Читать книгу Nicaraguan Gringa - John Keith - Страница 7

Author’s Notes

Although real political figures in both Nicaragua and the United States are mentioned in the novel, all of the characters that actually speak and appear in the narrative are fictional. Places that are mentioned in the novel pose a more complicated mixture of real locations and imagined settings. Quinta Louisa, the coffee factory, and the village are all fictional. Although the names of actual barrios in Managua are used, the descriptions of them may be somewhat fanciful composites of several areas of the city.

The time-line that follows these notes offers a context for the larger national and international events within which the story is set. Some of these events are noted in the narrative so that the reader is reminded of the historical time and situation. Other events are included in the time-line as a general historical background.

Italics are used to indicate the dialogue in Spanish, and regular type is used when English is being spoken. On occasions the actual Spanish word or phrase is printed when no English translation seems adequate for its meaning at that point in the story. In conversations where English predominates but a Spanish word is “thrown in,” the actual Spanish word is printed in the text followed by its translation in parenthesis. Bilingual characters often use “Spanglish,” a mixture of the languages within a single sentence or phrase. A suggestion of the syntax and rhetoric of the Spanish conversation is attempted in the English italicized translation, such as the omission of contractions and possessive nouns, although a strict word-for-word translation would render the dialogue too stilted. Italics are also used on occasion in the usual manner for emphasis.

In all these matters the reader’s discernment and judgment will be needed.