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Main Trends In The Contemporary Colombian Novel, 1953-1967

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Main Trends In The Contemporary Colombian Novel, 1953-1967

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Content 72-575 PEDERSEN Jr., Carl Erol, 1929- MAIN TRENDS IN THE CONTEMPORARY COLOMBIAN NOVEL, 1953-1967. [Portions of Text in Spanish]. . University of Southern California, Ph.D., 1971 Language and Literature, modern I University Microfilms, A X ER O X Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan £ @1971 CARL EROL PEDERSEN JR. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED MAIN TRENDS IN THE CONTEMPORARY COLOMBIAN NOVEL 1953-1967 by Carl Erol Pedersen Jr. A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Spanish) June 1971 UNIVERSITY O F SO U TH ER N CALIFORNIA TH E GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY PARK LOS ANGELES, CALI FORNIA 9 0 0 0 7 This dissertation, w ritten by Carl Erol Pedersen under the direction of h%3. Dissertation C o m mittee, and approved by all its members, has been presented to and accepted by The G radu ate School, in partial fulfillm ent of require ments of the degree of D O C T O R O F P H I L O S O P H Y Dean D ate.. D IS S * '1?' r A ' r T r ‘T 'J POlUTVrTTTTTF Chairman PREFACE This dissertation is intended to fill the void left in the history of the Colombian novel since 1953, the last year covered by Antonio Curcio Altamar in Evolucion de la novela en Colombia (Bogota: Instituto Caro y Cuervo, 1957). Curcio Altamar died tragically before he could complete his work, which has remained as the only one of its kind. As the title of the present work indicates, it traces the main trends in the Colombian novel beginning with 1953. The development of the novel in Colombia up to this date will be presented in the introductory chapter with a view to establishing principal tendencies prior to this study. In subsequent chapters the main types of novels written during the period under investigation will be considered selec tively by outstanding authors or representative exponents of various types. The chapter divisions (Rural, with several sections; Tropical; Historical; Urban; Philosophi cal, Psychological, Cosmopolitan; Avant Garde) are treated briefly at the end of the introduction. ii Of the approximately three hundred novels published in Colombia during this period it was possible to locate more than two-thirds. For this purpose I travelled to Colombia, where I spent the summer of 1969. I made study trips to various areas of Colombia in order to know at first hand the regions dealt with, in the novels. These trips included El Valle del Cauca, El Valle del Magdalena, the Departments of Cundinamarca, Boyaca, the Llanos Orien- tales, and Barranquilla on the tropical coast. The major portion of my studies were conducted in Bogota. I wish to thank the staffs at the Biblioteca Nacional and the Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango, especially the director of the latter, Doctor Jaime Duarte French. Most of my research was done at the Instituto Caro y Cuervo at Yerbabuena. It would be impossible to thank everyone sufficiently for the magnificent reception, aid, and hospitality that were accorded not only myself, but also my wife and daughter as well. To Doctor Jose Manuel Rivas Sacconi, Director of the Instituto Caro y Cuervo, and one of Colombia's foremost humanists and scholars, go our deepest gratitude and appreciation. To Sehorita Alcira Valencia Ospina, Directress of Library Facilities of the iii Instituto Caro y Cuervo, whose generous professional advice and cooperation aided immeasureably the progress of this work, go our special thanks. I wish to express my gratitude and appreciation to my professors at the University of Southern California and especially professors Carlos Loprete, Everett W. Hesse, Ramon J. Sender, and all the members of my committee for their efforts on my behalf in and out of the classroom: Professors Dorothy McMahon, Robert Curtis, and Max Birkey. Special thanks go to Professor Dorothy McMahon who has guided my development during my studies at the University of Southern California and who has graciously consented to direct me in this dissertation. My heartfelt thanks go to Doctor Hector H. Orjuela, my original mentor in this investigation and constant example of diligence, excellence, and friendship. His works in the field of Colombian letters and his knowledge of and associations in his native Colombia have been of boundless value. Finally, I wish to thank my wife, Raquel Silvia Betancourt Pedersen, without whose patience, encouragement, help, and sacrifice this work would never have come to be. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PREFACE............................................ ii INTRODUCTION ...................................... 1 Chapter I. THE RURAL NOVEL.............................. 55 The Novel of Violence Social Protest, Regionalism, Costumbrismo Contemporary Neo-Realism II. THE TROPICAL C Y C L E ......................... 158 III. THE HISTORICAL N O V E L ....................... 199 IV. THE URBAN NOVEL.............................. 230 V. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL, PHILOSOPHICAL, AND COSMOPOLITAN NOVELS .................... 292 VI. THE AVANT GARDE NOVEL....................... 335 i CONCLUSION........................................ 385 BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................... 391 v INTRODUCTION The novel as such is totally lacking in all of Latin America before 1816, when Fernandez de Lizardi pub lished El Pericruillo sarniento in Mexico.'*' The causes were similar in New Granada as in the rest of Spain's New World possessions, where other literary genres had already begun to develop and some even to flourish long before the Wars Some standard works on the Latin American novel of special value are: Agustin del Saz Sanchez, Resumen de historia de la novela hispanoamericana (Barcelona, 1949) ; Arturo Torres-Rioseco, Grandes novelistas de la America hispana (Berkeley, 1949) ? Memoria del cruinto congreso internacional de literatura iberoamericana; La novela ib>eroamericana (Albuquerque, 1952) ; Luis Alberto Sanchez, Proceso y contenido de la novela hispanoamericana (Madrid, 1953); Arturo Uslar-Pietri, Breve historia de la novela hispanoamericana (Caracas, 1954); Alberto Zum Felde, Indice crltico de la literatura hispanoamericana, Tomo 2 (Mexico, 1959); Uriel Ospina Londono, Problemas y perspectivas de la no vela hispanoamericana (Bogota, 1964) ; Fernando Alegria, Breve historia de la novela hispanoamericana (Segunda ed.; Mexico, 1965) ? Luis Harss, Into the Mainstream: Conversa tions with Latin American Writers (New York, 1967) ; Ivan Schulman et al., Coloquio sobre la novela hispanoamericana (Mexico, 1967); Julio Ortega, La contemplacion y la fiesta, ensayos sobre la nueva novela latinoamericana (Lima, 1968). 1 2 of Independence made possible the establishment of separate national destinies. When the novel finally began it was a curious version of the Spanish picaresque novel. It came out just when in Europe romanticism was coming into its own. The Spanish American novel spent its formative years amidst the turbulent reactions of liberalism and other factors, social and cultural, which would affect its growth, development, and content. The late emergence of the novel in the New World can be related to several factors in the Spanish and colonial environments. While Peninsular writers were trans forming well established literary forms into historical novels, libros de caballerxas, picaresque novels, etc., that is to say, developing the imaginative or creative aspect of their writings, the cronistas of the New World were striving to set down the truth, to be informative, in spite of the often exaggerated or distorted view of reality which they brought with them from the medieval and renais sance mentality of Europe. Thus the tendency to invent characters was frustrated and the expression of a personal way of seeing or feeling life was suffocated. They were historians who did not feel their characters from within— they observed them from without. 3 The role of chronicler tended to overshadow that of novelist. Thus a journalistic account, often with psycho logical and sociological commentaries, was more commonly produced. It might even be maintained that the intense historical reality of the conquest and colonization, over whelmed the imaginative capacity of the early New World writers making it appear inappropriate and unlikely to create characters such as those depicted in the fabulous stories of the day when every soldier and colonizer was in fact living a more extraordinary real life adventure. The development of the novel was also impeded by a long-standing condemnation by moralists who considered novelistic efforts as "poisoners of the public," "vain and 2 profane stories," and generators of "pernicious habits." Added to this moral obstacle was a legal proscrip tion dated 13 September 1543, directed to the officials of the Casa de Contratacion in Seville banning shipment of novels as harmful to the aims of colonization and Chris tianization of the New World. While the ban was not always 2 ^ Evolucion de la novela en Colombia (Bogota, 1957), pp. 5-8, by Antonio Curcio Altamar; I have purposely main tained the chief points brought out in this study as they relate to the subject of this introduction? this work will be referred to as C.A. 4 effective, it did serve to curtail the dissemination of works of fiction, and when it is considered that in colonial America all production and printing was controlled by the 3 Church, the results are readily apparent. Although novels as such were not being produced during the conquest and colonial times, literary works with novelistic elements were definitely present, and these in fact provide the beginnings of narrative tradition, pro viding themes, outlook and content for later writers who based novels on them in the nineteenth and twentieth cen turies. Legends, myths, and illusions of Old and New Worlds, from ancient folklore to eighteenth century scien tific theories all found their way into literature. 4 In Colombia, two names serve to exemplify and 3 Irving A. Leonard, Books of the Brave (Cambridge, 1949), p. 83. 4 Hector H. Orjuela, Fuentes generales para el estudio de la literatura colombiana, quia bibliografica (Bogota, 1968). This work is an outstanding contribution to the field of Hispanic studies; it is comprehensive, organized, and accurate; it is indispensable for studies on Colombia. Some of the following works are basic in the field of Colombian literary history with reference to their sections on the novel: Humberto Bronx (pseud, of Jaime Serna Gomez), 20 ahos de novela colombiana (Medellin, n.d.); Jose Marla Vergara y Vergara, Historia de la literatura 5 epitomize the imaginative and novelistic tendencies of these works: Juan de Castellanos (1522-1607), Spanish priest and concfuistador; and Juan Rodriguez Freile (1566- 1638), criollo and clergyman. Both writers share the belief in the supernatural and are well within the Spanish mentality of their day, but they consistently strive to seek out the rational bases for phenomena, thus imparting a truthful and realistic tone to their work. Castellanos followed the example of Ariosto and Ercilla and wrote an extensive epic, with many details, of the enthusiastic endeavor common to Spanish society of his day, Elegias de varones ilustres de Indias (1589) (C.A., p. 18). While many passages represent a compenetration of New World life and Old World literature, for example, en Nueva Granada. Parte primera: Desde la conguista hasta la independencia, 1538-1820 (Bogota, 1867); Roberto Cor- tazar, La novela en Colombia (Bogota, 1908); Jose J. Ortega Torres, Historia de la literatura colombiana (Bogota, 1934); Gustavo Otero Munoz, Historia de la literatura colombiana, resumen (Bogota, 1935)? Lucia Luque Valderrama, La novela femenina en Colombia (Bogota, 1954); Frank M. Duffey, The Early Cuadro de costumbres in Colombia (Chapel Hill, 1956); Antonio Gomez Restrepo, Historia de la litera tura colombiana (Cuarta ed.; Bogota, 1957)? Jaime Ibanez, Al pie de las letras (Bogota, 1959); Javier Arango Ferrer, Dos horas de literatura colombiana (Medellin, 1963). 6 legends of the Amazonas, figures and episodes from mythol ogy, and novelas de caballerias, finding new life in a new and exotic setting, for instance, Indians behaving and speaking as Renaissance courtiers, the stark and vital reality of the American experience imposed itself as in the wilderness episodes where a conquistador is forced to eat the liver of his dead Indian guide, or in the scene of an elderly conquistador, seasoned in battles but content to live his remaining years in peace, is forced to slay with one dagger blow a "mancebo fanfarron" who had mistaken the caliber of "varones ilustres de Indias" with whom he had sought an argument. This same "varon" has sent his progeny down the centuries and is the one we behold today in the modern lands of the "Indias" (C.A., p. 32). As the Conquista gradually became the Colonia, the new pace and style of life also brought changes in literary tastes. From heroic epics of discovery and conquest, the society of Santa Fe de Bogota found more interesting prose and verse accounts which dwelled more on the prosaic de tails of their own life and times: a festive, scandalous chronicle of witchcraft, adultery, homicides, chicanery, lawsuits, in short, a compendium of the foibles of society 7 told with spice and irony but always justifying its examples as lessons in morality, much in tbe manner of medieval enxemplos or apologos and moralistic treatises. Thus El Carnero (1636-38) by Juan Rodriguez Preile, might be described as a "cronica costumbrista entre cazurra y celestinesca. " As such, El Carnero continued to arouse much curiosity during the intervening centuries. In the nineteenth century it served as a source of several his torical novels and cuadros de costumbres (C.A., p. 43). In addition to Castellanos and Rodriguez Freile there were various other writers whose work cannot be pre sented in the brief confines of this introductory section. It should be noted, however, that literary forms approach ing the concept of literature of entertainment showed definite signs of development during the colonial period and can rightfully be considered forerunners of prose fiction. Such works include travel diaries, chronicles, journals, and various accounts of experiences by people in all walks of life. These writings include such oddities as the manuscript left by a cleric of Santa Fe who wrote a Baroque work composed without using the letter "A. " More important for the history of Colombian letters would be 8 finding the works of Doha Francisca de Tolosa, who was reputed to have written around 1591 some short stories along the lines of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the Decameron, and El Patrahuelo, by Timoneda, in Spain (C.A., p. 46). In the eighteenth century, the Santa Fe lawyer of the Real Audiencia, Francisco Antonio Velez Ladron de Guevara (1721-17__?) composed romances with a Costumbrista tendency. In the same vein, but of greater importance, were the prose works of Francisco Javier Caro in whose Diario (1783) appeared the first attempt at prose costum- brismo in Colombia, in which, in a quevedesque manner, Caro recounts the minor customs, conversations, and occupations of officials who work in the Secretaria de Camara del Virreynato (C.A., p. 54). In addition to the above writings, a few novels found their way through translation into the Colombian scene, but in general the works described complete the principal early developments of the genre during the colonial era.^ 5 For the early periods the histories of J. M. Ver gara y Vergara, A. Gomez Restrepo, and J. J. Ortega Torres are helpful. 