The style that Urrea has
adopted to tell Teresita’s—and Mexico’s—story in his book "The Hummingbird’ s
Daughter" partakes of this politics as well, being simultaneously dreamy,
telegraphic and quietly lyrical. Like a vast mural, the book displays a huge
cast of workers, whores, cowboys, rich men, bandits and saints while
simultaneously making them seem to float on the page. Urrea’s sentences are
simple, short and muscular; he mixes low humor with metaphysics, bodily
functions with deep and mysterious stirrings of the soul. These 500 pages-
though they could have been fewer—slip past effortlessly, with the amber glow of
slides in a magic lantern, each one a tableau of the progress of earthy grace:
Teresita crouched in the dirt praying over the souls of ants, Teresita having a
vision of God’s messenger not as the fabled white dove but as an indigenous
hummingbird, Teresita plucking lice from the hair of a battered In A. The language is elegant throughout the book. B. The language is simple. C. The language is forceful. D. The language mixes low humor with deep reflection on life.
