When the Owl Cries

by Paul Alexander Bartlett

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 Mexican Revolution. I have written the book because I am fond of Mexico, where I have lived for many years. My story of an hacienda family, though not historical, represents the end of hacienda life, the passing of the landed aristocracy and the beginning of a democratic way. Only through volcanic eruption and earthquake could I symbolize the great social changes 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 ancient Mexican-Indian superstition, "Cuando el tecolote llora, se muere el indio"—"When the owl cries, an Indian dies."