Cuauhtémoc by Eduardo del Valle

This book presents for the first time in a bilingual edition the nineteenth-century epic Cuauhtémoc, by the Mexican poet Eduardo Del Valle, with a critical essay which explores this valuable case-study of postcolonial literature and classical reception in Latin America.This neglected neo-Aztec epic narrates the conquest of Mexico and the siege of Tenochtitlan by Hernán Cortes and his troops, and follows the Mexica’s resistance against the invaders through the efforts of their leaders, particularly their eponymous last emperor Cuauhtémoc. The text is analysed through the lens of postcolonial criticism and classical reception; Cuauhtémoc can be read as a classical war epic through four motifs (wrath, warfare, landscape and sacrifice) that evoke the Homeric paradigm to build an institutional narrative of memory and national identity, while challenging preexisting historical notions about its colonial past. The text and translation are accompanied by an introduction that places the author and text within their historical context, a critical essay that explores the text’s postcolonial stance and its dialogue with Homer’s Iliad, and appendices that include Del Valle’s original notes as well as the original prologue to the text written by the well-known author, politician and intellectual Ignacio Manuel Altamirano. Readers will deepen their understanding of a particularly poignant case of Latin American classical reception in the context of a newly independent society seeking to reframe historical narratives through nationalist poetry, sheltered in the ideological trope of classicism, and capable of inoculating the intellectual elite with a patriotic sentiment based on the pre-Hispanic past.Cuauhtémoc by Eduardo Del Valle is suitable for students and scholars of classical reception and Latin American, Mexican or Hispanic literature and history, as well as those interested in the epic genre or Mexican poetry from the late nineteenth century.