Cantos de adolescencia/Songs of Youth, 1932—1937.

By staff -- Críticas, 12/15/2007

A Mexican American who came of age in 1930s Texas, Paredes (1915—99) is best known for his dissertation With His Pistol in His Hand: A Border Ballad and Its Hero, which became an underground classic and the basis for a 1980s film. He also published a novel, George Washington Gómez; a volume of poetry, Between Two Worlds (both Arte Público, 1990); books on folklore; and many scholarly writings. Paredes is one of the founders of the Chicana/o studies movement and one of the first to open up the Mexican American experience to readers. This bilingual edition recovers his adolescent writings, written from ages 17 to 21 and originally published in Spanish in 1937 by Librería Española. Translated into English for the first time as part of the publsiher’s popular heritage series, this volume will be of interest to Paredes scholars. It contains a lengthy introduction by the scholar-poet translators exploring Paredes’s contribution and style as well the mechanics behind the translations; the preface, literary chronology, facsimiles of unpublished poems, letters, and newspaper articles add to the volume. The poems themselves cover the themes one might expect of a teenager—love, loss, and longing—but also music and Mexican patriotism. The copious annotated notes at the end of the volume are impressive and necessary, explaining choices about retaining rhyme and rhythm so essential to the poems and providing background information. Recommended for Chicana/o Studies collections at academic libraries.—Salwa Jabado, New York City