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Carne de Dios
De Homero Aridjis, autor de Ciudad de zombis y Los perros del fin del mundo.
La historia de la generación beat, y de cómo su búsqueda de inspiración, espiritualidad y placer condujo a algunos de sus integrantes a la sierra mazateca, los alucinógenos y a la curandera María Sabina.
Carne de Dios es una confluencia imaginaria de personajes reales y ficticios que se encuentran en Huautla de Jiménez, Ciudad de México, San Francisco y Nueva York. Estos personajes, así como diferentes hechos, convergen y se acomodan en el año elástico de 1957. La figura central, histórica y verídica, alrededor de la cual giran personajes y hechos es María Sabina, la sacerdotisa de los teonanácatl o "carne de Dios", los hongos alucinantes que le permiten sanar tanto cuerpos como almas a través del encuentro espiritual. Huautla de Jiménez, su pueblo natal, se convierte así en el ombligo del territorio de la anécdota y la fantasía, y de la búsqueda de lo sagrado.
Antropólogos y etnobotánicos y otros testigos de las veladas en torno del hongo mágico se cruzan en Huautla con los buscadores de lo beatífico y de la Nueva Conciencia. Aparecen algunos protagonistas de la contracultura de ese tiempo como John Lennon y los beatniks Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs y Philip Lamantia. Este último se topa con el escritor Juan Rulfo, entonces agente viajero de la Goodrich Euzkadi. Por esos días se encontraban en México los revolucionarios Fidel Castro y Che Guevara. Juntos conforman un fresco narrativo de esa época lleno de poesía, drama y humor negro.
La crítica ha opinado:
"Los poetas beat, grifos en México, fueron todos hijos de María Sabina." -Lawrence Ferlinghetti-
"Es con el toque del poeta, afinado por muchos años de práctica, que Homero Aridjis reimagina un mundo en que las figuras del pasado beat coinciden con la presencia asombrosa de la auténtica y legendaria poeta/chamán mazateca María Sabina. A veces obra de ficción, a veces obra de poiesis, el libro de Aridjis registra el choque entre actores y símbolos que es la marca de la más grande poesía de nuestro tiempo y de los otros tiempos." -Jerome Rothenberg-
La historia de la generación beat, y de cómo su búsqueda de inspiración, espiritualidad y placer condujo a algunos de sus integrantes a la sierra mazateca, los alucinógenos y a la curandera María Sabina.
Carne de Dios es una confluencia imaginaria de personajes reales y ficticios que se encuentran en Huautla de Jiménez, Ciudad de México, San Francisco y Nueva York. Estos personajes, así como diferentes hechos, convergen y se acomodan en el año elástico de 1957. La figura central, histórica y verídica, alrededor de la cual giran personajes y hechos es María Sabina, la sacerdotisa de los teonanácatl o "carne de Dios", los hongos alucinantes que le permiten sanar tanto cuerpos como almas a través del encuentro espiritual. Huautla de Jiménez, su pueblo natal, se convierte así en el ombligo del territorio de la anécdota y la fantasía, y de la búsqueda de lo sagrado.
Antropólogos y etnobotánicos y otros testigos de las veladas en torno del hongo mágico se cruzan en Huautla con los buscadores de lo beatífico y de la Nueva Conciencia. Aparecen algunos protagonistas de la contracultura de ese tiempo como John Lennon y los beatniks Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs y Philip Lamantia. Este último se topa con el escritor Juan Rulfo, entonces agente viajero de la Goodrich Euzkadi. Por esos días se encontraban en México los revolucionarios Fidel Castro y Che Guevara. Juntos conforman un fresco narrativo de esa época lleno de poesía, drama y humor negro.
La crítica ha opinado:
"Los poetas beat, grifos en México, fueron todos hijos de María Sabina." -Lawrence Ferlinghetti-
"Es con el toque del poeta, afinado por muchos años de práctica, que Homero Aridjis reimagina un mundo en que las figuras del pasado beat coinciden con la presencia asombrosa de la auténtica y legendaria poeta/chamán mazateca María Sabina. A veces obra de ficción, a veces obra de poiesis, el libro de Aridjis registra el choque entre actores y símbolos que es la marca de la más grande poesía de nuestro tiempo y de los otros tiempos." -Jerome Rothenberg-
210 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2015
About the author
Homero Aridjis
111 books65 followersHomero Aridjis, a Mexican writer and diplomat, was born to a Greek father and Mexican mother; he was the youngest of five brothers. As a child, Aridjis would often walk up a hillside near his home to watch the migrating monarch butterflies. As he grew older logging thinned the forest. This and other events in his life caused him to co-found the Grupo de los Cien, the Group of 100, an association of one hundred artists and intellectuals that became heavily involved in trying to draw attention to and solve environmental problems in Mexico.