9 As was noted at the outset/ the first real novel of Latin America was published in 1816. The real development of this genre must be traced since that time. The nine teenth century and the evolution of the modern novel in Latin America were greatly influenced by romanticism, which in its vast complexity penetrated intensely the cultural realities of the whole area and of New Granada. There, the triumphal entry of romanticism was carried out not only with the rebellious and sentimental mode of the lyric, but also with the moving sympathy for the concept of a "medieval" America, for a supposed or real spirit of chiv alry and legend existing or supposed to have existed in the endeavor of conquest, for a "feudalistic" and aristocratic conception of the colonial and finally— quite strangely in New Granada— a poetic and even philosophic sublimation of 6 the aborigine of America. This study considers the works of the romantic cycle under the groupings of historical-romantic novel; g An important reference for this period is Mar guerite C. Suarez-Murias, La novela romantica en Hispano- america (New York, 1963), especially the Introduccion, pp. 11-15, Part 4, Colombia, pp. 133-152, and the Conclu sion, pp. 218-229. 10 transitional-romantic novel, poematic novel, and the cos- tumbrista novel. Chronologically, the first Colombian novelist was Juan Jose Nieto (1804-1866), who wrote two historical novels, Ingermina o la hija de Calamar (1844), and Los 7 moriscos (1845). Nieto had been a political exile in Jamaica, a fact which parallels the theme of one of his novels, Los moriscos, that deals with the expulsion of that group in the time of Felipe III, and relates the sufferings of a family violently exiled by the decree of 1609. The great merit of this novel is the focusing on the characters of the main plot, leaving to history only the general atmosphere, thus avoiding the pitfall common to many his torical novels of this school. The style reveals strong French influence. Ingermina has a historical background, the ancient Calamar Indians of the Cartagena area who suffered cruel ties at the hands of the Spanish during the early conquest. n ^ Donald McGrady, La novela historica en Colombia 1844-1959 (Bogota, 1962). McGrady covers many of the romantic historical novels as well as those of later periods. His organization is by subject, theme, and loca tion, as well as historical period. 11 The plot involves the love of an Indian princess, Ingermina, with Alonso de Heredia; after many adversities, it ends in a happy solution. Interestingly, Nieto justified this twist by the marriage of John Rolfe and Pocahontas. It also recalls the marriage of Pizarro and the daughter of Atahualpa. The novel contains romantic attempts to re habilitate the conquest with medieval values of chivalry and feudalism, but distorts reality by idealizing and poetizing the Indians (C.A., pp. 65-67). Following this same line was another writer, Felipe Perez (1836-1891). He gave the historical novel of New Granada a content that was more representative of the Euro pean and Spanish American currents. His life followed the turbulent pattern of many men of his day, from political activist and exile to journalist, bitter polemicist and politician. He wrote four historical novels dealing with the Incas prior to and during the conquest. He visited and studied the scene in Peru and sought to evoke the greatness and power of the Incas. His writings reflect belief in the "noble savage" and "state of nature" theories of Rousseau. He tended to paint the Spaniards and the conquest blacker still by contrast. A contrast of civilized decadence 12 versus primitive/ natural innocence is projected to deca dent European civilization versus American virtues. As with romanticism in general, as applied to politics, it usually resulted in strong nationalism, patriotism, and desire for liberty and independence. Perhaps one of his greatest achievements was the attempt to portray the fact of the conquest as the union of a nymph-like Indian maiden with a martial, chivalric Spaniard, symbolic of the heri tage of the new nations (C.A., p. 69). Various other novelists contributed to precolombian and conquest themes, many of them recalling episodes origi nally set forth in cronicas, histories, legends, and epics. In addition to the above, there developed a costum- brista tendency in the historical novel in which the author idealized the colonial life and ways, again, presenting the feudalistic ideals of chivalry and aristocracy, with a rigid class structure in which there were only the high born and plebeians with Indians and Negroes at the bottom who did not seem to mind their role of servitude since it provided for the upper classes to play their parts accord ing to accepted codes. Among various novelists of this type prolific 13 Jose Caicedo Rojas (1816-1898) can be singled out as carry ing the medieval anachronism to its logical extreme. In his imitation of Sir Walter Scott, Don Alvaro? cuadros historicos y novelescos del siglo XVI (1871-72), Caicedo recreates on the sabana of Bogota a medieval jousting tournament in which an unknown champion appears amidst all the splendor of a royal court, challenges all, defeats all, and wins all since he turns out to be the protagonist in disguise. With time such imitation of Scott ceded ground to the French historical-romantic novelists Sue, Dumas, Hugo, and Merimee. This application of European techniques to the American scene constituted the true literary crio- llismo. Caicedo Rojas was deeply imbued with this and made extensive use of the Spanish Romancero in his works. Thus the desire to express traditionalism intensified the trend toward costumbrismo, especially scenes of the past. Cai cedo used extensively El Carnero as a source of material (C.A., p. 87). Perhaps the best known and most widely read roman tic historical novel of traditionalism and costumbrismo is El Alferez real; cronica de Cali en el siglo XVIII (1886) by Eustaquio Palacios (1830-1898). It is the fictionalized 14 story of a historical person, don Manuel de Caycedo, alferez of Cali, life on his hacienda, Cahas Gordas, and in the colonial city of Cali. There is some psychological development, an intermittently interesting love subplot and a great deal of costumbrista detail in which the author idealizes and, to an extent, dehumanizes the tradi tions and the colonial world which he is trying to re create: "Hasta los esclavos son felices, viven contentos con su suerte y salen a escena solo para mostrar que el amo es bueno" (C.A., p. 91). Nevertheless, El Alferez real represents an advance toward reality over other works of its day. There are some references which condemn slavery and other criticisms of collective vices. While the novel is well within the romantic tendency, there is a stylistic shift toward simplicity which increased with the arrival of realism. According to Palacios' introduction the historical part was taken directly from the tradition and archives of Cali. Al though, like most novelists of his day, the author showed little interest in the way that the soul and mentality of his characters reflect their epoch, El Alferez real 15 8 is considered to be of substantial documentary importance. Once the epoch was passed which emphasized oriental and medieval exoticism, idealized precolombian, conquest and discovery scenes and the idyllic life of the colonia, romanticism, now in decline, intensified the exploitation of the autocthonous and national, with increased traces of realism, which in turn developed into costumbrismo in the Hispanic literatures. Innumerable novels were produced in Colombia which participated on the one hand in the escapist tendency toward the past, now closer in time and less sublimated, and the enthusiasm for regionalism, on the other. Many of these novels followed the example of Les mysteres de Paris, with the intent of uncovering the true secrets of Bogota, the terror of bandits in peaceful Santa Fe, the malfeasance of government officials or the tyran nies of provincial gamonales. The time scene of many of these novels is between 1810 and 1860. Most of them re flect a patriotic sentiment reminiscent of Los episodios nacionales of Benito Perez Galdos (C.A., p. 97). 0 Eustaquio Palacios, El Alferez real, introduccion y notas de Alberto Carvajal (Cali, 1959). This edition contains numerous notes relating details in the novel with historical information or local tradition and locations. 16 The initiator of this subgenre was Eladio Vergara y Vergara, brother of Jose Maria, historian of Colombian literature, with his El mudo o secretos de Bogota, novela de costumbres colombianas, por un bogotano (1848), the first novel intended as such produced in Colombia, and which shows marked influence of Dumas and Sue on literary circles of Bogota. The novel involves a mute, reminiscent of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, who knows the secrets of Bogota. Stylistically, the novel has lively dialogues and slice of life descriptions of city merchants which relate it to the currents of the historical and costumbrista novels. This and other novels in a similar vein attempted to depict the small city of Bogota as a mysterious European metropolis filled with intrigue, masquerades, and ambushes (C.A., p. 100). An important woman writer oscillated between the historical and costumbrista tendencies. Doha Soledad Acosta de Samper (1833-1913), wife of Jose Maria Samper, was considered to be the best Colombian authoress of the last century. She sought to: "Presentar cuadros de la historia de America, bajo el punto de vista legendario y novelesco, sin faltar por eso a la verdad de los hechos 17 en todo aquello que se relaciona con la historia." At times her didactic intent produced fictionalized history which smothered the artistic effect (C.A., p. 103). The attraction for ancient things of the remote colonia, contemplated with emotion and nostalgia, continued well into the present century. Don Daniel Samper Ortega (1896-1943), in his hest known work, Zoraya (1931), revives the love affair of the viceroy Jose Solis Folch de Cardona and Doha Maria Lugarda de Ospina, a sort of "Perricholi santaferena" who finally took the veil in a convent. Nor were evocations of remote times confined only to New Gra nada; other works also dealt with ancient history and Biblical themes at the time of Christ (C.A., p. 107). The greatest novel of sentimental romanticism, not only in Colombia, but in all of Latin America, was pub lished in Bogota in 1867. Maria, by Jorge Isaacs (1837- 1895), offered two great innovations. It incorporated into the novel, as well as other creative forms of Latin America the lyric, and even moral, resonances of a landscape that was vital, sensitive, personified, autocthonously American, which previously had only played a marginal role in local costumbrismo. It also brought to Latin American literature 18 the epitome of expression of the romantic love of early youth in a style perfectly suited to all the evocations of melancholy and magical dreaminess. It reopened the senti mental strain of romanticism to the more genuine reflection 9 of the New World. When Isaacs published Maria, romanticism in Colom bia had reached a stage of costumbrismo of average or poor quality which would take it to realism. In Chile, for example, Blest Gana had already begun to produce novels in imitation of Balzac. Nevertheless, in Colombia, Maria served as an example of perfect taste for its type and added the levening of artistic quality to the massive dough of quantity. Comparing Maria to other novels of European production, it can be said that it represents a stage of greater tranquility and sweet melancholy in which the landscape becomes psychological, reflecting spiritual and From my personal visits to Canas Gordas, scene of El Alferez real, and El Paraiso, setting of Maria, high up the foothill slopes of the Andes with a commanding view of the Valley of the Cauca, the importance of landscape and atmosphere on the artistic efforts of the author, was readily apparent. This was especially true in the case of Isaacs, and in large measure explains the extensive appeal his creative expression of an aspect of Latin American reality has enjoyed. A study which helps bring this out is German Arciniegas, Genio y figura de Jorge Isaacs (Buenos Aires, 1967). 19 emotional states of the characters and development of the plot. En la idealizacion romantica de la figura femenina, el paisaje y el ser amado se agitan en un proceso de osmosis viviente, y en un juego de proyecciones mutuas. ... Con menor opulencia y con contornos pasionales mas depurados que la vision forjada por la intemperancia patologica del movimiento historico en que se inspi- raba, dibujo Isaacs el ideal femenino de su novela. (C.A., p. 117) In Colombia, one of the important results of the novel was to move readers through use of national charac teristics: artistic interpenetration of structure, theme, mood, and costumbrismo, awakened the appreciation for local possibilities and strengthened the role of costumbrismo as well. Costumbrismo was a result of one of the categories of romanticism which coincided with a reawakening of inter est in regionalism, localism, nationalism, and in what was typical and authentically one's own, except that the new air of realism dampened the sentimental aspect. The Colombian costumbrista novel tended away from the crudeness and bitter satire which it took in other countries. Perhaps due to the conservative temperament of the writers it had a more bourgeois character of de scription and pleasantness. Often it was directed toward a didactic or moralizing end, that is, preservation or 20 improvement of Colombian customs. Although much of what was written was of poor quality, it served as training for realistic novels of greater depth such as those of Marro- quxn or Carrasquilla: Pero, adviertese que al servir de iniciacion y palestra para la tecnica mencionada, el costumbrismo vino a echar definitivamente los carriles por donde ha venido andando la novela colombiana desde entonces hasta hoy, no obstante la brecha significada por la obra de los novelistas finiseculares, entusiasmados y conmovidos con las escenografias extranjeras. (C.A., p. 129) With consideration for its limited aesthetic range, costumbrismo must be given credit for capturing the distinctive qualities of nationality, which it did with patriotism and limited treatment of aspects of nationality. Due to the romantic tendency toward idealization and pic turesqueness, the campo became the "antechambre of Para dise" and the campesino the paragon of all national and Christian virtues. Por rural people, the man and environ ment of the city— a city which at that time did not exist— were of suspicious nature, corrupt and vicious in contrast to the goodness, simplicity, and honorableness of the unspoiled country folk. Not until the advent of the realistic novel would the ignorant peasant appear, not less depraved than his city cousin. Because of inherent 21 limitations much of the costumbrista production degenerated to triteness or exaggeratedly grotesque caricatures (C.A., p. 130). One of the more lighthearted writers, who at times took a bitter turn, was Jose Maria Vergara y Vergara (1831- 1872) whose Olivos y aceitunos todos son unos (1868) has been referred to as a novel, but in reality it is a string of cuadros costumbristas set against political and civil vices and local corruption joined together by a love plot. There is great historical authenticity in the presentation of the changing political and social institutions of the young republic during its emergence from the colonial era. The turbulent times (1853-1861) depicted in the novel re flected the legacy of history and previewed some basic problems of long duration (C.A., p. 131). In addition to Jose Caicedo Rojas, the three most important costumbrista novelists of the past century were Don Jose Marla Samper (1828-1888), who