Fifth Sun

Winner of the 3rd Annual Miguel Marmol Prize from Curbstone Press, Mary Helen Lagasse's "The Fifth Sun" is an inspiring story of an immigrant who struggles valiantly for a better life for herself and her family. The young Mexican woman, Mercedes, leaves her village to work as a housemaid in New Orleans. This fast-paced novel takes her through her adventures in New Orleans, her marriage, her struggle to raise her children, her -deportation, and her attempt to re-cross the river and be reunited with her children. "Mary Helen Lagasse has woven a tapestry of many colors in her novel about Mercedes, the Mexican girl whose life is like a blood-red thread that weaves its way through the intricate design representing an early 20th century Mexican-American experience. Her story presents us with a panoramic view of the life of a Mexican woman who is both typical in her acceptance of a life of hardship, betrayal and poverty, yet also truly extraordinary in her passionate defense of her vision of a different future for her children in the United States. From her determination to not merely exist, allowing herself to be carried by the currents of El Destino, but to live fully, and to create a home for her family out of the meager resources in her environment, Mercedes is a trooper, a proto-feminist. Her journey is the hero's journey-the path to enlightenment, and with each hurdle she encounters increasing her self-knowledge and strength of character. . . . This is a story about the great border crossing into knowledge. Mercedes must find her guides and accept the trials put in her path, and come through a better person, a stronger woman, in the end."-Judith Ortiz CoferMary Helen Lagasselives in New Orleans. Her stories have appeared in numerous periodicals.