Paso Por Aqui Series on the Nuevomexicano Literary Heritage – serie

Miguel de Quintana was among those arriving in New Mexico with Diego de Vargas in 1694. He was active in his village of Santa Cruz de la Cañada, where he was a notary and secretary to the alcalde mayor, functioning as a quasi-attorney. Being unusually literate, he also wrote personal poetry for himself and religious plays for his community. His conflicted life with local authorities began in 1734 when he was accused of being a heretic. What unfolded was a personal drama of intrigue before the colonial Inquisition.In this fascinating volume Lomelí and Colahan reveal Quintana's writings from deep within Inquisition archives and provide a translation of and critical look at Quintana's poetry and religious plays.

Winner of the Southwest Book Award from the Border Regional Library AssociationAs a teenager, Manuel Chávez (1910-1996) left his native New Mexico for over a decade of study at the St. Francis Seraphic Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio, and other midwestern institutions. Included in his curriculum was an introduction to literature and the arts that piqued an interest that would follow him the remainder of his life. Upon returning to New Mexico, he was ordained Fray Angélico Chávez and would become one of New Mexico's most important twentieth-century writers. In The Life and Writing of Fray Angélico Chávez, Ellen McCracken provides a literary biography that includes a deep look into the intellectual and cultural contributions of this Renaissance man. McCracken moves chronologically through a substantial body of work that includes fiction, poetry, plays, essays, spiritual tracts, sermons, historical writing, translation, painting, church renovation, and journalism. From the prolific creativity of the years of his first assignment in Peña Blanca to the decades he spent researching Hispano genealogy in New Mexico, McCracken traces Chávez's complex and changing identity as an ethnic American and religious subject who was also an historian, artist, creative writer, and preservationist. The year 2010 will mark the centenary of Fray Angélico Chávez's birth, and this volume will serve as a fitting tribute.

El feliz ingenio neomexicano is a bilingual recovery edition of Obras de Felipe Maximiliano Chacón, el Cantor Neomexicano: Poesía y prosa, the first collection of poetry published by a Mexican American author. Journalist and author Felipe M. Chacón, part of a distinguished and active family of nuevomexicano authors, published the book in 1924. El feliz ingenio neomexicano (that "inspired New Mexican wit") reestablishes Chacón's work and his reputation by making the text widely available to readers for the first time in nearly a century. With Nogar and Meléndez's excellent translation of the text, this bilingual volume offers access to both English and Spanish editions for scholars and students from a variety of disciplines. Additionally, the in-depth introduction and appendix materials gathered by the editors place Chacón's book in the context of the time in which it was printed, offering a unique insight into the work. A welcome volume for scholars and literature lovers alike, El feliz ingenio neomexicano is a groundbreaking work of literary recuperation.

Impresiones de un Surumato en Nuevo México by Manuel Sariñana represents 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 published Impresiones de un Surumato en Nuevo México as 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 how nuevomexicanos look 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 to a new generation of readers.