presented aspects of the moral, civil, and political problems of the nation, Eugenio Diaz, and Luis Segundo de Silvestre. Although all three tried to follow the slogan of Fernan Caballero, "Los cuadros de costumbres no se inventan, se copian," 22 in practice their efforts often met with frustration. Manuela (1858), by Eugenio Diaz (1804-1865), although a collection of cuadros, because of continuity of plot and character development can be considered a novel. As such it made possible the triumph and culmination of the genre in Segundo de Silvestre's Trv.usito (1886). Manuela is a reflection of the ideological controversy of Colombia in 1856-57, in which three opposing parties vied for control. The novel is set in a remote village where symbolic charac ters debate the issues. Diaz' faction receives the benefit of the author's support. The cuadros are used to break up the monotony of dialectical dialogues, while a love action is employed to aid movement. In the love triangle a mulatto girl, Manuela, is harassed by a gamonal who threatens her beloved. A principal defect of the novel is that the "local color" often appears to be contrived as are many characters, which leads to confusion, distraction, and diminution of artistic effect (C.A., pp. 136-137). Structurally simpler and less romantically emo tional regarding landscape and persons than Manuela, is Transito (1886) by Luis de Segundo Silvestre (1838-1887). Escrita en lenguaje sabio y popular, esta novela sirve de puente, en la novelistica Colombians, 23 entre el costumbrismo, realizado aqux plena y ar- txsticamente, y el realismo moderno que ya desde 1880 habxa triunfado totalmente en las letras hispanicas. ... La claridad de la trama, que conforme se avanza en la lectura se hace mas lucida y natural, el hondo sen- tido humano y real de los personajes, en su mayorxa gentes autenticas, sanas y alegres, y la nobleza de sentimientos de los dos protagonistas, dan a la nove- lita un rico sabor de espontaneidad y frescura que difxcilmente encontramos en las obras de esta forma anteriores a Transito. (C.A., p. 140) The customs of Cundinamarca and Tolima are described as Andres, a cultured bogotano, meets, loves, and loses Tran sito, an intelligent, truehearted girl of the Magdalena valley. The ugly doings of the gamonal enter in again and figure in the tragic and melodramatic death of the heroine. Nevertheless, Transito is one of the minor masterpieces of the Colombian novel and the first realistic novel to appear with surprisingly artistic manipulation and balance of plot, action, and costumbrista ornamentation (C.A., p. 141). The romantic and costumbrista novels, without com pletely relinquishing their basic character, gradually became the realistic novel. Since colonial days, neither the ordinary episodes, nor the common scenes or primary necessities of man had appeared in prose fiction. The nineteenth century preferred to present external qualities, noble passions, exquisite manners, or attitudes of ideal ized dreaminess toward nature and man. Gradually the novel 24 divested itself of romantic and emotional defects until it remained impassive and objective in painting environments and characterizing human beings. In Colombia one of the most typical figures of this evolution was Don Jose Manuel Marroquin (1827-1908), who began as a romantic and, passing through costumbrismo, arrived, without completely giving up descriptive inter ests, in the novel that was more or less realistic. Al though personally given to melancholy, he seldom allowed this to show in his art, which was humorous, optimistic, playful, and deeply human, as well as written in a style which ranks him with the greatest writers of Colombia. Marroquin, for his regionalistic devotion to the sabana of Bogota, has been compared to Spain's Jose Maria de Pereda. Also linking him to Spanish realism are his Bias Gil and El moro, which are closely related to the picaresque novel, a form used in Latin America by him and others and pre viously employed by the modern father of the Spanish Ameri can novel, Fernandez de Lizardi in El Pericruillo sarniento (C.A., p. 148). In Bias Gil (1896), whose title recalls Gil Bias de Santillana, by Le Sage, he narrates the life of a student 25 who begins "playing at politics" in the atmosphere of Bogota, The work describes vices common to the Hispanic peoples and criticizes universal political foibles. To be noted is his general inability to present emotions of love which appear just as any other description without any moving effectiveness. In a sense he shared this defect with realism in general (C.A., p. 150). The fame and merit of Marroquin reside in El Moro (1897) in which an amiable horse relates his picaresque wanderings on the sabana of Bogota. El Moro could not be expected to have extraordinary experiences or thematic involvements beyond his personality, but in relating his autobiography, this equine philosopher presents a human sentiment and vital intuition, a jovial intelligence with which he views man's sadness, recalling some of the great works of literature: Y es esta cualidad la que nos hace colocar a Marroquin entre los realistas, no obstante sus prolijas y hermo- sas descripciones de la meseta de Cundinamarca, con sus costumbres mejores o peores, sus crias de caballos, sus hacendados socarrones, sus caballeros enchopados, los petimetres, los honradotes o taimados orejones, y en fin, escenas de nuestras guerras civiles, con una que parece parodia de la "Carga de la brigada lijera." (C.A., p. 153) After the works of Marroquin and a few others which might be considered unsure attempts at self-expression in 26 the prose narrative, the Colombian novel assimilated better the procedures of realism and adjusted its tones and move ments to the examples provided by Jose Maria de Pereda and Benito Perez Galdos: La modalidad y el intento de reflejar o retratar la vida dentro de un ambiente determinado, tal cual al autor se le presenta, comienza y culmina esplendorosa- mente en Antioquia con varios novelistas de finales del siglo, a cuya cabeza se empina como maestro y guia Don Tomas Carrasquilla, creador de lo que podria llamarse la comedia antioquena, y en cuyas manos la novela colombiana se relieva con magnificencia hasta alcanzar un aire de interes universal y verdadero fuste de novela moderna. (C.A., p. 154) Regionalism as such was not new in Colombia and many writers represented in their works only scenes of their own localities: Pero es el novelista antioqueno quien sube ese regio- nalismo a fuerza de un espxritu de observacion ini- gualado hasta la categoria de creacion integral, sobre una base de verdad patetica. (C.A., p. 156) Carrasquilla sought to express the universal through what was typical of Antioquia, one of the most genuinely "re gional" areas of Latin America, in view of its uniquely preserved customs, traditions, and psychology. Carras quilla has been called the Colombian Pereda for his regionalism, but he did not share the Spaniard's tendency to write novels of thesis or to defend tradition regardless 27 of its cost to artistic effectiveness. On the contrary, La marquesa de Yolombo, which deals with the last years of the colony, reflects with great realism and objectivity the sentiments and mentality of the people of the era, presented in a framework of the Antioquia of the day.^ Naturalism, which was an outgrowth of realism, never produced an important novel in Colombia. Carras- quilla's conception of realism and naturalism was not as a new system within which to judge the truth of a novel, but rather as the basic eternal prerequisites without which a novel had no truth. If a novelist does not reflect life and humanity as it is the novel has no truth to begin with. Use of dialect and themes strictly of Antioquia may have delayed the recognition of Carrasquilla at home and abroad. Nevertheless, the type of reality with which the regional and terriqena novel have been imbued has been one of the most valuable causes of the profundity, permanence, and acceptance of the important Latin American novels. Carrasquilla never doubted that his works would some day ■^The most comprehensive study about this author is Kurt L. Levy, Vida y obras de Tomas Carrasquilla (Medellin, 1958). f>'g 2 8 win their just recognition. He considered love of one's own place an unavoidable law of life. While a man might identify intellectually and spiritually with the nation or the world, the dwelling place of his heart would always be some small corner of the planet, Carrasquilla produced more extensive works than any other Colombian novelist. His writings include costum brismo, folklore, novels, cuentos, fables, and legends. He covered a broad gamut of themes including rural clergy, anti-clericalism, political vice, conflict of individual and collective origins. Among his many works La marquesa de Yolombo (1928) is considered his masterpiece because in it he succeeded in producing a character with psycho logical, emotional, and social truth. The figure of Doha Barbara Caballero is the female epitome of the conquistador- fundador with all the drives of a matriarch, plus humor, industriousness, and inventiveness. In the end her drive for aristocratic status leads to her downfall. She is a human and unforgettable character who stands out among others in a setting in which Carrasquilla has recreated an entire environment and mentality using local, completely Colombian elements, and creating a novel of outstanding 29 artistic quality. Tomas Carrasquilla lived from 1858 until 1940. He was late to receive recognition during his life time but if imitation is the highest form of praise, Colombia is still producing novels which bear the mark and spirit of the Maestro of Antioquia (C.A., pp. 157-159). Modernism did not yield a rich harvest of fiction in Spanish America. In Colombia,^ as in other countries of the area, more than novels and short stories, travel accounts, very personal chronicles, saturated with imagina tion and elaborately developed, and artistic and cultural interpretations were written. The penetration of this literary current in the narrative was so great that modern ist novels were still being produced in the fourth decade of the twentieth century. Of significance in Colombia was the controversy between the realist regionalist-localist school of Carras quilla in Antioquia and the Bogota faction which was enjoy ing a flowering of cosmopolitan universalism and faraway themes, as remote from Colombia as from the Spanish world ■^Two works containing helpful information on the Modernist movement in Colombia are Baldomero Sanin Cano, Letras colombianas (Mexico, 1944), and Rafael Maya, Los orlgenes del modernismo en Colombia (Bogota, 1961). 30 in general. This occurred in the novel, artistic tastes, and the generality of literature. The modernists read the Spanish classics, adopting their splendid prose and adapt ing them to their own aesthetic system, which, under strong French influence, vibrated to the suggestive resonances of the exotic and far-removed in time or in space: En cuanto a la novela, por los suelos de la patria soplaba un aire perfumado de palacios versallescos, de lagos, de vegetacion atropical, de cisnes ("cisnes- marqueses" tambien, como los de Ruben Dario), en tanto que un garbo de aristocracia ennoblecia y ahilaba el genero. (C.A., p. 175) A similar trend occurred as with the historical-romantic novel in which the Colombian cities and scenes became medieval or disguised European ones except that now the poetization became imaginative academicism although the topics retained romantic traces. The escapism implied in the themes was doubtless brought on by the monotony of a reduced range of experience and constant political turmoil and petty local rivalries: De hecho contribuyo a ampliar el area de la sensibili- dad artistica, depurandola y abriendola a todas las influencias culturales europeas. De rechazo, se afir- maba en semejante forma un deseo de independencia artistica, y con base en un suelo americano se aprove- charon las mas variadas corrientes extranjeras de cultura. Hay que advertir desde ahora, sin embargo, que tal universalismo por su indole misma, y mas aun, por su prematura utilizacion no surtio el aporte de autenticidad que era de esperarse. (C.A., p. 176) 31 The first phase of this tendency, coinciding in much with naturalism, is completely and exclusively repre sented by the initiator of modernism in Hispanic America, 12 ^ Jose Asuncion Silva (1865-1896): "... romantico doloroso en el sentir, y universalista as! en la cultura como en la formulacion de su compleja sensibilidad." He wrote at least three novels, of which only De sobremesa was pub lished posthumously in 1925, thus coming too late to in fluence formation of the movement: De sobremesa nos pone de presente la grande y angus- tiada aventura sujetiva de su autor: desacuerdos vitales, opio y cloral, amores y temores religiosos, en confusa mezcla de embriagueces voluptuosas y de gloria sensual. Todo ello transido de inexplicables y dolientes ansias de renacimiento idealista, de im- preciso neomisticismo y de un deseo eterno de lavarse "cada minuto los ojos de toda la vulgaridad de la vida diaria." (C.A., p. 179) The second phase of modernism, which in Colombia never divests itself of romanticism, now takes on a spiri tualized religious quality as a reaction to the first phase of modernism in Colombia and to European naturalism. While 12 As a key figure of Modernism Silva reflects im portant aspects of the tendency. Useful works are Alberto Miramon, Jose Asuncion Silva (Bogota, 1937), and Carlos Garcia-Prada, Jose Asuncion Silva, prosas y versos (Mexico, 1942). 32 reacting against decadent modernism, it nevertheless re tained some of its features. Jose Maria Rivas Groot (1863-1923), was one of the most representative figures of universalism in the novel at the beginning of the century and he encouraged the idealist school in literary criticism. His extensive contact in Europe, especially the academic and social spheres, pre pared him to write novels with a cosmopolitan tone. In collaboration with Lorenzo Marroquin, Rivas Groot wrote the novel Pax (1907) about the situation of Colombia which resulted from the War of the Thousand Days. It was the first Colombian novel with a political plot, causing great literary and social furor as a supposed novela en clave. Pax caused bitter divisions among the critics who split according to their political sympathies. Unfortunately the bitterness has persisted and has continued to distort the value of much subsequent criticism: Mejor que ninguna otra novela, Pax presents la verdad del pais por ahos en que se escribia; los caracteres influyentes, en bien o en mal, en la marcha de la nacion, juntamente con el confuso escenario en que obraban. Ella viene a demostrar plenamente como la novela en Colombia no ha estado al margen de los sucesos y de la idiosincrasia de la nacion, sino que los ha tornado desde principios del siglo especialmente, y teniendolos por materia de arte, los ha subido a categoria novelable. No obstante que el prurito de 33 la crxtica lugarefia en la novela y la misma tendencia airada y moralizadora dejaron deficiente en un todo la vision amplia, no ya de Hispanoamerica (el libro lleva el subtxtulo "novela de costumbres latino- americanas") sino del pars en particular, fue sin duda un verdadero logro la exhibicion de los horrores de nuestras contiendas civiles, y el loable intento de zaherir los vicios de nuestra politiquerxa, que estor- baba la marcha del progreso y reducxa a escombros la patria? asx como el ensalzamiento de las mejores cuali- dades de nuestra sociedad, y del esfuerzo de los buenos por hacer patria grande. (C.A., p. 186) The novel has continued to please for its exquisite refinement reflected in the manners and atmosphere of the upper classes, depicted as more interested in fine points of culture than in the interests of the nation. Also of continuing merit are the strong characterizations of repre sentative types. The two principal defects are its great length with numerous digressive cuadros de costumbres and its tendency to partisan depiction, in accord with its view of "friends of light or friends of darkness." In terms of style, the admixture of modernism to realism, naturalism and costumbrismo produced a combination which has affected much subsequent writing. The realistic-naturalistic interest in the common place and even sordid "behind the scenes" aspects of life opened up a broader range of themes for investigation 34 through the novel. Costumbrismo sought to focus on Colom bian themes and modernism added refinement in style and spirit. This especially encouraged a deeper inquiry into psychological/ spiritual, emotional, cultural, and socio logical realities. Modernism tended to focus attention more on the upper classes in Colombia or universally. The application of these tendencies to all classes of all areas of Colombia has been the process since modernism (C.A., p. 196) . A novelist who figured strongly in this process was Jose Maria Vargas Vila (1860-1933). He was a controversial figure for his politics as well as his attitudes and views on morality. He viewed art as an absolute religion and immorality as the symbolic expression of the liberated human personality. An anti-Christian heroism, character istic of a wing of international modernism, borrowed from Nietzsche at the turn of the century, was unleashed on the Colombian novel in numerous works. Technically, his novels are variations on the same theme: La mujer, o mas bien la hembra, posexda por un pseudo- artista, o perseguida y violada por un religioso vxctima de la desesperacion. En ocasiones la trama se complica con un nacimiento que lleva necesaria- mente o al suicidio o al asesinato. (C.A., p. 198) 35 Such scandalously spectacular themes have in themselves limited scope; nevertheless, Vargas Vila has been a steady seller down to the present day. Throughout his extensive production he involved previously neglected sectors of material suitable for novels. His treatment was seldom more than superficial but he suggested areas for future writers and did so in a language and style which seemed to have great suggestive force for effectively novelizing the Colombian atmosphere and environment. While still a controversial figure, his life and works still warrant articles in newspapers, reviews, and books. A reevaluation of his position in the history of the Colombian novel has been undertaken.13 Following modernism, or as a culmination of it, the publication of La voragine in 1924 was one of the outstand ing literary events of the era. It created a new category 13 Arturo Escobar Uribe in El divino Vargas Vila (Bogota, 1968), collects many details about the life, times, and works of this writer. His bibliography contains references to articles which I also read in several peri odicals, including Boletin Cultural y Bibliografico (Banco de la Republica, Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango), VII (1965), which issue was mainly devoted to a reevaluation of "El Divino" with articles by such well known scholars as Rafael Maya, Alberto Miramon, and Luis Alberto Sanchez. 36 of novel not only in Colombia, but also in all of Latin 14 , America, la novela terriqena, or the novel of the land, in which the focus was brought sharply to bear on the immediate environment of the homeland: El acierto y el nuevo aporte de La Voragine consis- tieron en la presentacion grandiosa y fuerte de las dos tragedias americanas, olvidadas desde la obra literaria de los primeros conquistadores y significadas ahora de manera mas artistica y con emocion mas sincera que nunca; tragedias que en la obra de Rivera se acoplan con maestria: la agresividad maligna y misteriosa de la selva tropical que casi como factor humano penetraba tambien en la tragedia del hombre contra el hombre. La exquisitez y rebuscamiento idealista, asi como la preocupacion por exoticos salones academicos y por los temas o inspiraciones religiosos se esfumaron de golpe para dejar aparecer lo orgiastico-demoniaco de las regiones inextricables y sin poetizar, de Colombia. No fue extrano, por tanto, que en la obra de Rivera se viese la primera novela especificamente americana y se registrase con su publicacion el advenimiento de una literatura de verdad nuestra. (C.A., p. 205) This is a very succinct appraisal of what was new in La voragine; the paisaje, that is, the Colombian en vironment, the Colombian man acting in that environment and the realistic, at times naturalistic, interaction of one and the other. All of the previous strains of the novel In De "La Voragine" a "Doha Barbara" (Bogota, 1944), Jorge Anez makes a comparison between these two famous novels, with quotations which reflect the influence of Rivera on Gallegos. 37 are brought to bear in this new form, but now the novelist is deeply interested in and attentive to Colombia and the people whose lives form its drama. With the publication of La voragine the Spanish American novel entered a new phase: the exploitation of its own themes in a very per- 15 sonal manner. The international success of La voragine served as a vigorous stimulant to Colombian letters. It counteracted the strong anti-national prejudice which was in vogue. The growing number of novels published since La voragine caught the critics by surprise. Characteristically, even down to recent times the Colombian critics have been much given to concern themselves with the lyric and works of humanism, some even going so far as to deny the existence of a novel- istic tradition. Public taste has changed also, with a reaction away from extremism in the lyric to more recog- nizeable material in the novel: Caracterizase la novela contemporanea por una vuelta entusiasmada a la tierra y por su empeho en reflejar mas al vivo, y con mayor precision y calor, 15 A recently published analysis of Rivera as a re flector of Colombian as well as Latin American qualities is Luis Carlos Herrera Molina, S.J., Jose Eustasio Rivera, poeta de promision (Bogota, 1968). 38 la sociedad colombiana, el medio de vida y los proble- mas del hombre nacional. Tan suya han querido hacer nuestros novelistas la frase de Saint-Real citada por Flaubert (y por cierto generalmente atribuxda a este ultimo): "Un roman: c'est un miroir qu'on promene le long d'un chemin," que aun el paisaje patrio, tan de- formado en tiempos anteriores, cobra ahora visiones nuevas correspondientes a una mayor autenticidad y a un enfoque mas genuino. No puede menos de advertirse que, si bien estas formas ultimas de la novela han venido apuntando a reproducir fielmente y a elevar a un piano de poetizacion las costumbres nacionales, en feliz enlace con la historia literaria del pais, con todo, del fondo de cada una de las novelas contempo- raneas fluye un irrestaftable pesimismo social, amargo y desilusionado, y en ocasiones hasta pestilente, que toma direcciones contrarias a las de la alegre e ino- fensiva vena del costumbrismo tradicional, sumido en una ensonacion apacible. (C.A., p. 221) Of necessity the social and economic changes and shifting ideologies of the twentieth century have been reflected in the style and content of the novel. In large measure the pages of novels have been the only literary or artistic form where vehement and effective protest against social injustice and the widespread desire to vindicate the rights of the needy classes and the common man have been given voice. The humble classes previously were repre sented only in romantic-sentimental novels as timid, peaceable peasants. In the metropolis, they were ideal ized country types transported to the city. Now, more pathetically than individual problems, contrasts are 39 presented between the anguishes of society in general, the institutionalized misery of families against the privileged class, the limitations of the individual against the state, and monopolistic capital, the struggles of the worker against the boss, the problems of the proletariat: Entran as! en la novela las ansias de extender la justicia social en Colombia, quedandose a un lado la agonla, manifiesta en las letras contemporaneas del mundo, por explicar y situar al hombre— en cuanto hombre: naturaleza e individuo— dentro de los limites del universo. En forma que si se preguntara cual es el esplritu distintivo de nuestra novela ultima habrxa de pensarse inevitablemente en su caracter sociologico con su acusada indole de muestrario de miserias, problemas y dolores sociales: caracter que aleja a la novela de la consideracion del destino individual humano y que recuerda igualmente aquel "realismo social" vigente en otras latitudes, y cancelado hoy. {C.A., p. 222) The inability of writers to incorporate living material into artistic or poetic expression has often pro duced deficient works, but the existence of such novels is very much in evidence. The problem, of course, with parti san literature is that it seldom is art in a true sense because neither writers nor critics can separate themselves from the circumstances it alleges to represent. The novel at the same time has looked indifferently on the problem of religion as a question of individual concern, confining itself mainly to the lapses of a rural priest or clerical 40 intervention in politics: Por otra parte, con la misma libertad con que el romanticismo del siglo XIX otorgo importancia literaria igual a los vocablos "noble" y "no nobles," esta novela post-modernista ha hecho sus experimentos en materiales que antes eran considerados como "no aptos" para las formas literarias. Categoria de arte se ha buscado, insistentemente y muy al contrario de las tendencias tradicionales, a los temas sordidos, a las vidas tri- viales y oscuras, o sumidas en airibientes miserables, despojados completamente unos y otras del disfraz ennoblecedor con que el romanticismo y el modernismo formalizaron sus creaciones. Realisticamente se agrupan en el campo experimental de la imagineria novelesca, de un lado los explotadores desalmados, los exactores de los pobres, los politicos corrompidos, y del otro, la sangre fraterna vertida inutilmente, las vidas duras y miserables en la opacidad de una excenografia sucia, los profugos y los licenciosos, las adulteras y las prostitutas, las gentes sin pesares ni alegrias morales, poseidas de un angustioso o in- genuo desprecio por la vida propia y la ajena. Disipado el humo bien oliente con que el modernismo cubria las miserias y las llagas, se viene buscando expresamente lo feo, y se dignifican esteticamente las necesidades elementales de la vida, al mismo tiempo que se acude con brio a colocar en un estrado de inmoralidad y ridiculez los fetiches de aristocracia y las diferen- ciaciones sociales. (C.A., p. 224) The contemporary novel is experiencing an unprece dented mass of cultural influences and aesthetic tendencies from diverse universal currents. Costumbrismo is still actively seeking to reflect the typically national charac teristics, but perhaps the time has come to ask whether or not it is leading to stultification through closing out a sense of universal expansion, rather than insistence on 41 didacticism, such as minute explanations on the functioning of agricultural, mining, or industrial operations, which detract from the action and artistic effect, in contrast to Maria or La voragine where the landscape is completely blended with the plot. All forms and tendencies of the universal novel have been tried in Colombia, although some less than others, such as the fantastic, intellectual, or scientific. This in part is a result of concern with political and social factors which have impeded preoccupation for the universal anguish of the human condition in a materialistic, technical, and mechanized civilization. Thus the Colombian contemporary novel follows the national tradition of real istic costumbrismo, at times deftly, at times ineptly, and as such it is comparable to the best production of Latin America. The Colombian novelists read Tomas Carrasquilla and Rivera, taking from the first his procedures of objec tive transcription and composition, and from the second his drive to represent national anguish in "un panorama terri- geno" (C.A., p. 225). A tendency to be noted is the intent of the novel ists to reach the common people, the masses. This carries 42 with it a lack of concern for the aesthetic sensitivities of privileged minorities which of course is a recent development and a source of much divided and diverse re action, especially when such novelists as Unamuno, Proust, Joyce, Kafka, Huxley, Mann, Virginia Woolf, and many others find reflection in local writers. Two generic dangers can be noted for the contempo rary novel, one intrinsic, the other external. The first is lack of quality of style and mastery of form and con tent. The other is the lack of a well prepared, objective, vigorous criticism. Colombian critics tend to lack profes sional preparation. They are out of tune with the current scene, often greeting works with deliberate, icy silence or praise more suited to an obituary column, lamentably following political or personal reasons (C.A., p. 227). Novels responding to various literary tendencies were produced between the appearance of La voragine and 1952. One of the most important writers of the psycho logical novel was Luis Lopez de Mesa. He retained much of modernism, especially refinement, spirituality, intellec- tualism. He reacted against the amoral, phallic aspects, however, and sought to show that individual perfection 43 is attainable through wisdom. La tragedia de Nilse (1928) deals with adultery, sentiments of paternity, indignity, and injustice. La biografia de Gloria Etzel (1929) has a pedagogical or sociological intent. Lopez de Mesa was not fortunate in the composition and aptness of his dialogues, which are stilted euphemisms placed in the mouths of unreal characters (C.A., p. 229). Ayer, nada mas ... (1930), by Antonio Alvarez Lleras, is an attempt to represent the vast sabana and the city of Bogota. There is much of costumbrismo and senti mentality, but also an attempt at representation of varied aspects such as rural landscape, sentiments, politics, and attitudes, as well as the growing complex city of Bogota. Alvarez Lleras attempted with some success, rather complex characterizations with psychological depth, including in fluence of environment on development of human personality. The social scene included merchants, bankers, journalists, writers, professional people, artists, and the idle (C.A., p. 232). Jose Restrepo Jaramillo is considered one of the best psychological novelists of Colombia with his La novela de los tres (1924) which explores psychoanalysis and 44 segmented self images of one individual. David, hijo de Palestina (1931) presents a dual-perspective, the Biblical Antioquia and that of Colombia, with the themes of wrath, violence, hypocrisy, and unchristian behavior (C.A., p. 234). Several novels in the fantastic vein were published. Gregorio Sanchez Gomez wrote various works concerning ideal ized peasants exploited by landowners, but in Vida de un muerto (1936) he presents the fantasmagorical odyssey of strange beings and disembodied souls in a superworld, who relate their episodes, commenting on aspects of Colombian life. Other writers considered aspects of drug addiction, suicide, and desperation with politico-social and love elements (C.A., p. 236). In Babel (1943) Jaime Ardila Casamitjana produced an intellectual novel in which a young man seeks the root of human misery in the confusion of tongues described in the Bible. Ardila seems to recapitulate various influences since the turn of the century including modernism, cubism, Wilde, Nietzsche, Proust, Gide, and others. His use of dream sequences lends itself to poetizations and suggestive associations. His philosophical trend seems to be in the 45 direction of wisdom and good will through seeking and knowledge (C.A., p. 238). Jose Antonio Lizarazo delved into the psyche of a syphilitic in El criminal (1932)# in which the sick senti ments and absurd meanderings of an aging criminal are analyzed. El suicida moral (1942) by Bernardo Uribe Mufioz also deals with a syphilitic, this time an unadapted indi vidual constantly thwarted by a heartless society (C.A., p. 241). Cesar Uribe Piedrahita produced two novels with psychological insights, Toa (1933) and Mancha de aceite (1935). The first deals with white men exploiting Indians in the jungle for poison, wax, and rubber. The second deals with oil drilling. It is to be noted that these novels could also be classified under social protest or anti-imperialism. Toa, especially, shows a strong influ ence of La voragine (C.A., p. 243). In 1934, Eduardo Zalamea Borda published Cuatro anos a bordo de mi mismo, a novel which narrates the ex periences of a young man on a voyage from Cartagena to the Goajira Peninsula. Using the five senses, and various forms of sensualism, the author interweaves vital experi ences, common objects and occurrences, sexual exhaltation. 