En Cejunta y Gamud is a collection of 57 short stories describing the fantastical traditions that have brought fame to these two neighbouring communities. The form is that of an austere chronicle, in the style of the poets Henri Michaux or Julio Cortázar –authors as close to the surrealist movement as A.F. Molina himself. This is the territory of myth: an arbitrary and brutal world, penetrated by magic and superstition.

Nevertheless, if one wishes to find an explanation as to the origin of these stories, one does not need to search for any lost tribe or pre-existing literary source: it is quite possible they are a poetical evocation of the life that the author knew in various towns of Castilla. In the 30s and 40s life was more or less like that, or at least it could have been experienced as such by a child.

This book was first published in 1969; since then there have been others which have reproduced the author’s illustrations. The current edition incorporates new images by graphic designer Alejandro Magallanes, author of posters and illustrations for children’s books. He has not entered Gamud and Cejunta as a tourist, for he lives in Mexico City, where –as it is known– day is divided into minutes of tenderness and minutes of cannibalism.

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