| Delirio--The Fantastic, the Demonic, and the Réel: The Buried History of Nuevo León Contributor(s): Hernández, Marie Theresa (Author) |
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ISBN: 029273462X ISBN-13: 9780292734623 Publisher: University of Texas Press OUR PRICE: $29.70 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: August 2002 Annotation: "This book is sui generis. In thirty-five years as a scholar, I have read nothing like it.... [We] will study it for years to come as a possible model for new ways of approaching and telling the past." -- Robert A. Rosenstone, Professor of History, California Institute of Technology Striking, inexplicable stories circulate among the people of Nuevo Leo n in northern Mexico. Stories of conversos (converted Jews) who fled the Inquisition in Spain and became fabulously wealthy in Mexico. Stories of women and children buried in walls and under houses. Stories of an entire, secret city hidden under modern-day Monterrey. All these stories have no place or corroboration in the official histories of Nuevo Leo n. In this pioneering ethnography, Marie Theresa Herna ndez explores how the folktales of Nuevo Leo n encode aspects of Nuevolenese identity that have been lost, repressed, or fetishized in "legitimate" histories of the region. She focuses particularly on stories regarding three groups: the Sephardic Jews said to be the "original" settlers of the region, the "disappeared" indigenous population, and the supposed "barbaric" society that persists in modern Nuevo Leo n. Herna ndez's explorations into these stories uncover the region's complicated history, as well as the problematic and often fascinating relationship between history and folklore, between officially accepted "facts" and "fictions" that many Nuevoleneses believe as truth. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Archaeology - Social Science | Anthropology - Physical - History | Latin America - Mexico |
| Dewey: 305.800 |
| LCCN: 2002000336 |
| Physical Information: 0.8" H x 6" W x 9.1" (1.14 lbs) 320 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Latin America - Cultural Region - Mexican |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Striking, inexplicable stories circulate among the people of Nuevo León in northern Mexico. Stories of conversos (converted Jews) who fled the Inquisition in Spain and became fabulously wealthy in Mexico. Stories of women and children buried in walls and under houses. Stories of an entire, secret city hidden under modern-day Monterrey. All these stories have no place or corroboration in the official histories of Nuevo León. In this pioneering ethnography, Marie Theresa Hernández explores how the folktales of Nuevo León encode aspects of Nuevolenese identity that have been lost, repressed, or fetishized in legitimate histories of the region. She focuses particularly on stories regarding three groups: the Sephardic Jews said to be the original settlers of the region, the disappeared indigenous population, and the supposed barbaric society that persists in modern Nuevo León. Hernández's explorations into these stories uncover the region's complicated history, as well as the problematic and often fascinating relationship between history and folklore, between officially accepted facts and fictions that many Nuevoleneses believe as truth. |