Review: Malambo by Lucía Charún-Illescas
Lucía Charún-Illescas' Malambo was recently reviewed by Miriam DeCosta-Willis, Ph.D. in the Fall 2006 issue (No. 10) of PALARA: Publication of the Afro Latin American Research Association. Both Charún and translator Emmanuel Harris II receive praise:
This is an important novel because it is the first work of fiction by an Afro-Peruvian woman, and it is one of very few Afro-Hispanic novels that have been translated into English. . . . Smooth, fluid prose. . . . An excellent translation, which captures the rhythm and flavor of an important work of art. For although it is a fictional account of Afro-Peruvian life in colonial Peru, Malambo calls into question hegemonic assumptions about Spanish American history by underscoring the role that African-descended people played in shaping that history.