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The Hummingbird's Daughter

by Luis Alberto Urrea (Goodreads Author)

4.14 of 5 stars 4.14 · rating details · 4,464 ratings · 870 reviews

The prizewinning writer Luis Alberto Urrea's long-awaited novel is an epic mystical drama of a young woman's sudden sainthood in late 19th-century Mexico.It is 1889, and civil war is brewing in Mexico. A 16-year-old girl, Teresita, illegitimate but beloved daughter of the wealthy and powerful rancher Don Tomas Urrea, wakes from the strangest dream--a dream that she has die...more

Paperback, 528 pages

Published April 3rd 2006 by Back Bay Books (first published January 1st 2005)

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Community Reviews

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Jan 12, 2012 Richard rated it 1 of 5 stars

Rating: an irritated single star.

Someone needs to explain to me why this book is great. I don't think it's even good. It's The Song of Bernadette for the 21st century, written in prose as flat and featureless as the deserts it describes.

So very, very, very not recommended.

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: "My name is David Brandstetter. I'm a claims investigator for the Medallion Life Insurance Company." He handed her a card. She didn't glance at it. "I'm looking for Peter Oats," he said.

"He...more

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Nov 05, 2008 Jeanette rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, mexico, all-fiction

This is a very interesting story about a real woman who lived in Mexico in the late 19th century. She was the author's great-aunt, and he grew up hearing stories and legends about her. Beginning in 1985, the author began twenty years of research leading to this novel.

Teresita was considered the "Saint of Cabora," although she did not think of herself in that way. She was born the bastard daughter of Don Tomas Urrea. At birth, she had a strange triangular mark on her forehead. The curandera said...more

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Sep 06, 2007 Deborah rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone!

This book sucked me right in mostly because I loved the fact that Teresita, the young girl who becomes revered as a local saint in pre-revolutionary Mexico, was actually a relative of the author, Urrea. The way he imagines Teresita's life, and the lives of those around her, reminds me of hypertext - you're reading along, absorbed in a great character whose thoughts and actions are totally unique and amusing and endearing and rage-inspiring, and suddenly there's this whole other person branching...more

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Jun 08, 2008 Joe rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was an outstanding book in every measurable way: great writing, great story, highly imaginative, and not shy in tackling substantive issues of life and death in turn of the century Mexico. A professor once defined "sublime" as a combination of the beautiful and the horrible, and I think the Hummingbird's Daughter fits this definition to a t. The story is both beautiful in its telling and horrifying in its description of the cruelty people bring to one another in pursuit of religion, nationa...more

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Sep 10, 2011 Caroline rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult, hispanophilia, mexico

Urrea pulls together two decades of personal research into the compelling story of a great aunt who became a sainted icon of the indigenous rebellion against the Porfiriato in late 19th century Mexico. The Hummingbird's Daughter paints a vivid, earthy, fearless picture of the insular rural world of the hacienda of his people, as well as of the nameless masses of "the People," his term for the Indian underclass that populate the background of the story and eventually swell like the tide. Urrea de...more Urrea pulls together two decades of personal research into the compelling story of a great aunt who became a sainted icon of the indigenous rebellion against the Porfiriato in late 19th century Mexico. The Hummingbird's Daughter paints a vivid, earthy, fearless picture of the insular rural world of the hacienda of his people, as well as of the nameless masses of "the People," his term for the Indian underclass that populate the background of the story and eventually swell like the tide. Urrea deserves praise for the seamless transitions he makes between the achingly beautiful and the disgusting. He tumbles headlong into both in order to acknowledge that they are equally true, equally parts of life and death in the Mexico he describes. For a book about a woman's holy powers of healing and divine love, there is an awful lot of pig filth, difficult childbirths, gunshot wounds, and skin sores--and this balance is precisely what makes the 500 pages breeze past in a cloud of reality and possibility.

Occasionally the accumulated weight of the vast research he has amassed in preparing to tell his family's story will press against the scenery he paints, chink the sky with echoes of a newspaper article or an eyewitness account, wind the narrative into a puzzling gully, but the sum of the book breathes life into a rich world of beauty, faith, and injustice.

An excerpt from chapter one to set the scene:

Every Mexican was a diluted Indian, invaded by milk like the coffee in Cayetana's cup. Afraid, after the Conquest and the Inquisition, of their own brown wrappers, they colored their faces with powder, covered their skins in perfumes and European silks and American habits. Yet for all their beaver hats and their lace veils, the fine citizens of the great cities knew they had nothing that would ever match the ancient feathers of the quetzal. No cacique stood atop any temple clad in jaguar skins. Crinolines, waistcoats. Operas, High Mass, café au lait in demitasse cups in sidewalk patisseries. They attempted to choke the gods with New York pantaloons, Parisian petticoats. But still the banished spirits whispered from corners and basements. In Mexico City, the great and fallen Tenochtitlán, among streets and buildings constructed with the stones of the Pyramid of the Sun, gentlemen walked with their heads slightly tilted, cocked as if listening to this puzzling murmur of wraiths.

