El Estrecho Dudoso

by Ernesto Cardenal, John Lyons (Translator), Tamara R Williams (Translator)

"... very well translated... Cardenal merits praise for presenting, on such an ambitious scale, a passionate alternative history of the Spanish encounter with Central America." —Booklist "Combining hsitory with poetry, Cardenal exposes the violence, treachery, injustice, and exploitation that are so much a part of [Central America and Mexico’s] past and present." —World Literature Today "Explore this dense, beautiful poem and you will be rewarded with riches that ‘delight and hurt not’." —Nicaragua Update "... a remarkable text.... El estrecho dudoso is a masterful and compelling poetic account of early colonial Central America, and the translation is likewise masterful." —Colonial Latin American Historical Review In this book-length poem, Nicaraguan priest and revolutionary Ernesto Cardenal tells the story of the Spanish conquest of Central America from the "discovery" of the American continent to recent historical events. A remarkable achievement and an engrossing narrative, the poem is published here in both Spanish and English.

189 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1995

About the author

Reverend Father Ernesto Cardenal Martínez was a Nicaraguan Catholic priest, poet, and politician. He was a liberation theologian and the founder of the primitivist art community in the Solentiname Islands, where he lived for more than ten years (1965–1977). A former member of the Nicaraguan Sandinistas (he left the party in the early 1990s), he was Nicaragua's minister of culture from 1979 to 1987.

His earlier poems focused on life and love. However, some works, such as "Zero Hour," had a direct correlation to his Marxist political ideas, being tied to the assassination of guerrilla leader Augusto César Sandino. Cardenal's poetry also was heavily influenced by his unique Catholic ideology, mainly liberation theology. Some of his later works were heavily influenced by his understanding of science and evolution, though still in dialogue with his earlier Marxist and Catholic material.--excerpted from Wikipedia

Reviews

[Yobani Rodríguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tuvo que refugiarse en el monasterio de San Francisco
huyendo del Alguacil y del proceso de oficio del oidor
porque quería el Desaguadero para su yerno
-el dicho señor oidor doctor Robles-
que presenta el dicho escrito según dicho
en el dicho año tal y tal, contra el dicho etc. antes
dicho
ante mí el dicho escribano suso dicho ...
(envolviéndolo en una red de dichos y susodichos).

[Mardel Fehrenbach · Rating 4 out of 5]

fascinating long poem consisting of passages from original source materials, cut, rearranged, interleaved in a profoundly meaningful and challenging way. An anti-epic if anything. It helped me to remember that this was composed during that time when Cardenal had just left, or was in the process of leaving the FSLN.

[Daniel Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ernesto Cardenal escribe una epopeya sobre la historia de Nicaragua y Centroamérica. Lo mas interesante es que casi jamás interpola sus propias palabras, sino que todos los 25 cantos de este poema se derive totalmente de los fuentes primarios de la época de la conquista. Es decir, que el autor selecciona varias citas de, por ejemplo, Bartolomé de las Casas, el Chilam Balam, las cartas de Colón y de Cortés, los varios libros de los cronistas, y las arregla para formar este nuevo narrativo. Y de verás es narrativo - por supuesto el autor toma una perspectiva muy despectivo contra los invasores, y contrapone las comunidades amerindias y los justos cleros de la Iglesia. Una epopeya que es pura historia, en la mejor tradición de una poesía que tiene algo que decir.