Novel
La Chaskañawi
Not translated into English
Carlos Medinaceli · 1947
Synopsis
Adolfo Reyes, a law student from a landowning family, returns to his native town of San Javier de la Chirca to his widowed mother, doña Eufemia, while the division of the estate is being settled. There he finds the square and its young women again, and a ball is proposed to celebrate his return. He begins by falling for Julia Valdez, a young lady of his own world. Then he meets Claudina, a chola who runs, with her mother, doña Pascuala, a chichería where men come to drink, and it is with her that he falls in love.
Context
Written at the end of the twenties, the novel was published only in 1947, in Buenos Aires, by the Fundación Universitaria Simón I. Patiño, two years before its author's death. It bears two subtitles, la de los ojos de estrella and novela de costumbres bolivianas, and gives a large place to the customs of the town. Critics have noted the encholamiento, the union of the criollo and the chola, and the contrast between Indian life and that of the whites; Marcia Stephenson and Javier Sanjinés have returned to it. The Cuellar Urizar brothers adapted it for the screen in 1976.
Who it is for
In Spanish, with no French translation. A long portrait of the customs of a small town, as the subtitle announces, before the story takes shape.
Prizes and reception
Selected in 2011 among the fifteen fundamental novels of the country, chosen for a state edition.
Sources for this page 6
The pages consulted to check this page.