Joseph and Walter Simons are ambitious entrepreneurs who, in the late nineteenth century, launch the Simons Brick Factory in Southern California. With the help of a Mexican who teaches them everything he knows about making bricks, the brothers build a life for themselves on the backs of the Mexicans who work the kilns. In this sweeping historical novel, the Anglo brothers are pitted against their workers. Fearful of the unrest south of the border...

Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression.

"A los veintidós años, sospechando que tenían el tiempo contado, Ichimei y Alma se atragantaron de amor para consumirlo entero, pero mientras más intentaban agotarlo, más imprudente era el deseo, y quien diga que todo fuego se apaga solo tarde o temprano, se equivoca: hap pasiones que son incendios hasta que las ahoga el destino de un zarpazo y aun así quedan brasas calientes listas para arder apenas se les da oxígeno."--page [4] of cover.