Here's to You, Jesusa! by Elena Poniatowska Reviewed by Lauro Flores Here's to You, Jesusa! is the English-language rendition of Elena Poniatowska's testimonial novel, Hasta no verte Jesús mío. First published in 1969, with numerous reprints since then, it is now a modern classic and, along with La noche de Tlatelolco, Poniatowska's other hugely celebrated book, one of the all-time bestsellers of Mexican literature. This long overdue English translation now makes it available to the English reading public. Written within the framework of the testimonial genre, which flourished in Latin America in the 1960s and 70s, Here's to You, Jesusa! is the fictionalized life story of Josefina Bórquez, a destitute but staunchly independent, defiant, and resilient working-class woman. Based on a series of interviews Poniatowska conducted with Bórquez, whom she met on a rooftop and subsequently befriended, impressed as she was by Bórquez’s "capacity for indignation," the story becomes a picaresque tale of survival. Born in southern Mexico, right before the turn of the twentieth century, the protagonist (named Jesusa Palancares in the book), a self-described tomboy whose mother dies very early, grows under the tutelage of her father and, with him, participates in the Mexican revolution as a child soldadera. Eventually, at age 15, she is forced to marry Pedro Aguilar, a violent, abusive, and misogynist captain. Three years later, Aguilar is killed in combat and Jesusa becomes a very young widow. From then on, she is left to fend for herself and accordingly initiates the rest of her survival course, one that will carry her through a series of diverse jobs. By turns, she is a waitress, a maid, a nurse, and a factory worker. Living in the shanty towns of Mexico City, Jesusa is usually alone, often homeless, and grows increasingly cantankerous. Her sporadic and ephemeral connections with others invariably result in betrayal, disappointment, and desertion. This becomes the pattern that frames Jesusa's entire experience. The life of this amazing woman is presented as a metaphor for the plight of Mexico's underdogs, especially women, a mission that has occupied Poniatowska's life-long writing labors. The misadventures of the protagonist serve to bare the contradictions of Mexican society: the failure of the revolution, the corruption of government authorities and all official institutions, including church and state, and the general prejudice that permeates the upper class sectors. Here's to You, Jesusa! is the collaboration between two Mexican women from very different social venues (a cult writer and an illiterate, feisty subaltern) and stands as an intense exploration of the intersections of culture, gender, class, and ethnicity in a complex society that outsiders often perceive as "homogeneous." The tenderness that lies at the bottom of Jesusa's otherwise tough and uncompromising stance is well complimented by Poniatowska's introduction, where she sheds light, unapologetically and with extreme frankness, on the nature and the details of her conflicted relationship with Josefina Bórquez, the real-life Jesusa.