Caballero: A Historical Novel

by Jovita Gonzalez, Eve Raleigh, José E. Limón

Jovita Gonzalez and Eve Raleigh's Caballero: A Historical Novel, a milestone in Mexican-American and Texas literature written during the 1930s and 1940s, centers on a mid-nineteenth-century Mexican landowner and his family living in the heart of southern Texas during a time of tumultuous change. After covering the American military occupation of South Texas, the story involves the reader in romances between two young lovers from opposing sides during the military conflict of the U.S.-Mexico War. Caballero's young protagonists fall in love but face struggles with race, class, gender and sexual contradictions. An introduction by Jose E. Limon, epilogue by Maria Cotera, and foreword by Thomas H. Kreneck offer a clear picture of the importance of the work to the study of Mexican-American and Texas history and to the feminist critique of culture. This work, long lost in a collection of private papers and unavailable until now, serves as a literary ethnography of South Texas-Mexican folklore customs and traditions.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, School, Romance, Novels, Latin American, Historical

350 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1996

Reviews

[Dusty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Caballero is both a romantic epic and a novel of female empowerment amidst 19th Century patriarchal aristocracy -- kind of like Gone With The Wind divided by Pride and Prejudice and set near Matamoros/Brownsville in the time of the U.S. México War. (I know, that's a complicated fusion.) It's a classic proto-Chicana story, and so far it's the best book I've read for my Early Mexican-American fiction class, the first I recommend not just because it's important but because it is gripping. In particular I admired the invention of Doña Dolores, Luis Gonzaga and María de los Ángeles, three characters who poke holes in Don Santiago de Mendoza y Soría's patriarchal machisto tyranny with uncompromising but nonviolent conviction. Wish Goodreads would let me award four and a half stars.

[Isobel McCreavy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not what I expected but so randomly beautiful and heartbreaking

[Jill]

Read for my Chicano lit class!

[Lo · Rating 2 out of 5]

kinky! In a covered from neck to ankle kind of way.

[Gilda Felt · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story is told without much of how we tend to see this conflict through today’s lens. Did most of the Mexicans living in the area prefer the rule of the Anglo? According to the story that was the case. The peons would now be paid for their work, the women allowed more freedom. Was that the case? It’s hard to say.

The two Mexican sisters who fall in love with Anglos are part of the ruling class, and, because their family’s bloodline has stayed “pure,” are European, rather than mestizos. That tended to put a different spin on the story, since it was culture, not race, that was the problem. And it was that that causes the friction between those two young women and their domineering father, a man who is holding tight to the hidalgo culture.

But race is shown to be a problem, too, especially with the Texas Rangers, a group whose reputation has been romanticized, changing them from the thugs they were to outstanding heroes. This book does much to erase that notion, as many of the Mexican inhabitants of the stolen land are brutally murdered or chased off from what was their country.

It’s an interesting story given a fresh perspective, though I would have liked to see how the two couples work out over time.

[LeastTorque · Rating 4 out of 5]

Big stars for being ground-breaking for its time (1930s), taking on the patriarchy, covering an interesting transitional time in south Texas history, having an epic plot, and possessing some very good writing. Shame on the racist bastards who did not publish it. Kudos to the author for not destroying it and to the folks who found and published it.

A generous reading treats this book as a take on how the arrival of the Americanos helped tear down the Hispanic aristocratic patriarchy of the rancheros, allowing women and peons to break free of it. And it is definitely that.

However, there is a cringe amount of praise for light skin and gold hair. Even a newborn baby is praised for its whiteness. Both a white priest and the patriarchal father talk breeding/eugenics. I struggle to fit that into the more generous reading of the text. Assimilation and white supremacy intrude. Still. There are bad and good people on both sides and perhaps the book is just trying to tell it like it might have been. To this day lighter skin is considered better by many people of all colors. Will that crap ever end?

There is plenty of complexity mixed into this book. And a few too many coincidences. And did I just read my first romance?

[Guadalupe Martinez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I both hate and love the book. I would argue that Susanita and María light-skinned, allows them to attract the attention of the Americans. For example, Red is obsessed with María’s pale shoulders, a paleness emphasized by the fact that she is usually dressed in nun’s garments.

Susanita’s daughter also inherits blond hair, though it is noted that it took three generations for Susanita’s family to achieve this blondness.

The female characters are also the primary sites through which conversion to American ideals is realized, suggesting that Mexicans themselves can be “converted” through these women.

At the same time, the novel indulges in a fantasy of American benevolence toward Mexicans. This raises important questions about the racism Mexicans experience—an issue the text largely avoids, despite briefly mentioning slavery.

[Susan Leifker · Rating 4 out of 5]

"There are many more things I would like to say, but even though you no longer see me as a daughter, I still see you as a father; I will not say them. Only one--that Roberto would have made you a better son than the one who stands besides you. You have wronged me and insulted me and for what? To keep it hard for other girls."

