Miguel Hernández is a teacher who has left Mexico City to complete a one year student internship in the rural hills of Puebla. He came to the school intending to focus on his teaching and his students but quickly learns that it is impossible to keep his private and professional lives separate—particularly as his experience turns into a voyage of self–discovery.
His students, the Directora of the school, the baker, and other people from the town all contribute to his growing awareness. But most important is Ruben, the owner of the candy store who progresses from merchant to friend to lover. He will be the man who has the most effect on Miguel—who, in turn, is transformed by the impact of Miguel on his own life.
This is a lyrical story that brings to life the countryside of rural Mexico, with its grinding poverty but care of the people for their native land; expressing prejudice and hate but at the same time affirming the power of love and acceptance in overcoming obstacles. As a slice of life in the year of Miguel, Normal Miguel will certainly capture the hearts and imaginations of those who join him on his journey in the pages of the book.
Review
In Normal Miguel, Erik Orrantia writes a great novel in a simple and straightforward manner. There are no pretenses, no extra details, and no fluff. As a gay man, I identified with many of the emotions that played out in this story. I remember the doubts, the fears and frustrations that are usual with a lot of coming out stories, or stories of the beginnings of relationships – the inherent doubts.
Orrantia delivers a plot that is relatively easy to relate to, characters who pulled at my heart strings, and kept me reading well into the night. There are cultural details that helped me understand rural Mexican life, historical details that helped enrich the plot and assist the storyline, as well as gay culture.
Having grown up in a small rural town, it wasn’t too much of a stretch to understand how prejudice and stigma impacts a gay man in that situation. There are, however, some very touching moments in the story as Miguel, the story’s main character, deals with coming out to the community, his principal and his students. He struggles at times to understand how he will make it and whether there will be backlash, but in the end he learns an important lesson about love, self-acceptance and strength, and also what home is all about.
Orrantia, Erik. “Normal Miguel”, Cheyenne Publishing, 2010.
Discovering Self
Amos Lassen
I really love to read new authors and one writes a book that stays with me, I feel as if I have received a double blessing. Such is the case with Erik Orrantia’s, “Normal Miguel”. The search for identity is certainly nothing new in literature and especially in GLBT literature so an author has to find a new twist to keep the reader involved.
Miguel Hernandez goes into the rural area of Puebla so that he can finish his student teaching requirement. Like all new teachers he is idealistic and certain that he will succeed. (I remember those days so well). However, he soon learns that it is almost impossible to separate his professional life from his private life and since he is on a journey of self-discovery, everything he does gives him thought. Aside from his responsibilities at school, there is Ruben who owns the candy store on town and with whom a relationship progresses from acquaintance to friend to lover.
Miguel lives in fear that his students will discover that he is gay but he also struggles with the idea that he is not good enough as a teacher. Like all students, he is challenged by them but he soon wins them over. He realizes that he can learn from them just as they can learn from him. However teachers cannot live just by the love of their students and when Miguel meets Ruben, the attraction is immediate. As the two men get to know each other, we watch love blossom and I must say that Orrantia has handled this beautifully. So often in gay literature, sex is the base of a relationship but here we see the two men getting to know each other, learning about each other and eventually and slowly falling in love. This happens in the midst of wonderful descriptions of the town of Comalticán that are almost poetic. Orrantia’s prose is lush, gorgeous and very real and a contrast to the poverty of the people as opposed to the wealth of the beauty of the location.
It is the people with whom we are concerned and it is the triumph of humanity that makes this novel succeed. This is a lovely story of a journey to self as Miguel learns just who he is. As Miguel finds himself with Ruben, we are introduced to a wonderful cast of colorful supporting characters and they add to the story just by being there. While not integral to the plot, they are important to the backdrop of the town. Miguel is the chief teller of the story and I picture him as much the same kind of idealist that I was when I began teaching—his nervousness and his fears are very familiar–he is a teacher as well as a student of life.
The story itself is simple and we have seen it many times but it is told with such beauty that it is impossible not to love this book. Miguel is a simple man living a simple life in a place where everything is quite simple so what makes this book special? I have already said that the prose is wonderful and the descriptions bring us to a new place. Miguel is a kind of a simple everyman looking for himself dealing with the typical problems of a community living in near poverty. He finds love and with it finds himself and the way Orrantia paints the scene, we are there with him. The town as the backdrop for the story is a microcosm of the larger world where things may not be so cut and dry but the problems are the same.
This is Orrantia’s first book but it is an important one. He has jumped into the pool of literature with a gorgeous swan dive and this book is proof that he will stay afloat. I understand that another book is in the editing stages now and we will have it soon. I, personally, cannot wait and once you read this book I am sure you will agree.
