Here's what I wrote about this read in 2008: "Sequel to Rain of Gold. Not as good as the first (much more sentimentality), but yet good to know the "rest of the story". Would have liked to have met a lot of these people, and how smart & fortunate they were to purchase that prime Californian real estate." ( )

En un deslumbrante relato de pasión, Trece Sentidos es la mágica e inverosímil narración de la familia Villaseñor y a la vez es la continuación del bestseller anterior de Victor Villaseñor: Lluvia de Oro. En esta historia los Villaseñor huyen de México y emigran a los Estados Unidos durante la sangrienta Revolución Mexicana de 1910. El viaje fue extremadamente difícil, demostrando no sólo la fortaleza física que caracterizaba a la cabeza familiar sino el poder espiritual que determinaría la casta de los Villaseñor y que en la posteridad mezclara finísimos ingredientes dando como resultado una mágica posión de arte y sensibilidad literaria ejecutada por Victor, el único varón del árbol genealógico que echaría sus ramas gracias a la unión de Don Salvador Villaseñor y Doña Guadalupe Gómez. Sin duda, Trece Sentidos no es sólo una grandiosa compilación de memorias familiares, sino una extraordinaria y magnífica muestra de sensibilidad y tacto, ya que el libro, exhaustivamente plagado de detalles, no solo el lector se vuelve partícipe de las conversaciones, paisajes o angustiantes situaciones en las cuales participan diversos integrantes de la familia, sino que además y gracias a una extraordinaria narrativa el libro llora, suda, sangra y grita cada vez que Lupe o Salvador o cualquiera de sus personajes pronuncia palabra, ya que las palabras no son sólo códigos, son seres que ocupan un espacio y ejercen a través de su pronunciación, un impacto y como todo en este mundo se rige a través de la física pues por lógica o sentido común ejerce una reacción, por lo que me he atrevido a asegurar que he podido vivir la catarsis experimentada por Lupe justo antes de contestarle al Cura que no aceptaría volver a pronunciar la palabra “obedecer” después de cincuenta años de matrimonio, ya que si realmente estuvo despierta en todo ese tiempo y actuara como una mujer viva, definitivamente contestar que si, sin hacer siquiera un murmullo sería como nunca haber respirado o nunca haberse percatado del Sol y de la Luna o de que ya no era esa niña que se mantenía de ilusiones creadas por un corazón bañado de historia rosas... No, definitivamente esto no podía ser igual, el tiempo había transcurrido y eso nadie lo podía ocultar. ( )

Thirteen Senses is Victor Villaseñor’s second installment in his family history. The first, Rain of Gold, ended with his parents’ 1929 wedding; the second covers the wedding and all that proceeds. This volume continues the unfolding of family wisdom, as told by its women—most particularly, Doña Marguerita, Villaseñor’s paternal grandmother.

Midst exploding stills and other dangers of life as a 1920s bootlegger, Villaseñor’s father, Salvadore, repeats the teachings of his Indian mother. In this continuation of his life story, Villaseñor reveals that Doña Marguerita was a curandera, a native healer. It seems an odd thing to have omitted from his first book, in which Doña Marguerita also plays a major role. This and a few other seeming inconsistencies cause me to suspect that his grandmother may not be the source of all the wisdom that he seeks to impart. And in the end, it doesn’t make any difference. He offers a worthwhile teaching, while spinning a rip-snorting yarn of living on the edge of the law during the era when California’s barrios were first being formed and a new culture was being created from the melding of the ways of Old Mexico and gringo America.

Villaseñor reveals the secret of why many men lie—because they can’t have things the way they need them to be if they tell the truth. This is the conundrum of Salvadore when faced with the choice of telling his fiancée the truth about the source of his wealth (as his mother advises) or denying that he is a bootlegger, a lie to ensure that Lupe will not call off the wedding. He chooses the lie. The truth can wait, he reasons, until the marriage is consummated and she dares not to leave him. Lupe is consoled with her mother’s advice: “No man can ever break a woman’s heart, if she has entrusted her heart—not to the man—but to her home.” This ancient rule of motherhood is a revelation to a modern woman who grew up in a world of romantic love and divorces fueled by disappointment. “So always know, mi hijita,” Lupe’s mother tells her, “that you are una lluvia de oro, a rain of gold, sent by God to do your work for the survival of all humankind. We are the power, we women are el eje, the center, the hub de nuestras familias, and in this knowledge, then our hearts are INDESTRUCTIBLE!”

Villaseñor is a great storyteller and a sharp witness to human foibles. Thirteen Senses is a family history, an introduction to Mexican American culture, and a sojourn into the world of a mystic. ( )

In this book Villasenor traces his parents lives in the United States, their meeting, births and trials and tribulations. He highlights the customs of both his father Salvador and his mother Dona Margarita; especially Dona Margarita's old customs of being and talking to God and the Holy Mother.

It's a little tedious in places often repeating some of the same issues of struggle and someone coming to the rescue with yet another miracle; things disappearing, angels coming to rescue etc. A decent read but not his best

The book is filled with amusing phrases and Spanish expletives describing such things as Dona Margarita poops. I can say that my Mother or Grandmother never spoke in this fashion. But the book is a good read but as good as the others that he has written. My favorite is Burro Genius. ( )

http://ginasblogging.blogspot.com/2005/05/thirteen-senses-by-victor-villasenor.h... ( )