The Medicine Man

By Francisco Rojas González

In his most celebrated work, Mexican writer Francisco Rojas Gonzlez offers a rare blend of literature and indigenous anthropology. Inspired by his fieldwork in Chiapas, Mexico, these 13 stories... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1891270079
• ISBN13: 9781891270079
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Latin American Literary Review Press
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.4" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Good stories about different cultures

Rojas takes advantage of his extensive anthropological field work among different indigenous peoples of Mexico, to write concise and short stories which acutely portrait these ethnic groups, what their culture is like, and what kind of lives they lead. Each one of the twelve stories is about a specific ethnical group, so the reader gets a sense of the variety and differences among these groups. The stories go from the extraordinary to the everyday aspects of life. Rojas was a good anthrpologist, and that is reflected in the fact that his stories are not told from an "afar" Western point of view, which tends to emphasize the "exotic", but instead try to penetrate into the vision and collective soul of these groups. The general tone is melancholic, fatalist, magical, and full of references to the rites and beliefs of Mexican indians. Now that the Zapatista uprising has brought up the issue of indigenous peoples, it should be healthy that people interested take a look at the wide variety of cultures and visions of these peoples, a first-hand account by one man who really got to live among them. Many prejudices and commonplaces will be changed after reading this. But, most of all, it is good literature, and that should suffice.