The Scroll and the Cross

Jews and Latinos have been unlikely partners through tumultuous times. This groundbreaking, eclectic book of readings, edited by Ilan Stavans, whom The Washington Post described as "one of our foremost cultural critics," offers a sideboard of the ups and downs of that partnership. It includes some seventy canonical authors, Jews and non-Jews alike, through whose diverse oeuvre-poetry, fiction, theater, personal and philosophical essays, correspondence, historical documents, and even kitchen recipes-the reader is able to navigate the shifting waters of history, from Spain in the tenth century to the Spanish-speaking Americas and the United States today. The Reader showcases the writings of such notable authors as Solomon ibn Gabirol, Maimonides, Miguel de Cervantes, Henry W. Longfellow, Miguel de Unamuno, Federico García Lorca, Jorge Luis Borges, Jacobo Timerman, Mario Vargas Llosa, Ruth Behar, and Ariel Dorfman to name only a few.

Ilan Stavans is the author of numerous books including OnBorrowed Words, and The Hispanic Condition, as well as editor of The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories, and TheEssential Ilan Stavans. He has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Latino Literature Prize, among other honors. Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College, MA.

Contents Acknowledgements Criteria Introduction: In the Chameleon's Path Further Readings Chronology Samuel Ha-Nagid (Spain, 993-1056) Short Prayed in Time of Battle [poem] Solomon ben Gabirol (Spain, 1021/22-c. 1055) Fragment of Night Storm [poem] Moses ben Ezra (Spain, c.1055-c.1135) The Two Sons [poem] Yehuda Ha-Levi (Spain, before 1075-after 1141) My Heart is in the East [poem] Benjamin of Tudela (Spain, 12th century) Jerusalem [travelogue] Judah ben Tibbon (Spain, 1120-1190) On Books and on Writing [testament] Maimonides (Spain, 1135-1204) Fragment of Epistle to the Jews of Morocco [letter] Section from the Guide of the Perplexed [philosophical treatise] Nahmanides (Spain, 1195-1270) Fragment of Disputation of Barcelona [debate] Gonzalo de Berceo (Spain, 1195-1265) The Jews of Toledo [poem] Alfonso X El Sabio (Spain, 1221-1284) Concerning the Jews: Las siete partidas [legal document] Moisés de León (Spain, dead 1305) Fragment of The Zohar [mystical treatise Anonymous (Spain) Edict of 1492 [document] Fray Luis de León (Spain, 1528-1591) Serene Night [poem] Luis de Carvajal el Mozo (Mexico, 1567-1596) Fragment of Autobiographical Essay [memoir] Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas (Spain, 1580-1645) To a Nose [poem] Miguel Levi de Barrios (Spain, 1635-1701) One Well-Founded Faith [poem] Miguel de Unamuno (Spain, 1864-1936) Canción del sefardita [poem] Rubén Darío (Nicaragua 1867-1916) Israel [poem] Alberto Gerchunoff (Argentina, 1884-1950) A Jewish Gaucho [memoir] Américo Castro (Spain, 1885-1972) Fragment of The Structure of Spanish History [essay] Samuel Eichelbaum (Argentina, 1894-1967) The Good Harvest [story] Federico García Lorca (Spain, 1898-1936) Jewish Cemetery [poem] Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) The Secret Miracle [story] Pinkhes Berniker (Belarus-Cuba-U.S., 1908-1956) Jesús [story] Julio Cortázar (Argentina, 1914-1984) Press Clippings [story] Jacobo Timerman (Argentina, 1923-1998) Fragment of Prisoner Without a Name [memoir] Salomón Isacovici (Romania-Ecuador, 1924-1998) Fragment of Man of Ashes [memoir] Marshall T. Meyer (U.S.A.-Argentina, 1928-1993) Thoughts on Latin America [sermon] Angelina Muníz-Huberman (Mexico, 1936) Fragment of The Merchant of Tudela [fiction] Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru, 1936) Fragment of The Storyteller [fiction] Rosa Nissán (Mexico, 1939) Fragment of Like a Bride [novel] Alicia Freilich (Venezuela, 1939) Recollections of a Criolla Zionist [memoir] Homero Aridjis (Mexico, 1940) 'Sepharad, 1492 [poem] Ariel Dorfman (Chile-U.S.A., 1942) Fragment of Heading South, Looking North [memoir] Isaac Goldemberg (Peru-U.S.A., 1945) The Jew's Imprecise Sonnet [poem] Tino Villanueva (Mexico-U.S.A., 1945) At the U.S. Holocaust Museum, Washington D.C. [poem] Alcina Lubitch Domecq (Guatemala-Israel, 1953) Résumé Raisonné [memoir] Marjorie Agosín (Chile-U.S.A., 1955) Dear Anne Frank [poem] Ruth Behar (Cuba-U.S.A.. 1956) The Hebrew Cemetery of Guabanacoa [poem] Ilan Stavans (Mexico-U.S.A., 1961) Fragment of On Borrowed Words [memoir] Index by Theme Index