Ana Castillo’s ‘Guardians’ challenges the US-Mexico divide

“In her 1994 essay collection “Massacre of the Dreamers,” Ana Castillo says of women/writers/activists of Mexican-Indian heritage: “Choosing to be conscious transmitters of literary expressions, we have become excavators of our common culture, mining legends, folklore, and myths for our own metaphors.” In “The Guardians,” her fifth novel, the award-winning poet, novelist, playwright, and essayist continues to mine history and make metaphors, fixing her critical eye on the treacherous divide between Mexico and the United States and the psychological and physical fallout of the illegal movement of humans, drugs, and money between Mexico and the so-called Land of Gold just beyond its northern border.

“The Guardians” is the story of Regina, a 50-plus-year-old Mexican widow whose US-born husband was shipped off and killed in Vietnam before their marriage was consummated. Cheated of life with a man she didn’t really love anyway, Regina gets on her feet, using her newly acquired immigration status and her dead husband’s Army benefits to purchase a tiny house on a plot of desert hugging the US side of the Texas-Mexico border. No longer an illegal who must “hide in the shadows,” Regina becomes a teacher’s aide in a middle school where she falls in love with a young, ponytail-wearing, Chicano history teacher. Miguel Betancourt preaches politics and talks like “a book with a quiz at the end of every chapter.” He is also “blindsided, dumbstruck,” over the virgin widow and drawn into her complicated immigrant world.”

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