When the Owl Cries
by PAUL
BARTLETT
New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1960
© PAUL BARTLETT 1960
First Printing
The Macmillan Company, New York
Brett-Macmillan Ltd., Galt, Ontario
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress catalog card number: 60-9265
Project Gutenberg edition 2012
When the Owl Cries was originally published by Macmillan in 1960.This work has been out-of-print for many years, with reprint rightsthat reverted to the author and are now held by his Estate. Theauthors literary executor, rather than seek to publish a newcommercial edition of the book, decided to make the novel available asan open access publication, freely available to readers through ProjectGutenberg under the terms of the Creative CommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license, which allows anyone todistribute this work without changes to its content, provided that boththe author and the original URL from which this work was obtained arementioned, that the contents of this work are not used for commercialpurposes or profit, and that this work will not be used without thecopyright holders written permission in derivative works (i.e., youmay not alter, transform, or build upon this work without suchpermission). The full legal statement of this license may be found at
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/legalcode
Para mi esposa, aficionada de México,
con todo mi cariño
When the owl cries, an Indian dies.
Cuando el tecolote llora, se muere el Indio.
—Old Mexican saying
Author's Note
This novel commemorates the Fiftieth Anniversary of the MexicanRevolution. I have written the book because I am fond of Mexico, whereI have lived for many years. My story of an hacienda family, thoughnot historical, represents the end of hacienda life, the passing of thelanded aristocracy and the beginning of a democratic way. Only throughvolcanic eruption and earthquake could I symbolize the great socialchanges that began to take place about 1910.
When the Owl Cries
by
Paul Alexander Bartlett
INTRODUCTION
by
Steven James Bartlett
The book's title, When the Owl Cries, comes from the ancientMexican-Indian superstition, "Cuando el tecolote llora, se muere elindio"—"When the owl cries, an Indian dies."
ABOUT THE BOOK AND ITS AUTHOR
When the Owl Cries has been described by reviewers as "The Gone withthe Wind of Mexico." It is a gripping, vivid story that takes place ona huge estate, an hacienda, at the beginning of the Mexican Revolutionof 1910. The novel centers about the life of Don Ra