They still spoke a thousand languages--Spanish, too, to be sure, but also a thicket of songs and grammars. Mexico--the sound of wind in the ruins. Mexico--the waves rushing the shore. Mexico--the sand dunes, the snowfields, the steam of sleeping Popocatépetl. Mexico--across marijuana fields, tomato plants, avocado trees, the agave in the village of Tequila.

Mexico....

All around them, in the small woods, in the caves, in the precipitous canyons of copper country, in the swamps and at the crossroads, the harsh Old Ones gathered. Tlaloc, the rain god, lips parched because the Mexicans no longer tortured children to feed him sweet drafts of their tears. The Flayed One, Xipe Totec, shivering cold because priests no longer skinned sacrifices alive and danced in their flesh to bring forth the harvest. Tonántzin, goddess of Tepeyac, chased from her summit by the very Mother of God, the Virgen de Guadalupe. The awesome and ferocious warrior god, Hummingbird on the Left, Huitzilopochtli. Even the Mexicans' friend, Chac Mool, was lonely. Big eared and waiting to carry their hopes and dreams in his bowl as he transited to the land of the gods from the earth, he lay on his back watching forever in vain for the feathered priests to return. Other Old Ones hid behind statues in the cathedrals that the Spaniards had built with the stones of their shattered temples. The smell of sacrificial blood and copal seeped out from between the stones to mix with incense and candles. Death is alive, they whispered. Death lives inside life, as bones dance within the body. Yesterday is within today. Yesterday never dies.

Mexico. Mexico.

(less)

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Feb 20, 2009 Lisa Vegan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bookclub, fiction, reviewed, novel, gr-author, historical-fiction, altta

I really slogged through this. I’m not sure why I had such a difficult time reading it. I’m glad that I did. I ended up enjoying it but I wasn’t wild about it. It's well written, I liked some of the characters including Huila and Teresa; many of the characters were interesting, although often infuriating. I read as a skeptic but that shouldn’t have detracted from my enjoyment as it hasn’t with other similar themed books. The book was disturbing, violent and depicted many atrocities that humans c...more

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Jul 05, 2010 Leah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-discussion, cultural-commentary, novels

It was difficult for me to get into this book for awhile... at least a hundred pages. It was challenging for me because I struggle with books where generations are involved. Also, reading phrases in a language I don't speak made me feel like I was missing important details. I can appreciate the practice of doing so, but I was out of it for awhile.

That aside, this book was beautiful. Recently I've been reading plot-driven (as opposed to story-driven) novels, the former of which prides itself on c...more

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Jun 07, 2010 Cara Lopez Lee rated it 5 of 5 stars

"The Hummingbird's Daughter" quickly made my list of 25 favorite books ever. Every one of the 20 years Luis Alberto Urrea spent on this story was worth it. There are few books I consider perfect, and this is one: Urrea deftly makes every word, comma, character nuance and plot twist seem straightforward and simple, yet there's so much going on here. He takes the barely sketched history of his aunt Teresita--the "Saint of Cabora" who helped inspire the Mexican revolution--and breathes life into a...more

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Feb 07, 2008 Corinne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: expanding-your-horizons-challenge, the-nook-book-club

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book is haunting. I think that's the only word I can find for it right now. The characters are swirling around in my mind and I am trying to make sense of them. Teresita is a child born into poverty, given up by her mother, raised on a rancho in Mexico. She soon begins to learn the arts of a curandera (a healer) - and she also discovers that she is the child of a fling between her mother and the head of the rancho.

I loved following her life - as she learns the art of childbirth and healing,...more This book is haunting. I think that's the only word I can find for it right now. The characters are swirling around in my mind and I am trying to make sense of them. Teresita is a child born into poverty, given up by her mother, raised on a rancho in Mexico. She soon begins to learn the arts of a curandera (a healer) - and she also discovers that she is the child of a fling between her mother and the head of the rancho.

I loved following her life - as she learns the art of childbirth and healing, I believed it. I loved the relationship between her and her father, Tomas, I loved how it ebbed along as events unfolded. My favorite part in the book was when her father helped her to clean the sores and kill the lice out of an orphans head wounds - I was moved to tears to see how she had softened the heart of her brute of a father. I was especially touched by his fierce loyalty to her in the end - it felt truly redeeming.

The book took me to places I had not imagined when I opened the first page. Granted, it was not always a lovely place - it was a hard and violent life out in the wilds of Mexico, and, frankly, so full of unfamiliar names for me to remember!!! My complete lack of Spanish was a challenge, since rarely was anything translated, but I don't think I really missed anything.

The time and place was made so real for me - I have read very little of Mexico, but this rang so TRUE. The book felt so completely researched - all the descriptions of places and, especially, the food they ate. I was truly transported to the Mexico of the late 19th century.