46 music, rhythms, flora, fauna, color to express the essence of the tropical coast of Colombia. The work is credited with applying to Colombian prose the impressionism and lyric renovation of Juan Ramon Jimenez and in aiding greatly in the Piedra y Cielo movement (C.A., p. 244). Among various costumbrista novels which also try to express regionalistic essence should be mentioned Risaralda (1935) by Bernardo Arias Trujillo. The author called it a "Filmola" (film novela), a "Pelicula de negredumbre y vaquerxa." It is an exhaltation of Negro workers in jungle, field, and river valley, of their subservient life by day, heroic but silent toil, by night raucous venting of pas sions and inhibitions. The innate human qualities of black people are contrasted with whites who have exploited and distorted them (C.A., p. 248). The best and most completely naturalistic novel of Colombia, both for its execution and for its crudity of style and persistent preference for exploitation of the sordid and cruel elements of human existence is Las estre- llas son negras (1949) by Arnaldo Palacios. The author combines costumbrista detail with photographic realism to interesting as well as repugnant episodes in the Choco 47 region,, Palacios is a master of dialogue also, but some what ingenuous in black reaction to white exploitation and the social environment (C.A., p. 250). A number of other novels were written which com bined costumbrista regionalism with social protest, cover ing various areas and industries of Colombia: Tras esta ultima forma de novela saturada de em- briagueces, de naturaleza aberrante, de aire viciado, y cruzada por los rayos de todas las concupiscencias, sienta como un descanso la vuelta a los motivos coti- dianos y sencillos de la novela costumbrista de tipo regional que en Colombia, y especialmente en Antioquia, se seguxa cultivando a orillas de los carainos abiertos, por Tomas Carrasquilla. Sucediale, cierto es, a este tipo de novelas, lo que a esos cuadros de la pintura minuciosa en donde el cuidado por el detalle de las hojas impide la vision del paisaje. (C.A., p. 254) This introduction has attempted to give an abbrevi ated resume of the Colombian novel down to 1952, year of publication of the last major novel treated in Curcio Alta- mar1 s Evolucion de la novela en Colombia, the only work which has ever attempted to cover the entire span of this genre. While much of what was said above can still be applied to developments since 1952, it will be seen below that certain changes and new tendencies have occurred or began to appear during the period under consideration in this study. Specific applications in Colombia will be 48 illuminated by referring to tendencies in the contemporary novel in Latin America as a whole. In his Escruema generacional de las letras hispano- americanas {instituto Caro y Cuervo, Bogota, 1963), Jose Juan Arrom views the latest "generation" of Latin American writers as dating from 1954, a year containing or sur rounded by numerous changes profoundly affecting all of mankind: the Battle of Dien-Bien-Phu, in which France lost Indo-China and began to lose Algeria; the United States Supreme Court decision on racial segregation; the Bandung Conference and emergence of the "Third World" (1955) ; Nasser's nationalization of the Suez Canal (1956); the beginning of the Cuban Revolution (1956); Pope John XXIII and his message of peace, love, and social justice (1958) ; the rise of John F. Kennedy with subsequent extension of Alliance for Progress. In short, a new spirit makes itself known during the 1950's and 1960's and is reflected in the literature of Latin America. Similar observations are expressed by Juan Loveluck and Fernando Alegrla in Colocruio sobre la novela hispano- americana (Mexico, 1967), but with specific application to r the novel in Spanish America. In general, they attribute 49 radically new developments in technique, style, and outlook to parallel developments in the conditions of human life since 1940 and the individual's reaction and attitude to ward them, which have of necessity called forth new modes of artistic expression. References will be made to these and other critics appropriately in subsequent chapters. The point to be made here is that the years 1950-1970 are years of change in life and in art. We can expect to find much of the traditional novel continuing just as it is, or combining with new forms. We can expect to see novelists of the new generation following the latest trends from Europe or the United States but adjusting them to national forms. We can also expect to see Latin American writers working strictly in avant garde media, either imported, adapted, or invented locally. The novel seeks to express what is local, but raise it to universal art; it seeks to represent the collectivity but also in terms of the indi vidual. There are no holds barred and no rules except effective expression. As might be recalled, the novel is ever "new" and, therefore, makes its own rules as it evolves. In light of these developments, it is obviously 50 next to impossible to find a "perfect" method for organ izing a study dealing with them. Because of the complexity of elements/ old and new, and the hybridization of forms, most attempts at rigid categorization are inadequate. What is appropriate is a mode of organization which will aid understanding of the development of established tendencies, their transformation into different ones, and the emergence of new forms, either from previous ones or as importations. Such a mode must contain both the old and new in recog- nizeable form and allow for development in time. This is the basis for the organization of this dissertation. It is based on the most identifiable tendencies of the Colombian novel, considering its past and present relationship to the Latin American, North American, and European novels. Within each category these tendencies will be traced from 1953 to 1967. The first category is essentially rural. At the beginning of the period the major types were costumbrista, regional-terrigena, and of social protest, with a few ex periments in psychological analysis of the nature of the rural individual, his environment, and the total inter action. The undeclared civil war of 1948-1957 produced 51 a trauma which affected the innermost reaches of the entire nation. In the novel, the most immediate result was the production of more than forty "novelas de la Violencia," which document the period as eyewitness accounts or expres sions of a point of view, much in the same manner as the "novela de la Revolucion mexicana." They tend to he long on invective and short on literature with a few notable exceptions. In Colombia, virtually all novels produced since "La Violencia" deal with it in some way: its causes; its effects; its significance. It might be said that "La Violencia" has brought all of Colombian existence into activity at the same moment and the resultant confrontation has produced an excruciating shock bordering on horror and despair. The intensity of emotional response varies con siderably but the intentional soul searching is present in all. As one moves away from the time of violence the number of documentaries diminishes and the quality of art increases. A number of novels dealing with the rural and provincial theme are being written, for the most part, in a straightforward style, incorporating contemporary 52 techniques appropriately and in moderation, but generally following what might be considered an up-dated neo-realism. These novels are intent upon analyzing Colombian reality, and are impressive for the effectiveness and seriousness with which they strive to understand and communicate, artistically, the enigmas of their troubled times. A final sub-group of the rural novel is the costum brista novel. While some rosy hued works of a by-gone day came to light during the period, a new variety emerged which reflected the realities of recent years while still expressing the intense love and interest which Colombians bear for their multi-faceted land. The second category is the so-called Tropical Cycle. Theoretically, the novels produced in this group might be classified as rural, but due to innovations in corporating contemporary European and North American trends and their concentration on the northern tropical coast, along with the leadership of a world famous novelist such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the novels justifiably warrant separate treatment. The third group is the historical novel. Like the regional and costumbrista novels the historical novel would 53 seem to share the same fate as the theater: it has been pronounced dead many times but, like the Phoenix, continues to reappear. The favorite epochs at present are from ancient history and the Bible and the history of Colombia. This would seem to reflect the trend toward reconsideration of values and a search for reaffirmation of the present in the past. Category four includes most of the urban novels, with Bogota leading quantitatively and qualitatively, although other large urban centers also are represented. The "violence" serves as a causal factor which drives people out of their rural homes, but the problems which accompany the worldwide movement toward urbanization are also present. Several of these novels reflect the highly penetrating insight which internationally sophisticated Colombians bring to bear on their own society. They also reflect changing attitudes toward traditional institutions and practices. Category five is concerned with the philosophical, psychological, and cosmopolitan novel. These novels seek to analyze and psychoanalyze Colombian society. They also attempt to relate the unique aspects of national life 54 to other countries/ to attain perspective by projecting it to another plane, usually in Europe, North America, or Latin America, although such interesting areas as Korea, Israel, and others are represented. A separate group makes up the final category which I have designated Avant Garde. The novels treat many of the same themes as are found in the preceding groups but they tend toward the more advanced positions of the experi mental novel. There are elements of existentialism and in general a sense of anxiety, rejection, and frustration characteristic, in part, of the "Nadaista" movement of the early 1960's. The novelists tend to be younger, in their twenties and thirties, with some of the most promising making their presence known at a relatively early age. This is the new generation in Colombia; their counterparts are worldwide; their attitudes are universal but with the i i t |peculiar twist of having grown up in an emerging nation haunted by "La Violencia." CHAPTER I THE RURAL NOVEL The Novel of Violence "La violencia" is the name given to the years 1946- 1 1958, approximately, in Colombian history. Since the early days of independence Liberals and Conservatives had contested and alternately shared the power in the nation. After sixteen years of liberal rule the Conservatives This brief resume of the salient historical events of a highly controversial period is based on Hubert Herring, A History of Latin America (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962), pp. 497-522. This work will be referred to as H.H. Some other helpful sources are: Jesus Maria Henao and Gerardo Arrubla, History of Colombia, translator, J. Fred Rippy (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1938); Monsehor German Guzman et al., La violencia en Colombia (Bogota: Tercer Mundo, 1952) ; A. Curtis Wilgus and Raul D'Eca, Latin American History (Fifth ed. ? New York: Barnes and Noble, 1963); American University, Washington, D.C., Foreign Areas Studies Division, U.S. Army Area Hand book for Colombia (Second ed.; Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1964); and Orlando Fals Borda, Subversion and Social Change in Colombia, translator, Jacqueline D. Skiles (New York: Columbia University Press, 1969). 55 56 finally regained the presidency when the Liberals gained a majority of votes but split them between Alberto Lleras Camargo, a moderate, and Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, an ultra progressive militant (H.H., p. 516). Opposition to the government increased, with vio lent actions bordering on virtual civil war in various parts of the republic. Polarization grew more acute with deadlock and instability in the congress. After a fiery speech in Congress declaring that the government would "control the situation with blood and fire" and the reply of Gaitan1s followers denouncing "political murders," Con servative President Mariano Ospina Perez declared a state of siege in some troubled areas (H.H., p. 517). In April, 1948, the Colombian government was host ing the Ninth International Conference of American States in Bogota. On April 9, Jorge Eliecer Gaitan was assas sinated setting off a powder keg of mass violence in which several thousand people were killed in the ensuing rampage. Gaitan was to have been the Liberal candidate in 1950; he became the martyred symbol of the struggle throughout the nation (H.H., p. 517), Under a state of siege and suspension of constitu tional rights, the ultra Conservative, Laureano Gomez was 57 elected president and took office in 1950. The Liberals, badly split and expecting coercion at the polls, refused to put up a candidate (H.H., p. 518). The Gomez regime earned a high rank among oppres sive dictatorships: congress, disbanded in 1949, was not reconvened; the free press was throttled; the courts were intimidated; freedom of worship was curtailed; intermittent civil war drove thousands of country people from their homes, with guerrillas variously labeled "Conservatives" and "Liberals" killing each other at the rate of more than a thousand each month. Gomez' declaration of a state of siege had inflamed the passions of all elements. In June, 1953, a coalition of Liberals and moderate Conservatives deposed Gomez and replaced him with General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla (H.H., pp. 518-519). Rojas Pinilla ruled from 1953 to 1957. His adminis tration was without precedent in its savagery, venality, and incompetence in the history of Colombia. It was rule by decree without even a constituent assembly. It was rule by terror with government police murdering and looting. The typical methods of police state brutality were carried to an extreme including silencing of all opposition (H.H., pp. 519-520). 