Birds Without a Nest: A Story of Indian Life and Priestly Oppression in Peru.

• Author: Mujica, Barbara

[Aves sin nido], by Clorinda Matto de Turner. Trans., J.G.H., emended by Naomi Lindstrom. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996.

This new edition of Clorinda Matto de Turner's 1889 classic, Aves sin nido, is part of a series of translations of important Latin American works undertaken by the University of Texas Press. As Naomi

Lindstrom points out in her foreword, after a decline in popularity, the book has recently started to attract a growing number of readers who find the insight it provides into ethnicity, gender, and political thought in late nineteenth-century Peru relevant to today's concerns. Most critics consider the work the first indigenista novel, a subgenre of narrative fiction that focuses on Indian characters and the plight of native communities. However, Aves sin nido offers not only an intimate knowledge of Andean culture and of relations between Indians and non-Indians, but also depictions of strong, resolute, independent women capable of standing up to corrupt local officials.

The novel relates the misfortunes of the Yupanqui family in the Andean town of Killac, where the priest, the governor, and their henchmen abuse the local population mercilessly. The wool buyers, in cahoots with the authorities, pay the Indians almost nothing for their wool, yet prevent them from selling it elsewhere. This allows the merchants to make a profit of some 500 percent, while the Indians struggle to survive. To make matters worse, the authorities require unpaid labor of the Indian men, as well as domestic chores and sexual favors of the women. Marcela, wife of Juan Yupanqui, has been called to the mita--the "service" imposed on native women--forcing her to leave her husband and two young daughters. In addition, the priest has put an embargo on the family's potato crop to reimburse himself for the expenses of the funeral of Juan's mother. In desperation, Marcela seeks help from Lucia Marin, the clear-thinking wife of Don Fernando, an enlightened white progressive.

However, Lucia's appeals to the priest and governor on behalf of the Yupanquis go unheeded. The town authorities, who consider her and her husband interlopers and "foreigners," organize an attack on the Marins. Juan tries to defend the couple, but in the melee he is killed and Marcela is fatally injured. Before she dies, the Indian woman confides to Lucia that Juan is not the real father of her older daughter, Margarita. After Marcela's death, Lucia adopts her two children, the...