Cartas a María Teresa (La Nave de los locos)

by José Revueltas

Spanish

197 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1979

About the author

José Revueltas Sánchez was a Mexican writer, essayist, and political activist. He was part of an important artistic family that included his siblings Silvestre, Fermín and Rosaura.

Reviews

[J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first I was a little skeptical about reading the personal letters of one of my favorite authors, but after reading the introduction, and learning that Maria Teresa worked with the editor to select them herself, I put any misgivings aside. I'm glad I did.

This little collection covers his time away on site during the production of films, as part of writing teams for theater productions, his travels through Europe and the USSR as a writer and ambassador for the democratic socialist cause, and even his time in Cuba immediately following the Cuban Revolution as a co-writer on Cuban films, militiaman, and guest lecturer. There's even a few from his time as a guest lecturer at Stanford University, when he was living in exile in Southern California.

Absolutely fascinating. I learned so much not only about him, but about life on the international scene during that era. The only thing that would be nice, is to have scholarly commentary/introduction woven throughout the letters to give a bit of context to where he is and why, and all the dynamics there. Even so, this is well worth the read if you are interested in Mexican or left-wing literature.

[Paloma Galavíz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Encuentro este conjunto casi perfecto, mi único pero es que me hubiese gustado leer las cartas de María Teresa a las que responde. Aún así, disfruté de leer a un Pepe menos riguroso que el de las novelas o los textos "políticos", aquí se encuentra uno más relajado.
Las esperanzas y desesperanzas de José nunca estuvieron alejadas de sus inclinaciones políticas; no sólo en sus objetivos literarios, sino incluso en las palabras que dedica a su hijo, donde se permite soñar con un mundo en paz y sin guerras, construido en la hermandad (o camaradería) que prometía la utopía socialista. En lo extenso de estas cartas no queda duda alguna de que su anhelo estaba marcado por una fuerza afectiva (sin denotarlo peyorativamente) profunda que regía su mundo y quehacer.