The Festival of San Joaquin

Infobox Book
name = The Festival of San Joaquin
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Book cover
author = Zee Edgell
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = BLZ
language = English
series =
subject =
genre = Novel
publisher = Heinemann (Caribbean Writers Series)
release_date = 1997
english_release_date =
media_type = Print
pages = 155 (paperback)
isbn = {isbn|0-435-98948-0}
preceded_by = In Times Like These (1991)
followed_by = Time and the River(2007)

The Festival of San Joaquin is a 1997 novel and the third from Belizean-American Zee Edgell. In a change from her first two novels, "Beka Lamb" and "In Times Like These", the story is set in the village of San Joaquin, Corozal District.

Plot summary

In the village of San Joaquin, protagonist Luz Marina Figueroa is common-law wife of prominent village scion Salvador Casal. She has three children for him but he consistently abuses and humiliates her up to the point where she kills him and is arrested and imprisoned for fifteen months, her children being raised in that time period by mother-in-law Doña Catalina Casal.

Upon her release from prison at the start of the novel, Luz Marina must figure out how to approach her mother-in-law to release her children. The novel takes place during the festival of the patron saint of the village and other villagers are themselves in turmoil. Edgell explores issues of women's rights, the consequences of crime and the Mestizo society.