Here's to You, Jesusa!

Elena Poniatowska · b. 1932 · Mexico

Originally Hasta no verte Jesús mío (Spanish) · translated by Deanna Heikkinen

Why it matters

A washerwoman and Mexican Revolution veteran tells her own hard, itinerant life story to a young journalist over years of interviews. Poniatowska's foundational testimonio novel gives a poor woman's voice the weight and shape of epic.

At a glance

Transcribed oral testimony in vernacular Spanish resists conventional novelistic pacing.