Description

Dave Ortega’s grandmother, Consuelo Castañon Herrera was born during the Mexican Revolution. In Dias De Consuelo, Dave tells her family’s story.

In this issue, the Mexican Revolution is coming in its final years, but is no less dangerous, and is no less of a terror for Mexican citizens. When the church in Aguascalientes (where Consuelo and her family lived in 1919) is chained shut by a labor union, and rumors of church bombings in the south spread, everyone is on edge. Soon, Consuelo’s family moves on to Ixmiquilpan, in the hopes to find her Abuelo, and they settle into life there, until the family gets some difficult news.

Each issue of Dias De Consuelo has been better than the last, and issue four continues this trend. Dave’s intimate profile of his Abuela’s family has been so well-paced, we feel so close to Isabel, Evarista, Consuelo, and her baby sister Tichi. We live and die with the events in their life. Dave deftly weaves the war’s history into the story as context, and primarily how it affects his ancestors, never feeling heavy-handed or dry.