Lopez Portillo, Jose

New York. 1976. Seabury Press. 1st American Edition. Trace Of Remains Of A Price Sticker On Front Free Endpaper, Otherwise Very Good in Slightly Worn Dustjacket. 0816493049. Translated from the Spanish by Eliot Weinberger & Wilfrido Corral. 149 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by Tim McKeen . keywords: Literature Translated Mexico Latin America. FROM THE PUBLISHER - Sr. Lopez Portillo has written two richly mythic, imaginative works- Don Q and Quetzalcoatl. DON Q is a fictional ‘memoir' narrated by a young lawyer named Pepe Seco of things told to him by the mysterious philosopher Don Q. But the reader soon discovers that Don 0's memoirs are actually a series of meditations on the human condition and the fate of man. Don Q is variously identified as the cousin of Antoine de Saint-ExupEry, later as a nephew of either Antonio Machado or Miguel de Unamuno. It is also possible that he is Don Quixote, or the god-man Quetzalcoatl. Lopez Portillo's work blends such varied moods as those reminiscent of authors as diverse as Cervantes, Montaigne, or Borges. Of Quetzalcoatl, Octavio Paz has written that no one will ever understand the Spanish conquest of Mexico without first understanding the legend of this ‘white god-man.' This re-telling of the Ouetzalcoatl legend synthesizes not only the teaching of this most benevolent of Mexican deities but also the legends and teachings of all great religious leaders, from Gautama to Christ. And from Lopez Portillo's account we come to a realization of how the Spanish Conquistadores were able to brutally enslave an entire nation while the Indians, who thought the invasion to be the promised Second Coming of their white god-king, made no attempt to defend themselves until it was too late. inventory #23473 ISBN: 0816493049.