Novel
En las tierras del Potosí
Not translated into English
Jaime Mendoza · 1911
Synopsis
Martín Martínez, a law student in Sucre from an impoverished middle class, abandons his studies on the strength of the tales of his friend Máximo Godoy, who make Llallagua, north of Potosí, the place from which one comes back rich. He goes up there via Ocuri and Macha, and on the way meets Emilio, a former schoolmate who has become a rescatador, a buyer of stolen ore. On the spot, he befriends don Miguel, a former contratista, Lucas, a kind-hearted thief, and the company doctor, notices the washerwoman Claudina, and after much effort obtains a post as chief of the cancha.
Context
The novel appeared in Barcelona in 1911, preceded by a prologue by Alcides Arguedas, who regards it as one of the best books written in Bolivia. The author had for years treated the miners of the region, and the narrative, told almost entirely from Martín's point of view, describes camps where the worker rarely reaches old age. Critics have compared it to La vorágine by José Eustasio Rivera, in which a city man likewise discovers the barbarity of his country. It has also divided them: Guillermo Lora, in 1964, reproached it for leaving the miners in the shadows, and a 2022 study reads in it a novel with a thesis that names the evil without finding the remedy.
Who it is for
In Spanish, with no French translation. The vocabulary of the mines, contratista, rescatador, chef de cancha, becomes clear as one reads on.
Prizes and reception
The book that established its author's literary reputation, counted among the great Bolivian novels of its time.
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