Young Doroteo Arango's life in Mexico isn't easy. His gentle mother, Senora Arambula, tries her hardest to provide for Doroteo and his many siblings. His father, however, is a mean and nasty character. For years, the family suffers poverty and abuse at the hands of the patron at the Rancho del Rio Grande. In addition, the rule of President Diaz causes the poor villagers to fear for their lives as Diaz's soldiers steal their food, rape their young women, and take political prisoners. The brave Doroteo sees the injustice in his life and vows one day to seek justice. That day comes sooner than Doroteo expects when he kills the man who rapes his sister. Now seventeen years old, he runs away and hides in a mountain cave. To escape death by the soldiers who find him, Doroteo claims he is Pancho Villa, a name used by his grandfather years ago. So begins the story of Pancho Villa and his band of rebels who ride into the bloodiest era of Mexican history. A work of historical fiction, Doroteo narrates the story of the little boy who would grow up to become a bandit without fear, the Robin Hood of Mexico.

A hilarious, irreverent, and utterly original exploration of the hidden traps in multicultural experiences that confront the Buenaventura Clan as it flees its South American country's political turmoil. Confident that their wealth will smooth their entry into a new society, the Buenaventuras are ill prepared for the spiny issues that arise at every turn. Using magic realism as her canvas, the author explores the seemingly minor yet utterly significant differences be they religious, political or gender-driven that lie at the core of the traditions that define and anchor us as individuals.

This is a work of great scope, a powerful illumination of an enigmatic figure. Told from the point of view of an ancient shaman, this is the dark and mystical story of Mexico's greatest revolutionary general, Pancho Villa. Shedding the Hollywood mantle of the drunken, womanizing bandit-turned-hero, the Villa who comes to life in this extraordinary novel is part man and part myth, part visionary hoodlum and part brilliant general. A troubled childhood--marked by his father's early death in the fields and his sister's rape by a local landowner--and a prophetic dream propel young Villa through a period of lawlessness and drifting and into life as a military leader. The story moves convincingly through the events of Villa's life, showing him to be a man of fierce passions and moral conviction, a natural leader for the rebellion.