Synopses & Reviews
The sole novel of beloved Chicana author Estela Portillo Trambley is an important rediscovery. This classic Mexican American coming-of-age story was written in the 1980s during the rich burgeoning of Latino literature that also brought us such writers as Sandra Cisneros and Denise Chavez.
Trini is the captivating story one girl’s journey across borders and into womanhood. Born in the rural Tarahumaran region of Mexico, Trini loses her mother at an early age and shares her family’s struggle to squeeze a living out of her beautiful but inhospitable land.
Driven by an impossible love and by her desire for a better life, Trini travels through the Mexican borderlands, from indigenous villages to growing cities, where she encounters both exciting challenges and the harsh realities of violence and betrayal. As a young woman, she finally crosses the border into the United States to pursue her dreams of independence, land ownership and American citizenship for her children.
Trini is a novel distinguished by the richness and beauty of its language and by its rare depiction of life in the borderlands of Mexico and New Mexico in the 1940s and 1950s. Most remarkable of all is its portrait of a sensitive and courageous young Chicana woman, whose quiet heroism resonates from every page.
Trini is a vital novel of the Mexican American experience, appropriate for young adults as well as adult readers. Here restored to print with a new foreword Helena Maria Viramontes, it is bound to take its rightful place among the contemporary classics of multicultural American literature.
Estela Portillo Trambley, the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants, founded the first Hispanic Theatre in El Paso, was a beloved teacher and radio show host and received a New York Shakespeare Festival award in a competition among Hispanic playwrights. Her Sor Juana and Other Plays earned her widespread acclaim.
Synopsis
The sole novel of beloved Chicana author Estela Portillo Trambley,
Trini is the epic story of one girl's journey across borders and into womanhood. Born in the rural region of the Tarahumara (Raramuri) people in Mexico, Trini shares her family's struggle to squeeze a living out of her beautiful but inhospitable land. But she is sustained by the rich traditions of her Mestiza heritage, the adopted traditions of the Tarahumara, and by her own intelligence and spirit. As a young woman, she crosses into the United States to pursue her dreams of independence and land ownership.
Trini is a novel distinguished by the richness and beauty of its language and by its rare depiction of life in the Borderlands in the 1940s and 1950s. Most remarkable of all is its portrait of a sensitive and courageous young Chicana woman, whose quiet heroism resonates from every page. Here restored to print with a new foreword, this early novel of the Mexican American experience is bound to take its rightful place among contemporary classics of multicultural American literature.
Synopsis
Epic tale of a Mexican-American girl's journey into womanhood and independence on both sides of the border.
About the Author
The grand daughter of Mexican immigrants, Trambley (1917-1999) founded the first Hispanic Theatre in El Paso, was a beloved teacher and a radio show host, and received a New York Shakespeare Festival award in a competition among Hispanic playwrights. Her Sor Juna and Other Plays earned her widespread acclaim. Helena Maria Viramontes is the author of THE MOTHS AND OTHER STORIES (Arte Publico, 1985) and the novel UNDER THE FEET OF JESUS (Dutton, 1995) which was critically acclaimed and a finalist for Barnes and Noble's "Discover Great New Writers Award." She was a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow and is an Associate Professor of English at Cornell University.