He Fought For Freedom! She Fought For Love! A Novel Of Revolt In The Days When Spain Ruled Mexico And Most Of What Became The U.S.A.
Not since Gone with the Wind has there been such an epic. One quarter of a million words.
"Intensely Absorbing" Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
The Pulitzer Recommendee saga!
"A love story reminiscent of Ramona." St. Lewis Post-Dispatch
"Caught up in the revolt are lustful and brutal soldiers, women forced into prostitution, mission priests good ones and corrupt ones), Spanish grandees with their wives and their native mistresses, numerous Indigenous peoples — principally Pope ("the holy medicine man") — and Juan do Taos (who had grown up among the Spaniards) and Manuela (the daughter of the Spanish lieutenant governor), whose developing love for each other and mating is sensitively told." Chattanooga TN Daily Times
In this unforgettable novel, tumultuous human drama unfolds across a province as vast as old Spain itself — a land rich with the heritage of two civilizations and drenched in the blood of both — as a fiercely courageous man leads his people against those who destroy their gods and their lives, and as an unforgettable woman with a dream of her own wields the very forces of history to make her dream come true.
"1680 — the proud empire of Spain was crumbling and corrupt. The descendants of the conquistadors were flabby, decadent, weak. Where Spain had gone the men of God had gone and founded missions, yet these too had desiccated, their faith corrupted. To rule these posts Spanish soldiers and grandees were chosen. The favored courtiers secured the lucrative posts, the others the barren wastes which Spain controlled.
"Such a post was Nuevo Mexico, ruled by Antonio Otermin, governor, old soldier, near the end of his career. In this fateful year Pope, medicine man of the Pueblos, accomplished the impossible. He united all the peaceful Indians so that on one fateful day they arose and killed all the Spaniards they could. Servants slew masters, haciendas were burned.
"Otermin and his troops in the Villa de Sante Fe, gathered in the refugees and with the ragtag-bobtail remnant waged war, withstood siege and and at last led a gallant retreat from Santa Fe to El Paso del Norte (El Paso) with a thousand refugees, wounded, a handful of soldiers, through desert bad land. The weak became strong in the process.
"With mounting tension one observes the revolt starting, the Spanish unbelief, the brutalities on both sides, the victories and defeats. The characterizations are living, exquisite: Pope, the mystic, Otermin, the noble, Garcia, the Lieutenant Governor, old soldier and brave, and many others.
"This is a very special book, truly excellent. It is not quite history because history could not record conversations, but it is better than history for the picture it paints, the feelings it evokes. It is a hard book to put down and a story to treasure with pride and shame for mankind." Norfolk Virginian-Pilot
