Like Mexico itself, the Mc Nab family story tells of a rich mix of cultures French, Scottish, Zapotec. The Thistle and the Rose captures that complexity, providing a unique lens through which to view a magnificent, complicated country during critical years of change.
In The Thistle and the Rose, author Catherine Nixon Cooke narrates the story of John George Mc Nab, a handsome Scotsman, and Guadalupe Fuentes Nivon Mc Nab, a beautiful Oaxacan, and how they fell in love against the impossible challenge of building the famous Tehuantepec Railroad across the malaria-ridden isthmus of Mexico.
Cooke weaves a rich tapestry using multiple threadsresearch by renowned Latin American scholar Teresa Van Hoy, documents and photographs found in the Pearson Archive in the United Kingdom, rare Mexican historic texts, personal interviews, family letters, diaries, photographs, and genealogical data from Ancestry.com.
The author provides a sense of the rough-and-tumble country in early twentieth-century Mexico and the danger and challenge of building a link between the two oceans. She gives further insight into the Mc Nab familys role in shaping Mexicos oil and transportation infrastructure. A story about love and courage in revolutionary Mexico, The Thistle and the Rose narrates the journey of self-discovery for a family that dared to embark on this quest.
Tentang Penulis
Catherine Nixon Cooke is the author of Tom Slick Mystery Hunter and a contributing author to They Lived to Tell the Tale: True Stories of Adventure from the Legendary Explorers Club. Cooke served as editor-in-chief of Coronet magazine for more than a decade. She lives with her husband in San Antonio, Texas, and on a farm in the nearby Hill Country.