El Entierro de Cortijo/Cortijo's Wake (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780822332169)

A bilingual edition of a renowned work of Puerto Rican literature, Cortijo's Wake/El entierro de Cortijo is novelist Edgardo Rodr guez Juli 's vivid description of the funeral of legendary Puerto Rican musician Rafael Cortijo. El entierro de Cortijo became an immediate bestseller following its original publication in Puerto Rico in 1983. An unparalleled Afro-Puerto Rican percussionist and bandleader, Cortijo (1928-1982) revolutionized the country's musical culture. His band, Cortijo y Su Combo, captivated Caribbean and Latin American audiences as it emerged in the mid-1950s. Immensely popular across Puerto Rican social classes, the band both "modernized" the traditional vernacular forms of bomba and plena and forcefully reestablished their African and working-class roots. The group's innovations have been integral to salsa since the 1960s.

Winding through the streets of working-class San Juan with Cortijo's funeral procession, Rodr guez Juli 's autobiographical chronicle provides a rare portrait of the impoverished society from which Cortijo's music emerged. Along with detailed renderings of grief-stricken mourners--including Cortijo's childhood friend and fellow musician, the celebrated singer Ismael ("Maelo") Rivera--Rodr guez Juli records his feelings as he, a light-skinned, middle-class writer, confronts the world of poor black Puerto Ricans. The author's masterful shifting of linguistic registers, his acute sensitivity to Puerto Rican social codes, his broad knowledge of popular music, and his sardonic ruminations on death and immortality make this one of the most widely read books of modern Puerto Rican literature. Well-known critic and cultural historian Juan Flores has provided a scrupulous translation of Rodr guez Juli 's text and an introduction situating the book in relation to Puerto Rican music and culture and the careers of Cortijo and Rodr guez Juli .

Author: Edgardo Rodríguez Juliá
ISBN-10: 0822332167
ISBN-13: 9780822332169
Publisher: Duke University Press
Language: English
Published: 12/30/2003
Pages: 136
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.42lbs
Size: 8.47h x 5.51w x 0.41d

Review Citation(s):
Univ PR Books for Public Libry 01/01/2005 pg. 62 - Recommended/Regional General
Multicultural Review 03/01/2005 pg. 66

About the Author

Edgardo Rodríguez Juliá is a widely acclaimed Puerto Rican novelist. Among his many books are Sol de medianoche (1999), La noche oscura del Nino Avilés (1984), and La renuncia del héroe Baltasar (1974, translated into English in 1997 as The Renunciation). Since 1968, he has taught literature and writing at the University of Puerto Rico.

Juan Flores is Professor of Black and Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College and Professor of Sociology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the author of a number of books including From Bomba to Hip-Hop: Puerto Rican Culture and Latino Identity and Divided Borders: Essays on Puerto Rican Identity.