THE HANDS OF CANTU

by Tom Lea ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1964

A lovely achievement this is, with facts that sing their factuality and a story that curvets like a dancer. Cast in the form of a novel of education, Cantu tells of the arrival of seventeen-year-old Toribio de Ibarra, an orphan, at the estate of Don Vito Cantu in New Spain (Maxico) in 1580. Cantu is a horse breeder of the finest stock on the hemisphere. The elderly man takes young Toribio under his wing and teaches him the perfections of breeding horses. It is ""an equine academy without equal"" that Toribio attends. He starts at the bottom, as a vaquero, learning to lasso cows. The highest point in his training is learning to put a great horse through every elegant variation of movement, using a single finger of the left hand on the reins. The reins, separated, are joined by a single horsehair plucked from the stallion's mane, so that all commands are carried by one hair. Don Vito Cantu learns that some stolen stock of his has been sold to Indians far north. He sets out with Toribio and four men to regain his stock. On the way they discover what is perhaps Quivira, the City of Gold, but Cantu is uninterested. How he recovers his stock is revealed in a denouement as elegant and ingenious as t he hands of Cantu; he beats the savages with one finger and single horsehair. Told to perfection and .

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1964

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1964

Categories: FICTION