Advance Praise for
The Place of the White Heron

“Alejandro Morales’ novel, The Place of the White Heron, is a thrilling, action packed narrative in wealthy, glittering, but superficial Orange County, California. The cities of Tustin, Costa Mesa and Newport Beach are especially highlighted. The main character, Juana Inez Cruz, known by her initials, J. I., and later in the novel due to the miracles she performs as, La Santa Ilusa, is born in the midst of a blinding coastal fog. Her parents are wealthy Mexican citizens traveling for business purposes. This is the first of future magical events that will transpire throughout the novel. Strong criticism is leveled at the wealth disparity found in Orange County and evident between the “glitterati,” the immigrant working class, and other communities of color. Mexico City, the US-Mexican border, and its ever-present dangers are frequently depicted.

     
Morales once again demonstrates his brilliance at creating a fictional universe at the center of Orange County, California, and the Aztlán U. S. Mexico Transborder Region, an area that is one of the wealthiest geographical areas in the world.

I could not put it down!!  It was a thriller!”

— Maria Herrera-Sobek
Professor Emerita
University of California
Santa Barbara

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“Set in Aztlandia, and more precisely in Orange County (“the fantasy world of hybridity and liminality,”) The Place of the White Heron sums up all of Morales’ previous literary interests, and it does so in a magnificent and intriguing way. Literary theory, metaliterature, medicine, the indigenous past and present, the grotesque, violence, gangs, urban renewal, the history of California, and the supernatural are just some of the main elements that conform this important new novel. Morales is in full command of his narrative powers. A must read.“

— Manuel M. Martín-Rodríguez

Distinguished Professor of Literature

University of California, Merced

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“Through a peaceful account of the experiences of artists, professors, book-store keepers, detectives, and lawyers, native, visiting, exiled, and immigrant, we perceive the familiar view of Southern California landscape, typical taste of Latino-Latin American synthesis, and unique Moralesian sense of history & present, historiographizing a community beyond ethnicity, career, landmark, or even miracle, yet pulsating desire, passion, turmoil, struggle and strength, to present what is Aztlán, what is this country of white heron and what is the world, so different in appearance yet quite similar in essence.”

— Dr. Baojie Li

Shandong University, China

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“The Place of the White Heron takes readers across the no-man’s land of the US Mexican border into the turmoil of Aztlán. And who better to navigate this heterotopia than J.I., the Santa Ilusa? Fluctuating between the grotesque and the sublime, and fuelled by enduring hope, the novel reads as a natural sequel that honors the standards of originality and relevance set out in the Morales trilogy, while promising much intrigue and climax for what’s to come in the final installment.”

— Adam Spires
Saint Mary’s University

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“Alejandro Morales' new novel, filled with drama and intrigue, offers a provocative view of Orange County in Southern California as a distinct heterotopia: a multicultural space where the strange, mundane and paranormal coexist with the magical and the sacred. J.I. Cruz, la Santa Ilusa, occupies the center of the narrative through her miracles as she intimates crises and a prophecy of a borderized capitalism. Slowly, the psychological thriller echoes a gothic allegory of mystery and futuristic warnings mixed with myth and ancient spirits that inspire J.I. Cruz to prepare for a promising and broader space called Aztlandia.”

— Francisco A. Lomelí

Professor Emeritus UCSB