Into The Valley Of Shadows

By Rick Schwertfeger, Captain Frontier Partisans Southern Command, Austin, Texas

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Spells, enchantments, history, songs, tales, culture…who can tell the difference between one and the other?

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You come from La Frontera. You know how complicated it can be, at the place where two nations meet.

I wanted a read for Halloween. You know: spooks and goblins and such. Holy moly, I got more than I bargained for.
I descended into the “Valley of Shadows” on the Rio Grande in West Texas, the border between the United States and Mexico, only to be confronted with diabolical 19th century Anglo Texans willing and able to kill in brutal, horrible, and macabre ways in order to steal lands from Mexican-Americans. They co-opted an ancient Aztec sacrificial ritual so as to blame their depredations on local Apaches. And they terrorized the Mexican residents of the fictional town of Olvido – those that they didn’t kill. And, oh my, numerous spirits are afield, an ancient diabolical curse holds sway, indigenous potions are used, as are supernatural healing powers galore. What a “Halloween” story!

San Antonio author Rudy Ruiz, a native of the Rio Grande Valley city of Brownsville, Texas, has cooked up a boiling stew of a border tale on the 1880s Texas-Mexico frontier. Ruiz skillfully imbues the novel with the cultural awareness and perspectives of the various ethnic groups in his tale. For, while he definitively identifies himself as an American, he’s the son and grandson of Mexican immigrants, didn’t speak English until he entered school, and lived at various times during his childhood in Matamoros, Mexico. And, while it’s not explicitly a historical novel, Ruiz knows his history, bringing in the fighting of the Mexican Rurales against the French imperialists, the treatment of Mexicans in the U.S. by the Texas Rangers, and the near destruction of the Apaches by the U.S. Army.

The hero of this tale of magical realism is Solitario Cisneros. Soltario is the victim of a maldicion maldita (damned curse), indiscriminately put on the men of his family by his maternal grandmother. All those whom he loves during his life will die! She didn’t want the curse to apply to Solitario —  but was unable to remove it from just him. Seeking a way to live in spite of the maldicion, young Solitario fled his lower Rio Grande homeland and joined the Rurales; fighting with great heroism through the war to free Mexico from French rule. The grateful Governor of Chihuahua assigned Solitario —  a man of integrity and honor —  to be the Sheriff of the Rio Grande town of Olvido – charged with bringing order to a place full of banditos and violence. He fulfilled his mission with great distinction, fell deeply in love with the beautiful Luz, they married, and lived in harmony and beauty on his El Escondido Ranch west of town. In a diabolical act of nature, a gargantuan rainstorm upriver unleashed a massive amount of water, which pushed so much debris ahead that it created a natural dam. And the dam caused the Rio Grande literally to change its course, diving miles to the south.

This left all of Olvido in the United States. Its Mexican residents now were subject to the rule of gringo Texans, and a new Anglo sheriff appointed by prejudiced, uncaring Texas Rangers. Luz had died of a tragic fall (the maldicion in action), and the now-jobless Solitario retired in deep mourning to El Escondido (hidden), aiming to live out his life in grief and sadness, but also in peaceful separation from the daily life of Olvido. Solitario’s retreat is interrupted by the ritualistic murder of the Sheriff, his wife, a son, and the abduction of his younger son and two daughters.

The gringo town leaders appeal to Solitario to lead the investigation. As he considers what to do, that night the ghost of the late Sheriff’s dead son appears to Solitario, exhorting him to save his abducted brother and sisters. Solitario, though very reluctant, begins to investigate. Hitting dead ends, he recruits the Apache-Mexican seer Owana, and her spiritual powers, to join him. They succeed in rescuing the boy, close to death. But more macabre murders occur in Olvido; and more young daughters are abducted.

Owana consults an Apache bruja (witch) in northern Mexico. The vieja Alicia recognizes the murders as being in the pattern of an ancient Aztec sacrifice regimen. And she warns that the culmination will be the death of the abducted girls.

The mystery remains: Who is doing this? As Solitario gets close to the answer, one of the suspects ambushes him, and kills him by injecting a deadly chemical into his neck. Solitario descends into a ghostly state. But Owana’s enormous spiritual healing powers bring him back from the dead! Surmising that local Anglo landowner Grissom is behind the murder ritual, Solitario gathers a small force to head through the desert to Grissom’s ranch to attempt to rescue the children. They come upon the final sacrificial ceremony about to begin. But instead of a frontal assault, Solitario feels honor bound to attempt to arrest the perpetrators of this murderous scheme.

The posse initially takes them under control. But an enormous surprise is discovered: Don Miguel — the father of his late wife — is present, and HE has engineered the whole horror. Don Miguel presents Solitario with a devil’s bargain. For the medicine man and woman conducting the ceremony will bring his deeply-loved Luz back to life and to Solitario if he allows the sacrifices of the children to be carried out. And, the ghostly Luz is present, shimmering in mystical blue light within a dimensional portal between the dead and the living.

I’ll let you, reader, imagine the choice Solitario makes. And encourage you to read this wonderful book to find out for sure.

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Rudy Ruiz seems to be realizing his great potential. He’s already won significant awards for his earlier works. And “Valley of Shadows” has more deep dimensions than I could address in a short essay. Of note, he wrote the best Acknowledgments section that I’ve ever read. It’s really a mini-essay on what he was about in writing “Valley of Shadows.” I will be reading more of Ruiz’s works soon. Ruiz, Rudy, Valley of Shadows, 2022, Blackstone Publishing, Ashland, Oregon © Rick Schwertfeger, r.schwertfeger1023@gmail.com, Austin, Texas