It reminded me a lot of One Hundred Days of Solitude, which I loved as well - but I love this for different reasons. The "magical" of this book seemed somehow sacred, somehow real to me, not like magic at all - more like true acts of faith. Teresita's rise to sainthood was remarkable - I loved her as a character, for her strength, her faith, her true desire to only do God's will and to make peace where she could. The writing was lyrical and superb. An epic tale of an incredible girl. (less)

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May 16, 2013 Sonya Welter rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the best novels I have read, at once epic and intimate, a gorgeous example of Latin American magic realism. It is the story of Teresita, regarded by some as Saint Teresa of Cabora, a real person (and a distant relative of the author) who was born into poverty in the 1870s as the illegitimate child of a teenage Indian peasant and a prosperous European rancher. As a child, Teresita is bold and curious, riding horses as well as any of the boys and insisting on learning how to read, despite b...more

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Apr 12, 2013 Johanna Zanten rated it 5 of 5 stars

This novel was recommended to me by a ferocious reader of Canadian Indigenous heritage. She knows that I am very interested in indigenous cultures and history and that I love Mexico, so this book was a shoo-in for being appreciated.And she was right, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the 500 page novel brimming with Mexican history.

The story starts in 1898 and tells the development of a young girl, Teresita, during the first 20 years of her life: a girl born to a Indio farm girl but fathered by the...more This novel was recommended to me by a ferocious reader of Canadian Indigenous heritage. She knows that I am very interested in indigenous cultures and history and that I love Mexico, so this book was a shoo-in for being appreciated.And she was right, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the 500 page novel brimming with Mexican history.

The story starts in 1898 and tells the development of a young girl, Teresita, during the first 20 years of her life: a girl born to a Indio farm girl but fathered by the master of the hacienda, the wealthy rancher Don Tomas Urrea, who reluctantly accepts her parentage. Tomas is a real Don Juan and has many affairs and some extra children, his latest mistress one young and beautiful, but loving Gabriela, the reason his wife finally sets him straight when he starts living openly with Gaby on the country hacienda, after which the demanding wife is banned by Tomas from the ranch, to live on their property in the city with their young children.
Teresita is destined to follow in the footsteps of the local healer, the sage Huila, who is an elder in the community and also functions as the midwife for the village and surroundings in the state of Sinaloa. Huila rescued Teresita from her abusive aunt, where she landed after her very young mother was sent away.
Early in the story the main characters are moving away to another of Tomas' properties, in Cabora, after word has been received that the Urrea hacienda in the country is demolished by raiding bands: some sort of massacre occurred. The company arrives after a long and arduous trek through the desert, and then rebuild the house and other needed housing for staff and the stables, with the help of a number of local Indio labourors and vaqueros (cowboys) hired by Tomas to do the work.
In the meantime, Tomas, without fear and with great curiosity, is seeking out the bands that razed his property and killed three of his staff. He finds the indigenous Yaqui band and after hearing the reason for their action against the Urrea ranch, makes peace with the Yaquis. They were upset with the diminishing lands they can call theirs and were very hungry while such riches were right around the corner, destined for an absent owner. Tomas and the Yaquis form a pact of peaceful coexistence, with mutual favours when called for.
Over a period of roughly twenty years Teresita grows from a half-wild rejected child into the revered spiritual and physical healer and leader of the People called Teresa, La Santa de Cabora.
Admired and loved by the believers, she is hated by the government and its deputies, and feared for her influence. She is then targeted as the cause of the insurrection of the Indigenous tribes of the area and persecuted by the Rurales (federal Mexican police/army), and ultimately, expelled from Mexico as a suspected revolutionary instigator of uprisings by the indigenous populations. The army stops short of executing her, for fear that she will turn into a martyr, with even more power from beyond the grave.

This story is taking place in the historical context of the brutal regime of General Porfirio Diaz towards the end of the 19th century, when the revolution is brewing and the Indigenous Mexicans (defined as those who have not mixed with the descendants of the Spanish colonizers and who still maintained their own indigenous languages and culrural practices) are disregarded and oppressed. The Indigenous tribes had started to fight for their beliefs and for keeping possession of their lands.
The book ends when Teresita is expelled to Arizona together with her father Don Tomas Urrea, in a scene describing the last stand-off between Yaquis and Mayos against the army, just short of the Arizona border at a time where the Mexican revolution is already in progress. This history of Mexico that the author Urrea spent two years researching, is embedded in a riveting tale of the Saint of Cabora, as the indigenous Mexicans, the People, still called her. The author, born from a Mexican parent and an American parent was under the impression that Teresita was a relative and in that spirit started his research.
Much of the Mexican culture is described, as well as many Native rituals and beliefs, that provides a fascinating look at Mexico as it still exists. The Mexican culture is a mixed culture, with the strongest influences from the old Indigenous spiritual beliefs, then the Roman Catholic doctrines and beliefs, and also with some minor influences of old Spanish-European culture, although other than in its language and the imported RC religion, that influence is not so obvious in everyday life, in my view. Most people are obviously of Indigenous As a frequent traveller to Mexico I am staying away as far as I can from the gringo resorts, preferring to live in the heart of a small town among the Mexican locals.I recognized many of the mannerisms of the Mexicans and the regional foods, corn being one of the most important. The book transported me to my favourite places in Jalisco and I wished I could linger there forever.(less)

