A Revision Update, and Revisiting Obsessions of Old VIII

A Revision Update:

There is progress to report this week as I am now working on Chapters 34-38. What’s more, Chapters 34-36 are almost ready. There will be, however, a delay: I’m leaving for Nicaragua this Friday for a family reunion, of sorts. During this time I'll have to set rewriting aside. The good news is that after this trip, revising will be my full-time job as the school year ends tomorrow. And I expect to have The Saint of Santa Fe polished by August 1, the day I return to work

What also is a cause for celebration is that I expect to return with a notebook full of observations from my trip to Nicaragua. Many of these experiences are bound to become future blog entries.

An Invitation to Revisit a Posting:

Two days ago, June 9, marked the thirty-seventh anniversary of Father Héctor Gallego’s disappearance. While conducting research for The Saint of Santa Fe, which is based on Gallego’s life, I noticed that he was constantly compared to the revolutionary Colombian priest Camilo Torres—as both praise and criticism. I mentioned to Isabel Montoya—a student who lived with my wife and me for a year and became a daughter to us—my desire to learn more about this Latin American icon of the 60s. A couple of weeks after my comment, Isabel’s family, who live in Colombia, sent me a wonderful gift: Camilo: El cura guerrillero by Walter J. Broderick. After reading this fascinating account of Camilo Torres’s life, I was moved to write the following posting, which is one of my personal favorites: “Three Paths to Martyrdom: Ambrose Bierce, Camilo Torres, and Héctor Gallego.”