Richard Jernigan -> RE: 'And the Wind Cried' by Paul Hecht (Mar. 19 2016 3:49:09)
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For years I was aware of "The Flamencos of Cadiz Bay," without realizing it was an account of the English author's friendship with the great cantaor Aurelio Selles. When I finally got around to reading it last year i really enjoyed it and learned a lot. I haven't read Hecht's book, but I have put it on my list, thanks to you. My father-in-law lived in Tampico from about age five until age 14. His father was a building contractor who built much of the port facilities for the big international oil companies, before Cárdenas nationalized the oil industry. My father-in-law's mother had been a school teacher, then a high school principal before she married, but had to give up teaching, because female school teachers were required to be single in those days. I never knew her, but by all accounts she was an educated, intelligent and formidable woman. But she wanted nothing to do with Mexico, and was said never to have pronounced a single word of Spanish. All the house servants had to be proficient enough in English to take directions from the lady of the house. My father-in-law, Edwin Duncan A., was her main interface with the outside world in Tampico, since his father Frank was heavily involved in business during business hours. Eddie spoke idiomatic, educated Mexican Spanish. He loved Mexico and Mexican culture. But he was an old school white southerner through and through. He didn't want his daughter marrying a rich Mexican, never mind that he was honest, charming and they were madly in love. Speaking of Cadiz, Arturo Perez Reverte's "El Asedio [The Siege]" is one of his best novels among the many good ones I have read, about the siege of Cadiz during the Napoleonic wars. Perez presents detailed pictures of characters from a wide range of social classes on both sides of the conflict. The plot is a gaditano police detective beginning to suspect there is a traitor who is providing info to the French artillery commander across the bay in Puerto Real, then searching for him. The French guns can barely reach Cadiz, but with the characteristic technical sophistication of Napoleon's artillery, the commander is gradually extending his range and improving his accuracy. The British fleet controls the Atlantic approaches to Cadiz, so trading continues despite the siege. A significant part of this trade is carried on by a woman who has inherited one of the larger family firms. Of course there is a hard-bitten but handsome and principled sea captain, who is provided a ship and employed as a privateer by the woman trader, and some heroic peasants from La Isla. A friend has the English translation, and assures me it is well done. Some of Perez's other books have been translated into a variety of languages. I would be surprised if "El Asedio [The Siege]" had not been. RNJ
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