Description: In the grim reality of Southern California's grape fields, even the sun is a dark spot. For the migrant grape pickers in Crossing Vines, Rigoberto González's novel that spans a single workday, the sun is a constant, malevolent force. The characters endure back-breaking, monotonous work as they succumb to the whims of their corrupt bosses. Each minute the sun rises higher in the sky is an eternity.
Brief description:
Rigoberto González is the author of So Often the Pitcher Goes to Water until It Breaks, a selection of the National Poetry Series, and Soledad Sigh-Sighs, a book for children. The recipient of a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and of writing residencies in Spain, Brazil, and Costa Rica, he currently lives in New York City.
Review Quotes: Rigoberto González, paying homage to Tomás Rivera's 1971 . . . y no se lo tragó la tierra, brings the Chicano novel back to its source. In a debut that distills a unique poet's sensibility, this novel intertwines the sixties and nineties to explore farm workers' lives and their experience with la huelga. González courageously tackles issues such as labor, assimilation, sexuality, and the tension between the self and the world--a milestone!"--Ilan Stavans, author of The Hispanic Condition and On Borrowed Words