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Mar 05, 2013 Zoe Brooks rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: magic-realism

In my review of One Hundred Years of Solitude I talked about a magic realist approach to historical fiction, I then read The Hummingbird's Daughter, which is a fine example of what I was talking about. The book's author is well known for his non-fiction. He researched the story of Teresa Urrea - the Saint of Cabora - for over twenty years, garnering information from source materials, history books, visiting shamen and all the miracles included the book are from accounts of Teresa's life. There a...more In my review of One Hundred Years of Solitude I talked about a magic realist approach to historical fiction, I then read The Hummingbird's Daughter, which is a fine example of what I was talking about. The book's author is well known for his non-fiction. He researched the story of Teresa Urrea - the Saint of Cabora - for over twenty years, garnering information from source materials, history books, visiting shamen and all the miracles included the book are from accounts of Teresa's life. There are aspects of the story that are familiar to me from hagiographies throughout church history, for example Teresa having risen from the dead smells of roses.

In Teresa we have a traditional healer, trained in Mayo medicine and beliefs, which are combined with the Catholic religious beliefs of central America. These are portrayed realistically. We are seeing the world through Teresa's eyes and those of her followers. The book does not attempt to analyse or dismiss their beliefs, which I find refreshing. As a historian I approve of this approach, it seems to me more accurate than historical novels which try to give rationalist accounts. I am extremely excited by this use of magic realism. As Urrea said in an interview: I think the magic of fiction is that in many ways it's more true than non-fiction. By that I mean that fiction can take you into truths of feeling and it lends itself better to the kind of trance that allows a reader to smell and taste the world I'm trying to evoke.

I have written in several previous reviews of how magic realism is often used to tell the stories of the oppressed and marginalized This story of a woman who gave voice to the sufferings of the "People", the native peoples of Mexico, and became the focus of their hopes almost had to be a magic realist novel.

In addition it is a story of a strong woman in a very masculine world, which as I pointed out in my review of Nights at the Circus is again well suited to the magic realist treatment. As some of you reading this blog will be aware, I too write magic realist novels. One of the reasons I delayed reading this book is that I have also written about a woman healer and did not want to be influenced by Urrea's novel. The motif of a woman healer who is perceived as threatening the male establishment and who is revered by her supporters as a saint, (a view she rejects) appears in my book too. This polarizing view of women as either witches or angels, nuns or whores, rather than as just strong women is to be found in all ages and cultures and magic realism has the subtlety to explore this conflicting duality.

I realize I have been speaking about the magical in this book and not the realism. The book is beautifully written - I have never visited Mexico but I really felt I could feel, see, smell and taste Teresa's homeland. All the characters seemed very real to me. Teresa is a spirited young woman, who does not consider herself a saint and doesn't always behave like one. Her relationship with Tomas, her father is complex and entertaining. Tomas is frustrated by her and at the same time extremely proud. Tomas himself has the double standards of his time and class, but he does have a sympathy with the People, which is explained by his backstory and which opens him up to acknowledging his illegitimate daughter.

The realism with which the magical is treated is summed up in a tale told to Teresa by Huila, the old healer who is her mentor, about how on ascending to heaven the Virgin Mary got stuck on top of a huge cactus from where she spoke to the People. Teresa asks what the Virgin said. Huila answers, "Get me a ladder"

Are there any faults? None that I can see. This has to be my favourite read on the magic realism challenge so far. The prose is not as dense as that in One Hundred Years of Solitude and the plot keeps you reading, which makes it an ideal recommendation to anyone interested in trying out a magic realist novel for the first time.

This review is part of my magic realism book challenge, in which I read one magic realism book a week. The review first appeared on http://www.magic-realism.net There is a discussion thread about the challenge on Goodread's Magic Realism group.(less)

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Feb 22, 2013 Kasey Corbit rated it 5 of 5 stars

I ADORED this book. I almost don't want to write a review of it because I don't believe I can do it justice.

It took my breath away with the beauty of the prose; the full, flawed characters; and the grand sweep of the story. I am not exaggerating when I say that this book both inspired me to write again and made me want to walk away from writing forever because how does one write something when there is a book as beautiful as this in the world.

