Comentario al libro ‘Tenochtitlan Must Fall’ por Xánath Caraza

Comentario al libro ‘Tenochtitlan Must Fall’

por Xánath Caraza

Tenochtitlan Must Fall, book 1 of the X Series by Gabriel Hugo, involves the reader in a world of simultaneous dreams. In reading we meet Tonali, as a young boy and as an adult, who lives in a Mexico at the end of the fifteenth century. We experience this character's rite of passage from boy to man while we discover the political entanglements that existed in pre-Hispanic Mexico.

Deftly Gabriel Hugo weaves parallel realities that describe Tonali's Mexica-Aztec life: first suffocated by the impossibility of a real change in his life, then as pochtecatl-merchant, traveler and spy for the Mexica-Aztec empire; of his first love, of his family life, of the different indigenous worldviews, of the cultural and linguistic diversity of that pre-Hispanic Mexico, and of the circles of power that surround it.

Reading Tenochtitlan Must Fall is like sampling the waters that flowed in the canals at the center of the world, Tenochtitlán: saturated with history, with details of daily life, and with emotions that invite the reader to not abandon its pages.                                                       

                              

Tenochtitlan Must Fall, el primer libro de la X Series de Gabriel Hugo, envuelve al lector en un mundo de sueños simultáneos. En la lectura conocemos a Tonali, joven y adulto, quien habita un México al cierre del siglo XV. Vivimos con este personaje su rito de pasaje de niño a hombre mientras conocemos sobre los enredos políticos que existían en el México prehispánico.

Diestramente Gabriel Hugo entreteje realidades paralelas que describen la vida mexica-azteca de Tonali: primero sofocado ante la imposibilidad de un cambio real en su vida, luego como pochtecatl—mercader, viajero y espía para el imperio mexica-azteca—de su primer amor, de su vida familiar, de las diferentes cosmovisiones indígenas, de la diversidad cultural y lingüística de ese México prehispánico y de los círculos de poder que lo rodean.

La lectura de Tenochtitlan Must Fall es como el agua que fluía en los canales del centro del mundo, Tenochtitlán: saturada de historia, de detalles sobre la vida diaria y de emociones que invitan al lector a no dejar las páginas.

Gabriel Hugo is an author, poet, actor, filmmaker, arts promoter, editor and publisher from the Rio Grande Valley. He is the chief editor at The Raving Press, having recently published the anthology “Poets Facing The Wall” (The Raving Press, 2018), which features poetry by authors from around the world respnoding to the proposed border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. In his acting career, Gabriel's most recent role was as the antagonist/villain “Gregorio” in the horror thriller “Amorsis: Cuando el amor se convierte en una enfermedad” by MQV Media, which premiered at the Cinemark Pharr Town Center theater during their red carpet event in Pharr, Texas.