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Overview
When Brian Mendoza arrives in Mexico City to do research for his dissertation on ritual human sacrifice, he begins an odyssey that leads him from the crumbling temples of the Aztecs to the inner sanctums of the modern ruling class, drawing him into a ruthless struggle for political power as he unravels a four-hundred-year-old mystery that holds the secret of his own buried past. Under the watchful tutelage of Xavier Zapata, the flamboyant and controversial director of Temple Mayor, an ancient Aztec ruin in the center of Mexico City, Brian becomes engrossed with the bark paper pages of a recently discovered codex, or sacred book, and begins to follow the journey of a sixteenth-century Aztec shaman named Xotl. When Brian delves deeper into the historical mystery, he finds himself enmeshed in overlapping webs of scientific, political, and romantic intrigue - in the form of Alejandro Villalobos, an urbane and shadowy industrialist with a penchant for Aztec football and ruthless power plays, and Marina Soto, a beguiling journalist who becomes Brian's guide to the country, his ancestors and, eventually, his lover. As Brian comes ever closer to solving the riddle of Xotl - and understanding ritual sacrifice - strife tears modern Mexico, and Brian and Marina are caught up in the struggle. Myth and reality, religion and politics, love and danger converge, and the sixteenth and twentieth centuries merge when Brian follows Xotl's trail to a remote cave in the Yucatan, triggering a series of events that transform Brian's understanding of Mexico's - and his own - past and present.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
In this slick but timely work, Garcia ( Skin Deep ) pits a tale of small-fry anthropologists against the backdrop of civil unrest in Mexico, drawing a far-fetched parallel between the two. Brian Mendoza, a highly Anglicized Mexican-American, is a doctoral candidate at Berkeley specializing in Aztec ritual sacrifice. His particular radical theory--on which he hopes to base a career--is that Motecuhzoma, the Aztec king enslaved by Cortes, allowed himself to be debased for some grander purpose. Landing a job at Mexico City's Museum of Anthropology, Mendoza gets sucked into a political vortex, with both his boss and a shady power broker vying for his allegiance. As the country sinks into civil war, Mendoza finds himself in love with a beautiful reporter who has been teaching him about the inequities in Mexican society. Garcia ( Skin Deep ) writes with conviction, although certain passages (particularly the diary entries of a conquest-era Aztec) are unevenly crafted. In addition, the story doesn't resolve any of the social and historical questions it raises. The author knows his subject matter, however, and his use of Aztec mythology lends a particularly exotic hook. (June)Library Journal
Brian Mendoza is a Berkeley graduate student whose innovative theories on Aztec rituals qualify him to become a research associate at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. He is also Chicano, so a visit south of the border is a good chance to acquaint himself with Mexico. When a new Aztec codex is discovered, Brian endangers himself to follow its trail of secrets and is soon caught in a tug of war between shady political and cultural powers-that-be. Brian also experiences an on-again, off-again romance with Marina, a journalist whom neither Brian nor readers know whether to trust. Brian's modern-day adventure is interspersed with text from the codex, detailing a quest by the 16th-century shaman, Xotl. Though this new work by the author of Skin Deep (LJ 11/15/88) suffers from a nearly unbelievable string of coincidences that repeatedly place Brian in the right place at the right time, readers who have a yen for archaeological thrillers will find much action here. Garcia's best writing brings to life the Mexican settings, be they Yucatan, Merida, or Mexico City.-Keddy Ann Outlaw, Harris Cty. P.L., HoustonBook Details
Published
June 1, 1994
Publisher
Simon & Schuster
Pages
368
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780671864798