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Contributor

Earl Shorris

Contributor

Earl Shorris

Earl Shorris was a prominent social critic and author. His works include Ofay; The Boots of the Virgin; A Novel of Pancho Villa; The Death of the Great Spirit; The Oppressed Middle: Scenes From Corporate Life; Latinos: A Biography of the People; and New American Blues: A Journey Through Poverty to Democracy among others. He was the coeditor of In the Language of Kings: An Anthology of Mesoamerican Literature, Pre-Columbian to the Present; The Life and Times of Mexico; and While Someone Else Is Eating: Poets and Novelists on Reaganism. He was a contributing editor to Harper’s, and his essays and articles appeared in the Nation, the Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, American Educator, the Antioch Review, and many more publications. He founded and chaired the advisory board of The Clemente Course in the Humanities; and cofounded—with Howard Meredith and members of the Kiowa, Cherokee, Chickashaw, Maya, Nahua, Lakota, CYup’ik, and other tribes and nations—the Pan-American Indian Humanities Center at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. He died in May of 2012.

Articles by Earl Shorris

The Indigenous Literature of the Americas
By Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris
In late August, Mexico City and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico signed an agreement to teach Náhuatl language and culture to Nahua (Aztec) students in Santa Ana Tlacotenco in the…
Marías Mazahuas
By Fausto Guadarrama López
Where do you go, Marías, where do you go?
Translated from Spanish by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris
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The Owl
By Briceida Cuevas Cob
Note: This poem was originally written in Yucatecan Maya.The owl is here.He perches on the wall. And meditates.Whose death does he announceif no one lives in this village?The fossils of the peopledo not…
Translated from Spanish by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris
Nothing Remains Empty
By Juan Gregorio Regino
There is a place in the Universe / where the memory of time / is recorded.
Translated from Spanish by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris
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A rebozo photographed in black and white.

By Mónica Morales. License: CC by 2.0 Access at: https://flic.kr/p/rP5TJ

Purépecha Mother
By Gilberto Jerónimo Mateo
This poem from an indigenous Purépecha author celebrates the heroism of a seemingly ordinary woman.
Translated from Spanish by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris
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The Serpent of the Green Mountain
By Agustin Jimenez Garcia
Note: This piece was originally written in Zapoteco.In the old days, inside the Green Mountain, there lived a giant serpent who acted as if it were the master of the place, rixxo. The serpent was so old…
Translated from Spanish by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris
Laziness
By Lázaro Márquez Joaquín
Note: This piece was originally written in Purépecha.There once was a man who was very poor, but also indolent. He tried hard to survive, by cutting firewood in the countryside and by selling it, in order…
Translated from Spanish by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris
The One Who Went to Learn to Lie
By Victor de la Cruz
Note: This poem was originally written in Zapoteco.There was someone in the old days, they say, who wanted to learn to lie. That’s what he told his father, who answered, “I will send you to…
Translated from Spanish by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris
My Encounter with Xtabay
By Wenceslao Yeh & Marcos Xiu Cachon
Note: This piece was originally written in Yucatecan Maya. It comes from a very small publication in a part of the Yucatán peninsula still very close to the area dominated by groups that remain organized…
Translated from Spanish by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris
La Pesicola
By Gabriel Pacheco
“As you see, that was how our Creator lived, He who created everything and He who created man. He never walked like men. While he lived on earth, He always kept himself holy. He never sinned despite…
Translated from Nahuatl (Aztec) by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris
A Traveler’s Tale
By Jesús Salinas Pedraza
Note: This piece was originally written in Ñahñu.A traveler felt hungry and stopped at a house, asking if they would sell him some food. The lady of the house said yes, that she would give him some food,…
Translated from Spanish by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris
Poverty
By María Luisa Góngora Pacheco
Note: This piece was originally written in Yucatecan Maya, and was probably adapted from the oral tradition. The Maya to Spanish translation was done in a collaboration with Miguel Angel May May, Santiago…
Translated from Spanish by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris
Escape From Death
By Ismael García Marcelino
Note: This piece was originally written in Purépecha.Don Nicolas used to get up early every day to the sound of the birds singing. Although the cold bothered his eyes, he quickly got dressed, and before…
Translated from Spanish by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris
Juan and Xtabay
By Miguel Angel May May
Note: This piece was originally written in Yucatecan Maya. The author, Miguel May, is a personal friend. He lives in Mérida, Yucatán. His family still lives in a small town not far from the city. Although…
Translated from Spanish by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris
Echeverría
By Enrique Pérez López
Note: This piece was originally written in Tzotzil. The village of Chamula, where Tzotzil is spoken far more frequently than Spanish, has maintained much of its Tzotzil Maya language and tradition.It…
Translated from Spanish by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris
No One Dies, Life Only Changes
By Juan López Palacios
Note: This piece was originally written in Náhuatl.We only change the way we live…. Thus it is explained in the tale of the experience of two people who lived through the following revelation.“When…
Translated from Spanish by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris
The Story of Naxá
By Juan Gregorio Regino
Note: This piece was originally written in Mazateco.Naxá, the daughter of Ts’uí and Sa, was deeply in love with a young campesino named Xungá, who lived in one of the most humble huts in the village.…
Translated from Spanish by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris
The Sacvi of Chinango
By Lorenzo Hernandez Ocampo
Note: This poem was originally written in Mixteco.This is what our ancestors said, this is what our elders told us: that we lived in peace with our fellow men in this world, because we were all made of…
Translated from Spanish by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris
Dreams and Memories of a Common Man
By Marcos Matías Alonso
They squeezed us and they piled us up to fill up the city, to live like ants, like crazed lizards in the middle of trash.
Translated from Spanish by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris
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Memories
By Humberto Ak’abal
Now and thenI walk backwards.It is my way of remembering.If I only walked forward,I could tell youabout forgetting.This last poem in this sequence was originally published in Guchachi 'Reza' 'Iguana…
Translated from Spanish by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris
The Ash Vendors
By Rita Molina Elias
Note: This piece was originally written in Purépecha.There once was a man who had gone to a city to sell ashes; upon arriving he spread out his “merchandise” in the town square and there he…
Translated from Spanish by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris
“Will nothing of my earthly fame endure?”
By Miguel León-Portilla
Will nothing of my earthly fame endure?Not even flowers, not even songs!What can my heart do?In vain we have sprung forth,we have come to be on earth.Let us enjoy ourselves, my friends,let us embrace…
Translated from Spanish by Earl Shorris