Don Goyo

On the mangrove islands of the Guayas river delta near Guayaquil, the mixed-race cholo fishermen and woodcutters live in near-mystical communion with the swamps and their ancient patriarch, Don Goyo, a figure old as the mangroves themselves. Aguilera Malta, a pioneer of Latin American magical realism, roots it in the real estuary: the island villages, the mangrove swamps the cholos harvest, the river and its canoes, and the distant city of Guayaquil whose market and traders press them to cut the forest down.

Cusumbo

The delta islands

Chapter 1

On the low mangrove islands of the delta the cholos live by fishing, cutting wood and gathering the red-barked mangrove, in a world half water and half land. The young cholo Cusumbo, chafing at the poverty and the pull of the city, is the figure through whom the tension between the old island life and the money of Guayaquil is felt.

Chapter 1

inspired by The cholo village of the novel sits on the mangrove islands of the Guayas river delta; the settlement is drawn from the real estuary islands near Guayaquil and sited there.

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