Book Rain of Gold

Villasenor, Victor. Rain of Gold, 1991.

What time period does this book cover? What historical events are referenced in the story?

The book takes the reader through three generations of a Mexican-American family, beginning with the early part of the 20th century, chronicling the Mexican Revolution to the end of Prohibition. As it is a memoir, it also contains references of the author's present day.

Describe and compare the birthplaces of both Victor's mother and his father? What unusual event took place when Lupe was conceived?

Juan Salvador was born in Mexico but soon fled the nation because of the revolution. When he was a child, he found himself going to work in the mines of Arizona. Lupe was born in a mine in Mexico, where significantly gold was discovered.

Who was Lupe's first love and why? How young was she when she met him?

Lupe was still a schoolgirl when she grew enamored with her first love, the Colonel.

The Colonel states "wars are won by women." What does he mean, and how does this apply to the women in Victor's family?

When the Colonel states, "wars aren't won by soldiers. They're won by you women here," he means that women practice the daily acts of life, the raising of children and the cooking of food "in the kitchens who feed the fighting men and by the miners and farmers who keep the nation going," proving the day-to-day labor that often goes unrecognized, but fuels revolutionary action and sustains the spirits, minds, and bodies of soldiers -- and not simply soldiers in war, but the soldiers of Victor's family fighting to survive in life. (26)

Dona Guadalupe tells her daughters, "a woman's first loyalty is to her family, and not to her husband." How does this apply to Dona Guadalupe herself? As a woman alone how does she walk a fine line in the mountain village? How does Lupe resolve this conflict in her own life when she marries?

Dona Guadalupe sacrifices everything for her family. A man may leave a woman, or die, but a parent's bond to her child is never sundered. Although Dona Guadalupe's outsider status as a single woman and an Indian allows her a unique identity, Lupe resolves this conflict in a different way, by marrying and leaving with an outsider, Juan, Victor's father, not the Colonel.

How does the author perceive the event of the birth of Sorroco's twins? What is victor recreating in this scene?

Victor recreates the essence of female power, in giving birth and also of giving birth to new life for not simply the twins, but the entire community what was the most vivid & dramatic scene in the book? Explain why you chose this particular scene? What was the most romantic scene?

The most vivid scene is the birth of the Sorroco twins. In this scene, the author strives to marry birth, cultural triumph, and the dangers of this medical feat of nature. The most romantic scenes are the Colonel's early, futile nurturing of Lupe's intellectual talents in school.

What was the most humorous scene in Victor's narrative?

The most humorous sciences come from the contrasts in the Mexican ways of thinking and behaving, when Victor's father comes to America, with those of Anglos. For instance, Juan laughs, noting how Anglos don't grow food but inedible grass in front of their homes, and don't fence in their livestock but fence in the inedible, useless crops.

Of whom was it said "it is better to respect a fallen star than a rising one" and what does this mean? Who was your favorite person in victor's family and why?

It is easy to respect someone held in esteem, but harder to remember what someone was, when his or her reputation is in decline, like the Colonel. Victor's mother Lupe, however, remembers this fact, making her most laudable individual because of her remembered, long-ago first romance and her strength as a mother later on.