City of Kings

Ciudad Real, as the Mexican city of San Cristobal de las Casas was called in earlier times, is the setting for this 1960 collection of stories by Rosario Castellanos that treats the passionate and timely themes of race, class, power and language. Set in the southern region of Chiapas where Castellanos was born, City of Kings (Ciudad Real) explores the centuries-old domination of indigenous people by whites, and the complex relationship between conquerors and conquered that is its outcome. Each story weaves into the next to present a portrait of the men, women and children of the region, with their hopes, tragedies, beliefs and fears. Most of all, City of Kings reveals the pain and damage suffered by both the weak and the strong when exploitation is the basis for everyday life. Rosario Castellanos was a novelist, short-story writer, poet, essayist, and diplomat. She is widely considered the most important Mexican woman writer of the 20th century and was an advocate for women and indigenous peoples. Robert S. Rudder is an editor and translator of several noteworthy Latin American novels. Gloria Chacón de Arjona is the translator of numerous Spanish-language books. From Publishers Weekly These short stories, first published in Mexico in 1960, show Castellanos to be a first-rate writer whose understanding of Mexican culture is as disturbing as it is engrossing. Using the city of Ciudad Real–the eponymous City of Kings, once glorious but now “a vain, empty shell”–as a unifying element, she explores how racism, hunger, religion and money become weapons for the rulers of a society built upon the domination of native peoples. An elderly woman bludgeons an Indian to death, but calms her fears that his spirit will haunt her by thinking, “How could a spirit possibly appear if the body belonged to an Indian, and not to a rational person?” A proud native tribe and its protective spirit are exterminated by Spanish oligarchs and their descendants. A baby dies of hunger, yet the doctor who allows it to happen proclaims it a victory in getting Indians to understand the value of “white” medicine. A subtle paradox inhabits these unrelenting stories: Castellanos (1925-1974) was herself a wealthy ladina or white woman of mixed (European and indigenous) ancestry. She manages her exposure of the racist underpinnings of society brilliantly; more than 30 years after these stories were written, the inhumanity they portray continues to chill the soul. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal This collection of ten interwoven, chronologically consecutive short stories set in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, was first published in Spanish as Ciudad Real in 1960. Castellanos focuses on the exploitation of the indigenous population by the ladinos (whites) and the deep-seated racism and blind prejudice of both groups. The exploitation of women, especially the indigenous women, is a major theme. The individual tales range from stories of the conquered to a chronicle of the journey of a North American Protestant missionary. A prolific writer in many genres, Castellanos (1925-74) is part of the Mexican “Generation of 1950” and is considered one of Mexico’s leading feminist authors. Many of her works have been translated into English, including her first novel, The Nine Generations ( LJ 1/1/60) and Another Way To Be ( LJ 10/1/90). City of Kings will be a major addition to collections containing Mexican literature in translation. – Mary Margaret Benson, Linfield Coll. Lib., McMinnville, Ore. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.