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274 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies This meticulously researched book has another strength worthy of mention: Harvey steadfastly refuses to reduce a complicated situation to an easy, round portrayal . Here are some brief examples. First, he does not "assume the existence of pristine native traditions" but recognizes a world in which many native tribes have been influenced by cultures othet than their own (65). Second, Harvey acknowledges that boundaries between indigenous and Udino communities in Chiapas are "never fixed" but "constandy negotiated and disputed" (37). I too have found this framework useful in my own work on literature ofthe USMexico border. Finally, he avoids portraying caudillismo as the dominant form of political practice that overshadows other constructions of power, community, and citizenship (69). In addition to doing an excellent job fleshing out the ambiguities of a complicated situation of political change, Harvey is also cautious about using an Eurocentric historical interpretation to universalize a study grounded and localized in Mexico. He writes: Although the struggle for rights appears to distinguish recent popular movements from theii piedecessois, we cannot assume any univeisal meaning of rights to which these movements appeal. An analysis ofthe historical context of popular struggle is essential if we are to avoid imposing Eurocentric assumptions on culturally specific phenomena. (24) forest. I can only speculate that the reason for this oversight is Harvey's desire to emulate a tradition of academic writing that privileges a scientific tone in order to present a "factual" re-telling of events in Chiapas. However valuable this "objective" approach, modern readers today know all too well the conflation of history and narrative, fact and fiction, as spelled out by scholars such as Louis Montrose and Hayden White in the 1970s. While I respect Harvey's effort to get the record straight by compiling "facts," the story is incomplete without including more excerpts from native leaders of the three peasant movements under study in Chiapas. While this shortfall mars Harvey's work, it does not overshadow my assessment in toto: The Chiapas Rebellion is an invaluable resource for scholars of southeastern Mexico, indigenous cultures, and peasant movements. It provides not only breadth and depth, but also offers a nuanced intetpretation of events that are often contradictory and ambiguous in nature. I hold Harvey accountable for the lack of indigenous voice in this book because as readers we are right to demand the best from top scholars. Rosemary King Arizona State University Contrariedades del sujeto Visor, 1998 By Carlos Piera The primary shortfall of this book is the negation of indigenous voice. I was stunned, for example, to reach page 80 before finally hearing the voice of an indigenous person, in this case the leader ofthe Unión de Ejidos of Quiptic in the Lacandon This collection, by the noted Spanish linguist and literary theoretician Carlos Piera, offers to the reader not so much a purely literary or theoretical approach to poetry , but rather a series of meditations upon poetry's existence and possibility within an Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 275 environment numbed to poetic relevance. The author attempts to respond to the question , "¿cómo puede decirse Io que no se puede saber?" by positing various responses that reflect upon poetic voice, diction, rhetoric, history, canonicity, and translation versus paraphrase as a means of engagement with the poetic function. This collection of thirteen essays begins with a "Nota preliminar" in which the author outlines the philosophical point of departure for his defense of poetry, and the role of contradiction not only in poetry per se, but also as a means of argumentative development for his study. Piera does not have recourse to a finely delineated defensive thetoric; rathei, poetry must assert itself by means of its inherent dignity, "esa dignidad moral y epistémica" (16). The collection then begins with a defense of the value of the essay in the opening piece entitled "Conveniencia de la prosa," a sly, subversive metatextual wink at the author's chosen genre to present his disquisitions over the poweis of poetry. As he states, "el ensayo es a la poesÃ-a, en cierto modo, Io que la autobiograf Ã-a a la novela: on lugar donde...

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