{"id":48282,"date":"2021-07-05T11:12:09","date_gmt":"2021-07-05T15:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=48282"},"modified":"2021-07-01T17:36:33","modified_gmt":"2021-07-01T21:36:33","slug":"battles-in-the-desert-by-jose-emilio-pacheco-translated-by-katherine-silver-afterword-by-fernanda-melchor-in-shelf-awareness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/battles-in-the-desert-by-jose-emilio-pacheco-translated-by-katherine-silver-afterword-by-fernanda-melchor-in-shelf-awareness\/","title":{"rendered":"Battles in the Desert by Jos\u00e9 Emilio Pacheco, translated by Katherine Silver, afterword by Fernanda Melchor [in Shelf Awareness]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-48279\" src=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2021\/06\/Battles-in-the-Desert-Jose-Emilio-Pacheco-1-497x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"497\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2021\/06\/Battles-in-the-Desert-Jose-Emilio-Pacheco-1-497x800.jpg 497w, https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2021\/06\/Battles-in-the-Desert-Jose-Emilio-Pacheco-1.jpg 608w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 497px) 100vw, 497px\" \/>Mexican poet, writer, and essayist Jos\u00e9 Emilio Pacheco&#8217;s novella <em>Battles in the Desert<\/em>\u00a0returns in a glorious 40th-anniversary edition, re-translated by Katherine Silver from her own decades-old original. Award-winning author Fernanda Melchor appends an illuminating afterword that contextualizes the coming-of-age classic in the Mexican canon.<\/p>\n<p>Carlos, still in primary school, becomes enthralled with a friend&#8217;s mother, Mariana, a married politician&#8217;s mistress. His obsession engenders a clumsy confession \u2013 &#8220;I was going to die if I didn&#8217;t tell you&#8221; \u2013 which provokes consequences both comical and traumatic: the local priest inadvertently provides &#8220;a practical guide to masturbation&#8221;; an ineffectual psychiatrist is consulted; Carlos&#8217;s older brother warns of possible violence from the Lothario politician; and Carlos lands in a new school where he&#8217;s &#8220;again &#8230; the foreign intruder.&#8221; Years later, he&#8217;ll find out what happened to Mariana. Pacheco&#8217;s seemingly sparse narrative deftly exposes profound observations about race, privilege, power.<\/p>\n<p>Nothing in\u00a0<em>Battles in the Desert<\/em> exists anymore: Pacheco died in 2014, his Mexico City has long disappeared, none of the characters \u2013 historical figures included \u2013 survive. Clues in the opening chapter (despite a first-sentence denial of &#8220;I don&#8217;t remember: what year was that?&#8221;) date the narrative before 1950: postwar cars, the popular song &#8220;Amorcito Coraz\u00f3n,&#8221; El Se\u00f1or Presidente Miguel Alem\u00e1n. Pacheco serialized the story in 1980; the book was published in 1981. This intriguing novella \u2013 which refers to the year 2000 as &#8220;unimaginable&#8221; \u2013 remains compulsory in Mexico&#8217;s standard middle and high school curricula. It also ironically reveals how little generations change: &#8220;The adults complained about inflation &#8230; immorality &#8230; overpopulation &#8230; foreigners, corruption &#8230; the limitless wealth of the few and the abject misery of almost everyone else.&#8221; Pacheco&#8217;s piercing prescience continues to educate.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Discover<\/strong>:\u00a0<em>Battles in the Desert<\/em>, a timeless Mexican classic about young, impossible first love, returns in a marvelous 40th-anniversary edition.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Review<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shelf-awareness.com\/readers-issue.html?issue=1031#m17994\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">&#8220;Fiction,&#8221; <em>Shelf Awareness<\/em>, June 18, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers<\/strong>: Young Adult, Adult<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published<\/strong>: 1981 (Mexico), 2021 (anniversary edition)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mexican poet, writer, and essayist Jos\u00e9 Emilio Pacheco&#8217;s novella Battles in the Desert\u00a0returns in a glorious 40th-anniversary edition, re-translated by Katherine Silver from her own decades-old original. Award-winning author Fernanda Melchor appends an illuminating afterword that contextualizes the coming-of-age classic in the Mexican canon. Carlos,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,198,9598,6535,66,31],"tags":[9781,84,6608,74,58,10,9784,11,24,9782,9783,13,39,28,79,6872,44],"class_list":["post-48282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-fiction","category-latin-american","category-mexican","category-repost","category-translation","category-young-adult-readers","tag-battles-in-the-desert","tag-betrayal","tag-bookdragon","tag-bullying","tag-coming-of-age","tag-family","tag-fernanda-melchor","tag-friendship","tag-historical","tag-jose-emilio-pacheco","tag-katherine-silver","tag-love","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-politics","tag-school-challenges","tag-shelf-awareness","tag-siblings"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Battles