In Search of Bernabe by Graciela Limón

Graciela Limón’s absorbing first novel, In Search of Bernabé, humanizes the political turmoil of contemporary Central America by focusing on one woman’s anguish when she is separated from her son in the chaos that follows the assassination of Archbishop Romero in El Salvador.

Against incredible odds, Luz Delcano is determined to find her son, Bernabé. Her unshakeable conviction that her son has fled to the north as so many other Salvadorans were doing leads her on an odyssey through Mexico and into the United States.  Meanwhile, Bernabé finds himself almost unwillingly pulled into the life of a guerrilla fighter in the mountains.  Repulsed by the violent life of the guerrillas, he is unable to return to the seminary where he was to be ordained as a priest for fear of being murdered.  Intertwined with the story of the Salvadorans is the story of Father Hugh, an American priest struggling with his conscience as he watches the horrors committed in El Salvador with weapons he sold to the Salvadoran military. (Arte Publico Press)