Aridjis has published 38 books of poetry and prose, many of them translated into a dozen languages. His achievements include: the Xavier Villarrutia Prize for best book of the year for Mirándola dormir, in 1964; the Diana-Novedades Literary Prize for the outstanding novel in Spanish, for Memorias del nuevo mundo, in 1988; and the Premio Grinzane Cavour, for best foreign fiction, in 1992, for the Italian translation of 1492, Vida y tiempos de Juan Cabezón de Castilla.1492 The Life and Times of Juan Cabezon of Castile was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Twice the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Aridjis has taught at Indiana University, New York University and Columbia, and held the Nichols Chair in Humanities and the Public Sphere at the University of California, Irvine. The Orion Society presented him with its John Hay Award for significant achievement in writing that addresses the relationship between people and nature. He received the Prix Roger Caillois in France for his poetry and prose and the Smederevo Golden Key Prize for his poetry. In 2005 the state of Michoacan awarded him the first Erendira State Prize for the Arts. Eyes to See Otherwise: Selected Poems of Homero Aridjis is a wide-ranging bilingual anthology of his poetry.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
Aridjis has published 38 books of poetry and prose, many of them translated into a dozen languages. His achievements include: the Xavier Villarrutia Prize for best book of the year for Mirándola dormir, in 1964; the Diana-Novedades Literary Prize for the outstanding novel in Spanish, for Memorias del nuevo mundo, in 1988; and the Premio Grinzane Cavour, for best foreign fiction, in 1992, for the Italian translation of 1492, Vida y tiempos de Juan Cabezón de Castilla.1492 The Life and Times of Juan Cabezon of Castile was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Twice the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Aridjis has taught at Indiana University, New York University and Columbia, and held the Nichols Chair in Humanities and the Public Sphere at the University of California, Irvine. The Orion Society presented him with its John Hay Award for significant achievement in writing that addresses the relationship between people and nature. He received the Prix Roger Caillois in France for his poetry and prose and the Smederevo Golden Key Prize for his poetry. In 2005 the state of Michoacan awarded him the first Erendira State Prize for the Arts. Eyes to See Otherwise: Selected Poems of Homero Aridjis is a wide-ranging bilingual anthology of his poetry.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
abandoned-by-stacia
June 11, 2026This is a semi-fictional account of María Sabina & her famous & not-famous acolytes. I just don't really care to read trippy conversations of people high on mushrooms. There's other stuff, of course, but a lot of it seems to be seekers wandering around the small town, looking for María Sabina, getting high, irritating or abusing the locals, etc. I did learn that William Burroughs killed his first wife by shooting her, supposedly while recreating "William Tell". I've read about 60 pages. The Introduction (by translator Chloe Garcia Roberts) & the Author's Afterword: In Memory (by Aridjis who recognized María Sabina as one of Mexico's last, greatest oral poets; he & his wife brought María Sabina to Mexico City near the end of her life so she could receive medical treatment) are quite interesting. I wanted the rest of the book to be as interesting but I'm not finding it so.
June 15, 2026
Picked this up at AWP this year and was able to chat with the translator (who signed my copy and was really pleasant). I was previously unfamiliar with Homero Aridjis, although I love Bolaño, but this feels like a good intro. It echoes Roberto in that we’re tackling idols: Kerouac, Ginsberg, and even Lennon pass through the pages, but they’re only men.
In spite of the title, the mushrooms are either secondary to the beatniks in this book or they’re sharing the protagonist spotlight. It’s more a book about commercialization, exploitation, tourism, than a detailed examination of the pursuit of enlightenment, and I appreciate this perspective on the Beats (highlighting both their positive and their sordid aspects). It’s like the opposite of a travel guide (what not to do when visiting someplace new). The chapters are generally quite short, and the translation is really top notch, which kept me turning the pages. Getting a foreign perspective on your people (a Mexican perspective on Americans in this case) is often illuminating. I’m going to look for more work by both the author and the translator.
Book #13 from AWP!
In spite of the title, the mushrooms are either secondary to the beatniks in this book or they’re sharing the protagonist spotlight. It’s more a book about commercialization, exploitation, tourism, than a detailed examination of the pursuit of enlightenment, and I appreciate this perspective on the Beats (highlighting both their positive and their sordid aspects). It’s like the opposite of a travel guide (what not to do when visiting someplace new). The chapters are generally quite short, and the translation is really top notch, which kept me turning the pages. Getting a foreign perspective on your people (a Mexican perspective on Americans in this case) is often illuminating. I’m going to look for more work by both the author and the translator.
Book #13 from AWP!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews