José Francisco Buscaglia’s La maldición de Santa Águeda: 1898 Más allá del olvido (Editorial Verbum, 2024), won the bronze medal for Best Novel-Historical Fiction at the 2025 International Latino Book Awards. Warmest congratulations, José!
Book Description: In late July 1897, Italian anarchist Michele Angiolillo held a series of meetings in Paris with the Puerto Rican revolutionary leader Ramón Emeterio Betances. We know little of what was discussed in these clandestine meetings, where the lack of witnesses would shroud in mystery, until the end of time, the machinations that would lead to disastrous events. Ten days after their last meeting, at the Santa Águeda Spa (Arrasate, Gipuzkoa), Angiolillo assassinated Antonio Cánovas del Castillo with three shots at point-blank range. The assassination of the head of the Spanish government, which José Francisco Buscaglia reconstructs in meticulous detail, would lead directly, in less than a year, to a forced war with the United States.
In this gripping tale of intrigue, poet Maruja Segarra and veteran Cuban War sniper Antonio Acarón act as secret agents under Betances’s auspices to advance the cause of Puerto Rican independence. Their story intertwines the dreams and anxieties of key figures in a web that continues to secretly operate, serving the interests of both the victors and some of the victims of the 1898 war. To break this spell, in this book that blends [historical] essay and novel, Buscaglia offers readers direct access to the evils of despotism and slavery in the Antilles, providing a thorough account of “the vices” of the subjugated, while situating U.S. imperialism in its foundational stage.
José Francisco Buscaglia (San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1964) has a B.A in History and Latin American Studies (Princeton University, 1986), a Masters in Architecture, and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature (SUNY at Buffalo 1995, 1998). His artistic and intellectual development has been influenced by the work of his father, the sculptor José Buscaglia Guillermety, his experience as a disciple of Arcadio Díaz Quiñones, as well as his life and studies in Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Spain and the United States. Buscaglia began his career working as a journalist in Puerto Rico (1987-1991). He would go on to become a professor and university administrator, first at the University at Buffalo (1893-2015), and later at Northeastern University (2015-2023). He has also taught at the University of Havana (2002-2007) and the Autonomous University of Yucatán (2011-2015), as well as lead summer study abroad programs that took students to the University of Salamanca (2005-2015). In 2022, he was a visiting researcher at the Institute of History, in the Spanish High Council for Scientific Research. [. . .]
For more information, see https://www.latinobookawards.org/ and https://www.amazon.com/-/es/maldici%C3%B3n-%C3%81gueda-Biblioteca-Cubana-Spanish/dp/8411361373
José Francisco Buscaglia’s La maldición de Santa Águeda: 1898 Más allá del olvido (Editorial Verbum, 2024), won the bronze medal for Best Novel-Historical Fiction at the 2025 International Latino Book Awards. Warmest congratulations, José! Book Description: In late July 1897, Italian anarchist Michele Angiolillo held a series of meetings in Paris with the Puerto Rican revolutionary