58 The only good thing that can be said for Rojas Pinilla is that by his excessive abuse of both Conserva tives and Liberals he finally pushed them into a coalition and ended their feuding, which constituted a large portion of Colombian political history since 1830. With backing from Church, military, and civil sectors, the most uncom promising and extreme Conservative, Laureano Gomez, and the Liberal leader, Alberto Lleras Camargo, worked out a for mula under which national and departmental posts would be divided between the two parties for the next sixteen years. Lleras Camargo was elected and installed in office in August, 1958 (H.H., pp. 520-522). The violence of these years was probably the most terrible ever suffered in the entire history of Colombia. The element of crime and bestiality degraded all associated with it. The specific details are difficult to establish in their entirety but the following are indicative of the consequences of the horrible tragedy: Approximately three hundred thousand men, women, and children killed throughout the country; destruction of rural economics in many areas with forced migration of country people to the cities; disruption of basic social 59 institutions in rural and urban areas and rise of juvenile crime in cities; loss of respect for human life; loss of respect for authority, justice, and capacity of government to function honorably and effectively; instability, fear, and anxiety lest the violence break out again, since it is symptomatic of a need for radical change of structures in 2 the nation. Since 1946, more than forty novels have been writ ten about the years of violence. The authors in many cases were participants, victims, or witnesses of the actions described. As in the case of the Mexican Revolution, the documentary value of these novels is high. They are charac terized by passion, brutality, protest, rhetoric, and often one-sided denunciation of the perpetrators of the acts described. As in the case of many novelists, the drama, |tragedy, despair, and bitterness can only be mollified by its expression in artistic form. This is true in the instance of a personal or indi vidual occurrence and also in one in which the author identifies himself with a group or institution and thus 2 Monsehor German Guzman et al., La violencia en Colombia (Bogota; Tercer Mundo, 1962), Chapter XI. 60 takes on a social dimension involving his area, political party, church, military, or paramilitary unit, the com munists or other groups or individuals. The novel in a sense becomes a verbal battle ground where attacks and counter-attacks are advanced and parried. As can be seen, there are various points of view possible on the part of the writer. No one wants to accept responsibility for the violence. Violence and works dealing with violence may be found throughout Colombian history but the writing of novels of violence as a movement dates from the events sur rounding and begun on April 9, 1948, when writers began to gain awareness that the nation was going through a period of agony and excruciating internecine strife. Then they sought to reflect it in their works, thus creating a genre or subgenre that is a combination of. costumbrista, his- 3 torical, sociological, political, and protest novels. Of the forty novels of violence about twenty-five were published during the years of violence, with 1953, 3 Carlos Lleras de la Puente, "La literatura de la violencia," Boletin Cultural y Bibliografico del Banco de la Republica (Bogota), IV (julio, 1961), 659-662 (herein after referred to as BCB). 61 1954, 1955 accounting for the greatest amount of violence and novels about violence. Moving away from these years the number of novels decreases and the intensity of the violence diminislies as the theme is transformed and ab sorbed into various channels of novelistic activity. As was stated in the Introduction, the theme of violence is present to some extent in most recent novels, and although some appeared in the 1960’s which could be classified with the documentary variety, the true novel of violence, as a movement, was on the wane, having reached its peak around 1959-1961. About this same time, the main stream of the Colombian novel was beginning to flow with new vigor having been stimulated by the years of agony, and it was already showing signs of overflowing traditional boundaries by establishing fresh currents for reflecting on and analyzing national life. Since many of the better novels belong more prop erly to later trends, or form part of the work of authors who are clearly developing in new directions, it will be appropriate to consider them in subsequent sections. Con sideration here will be limited to typical examples of novels of violence and the main characteristics found 62 in them. 4 Viento seco by Daniel Caicedo is considered to be one of the first novels of violence (the prologue bears the date 1953 although the official publication of the second edition is 1954). At any rate its popularity in several editions reflects public interest in creative expression on this theme. The novel relates incidents of the years 1946-1950 in the Department of Valle, especially the mas sacre by government police of Liberals who had sought asylum in La Casa Liberal of Cali on October 22, 1948. His wife killed by bandits, the emasculated protagonist unites with a school teacher, who had been violated by seventeen policemen, to gain vengeance. They vow a fight unto death, not for justice, but for revenge. The novel, rather than an analysis of social problems, is the expression of violent rebellion seeking an eye for an eye, not the cause of liber ation for a better life. It is the raw emotion of people in arms. 5 In Balas de la ley, Lieutenant Alfonso Hilarion 4 (Segunda ed.? Bogota: Cooperativa Nacional de Artes Graficas, 1954). 5 (Bogota: Editorial Santa Fe, 1953). 63 "tells the truth" about certain incidents which occurred between the years 1946-1950 when he quit the police because he was accused of eighteen crimes while, according to his version, the Liberal Party was guilty of atrocities which they committed through their guerrillas. Eduardo Santa has combined most of the elements of 0 violence in Sin tierra para morir. A crooked landowner enlarges his property by filching his smaller neighbors' land under threat and terorism. His good-for-nothing son returns after six years in the city without having entered the university, passes himself off as a "doctor," and com mences to practice all of the vices he has learned in the city on the unwary country women. The local mayor, with one hundred policemen where only two were needed previously, backs up his "honor" by shooting dissenters. Without hope of relief or justice, many peasants are forced to abandon their lands and seek charity in the city or descend to being servants although they had been honorable and respec table masters in their own homes. The novel leaves a strong impression of bitterness and injustice. 0 (Bogota: Editorial Iqueima, 1954). 64 7 Un campesxno sin regreso contains many of the good as well as negative points of this type of novel. Euclides Jaramillo Arango narrates the story of a group of families who set about colonizing an area of Antioquia. After much effort they succeed in establishing productive farms. The colonizers are of different political hue but this is of no matter since their only concern is to aid one another as brothers. The story involves a young peasant whose only con cern is to possess a piece of land, cultivate it with the loving care he feels for it, to marry the local school teacher who returns his affection, and to live happily ever after. Actually the setting of this novel is presented as a tranquil region, almost the promised land, an Eden where everybody loves and respects each other, helps his neigh bors, where thievery or envy do not exist, but only the desire to work the soil honorably. Under these circumstances, there should not exist any bad feelings for reasons of money or politics either. 7 (Medellin: Editorial Bedout, 1959), 65 But soon arrive the evils of politics, brought in by candi dates during presidential campaigns, and little by little the people begin to change. Then, as if by magic, the close friend who would have given his life for his neighbor is not so magnanimous, rather, he has turned cold, selfish, and partisan. In the middle of all this, the farmer protagonist of the novel is recruited, in spite of his belonging to the party in opposition to the government, because the local party boss sees in his absence the opportunity to conquer the school teacher. Political persecution then is com pletely unleashed, and involves a desire to take over the wealth of the family of the young protagonist, now a sol dier. His family on a moment's notice must flee into hiding, not leaving word as to where they will be since even they have no idea. The school mistress is left alone in the village, awaiting the return of the young soldier. She is saved from the desire of the political boss by a faithful friend who shoots him at the moment in which he attempts to violate her. Years later the soldier, who believes his sweetheart dead, returns to the village and meets her on a hillside. She is semi-demented because of 66 having suffered so many tragedies. At the moment of their encounter, the soldier is shot down by savage hired butchers, remnants of the violence. The author points out that the soldier met his death in his own village because he had forgotten that he was "un campesino sin regreso." The real protagonist of this story is the violence itself, in as much as it shapes the drama of the characters and serves as a historical background of a national reality. But the characters do not really come to life in their own right. They seem to react according to the study which the author is making of the phenomenon of the violence, and under these conditions they do not succeed in transmitting to the reader a real preoccupation for their fate. If there is any, it is an intellectual rather than an emo tional involvement. The basic reason for this is that the author depicted the people of the region as all good prior to the advent of "politics," and then, with the advent of violence, as a sort of spirit of evil. This of course does not hold up in the light of psychoanalysis or modern sciences. As a result, although certain chapters are of great realism and intense force, the novel as a whole loses its thrust. 67 This shortcoming is common to many novels of vio- lence. Their episodes deteriorate into mere anecdotes, even though they intend to denounce the injustice committed against people who deserved a better fate. This is so mainly because they fail to study profoundly the ultimate ■p. causes which created the violence in the particular region, and the why and wherefore as to how it penetrated the area, or the social and psychological effects it had on the in habitants. An interesting novel which deals with violence, but g which is not overwhelmed by it, is Carretera al mar. The work reflects autobiographical experiences of the author, medical doctor and guerrillero, Tulio Bayer. In it the work of doctors amid the carnage is set forth, rather than a treatise on engineering as the title would imply. A young doctor must complete his rural medical service in a town of Antioquia. Everything in the town is corrupt: the mayor, the judge, the police, the priest. The hospital is in bad condition, due to lack of money, and the priest has forbidden the sisters to solicit alms lest Q (Bogota: Editorial Iqueima, 1960). 68 the faithful be turned against the Church, since he needs money to maintain his concubine. The doctor does not even have an autopsy table which he needs regularly. The whole town is corrupt, except for the army which does what it can to curb the police. The doctor makes friends with the local Liberals and this is tolerated until the army leaves, then the doctor is forced to flee with a local prostitute with whom he has fallen in love, to avoid the wrath of the new mayor and police chief. He goes to the mountains where he serves the workers on a highway project. A band of guerrillas had been harassing the construction because of an army captain's misdeeds. When he is replaced with a Liberal, the doctor is able to gain the aid of the guerrilla, since he had attended the chief previously. A plea for under standing and cooperation and a denunciation of mindless destruction and petty bestiality are implied. Bayer is capable of creating characters of flesh and blood, an atmosphere and descriptions that are very effective. In the background are bitterness, despair, and the violence that destroyed lives, wealth, morals, and values of Colombian nationality. The searing drama of 69 recent years is shown: peasants murdered in the night, brought in by horseback for autopsy without knowing where or for what stupid reason their lives had been snuffed out, the morass of small town intrigues in which a man from the university literally suffocates in the noxious environment. Rumor stalks like a monster through the dull life that seems a preparation for death? bandits and police are in constant battle; women are lost through vice, alcohol, and social neglect; lives are broken and completely frustrated. To portray that all of this is not fiction seems to be the intent of Doctor Bayer in his attempt to inject the anguish and feelings of real, live palpitating humanity into the pages of his novel. A negative aspect is what might be called the philosophic soliloquies of the author. A somewhat in genuous atheism, an anti-Church, anti-religion, anti orthodoxy slant which propounds some of the more extreme partisan positions detracts from the overall effect. Nevertheless, while not without certain defects, the work is superior to many which deal with the violence. 9 J. J. Garcia, in Dialogos en la Reina del mar, 9 (Bogota: Ediciones Tercer Mundo, 1965). 70 brought out in 1965 what is an example of another possi bility for dealing with the theme of violence. In this case the action shifts to what might be called verbal vio lence, a sort of belated recrimination for acts done or left undone during the years of actual strife. The plot for the novel, which is in reality a dis guised political diatribe, concerns a doctor who was present at the bloody riots of April 9, 1948, rendered medical service to the wounded, was later persecuted by the govern ment and forced to live in exile in Venezuela, with one of the nurses with whom he had worked. From Venezuela he decides to go to France on the ship Reina del Mar. On board he converses with a North American journalist and others. The plot and the other characters are really just a pretext for the dialogue in which the protagonist criti cizes the former president of Colombia, Alberto Lleras Camargo. The charges range from the personality of the President to questions of intent and judgment. Many of the items dealt with can only be clarified by time and investigation. They relate to specific inci dents during the period of violence and as such are of a highly inflammatory nature from a factual standpoint. 71 In terms of novelistic developments they give some indica tion of the range of possibilities through which this theme finds outlet in Colombian letters. As was stated previously, the years 1946-1958 were not the beginning of violence in Colombian history. Since 1810 Conservatives and Liberals had exchanged power every few years with more or less bloody transfers. The culmina tion for the nineteenth century was the War of One Thousand Days at the turn of the century, finally won by the Con servatives at the cost of one hundred thousand dead. They consolidated their position and held it until 1930 when the Liberals took over for sixteen years. But conditions had been changing since the beginning of the twentieth century. The old ways no longer coped with situations as they once had. The bases of nationality, social, economic, reli gious, and governmental, tended to be unstable, unpredic table. With each change of power more violence and force seemed to be needed (H.H., pp. 501-516). Gerardo Suarez Rondon, author of La novela sobre la violencia en Colombia,^ the only major work as yet "^(Bogota: Editor Dr. Luis F. Serrano A., 1966). 