Pasco novelist sheds light on Mormon life in Mexico

PASCO - A new novelist who resides in Pasco may just attract readers in the Columbia Basin. Her first work, titled “Mattie”, sheds light on life in Mormon communities in Mexico at the turn of the last century.

First-time author M. Ann Rohrer’s debut novel was released on March 12 and is available on Amazon.com, BooksAndThings.com and BarnesAndNoble.com.

“Mattie” is a historical novel based on the life and times of the author’s maternal grandmother, Martha Ann Sevey Wood, who was born and raised in Colonia Juarez – one of 13 Mormon settlements in Mexico – where presidential candidate Mitt Romney's grandfather lived.

“Mattie” covers the period of 1902-1917, which includes an up close and personal view of Pancho Villa and the turbulence of the Mexican Revolution.

The novel follows Mattie through a crisis of faith, life threatening adventures, and heartbreaking romance. Twice, she falls in love with the wrong men before returning to her roots in Mexico to marry the man she didn’t know she loved.

Then suddenly, war descends on her happily ever after, and Mattie must bring to bear her budding faith and indomitable spirit to survive.

“For nine years after the death of her father, Mattie has kept her vow to never pray. But as she places her trust, and heart, in the hands of a dangerous man, Mattie’s determination to remain detached from God is threatened. With her life hanging in the balance, Mattie discovers that though she left God, He never left her. This realization lifts Mattie from her abyss of dark despair to a new hope.

With Mattie’s opportunity for a new life comes the chance of new love. Faced with the choice between two men, Mattie must sift through the remains of her broken heart and decipher its depths. Will she choose Alonzo, her tall, good-natured, childhood sweetheart, or Enos, the rough, gun-packing nemesis of her youth?

Relying on her rediscovered faith, Mattie learns that trusting God is not without heartbreak, especially when the hardships of the Mexican Revolution threaten her fragile faith and wedded bliss.”

Because of the needs of novels, “Mattie” is not a 100 percent exact telling of Wood's life story, but it's very close. Some of the real life events from which the story was drawn follow:

Born and raised in Colonia Juárez, a Mormon settlement in Chihuahua, Mexico, Wood experienced the Mexican Revolution that began about the time she married Enos Flake Wood.

Six months into their marriage, the settlers had to flee Mexico for a time. Women and children were evacuated by train from Piersen to El Paso, Texas, allowed only 50 pounds of personal items each.

The men left by horseback driving their herds and guarding a wagonload of Hausers borrowed or purchased from the US army. Rumors were rampant, and families had no idea if they would ever see each other again or their homes and all that they left behind.

If the men were caught with US weapons, they would be executed on the spot. The women were held up hours in Casas Grandes, finally allowed to leave around midnight after all their water and means for light were confiscated. Despite the high risk, the exodus, as it has come to be called, was successful without loss of life.

About six months later, settlers began to return to their homes, Mattie and Ene among them.

Ene had a freighting business between Colonia Juarez and Columbus New Mexico. On one trip, Mattie was with him. Revolutionaries, the Red Flaggers, enemies of Pancho Villa, hijacked them.

Ene was to be executed despite Mattie’s desperate pleas. One of the Generals, who knew Ene, interceded. Both Mattie and Ene were released, wagonloads of grains and beans desperately needed by the army were left untouched. Of his own accord, Ene donated several hundred bags to feed the starving solders.

Later in the war, when Pancho Villa was on the run, his rebel soldiers made their way down the street raiding homes. The screams of the neighbor brought Mattie outside.

The Rebels hacked their way through a locked door and entered the woman’s house. Nothing would prevent the soldiers, and Mattie’s house was next. She was alone with her mother-in-law and older Uncle.

The uncle was sent to hide the horse. Mattie and Jane quickly made a sumptuous breakfast of potatoes, eggs and biscuits. When the soldiers stopped at their house, Mattie threw open the door and invited them in.

“Pase, Pase, hace mucho frio.”

Six grizzled, desperate revolutionaries entered peacefully, ate the meal prepared for them, politely offering their thanks, and left, taking a bundle of food Mattie and Jane gathered from the larder. Humbly subdued, it is reported that the soldiers then left town, saving the next neighbors from pillage and plunder.

Ene actually had an interview with Pancho Villa. Villa praised the Mormon community, saying that they were doing with Mormonism what he was trying to do with the sword.

When General Villa was in power, he kept his soldiers under control and the settlers experienced little harassment. When the United States sided with General Carranza instead of Pancho Villa for President of Mexico, Villa went on a rampage. vowing to kill all the gringos.

Villa began in Columbus, New Mexico, massacring unsuspecting soldiers of the US army, then headed to the Mormon settlements to do the same. News came to Mormons. Their ecclesiastical leaders told them to go home and turn out the lights. The settlers went home and waited.

Come morning, they learned that, for some inexplicable reason, Villa skirted the settlements in his flight further south.

The author, Martha Ann Robinson Rohrer, was born in Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua Mexico. At age nine, she moved with her family to Toquepala, Peru, South America, where they lived for 10 years.

After attending Juarez Stake Academy in Mexico her sophomore year, she returned to Peru and finished her junior and senior years through correspondence.

In 1965, the family returned to the United States, settling in Tucson, Arizona. Rohrer then served a two-year mission to Mexico City, Mexico Mission.

Rohrer served many years as president in the auxiliary organizations of her church. Married and the mother of six, she finally lived her heart’s dream to write when she became an empty nester. She lives in Pasco with her husband John Rohrer.