As the sheets dry, they bond and stick together. Sheets that are printed from the back plate printing process require 72 hours to dry and cure before they move to the face plate printing process. inch), the paper is forced into the engraved plate, thereby removing the ink and printing the image. The engraved plates are mounted on the press then covered with ink. A wiper removes the excess ink from the surface of the plate, leaving ink in the recessed image area of the plate. Paper is applied directly to the plate and under tremendous pressure (approximately 20,000 lbs. Plate printing is used for the portraits, vignettes, scrollwork, numerals, and lettering that is unique to each denomination. In the plate printing process, ink is applied to a plate so that it remains only in the engraved areas. Paper is then laid atop the plate, and the two are pressed together under great pressure. As a result, the ink from the recessed areas is pulled onto paper, creating a finished image. It could change in a minute or remain the same forever.”In the telling.
384 pages, $21.95.) “Truth was all in the story, in the way it was told and in who was doing the telling.
SEWELL Commerce, Texas The Crown of Columbus. Unfortunately, the epigraph Fernandez placed before each portrait is reversed for “Esmeralda”and “Zulema.”One would wish for another printing to correct this error in an otherwise flawless book. It isalso an introduction to magic realism and maywell become a classic within that genre. Finally Fernandez sets up Zulema to help Nenita realize the value of “los cuentos,”not stories ofwhat really happened, but stories aboutwhich she says, “Each ofus tell it as we see it.” Intaglio is a gem-more than a novel of a girl’s coming of age, more than the development of an artist’s aesthetic, more than six pictures of Mexican culture. True love and its opposite, evil, are brought to her by Esmeralda. When new images learned in college seem to efface the old images, Leonore teaches her that nothing is ever lost: transformations generate new life. With Filomena, Nenita experiences a spiritual epiphany at a celebration of El Dia de los Muertos. Story follows story as Fernandez’ structure carries the child forward. She watches Amanda take fabulous materials and fashion them into “luminous whirls”of “swaying fabric.”Amanda’s world is enchanted, where witches hover, and Nenita’sself-indulgence in make-believe is nourished. Fernandez furthers the child’seducation, next, by treating her to the magic of transformation. A thick blue album holding Andrea’s photos and programs is a dominant motif, representing glamour but ending in “shredded blossoms/on the water.”Andrea’s successes only served to separate her from her ethnicity. In “Andrea,” Fernandez introduces Nenita, the child facing puberty, who dreams of dancing, as did Andrea, to the applause of great audiences in grand halls. Through the old women*Fernandez bestows upon her central character a legacy of sensitivity to art, beauty, religion, love, and evil, too, a legacy which moves the girl steadily toward a career in writing. Used to embody the content of this novel, it takes on the dimension of the process by which six Mexican-American women bring a child to womanhood-to a state where she can define herselfin terms not only of her ethnic past but also of her fantasies of that past. 159 pages, $8.50.) Intaglio, the word, needs no definition. (Houston, Texas: Arte Publico Press, 1990. Reviews 369 Intaglio: A Novel in Six Stories. In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: