The Magic Lantern Having a Ball and Christmas Eve

José Tomas de Cuéllar (1830-1894) was a Mexican writer noted for his sharp sense of humor and gift for caricature. Having a Ball and Christmas Eve are two novellas written in the costumbrista style, made popular in the mid-nineteenth century by the periodical press in which these sketches of contemporary manners were first published. The stories are a sensitive reflection of the effects of modernization brought by an authoritarian regime dedicated to order and progress. Christmas Eve describes a volatile middle class in which people pursue pleasure and entertainment without regard to morality. Having a Ball depicts women and their dedication to fashion. It is through them that Cuellar examines a society susceptible to foreign values, the importation of which radically altered the face of Mexico and its traditional customs.

Margaret Carson has translated the work of several Spanish writers and won the 1994 Endowment Fund award from the American Literary Translators Association. Margo Glantz is Professor of Literature at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and is former Director of The Fine Arts Institute of Mexico. She is a well-known literary critic, the award-winning author of several novels, and the first woman to be inducted into the Mexican Academy of Letters.