La Patria del Criollo

“As the Spanish text became fundamental to Guatemalan historiography, this translation will become a staple of Latin American historiography.” - Douglass Sullivan-Gonzalez, The Americas
"English-speaking social science scholars should highly value the English edition of La Patria del Criollo: An Intepretation of Colonial Guatemala, which explains with precision why Latin America still exhibits today the deepest social and economic inequity in the world. Severo Martinez's masterpiece has played a significant role in shaping Guatemalan national and even Latin American regional politics for almost 40 years. It is a profound analysis of the social and political structures that were established during the Spanish colonial period, factors that led to the concentration of power, both economic and poltical, in very few hands." - Raul Molina Mejia, Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies
“Severo Martínez Peláez’s La Patria del Criollo is perhaps the single most influential work about colonial Guatemala written by a Guatemalan historian. . . . Its translation and publication in English will prove propitious if it encourages a new generation of scholars to revisit his vigorous assertions.” - Richmond F. Brown, Colonial Latin American Historical Review
“In Mariátegui, Martínez Peláez found a kindred spirit. Together they form part of a genealogy of Latin American radical though that, across the twentieth century, confronted the so-called ‘Indian problem’ as a central challenge to Latin American nation-states. For this reason, then, as well as for the importance and drama of Guatemalan history across this same century, the English edition of this book is both welcome and long overdue.” - Florencia E. Mallon, American Historical Review
“[P]robably the most influential historical analysis of the colonial Guatemalan experience published in Spanish in the last 40 years, if not necessarily within, then certainly beyond the academic world. Long a staple in Guatemalan classrooms and on graduate reading lists elsewhere, in translation it deserves to gain a second life in English language universities as a provocative introduction for sophisticated undergraduates and other non-specialists to the ‘reality’ alluded to in the title of the Spanish original and, perhaps as much, to the distinctive historiographical moment in which it first emerged. Scholars of Central American history and historiography, meanwhile, will appreciate the editors’ extended and thoughtful introduction. . . .” - Paul Lokken, A Contracorriente
“Translators Susan M. Neve and W. George Lovell have done an admirable job bringing the true spirit of Martínez Peláez's theories alive for English readers. In addition to the translated text, editors Lovell and Christopher H. Lutz include a useful introduction providing readers unfamiliar with La Patria or its author an understanding of the man as well as the era in which he lived. Furthermore, the editors do a nice job detailing Martínez Peláez's more controversial arguments and their impact on Guatemalan historiography. . . . Graduate students and faculty alike will find value in this work. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.” - M. D. Davis, Choice
“This is a top-rate translation, and La Patria del Criollo is a very important book, not just for Guatemalan and Central American historiography but for a broader audience of Latin Americanists. First published in 1970, it was well ahead of its time in its subtle analysis of both social relations and the worldview of colonial elites, the criollos of the title. The book is a rich example of how structuralists such as Severo Martínez Peláez were trying to deal with culture and the contingencies of history.”—Greg Grandin, author of The Blood of Guatemala: A History of Race and Nation
“This outstanding translation reminds me why La Patria del Criollo is such a vital book. What stays with me more strongly from this work than from any other source is the massive, relentless, and grinding labor-extracting machine in which Guatemala’s native peoples were caught during the colonial era. To understand the recent civil war and genocide in Guatemala, and also more global struggles, an understanding of the history that Severo Martínez Peláez portrays is necessary.”—Diane M. Nelson, author of Reckoning: The Ends of War in Guatemala
“[P]robably the most influential historical analysis of the colonial Guatemalan experience published in Spanish in the last 40 years, if not necessarily within, then certainly beyond the academic world. Long a staple in Guatemalan classrooms and on graduate reading lists elsewhere, in translation it deserves to gain a second life in English language universities as a provocative introduction for sophisticated undergraduates and other non-specialists to the ‘reality’ alluded to in the title of the Spanish original and, perhaps as much, to the distinctive historiographical moment in which it first emerged. Scholars of Central American history and historiography, meanwhile, will appreciate the editors’ extended and thoughtful introduction. . . .” -- Paul Lokken * A Contracorriente *
“As the Spanish text became fundamental to Guatemalan historiography, this translation will become a staple of Latin American historiography.” -- Douglass Sullivan-Gonzalez * The Americas *
“In Mariátegui, Martínez Peláez found a kindred spirit. Together they form part of a genealogy of Latin American radical though that, across the twentieth century, confronted the so-called ‘Indian problem’ as a central challenge to Latin American nation-states. For this reason, then, as well as for the importance and drama of Guatemalan history across this same century, the English edition of this book is both welcome and long overdue.” -- Florencia E. Mallon * American Historical Review *
“Severo Martínez Peláez’s La Patria del Criollo is perhaps the single most influential work about colonial Guatemala written by a Guatemalan historian. . . . Its translation and publication in English will prove propitious if it encourages a new generation of scholars to revisit his vigorous assertions.” -- Richmond F. Brown * Colonial Latin American Historical Review *
“Translators Susan M. Neve and W. George Lovell have done an admirable job bringing the true spirit of Martínez Peláez's theories alive for English readers. In addition to the translated text, editors Lovell and Christopher H. Lutz include a useful introduction providing readers unfamiliar with La Patria or its author an understanding of the man as well as the era in which he lived. Furthermore, the editors do a nice job detailing Martínez Peláez's more controversial arguments and their impact on Guatemalan historiography. . . . Graduate students and faculty alike will find value in this work. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.” -- M. D. Davis * Choice *
"English-speaking social science scholars should highly value the English edition of La Patria del Criollo: An Intepretation of Colonial Guatemala, which explains with precision why Latin America still exhibits today the deepest social and economic inequity in the world. Severo Martinez's masterpiece has played a significant role in shaping Guatemalan national and even Latin American regional politics for almost 40 years. It is a profound analysis of the social and political structures that were established during the Spanish colonial period, factors that led to the concentration of power, both economic and poltical, in very few hands." -- Raul Molina Mejia * Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies *