Juan de la Rosa: Memoirs of the Last Soldier of the Independence Movement (Library of Latin America) - Softcover

Aguirre, Nataniel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195113284 ISBN 13: 9780195113280

Publisher: Oxford University Press USA, 1998

Synopsis

Nataniel Aguirre (1843-1888) was a statesman and active participant in shaping Bolivian politics and economics. His novel, Juan de la Rosa (1885) functionalizes the memories of the last soldier of the Wars of Independence. The story is told as the reminiscences of Colonel de la Rosa whose memories take him back to his childhood on the eve of Independence and his youth fighting in the Bolivian army. Jaun grows up an orphan and his individual struggle allegorizes the national quest for a modern identity. The novel exemplifies 19th-century thinking on racial issues and offers an unusual perspective on the Independence period. Sergio Waisman's recent translation of Ricardo Piglia's Nombre Falso won the Meritorious Achievement Award in the 1995 Eugene M. Kayden National Translation Contest.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Long considered a classic in Bolivia, Juan de la Rosa tells the story of a young boy's coming of age during the violent and tumultuous years of Bolivia's struggle for independence. Indeed, in this novel, Juan's search for his personal identity functions as an allegory of Bolivia's search for its identity as a nation. Set in the early 1800s, this novel is narrated by one of the last surviving Bolivian rebels, octogenarian Juan de la Rosa. Juan recreates his childhood in the rebellious town of Cochabamba, and with it a large cast of full-bodied, Dickensian characters both heroic and malevolent, from Juan's wise and self-sacrificing tutor, Brother Justo, to the ruthless colonial general Goyeneche. The larger cultural dislocations brought about by Bolivia's political upheaval are echoed in those experienced by Juan, whose mother's untimely death sets off a chain of unpredictable events that propel him into the fiery crucible of the South American Independence Movement. Outraged by Juan's outspokenness against Spanish rule and his awakening political consciousness, his loyalist guardians banish him to the countryside, where he witnesses firsthand the Spaniards' violent repression and rebels' valiant resistance that crystallize both his personal destiny and that of his country.

About the Author:

Sergio Gabriel Waisman is completing his Ph.D. in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of California, Berkeley. Alba Maria de la Paz Soldan is Professor Latin American Literature, University of Buenos Aires. "

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press USA
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0195113284
• ISBN 13: 9780195113280
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368