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The farmers in the Dominican Republic are troubled by poor harvests, worried that they will have to leave their lands and move to the city. Maria’s father is in the city now, promising to return with a gift for his small daughter. The next morning, Maria finds her father sitting at the table, beside him a large basket of golden fruit. “Oranges,” he tells her, like in his homeland, Valencia, Spain.
Knowing her parents’ concerns, Maria has a magical dream, where trees are bursting from the fertile ground, their branches heavy with oranges, a beautiful lady with a crown of stars standing in the grove: Nuestra Senora de la Altagracia, Our Lady of Thanks.
Inspired by Maria’s dream, the family plants row after row of orange seeds on their land, seeds that magically “sprouted into shoots that grew into trunks that spread into branches filled with oranges that glowed like little suns.” The family’s income secured by a bountiful harvest, they are all grateful to Our Lady of Thanks, whose image is hung in the flourishing orchards, the inspiration for this retelling of the Dominican folktale.
In an afterward, Alvarez tells of the legend of Nuestra Senora de la Altagracia, who is said to have appeared in the early 1500s, when the island was still a colony of Spain. Her saint’s day, January 21, was declared a national holiday. In this retelling of a beloved folktale, Alvarez illustrates the power of faith, Our Lady at home with the people in the fields under the stars, the orange trees spreading their bounty throughout the land. Filled with colorful, lush illustrations, this charming story brings to life the beliefs of the past as they are still embraced today: “Our Lady of Thanks, like Mother Earth, really belongs to all of us.”
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A Gift of Gracias: The Legend of Altagracia