Title:  Religion, Writing, and Colonial Resistance: Mathias Carvalho’s Louis Riel Author:  Jennifer Reid Series: Contexts and Consequences Imprint:  The Davies Group, Publishers soft cover 120 pp. USD 16.00 ISBN 978-1934542231 February  2011 Mathias Carvalho’s Louis Riel is a three-part monograph revolving around a poem about the Canadian Métis leader, Louis Riel. The poem was written by an obscure Brazilian poet just months after Riel’s conviction and execution for treason in 1885. How Carvalho was able to learn of Riel’s activities and demise at the hands of the Canadian Government is an enigma, and in the initial segment of this monograph the author explores possible answers to the question of sources. The first English translation of the poem comprises the middle segment; and it is followed by an extended essay in which Carvalho’s poem is explored in relation to the writings of not only Riel, but of the Cuban revolutionary, José Martí. Reid argues that all three writers were articulating a pan-hemispheric response to nineteenth century colonialism and imperialism that was not only political, social, and economic, but also fundamentally religious. Contents Foreword One Mathias Carvalho and Louis Riel Two  Poemas Americanos I: Riel Three  On the Wings of Prayer: Riel, Carvalho, and José Martí Appendices Notes Bibliography Reviews “Jennifer Reid’s brilliant study of Mathias Carvalho’s understanding and reception of Louis Riel’s life and work reveals an alternate hemispheric vision of the New World.  Her study stands in the tradition of  Jose Marti, C.L.R. James, and Eduardo Galeano and adds a new dimension to the discourses regarding globalization, cosmopolitanism and post- colonialism.” —Charles H. Long “In finding broad linguistic and thematic similarities in the work of Mathias Carvalho, José Marti and Louis Riel, Jennifer Reid leads us to see the life and struggles of Riel in a startling new light…Reid’s book about Carvalho’s Riel poem combines the mystery of the origin of a text with an exploration of the religious and political thought that colonialism fostered in the poets of the resisting indigenous peoples. It is compelling reading both for Riel scholars and those with broader interests in the religious and political history of the Americas.” —Hans V. Hansen , Director Centre for Research in Reasoning, Argumentation and Rhetoric University of Windsor “Jennifer   Reid   uses   the   poem   eulogizing   the   life   and   religious   visions   of   the   Canadian   Riel,   written   by   the   Brazilian   revolutionary   Carvalho,   to   present   an   excitingly   expansive case   for   the   profound   influence   that   Louis   Riel’s   life   had   in   liberation   movements   throughout   the   Americas   and   demonstrate   the   significance   of   Indigenous   revitalizations across linguistic, cultural, and nationalistic lines in the nineteenth century.” —Philip Arnold, Syracuse University Author Jennifer Reid is a professor of religion at University of Maine Farmington. She is author of Louis Riel and the Creation of Modern Canada: Mythic Discourse and the Postcolonial State; ‘Worse Than Beasts’: An Anatomy of Melancholy and the Literature of Travel in 17^th and 18^th Century England; and Myth, Symbol, and Colonial Encounter: British and Mi’kmaq in Acadia, 1700-1867.