Queen of America

September 12, 2011
The historical Teresita Urrea, the “Saint of Cabora,” flees Mexico with her father after the Tomóchic rebellion of 1891, in Urrea’s sequel to the bestselling The Hummingbird’s Daughter. Pursued by assassins, the Urreas seek sanctuary in rural Arizona. Teresita’s father drinks heavily and refuses to accept the charity of pilgrims who’ve come to follow Teresita; the Urreas travel to Tucson, meeting the Von Order brothers, John and Harry. Teresita feels an immediate attraction to Harry, despite her burgeoning saintly powers. Father and daughter then move on to El Paso, where Teresita reluctantly takes a job as a journalist. She falls in love with a man and once again her saintliness conflicts with her romantic desires. She has a brief, unhappy marriage before finding redemption through the first of her many healings. This new chapter of her life leads her to San Francisco and then New York, where a sinister consortium exploits her abilities, working her nine to five and forcing her to choose between the saintly grace and simplicity of her old life and the modern trappings of fame, fortune, and romantic love. Despite a trundling life-story narrative that at times loses focus, and several flat passages, Urrea delivers a rich mix of Wild West and magic realism.

Starred review from September 1, 2011
Teresita Urrea, a real-life saint and the author's great-aunt, returns as the heroine of this gritty, bold, and much-anticipated sequel (though it stands alone) to "The Hummingbird's Daughter". Picking up where "Hummingbird" left off, the narrative has Teresita fleeing Mexico with her father following the 19th-century Tomochic rebellion and arriving in Arizona to begin a new chapter of her life just as America is embarking on a new century. A tough but loving healer known as the Saint of Cabora, she eludes assassins while continuing to bestow her powers on the pilgrims that overwhelm her in hopes of being healed. Teresita travels America, experiences baseball for the first time, meets captivating people, and even considers the possibility of love. VERDICT Fiercely romantic and at times heartbreaking but also full of humor, Urrea's latest novel blends fairy tale, Western adventure, folk tale, and historical drama. Fans of "Hummingbird" and readers new to Urrea's work will surely enjoy this magnificent, epic novel. [See Prepub Alert, 6/13/11.]—Lisa Block, Emory Univ., Atlanta

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2011

In The Hummingbird's Daughter, Lannan Award winner Urrea celebrated his great-aunt, Teresita Urrea, a 19th-century Indian girl who became a revered healer and eventually the Saint of Cabora. That book went on to sell 130,000 copies and became a One City, One Book selection in San Francisco. So there should be an audience for this follow-up, which pictures Teresita fleeing Mexico's violent Tomochic rebellion and heading for America. This book should have broad appeal; with a reading group guide and ten-city tour.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2011
In his sequel to The Hummingbird's Daughter (2005), Urrea continues the mythic history of his great aunt Teresita as she begins a new life in the United States after escaping her political and religious enemies in Mexico in 1893. While a young girl in Mexico, Teresita, called the Saint of Cabora, has developed a wide following of believers in the healing power of her touch, although she insists that God does the healing and she is merely a conduit. The Mexican government believes she also foments rebellion, the reason 19-year-old Teresita and her father Tomás Urrea flee to Arizona, where her father's best friend, a politically active newspaperman, uses her popularity to rally public sentiment against the corrupt Mexican president. Violence as well as goodness seems to follow in her wake, yet all Teresita wants is to practice her healing. She is a fascinating mix of wisdom, love of life's simple pleasures (like ice cream) and innocence, but is she a saint? As she and alcoholic, profane Tomás--a landowner who impregnated Teresita's Indian mother--settle into Arizona society, Mexico sends agents to kill her. They all end up dead. But a more insidious evil eventually arrives in 1899: cruel but handsome Rodriguez, who marries her, them immediately tries to kill her; worse, he destroys her relationship with Tomás and her local reputation. She has no choice but to leave Arizona. In California a consortium of questionable businessmen sets her up as a healer under a devious contract that keeps her a virtual prisoner until the lovable rogue John Van Order, a friend from her earliest Arizona days, arrives and negotiates a better deal. As her fame and notoriety spread, Teresita and John travel across the country to New York City, where she struggles to maintain spiritual clarity despite tasting earthly luxury and human love. Mixing religious mysticism, a panoramic view of history, a Dickensian cast of minor characters, low comedy and political breast-beating, Urrea's sprawling yet minutely detailed saga both awes and exhausts.

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November 15, 2011
Although not quite as fresh as The Hummingbird's Daughter (2005), this entertaining sequel will continue to charm and enthrall a wide variety of readers. After being hastily deported from her beloved Mexico, Teresita Urrea, legendary healer and Saint of Cabora, must grapple with life and love in bustling, turn-of-the-century America. As her fame spreads throughout the country, she joins a shady medical consortium. Manipulated, exploited, denounced, and extolled for her gift, she travels around the U.S., visiting San Francisco, New York, St. Louis, and Los Angeles. Forced to walk a shaky tightrope straddling fame and humility, Teresita sees her American odyssey exacting a heavy toll on her emotional, spiritual, and physical well-being. This vividly rendered, historical kaleidoscope of a novel is deepened by more than a dollop of magical realism.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)