I just love when I read different books, different authors, but with some common theme.  This time, the two books are These is my Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 (P.S.) and The Hummingbird's Daughter. Both are stories young women (Sarah Prine and Teresita, respectively) in the late 1880’s.  Neither of the women followed traditional norms set for women of their class and era, and both had a strong desire learn read. Both books were well researched, fictionalized stories of the authors’ families.  Indian wars were prominent in both.  These is my Words was set on a ranch in Arizona, just north of the Mexican border. The Hummingbird’s Daughter was set in a ranch south of the Arizona-Mexico border.    But the women and the stories could not be more different.

The storytelling is different: one a diary, the other was more of a narrative, told from multiple points of view.  These are my Words has a plot familiar from a romance novel, Hummingbird is more of a narrative.  One was familiar (to me), with the geography in and around Tucson, the other further south where I have not been… but also familiar in terms of making do for your self, working in small, mostly family groups.  The leading characters were quite different, where Sarah Prine was practical and down to earth, Teresita was mystical and rooted in the earth.  Sarah used her strength to care and protect her family and close friends.  Teresita needed the protection of her family but used her strength to heal and help outsiders.  The other striking difference was in the organization of the ranches.  Where in Arizona the land was homesteads with a minimum of hired help, in Mexico is was a large group of very low paid workers supporting the landowner. 

In many ways, the differences are very much in character with the differences between the United States and Mexico.   In the end, I liked These are my Words much more than Hummingbird's Daughter.   Maybe that says something about me.