Pre-Columbian Bestiary

Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities and Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College, publisher of Restless Books, and host of NPR’s podcast In Contrast. He is the recipient of numerous international awards and honors, and his books have been translated into twenty languages. Among his recently published books are two Penn State University Press titles: the graphic novel adaptation of Don Quixote of La Mancha, illustrated by Roberto Weil, and The Return of Carvajal: A Mystery, illustrated by artist and illustrator Eko, whose engravings are also featured in this book.

• PrefaceAcuecuéyotlAmaruAzcatlCamazot TzootzChaacChachalacaChapulínChicchánChuenColotlCoyametlCuetzpalinDzabyEhecatlHixxHuexólotlHuitzinIguanaImix CipactliItzpapalotlKayKunturLama GlamaLama GuanacoeMayahuelMichinMictlantecuhtliMontizon PuskatMoyotlNahualOcOcelotlOmecihuatlPauahtunTepeyólotlThiuimeTlalcíhuatl ToadTochtliTociTonatiuhUturunkuUtzimengariXiuhtilánXólotlXtabayZulinFurther ReadingsIndex

“The imaginary and real beings described by Ilan Stavans with whimsy, wit, irony, and, most of all, wonder, emerge from the pre-Columbian and colonial Americas to remind us that even in our own decolonial times, the imaginary and the nonimaginary, the fantastic and the historical, the speculative and the real continue to coincide in the Americas on the elusive line between fact and fiction, where ‘what is known and what is hoped for intermingle.’”—Ramón Saldívar, author of The Borderlands of Culture: Américo Paredes and the Transnational Imaginary