Essay
Vision of Anáhuac (1519)
Visión de Anáhuac
Alfonso Reyes · 1917
Synopsis
An essay in four parts that recreates the valley of Mexico as the Spanish discovered it in 1519. It starts from the travel collections and chronicles of the sixteenth century, then describes the light and air of the high valley, its harsh vegetation, the city on the lagoon, the market, the gardens and the daily life of the Mexicas, and dwells on the poetry of the early inhabitants. It opens with the epigraph “Viajero: has llegado a la región más transparente del aire”.
Context
The essay was written in Madrid in 1915, when the author had just settled there with his wife and son. It was published in 1917 in San José, Costa Rica, by the Imprenta Alsina, in the series El Convivio of his friend Joaquín García Monge, who chose the title from two proposed and introduced a misprint that the author kept. Valery Larbaud hailed it as a “verdadero poema nacional” and had it translated into French in 1927. Its epigraph would later give its title to a novel by Carlos Fuentes.
Who it is for
About fifty pages of dense, carefully worked prose, between chronicle and prose poem; translated into French and English.
Prizes and reception
The best-known text by its author, regarded today as his central work; Gabriela Mistral saw in it one of the most beautiful pages in Latin America.
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