Roque Moreno

In this historical novel Teresa González de Fanning (1836-1913), Peruvian educator and novelist, portrays the chaos that characterized Peru in the years immediately after Independence. The plot revolves around two haciendas, one owned by Roque Moreno, descendant from a family of freedmen, owner of an estate formerly belonging to the Jesuits, the other by Don Justo de la Vega Hermosa, a Spaniard based in Peru. Besides its interest in the culture of the haciendas in times of Peruvian President Agustín Gamarra, the novel also offers a psychological analysis based on racial concepts investigating the Peruvian self formed both by Spanish and black descendants.

Thomas Ward, a specialist in Peruvian literature, is a professor of Spanish and Latin and Latin American studies at Loyola University Maryland. Its introduction places «Roque Moreno, a novel negrista», within the path that goes from colonialism to blackness. «Roque Moreno» is the second critical edition he publishes for Stockcero, the first, «The Dead Rose» (2007) reintegrated Aurora Cáceres in studies on modernism. It is expected that this edition will reinsert «Roque Moreno» by Teresa González de Fanning in studies on the historical novel.