At the beginning of the century, women were still seen as traditional house-wives. In Nelly Rosario’s family tale “Song Of The Water Saints”, Graciela’s adventurous, poverty stricken and some what sexual past, sheds some light on how it was to be a young woman in those days. United States marines invaded the Dominican Republic and put the majority of the population on the look out for the Yaquis. She gets involved with a young man Silvio, at a tender age, whom she married, and whom later left her to go on ship voyages.
Graciela’s life starts to change as she moves from the coast where she lived with her family, to the capital city where she lived most of her adult life. Silvio and Graciela end up having a baby girl Mercedes, who was the total opposite of her mother. She is devoted to the church and strives to make something of her young teenage life. Mercedes later got married to her lover, Andres. They had two children, a boy they named Ismeal and a girl, Leila. Ismeal eventually persuades his parents to move to New York City where they migrated to and lived seeking a better life for their family. After they moved to New York they encountered problems handling both the United States and Dominican culture, as they collided into new family surroundings, behaviors, values and ideals.
At the start of the book, I was not interested in reading it because the structure was different and it was hard to understand what was going on in the story. After reading the book, I had grasped a good understanding and concept of what was going on in the novel and was eventually glad I read it. This book, despite being very different from many others with regards to the sexual content, was rather interesting. I also liked that the different time and dates were used as opposed to the traditional use of chapters. In my view, this made the book more and more interesting. The characters in the book were fun and emphasis was placed mainly on the women in the novel and showed...