Popocatpetl's Reverie (El Ensueo de Popocatpetl): The Paradox of War (La Paradoja de la Guerra)
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This bilingual edition of Popocatpetl's Reverie: The Paradox of War is a provocative allegorical tale written for English and Spanish readers, masterfully illustrated by Jos Luis Pescador, one of Mexico's outstanding visual artists and interpreters of Aztec culture, and skillfully translated by Rodrigo lvarez Hernndez, who provides readers a useful glossary of key Mesoamerican terms. This attractive bilingual edition has been innovatively designed by Salvador Martnez. In this tale, we are transported into a pre-Hispanic world defined by war and militarism. The mythic Popocatpetl is portrayed as a young, elite, jaguar warrior mandated to postpone his intended marriage to Iztacchuatl by the governing priesthood of the Mexicas. Courageous and dutiful, he complies and leads a military expedition to the Oaxacan provinces in order to suppress the rebellious Zapotecs and capture their warriors as customary for human sacrifices intended to appease Tlaloc, the God of Rain. Popocatpetl will never fully abandon his suspicion of the belligerent strategies of the autocratic priests. Indeed, the Mexicas's best laid plans go awry when the obstinate rebels do not comply with their accepted rules of war, stubbornly refusing to be captured. The Zapotec rebels valiantly fight to their death, and Popocatpetl's expected victory on the battlefield is finally reduced to an inglorious slaughter. An unexpected rainfall follows the travesty on the battlefield, and Popocatpetl's Reverie becomes a tragic story of cosmic irony. The great military strategist Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz, who experienced first hand the Napoleonic Wars, would have readily understood how Popocatpetl's Reverie illustrates more broadly the paradoxical futility of war, which can easily be steered off its course when subverted by the unexpected or by the chance event. One never knows what will actually happen when one goes to war, however powerful or calculating one is. Thus, there is no predictable endgame to war. Interested readers, if they have not already, might familiarize themselves with the Nahua origin myth personifying Mexico's twin volcanoes, Popocatpetl and Iztacchuatl, which exists in several popular versions. This fantastic and touching love story explains how the twin volcanoes, which are today visible from atop the Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico City, came to be. * * * En esta cuenta alegrica dirigida a un pblico hispanoparlante y angloparlante, El Ensueo de Popocatpetl, la pluma de Rubn Quintero se esgrime desde la ficcin, y nos transporta al Mxico prehispnico para explorar los fenmenos de la guerra y el militarismo a travs de la historia de Popocatpetl. El cuento sigue a este jven guerrero de lite, cuyo matrimonio se ve pospuesto por su obligacin de emprender una expedicin militar a territorios zapotecos pero jams termina de fiarse del todo de las intenciones belicosas de los sacerdotes aztecas. Es una narrativa que es a la vez esttica y potente, el autor nos refleja la dura experiencia de vida de los sobrevivientes de guerra, esa que es universal a todas las pocas y culturas donde se han desatado estos trgicos fenmenos.
This bilingual edition of Popocatpetl's Reverie: The Paradox of War is a provocative allegorical tale written for English and Spanish readers, masterfully illustrated by Jos Luis Pescador, one of Mexico's outstanding visual artists and interpreters of Aztec culture, and skillfully translated by Rodrigo lvarez Hernndez, who provides readers a useful glossary of key Mesoamerican terms. This attractive bilingual edition has been innovatively designed by Salvador Martnez. In this tale, we are transported into a pre-Hispanic world defined by war and militarism. The mythic Popocatpetl is portrayed as a young, elite, jaguar warrior mandated to postpone his intended marriage to Iztacchuatl by the governing priesthood of the Mexicas. Courageous and dutiful, he complies and leads a military expedition to the Oaxacan provinces in order to suppress the rebellious Zapotecs and capture their warriors as customary for human sacrifices intended to appease Tlaloc, the God of Rain. Popocatpetl will never fully abandon his suspicion of the belligerent strategies of the autocratic priests. Indeed, the Mexicas's best laid plans go awry when the obstinate rebels do not comply with their accepted rules of war, stubbornly refusing to be captured. The Zapotec rebels valiantly fight to their death, and Popocatpetl's expected victory on the battlefield is finally reduced to an inglorious slaughter. An unexpected rainfall follows the travesty on the battlefield, and Popocatpetl's Reverie becomes a tragic story of cosmic irony. The great military strategist Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz, who experienced first hand the Napoleonic Wars, would have readily understood how Popocatpetl's Reverie illustrates more broadly the paradoxical futility of war, which can easily be steered off its course when subverted by the unexpected or by the chance event. One never knows what will actually happen when one goes to war, however powerful or calculating one is. Thus, there is no predictable endgame to war. Interested readers, if they have not already, might familiarize themselves with the Nahua origin myth personifying Mexico's twin volcanoes, Popocatpetl and Iztacchuatl, which exists in several popular versions. This fantastic and touching love story explains how the twin volcanoes, which are today visible from atop the Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico City, came to be. * * * En esta cuenta alegrica dirigida a un pblico hispanoparlante y angloparlante, El Ensueo de Popocatpetl, la pluma de Rubn Quintero se esgrime desde la ficcin, y nos transporta al Mxico prehispnico para explorar los fenmenos de la guerra y el militarismo a travs de la historia de Popocatpetl. El cuento sigue a este jven guerrero de lite, cuyo matrimonio se ve pospuesto por su obligacin de emprender una expedicin militar a territorios zapotecos pero jams termina de fiarse del todo de las intenciones belicosas de los sacerdotes aztecas. Es una narrativa que es a la vez esttica y potente, el autor nos refleja la dura experiencia de vida de los sobrevivientes de guerra, esa que es universal a todas las pocas y culturas donde se han desatado estos trgicos fenmenos.
