The Legend of La Llorona - A Short Novel

Berekeley, California: Tonatiuh-Quinto Sol International, Inc., 1984. First Edition Assumed . Trade Paperback. Very Good. 6" x 9. Desolina. 95 Pages. Book is clean with a square, tight binding. book is inscribed To Janet on the first page and dated by author. Book has wear on the back cover that is difficult to see in the scans.. Throughout Mexico and wherever Hispanics live, the legend of "La Llorona" has been told for generation, upon generation. There are as many versions of the tale of the wailing woman as there are story tellers. In this short novel by Rudolfo Anaya, the story assumes historic proportions. The author suggests that the first Llorona of the New World was Malinche, the consort of the Spanish conquistador, Cortez. In Anaya's version of the story, Malinche rises to noble and tragic stature. The legends of the world have been born of human experience. Over time, and in the telling and retelling, the people in the world's legends have tended to become suprahuman, mythological. To return such legendary people to their original roots, and thereby make them human again, requires a story-teller of considerable, if not exceptional, talent which encompasses an understanding of humanity which transcends time, place, language and culture. This precisely is what Rudolfo A. Anaya has accomplished in this, his most recent work, THE LEGEND OF LA LLORONA. Based on the ancient Mexican legend, Anaya has rendered the story in the form of a brief novel. In doing so, Mr. Anaya has given us a work not unlike those of the great Greek tragedies of Oedipus who killed his father and married his mother, and Medea who killed her own children. Joseph Campbell, in his HISTORICAL ATLAS OF WORLD MYTHOLOGY, noticed the remarkable similarities between the myths of the world and concluded, "Through its millions of apparently separate individuals, the human race evolved in the way of a single life. Now, thanks to Rudolfo Anaya's creative re-creation of THE LEGEND OF LA LLORONA, it appears that the ancient Mexicans and the ancient Greeks were not so different after all. Through their legends, and now through the artistry of Rudolfo Anaya, they speak to us about the ways and about the unity of humankind. The book you see in the images is the actual book we have for sale. When you buy this book from us, you are helping to support a small brick and mortar family owned store. We have been curating our collection for three generations and currently have over 250,000 volumes in stock. Please feel free to call for more stock.