Books like Heart of Aztlan

This is a deeply moving book about the Mexican people in Albuquerque. It represents a very different view of immigration from the current one, whether on the left or the right. The story takes place in the 1950s although it often feels decades older, and follows a man and his family as they struggle to survive in the urban poverty of industrial Albuquerque. There are beautiful passages alongside rather too many didactic calls for justice. A struggle for workers' rights and a love for the Mexican people are at the heart of this book, both of them transformed by the magic realism that pervades it.There were some wonderful bits of writing. The gang of boys in the book were so familiar. I've seen them on the streets of NYC. Usually, they appall me. But I soon loved them, everyone. Machismo and all. While I'm critical of the book for too much sermonizing, the profound innocence and passion of the author finally over rides every bit of the rhetoric. It's interesting that so many of the rave reviews were from people with Hispanic names, and so many of the negative were from Anglos!