Bandits from Rio Frio : A Naturalistic and Humorous Novel of Customs, Crimes, and Horros

A romantic tale of Mexico at the dawn of Independence, an adventure, a romance, a political satire, a sociological study, a whodunit, a telenovela, and more.

Manuel Payno's classic Mexican novel develops a romantic history of impossible love between the Countess Mariana del Sauz and Lieutenant Colonel Juan Robreño. An illegitimate son results from a brief union of these lovers, and this star-crossed child is kidnapped and abandoned by Aztec witches. Wrongly accused of theft and murder, he must pursue the truth of his birth through staggering misfortunes. Along the way he experiences war, famine, plague, and association with Evaristo, a bandit of national and even international fame who nearly brings a government to its knees.

These and a host of other memorable characters are swept up in a web of organized crime spun by the fabulous Relumbrón, presidential assistant, wealthy aristocrat, church stalwart, family man, and former associate of the great Santa Ana.

"This is a major work... and the translation is superb!"

-- C. M. Mayo in Critical Mass, the blog of the National Book Critics Circle Board of Directors; author of Sky Over El Nido (University of Georgia Press)
"Mexican soap operas or telenovelas are famous around the world for being addictively entertaining. Long before the telenovela, there was the novela, and the granddaddy of all Mexican novels is Manuel Payno's Los Bandidos de Río Frío (1891). You might pick it up out of curiosity about a very different place and time, but it is Payno's wild, melodramatic, and thoroughly captivating story that will keep you reading. Alan Fluckey's jaunty and fluid translation is a perfect match for Payno's prose."

-- Dr. David Frye, University of Michigan. Translator of The Mangy Parrot by José Joaquín Fernández Lizardi (Hackett Press)

"Alan Fluckey must be commended for being the translator to finally translate The Bandits from Río Frío to the English. Manuel Payno's epic work can finally find a permanent home in the collection of popular literary classics in English, paralleling its place in Spanish language literature. This down-to-earth picture of 19th century Mexican life and politics is priceless."

-- River Walk Journal

"...depicts the moral values and lively spirit of Mexican society."

-- Alva V. Cellini, St. Bonaventure University, in The MultiCultural Review

"Think of Manuel Payno as the Margaret Mitchell of Mexico and then settle back for a multilayered novel reflecting both the rich culture and history of 19th century Mexico. Fluckey's excellent translation is fluid and sassy."

-- The Tucson Citizen

"Manuel Payno's Los Bandidos de Río Frío is the only Mexican novel of the nineteenth-century to approach an adequate and persuasive portrayal of the tragic-comedy of national politics and life in the decades after the Reformation."

-- D.A. Brading author of The First America: The Spanish Monarchy, Creole Patriots and the Liberal State 1492-1866 (Cambridge University Press)

"...a sweeping epic vision of a country... Payno's novel is an immense fresco of [Mexico], depicting members of all social classes... By presenting a wide spectrum of characters, Payno covers every aspect of popular life in Mexico... while sketching the political, rural, provincial, urban, military, religious, and economic problems of the country during times of anarchy."

-- José Tomás de Cuéllar, author of The Magic Lantern: Having a Ball and Christmas Eve (Library of Latin America)