Louis Alberto Urrea
The House of Broken Angels by Louis Alberto Urrea is a portrait of the De La Cruzes family, an immigrant Mexican-American family living in San Diego. The seventy-year-old patriarch, Big Angel, is dying of cancer. The novel opens with Big Angel preparing to go to his mother’s funeral. He has scheduled his birthday celebration the same weekend of the funeral so the extended family can attend both functions in the same trip.
Urrea paints a vivid portrait of the members of this large, extended family. There are children, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, spouses, ex-spouses, siblings, step-siblings—in short, a motely crew of people bursting in and out of the pages. The focus is primarily on Big Angel as he recalls bits and pieces of his life and tries to come to terms with his impending death. Urrea doesn’t stop there. He takes the reader inside the thoughts of some of the other characters as they remember the past, their lives in Mexico, their poverty, their struggles with assimilation in America, their lovers, their estrangements from family, and the deaths of loved ones. Every page is a flurry of activity, teeming with noise.
Because the sheer number of characters can get confusing, presenting a challenge in keeping track of who is related to whom and how, a family tree would have been helpful. But perhaps the confusion was intentional. With such a large extended family, even some of the characters were at a loss to figure out who was related and who was not.
What emerges from this frenzy is an authentic portrait of a complex family. The petty jealousies, grudges, and family dynamics are realistic and recognizable. There are moments of genuine tenderness between family members, especially between Big Angel and his half-brother, Little Angel; and between Big Angel and his wife, Perla. The love they have for each other is evident. What is also evident is Urrea’s contagious affection for his characters. The unbreakable bond between family members, their unwavering support for each other, and the love and esteem they hold for their dying patriarch spills out of every page.
A poignant, moving, and vibrant portrayal of a Mexican-American family, brimming with color, activity, noise, and the energy of life.