72 to appear on this subject, has analyzed these novels from the standpoint of treatment of the various elements in volved, that is, the struggle for power between Liberals and Conservatives, the roles of the army, police, guer rillas, the Church, and other groups. He points out that the majority of the novels criticize the Conservatives since they were in power at least nominally from 1946 to 1958. The National Police and the Catholic Church, along with the Conservatives, form part of a trio which tends to be lumped together for blame. The Liberal Party is usually depicted as an innocent victim except in the very few novels written by Conservatives in which the opposite point of view is presented. Of all the major groups in volved, the National Army comes out best as the only group that represented all of the nation rather than a particular faction.^ The historical facts of the period are far from unanimously accepted and so a concrete verification of the events of any given novel is in most cases not possible. "^Suarez Rondon, Novela sobre la violencia en Colombia (Bogota, 1966). See Chapters 3-5, pp. 46-80. 12 Ibid., Chapters 6-7, pp. 81-94. 73 Nevertheless, several generalizations may be made concern ing points of agreement in most of the narratives. First there is a crisis of authority in the nation. This sec tarianism was intensified by city politicians seeking to spread power to rural areas. The country dweller became the instrument and victim of this drive. Secondly, since the political party and the authority were virtually in separable, they became identified as a unit. Thirdly, the corruption of political leaders found its counterpart in the ignorance of the people who were maleable in the hands of demagogues. Together they form a "macabre trio" which 13 unleashed the violence. The almost inextricable involvement of life in literature and literature in life is indicative.of the in tensity with which this experience penetrated all of Colombian existence. At the time of the appearance of the first novels of violence the big city critics went about with their usual approach of evaluation, comparing them to classical novels and discovered that they were sadly lacking in 13Ibid., pp. 117-118. 74 "esthetic qualities." In addition, they were often un grammatical, and used foul, common language. In general, according to such critics, they made Colombia look bad in the eyes of the world. However, a new breed of writers, critics, and intellectuals had been developing in Colombia and was gaining strength as the situation in the country deteriorated. In 1954, in the Introduction to Daniel Caicedo's Viento seco, Antonio Garcia denounced what he called a "divorce between real life and literature" in Colombian history and defended that tendency in which La novela en Colombia tiene una tradicion de rebeldia, de inmersion social y de protesta. Esta es la fibra comun de Eugenio Diaz, Lorenzo Marroquin, Jose Eustasio Rivera, Uribe Piedrahita, Eduardo Zalamea, Osorio Liza- rago, Martinez Orozco, Arnoldo Palacios, Zapata Oli- vella, Ignacio Gomez Davila. ... Alcances sociales de la novela realista, todas estas novelas tienen un valor desigual, literalmente hablando: pero son una explora- cion valerosa en los problemas del "pais del sotano." En una nacion retorica, engreida, que se ha creido huma- nista porque en los seminarios se habla latin y se traduce a Virgilio, constituye una proeza la de los novelistas que, rompiendo la tradicion idilica o reli- giosa de la literatura, se atreven a esculcar en la entraha del pueblo y a denunciar publicamente sus pro blemas ... de todos los hombres que habitan y vegetan en el "pais del sotano": pero ya se ha iniciado su descubrimiento. Lo mismo que en parses como Ecuador y Venezuela, en el nuestro la novela realista es el primer contacto con el drama social.^ 14 Caicedo, op. cit., pp. 27-28. 75 In the same year, Ivan Piedrahita, while attacking the partisan viciousness, exaggerated crudity and propa ganda of some novelists, defends that aspect of their works which illuminates the realities of national life and leads toward progress: Cortense de un tajo estos tejidos maleficos ... y ten- gase, asx, algo colindante con la perfeccion. Ciertos novelistas van saliendo del feudalismo, letargo de la mediocre clase directora, bajo el impulso de la tra- gedia de la violencia, son mas documental y paralite- rario. . . . <*Cual es el saldo favorable que van a aportar a la historia de las letras colombianas los novisimos escritores de novelas en nuestro pais? £Aportan una nueva concepcion de la tecnica novelxstica, acaso? ilnauguran un inedito mundo sentimental, social, con ceptual, animico en el desfile de personajes de alto y bajo bordo que han puesto a vivir en sus obras? Acerca de lo primero, necesario es confesarlo, ningun elemento revolucionario. Ninguna vena revoltosa ha nacido al pausado nemoroso cauce del apenas adulto rxo de la novela colombiana. Desde este punto de vista, seguimos viviendo en la misma paz artificiosa y falsa que en todos los ordenes de la vida colombiana hemos venido vegetando hace ya siglo y medio de independencia poli- tica. Respecto de lo segundo, es cierta la considera- cion ya antes citada y que dice relacion al despereza- miento, al despertar de ese letargo apacible y animoso en que se ha desarrollado la conciencia social de todos los colombianos especialmente de los escritores de novelas y ensayos. Piedrahita indicates that Colombia is in a spiritual, ma terial, emotional, psychological, social crisis, that the hour for "esthetes" and "dilettantes" is past. It is now the hour for literature and the novel to investigate, 76 express, explain, uplift, and show the way for today's mortal man.^ Eduardo Santa, politician and author of the novel Sin tierra para morir, felt compelled to defend himself against critics who had attacked his novel. He took to task those "critics," unfortunately the rule rather than the exception in Colombian letters, who in fact were not professionally prepared to perform their task and who too often followed subjective whim or partisan consideration in 16 their evaluations which were superficial at best. In a previous article Santa had defended the rele vance of the novel of violence as the first time that the Colombian novelist had based himself in the drama of his people: Los escritores jovenes empezamos a tener una con- ciencia de nuestro destino y de nuestro compromiso con el pueblo. Es posible que de todo lo publicado quede alguna obra sustantiva sobre la etapa que nos toco vivir en nuestra adolescencia, y que golpeo con fuerza los centros vitales de nuestra sensibili- dad y de nuestro entendimiento. Nos conformamos, 15 "Nuestra nueva literatura— examen de la novela colombiana contemporanea," Revista de la Universidad Pon- tificia Bolivariana, XX (agosto-noviembre, 1954), 125-127. 16 "Observaciones a la critica colombiana," El Tiempo— Suplemento Literario (Bogota), marzo 6, 1955, p. 2. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 77 los que hemos escrito sobre estos temas de violencia, con dejar un testimonio. ... La pregunta que yo hago ahora a los escritores de Colombia y a los criticos de oportunidad es esta: £quien que escriba no tiene primero un compromiso con el drama del pueblo? Quien asi entienda la funcion de escribir y la haya cum- plido a cabalidad, que arroje la primera piedra.^ The discussion of this issue becomes difficult to follow in the Bogota press because of intermittent restric tions on the press and curtailment of literary coverage. The peak year was 1959. El Tiempo had sponsored a short story contest. One of the winners was Gonzalo Arango who thus got a boost in his role of leader of the "Nadaista" movement. In an article he responded to surprised critics and public who questioned why 90 per cent of the short stories were about the violence. As to why, he said that it weighed heavily upon the writers' lives. As to what good would it do? What for? His reply was "nada," hence the name "nadaista." He reasoned that the establishment wanted romanticism or nineteenth century costumforismo but the violence theme in the short stories meant that the youth of Colombia were seeking a way back to themselves here and now. They want to reevaluate life in Colombia, 17 * "Presencia y realidad de la novela," Bolivar, enero-febrero, 1955, pp. 163-164. 78 not some far off land which is irrelevant. Arango says this annoys the establishment because it seeks tranquility, 18 and wishes to forget realities. In a bibliographical note published in 1961, Carlos Lleras de la Fuente makes the first attempt at analysis of this type of novel. He points out that two types of literature have always developed in a parallel fashion: one, less connected with daily reality, the other, closer to the people and the land. The latter is more mutable and follows more closely the currents of social phenomena: Este "genero menor" ... forma la verdadera literatura colombiana de los ultimos aflos. Es cierto que aquella erudicion del siglo pasado tiene aun nobillsimos ex- ponentes en figuras de la talla de Lopez de Mesa y Felix Restrepo, pero es cierto tambien que esa no es Colombia sino simplemente la utopica Bogota que ya hace mucho tiempo dejo de ser la "Atenas Suramericana" y que no volvera a serlo jamas. Entonces podriamos decir que los escritores de la violencia son los continuadores de una vieja tradicion dentro del campo del costumbrismo, lo cual nos llevaria a plantearnos grandes interrogantes: las costumbres colombianas han variado en tal forma que aquellas paci- ficas personas que encontraban un deleite sin par en beber el chocolate en delicadas tazas de plata, deci- dieron transformar sus costumbres y dedicarse al mucho menos noble oficio de asolar las campihas y asesinar 18 "El concurso del cuento nacional— los concursos y la violencia," El Tiempo— Suplemento Literario, julio 5, 1959, p. 2. 79 los campesinos, zO es acaso que el turbulento siglo XIX, que transcurrio en medio de contiendas sangrientas era el paraiso de la paz junto a lo que hoy vivimos? 10 sera, por ultimo, que aquellos costumbristas de- jaron de narrarnos en sus obras una parte de la vida colombiana? Lleras de la Fuente admits that the aristocratic soldiers of the nineteenth century fought fiercely but within a code of honor which today has been degraded by brutality but, he insists, Es bueno ver tambien que la vida muelle y tranquila que pinta con gracia y elegante lenguaje el gran Vergara, no era la de Colombia sino la de una clase que poco se asomaba por los dominios de la miseria, que poco sufrio en las luchas por el poder politico.^ What is left, today, on the contrary, is a world full of conflicts, personal and social, in which everything is questioned, even the value of what was once untouchable: God, authority, justice. Some clamor in the name of the Divinity for punishment, others in the name of revolution for redemption. Hector Rojas Herazo believes that the bitter experience of the violence has as yet not released the nation from its bewitching hypnotic hold, and as a result clarity of vision and calmness of emotions have not brought equilibrium. He believes that themes that make 19 Carlos Lleras de la Fuente, "La literatura de la violencia," BCB, IV (julio, 1961), 659-662. 80 a central character of the people themselves require a certain period of time in order for the artistic incubation and gestation to take place. This is his answer to the much asked question as to why "the great novel" of the 20 violence has not been written yet. It is quite true that "the" novel of the violence has not yet appeared on the scene in Colombia. It may be that it will not appear for at least another generation. It may be also that it will not appear at all, since as several writers observe, there is no way to force a theme into artistic expression just because the theme exists. Nevertheless, the theme of violence is appearing, because the conditions which caused it are still present in Colom bian society. These and other factors continuously seek for expression and clarification, in diverse and often confusing ways. The most accurate and helpful generaliza tion that can be made about the Colombian novel at the present moment is that it is busily, energetically, at times feverishly and often creatively, seeking to know, 20 "cPorque carecemos de una novelistica de la vio lencia en Colombia?" El Tiempo— Suplemento Literario, diciembre 2, 1962, p. 1. 81 express, and illuminate the Colombian man in his environ ment; to explain the present in terms of the past; to probe the present with a view to the assessment and understanding of values, and to relate present reality with possible future alternatives. In a sense the time of violence was a bloody bath of birth, a Caesarean in which Caesar's sword cleaved the entry into the twentieth century, the nuclear age. Today's novelist partakes of all these images. He is as diverse as Colombia itself with the complexity of Paris, New York, or Hongkong. His world contains the kaleidoscopic mixture of all the movies showing in Bogota, from "Pirates of Old Cartagena" and "Maria" to Jim Brown, Raquel Welch and "2001 Space Odyssey," from Fellini and Bergman to Walt Disney. The succeeding sections of this study will attempt to bring out the diversity and complexity of the contempo rary novel in Colombia. In the remaining parts of the present section the rural novel in its several modes will be presented. Social Protest, Regionalism, Costumbrismo In the first section of this chapter the novel of violence has been presented, not because it is first 82 chronologically in terms of literary movements but because it represents the factors of greatest historical impact in all respects concerning this period in time. The relation ship of the novel of violence to costumbrismo, realism, social protest, and other aspects was also mentioned. In this section the continuation and development of tendencies already well established prior to the time of violence will be considered. In many cases the pre-existing trends seem to proceed without undue reference to the national blood letting, in others they appear in greater or lesser degree. Division of novels into rigid categories is often artificial since they frequently mirror the complexities of life and society. This is especially true of Colombia during the years covered in this study. The objective in this section is to bring out examples of ongoing tendencies as they reflect the more permanent currents which must be understood in order to follow developments subsequent to the trauma of "La Violencia." It will be recalled that La Voragine opened a new era in Latin American literature by becoming the prototype of la novela terrxgena. During the thirties and forties it had many imitators in Colombia. Added to the elements 83 of natural landscape were those of human creation espe cially groups of society pitted one against another. Writers sought to present as many facets of regional or commercial activity as they beheld and could transmit into novelistic form. More and more areas and industries were added to the list. At the same time, social protest themes and atti tudes found expression in these novels but most of the energy along these lines was absorbed by the novels of violence until around 1959-60. In 1955, Jaime Buitrago published La tierra es del 21 Indio, novela indigenista. Perhaps the novel should have been entitled "La tierra no es del Indio" since this in reality is the main thesis. The particular social in justice denounced here is exploitation of the Indian at the hands of the white man who wants only to use his labor and despoil his lands without appreciation for his culture or humanity. The tragic end finds the principal characters exiled to Indian reservations in the dense jungles of the Choco region. Buitrago previously had written novels about 21 (Bogota: Editorial Minerva, 1955). 84 fishermen of the Magdalena River and the colonization of the Quindio jungles. For this novel he used the files of the government and lived among the Indians to learn the pertinent facts. 