Reviews for Sometimes There Were Heroes

The average rating for Sometimes There Were Heroes based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-07-22 00:00:00 Alan Pennington 9/26/17 - Starting reread, quoting "The record is pretty spotty, but there is no doubt about why Hernando Salazar's father, Old Paco Salazar came to Hispanic America. He was a sergeant in the Spanish army, and his unit was sent to Mexico as part of the contingent keeping order around the silver mines. "It was hard, hot duty, when it wasn't freezing cold, and in all kinds of weather there were sometimes heated gun battles between the soldiers and indio bandits looking for silver somebody else had dug out of the ground, or Yaqui raiders looking for hair to decorate Sierra Madre lodges. "In all of which Old Paco acquitted himself well. "Old Paco was not un caballero, a noble who rode around on a horse all day, but a foot soldier made into a dragoon on a mule, along with all his company. But he was Spanish-born, which placed him at a high notch in the caste system. "Had Old Paco been interested in such things, he would likely have traced his bloodline back to some of those Visigoth tribesmen who invaded the Iberian Peninsula after the Romans left. He was fair in complexion, not swarthy, his eyes were blue, and he had light brown hair. "He had married a woman of his class, as most Spaniards did, and when he came to New Spain, he was of sufficient rank to bring her with him. And when they arrived in the New World, she was pregnant. "Things were looking good for Old Paco. Although a number of families named Salazar were still being hounded by the Inquisition as possible Jews, he was lucky not to ever have been suspected by the Holy Office. "But now, in America, Old Paco's luck started running out. Instead of being posted with his regiment in the high plateau area, near Mexico City, he was detailed for harbor duty in Veracruz. "The place was a pest hole. All most people could recall of it was mud flats, flies, and stink. The young Senora Salazar lived long enough in this place to give birth to a healthy boy, but then she died in less than a year, probably of yellow fever. "Old Paco raised such a dismal howl that his superiors immediately moved him off the coast and back to his regiment near some of the largest silver mines. There wasn't much of a town in the vicinity. In fact, there wasn't much of anything, except what you could find in the one cantina. "A mission with half-a-dozen Franciscans so busy among the army of slave-labor indios they had little time for anything else, so the school was pretty bad. "At least the climate was healthy, and there were plenty of young indio women who were excellent mistresses and could even pass muster as stepmothers to a growing boy like Hernando, named obviously for the conqueror of Mexico. ..." " ... Finally awakening to the reality of the world in which he had live, Hernando began to fear being trundled away in the night to be racked and scourged and maybe tried and convicted for treason by the civil authorities, who made it a practice to cooperate with the Inquisition. So he sought safety in distance. "Figuring that Texas might be a good place to escape the scrutiny of the Holy Office, he went to Bexar and, as we have seen, took possession of eight acres ... "... Everything was fine. The Comanches were only watching, and staying away. "Then the Comanches decided they'd watched and stayed away long enough, and they rode in and destroyed the mission. The ones who didn't run, they killed. Some of the ones who ran, they rode down on their ponies and lanced. "From Mexico City came cries of rage. Soldiers and a very brave officer and a punitive expedition went into the High Plains to punish the Comanches. After a while, they returned. Well, a few of them returned. "It was the last time the Spaniards sent a punitive expedition against the Comanches. After San Saba, it was pretty much just trying to hang on to what you had. Until the Gringos came. But nobody knew that yet." *** Read this initially to learn about the origins of the Jones' character Oscar Schiller. If I read it again, there is a strong likelihood it would get a fifth star. This book, published by a university press, is sometimes more a journalist's history than fiction in tone. Set primarily in San Antonio, it is a fine read for followers of Elmer Kelton's tales. Quote from link : "Oscar Schiller Created by Douglas C. Jones 'If he farts, kill him.' -- . Oscar's directions on the proper method for guarding a suspect Before there was Deadwood or Unforgiven, there was 1991's The Search for Temperance Moon, which reads like a hard-boiled cross between Larry McMurty's Lonesome Dove and James Crumley's later novels."

Review # 2 was written on 2016-03-05 00:00:00 Benjamin Andrews رائعة .... هل يسعني القول أني وقعت في غرام جبرا مع أني لم أقرأ سوى سيرته الذاتية بجزئيها -وأتسائل إن كان هناك جزء آخر- و رواية يوميات سراب عفان وسأقول أن سيرته شارع الأميرات تركتني مشدوهة مأخوذة الأنفاس بهذا الفلسطيني المتعدد المواهب أقرب إلى شخصية خيالية منه إلى شخصية واقعية. حكاياته الجميلة عن لميعة وقصة حبهما وزواجهما ، عن صداقاته العديدة المتميزة ،عن الشخصيات المهمة التي عرفها في حياته ، عن رحلاته البحرية وسفره إلى فرنسا ، مواقفه الطريفة مثل موقفه مع تلامذته حين كان يملي لمع البرق ... حبه للفنون والآداب ومواهبه العديدة ، حبه الذي لا يتنهي للتعلم والمعرفة ، أفكاره التي لا تشبه سوى أناه، تعجبت من أني وجدت أخيرا شخصا يستطيع أن يتزوج بأبسط طريقة يمكن للعقل أن يتصورها ، شخص مثلي أنا يفضل الفضة على الذهب ، شخص يحب المشي كثيرا، شخص لا يمكن أن يمنعه شيء من التعلم ويحركه إصراره لتعلم الصولفيج واللغة الفرنسية ، نموذج للإنسان المتعدد المواهب : كاتب بارع وشاعر غريب بشكل جميل ، مصور ورسام، نحات وعازف. في حديثه عن تلك المدن ، كنت أقرأ وأردد إلهي أعدني إلى وطني عندليب.. قد يكون وطني القدس ، بغداد أو بيروت كلها أوطان أحببتها رغم أني لم أعرفها. فقط تمنيت لو أنه أسهب في حديثه عن إسلامه.