Assault on Paradise
Pedro Albarán arrives in the Costa Rican city of Cartago a "cartoon of wretchedness," having fled the Spanish Inquisition with little more than the rags on his back. He finds the chaotic colonial city full of "gossipmongers, backbiters, and troublemakers"--but also a dizzying variety of women, "the color of molasses, of stewed quinces, of peaches in syrup...." Skeptical, suspicious of authority, with a decided weakness for the fairer sex, Albarán is a picaresque hero for the New World. This vividly imagined historical novel follows his misadventures among the colonial army, the Church, and the Mayan natives, as he dallies with women and witnesses the Mayan struggle against their colonial oppressors. Costa Rican author Tatiana Lobo vividly summons the sights and smells of the young nation in the early years of the 18th century, its idyllic setting as well as the squalor and brutality of its slave auctions. The title of the novel is a pretty fair indicator of this work's political intentions; Lobo obviously venerates Mayan culture and mythology, but in doing so she never loses sight of her immensely likeable rogue of a hero. The winner of the 1995 Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize, this novel uses Albarán as a springboard for an eloquent and moving indictment of the conquistadors and their bloodthirsty legacy.