Guerrero
A Novel of Conquest and Resistance
Celebrated Spanish writer José Ángel Mañas makes his English-language debut with Guerrero, a novel based on the real-life Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Guerrero, who defied Cortés and fought against Spain with his adopted Mayan tribe.
In January 1512, a caravel full of gold and Indian slaves sinks in a fierce storm. A small group of survivors including Guerrero wash up on a beach in Yucatán. Captured by Cocome Mayans, some are sacrificed; the rest are enslaved. Two survive: the young priest Jerónimo de Aguilar and the seasoned soldier Guerrero. They are redeemed by the rival and more sympathetic Tutul Xiúe Mayans. Jerónimo clings to his prayerbook, while Gonzalo becomes fascinated with Mayan culture and religion, joining with his new Mayan family to fight against Spanish conquest. For his crime, he is wiped from the record books of colonial Spain. Though little is known of Guerrero today, in this masterful short novel he becomes a larger-than-life figure of resistance and honor.
“Mañas [writes in] this genre of ‘after hours’; he is a master.”—La Rázon
“José Ángel Mañas is one of the best historical novelists in Spanish.”—Mario Escobar, author of The Forgotten Names and Auschwitz Lullaby
José Ángel Mañas is a Spanish writer who came to fame in the 1990s with his first novel, Historias del Kronen, a finalist for the Premio Modelo Prize that was later adapted into a film. Guerrero is his first work to be published in English.
Brendan Riley has translated numerous titles including Álvaro Enrigue’s acclaimed Hypothermia, named by the London Times Literary Supplement as a best book of 2013.
