Customer Reviews

Domitila: A Cinderella Tale from the Mexican Tradition

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The story of a Mexican Cinderella character, this book is beautifully done with warmly coloured oil on canvas paintings that poignantly draw to mind the dry Mexican landscape. Most importantly, the illustrator has resisted the urge to create perfect characters, and instead presents a pleasant looking "Cinderella" with bland features and a square jaw, perhaps because the story is based on the family legend of the Rivero family of Hidalgo, Mexico. The author's text is mostly traditional for a fairy tale, but includes Spanish words with translations on the back page. The plot holds more interest than the traditional Cinderella tale, as the Prince is a Governor's son who begins the story haughty and spoiled, but while on a quest for the girl who makes delicious nopales (edible cactus, made by the common people), changes into a person of worth who can truly love a girl of the common people. This focus and character development of the often forgotten prince may make this tale more interesting to boys, as the male character is the hero on a quest, rather than the reward at the end of a girl's suffering. Furthermore, the tale is woven of realistic elements, rather than the fairy godmother, singing mice, and glass slipper of tradition, as it is explained why the father remarries, and includes a period of grief after the mother's death. However, beyond the plot and setting, the author waxes moralistic, presenting the likeable, yet lifeless Domitila as a goody-goody with a loving heart who follows her mother's instructions to "do every task with care, and always add a generous dash of love." Additionally, the text is framed in proverbs, presented both in English and Spanish, on the subjects of love and work, which add "atmosphere," but may get too sermonic to hold the attention of a child. Includes appealing history of the tale, as well as a recipe for Domitila's nopales on the last page.

This story is one of the Cinderella tales however this one is from Mexico. A young girl goes and cooks for the governor, and the governor is amazed by the taste of the meals that this girl can cook. However Domitila's mother dies and she must return home. The prince wanting to taste the wonderful food again goes out and searches for the woman who can cook a feast out of weeds. Although the governor faces some hardships and dishonest people in the end finds Domitila and marries her. This is a wonderful take off of the classic Cinderella story. I like it because it has Mexican traditions in it and the illustrations are wonderful. This book would be great to use as an introduction to different cultures. If I were to use this in my classroom I would try to get other countries versions of Cinderella so that they children could see even more differences and similarities in the stories.

A lovely tale about a young poor girl who attracts a wealthy man by her cooking. Domitila loses her slipper and love happens!

As everyone knows, the Cinderella story is pretty much universal. This is based on the tradition of one little spot in Mexico with that wonderful blurring of folklore and actual history, and is still very much Cinderella. The story is well-told, the illustrations pure magic, and the embellishment of proverbs is wonderful. Excellent edition of the Cinderella tale.

Jewell Reinhart Coburn's Domitila provides a Mexican Cinderella story as it tells of a talented cook and artist who becomes the Governor's bride. A beautiful account.