Throwing Fire at the Sun, Water at the Moon (Sun Tracks) [Paperback]

Anita Endrezze (Author)

Book Description

Series: Sun Tracks | Publication Date: March 1, 2000

Perhaps you know them for their deer dances or for their rich Easter ceremonies, or perhaps only from the writings of anthropologists or of Carlos Castaneda. But now you can come to know the Yaqui Indians in a whole new way. Anita Endrezze, born in California of a Yaqui father and a European mother, has written a multilayered work that interweaves personal, mythical, and historical views of the Yaqui people. Throwing Fire at the Sun, Water at the Moon is a blend of ancient myths, poetry, journal extracts, short stories, and essays that tell her people's story from the early 1500s to the present, and her family's story over the past five generations. Reproductions of Endrezze's paintings add an additional dimension to her story and illuminate it with striking visual imagery. Endrezze has combed history and legend to gather stories of her immediate family and her mythical ancient family, the two converging in the spirit of storytelling. She tells Aztec and Yaqui creation stories, tales of witches and seductresses, with recurring motifs from both Yaqui and Chicano culture. She shows how Christianity has deeply infused Yaqui beliefs, sharing poems about the Flood and stories of a Yaqui Jesus. She re-creates the coming of the Spaniards through the works of such historical personages as Andrés Pérez de Ribas. And finally she tells of those individuals who carry the Yaqui spirit into the present day. People like the Esperanza sisters, her grandmothers, and others balance characters like Coyote Woman and the Virgin of Guadalupe to show that Yaqui women are especially important as carriers of their culture. Greater than the sum of its parts, Endrezze's work is a new kind of family history that features a startling use of language to invoke a people and their past--a time capsule with a female soul. Written to enable her to understand more about her ancestors and to pass this understanding on to her own children, Throwing Fire at the Sun, Water at the Moon helps us gain insight not only into Yaqui culture but into ourselves as well.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Transgressive and transcendent, Endrezze bucks genre expectations by mixing poems with short stories, essays, legends, and art, melding Paul Gunn Allen with Leslie Marmon Silko. Endrezze roots her tribal and personal history in the matrix of family and Yaqui identity, braiding a female and feminist vision out of the Virgin of Guadalupe, La Malinche, and La Llorna. This book will be a classic." —North American Review "A complex and skillfully-woven web of political theorizing, historical fact, short stories, and poetry . . . explores the Native side of her family history and the history of the Yaqui people as a whole. . . . All of Endrezze's styles and formats are woven together wonderfully and carefully. Throwing Fire at the Sun, Water at the Moon is a beautiful fabric held tightly, yet delicately together by a common thread of themes." —Resound

From the Inside Flap

Perhaps you know them for their deer dances or for their rich Easter ceremonies, or perhaps only from the writings of anthropologists or of Carlos Castaneda. But now you can come to know the Yaqui Indians in a whole new way. Anita Endrezze, born in California of a Yaqui father and a European mother, has written a multilayered work that interweaves personal, mythical, and historical views of the Yaqui people. Throwing Fire at the Sun, Water at the Moon is a blend of ancient myths, poetry, journal extracts, short stories, and essays that tell her people's story from the early 1500s to the present, and her family's story over the past five generations. Reproductions of Endrezze's paintings add an additional dimension to her story and illuminate it with striking visual imagery. Endrezze has combed history and legend to gather stories of her immediate family and her mythical ancient family, the two converging in the spirit of storytelling. She tells Aztec and Yaqui creation stories, tales of witches and seductresses, with recurring motifs from both Yaqui and Chicano culture. She shows how Christianity has deeply infused Yaqui beliefs, sharing poems about the Flood and stories of a Yaqui Jesus. She re-creates the coming of the Spaniards through the works of such historical personages as Andrés Pérez de Ribas. And finally she tells of those individuals who carry the Yaqui spirit into the present day. People like the Esperanza sisters, her grandmothers, and others balance characters like Coyote Woman and the Virgin of Guadalupe to show that Yaqui women are especially important as carriers of their culture. Greater than the sum of its parts, Endrezze's work is a new kind of family history that features a startling use of language to invoke a people and their past--a time capsule with a female soul. Written to enable her to understand more about her ancestors and to pass this understanding on to her own children, Throwing Fire at the Sun, Water at the Moon helps us gain insight not only into Yaqui culture but into ourselves as well. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 205 pages
• Publisher: University of Arizona Press (March 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816519722
• ISBN-13: 978-0816519729
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #511,919 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful mix of poetry and prose, December 2, 2000

By 

Ron Mader "Planeta.com Founder" (Mexico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Throwing Fire at the Sun, Water at the Moon (Sun Tracks) (Paperback)

(From Planeta.com Journal) - Endrezze weaves prose and poetry in an ecclectic tome that blurs the stories of the Virgin of Guadalupe and Coyote Woman. The author tells the story of her family -- a Yaqui father and a European mother and through Aztec and Yaqui creation stories, she weaves stories of her own family history. She writes: "The faces of my ancestors are both luminous and shadowy. I'm standing in a long line, holding the memory of their hands." Highly recommended.