in the Desert by Jos\u00e9 Emilio Pacheco, translated by Katherine Silver, afterword by Fernanda Melchor [in Shelf Awareness] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/battles-in-the-desert-by-jose-emilio-pacheco-translated-by-katherine-silver-afterword-by-fernanda-melchor-in-shelf-awareness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Battles in the Desert by Jos\u00e9 Emilio Pacheco, translated by Katherine Silver, afterword by Fernanda Melchor [in Shelf Awareness] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mexican poet, writer, and essayist Jos\u00e9 Emilio Pacheco&#8217;s novella Battles in the Desert\u00a0returns in a glorious 40th-anniversary edition, re-translated by Katherine Silver from her own decades-old original. Award-winning author Fernanda Melchor appends an illuminating afterword that contextualizes the coming-of-age classic in the Mexican canon. Carlos,...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/battles-in-the-desert-by-jose-emilio-pacheco-translated-by-katherine-silver-afterword-by-fernanda-melchor-in-shelf-awareness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-07-05T15:12:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-07-01T21:36:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2021\/06\/Battles-in-the-Desert-Jose-Emilio-Pacheco-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"608\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"979\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Battles in the Desert by Jos\u00e9 Emilio Pacheco, translated by Katherine Silver, afterword by Fernanda Melchor [in Shelf Awareness] - BookDragon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/battles-in-the-desert-by-jose-emilio-pacheco-translated-by-katherine-silver-afterword-by-fernanda-melchor-in-shelf-awareness\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Battles in the Desert by Jos\u00e9 Emilio Pacheco, translated by Katherine Silver, afterword by Fernanda Melchor [in Shelf Awareness] - BookDragon","og_description":"Mexican poet, writer, and essayist Jos\u00e9 Emilio Pacheco&#8217;s novella Battles in the Desert\u00a0returns in a glorious 40th-anniversary edition, re-translated by Katherine Silver from her own decades-old original. Award-winning author Fernanda Melchor appends an illuminating afterword that contextualizes the coming-of-age classic in the Mexican canon. Carlos,...","og_url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/battles-in-the-desert-by-jose-emilio-pacheco-translated-by-katherine-silver-afterword-by-fernanda-melchor-in-shelf-awareness\/","og_site_name":"BookDragon","article_published_time":"2021-07-05T15:12:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-07-01T21:36:33+00:00","og_image":[{"width":608,"height":979,"url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2021\/06\/Battles-in-the-Desert-Jose-Emilio-Pacheco-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@SmithsonianAPA","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/battles-in-the-desert-by-jose-emilio-pacheco-translated-by-katherine-silver-afterword-by-fernanda-melchor-in-shelf-awareness\/","url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/battles-in-the-desert-by-jose-emilio-pacheco-translated-by-katherine-silver-afterword-by-fernanda-melchor-in-shelf-awareness\/","name":"Battles in the Desert by Jos\u00e9 Emilio Pacheco, translated by Katherine Silver, afterword by Fernanda Melchor [in Shelf Awareness] - BookDragon","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-07-05T15:12:09+00:00","dateModified":"2021-07-01T21:36:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/a00f6dcfcb279c75f3f992ad2919d51d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/battles-in-the-desert-by-jose-emilio-pacheco-translated-by-katherine-silver-afterword-by-fernanda-melchor-in-shelf-awareness\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/battles-in-the-desert-by-jose-emilio-pacheco-translated-by-katherine-silver-afterword-by-fernanda-melchor-in-shelf-awareness\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/battles-in-the-desert-by-jose-emilio-pacheco-translated-by-katherine-silver-afterword-by-fernanda-melchor-in-shelf-awareness\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Battles in the Desert by Jos\u00e9 Emilio Pacheco, translated by Katherine Silver, afterword by Fernanda Melchor [in Shelf Awareness]"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#website","url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/","name":"BookDragon","description":"Books for the Diverse Reader","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/a00f6dcfcb279c75f3f992ad2919d51d","name":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79b5f08575e8962bd00388cd126d374b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79b5f08575e8962bd00388cd126d374b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/@SmithsonianAPA"],"url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/author\/riemert\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48282"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48282"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48285,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48282\/revisions\/48285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}