Nine Guardians [Paperback]

Rosarios Castellanos (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 25, 1992

The Nine Guardians is crowded with the magic and malice of warring gods and men.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Castellanos (1925-1974) has written a haunting novel set against the Mexican Revolution. She gives much of the narration over to a seven-year-old girl, who introduces characters simply yet vividly like a series of candid snapshots. The girl observes her rather remote parents--Cesar Arguello, a wealthy landowner whom she can describe only up to his knees, and his wife, who spends her time caring for a local hunchback so as to assure her place in heaven. Contrasted with them is Nana, the nurturing Indian servant who has cared for the girl and her younger brother, Mario, since birth. As the Indians rise up against the landowners and demand their rights, Castellanos suggests that the rest of society should do the same against the fetters of male supremacy. The author does not take sides between men and women, however; both are responsible for perpetuating the unhealthy state of their lives. Ultimately, while their father struggles to hold on to some scrap of the ranch for Mario's future, both children become the innocent victims of their moral and social inheritance. And Castellanos ( Another Way to Be: Selected Works of Rosario Castellanos ) paints it all with graceful, honest strokes.

Copyright 1992 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Spanish --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: Readers International (September 25, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0930523903
• ISBN-13: 978-0930523909
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #446,893 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Racial and sexual oppression in Depression-era Mexico, January 4, 2004

By 

D. Cloyce Smith (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nine Guardians (Paperback)

Originally published as "Balun-Canan [Nine Stars]" (referring to the ancient Mayan villages in Chiapas, Mexico, where this novel is set), this thickly plotted, autobiographical novel describes a wealthy family during the 1930s, fifteen years after the Mexican Revolution.

The novel is bookended by lengthy sections told by the landowner's daughter--a never-named seven-year-old girl who resembles Castellanos herself. (The author was also raised on her family's ranch in Chiapas, her brother died young, and she lived a relatively isolated existence under the aloof custody of her father and his overprotective wife.) These chapters introduce the family and the inhabitants of the town of Comitan, as seen through the eyes of the girl, and describe peripherally the ongoing tensions between Mexicans of Spanish descent and those of Indian blood, between the wealthy landowners and the reform government, and between men and women.

While the first and third sections carry the emotional weight of the novel, the middle, longest section contains the "meat" of the plot, told mostly in the third person--although some events are seen from the vantage point of individual characters. The family members travel to their ranch, Chactajal, where the hostilities between opposing social forces finally burst into the open. Goaded by legal reforms introduced by the national government, the Indian workers, almost inevitably, rebel against labor conditions that can be described as close to slavery. Caught in the middle is Felipe, the landowner's illegitimate nephew, whose blood guarantees him certain rights but whose birth prevents him from acquiring any status.

Anyone who knows much about the author's political career will understand that her sympathies lie with the Indians (and with the women), yet she masterfully avoids painting either side as entirely virtuous or villainous. On the one hand, some of the Indians stoop to desperate, even criminal, measures to escape their drudgery; on the other hand, even the mule-headed, racist landowner (who, of course, represents the author's father) seems defeated by forces far out of his control. By the end of this sensitive, heartfelt, and melancholy novel, everyone is a victim of the systemic oppression endured by Mexicans of all races and both sexes.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nine Guardians, May 27, 2011

By 

Miriam Brumer - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nine Guardians (Paperback)

For me, this book was an introduction to a writer I'd never heard of before - but one who had a valuable story to tell. Her depiction of the gathering revolt among indigenous Mexicans against the ruling Spanish majority in the 1930s, was fascinating, vivid and informative. In a way, it's a universal story: the discriminated-against, second-class citizens who refuse to remain silent and gather together to revolt against this
system. This story has been, and is being played out all over the world and Castellanos presents it with an urgent intensity.

8 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very emotional book., November 30, 1999

By 

Tony Escareno (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nine Guardians (Paperback)

This book was at first very complicated becasue of the way it changes it's setting or happenings, but once you get to the 5 or 6 chapter things beggind to make lots more sense. There is lots of feeling in it's was of describing the thoughts that people are having, there is lots of warmth in this little girl who is the main character. This is the type of book that could be read only by those readers who really want to read not just flip pages.