Day Of The Dead/ Dia De Los Muertos

"I am Berto Morales. I am the false son of a nameless and blind man. I am War. I took his land through a pretense. I am Pestilence. When his heir returned to claim his birthright, I killed him. I am Murder. His comrades returned to find me, and failing to do so, took the life of my wife and child. I was Love. I determined to meet injustice with injustice. I am Hatred. I brought war to those who ended my life. I am Executioner. I am guilty of sins that have no name. I have come to the slaughter uninvited and have determined to give my life freely." And so begins the saga of Berto Morales set during the Mexican Revolution, the landscape of Day of the Dead is littered with the victims of a brutal war, one populated by a cast of villains, saints, heroes, and ordinary people whose roles are often impossible to reconcile. It is 1913 when Berto returns to his small Oaxacan ranch to find that his beloved wife, six months with child, has been brutally murdered. Devastated, he sets out to find the murderers and exact revenge, but what he will find on this journey is that justice is elusive, much more so than vengeance. Tracking the murderer, the elusive Barbon to Mexico City, Berto meets the idealistic Isabella, herself a victim of the brutality of war. She has decided to enter the fray to honor the memory of her dead husband and their shared vision of a just and democratic Mexico. In the midst of his vendetta, Berto must decide whether to follow in the path of avenging his cruel losses, or to offer himself to Isabella and her child Victoriana as a guide and protector. Plunging headlong into this maelstrom of violence and tragedy, Berto Morales will confront a fate that holds out the possibility of an unlikely redemption-and perhaps a new life-while threatening a judgment too terrible to withstand.

"Martínez continues his fine writing on Day of the Dead, and offers further proof of the wide range of Chicano literature. The reader will acknowledge that our ties to tradition serveas a most appropriate title on this tightly-written work ." Rolando Hinojosa

"In his novels Manuel Martinez writes the naked truth, and he does so twice: once when he relates the almost unknown American history of underprivileged Mexican immigrants, who never had the power or status to tell their unbelievably courageous and human stories themselves; and a second time when he makes us confront questions of identity, morality, justice and vengeance that are as relevant to anyone living in present day America and the world as they are to his protagonists. In Day of the Dead, Martinez executes this feat in clean, compassionate prose, poignantly direct and lacking in clichés." Assaf Gavron, has published four novels, a collection of short stories. His fiction has been translated into German, Russian, Italian, French, English and more, won prizes, was adapted for the stage, and optioned several times for movies.

Manuel Luis Martinez serves as an associate professor of twentieth century American literature, American studies, Chicano/Latino studies, and creative writing, and is the current Director of Undergraduate Studies at the Ohio State University. He earned a doctorate from Stanford University in 1997. His novels are Crossing,1998 which was chosen as one of ten outstanding books by PEN American Center in New York; Drift, 2003, which was chosen as one of the best books of 2004 by the American Library Association.