as valid and the topic remains unspoken. This is evident in the language used. Throughout the book, the word "homosexual" appears just once, and the characters choose to use more ambiguous terms such as "queer" and "joto" which allude to homosexuality without explicitly stating it. Moreover, The Rain God shows sexual repression through religion. The Ángel family is very Catholic: a religion which denies the validity of any sexuality besides heterosexuality. "Rather than define a homosexual presence within the family, which would mean confronting the truth, the Ángel clan rely on their fear and shame of it to accommodate the illusion that it does not exist in their home or lives" (103). Autobiographical ties Islas' works have many biographical ties. The strong themes of sexuality are related to Islas's own exploration of his sexuality. Many characters also suffer from physical illness, such as Miguel Chico in The Rain God. The novel opens with Miguel recovering from surgery and noting how he will "forever be a slave to plastic appliances" (7). Events like this directly reflect the life of Islas himself, who had many surgeries including a colostomy in 1969. Like Chico, Islas suffered from polio when he was eight and had to undergo long sessions of physical therapy. The illness left him with a permanent limp. Miguel Chico is also similar to Islas in that "he had been the first in his generation to leave home immediately following high school after being admitted to a private and prestigious university before it was fashionable or expedient to accept students from his background" (5), just as Islas went to Stanford. Also like Chico, Islas lived in San Francisco; he also used his hometown as the template for the town where the Angel family lives in his book. And Islas and his cousins were taught reading by his grandmother, like Mama Chona teaches her grandchildren in the novel. Big Mamou and her daughter, Emily, two characters in La Mollie and the King of Tears, are based on San Francisco blues musician Margaret Moore and her daughter Kirsten Moore, long time close friends of the author. Arturo Islas was Godfather to Kirsten Moore. The story of Kahoutek was originally related to Arturo by Margaret Moore, who first heard it from "Mike", a bass player and bandmate in Johnny Nitro's blues band, The Door Slammers. Arturo was enchanted with the Kahoutek story and decided to