LOVING PEDRO INFANTE

LOVING PEDRO INFANTE by Denise Chávez
Ferrar, Straus and Giroux - 2001
ISBN: 0374194114 - Hardcover
Contemporary Romance - Hispanic Romance

Reviewed by Jo Rogers, MyShelf.com
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LOVING PEDRO INFANTE is my first delving into Hispanic literature, and it was an enjoyable adventure. I had a bit of difficulty understanding the Spanish words, since my Spanish was Castillian, not Mexican. But with the aid of Mexican friends, I learned a truth I had long suspected – Mexicans are the same under the skin as the rest of us.

This is the story of Teresina Ávila, a Mexican-American who lives in Cabritoville, U.S.A., in the State of New Mexico, not far from El Paso. Tere is divorced and looking for love in all the wrong places. She is secretary of the local chapter of the Pedro Infante Fan Club, a club devoted to keeping the memory of the Mexican movie star alive. Infante died in a plane crash in 1957, but his movies have remained popular. I have never seen him, but from the story, he seems to have been a kind of singing Clarke Gable, and the women of the club still adore him

Tere wants a man exactly like Pedro Infante, despite the fact that she knows he had many mistresses, and was never faithful to either of his wives. She is more in love with the characters he played than with the man himself. But she still dreams of a handsome man she can call her own. Will she find her dream? That is a journey she must make for herself, and she is accompanied on that journey by an unforgettable cast of characters drawn from all walks of life. What she learns along the way is what every woman who wants to be loved should know - a man's character matters more than anything else.