The Cross and the Pear Tree: A Sephardic Journey
Guatemalan writer Perera (Unfinished Conquest: The Guatemalan Tragedy, LJ 9/1/93) chronicles the history of his Sephardic family from his parents' generation back to the family's Spanish origins. He discovers many eminent ancestors. The French branch of the family boasted Jacob Pereira, the 18th-century creator of a manual alphabet and techniques of articulation for training deaf mutes; and the brothers Isaac and Emile Pereire, who introduced the railways in France and, despite great wealth, supported workers' rights and denounced child labor. In tracing his family's history, Perera discovers Christian branches of the family and believes that there may even be Muslim branches. Despite minor errors in his chapter on the Sepharad in Spain, Perera's family history is a worthy addition to the growing literature on the Sephardim. It complements Howard Sachar's Farewell Espa?a: The World of Sephardim Remembered (LJ 11/15/94). Recommended for academic libraries and public libraries with strong reader interest in this area.?Robert Andrews, Duluth P.L., Minn.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.