Leyendas Quechua. Antología

Jesús Lara (1898—) is a morose leftist writer who is a violent exponent of Bolivian Indianismo. He has written some good books, all dealing with Quechua and Quechua Indians. His novels are called novelas quechuas. Lara’s La poesía quechua. Ensayo y antología (1947) is an excellent book. His newest study lacks originality. In it he simply has collected twenty-one legends (pre-Columbian and colonial), all from secondary sources. Some of them he has retranslated since he believes that his knowledge of Quechua is far better than that of previous translators. All these legends are interesting and even fascinating. It is too bad that Lara with his great knowledge of Quechua literature has failed to provide a scholarly introduction and comments, yet the new Lara Antología is still valuable for those interested in Quechua folklore.