What do readers think of The Family Izquierdo by Rubén Degollado? Write your own review.

The Family Izquierdo is a collection of short stories about a Mexican American family that lives in McAllen Texas. The stories are each told by one member of the three generations. The family is held together by both love and a strong belief that they have been cursed by a rival business owner. I appreciated reading the family history from different viewpoints. Every person gave the impression that the curse was real and caused the family great harm to all the relations. The book was entertaining and effortless to read because I could finish one story and break away.

I was excited to read The Family Izquierdo. I found the storyline intriguing and the characters interesting and well-developed. However, the amount of the book written in Spanish was off-putting to me. While most of the time the context clues were enough to give an idea of what was being said in Spanish, I found it distracting not to know exactly what was being said. I even surrounded myself with Spanish dictionaries fully prepared to embrace the language challenge. A small addition of simple translations by the author would have been welcomed.

I love short stories, so I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately I did not. I didn't find a cohesiveness to the stories, except that the characters were related. But because there are so many family members, some characters only appear in one or two stories and the reader doesn't learn their connection to anyone else. And there are main characters from stories that don't even appear on the family tree!


I didn't find many of the characters relatable or endearing, and I felt that mental health issues were attributed to situations that belie their importance. Life has its ups and downs, but there were very few happy stories about the Izquierdo family in this book. Some people might find the stories more relatable and not mind the disconnect, but it just wasn't for me.

I expected to enjoy this book more as I like novels set in the Mexican culture and geography. The writing is lovely in many places, but I felt that the author kept the reader at a distance from all of the characters. The device of switching between characters and time frames in each chapter may have been intended to tie things together, but it did not accomplish this for me. I found it disjointed. The extensive details about religious matters seemed a bit overdone— and outweighed the more interesting exploration of redemption and forgiveness. The mental health struggles of various characters were treated almost casually, which was odd given the impact of these struggles on the lives of individuals and the entire family.

That said, the Izquierdo family is quite interesting and another rendering of their story and curses might capture my interest.

I often gravitate towards multigenerational family tales and enjoy the linked short story format. This story of a Mexican family trying to live their lives in south Texas while under the evil curse of a neighbor, had all the makings of an exciting, emotional experience. While Degollado, is a skilled writer, and there were a few sentences that caused a lump in my throat, not enough detail was revealed to emotionally move the reader. And the closing chapter takes place in Oregon???
See that the book is going to be released as a novel and not stories. Think this is a bad move and will change reader expectations in a negative way.

This book is a cultural examination of a Mexican family whose fears and beliefs in superstitions and curses has caused angst in each of the characters. The book is divided into stories that represent 3 generations of this family each with their own form of paranoia. I enjoyed the book but due to its mountain of Spanish it took longer to read.

The Family Izquierdo family tree should alert you to the many characters you'll find in this book. I'm not pleased with the short story collection format. I found it difficult to go from family to family and time to time. It also would have helped if I had more than a smattering of Spanish. While I tried figuring out the Spanish words in context, that often didn't work. I did finish the book but I struggled to do so.

I don't enjoy reading books that have non-English words. This book frequently had Spanish sentences. There was no translation.