Pizorro

Pizorro's life is filled with contrasts. He is only eight years old, but he works from early morning until late in the day, helping his father, a farmer on a rancho north of Mexico City, with all the things that must be done in a large family. They are poor people and their life is simple, but they are rich in the bounties and beauties of nature. Pizorro knows how to do many things: gather wood, help bring crops in from the field, and grind corn for the tortillas that his mother makes every day for the morning and evening meals.

However, life is not all hard work for Pizorro. Sometimes he goes into the neighboring village of San Miguel de Allende to the market, a colorful and exciting place filled with stalls of hats, shoes, melons, coconuts, baby parrots, and many other things. But even more exciting than the delights of the marketplace is the special surprise–a baby burro with large furry ears–he is given one day by the patron, the man who owns the land his father farms. Pizorro and the burro become grrat friends, working together, eating together, and taking their siestas together. But when the burro decided to run away, he does not wait for Pizorro.

In charming text and magnificent full-color photographs, Robert Vavra conveys the rugged beauty of Mexico and the primitive but serene quality of rural life there.