It's hard not to love Teresita and to become comple...more

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Oct 02, 2012 Zoe Brown rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Hummingbird's Daughter (La Hija de la Chuparossa) by Luis Alberto Urrea is a family saga set in Mexico in the 1890's which traces the lives of Urrea's relatives, one of whom is Teresa Urrea (Teresita in the novel) who has strange healing powers. This is not a plot heavy story; it's an exploration of crazy, wonderful characters whose lives intertwine: Tomás, the owner of a vast ranchero in the desert surrounded by Indians and much more dangerous bandits acting on the orders of the notorious P...more The Hummingbird's Daughter (La Hija de la Chuparossa) by Luis Alberto Urrea is a family saga set in Mexico in the 1890's which traces the lives of Urrea's relatives, one of whom is Teresa Urrea (Teresita in the novel) who has strange healing powers. This is not a plot heavy story; it's an exploration of crazy, wonderful characters whose lives intertwine: Tomás, the owner of a vast ranchero in the desert surrounded by Indians and much more dangerous bandits acting on the orders of the notorious Porfirio Diaz. Tómas cares for the Indians working his ranch, but really knows nothing about their lives. His sex drive combined with a rampant romanticism (about women, Indians, beekeeping, his wealth and position) make him endlessly appealing and exasperating as well; his ranch manager and sardonic sidekick El Segundo; Huila the rancho's frank, earthy, Indian healer/midwife who knows everyone's secrets, hedges her bets by respecting both Catholicism and her Indian dieties, and takes no guff from anyone, including Tomás and his daughter who is apprenticed to her; Lauro Aguirre, a gifted engineer and dear friend of Tomás whose enthusiasm for the doomed Mexican revolution puts them all in danger and Teresita, Tomás's daughter by an Indian woman who disappears after her birth, a girl with miracles in her hands and endless curiosity and toughness who ends up threatening the world she loves because she has the ability to heal. This vision of Mexico in the 19th century is full of humor, violence, passion and beauty, a book that kept me page turning even though I was reading it, too slowly, in Spanish. Legend has it that Teresita, Urrea's distant cousin, was a saint, but believe me, this is no hagiography and Urrea does a neat job of keeping us guessing about Teresita. Since I've learned to be comfortable with the magical realism in Latin novels, I understand Teresita's story with that lens – but she can be understood in many different ways – as a cult leader, a revolutionary, a martyr to her gift, a bright eccentric or yes, even, a kind of saint. Written in English which is the language in which I would suggest reading it, the language sparks with wit and glows with the heat of the Mexican desert. Urrea's was nominated for a Pulitzer, I believe, for a different novel, and a few pages into this book, he had me hooked. Beware of the Spanish translation done by a relative of Urrea which is pale and plodding in comparison. (less)

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Sep 20, 2012 Zach rated it 5 of 5 stars

The thing that struck me most about The Hummingbird’s Daughter was its “campfire” quality. I imagined it being told by a particularly gifted grandfather. Urrea is no grandfather yet, but his pure storytelling ability is second to none. He creates beautiful rhythms in simple language. Each of his chapters is structured as its own little tale. He dispenses comedy and heartbreak in equal measures. And he doesn’t hold back, trusting his natural instincts to tell the story as the story itself begs to...more

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Aug 12, 2012 Debra rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People who like historical fiction

Recommended to Debra by: Pasadena Public Library

This was City of Pasadena's One City, One Story book selection in 2009. I was fortunate to be able to meet the author. He is a wonderful storyteller with a warm, engaging personality.

This TRUE story of author Luis Alberto Urrea's great-aunt Teresita, from her childhood throughout her amazing life in Mexico is not only a gripping and magical tale, but it weaves the country of Mexico into a modern-day myth that has all the flavor of what pre-revolutionary Mexico offered to the world.
All of Mexico...more

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Jul 31, 2012 Chris Donaldson rated it 1 of 5 stars

I've just written a review and it's vanished into the ether, so this is a second try.

First of all, I didn't finish this book and this is extremely rare for me. Normally, |I feel like I have to stick it out to the last page but this one was too much for me. I know now, having looked at what other people have said, that so many people love this book that I am in a tiny minority. But truly, I disliked it enough to leave it about one third of the way through.

It was recommended by a friend and I rea...more

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Jun 05, 2012 Carla Perry rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Hummingbird’s Daughter, a novel by Luis Alberto Urrea is based on a true life – the author's great aunt, Teresita, the illegitimate daughter of Don Tomas Urrea, a rich Mexican in Sinaloa; and a beautiful, but impoverished Indian mother. Teresita (Teresa) is abandoned by her mother and left at her aunt Tia’s home. Tia abuses the girl, starves her, works her, calls her mother a whore. When left broken after a beating, she is taken under the wing of Huila, the elderly healer favored by Don Toma...more The Hummingbird’s Daughter, a novel by Luis Alberto Urrea is based on a true life – the author's great aunt, Teresita, the illegitimate daughter of Don Tomas Urrea, a rich Mexican in Sinaloa; and a beautiful, but impoverished Indian mother. Teresita (Teresa) is abandoned by her mother and left at her aunt Tia’s home. Tia abuses the girl, starves her, works her, calls her mother a whore. When left broken after a beating, she is taken under the wing of Huila, the elderly healer favored by Don Tomas (she lives in a room off his house). Teresita, under Huila, learns the ways of the herbs, touch, and healing. Still in her teenage years, she can heal so well that the people call her and then pray to her as a saint. Don Tomas remolds her as a “lady,” which Teresita tolerates and ignores. She does not ride sidesaddle, she is faster than any boy on a horse, she is strong, athletic, beautiful, everyone wants her; but no one is there to hold her as a lover. Meanwhile, her home becomes a center for pilgrims hoping to be healed. Multiple thousands of them set up camps at Don Tomas’s home. It is also revolutionary time in Mexico and girl saints are not allowed. Non-religious people (such as Don Tomas) are not allowed. Blasphemy, words uttered against the Mexican ruler, are their crimes. Many Indians are unjustly slaughtered and tortured; mercenaries, soldiers, and the spirits roam the hills, stampede across the hills and plains, leave lots of dust in their wake. The boundaries of religions and political regimes are crossed. But in the end of the book Teresita and her father are arrested, headed for execution for their crimes. Teresita could strike her captors dead or paralyze them, but she does not. She has vowed never to do that kind of prayer again (after almost killing her half-brother Buenaventura. Ultimately, they are not killed (she’d become a martyr) so she and Tomas are sent by train to Arizona. The book ends with their crossing the Mexico/US border. Includes a cast of many other marvelous characters. The author indicated he spent 20 years researching the book. Bravo! Magnificent book.(less)

