Rolando Hinojosa (1929–2022)

This short novel, first published in 1983, is really a series of anecdotes and vignettes describing the Texas Mexicano community in fictional Belken County, right on the border with Mexico in the Rio Grande Valley. In these snapshots, the border between the two countries is portrayed as more of a state of mind than a physical border, and some of the families here have been on the Texas side of the line since before there was a Texas. The writing is delightful, and many of the same stories show more pop up several times, but told from different perspectives. There is much humor, some gentle, some more broad. The sparse interactions these characters have with their Anglo Texas neighbors across the tracks (and in institutions of power, like the courthouse), reminded me at times of the interactions that the shtetl Jews have with their Russian and Polish neighbors in the writing of authors like Singer and Alechem. Some of the humor is reminiscent (although not strictly analogous) to those writers, as well. At any rate, The Valley reads quickly (and is quite short) and feels breezy, yet is ultimately revealing and thought provoking. Plus, I learned some interesting things about the history of the Texas/Mexican community. show less

was actually lucky enough to read this in Mr. Hinojosa's class when he taught at the University of Texas; was a hard teacher actually :) but fair.

www.barnesandnoble.comFrom the Publisher
In The Useless Servants, award-winning author Rolando Hinojosa captures the obscenity and pointlessness of war in the pages of a Korean War journal written by his fictional everyman, Rafe Buenrostro. Drawing from his own experiences, Hinojosa probes the mind of this Texas country boy who suddenly finds himself in an unknown country fighting in an undeclared war for an unknown reason. Meeting and befriending an unending stream of people who are gone as show more suddenly as they appear, Rafe alternately fears for his life and is bored to death. Dehumanized by the horrors that surround him, Rafe latches onto the one thing that offers hope for survival: his diary. He records his observations laconically and without emotion in a routine geared to survival and to becoming more effective in the performance of his grisly duty as an artilleryman. show less