Memorias del Nuevo Mundo

by Homero Aridjis

En esta novela, Homero Aridjis nos sumerge en la atroz y maravillosa epopeya de la conquista de Mexico y sus secuelas coloniales, haciendonos oir la voz de un continente a traves de los hombres que lo habitaron y transformaron. Huyendo de la Inquisicion, Juan Cabezon de Castilla se embarca como gaviero a bordo de la Santa Maria, desembarca con Cristobal Colon en la isla Guanahani y mas tarde pasa a Mexico, donde asiste al encuentro de Hernan Cortes y Moctezuma.

394 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1988

About the author

Homero Aridjis, a Mexican writer and diplomat, was born to a Greek father and Mexican mother; he was the youngest of five brothers. As a child, Aridjis would often walk up a hillside near his home to watch the migrating monarch butterflies. As he grew older logging thinned the forest. This and other events in his life caused him to co-found the Grupo de los Cien, the Group of 100, an association of one hundred artists and intellectuals that became heavily involved in trying to draw attention to and solve environmental problems in Mexico.

Aridjis has published 38 books of poetry and prose, many of them translated into a dozen languages. His achievements include: the Xavier Villarrutia Prize for best book of the year for Mirándola dormir, in 1964; the Diana-Novedades Literary Prize for the outstanding novel in Spanish, for Memorias del nuevo mundo, in 1988; and the Premio Grinzane Cavour, for best foreign fiction, in 1992, for the Italian translation of 1492, Vida y tiempos de Juan Cabezón de Castilla.1492 The Life and Times of Juan Cabezon of Castile was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Twice the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Aridjis has taught at Indiana University, New York University and Columbia, and held the Nichols Chair in Humanities and the Public Sphere at the University of California, Irvine. The Orion Society presented him with its John Hay Award for significant achievement in writing that addresses the relationship between people and nature. He received the Prix Roger Caillois in France for his poetry and prose and the Smederevo Golden Key Prize for his poetry. In 2005 the state of Michoacan awarded him the first Erendira State Prize for the Arts. Eyes to See Otherwise: Selected Poems of Homero Aridjis is a wide-ranging bilingual anthology of his poetry.

Excerpted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Javier Ponce · Rating 4 out of 5]

El principio me dejó tan impresionado como 1492. Vida de Juan Cabezón, pero conforme seguí la novela perdió su encanto. Los detalles históricos son envidiables y la mejor parte del texto, aunque, irónicamente, siento que le faltó mucho más de Juan Cabezón.

[Hko]

niet uitgelezen, een opsomming van geweld, vernietiging, bloed maar geen verhaal.