The Lean Lands (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Agustín Yáñez
- First Published: 1962
- Type of Plot: Allegorical realism
- Time of Work: The early 1920’s
- Setting: A typical, isolated, high-plain, sparsely populated region of Jalisco, Mexico, called Tierra Santa (Holy Land)
- Principal Characters: Don Epifanio Trujillo, Miguel Arcángel/Jacob Gallo, Rómulo, Doña Matiana, Plácida
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: Family or family life, Parents and children, Power, personal or social, 1920’s, Brothers, Fathers, Ethics, Mexico or Mexicans, Technology, Feudalism
- Locales: Mexico, Jalisco, Mexico
The Novel
The Lean Lands portrays a transitional moment in the history of the Trujillo family, the sociopolitical center of the region. The action involves an internecine war among three half brothers to gain access to the power center held by their ill father, Don Epifanio (Pifanio, Don Pifas).
Consistent with the hacendado system (a parafeudal system of land ownership), throughout his life, Epifanio has conformed majestically to the traditional functions of the cacique (chieftain), the Arawak term for tribal chief.
Arrogantly, he has...
[The entire page is 2157 words long]
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