Rivera was born in Crystal City, TX his parents, both native to Mexico, were migrant workers. Together, they form what Ramon Saldivar calls “a major document of Chicano social and literary history.” The term “Chicano” – as in “Chicano literature” – refers to Americans of Mexican descent.
It consists of twenty-seven stories, including the two framing sections (“The Lost Year” and “Under the House”) that comprise its beginning and ending. Evangelina Vigil-Piñónĥ …And the Earth Did Not Devour Him defies conventional analysis, in part because it’s a deeply unconventional book. Like, for example, when goes out into the silvery night. You know, even though it’s a very harsh experience that the book conveys – you know, pain, suffering, the sun bearing down on the people as they're working – there are moments that are refreshing, and inspiring, like little fleeting swirls of beauty. And it’s fun to deal with them.” Nicolás Kanellos “There’s a lot of beautiful poetry in Tomás Rivera’s novel, you’ll find. What would you give if giving meant you could help them? What would you take from them if you knew they were willing to give it? “In a book that’s so small, so readable, and so poetic, there are…many, many very deep, philosophical, theological issues. Once he was going to tell her, but then he thought he’d wait and tell her when he was grown up.Ĥ What would you do – what have you done – for your loved ones? She always believed that they drank the water, and so she continued doing her duty. But before falling asleep he saw and heard many things…ģ What his mother never knew was that every night he would drink the glass of water that she left under the bed for the spirits. Then he started thinking about how he never thought and this was when his mind would go blank and he would fall asleep. He became aware that he was always thinking and thinking and from this there was no way out. He tried to figure out when that time he had come to call “year” had started. One time he stopped at mid-turn and fear suddenly set in. And then he even forgot the name he had been called. This was why he never could discover who was calling him nor why. It always began when he would hear someone calling him by his name but when he turned his head to see who was calling, he would make a complete turn and there he would end up – in the same place. Then he wouldn’t know whether what he was thinking had happened or not. It almost always began with a dream in which he would suddenly awaken and then realize that he was really asleep. At times he tried to remember and, just about when he thought everything was clearing up some, he would be at a loss for words. 1 …And the Earth Did Not Devour Him: They’ve Got Something to Lose
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