Macho!: A Novel

Macho! Is very, very fine literature!Villaseñor accomplishes in 235 pages what some writers can't accomplish in a 1000, with writing so visual that you will see the scenes play out right before your eyes.The exposition was judiciously used, and the bits of history regarding Cesar Chavez were relevant, insightful, and really put the novel into context.Between chapters I found myself putting the book down, and really pondering over what I'd read, savoring it like a good meal with a great glass of wine.Even though the backdrop of the novel is Mexico and the Mexican-American experience...the book, at its core, is truly universal. Many cultures all around the world have backwards notions of what it means to be a man - I say "backwards," because some of these moronic notions of what it means to be a MAN can get you killed. And, then what? People come to your funeral and say how honorably you died. What sense does that make? You don't even get a chance to live and enjoy the honor you've apparently earned.If you have to fight to prove you're a MAN, that's not honorable at all - that's barbaric and primitive!This book will truly force you to differentiate honor from stupidity, and nobleness from arrogance.But then again, GREAT literature often does stimulate deep thinking!

My family is from these same areas depicted in this novel. I was raised in los angles but I have always marveled at the life my grandfather (being a bracero himself) and my ancestors lived. My mother often qouted: “there aren’t any real men any more” for much has changed with Mexico including the customs of the land, now being one of cartel money and the old men of before dying for honor changing into men dying of proliferation of drugs and violence. I was there in flesh and blood when Villasenor wrote, for although, I wasn’t raised in this same era, the stories and the sceneries I have scene in my travels to Michoacán, Zacatecas, and Jalisco, transported me to where the men fought a lo macho, a la prueba, a beautiful death as Spartans will say!

An earlier reviewer had used this word - contrived. That's also the issue I have with this book. The suffering and dying that the group endures as it makes it's way north is equal to all of the greatest mishaps that have been recorded for an entire decade. The same group of people die of dehydration, water poisoning, and suffocation in a vehicle. Although there are cases of all three happening over a period of years the chances of all of this happening to one group is almost nil.It just seemed that the author tried to keep the book engaging by cramming it with as much action as possible and it just seems contrived. The amount of gun play that occurs throughout is also greatly exaggerated as most Mexicans don't settle their problems by killing. Yet this book is full of endless shootouts, whether over cockfights or blood vengeance or just plain bar fights. At times it seems that the entire journey is a sequence of skirmishes, killings, and flight. All for the purpose of making an entertaining read.The impression one gets is that the author tried to make his case more convincing over the plight of the Mexican illegal immigrants by exaggerating their hardships and really does not have to do so.

I enjoyed reading the first book of one of my favorite authors, today. I think it would be a great book to be required reading in high schools, especially in those with large Spanish surnamed populations. In fact, I have since passed this book on to a relative of mine.

I do share his books with my family and family and they like his books also . My granddaughter loves them the most.

Right from the beginning the book captured me. So loved the character Roberto. Gave me alot of insight about my culture, what was happening just about the time I was growing up. I had no idea the trials and tribulations that these people went through to get here and why they came here. Boy was I in the dark. Loved the book!!!

Exciting! Kept my attention, entertaining. I enjoyed it so much that I gave this copy to my brother in law who is a genuine horseman. He has been laid up for a while, suffering terribly ordered to rest & stay in the house. This book has been great entertainment for him also. Now he is out breaking horses again.

The writing is powerful and draws you in with Roberto's mountain life and then keeps a firm hold of you as the chapters jump from his story to overlaying history of the times. I feel inspired, both by the plight of the farm worker and to sit down and write my own story.