Castillo Nájera, Francisco
El Gavilán (Corrido Grande)
El Gavilán (Corrido Grande)
Paris: Ediciones Estrella, 1934. First Edition. Folio in green printed stiff paper wraps; 89 pages, numerous full-page b&w illustrations; notas (glossary), indice; 29 x 23 cm. Minor sunning and bumping to exterior, with some of the bumping gently affecting text block; else overall very good(+) to about near fine(-). Binding tight; leaves clean. Some sunlight aberration to cover photo ; the slight light diagonal streak is not in the wrapper. Paperback.
In Spanish. Rhyming quatrains in grand corrido style. Purportedly one of the earliest (first?) mentions of marijuana in print by a Mexican writer: "se li alborota la mota, ve llegada la ley fuga, y aunque nada se le nota, todo el cuero se li arruga.... ". The term "Mariguana" is also quite amusingly defined in the book's detailed glossary. "Yerba", as well. ¶ "La edición original consta de mil ejemplares: doscientos en papel 'simili japón blanc' y ochocientos en 'vergé antique teinté." This copy on the latter. ¶ "Francisco Castillo Nájera (25 November 1886 in Victoria de Durango – 20 December 1954 in Mexico City) was a Mexican diplomat and politician. He was president of the Assembly of the League of Nations from 1934 to 1935, ambassador to China and the United States, also as the dean of the diplomatic corps in 1945, the last year of his tenure,and Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 1945 to 1946." —Wikipedia.