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Don Bigote
Long ago, a man from La Mancha went insane by consuming too many tales of knight-errantry. Today, this madness has spread to half our population: victims of podcasts, forums, blogs, and social media. Enter Don Bigote—a man born to be a hero yet confused about the villain. Accompanied by his reluctant assistant, Dan Chopin, the moustachioed crusader sets out to rescue Western Civilization from the great conspiracy that may or may not threaten it. Will he save us all, or merely tilt at windmills?
188 pages, Paperback
Published February 4, 2024
69 people want to read
About the author
Roy Lotz
2 books9,092 followersRoy Lotz is an English teacher and novelist. Raised in Sleepy Hollow, New York, he studied cultural anthropology at Stony Brook University, graduating summa cum laude in 2013. He wrote his honors thesis on the music of Eastern Africa, a region he twice visited during his studies. From 2015 to 2025, he lived in Madrid, where he started a blog to document his travels around Europe. He also occasionally writes book reviews.
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February 6, 2025When I began to write fiction, I hardly dared to dream that I would ever have a book published, much less two! I wish I could believe that this was due to my immense literary talent; but the truth is that, for this book, luck played a huge role in getting it published.
A few years ago, at a house party, I was introduced to a pleasant Irish man named Enda. It just so happened that he was also a writer; and, frustrated with the world of publishing, he was thinking of founding his own publishing company. It was this new enterprise, Ybernia, which agreed to put out my comic novella. As the Spanish say, I am an “enchufado.”
Don Bigote originated as an exercise in pure silliness, written to entertain a few close friends. The genesis of the idea was nothing more profound than the realization that the Spanish word bigote resembles the English bigot, and sounds like Quixote. Thus my hero was born, a mustachioed right-wing conspiracy theorist who wishes to save Western civilization.
The book consists of ten chapters and was written piecemeal over a number of years, from the first to the last years of the Trump presidency. After Trump’s defeat to Biden, I was content to let this hastily written misadventure wallow in obscurity and collect the internet equivalent of dust. It is the world’s ill luck, but my literary good fortune, that this book is now once again relevant.
If you happen to be in Madrid on February 21st, there will be a book release event in the Secret Kingdoms book shop at 8:00 p.m. (with wine, don’t worry), and I would be delighted to sign a copy for you. If not, I would be equally delighted to send out a number of digital copies to any interested readers.
A few years ago, at a house party, I was introduced to a pleasant Irish man named Enda. It just so happened that he was also a writer; and, frustrated with the world of publishing, he was thinking of founding his own publishing company. It was this new enterprise, Ybernia, which agreed to put out my comic novella. As the Spanish say, I am an “enchufado.”
Don Bigote originated as an exercise in pure silliness, written to entertain a few close friends. The genesis of the idea was nothing more profound than the realization that the Spanish word bigote resembles the English bigot, and sounds like Quixote. Thus my hero was born, a mustachioed right-wing conspiracy theorist who wishes to save Western civilization.
The book consists of ten chapters and was written piecemeal over a number of years, from the first to the last years of the Trump presidency. After Trump’s defeat to Biden, I was content to let this hastily written misadventure wallow in obscurity and collect the internet equivalent of dust. It is the world’s ill luck, but my literary good fortune, that this book is now once again relevant.
If you happen to be in Madrid on February 21st, there will be a book release event in the Secret Kingdoms book shop at 8:00 p.m. (with wine, don’t worry), and I would be delighted to sign a copy for you. If not, I would be equally delighted to send out a number of digital copies to any interested readers.
May 29, 2025
This excellent parody of Cervantes was impossible to put down, and I read it in a day. It is as funny as Chaplin's The Great Dictator, but unfortunately for similar reasons.
May 4, 2025
My congratulations to Roy Lotz for having the courage (and the inventiveness) to transport Cervantes' immortal character to a modern-day setting, and for having achieved this very difficult feat so very successfully.
Roy first came to my attention shortly after Ybernia had published my novel 'The Way'. Roy,too, is one of Ybernia's authors, and he also regularly writes reviews of other writers' works on this website. Roy kindly posted a very favourable review of 'The Way', and I am now pleased to be able to return the compliment by providing some thoughts on 'Don Bigote'.
My first impressions on reading it were very positive, not because of any obligation to return a favour, but simply beacuse the book is original, thought provoking, and also very entertaining. The bumbling Don Bigote, with his wacky obsessions and weird conspiracy theories, is a very believable character, not least because such extravagant ideas have now become standard fare on all the social media. We only need to think back to the Pandemic to recall certain insane affirmations that the vaccines contained secret ingredients that would convert us into zombies, more easily controlled by the (unspecified) forces that created them. There were many Don Bigotes on the loose during those days! And what about Mr. Trump's extraordinary contribution to medicinal resources -that intravenous shots of bleach would cure Covid?
