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Cuento Negro para una Negra NocheMexican EditionThe Mexican edition illustrations show how this African story is so parallel to the Mexican experience. The admixture of Christianity with the local animistic religion results in a very distinctive new religion with mystery abounding. Manuel Ahumada’s dramatic illustrations have a very Mexican flavor with the skulls in the eyes of horror at left, and the close-up of the woman with the child on the log bridge in the eye of the beholder at right. 
It’s interesting that in this story of all women, told by a man remembering the incident from his childhood, Manuel Ahumada chose a stunning male figure for the front cover of the book (seen at the top of the page). We find toward the end of the book that it is the spirit of death who visits the family and takes away the baby. 
One of the nice things about getting a book published (finally) is that it begins to take on a life of its own. Recently I got four new author’s copies of the second edition of the Mexican edition. I believe the text is the same throughout (unlike the second French edition which is a completely new head-to-toe translation) but the front cover was much improved, in my opinion, by enlarging the Death figure.
Copyright © 2004 Robert Locke |