The Book of Lamentations


Rosario Castellanos - 1962
    With the panoramic sweep of a Diego Rivera mural, the novel weaves together dozens of plot lines, perspectives, and characters. Blending a wealth of historical information and local detail with a profound understanding of the complex relationship between victim and tormentor, Castellanos captures the ambiguities that underlie all struggles for power.A masterpiece of contemporary Latin American fiction from Mexico's greatest twentieth-century woman writer, The Book of Lamentations was translated with an afterword by Ester Allen and introduction by Alma Guillermoprieto.

Before Night Falls


Reinaldo Arenas - 1992
    Very quickly the Castro government suppressed his writing and persecuted him for his homosexuality until he was finally imprisoned.

Early Poems 1935-1955


Octavio Paz - 1973
    Meeting-place of fever and the cold eye, in a passion which could hold together with his own arms the flying apart of his own time. He claimed it, its past and the moment that held it with its own arms, the present.They were lyrics he brought to me, cut as if with an adze; and I began to translate. In his early lyrics, with their speed, their transparencies, their couples lying together, all couples, all opposites, there was a chance for the reader to see what was flashing out of Mexico in this young poet. He glittered in his airs and silences, his sudden strokes:Our bones are lightningin the night of the flesh.0 world, all is night,life is the lightning.-from a foreword

Mexico CIty: An Opinionated Guide for the Curious Traveler


Jim Johnston - 2006
    Thankfully, Mexico City: An Opinionated Guide for the Curious Traveler lends a thorough, guiding hand to help make the visitor's stay outstanding. Written by a longtime resident who knows the city inside and out, this travel guide delivers detailed walking tours of the city that include the most popular tourist sights as well as lesser-known spots. Johnston knows where to stay, what to do, and where to eat: everything from authentic market food to sophisticated Mexican cuisine.What began as a collection of notes to share with good friends is now available to every newcomer looking for a joyful, memorable stay in Mexico City."This is the guidebook that I want. Wonderfully written, airtight information, organized in the smartest possibly way. I can't imagine a better Mexico City guide for these times."-Tony Cohan, author of Mexican Days and On Mexican Time"Johnston is the friend you wish you had in every great city, toting you from palace to museum to park but never missing the exquisite pastelería, the grand hotel lobby or the clean public bathroom."-San Francisco Chronicle

The Story of Che Guevara


Lucía Álvarez de Toledo - 2010
    But for the rest of the world he is different: a charismatic revolutionary who redrew the political map of Latin America and gave hope to those resisting colonialism everywhere. In The Story of Che Guevara Lucia Alvarez de Toledo follows Che from his birth in Rosario and his early years in his parent's mate plantation, to his immortal motorcycle journeys across South America, his role at the heart of Castro's new Cuban government, and through to the unforgiving jungle that formed the backdrop to his doomed campaigns in the Congo and Bolivia. Based on interviews with Che's family and those who knew him intimately, this is an accessible biography that concentrates on the man rather than the icon. With the political developments in Latin America in the twenty-first century, his influence can be seen to be even greater than it was during his lifetime and The Story of Che Guevara is a perfect introduction to an extraordinary man.

Rebellion Is the Circle of a Lover's Hands/Rebelió


Martín Espada - 1990
    Poems in English and Spanish that discuss what it means to be Puerto Rican in the United States today.

Persona Non Grata: A Memoir of Disenchantment with the Cuban Revolution


Jorge Edwards - 1973
    His arrival coincided with the turning point of the revolution, when Castro began to repress the very intellectuals he once courted. In Kafkaesque detail, Edwards records the four explosive months he spent in Havana trying to open a Chilean embassy and his disenchantment with the revolution. His stay culminated in the arrest of his friend Heberto Padilla—the first imprisonment of a well-known writer by the regime—for giving Edwards a "negative view of the revolution." In a menacing midnight political debate with Edwards immediately after Padilla's arrest, Castro argued that in this phase of the revolution, bourgeois writers would no longer have "anything to do in Cuba." Castro accused Edwards of "conduct hostile to the revolution" and declared him "persona non grata." The winner of the Cervantes prize—the Spanish language equivalent to the Nobel Prize for literature—Jorge Edwards' memoir splendidly recounts this time and the wrath of Castro.

The Complete Poetry


César Vallejo - 1953
    

Compendios Voscos: Como agua para chocolate


Francisco Gordo Ribas - 2007
    Intended as a starting point for a better understanding and appreciation of literature, each analysis also imparts information about the author, the social and historical background, structure and traditions of literary genres, facts about characters, and a bibliography to encourage further intellectual exploration. Esta colección es una herramienta indispensable para el estudio y análisis de obras clásicas de la literatura universal. Los libros de formato agradable y presentación moderna ofrecen un análisis crítico, información sobre los personajes y los géneros literarios, una bibliografía, y un compendio de la obra en particular junto a un estudio del autor y su época.

World's End


Pablo Neruda - 1972
    Some poems incite, others console, as the poet—maestro of his own response and impresario of ours—Looks inward and out."—Los Angeles Times“We are faced with the unavoidable task of critical communication within a world which is empty and is not less full of injustices, punishments and sufferings because it is empty.”—from Pablo Neruda’s Nobel Prize address"This is the first complete English language translation of the late work by Neruda, the greatest of Latin American poets, translated by O'Daly, a specialist in Neruda's late and posthumous work....Highly recommended for poetry and Latin American collections." —Library Journal"William O. Daly's translation of Pablo Neruda's book-length poem, Fin de mundo, is a veritable poet's companion and guide to the twentieth century. This is Pablo Neruda at his best and most honest....Neruda's poems are a quiet but potent celebration of the resilience of the human spirit."—Sacramento Book ReviewIn this book-length poem, completely translated for the first time into English and presented in a bilingual format, Nobel Laureate Pablo Neruda composes a “valediction to the Sixties” and confronts a grim disillusionment growing inside him. Terrifying, beautiful, vast, and energized, Neruda’s work speaks of oppression and warfare, his own guilt, and the ubiquitous fear that came to haunt the century that promised to end all wars.World’s End also marks the final book in Copper Canyon’s dynamic nine-book series of Neruda’s late and posthumous work. These best-selling books have become perennial favorites of poetry readers, librarians, and teachers. Through this series, translator William O’Daly has been recognized as one of the world’s most insightful caretakers of Neruda’s poetry, and Publishers Weekly praised his efforts as “awe-inspiring.”My truest vocationwas to become a mill:singing in the water, I studiedthe motives of transparencyand learned from the abundant wheatthe identity that repeats itself.Pablo Neruda is one of the world’s beloved poets. He served as a Chilean diplomat and won the Nobel Prize in 1971.William O’Daly has dedicated thirty years to translating the late and posthumous work of Pablo Neruda. He lives in California.

Slow Train to Guantanamo: A Rail Odyssey Through Cuba in the Last Days of the Castros


Peter Millar - 2012
    Starting in the ramshackle but romantic capital of Havana, Peter Millar travels with ordinary Cubans, sharing anecdotes, life stories and political opinions to the far end of the island, the Guantanamo naval base and detention camp.

Advice from 1 Disciple of Marx to 1 Heidegger Fanatic


Mario Santiago Papasquiaro - 2013
    Fierce and visceral, Advice from 1 Disciple of Marx to 1 Heidegger Fanatic is canonical to Infrarealism, a poem that renders poetry inseparable from politics. It was published originally as part of the posthumous collection Jeta de Santo: Antología Poética, 1974–1997. This is the first widely available English translation of Santiago Papasquiaro's work.the thesis & antithesis of the world meetlike 1 white-hot meteor & 1 UFO in distress& inexplicably they greet each other:I'm the 1 who embossed on the back of his denim jacketthe sentence: The nucleus of my solar system is AdventureMario Santiago Papasquiaro founded the radical Infrarealist poetry movement with Roberto Bolaño. During his lifetime, Santiago published two books of poetry, Beso eterno (1995) and Aullido de Cisne (1996). He died in Mexico City, Mexico, in 1998.Cole Heinowitz is an associate professor of literature at Bard College.Alexis Graman is a painter and translator living in New York.

I Ask the Impossible


Ana Castillo - 2001
    She shares over twelve years of poetic inspiration, from her days as a writer who ?once wrote poems in a basement with no heat," through the tenderness of motherhood and bitterness of loss, to the strength of love itself, which can ?make the impossible a simple act." Radiant with keen perception, wit, and urgency, sometimes erotic, often funny, this inspiring collection sounds the unmistakable voice of a "woman on fire? / and more worthy than stone."

A Hundred Fires in Cuba


John Thorndike - 2018
    They have a ten-week affair which ends when Immigration arrests and deports him, and by then Clare Miller is pregnant. Few Americans know the name Camilo Cienfuegos. All Cubans do. He was the most charismatic of Castro's rebel commanders. But Clare, who never hears from him after he's deported, believes he has died in Fidel's invasion of the island. She marries a wealthy Cuban businessman and moves to Havana with her two-year-old daughter, only to discover that her first love is not only still alive, he's now head of the Cuban Army. Clare knows that Camilo likes to dance and drink. He likes women, and too many women like him. Though his courage is legendary, when he comes to visit at night he's afraid of his daughter's moods. He feeds her, he reads to her, he changes her diapers, but for him an all-night march would be easier. Clare worries that he'll never make a good parent, but she cannot resist him.

Cuba: A History


Sergio Guerra-Vilaboy - 2010
    He is the author of numerous books on Latin American history and is currently the executive secretary of the Association of Latin American and Caribbean Historians.Oscar Loyola-Vega is a professor of history at the University of Havana.