Publicity Copy for Meet Me Under the Ceiba

To review the publisher's publicity copy—better known as catalog copy—of one’s forthcoming book can be a bittersweet moment: sweet because of the excitement of learning with what words the publisher intends to market the work, and bitter because, on rare occasions, a writer discovers that the publisher is out of synch with one's work. Because of this, I always approach this moment with a little trepidation.

As the release of Meet Me Under the Ceiba approaches, I was thrilled after reading the catalog copy for the novel. Marina Tristan, Assistant Director of Arte Publico Press, wrote the descriptor. She did a magnificent job—better than I could’ve ever done—capturing the spirit of the novel.

I’d like to share with you the draft of the copy:

Meet Me under the Ceiba
Silvio Sirias
September 30, 2009, 256 pages, $15.95
Trade Paperback
ISBN-10: 1-55885-592-0, ISBN-13: 978-1-55885-592-2

This affectionate portrayal of a small Nicaraguan town
reveals humanity in all its beauty and ugliness

“I’m not afraid of that old man,” Adela once told her niece. But everyone in the small town of La Curva, Nicaragua, knew that the wealthy land owner, Don Roque Ramírez, wanted Adela Rugama dead. And on Christmas Day, Adela disappeared. It was two months before her murdered body was found.

An American professor of Nicaraguan descent spending the summer in his parents’ homeland learns of Adela’s murder and vows to unravel the threads of the mystery. He begins the painstaking process of interviewing the townspeople, and it quickly becomes apparent that Adela—a hard-working campesina who never learned to read and write—and Don Roque had one thing in common: the beautiful Ixelia Cruz. The love of Adela’s life, Ixelia was one of Don Roque’s many possessions until Adela lured her away.

The interviews with Adela’s family, neighbors, and former lovers shed light on the circumstances of her death and reveal the lively community left reeling by her brutal murder, including: Adela’s older sister Mariela and her four children, who spent Christmas morning with Adela, excitedly unwrapping the gifts their beloved aunt brought them that fateful day; her neighbor and friend, Lizbeth Hodgson, the beautiful mulata who early in their relationship rejected Adela’s passionate advances; Padre Uriel, who did not welcome Adela to mass because she loved women (though he has no qualms about his lengthy affair with a married woman); Adela’s former lover Gloria, the town’s midwife, who is forever destined to beg her charges to name their newborn daughters Adela.

Through stories and gossip that expose jealousies, scandals, and misfortunes, Sirias lovingly portrays the community of La Curva, Nicaragua, in all its evil and goodness. The winner of the Chicano / Latino Literary Prize, this spellbinding novel captures the essence of a world rarely seen in American literature.

Praise for the work of Silvio Sirias:

"The details of Bernardo's Nicaragua are wholly entertaining and enticing, with images of Catholic mysticism juxtaposed against the particulars of life in the dusty village of Cuapa. Sirias' prose is lovely."—San Antonio Express-News on Bernardo and the Virgin

SILVIO SIRIAS is the author of a novel, Bernardo and the Virgin (Northwestern University Press, 2007), and he has written and edited several books on Latino/a literature, including Julia Alvarez: A Critical Companion (Greenwood Press, 2001) and Conversations with Rudolfo Anaya (University Press of Mississippi, 1998). He received his doctorate in Spanish from the University of Arizona and worked as a professor of Spanish and U.S. Latino and Latina literature for several years before returning to live in Nicaragua in 1999. He currently lives in Panama.


Although the information regarding Meet Me Under the Ceiba has yet to be uploaded onto the website, if you wish to learn more about the publisher, Arte Publico Press, click here.