Through his imaginative writing, Miguel Angel Asturias bridged the gap between myth and social commitment, and he relied on his love for language, for freedom, for Guatemala, and for the many different peoples and cultures of Central America to save him from the dangers of pedantic representations or social-realist distortions. Asturias fought for the rights of contemporary Indians, for the autonomy of Latin-American countries from intervention--especially from the United States--and for a more just distribution of wealth. His literary work unites this fight with an avant-garde, oneiric poetics; a contemporary scholarly understanding of ancient Quiché religion and culture; and his direct childhood experiences of rural Indian life in Guatemala. The ever-popular works of Asturias have undergone a critical reevaluation in the light of recent theories of literature and semiotics, and taking into consideration the directions in which Latin-American fiction has developed since his death in 1974. New scrutiny...