cover image Migrations and Other Stories

Migrations and Other Stories

Lisa Hernandez, . . Arte Pblico, $14.95 (167pp) ISBN 978-1-55885-499-4

Though the ages and predicaments of the Chicanas of Hernandez's debut vary, a passionate emotional resiliency reigns throughout. The opening "Migrations" follows two mismatched California neighbors who travel to Mexico together over Christmas almost arbitrarily: the young woman narrator aims to rid herself of an odious lover, while her neighbor, Reynaldo, returns to Guadalajara in order to make amends to his embittered daughter after his years of absence in America. "The Neighbor" is the wry narrative of a 79-year-old, thrice-married L.A. widow named Sarita, who resolves that her young neighbors' sadistic passion for each other, which she must regularly witness, is an affront to the memory of the warm, generous lovers she has known. Doomed and hopeless love rules the lives of these resolute women, as in "My Little Tyrant Heart—Corazoncito Tirano ," where two men locked in years of friendship and love rivalry rehash secrets of passion and murder—and are overheard by one of the men's grown daughter, a young widow who narrates her own tale of heartache. Short and affecting, Hernandez's tales are as ardent as they are prosaic and unflinching. (Mar.)