“¿Cómo no publicarlas?”: Editora Taller’s Publication of a Trio of Haitian-Authored Novels in the Dominican Republic

Abstract

This article considers three Haitian-authored novels published in Spanish by Editora Taller in the Dominican Republic in the 1970s: Jacques Stéphen Alexis’s Mi compadre el general sol (1972), Jacques Roumain’s Los gobernadores del rocío (1974), and René Depestre’s El palo ensebado (1977). In republishing prior Spanish translations that first surfaced in other Latin American literary markets, Editora Taller added new cover images to these subsequent editions and succeeded in publishing these works for Dominican readers. The article assesses the literary impact of these three novels by exploring the various editions and reprints and by considering their influence on other publications. To offer new perspectives on Dominican-Haitian relations and Hispaniola’s seldom-studied publishing industry in the late twentieth century, the analysis also examines the potential political motivations for Editora Taller in bringing these novels to a Dominican audience. The article includes quotes from a recent interview with Editora Taller’s founder, José Israel Cuello.