Book cover for Pinnick Kinnick Hill

Pinnick Kinnick Hill: Las colinas sueñan en español

Author:

Rating: ★★★★★


Language: en-US, es-ES

Genre: Biography

Themes: Appalachia, Foodways, Asturias, Appalastur

Format: paperback

Finished: November 3, 2015

ISBN: 0937058629

Publisher: West Virginia University Press

Published: 2006

Edition: First English

Pages: 246

About The Book

Nearly a century ago, hundreds of families journeyed from Spain to the United States, to search for a better life in the growing zinc-industry towns of Harrison County, West Virginia. As they created a new culture and a new home in this strange land, they added another thread to the rich fabric of our nation. Writing from his perspective as a first-generation son of this immigrant community, González recounts his childhood memories of his neighborhood, where these immigrants raised their families, worked in the often insufferable conditions of the zinc factories, and celebrated "romerias" and feast days with their neighbors.

My Thoughts

Gavin W. “Bill” González was born in 1909 in Anmoore, West Virginia, the son of immigrants from Asturias, Spain. The Gonzálezes and their neighbors built a lively community centered around a place called Pinnick Kinnick Hill. Though Gavin González eventually moved away from his childhood home, he never forgot West Virginia, often taking his children and grandchildren on pilgrimages to Pinnick Kinnick Hill. Only after his death in 1988 did the family discover that he had written a memoir recounting the stories of his youth. The book is partly a memoir, partly a history, and partly a novel, all combined in a sometimes heartwarming and sometimes bittersweet celebration of how one small Spanish community survived and then prospered in the ethnic cauldron that was America. Published in side-by-side English and Spanish, Pinnick Kinnick Hill: An American Story is a story of struggle and disappointment, but ultimately one of resilience, cooperation, and one man’s discovery of America.

This book is several things; a memoir, a novel, a meditation on the immigrant experience, and a family history. It is also not several things. It is not a linear story. It is not tightly written and laboriously edited. It is not a great family saga novel. It is published mostly as it was found. As a document of how immigrants make myths of themselves and their new and old homes, it is very valuable. It also plays a role in how I got from Appalachia to Asturias.

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