The fact that Bigote's list of apparently unrelated conspirators is so comprehensive does not make it any more or less plausible. Mexicans, Muslims, Homosexuals, Femeinists - they were all involved in the plot!
As I progressed through the story, I came to realise that here was a very incisive satire on variuos aspects of modern life, which reflected many ideas already expressed in other enouned sources. For example, the social and political structure enforced in the Sub-World was strongly reminiscent of parts of Swift's 'Gulliver's Travels'. Elsewhere I could identify ideas about the prohibition of private property and its replacement with communal ownership, which were perhaps first outlined in Thomas More's 'Utopia' - a predecessor, some might say, of Marx and Engels in that respect? And not forgetting the debate opened up in Chapter 7 about the quest for happiness, and the role of religion, which immediately reminded me of Voltaire's 'Candide'. Perhaps Roy will say that I am reading too much into things, but I would hope that he might agree to some extent with these similarities.
Howver, there were other espects of 'Don Bigote' which I must comment on. The character of Dan Champan (although seemingly harmless and perfectly amiable) was instantly recognisable. It is my hope that Roy deliberately created a satirical stereotype in order to expose a trend which, if generally true, would be a truly painful portrait of youth in modern-day America. Too often in films and T.V. series, young Americans are portrayed as empty-headed bozos whose only concern is how to acquire unlimited access to sex, drugs and alcohol. I do hope that this image does not reflect the majority of the younger population.
In a similar vein, the four tales recounted in Chapter 9, which offer us personal views of life-experiences, all combine ro reveal the frighteneing and damning picture of a society without scruples or moral values. Writing now, after 100 days of Donald Trump`s disastrous second administration, I find it dificult to hope that the United States will one day really be a country where the labels of 'freedom', 'justice', and ´'liberty' might be applied without being negated and stifled by an overwhelming blanket of cynicism.
Roy first came to my attention shortly after Ybernia had published my novel 'The Way'. Roy,too, is one of Ybernia's authors, and he also regularly writes reviews of other writers' works on this website. Roy kindly posted a very favourable review of 'The Way', and I am now pleased to be able to return the compliment by providing some thoughts on 'Don Bigote'.
My first impressions on reading it were very positive, not because of any obligation to return a favour, but simply beacuse the book is original, thought provoking, and also very entertaining. The bumbling Don Bigote, with his wacky obsessions and weird conspiracy theories, is a very believable character, not least because such extravagant ideas have now become standard fare on all the social media. We only need to think back to the Pandemic to recall certain insane affirmations that the vaccines contained secret ingredients that would convert us into zombies, more easily controlled by the (unspecified) forces that created them. There were many Don Bigotes on the loose during those days! And what about Mr. Trump's extraordinary contribution to medicinal resources -that intravenous shots of bleach would cure Covid?
The fact that Bigote's list of apparently unrelated conspirators is so comprehensive does not make it any more or less plausible. Mexicans, Muslims, Homosexuals, Femeinists - they were all involved in the plot!
As I progressed through the story, I came to realise that here was a very incisive satire on variuos aspects of modern life, which reflected many ideas already expressed in other enouned sources. For example, the social and political structure enforced in the Sub-World was strongly reminiscent of parts of Swift's 'Gulliver's Travels'. Elsewhere I could identify ideas about the prohibition of private property and its replacement with communal ownership, which were perhaps first outlined in Thomas More's 'Utopia' - a predecessor, some might say, of Marx and Engels in that respect? And not forgetting the debate opened up in Chapter 7 about the quest for happiness, and the role of religion, which immediately reminded me of Voltaire's 'Candide'. Perhaps Roy will say that I am reading too much into things, but I would hope that he might agree to some extent with these similarities.
Howver, there were other espects of 'Don Bigote' which I must comment on. The character of Dan Champan (although seemingly harmless and perfectly amiable) was instantly recognisable. It is my hope that Roy deliberately created a satirical stereotype in order to expose a trend which, if generally true, would be a truly painful portrait of youth in modern-day America. Too often in films and T.V. series, young Americans are portrayed as empty-headed bozos whose only concern is how to acquire unlimited access to sex, drugs and alcohol. I do hope that this image does not reflect the majority of the younger population.
In a similar vein, the four tales recounted in Chapter 9, which offer us personal views of life-experiences, all combine ro reveal the frighteneing and damning picture of a society without scruples or moral values. Writing now, after 100 days of Donald Trump`s disastrous second administration, I find it dificult to hope that the United States will one day really be a country where the labels of 'freedom', 'justice', and ´'liberty' might be applied without being negated and stifled by an overwhelming blanket of cynicism.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews