The Nine Guardians

The Nine Guardians by Rosario Castellanos. Translated by Irene Nicholson. 1992 Readers International reprint (c/r 1957), 272 pages. Castellanos was a feminist poet, essayist, and novelist who wrote confessional fiction and criticized male literary figures of the time. According to an essay in the Paris Review: "As a child, Castellanos was cared for by a Mayan woman, Rufina, in whose Tzotzil prayers and legends the future author discovered the joy of language. Their relationship is fictionalized in Castellanos's 1957 autobiographical debut novel, Balún-Canán (translated by Irene Nicholson as The Nine Guardians). The novel was written, Castellanos said, simply by "letting myself be carried along by the flow of my memories." It is partly narrated by a naive seven-year-old girl, who bears witness to an indigenous Mexican rebellion against the brutal feudalism practiced by her father."

Condition: VG

"Now I know that this is the voice I've been hearing ever since I was born."