Birds Without a Nest: A Novel: a Story of Indian Life and Priestly Oppression in Peru

"I love the native race with a tender love, and so I have observed its customs closely, enchanted by their simplicity, and, as well, the abjection into which this race is plunged by small-town despots, who, while their names may change, never fail to live up to the epithet of tyrants. They are no other than, in general, the priests, governors, caciques, and mayors." So wrote Clorinda Matto de Turner in Aves sin nido, the first major Spanish American novel to protest the plight of native peoples. First published in 1889, Birds without a Nest drew fiery protests for its unsparing expose of small town officials, judicial authorities, and priests who oppressed the native peoples of Peru. Matto de Turner was excommunicated by the Catholic Church and burned in effigy. Yet her novel was strongly influential; indeed, Peruvian President Andres Avelino Caceres credited it with stimulating him to pursue needed reforms. In 1904, the novel was published in a bowdlerized English translation with a modified ending. This edition restores the original ending and the translator's omissions. It will be important reading for all students of the indigenous cultures of South America.

Table of Contents:
Foreword Author's Preface Part One 1. The Town of Killac 2. The Yupanqui Family 3. Indian Loans, 500 Per Cent 4. White House 5. Priest and Governor 6. Juan's Return Home 7. Fernando's Gift to Lucia 8. Danger Ahead 9. A Stratagem 10. Rosalia Restored 11. Doña Petronila 12. Marcela Pays the Priest 13. Sold to Rochino 14. The Plot 15. The Assault 16. Hope Renewed 17. Evil Deeds 18. The Indian's Gratefulness 19. Melitona Gleaning News 20. The Burial of Juan 21. Manuel and His Mother 22. The Instigators Interviewed 23. A Secret Revealed 24. A Shot That Missed Its Mark 25. Marcela Follows Juan 26. The Priest's Confession 27. Sebastian's Bad Conscience Part Two 28. Fernando and the judge 29. Manuel, a Good Teacher 30. Colonel Paredes 31. Tired of Killac 32. No Need of a Warrant 33. The Wrong One Imprisoned 34. Going to Lima 35. Father Pascual's Solitude 36. Talking It Over 37. Fleecing the Indian 38. Margarita and Manuel 39. Doubts, Fears, and Hopes 40. Teodora's Escape 41. The Pursuit 42. Manuel's Birth Veiled 43. The Hide, Then the Flesh 44. A Heroine of Love 45. One Against Five Thousand 46. Fernando Enlightens Lucia 47. Martina Visits Isidro 48. Fernando's Proposal 49. The Departure and Arrest 50. Comments 51. To the Station 52. Manuel Follows 53. The Journey by Rail 54. The Prisoners Released 55. A Terrible Shock 56. Grand Imperial Hotel 57. The Agate Cross 58. Birds without a Nest

Review :
"This emended translation of Latin America's first indigenista novel (Aves sin nido, 1889), written by Peruvian feminist Matto de Turner, is welcome for many reasons.... It deserves a reading now more than ever, as Latin American literature reaches its maturity, and as social struggles in the Hispanic new world continue with the intensity and irresolution of two centuries." (Choice)