Rain of Gold

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Rain of Gold is Victor Villaseñor's 1991 New York Times bestseller which tells the story of his own parents who were undocumented immigrants from Mexico. Two families escaping from Revolution torn Mexico to the relative safety of the United States have parallel experiences centered around their mothers' strength.

[edit] Plot

The story starts out with a short background that explains the title Rain of Gold. it is a box canyon in Mexico in which a tribe of Indians found gold decades prior. It was not long until others discovered the gold and the book chronographs multiple betrayals during the mexican revolution for the mines and the gold in the canyon La Lluvia de Oro.

The novel begins with the character Lupe Gomez, who is a young and overall naive girl, she lives with her mother, Doña Guadalupe and her other sisters and brother in a ramamda in the "Rain of Gold" valley. The family makes a living by selling breakfast to the local miners and washing their clothes. There are a group of colorful miners and most of them have problems with drinking and gambling. Repeatedly the village suffers raids by various factions of the Mexican Revolution and ultimately the the brazen Doña Guadalupe protects her daughters and son without incident. Eventually Lupe encounters a man she simply calls "my Capitan", he is a charismatic and romantic figure and Lupe seemingly falls in love with him. For much of the story she compares the things she enjoys in life to "her" Capitan unbenounced to the fact that he is married to another woman and is nearly two decades older than she is. While swayed by the religious devotion to the Gomez family, the Capitan has them look after his young wife Socorro. While away on an escort mission of mined gold the Capitan is attacked and killed, subsequently the rebel fighters who slay him return to the box canyon and dominate the residents. They are a suspicious group and accuse Lupe's brother Victoriano of stealing gold from the mine, when they try to hang him as an example he is saved by the local borracho who sacrifices himself so that Victoriano can kill the rebel leader.

Shortly after the violence the towns people start to leave the city en masse to escape the violence of the Mexican revolution.