A native of Pomabamba, Peru, Dorila A. Marting grew up surrounded by the tales of her native city as told by family members and local Quechua storytellers. In Peruvian Short Stories, Marting brings these childhood accounts to life with a narrative that is as distinctively authentic as it is universally relatable. "This Peruvian legend has many versions depending on who is telling, the story. I will relate to you what I heard a long, long time ago, as a child, from an elderly storyteller Quechua woman named Mama Cunchina ... " -The Cave of Maria Josefa With voices spanning from the small and elderly mouse (The Emigration of Domestic Animals) to the all-encompassing Mama Patcha (Mother Earth), every story is uniquely enchanting while still supporting the overall parable that is weaved throughout the collection. Marting illustrates her memories with the ease of the Quechua storytellers of her youth, and indeed these accounts of love, loss, family, nature, friendship, and respect are as crucial and resonant today as they were during the inception of Peruvian Folklore. I invite you to navigate to a foreign land and to a foreign culture and enjoy these stories as much as I have ... " -Mary L. Jones, Introduction

South American women authors look at the female experience.

The purpose of this book is to provide a chronological view of the modern short story from the time of its introduction in to Peruvian literature a to the turn of the present century though the early 1960s -- Preface.

Doña Isidora is a story of love, romance, disobedience, disinheritance, betrayal, repentance and reform, of learning to lead a fulfilling life for the benefit of the community. The setting is the quaint Andean town the natives call Pomabamba (Region of Mountain Lions), located in northern Peru. The heroine, fifteen-year-old Ishi Villarreal, is about to pass from girlhood to young womanhood; as is customary, she is expected to be obedient and marry the suitor her parents have already selected for her. Unbeknownst to Teodosio and Dona Luisa, however, Ishi has secretly fallen in love with the aptly named Amador, a dashing young Spanish Don Juan newly arrived in town. Will the hopes and dreams of Ishi's parents become a reality? Or will true love conquer all? *** A native of Pomabamba, Peru, Dorila A. Marting grew up surrounded by the tales of her native city as told by family members and local Quechua storytellers. In Peruvian Short Stories, Marting brings these childhood accounts to life with a narrative that is as distinctively authentic as it is universally relatable. This Peruvian legend has many versions depending on who is telling the story. I will relate to you what I heard a long, long time ago, as a child, from an elderly storyteller Quechua woman named Mama Cunchina. --The Cave of Maria Josefa With voices spanning from the small and elderly mouse (the Emigration of Domestic Animals) to the all-encompassing Mama Patcha (Mother Earth), every story is uniquely enchanting while still supporting the overall parable that is weaved throughout the collection. Marting illustrates her memories with the ease of the Quechua storytellers of her youth, and indeed, these accounts of love, loss, family, nature, friendship, and respect are as crucial and resonant today as they were during the inception of Peruvian Folklore. "I invite you to navigate to a foreign land and to a foreign culture and enjoy these stories as much as I have. --Mary L. Jones, introduction *** These poems are the author's recollections of life in Peru and the United States. Her background in journalism is reflected in her writing style and choice of topics. She worked for nine years for two leading daily newspapers, The Arizona Republic in Phoenix and The Arizona Daily Sun in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Ugly Stories of the Peruvian Agrarian Reform reveals the human drama behind the radical agrarian reform that unfolded in Peru during the final three decades of the twentieth century. That process began in 1969, when the left-leaning military government implemented a drastic program of land expropriation. Seized lands were turned into worker-managed cooperatives. After those cooperatives began to falter and the country returned to civilian rule in the 1980s, members distributed the land among themselves. In 1995–96, as the agrarian reform process was winding down and neoliberal policies were undoing leftist reforms, the Peruvian anthropologist Enrique Mayer traveled throughout the country, interviewing people who had lived through the most tumultuous years of agrarian reform, recording their memories and their stories. While agrarian reform caused enormous upheaval, controversy, and disappointment, it did succeed in breaking up the unjust and oppressive hacienda system. Mayer contends that the demise of that system is as important as the liberation of slaves in the Americas. Mayer interviewed ex-landlords, land expropriators, politicians, government bureaucrats, intellectuals, peasant leaders, activists, ranchers, members of farming families, and others. Weaving their impassioned recollections with his own commentary, he offers a series of dramatic narratives, each one centered around a specific instance of land expropriation, collective enterprise, and disillusion. Although the reform began with high hopes, it was quickly complicated by difficulties including corruption, rural and urban unrest, fights over land, and delays in modernization. As he provides insight into how important historical events are remembered, Mayer re-evaluates Peru’s military government (1969–79), its audacious agrarian reform program, and what that reform meant to Peruvians from all walks of life.