning film, The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez. He has written several books for children based on indigenous tales told to him by his parents and grandparents, including Goodnight, Papito Dios / Buenas noches, Papito Dios (Piñata Books, 2007),The Stranger and the Red Rooster / El forastero y el gallo rojo (2006), Little Crow to the Rescue / El Cuervito al rescate (2005), The Frog and His Friends Save Humanity / La rana y sus amigos salvan a la humanidad (2005) and Mother Fox and Don Coyote / Mamá Zorra y Don Coyote (Piñata Books, 2004). Walking Stars (Piñata Books, 1992, 2003), his empowering collection of stories for young adults, is also available in Spanish as Estrellas peregrinas (Piñata Books, 2005). Villaseñor also wrote his memoir, Crazy Loco Love (Arte Público Press, 2008), a powerful portrait of a young boy on the path to manhood in the shadow of his influential father. Villaseñor lives in Oceanside, California, where he continues to write.