The City of Kings

These short stories, first published in Mexico in 1960, show Castellanos to be a first-rate writer whose understanding of Mexican culture is as disturbing as it is engrossing. Using the city of Ciudad Real--the eponymous City of Kings, once glorious but now ``a vain, empty shell''--as a unifying element, she explores how racism, hunger, religion and money become weapons for the rulers of a society built upon the domination of native peoples. An elderly woman bludgeons an Indian to death, but calms her fears that his spirit will haunt her by thinking, ``How could a spirit possibly appear if the body belonged to an Indian, and not to a rational person?'' A proud native tribe and its protective spirit are exterminated by Spanish oligarchs and their descendants. A baby dies of hunger, yet the doctor who allows it to happen proclaims it a victory in getting Indians to understand the value of ``white'' medicine. A subtle paradox inhabits these unrelenting stories: Castellanos (1925-1974) was herself a wealthy ladina or white woman of mixed (European and indigenous) ancestry. She manages her exposure of the racist underpinnings of society brilliantly; more than 30 years after these stories were written, the inhumanity they portray continues to chill the soul. (Apr.)