Review by Choice Review
This book contains a collection of letters by a precocious 13-year-old girl to her aunt. Written about 1914, the letters were published in Spanish in serialized form in 1918 in the El Paso del Norte newspaper of El Paso, Texas. Torres was one of many Mexicans living in exile during the turbulent years of the Mexican Revolution. Her letters have the tone of a well-written diary and describe her journey to the US with her family. By train and ship, she passed through the regions of Mexico City, Veracruz, Galveston, Houston, and El Paso. Her descriptions and observations reveal the places and events of the time, including some cultural attitudes and prejudices. In a personal process of transculturalization, she employs some dialectical and idiomatic phrases, with commentary on both languages and cultures. The translation is solid, with only a few points open to varied interpretations; there are some minor typographical errors. The text should interest general readers and students or specialists in border area research, women's studies, and translation. The Spanish title of this bilingual edition is Memorias de mi viaje. M. V. Ekstrom; St. John Fisher College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review