The Potbellied Virgin (Texas Pan American Liter. CossAo, Gladhart<|

The Potbellied VirginAuthor(s): Alicia Ynez Cosso, Amalia Gladhart\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: University of Texas Press, United States\nImprint: University of Texas Press\nISBN-13: 9780292714106, 978-0292714106\nSynopsis\nIn an unnamed town in the Ecuadorian Andes, a small wooden icon-La Virgen Pipona (the Potbellied Virgin)-conceals the documents that define the town's social history. That history recently has been dominated by the women of the Benavides family, a conservative clan and, not coincidentally, the caretakers of the Virgin. Their rivals are the Pandos, a family led by four old men who spend their days smoking in the park across from the Virgin's cathedral and offering revisionist versions of local and national events. When a military skirmish threatens the Virgin (and the secret in her famous belly), the Benavides women must scramble to preserve their place as local matriarchs-without alerting the old Pandos to the opportunity that might enable them to finally suppla.