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May 16, 2012 Carl Brush rated it 5 of 5 stars

Maybe I should recuse myself because I’m so partial to magical realism, but I think from any perspective whatsover, The Hummingbird’s Daughter is a joy of a book. Luis Urrea is dealing here not just with history, but the history and politics of his family and of his family’s native land.
So, family saga/historical fiction, politics, religion (“Even worse than politics,” says one Captain), revolution, and more. A rich mix that would defeat a lesser writer, but Urrea is unquestionably up to the ch...more Maybe I should recuse myself because I’m so partial to magical realism, but I think from any perspective whatsover, The Hummingbird’s Daughter is a joy of a book. Luis Urrea is dealing here not just with history, but the history and politics of his family and of his family’s native land.
So, family saga/historical fiction, politics, religion (“Even worse than politics,” says one Captain), revolution, and more. A rich mix that would defeat a lesser writer, but Urrea is unquestionably up to the challenge.

We begin in the 1870’s when a Mexican Patron impregnates a young peasant girl, who walks away from her infant daughter. Said daughter turns out to be a precocious child and falls under the tutelage of the rancho’s curadora or healer/midwife. These people deal in spiritual matters every but as much as they do in herbs, and Huila, as the old woman is named, can spot a dreamer when she sees one. “Teresita” (as she names herself) soon becomes expert and understanding and guiding not only her dreams but those of others.

How this all affects the war between Porfirio Diaz and Mexico’s indigenous people, how it affects the life of the author, how it affects thousands of sick and ignorant nineteenth century people looking for any sign of hope in their poverty and misery, how women fare in a world of war and macho men--that’s the book. And I don’t want to tell more because it needs to be experienced in the writing rather than just talked about. And the experience is transporting.

The obvious reminders here are Garcia-Marquez and Allende, but influenced as he is by such, Urrea is his own man, and The Hummingbird’s Daughter, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer, deserved the prize. I don’t know if it was competing in the same year as The Tinkers (See Writer Working, March 13 ’11), which won one, but if so, boy, howdy, did the committee misfire.

The reason I picked this book up is that Urrea will be the leader of my group at the Tin House Writers’ workshop in Portland this summer. I’d never read anything of his before. Now I have, and “pleased” doesn’t begin to express how I much I’m looking forward.

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Jul 27, 2011 Audrey Anne rated it 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book at the beach, where it found it's way into my life by way of a thrift store. Serendipity! I liked its historical aspect and the connection the author has to his subject, who is his own relative. Teresita was an impossible contrast of power and powerlessness: a peaceful revolutionary. She was at once a historical figure of humble origin on one hand, and a saint and a hero on the other. The story allows you to hold both perspectives in focus simultaneously.

I find the backdrop...more

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Jul 23, 2011 Al rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Among the many outstanding qualities of Luis Urrea's magnificent novel, The Hummingbird's Daughter, is that the story is substantially true. It is based on the historical record of his great aunt Teresa Urrea. The dialog and the personalities have been reconstructed, but anyone who cares to research the matter as I have will learn that the incredible life of the Hummingbird's daughter, Teresita Urrea, is accurately depicted.
Born out of wedlock to an illiterate Indian mother, she has no idea tha...more Among the many outstanding qualities of Luis Urrea's magnificent novel, The Hummingbird's Daughter, is that the story is substantially true. It is based on the historical record of his great aunt Teresa Urrea. The dialog and the personalities have been reconstructed, but anyone who cares to research the matter as I have will learn that the incredible life of the Hummingbird's daughter, Teresita Urrea, is accurately depicted.
Born out of wedlock to an illiterate Indian mother, she has no idea that her father is Don Tomás Urrea, rich landowner and freethinker in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. At about age six she is taken under the tutelage of an elderly Indian healer named Huila, whose name means “hummingbird” in the Indian language. From her Teresita learns the uses of healing plants and prayers and discovers an even greater gift: she actually has the power to heal by her touch.
This causes problems. The ranch becomes crowded with thousands of pilgrims bearing the most pitiful ailments and afflictions, and the Mexican government, watchful to suppress any threats to its power, is suspicious of her growing fame. The shattering climax of the story calls that old cliché to mind: you can't make this stuff up. It wasn't! Unbelievable as it is, it happened.
The Hummingbird's Daughter is the story of a girl coming to terms with her destiny, with the power of faith and miracles, and with a father's and daughter's discovery of what love is and the sacrifices it sometimes requires.
The book is densely populated with cowboys, outlaws, wild Indians, men who drink too much, cantina beauties, mercy and cruelty, bravery and cowardice, and nature at its rawest. There are a fair number of Spanish words, untranslated, but these will not detract from the enjoyment of those who do not care to look them up. To add a historical note, the story is a wonderful snapshot of revolutionary Mexico along the American border.
Finally, the prose style is marvelously poetic: easy to read, but magically evoking the character of Mexico in all its color and contradictions. The description of the various ways Mexicans prepare coffee as the sun dawns gradually across the country could be excerpted as a fine poem all by itself. I have read the book three times, and in its own way it has influenced my writing as much as Huckleberry Finn, with which it shares many qualities. I even bought a second copy to lend, so as not to risk my own, precious, annotated copy. I grew up in El Paso. Teresita lived there briefly, yet I had never heard of her. This is a shame: her story and this book deserve to be better known.
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Feb 27, 2011 Kirstie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Based on the retelling of stories of people who knew her and documents, this story explores the life of Teresita Urrea, a real true historical figure regarded as a Saint in Mexico in the first part of the twentieth century. Teresita has a rich sense of humor and personality and Urrea, who grew up with some of these stories and regarded her as his great aunt, really brings a fullness of life to her. He begins at her conception to her adulthood where she is regarded as a woman who has died, spoken...more Based on the retelling of stories of people who knew her and documents, this story explores the life of Teresita Urrea, a real true historical figure regarded as a Saint in Mexico in the first part of the twentieth century. Teresita has a rich sense of humor and personality and Urrea, who grew up with some of these stories and regarded her as his great aunt, really brings a fullness of life to her. He begins at her conception to her adulthood where she is regarded as a woman who has died, spoken to God, come back from the dead, and has the ability to perform miracles. She's also a woman that rejects the official government of Mexico and organized religion even though her own faith is strong. Urrea did fieldwork and research for 20 years on this woman. She was, from the accounts of others, a great healer but she was also quite funny and one of the first women in that time and country to learn to read. She did not like violence and her imagination was more wondrous than can be conceived by most humans.

This really deserves 4 1/2 stars out of 5 but it bothered me that in the end, the author doesn't follow up in an epilogue on the remainder of the protagonist's life. Even a small summary would have sufficed to make it 5 stars. It seems careless to create an epic 500 pages then leave that out. I needed it for my sanity and well being. That information is important.

Still, I really learned a great deal about Mexican and Native Indians in Mexico in history as well as about their culture and I found the text both engaging and incredibly rewarding. I really couldn't wait to see what would happen to our heroine next. I'll also say I really enjoyed the other characters in Teresita's life as well.

And whether, in your own sense of culture and wisdom, you believe in the sainthood and, perhaps more importantly, the miracles of Teresita is for you to decide but I will say you'll at least yearn to believe it and more than anything you hope every word is true.

Quotes:

pg 194, "Bees were better companions than people."

pg. 255, "Feel it. The earth falls away. We have been prisoners of the ground, and now it releases its grip on us. Yes. Yes. The air moves us freely. We are like water...The air loved them-they could feel it...Dog voices were tiny as crickets."

pg. 394, "The World of reason must be a lonely place."

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Feb 26, 2011 switterbug (Betsey) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a phenomenal, picaresque story. Teresa (Teresita) Urrea, the Hummingbird's daughter, possessed me, made me want to dig my bare feet in the earth and rub rose petals and lavender all over my body. She is now my beloved hero of contemporary literature. Strong, courageous, formidable, guileless, beautifully vulnerable, compassionate, quick-witted, and luminescent, Teresa is a modern-day *saint* without the dismal, pious sobriety of one. She is more like a noble iconoclast. She hikes up her...more This is a phenomenal, picaresque story. Teresa (Teresita) Urrea, the Hummingbird's daughter, possessed me, made me want to dig my bare feet in the earth and rub rose petals and lavender all over my body. She is now my beloved hero of contemporary literature. Strong, courageous, formidable, guileless, beautifully vulnerable, compassionate, quick-witted, and luminescent, Teresa is a modern-day *saint* without the dismal, pious sobriety of one. She is more like a noble iconoclast. She hikes up her skirts and rides a horse better than any man, eats like a lumberjack, and engages in astral projection. She denounces organized religion and behaves more like a pantheist. She can heal with her hands, bandy words with politicians, and flirt with the infamous.

The author based this work of fiction on real events in the life of an eponymous blood relation, circa 1880 (when the story also takes pace). He spent 20 years in the research and writing, which is evident in the stirring, complex, yet easily digestible, mouth-watering narration of this novel.

Teresa is the illegitimate daughter of wealthy (and married) south-of-the-border rancher Don Tomas and a fourteen year-old peasant Indian woman who fled Sinaloa for greener pastures. Raised initially by her mean-spirited aunt, her adventurous spirit eventually delivers her to the house of her father at a tender, young age. The protective, flinty Huila, a medicine woman who works for Don Tomas, apprehends Teresa's destiny and mentors her in the art and botanical science of healing. Huila is also aware that Teresa has a native and inherited shamanic talent way beyond midwifery and organic medicine.

Filled with a sprawling and vivid cast of characters--vaqueros, caballeros, Indians, pilgrims,politicians, the wealthy as well as the indigent, apostates as well as the devout, this is a colorful, astutely comical allegory that is ripe with thought, action, and spirit. It is a story of familial love and redemption and the vastness of the soul. It is a tale of adventure that you won't want to end. (Rumor has it that a sequel and a film is in the works.)

Luis Alberto Urrea is an exuberant storyteller oozing an alchemical mixture of warmth, humor, satire, and vigorous vitality. His style is a reminiscent witch's brew of the best of outlaw and magical realism--The Milagro Beanfield War; Lonesome Dove; a dose of Garcia-Marquez; a glittering sprinkle of Isabelle Allende. But it is its own mystical and magical epic story of community and faith, of an unforgettable daughter and the people who loved her. (less)

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Jul 10, 2010 Jessica rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: stuck-on-a-deserted-island

I still dream of this book. And a year later, I am still looking for this book, remade. Like an old girlfired or a wife now dead that will be the ideal all other women in a man's life are compared to. Damn...how can I describe this...My last two years of undergrad, I focused primarily on Female Medieval Mystical Writers. I love how these women brought their faith into their bodies, and write from there...bringing god into themselves as a lover, a layer of skin, a wealt. I love their absolute con...more

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Jun 06, 2010 Ruth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

449 pages.

Late 19th Century Mexico - an epic struggle between Spaniards, Anglos and Indians.

"Teresita is not an ordinary girl. Born of an illiterate, poor Indian mother, she knows little about her past or her future. She has no idea that her father is Don Tomas Urrea, the wild and rich owner of a vast ranch in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. She has no idea that Huila, the elderly healer who takes Teresita under her wing, knows secrets about her destiny. And she has no idea that soon all of Mexico...more

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Apr 25, 2010 Book Concierge rated it 4 of 5 stars

Urrea spent two decades researching the “history” of his distant relative – Teresa Urrea, the Saint of Cabora and “Joan of Arc” de Mexico.

This fictionalized biography of Teresa has many fantastical elements. She was a curandera and known to have prophetic dreams, as well as the healer’s gift. Even as a young girl she was in demand as a midwife because she could ease the mothers’ pains.

Urrea clearly loves the subject and writes poetically. There is a large cast of characters, though, and the re...more

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Oct 26, 2009 Claire rated it 2 of 5 stars

"Most of us trudge in a straight line. All day, every day, we march like sheep. Look straight ahead. What do you see?
We spending our livings walking into our own mirrors. All we see is ourselves as we walk down the road." - Huila

"Feel the earth, keep the integrity of the heart. Keep the spine in line. Let your heart shine. Relax, don't strain. The white man has to strain. Has to flex his muscles. Be soft. Be like water. Water is soft, and is the most powerful force on earth." - Huila

I did like...more

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Aug 03, 2009 Ariela rated it 5 of 5 stars

Set in late 1800’s Mexico amid the political turmoil of General Porfirio Diaz’s regime “The Hummingbird’s Daughter” recounts the real-life story of Urrea’s great-aunt Teresita. The illegitimate daughter of the patron and one of the indios working his ranch, Teresita eventually became known as Santa Teresa, the Saint of Cabora. Apprenticed to the colorful curandera (healer) Huila at an early age she eventually became known for her midwifery skills, healing powers and supposed return from the dead...more

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Jun 12, 2009 Lars Guthrie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Yes, it's an outstanding piece of historical fiction and the reader can learn much about Mexico in the Porfirio Diaz era just prior to its bloody revolution. Yes, it's an extraordinary example of magical realism that can bear the weight of comparison to Gabriel Garcia Marques's 'One Hundred Years of Solitude." Yes, it's a breathtaking epic novel that sweeps the reader up with many finely drawn characters and exciting twists and turns of plot. In looking over the reviews, I agree wholeheartedly w...more

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Jan 11, 2010 Gale rated it 5 of 5 stars

Teresita (the “Saint of Cabora”) is the author’s great–aunt. Urrea spent 20 years researching her amazing life and writing a fast-paced romantic Western epic filled with legends and folklore. Teresita, born out of wedlock in 1873 and raised in poverty by an abusive aunt, is recognized as having special healing powers and apprenticed to a wealthy rancher’s medicine woman. The rancher, Teresita’s father, later takes her into his household where she becomes a voracious reader and the intellectual c...more

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About Luis Alberto Urrea

Luis Alberto Urrea is the award-winning author of 13 books, including The Hummingbird's Daughter, The Devil's Highway and Into the Beautiful North (May 2009). Born in Tijuana to a Mexican father and American mother, Luis has used the theme of borders, immigration and search for love and belonging throughout his work. A Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2005 (nonfiction), he's won the Kiriyama Prize (2006...more

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