Guadalajara Reporter

Mexican history is as tortured and crooked (in both senses of the word) as an ox cart trail – unexpected turns around every corner, replete with bumps and declivities.  The casual reader of general Mexican history will find it difficult keeping up with the list of Mexico’s principal characters over the centuries, now expanding, then suddenly contracting due to assassinations, exiles, military defeats, and alliances gone awry. Oaxacan writer Bruce Stores solves that problem by employing a simple technique used for millennia by the local indigenous peoples:  storytelling. His take on historical fiction paints a human, everyday face on the historian’s cold mask of dates, places, and wars.  Structuring his book around key historical events, he asks – and answers – the questions: How did that feel? Who was affected? What happened to the community, the families?

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