In these vignettes set in the fictional county of Belken along the Texas-Mexico border in the early to mid-twentieth century, Rolando Hinojosa sketches a landscape of Mexican Texans and Anglo Texans living side by side, in good times and bad. ñThe worldÍs a drugstore: youÍll find a little bit of just about everything, and itÍs usually on sale, too. Belken County, Texas is part of the world, and so, itÍs no different; its people are packaged in cellophane and they, too, come in all sizes, shapes and in a choice of colors.î Some are brave; others are craven. Some are sharp, and some are dull. Death calls on a regular basis in this first installment of HinojosaÍs acclaimed Klail City Death Trip Series. JehÏ Malacara was seven when his mother died and nine when his father passed. He has family, but itÍs Don VÕctor Pelàez who takes him in and makes him an integral part of the Pelàez Tent Show. When la muerte comes for Don VÕctor, JehÏ is orphaned again. Others die in bar room brawls, in a clandestine amorous tryst at the local Holiday Inn and on the street. Hinojosa paints his canvas with a montage of lifeÍs events„births, weddings, friendships and love affairs„but his brushwork all too frequently highlights the discrimination experienced by Mexican Americans. They lose their land to Anglos, are paid with rotten fruit for their labor and are refused admission to certain cafes. But life goes on. Young men go to war and old men remember their wars, whether the Mexican Revolution, World War II or the Korean War. This classic novel was originally published in the early 1970s as Estampas del Valle and in the early 1980s as The Valley. Frequently compared to William FaulknerÍs Yoknapatawpha and Gabriel GarcÕa MàrquezÍs Macondo, Rolando HinojosaÍs Klail City Death Trip Series is required reading for anyone interested in life along the Texas-Mexico border in the twentieth century.

"In these vignettes set in the fictional county of Belken along the Texas-Mexico border in the early to mid-twentieth century, Rolando Hinojosa sketches a landscape of Mexican Texans and Anglo Texans living side by side, in good times and bad"--Publisher.

The Clasicos Chicanos/Chicano Classics series is intended to ensure the long-term accessibility of deserving works of Chicano literature and culture that have become unavailable over the years or that are in imminent danger of becoming inaccessible. Each of the volumes includes an introduction contextualizing the work within Chicano literature and a bibliography of works by and about the author. The series is designed to be a vehicle that will help in the recuperation of Raza literary history and permit the continued experience and enjoyment of our literature by both present and future generations of readers. With a keen eye, a spare hand, and an underpinning of humor, Rolando Hinojosa depicts life in the Chicano Rio Grande Valley during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s -- the people and their quirks, customs and dreams. Hinojosa writes in a style that has often been compared to that of Thornton Wilder and William Faulkner: characters speak for themselves and all places have a story to tell. This is a new Spanish-language edition of the original novel in the Klail City Death Trip Series.

Klail City is the pivotal novel in HinjosaÍs continuing saga, the Klail City Death Trip Series. It is concerned with power as articulated through the disjunctive class and race relations between Texas Mexicans and Texas Anglos in the lower Rio Grande Valley. In his desire to help recreate the kaleidoscopic past, Hinojosa employs four generations of storytellers who thoroughly mesmerize the reader with their tales of tragic realism, alienation and desire. Klail City (in its Spanish version) is the winner of Latin AmericaÍs most prestigious literary award, the Casa de las Am?ricas Prize. It has been published in German and now, HinojosaÍs own English-language version is available. Rolando Hinojosa is the best known and most prolific Mexican American novelist. His works, which form a continuing, ever-evolving saga of life in the small border towns in TexasÍs lower Valley, are acclaimed for their fine sense of wit and pathos and their ability to capture the nuances of oral language.

Hinojosa's famed masterpiece, Estampas del valle, has now been recreated in English by its author. The Valley is a brilliantly executed album of portraits and human and cultural landscapes from the Rio Grande Valley.

Rolando Hinojosa, winner of the National Award for Chicano Literature (Quinto Solæ1972), the International Award for Best Spanish American Novel (Casa de las Am?ricasæ1976), is considered to be the foremost Chicano novelist. A master of satire, humor and understatement, Hinojosa has nurtured his characters through generations in the history of his fictional Rio Grande Valley town, Klail City. InæRites and Witnesses, the drama unfolds among the wealthy power-brokers whose manipulation of banking, ranching, real estate and local politics shapes the lives of real and down-to-earth inhabitants, all deftly and sensitively sketched by Hinojosa.