Strange Pilgrims: Twelve Stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Cogan’s Reviews Frankly, I find this a rather lightweight collection of stories. And, as I’ve never read anything else by Garcia Marquez I’m left wondering where he got his great reputation. I guess I should get around to reading those better known works of his, like One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera and […]

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Underdogs

The Underdogs (Los de Abajo): A Novel of the Mexican Revolution by Mariano Azuela

Cogan’s Reviews This novel is described in several places as a classic of modern Hispanic literature and it really is a powerful book. Since it’s appearance it has been published in more than 27 editions and in several languages. The edition I just read is a Signet Classic paperback. It comes with a very useful […]

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Washing Dishes in the Ancient Village / Lavando platos en el antiguo pueblo: A Few Comments

Washing Dishes in the Ancient Village / Lavando platos en el antiguo pueblo is a collection of one-hundred short poems about Mexico and Latin America. Because I wrote this book, I do not intend to review it here but rather to recount some of the experiences I had while writing this little book. I have been […]

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The Pearl: a novella by John Steinbeck

Available from Amazon Books: Paperback That first film version of The Pearl (1948) was directed by the prominent Mexican director, Emilio Fernández. It won the Ariel – the Mexican Academy Award – for best picture, and Gabriel Figueroa won the Golden Globe for best cinematography; the director, Emilio Fernández, was nominated for a Golden Lion award at the […]

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Inscription on the statue of Evangeline. © TexasEscapes.com

Six degrees of separation: how a Mexican star became a Cajun legend

Even if you have never wondered what ties Mexico to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, I’m going to tell you anyway. It begins with a poem. Longfellow’s epic 1847 poem, “Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie,” is the story of an Acadian girl, Evangeline Bellefontaine (“Fair was she to behold, that maiden of seventeen summers”), her betrothed, Gabriel […]

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