A Western Gate: The Return of Saint Agnes

Marcus C. De Vaca's intriguing 400-page novel takes the long view of ancestry and how the past dramas of our progenitors affect our own progress toward enlightenment. He plots the true account of a 16th century Spanish explorer, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, shipwrecked on the Florida coast in 1528, and the parallel odyssey of the conquistador's descendent through his own contemporary searching. Both explorers, sharing the same name, foray into discoveries made through physical survival and journeys of the spirit, some 450 years apart. The plot centers around the contemporary Alvar's involvement with the dilemmas of Ines, a young Chumash Native American, living on a reservation near Santa Barbara, California. As he is to learn, through danger and intrigue, she bears an uncanny similarity to her namesake, Saint Agnes-both in goodness and remarkable power.