This captivating collection of translated short works by José López Portillo y Rojas, one of Mexico’s most significant literary figures, explores themes of social frustration, loss, and heartache in late-nineteenth-century Mexico.

Torment and Tequila in Belle Epoque Mexico is the first English-language collection of selected fiction by the influential Mexican author and political figure José López Portillo y Rojas (1850–1923). His distinguished career spanned the late nineteenth century to the tumultuous years of the Mexican Revolution.

López Portillo y Rojas’s prose is characterized by rich vocabulary and fluid progression, offering readers moments of deep reflection. The stories boast finely drawn characters and evocative settings, including that of the author’s native Jalisco. He adeptly addresses the grand issues of Porfirian times, seamlessly blending social and personal themes of suffering, ambition, desire, and betrayal, and anchors his stories in the realities of human experience.

Three masterfully translated short stories and one novella make up the collection, beginning with “The Lottery Ticket,” a critique of social hypocrisy that follows a dreamer whose fortunes slip through his fingers at the hands of his own family. “The Mirror” explores the eerie depths of grief and guilt, echoing the gothic brilliance of Edgar Allan Poe. “Nieves” is a gripping novella of love and power in which a young woman’s fate becomes entangled in a decaying estate and a brewing rebellion. “The Bracelet,” examines the tragic weight of the past, as a locked piece of jewelry seals the fate of an engaged couple. These translations offer an unforgettable glimpse into one of Mexico’s most brilliant minds and restore López Portillo y Rojas to his rightful place in Mexican literary history.

José López Portillo y Rojas (1850–1923) was an acclaimed Mexican writer and political figure.

Terry Rugeley is a retired professor of history at the University of Oklahoma. He is author of Epic Mexico: A History from Earliest Times and The River People in Flood Time: The Civil Wars in Tabasco, Spoiler of Empires, among other works.

Acknowledgments

Introduction: A Patrician and His Prose

The Lottery Ticket

The Mirror

Nieves

The Bracelet

Notes

Bibliography