Manual of the Baratero: The Art of Handling the Navaja, the Knife, and the Scissors of the Gypsies Paperback – January 1, 2005

Not being immersed in a Gypsy community, it is hard for anyone to judge what it is like for a male representetive of this colorful ethnicity to work the knife, the whip, to sing and dance to a guitar, to love and to hate. However, until the age of about 14 i lived in Moldavia, a region known for its Gypsy population and for its influence on the local culture. People have often held a certain fascination with the personal steel there, and i wasn't an exception. Unconsciously (for the most part) i carried an ice pick from my father's taylor shop around the age of 13-14, having no notion of what it's like to put that thing into anyone's body...The book "Manual of the Baratero" is a one of a kind piece of literature, describing a way of life of the low ones, and their knife wielding style of fighting. In truth, its more about quick punishment than about fighting, although it looks like tet-a-tet encounters weren't uncommon.As much as it is strange to have a "Manual of how to be a Yakuza", this book is not really a "how to-" manual, but rather (as the translator sharply points out) a sort of written vengeance on the upper crust of society - too proud and too busy to note that dark impeccability of the representetive of the "hood". I have to assume they did eventually, as flamenco is widely excepted for its beauty complexity and harmony and is one of the more well-known symbols of Spain. In any case, this book is a valuable source document, and it comes both in English and in Spanish.

I own two copies-one hardcover, one on kindle. We chose to run through this book at a Monday study group and ended up using less than a third of the material. First, the actual reference material is *very* short and is not written by a practitioner but by a an observer so some of the navaja techniques are described but not as detailed as we'd have liked.Pros: Nice to have a translation and some opinion from Maestro Martinez and James Loriega and am grateful we have the material. The book has an actual foot placement chart for the "hero" and "counter hero" positions which is something one rarely sees. It was nice to see something other than the usual German or Italian for western martial arts. Cons: There isn't a lot of overall material and quite a bit is interpretation, not translation or original material. I think it depends on what you hope to find.Overall, I enjoyed it-especially some of the colorful descriptions of the Baratero and the references in the contemporary literature of its time. Some of the 'tricks' and unusual blades are great to read about and if you are a stage performer this can offer some fun items for shows.If you don't mind reading ready-made interpretation and opinion, then this book is for you. Your mileage may vary.

It's interesting, but more from a historical perspective than a tactical one. The instructions are sometimes in need of a martial artist translation, and at other times are just interesting commentary or explanations why such & such will not be explained. Other books are better about justifying why a move should be done a certain way, but for how old it is, it's probably more efficient at explaining tactics than other documents of that era. The translator has inserted some commentary and attempted to supplement the images.

I found this fascinating. Chapters are concise.I have received this product in exchange for my fair and honest review.It's the stuff that separates ordinary beings from deep thinkers, from Geniuses. I particularly like that this product. The price considering the quantity and quality for this product is the key selling point and is really unmatchable with anything else out there. So far I do not have any cons about this product! Thank you for taking the time to read my review, and I hope it is helpful in helping you decide whether to buy the product or not!

Being a blade enthusiast and Filipino Martial Arts practitioner, I've had this book for a while now, but recently downloaded it to my Kindle so the book would always be with me. Upon my first reading of the book, I found this book to be chock-full of information....not only in its history, culture, and techniques of the Navaja, but in the essence of the era as well. The footnotes and translator's comments are a welcome addition.Having had the privilege to study Navaja under Maestro Loriega and one of his disciples, Antone Blair, this book is a must-have in my personal studies. Mr. Loriega is a true "Maestro de armas blancas".

This book provides a translation of a knife fighting manual used by gypsies and contains a lot of history of how Spanish sword fighting influenced these techniques. It also contains the original Spanish document as well as notes and translations to help the reader understand these historical fighting techniques.

Because of the overwhelming good reviews I decided to buy this book but I am a little disappointed. Just to be clear I am a beginner and maybe the ideas and concepts are guided to people who have a better understanding of small edge weapons. I learn more about the history and culture of the "Baratero" than actual techniques. I also read some other reviews of people pointing out that one half of the book was in Spanish and the other one was in English and that maybe some hidden gems where in the Spanish section. Well, I read both and actually the English section has comments and easier to understand. The Spanish section probably is the original written in 1840 and is full weird spelling(Andalusian) and very difficult to follow old Spanish.

I have read Mr Loriega's other book about the Navaja, and found it vfery fascinating. This book does not disappoint. It gives the reader an insite into a world now gone, and the evocative illustrations by Dore, add to the interest.

The manual of the baratero is an interesting read a very basic manual with some interesting ideas and techniques described translated by the author of sevillian steel