Impresiones de un Surumato en Nuevo Mxico by Manuel Sariana: A Bilingual Edition of the Original 1908 Picaresque Novella [Hardcover]

Impresiones de un Surumato en Nuevo México by Manuel Sariñanarepresents a remarkable literary recovery. For the first time, the novella is presented in its original Spanish and in English, painstakingly translated and annotated by Phillip B. Gonzales.

Manuel Sariñana came to the New Mexico territory from Mexico to work as a Spanish-language journalist. While covering politics, he wrote and publishedImpresiones de un Surumato en Nuevo Méxicoas a picaresque work, a common genre in Mexico that uses satire to narrate a drama based on concrete social issues in the author's immediate vicinity. In his preface, Sariñana makes his intent clear: to address the unseemly manner in which New Mexico's Democratic Party attempts to gain leverage in elections. But, in a caricature of two immigrant peons, he surreptitiously takes to task hownuevomexicanoslook down on people from Mexico.

Gonzales provides a critical introduction, an interpretation of Sariñana's piece, and a historical framework to contextualize the author's experiences and the events alluded to in the novella. The result brings this important work of fiction and its sociopolitical background to a new generation of readers.Phillip B. Gonzalesis a professor of sociology emeritus at the University of New Mexico. He has authored and edited several books, includingPolítica: Nuevomexicanos and American Political Incorporation, 1821–1910This book shifts our understanding of the vibrant world of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-centurynuevomexicanoletters through recovering the literary contributions of Manuel Sariñana, a Mexican immigrant whose writing provides a unique perspective on the shifting political and cultural concerns of a territory in transition.--Anita Huizar-Hernández, author ofForging Arizona: A History of the Peralta Land Grant and Racial Identity in the West