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.
Ireland 1967. The Summer of love. Or was it?
A holiday weekend. Amazing weather. American student Dakota Lacey is hiking around Kerry.
But there’s a sinister, dark side to the atmosphere. Lone female hikers are being brutally attacked.
Book I of Southern Swallow Series – 12th Century scholar Li K'ai-men takes command of his first official assignments during a time of political unrest and barbarian invasions.
Based on the memoirs of a Pearl Harbor survivor. Letters from two pen pals take the reader on a journey into the past, a past where nightmares came true, and when hatred reigned.
