Seva would go alongside heroic examples of Numancia, Troy, Sagunto, Massada, and other cities glorified by history. Cerro Maravilla, political promises, and everyday life should be enough to prove this point. Nevertheless, it is important to point out that Puerto Ricans may be no more vulnerable than anyone else. Another reason for the book's continued success is that in addition to being a patriotic tale, it is a fist-rate piece of fiction. With the advantage of hindsight we can analyze the reasons why the book was so convincing.
Readers can now see the humor of including a framed blank space for the photo of the only survivor.
Perhaps the most clever trick was presenting Miles's diary in Spanish translations, making it impossible to compare it to any authentic documents written by the general in English. For scholars of literature, the book poses literary questions that challenge the whole notion of genre and of where fiction begins and ends in the book. With the passage of time, the original reactions of emotion and indignance give way to analysis and admiration. As the year 1898 approaches, Seva takes on even more relevance than it did when first published in 1983. A civilization with great myths can never entirely disappear.