[Dee Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! This is a fresh perspective on border life and history. This is the story of a Mexican family living in the disputed territory south of the Nueces river during the US Mexico war. I couldn't put this down.

[Izzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great view of Latino families and could definitely be read as a feminist text. But I didn't enjoy how it seems almost as if there are themes of white saviorism in certain parts of the novel.

[Jessie Entwistle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A historical look at the way that the the signing of Treaty of Guadalpue Hidalgo affected the Mendzoa y Soria family.

[Naomi Samuel]

Borderlands lit - amazing

[Debbi Amador · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoy historical stories. This one was enlightening. I like seeing the other side of the story, history telling is in the perspective.

[Alexandria Robertson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for class :p

[Leeanna See · Rating 4 out of 5]

Borderlands lit assignment that I got attached too

[Norma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tradition is a body of customs and beliefs that are valued by a culture. The Jovita González and Eve Raleigh narrative “Caballero A Historical Novel” illustrates the establishments that are set by men and designed to dominate women. In the story, paternal traditions administer a strict code for women and men, codes which are meant to govern the lives of the elite and which must never be breached. The code of the hidalgo is upheld even by those who condemn it, illustrating a tension that infuses the novel.

Don Santiago de Mendoza y Soriá, the patriarch and main protagonist, has for nearly one hundred years ruled over his family; that is if one counts the years from when his forefathers first established Rancho La Palma de Cristo. For Don Santiago, to abandon the sacred rules of tradition, simply for appeasing his own conscious or those of his family, would be a disgrace and would brand him as a failure. In order to uphold honor and tradition, Don Santiago must preserve the code of the hidalgo, a masculine epithet given to those born to nobility. The code begins with Don Santiago and continues down to “[h:]is wife, his sister, sons, and daughters [who:] bowed to his wishes…” This is a tradition which was upheld and reinforced by the Mendoza y Soriá family members, including the peons, or servants and representatives to the Catholic Church (33).

[D'Argo Agathon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was the first book in my Borderlands Feminisms class -- a subject that I have no academic or personal interest in, but nevertheless need for my Master's. Regardless, I read enough of the book to be able to talk intelligently in class, but chances are, I won't be coming back to it after this. Overall, it's a fairly predictable, contrived, over-the-top melodramatic romance with lots of one-dimensional characters and simple conflicts; however, the detail and writing are generally pretty damn good (reminding me even of the level of detail in ASOIAF), and the empowered women protagonists of the story certainly give the book a message worth reading. While I think that this book's historical context -- both in its subject, and in the making/publishing of it (written by women "of color" in the 30's) -- gives this book a definite social/cultural place... it just didn't impress me much. In the end, it's just melodrama.

[Gladys · Rating 2 out of 5]

When reading this book, you have to be very critical about it. You can't just read it for the story; it won't do much good. Perhaps being aware of the history of the backdrop this book was placed in & always keeping in mind author's intent will make it a much more interesting read.

There was still a lot of things that irked me in this novel. Or maybe it was the overwhelming amount of patriarchy that put me off. It's an good novel, but not a brilliant one.

*edit*
Okay, after some internal debating. I can't give this book a 3 stars after all, I honestly didn't like it. Again, with the Patriarchy and the romanticism of it all! I just can't. Not really making much a claim here... but 1.5 "stars" is the more adequate range.

[Natalia Kotula · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 1830's Mexico-Texas of Wuthering Heights in regards to the amount of characters. There is actually a character list at the beginning of the book, with most being totally irrelevant to the story as a whole. My main reason for liking this book as much as I did was Jovita Gonzalez's implicit and unconventional, yet effective, feminist message within.
I'm no history buff but would recommend it to anyone interested in the Texas Revolution, Texas Rangers, or just an elaborate and thoroughly detailed image of Mexican cowboy dress...

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like every Texan needs to read this book. It shows what life was like from a vantage point that we rarely get to see in Texan history: The side of the Mexicans who were living in Texas when the Texans defeated Mexico. History always seems to be slanted towards the winners, now we get to see how hard it was to accept defeat. This gem was hidden away for a long time because it was co-written by a Hispanic woman during a time where neither Hispanics nor women were often published.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

read in the context of its historical time (written by a Tejana in the early 1900s) it is groundbreaking. Read with an eye for language in today's context, it's a bit hokey and predictable. Read it for an interesting historical/political subtexts and not the story itself.

[Funkdaddyreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this in college for a Mexican-American Studies class...gender, race, religion, cultural identity, this book has it...and I really identified with its themes because it is set in the area where I was born an raised.

[Marie]

It's a soap opera with feminist elements. Cool!

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely.