Emilia Altamirano, illegitimate daughter of a Royalist officer and an Otomi Indian mother, rejected by her father, becomes a ward of Jose Antonio Navarro. She nurses the wounded at the Alamo Battle and survives to face an uncertain future.
Emilia Altamirano, half Otomí Indian, half pure Spanish, is born in 1814, the year after the Battle of the Medina River, where her father fought as an officer in the Mexican Royalist Army. She grows up in Bexar de San Antonio unacknowledged by her father, raised by her Otomí Indian mother, and “adopted” as an unofficial ward by José Antonio Navarro, hero of the Texas fight for independence from Mexico. She learns to read, write, and acts as a page for the Ayuntamiento (City Council). She learns nursing during a cholera epidemic and latertends the wounded on both sides during and after the Battle of the Alamo. She survives, but as a Tejana, Spanish-speaking, and a loyal citizen of Mexico, she faces an uncertain future.
I have read the book, and it is not to be missed! Most novels based on history deal with famous participants and readers never get to know how the average people felt or dealt with situations at the time. In this book, after much study, the author gets into to heads of ordinary people, and they turn out to be anything but ordinary and just as brave or braver than the so-called well known heroes.
Professional Reviews
The Real History Behind the History
I have read the book, and it is not to be missed! Most novels based on history deal with famous participants and readers never get to know how the average people felt or dealt with situations at the time. In this book, after much study, the author gets into to heads of ordinary people, and they turn out to be anything but ordinary and just as brave or braver than the so-called well known heroes.
Joli Stewart is raised in the lap of luxury on her father's plantation near Charleston, South Carolina. High spirited, non-traditional and head strong, Joli refuses to accept any interference in her life or her romantic decisions. Follow her life dur
Joli Stewart is raised in the lap of luxury on her father's plantation near Charleston, South Carolina. High spirited, non-traditional and head strong, Joli refuses to accept any interference in her life or her romantic decisions. Follow her life dur
The Six Bells of Madame Lin is the first book in The Witch of Marigold Hall Trilogy, a fictionalized account of the struggles of Lin Mang, a blind woman who manages to navigate the world during the Mongol conquest of China in the 13th Century. Withou
