Impresiones de un Surumato en Nuevo Mxico by Manuel Sariana

Impresiones de un Surumato en Nuevo Mxico by Manuel Sariana represents a remarkable literary recovery. For the first time, the novella is presented in its original Spanish and in English, painstakingly translated and annotated by Phillip B. Gonzales. Manuel Sariana came to the New Mexico territory from Mexico to work as a Spanish-language journalist. While covering politics, he wrote and published Impresiones de un Surumato en Nuevo Mxico as a picaresque work, a common genre in Mexico that uses satire to narrate a drama based on concrete social issues in the author's immediate vicinity. In his preface, Sariana makes his intent clear: to address the unseemly manner in which New Mexico's Democratic Party attempts to gain leverage in elections. But, in a caricature of two immigrant peons, he surreptitiously takes to task how nuevomexicanos look down on people from Mexico. Gonzales provides a critical introduction, an interpretation of Sariana's piece, and a historical framework to contextualize the author's experiences and the events alluded to in the novella. The result brings this important work of fiction to a new generation of readers.