About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherTexas Tech University Press

ISBN-100896726738

ISBN-139780896726734

eBay Product ID (ePID)80030206

Product Key Features

Book TitleChangó, the Biggest BadAss

Number of Pages500 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year2010

TopicLiterary, Fantasy / Epic

GenreFiction

AuthorManuel Zapata Olivella

Book SeriesThe Americas Ser.

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height1.5 in

Item Weight29.6 Oz

Item Length9.4 in

Item Width5.9 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2009-040228

Dewey Edition22

Dewey Decimal863

SynopsisAmong the African pantheon of the Orichas--deities and messengers often inscrutable to the Western mind--stands Changó, god of fire, war, and thunder. In Manuel Zapata Olivella's four-hundred-year epic of the African American experience, first published in 1983 as Changó, el gran putas, Changó both curses the muntu--the people--for betraying their own kind and challenges them to liberate not only themselves but all of humanity. In luminous verse and prose, Zapata Olivella conveys the breadth of heroism, betrayal, and suffering common to the history of people of African descent in the Western hemisphere. Ranging from Brazil to New England but primarily turning his wrath on the Caribbean centers of the slave trade, Changó inhabits personas as diverse as Benkos Biojo, Henri Christophe, Simón Bolívar, José María Morelos, the Aleijadinho, Marcus Garvey, and Malcolm X. His message is one of vengeance, but also one of hope. Readers and critics will relish the opportunity to at last experience Zapata Olivella's masterpiece in English and to appreciate this extraordinary tapestry, woven from equal strands of myth and history., Ranging from Brazil to New England but centered in the Caribbean, where countless slaves once arrived from West Africa, Chango recounts scenes from four centuries of involuntary displacement and servitude of the muntu, the people. Through the voices of Benkos Biojo in Colombia, Henri Christophe in Haiti, Simon Bolivar in Venezuela, Jose Maria Morelos in Mexico, the Aleijadinho in Brazil, or Malcolm X in Harlem, Zapata Olivella conveys, in luminous verse and prose, the breadth of heroism, betrayal, and suffering common to the history of people of African descent in the Western hemisphere. Unique to these narratives is the hovering presence of the Orichas, the African gods and messengers whose actions construct a worldview that defies Western logic. And within this pantheon stands Chango, the god of fire, war, and thunder who both curses the muntu for betraying their own kind and challenges them to liberate not only themselves but all of humanity."

LC Classification NumberPQ8179.Z38C5513 2010