The Doubtful Strait / El estrecho dudoso [Paperback]

... 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 Mexicos] 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.

INTRODUCTION

TRANSLATORS NOTE ON PUNCTUATION

El estrecho dudoso
The Doubtful Strait

GLOSSARY

ERNESTO CARDENAL is a poet, priest, and revolutionary. His works include Cosmic Canticle, Zero Hour and Other Documentary Poems, In Cuba, and Los Ovnis de Oro / Golden UFOs. JOHN LYONS has translated Cardenal's Cosmic Canticles and is the author of a study of Cardenal. TAMARA R. WILLIAMS is Associate Professor of Spanish at Hamilton College.