Novelist ( Macho ) and screenwriter Villasenor recounts the adventures and struggles of three generations of his family in this earthy Mexican American saga. His father, Juan Salvador, who fled a Mexico torn by revolution, was imprisoned at the Arizona state penitentiary at age 12 for stealing $6 worth of ore from the mine where he worked. He escaped. The author's mother, Lupe, was born in an exploitative U.S.-run gold mine in Mexico, where her brother was narrowly saved from hanging by their gutsy mother, a Yaqui Indian. Juan and Lupe bought a pool hall in the barrio of Carlsbad, Calif., the year Prohibition ended. Villasenor is a born storyteller, and this Latino Roots , though marred at times by sentimentality and cliches, is a gripping, inspirational epic full of wild adventure, bootlegging, young love, miracles, tragedies, murder and triumph over cultural barriers. 30,000 first printing; $60,000 ad/promo; TV rights to PBS. (Aug.)

Advertised as the Hispanic-American Roots , Rain of Gold is the story of three generations of the author's family's migration from revolutionary Mexico in the 20th century to California. But Rain of Gold is no Roots and Villasenor is not Alex Haley. His style is naive and disturbing--he ranges back and forth between his family's historical past and a more contemporary setting. Nevertheless, there is good material in this oral history. Villasenor blends family stories and tales handed down through generations into an uneven narrative but a text which is credible social history. The most visible persona is the author's mother Lupe, who grew up among soldiers and moved North from her native La Lluvia de Ora, the Mexican gold mine operated by omnipresent American economic colonial interests. The final episodes concern the family's transformation from rural Mexico to heavily Hispanic-populated California. The result is a narrative which reflects the true social fabric of Mexican Americans. Not all the publishers claim, but still recommended for most libraries. A six-hour Corporation for Public Broadcasting series is planned for 1993.-- Boyd Childress, Auburn Univ. Lib., Ala.

" . . . a grand and vivid history . . . [Villasenor's] characters are keenly drawn . . . Often I felt like a family member quietly watching from a corner stool." —The New York Times Book Review

" Villasenor is a born storyteller, and this Latino Roots . . . is a gripping inspirational epic full of wild adventure, bootlegging, young love, miracles, tragedies, murder and triumph over cultural barriers." —Publishers Weekly

" The brisk, down-to-earth prose sweeps the reader through often fantastic events in a compelling narrative. This is a big book, but one that moves swiftly. It is a story that deserves to be told, bringing to life a cultural heritage of all Americans." —The Washington Post