'The documentary value is good hut the author fails to create a living situation although con siderable sympathy is generated for the plight of the first inhabitants of the land. Perhaps the most clear cut example of social pro test of an older type reappearing in the sixties is Ivan Cocherin (pseudonym of Jesus Gonzalez) who follows the Marxian orientation. He has written a series of novels dealing with various industries and social groups of which Tunel (1963) is a typical example as can be surmised from the following excerpt taken from the Prologue: La literatura y el arte proletarios no deben ser academicos, sino simplemente humanos. ... Estas paginas no son un tratado de gramatica, son un grito de angustia que han escrito los mineros, con la sangre de sus pulmones rotos en las humedas paredes de los socavones. En esta novela de sangre y mineria, Andres Valera, el desgarbado personaje revolucionario y violento, vencido al fin por el sistema imperante, encarna su tragedia y la de todos los oprimidos que van por los caminos abismales de la tierra perseguidos por el fan- tasma pavido de su propio destino. Para ellos es este libro amargo.22 22 (N.p.: Imprenta Departamental de Caldas, 1963), p. 7. 85 Novels which seek to register a strong social pro test often deteriorate into propaganda due to too much ideology and not enough humanity. Ivan Cocherxn tends in this direction. The scenes depicting the human qualities of the characters seem to be aimed at supporting the thesis rather than artistic verosimilitude. The intermixture of novelistic types is interest ingly present in Zig zaq en las bananeras (1964) by Efrain 23 Tovar Mozo. The author, a lawyer and writer from the northern coast, wishes to focus, rather than on a specific place on the coast, its customs, its folklore or its tem peramental states, on a strike of the banana zone, where due to excessive intervention of the armed forces, one of the most tragic and absurd episodes in the incipient social awakening of the country took place. This is an interesting example of social protest because, although this was the author's clear intention, it does not develop into a tangible reality. Perhaps he has attempted too many themes, too many dissimilar facets, because the plot and characters seem to disperse rather 23 (Bogota: Offset de Colombia, Editores, 1964). 86 than converge. Their reactions are contradictory and the structure is weak. By introducing romantic situations, what could have been the real essence of the work (the strike and its painful consequences), appears confused, without any vigor. The novel, nevertheless, has undeniable qualities in the opinion of Fernando Soto Aparicio: Tovar Mozo se revela, mas que como un escritor social, como un costumbrista de buena ley. Las charlas de los costeftos, sus pullas, la alegrxa jacarandosa de sus bailes, la increible variedad de las mentiras con que quieren deslumbrar un corro de oyentes estan bien narrados. Para los hombres del interior, "Zig-Zag en las bananeras" es una especie de guxa, no turxstica en cuanto a paisajes, sino en cuanto se relaciona con los sentimientos y la manera de ser de los hombres del litoral.24 The discrepancy between what the author intended and what was finally produced as exemplified in Zig Zaq en las bananeras points up the difficulties in classifying novelistic production. In this case, a desire to portray a social theme was overwhelmed and artistically surpassed by a costumbrista or regionalist influence. The type of work a novelist creates appears to depend on the natural 24 El Espectador, Magazine Dominical, August 30, 1964, p. 15. ability of the writer, his experience in writing, and the influences or examples he begins with, A number of writers begin under the influence of costumbrismo-regionalismo-terriqenismo, in varying admix tures and with varying degrees of talent. Probably they are following the lead of authors they read during their formative years and their first attempts at writing seem to stay quite close to their models. Several writers who have produced second and third novels display remarkable development between their beginning and later stages. One of these writers is Alberto Dow, a medical doc tor from Cali who served in the primitive, remote coastal region in the tropical zone which borders with Venezuela on the Atlantic, and known as the Guajira peninsula. The in habitants are primitive Indians who have resisted civiliza tion. The region is generally uncontrolled by Colombia or Venezuela although efforts are being made. 25 Guanduru (El espxritu del mal) seems to have affinities with La Voragine by Rivera and Cuatro aftos abordo de mi mismo by Eduardo Zalamea Borda (both were 25Written in 1954, published in Cali, 1958 (no pub lisher given). 88 mentioned above in the Introduction). As does Guanduru, both of these novels involve a young man from the city who seeks escape and adventure in the mysterious exotic jungle, who comes under the hypnotic spell of the primitive selva, experiences the sensuous attractions of native and imported women, and undergoes various tribulations involving police, smugglers, and other unscrupulous types. Both of those novels have been acclaimed as landmarks for their type, Rivera's, of course, of world wide prominence, and Zalamea Borda's within his own country. Alberto Dow did not equal his masters on his first attempt at the novel (see pages 154-157 below for a better later work), but he did seek to express in artistic form something authentic about an area of his native land and to include something from his own experiences, for example, the figure of the young doctor from the city who tries to lighten the burden of the inhabitants of the area. Al though the characterizations are weak, the novel ends on a positive note as the protagonist, through his experi ences, has found himself and come to know realities and acquired a desire to make a positive contribution as he returns to civilization. The novel is interesting for its 89 costumbrista descriptions and depiction of characters and activities of the area. Another novel about the same region is La casimba, 26 novela Goajira (1959) by Isaac Lopez Freyle. The novel has excellent scenes which realistically bring out aspects of the local environment, involving white renegades, police, and smugglers. The author intends to show how the Indian is involved in the white man's mischief, is exploited and abused by him but is still a better man, especially when he remains true to his own customs, which are duly described in detail, including rituals, beliefs, values, and language. The plot is weak and the novel ends with a melodramatic encounter in which an Indian true to his heritage defeats a turncoat in hand to hand combat, thus winning the chief tainship and the beautiful Indian maiden. In seeking to understand cultural tendencies one jmust learn to follow clues, to read evidence that apparently i points in one direction, but can also lead to greater com prehension or insight into a total process. One such 27 example is Socavon (1966) by Helcias Martan Gongora, 26 (Bogota: Editorial Iqueima, 1959). 27 (Bogota: Internacional de Publicaciones, 1966). 90 a highly respected poet. Of mixed Spanish, African, and European background, he has sung about his native region, the Pacific Coast of Colombia. In this work, which re ceived honorable mention in the 1964 Premio ESSO competi tion, Mar tan Gongora seeks to pay tribute to the people of his region whom he feels have been neglected by the nation's writers. In this first attempt at prose he tells about the lives of people representative of the major groups of the area, reflecting something of their history, arrival, fate, and ambitions. In the end, a number of them are killed in the cavein of a mine which was to have brought them riches. Although the work was considered a novel in the ESSO Prize Competition, there are grounds for questioning its qualifications since its division into three sections only loosely connected detract from unity of plot. The work has merit, however. The poetic language of the author vibrates with sonorous syllables and brilliant metaphors. His love for his native land produces a deeply authentic work which effectively communicates the essential humanness of the characters, creating interest and sympathy for the hardships and disappointments of their lives. Martan Gon gora is an example of a trend among Colombians to seek out 91 the deep, authentic essence of their country, their past, and their lives and not to be stopped by the fact that they may not be experts in a given genre. The fact is that the total effort is beginning to have some very impressive results. The expressive impetus can also have surprising and even humorous consequences. J. J. Garcia, mentioned above (pages 69-70) as the author of a novel of violence which in reality is a bitter political diatribe (Dialogos en la Reina del Mar [1965]), published in 1966 a costum brista novel dealing with the foibles of a politician from the Department of Bolivar on the northern coast. In Rufo, 28 Gobernador, the author, who is an economist and former member of Congress, draws upon his knowledge to present scenes of departmental political life and administration which reflect shortcomings common to many areas of Colombia, to be sure, and some which find universal counterparts. It is notable that J. J. Garcia has achieved far greater com munication with humor than he did with bitterness. Rufo is not an important novel for its seriousness or ideologi cal intent; it is quite unpretentious. But it manages to 28 (Bogota: Tercer Mundo, 1966). 92 convey much that is true with highly authentic and amusing costeho wit. The desire to express the reality of Colombia seems to be spreading to all reaches of the country. Colombians' awareness of themselves and their activities as novelable material seems to have been a result of transfer of habit long present in narrative forms but renewed, intensified, and made more specific and local by the violence and the literature it produced. As a result, for example, a number of novels dealing with the gold and emerald mines have appeared. Colombia and the Soviet Union are the only sources of the world's supply of emeralds. Colombians are very much aware and quite proud of their precious gem monopoly. Even today rumors and stories circulate concern ing fabulous fortunes won or lost in gems and the adventur ous events that go with them. One of the novels written on this subject, El 29 paraiso del diablo (1966), uses emerald mining as a point of departure and then proceeds to seek other riches and adventures in the rivers and jungles of the Amazon Basin. 29 ^ (Madrid: Editorial Cultura Clasica y Moderna, Graficas Canales, S.L., 1966). 93 The author is Alberto Montezuma Hurtado, former envoy of Colombia in Guatemala. The novel attests to the suggestive power of both the emerald theme and the classic work of Rivera, which seems more and more to be present as the narration progresses. This is so in a positive or construc tive sense. Montezuma Hurtado is a reasonably good writer who fictionalizes personal or related experiences in an interesting manner. The hypnotic attraction of the jungle is well presented as are the incredible human types which one encounters in remote locations. Another novel devoted mainly to emerald mining is 30 3 kilates 8 puntos by Flor Romero de Nohra. The author is the publisher of a women's magazine and is prominent in women's activities throughout Latin America. She is an outstanding example of a writer who showed great develop ment in a later novel {see pages 148-154 below). In this work, whose title refers to the weight and value of emer alds, she made a rather cautious beginning and shared a good deal of controversy due to the ESSO Prize for novel in 1964 awarded to hers and another novel which stirred up 30 (Bogota: Editorial Andes, 1966). 94 a great furore because of the judges' decisions. More will be said about this below. 3 kilates 8 puntos is not a great novel but it is competently written and sincerely tries to depict the real lives of actual Colombians involved with the emerald in dustry: mining# contraband, instant riches, crime, and ambition. The basic concept of the novel is traditional, but an attempt is made to present believable human beings in modern times— the men and women, miners, camp followers, contrabandists, politicians, former guerrilleros from the violence, crooked priests— in short present day characters attracted by fabulous wealth and converted into slaves of nature by the green gem and their own passions. This is potentially a powerful combination for human drama. Flor Romero de Nohra saw this and made a good effort to capture it in creative form. Her second novel, which will be treated in the last section of this chapter, gives better indication of her potential. 3 kilates 8 puntos was awarded second prize in 1964, which in itself probably would not have raised more than a mild reaction, but the first prize in the ESSO competition went to a novel which has been devastatingly 95 criticized by the vast majority of critics, authors, and a variety of commentators. The "Guayacanzo," as the con troversy has come to be known (after the "Bogotazo," tradi tional political violence in the capital), takes its name 31 from Guayacan by Jose Maria Prada Sarmiento, a psychia trist from the Department of Santander, who innocently entered the work and was awarded "el premio gordo." Doctor Prada, himself, was never the object of attack, but rather the manner of selection and the judgment of the jury which received scathing and telling broadsides. The plot consists in the eulogy of the "virtudes de la raza santandereana" through the history of a rural land owner who falls from a horse and is paralyzed. His wife takes charge of business and of maintaining family morale, which turns out to be quite easy since, after a few days of depression, upon being scolded by his wife, he accepts his misfortune in a Christian manner, meanwhile "como por milagro tambien, todo coraenzo a marchar mejor en la finca. 32 Las cosechas fueron abundantes." According to the author 31 (Bogota: Editorial Andes, 1966). ^ Ibid. , p. 105. 96 the essential part of the novel is the following: He tenido siempre curiosidad por conocer el umbral fronterizo de resistencia para el dolor siquico, ya que del fisico tanto se ha escrito y hablado en todas las epocas. Este el motivo, de que en esta novela trate de penetrar hasta lo intimo de ese dolor siquico, del sufrimiento moral, marcado las mas de las veces por la impotencia de desarrollar lo que fuera para la humanidad fuente de prosperidad: su trabajo.^3 The work has been criticized on almost every pos sible ground. The characters are considered to be card board figures, the dialogues based on the most trivial resources, the plot, infantile and commonplace, the editing of poor quality, the "ideas," insulting in their poverty and audacity, and the "refranes campesinas," a grotesque sham of the speech of peasants. The pseudo socio-philo- logical digressions and moralizing commentaries disrupt unity of development. As an example of costumbrismo, Guay a can is deemed unworthy of the skill and art which 34 characterized that traditional Colombian genre. In response to public criticism, P. Felix Restrepo, S. J., of the Academia Colombiana de la Lengua, a member of 33 Ibid., pp. 9-10, 34 ... For a summary of points of criticism see Eduardo Camacho Guizado, "Sobre una novela premiada— Guayacan, " en Eco (Bogota), XIII (junio-julio, 1966), 2-3. 97 the jury, gave his personal reasons for the selection: Lo primero que me llamo la atencion al leer su novela fue la originalidad del tema. ... Llegando al desarrollo de la accion tuve otra sorpresa y es que el autor no se dejo influxr por teorxas exoticas ni por modas que tanto influyen en escritores de poca monta. Sino que haciendo alarde de un vigoroso nacionalismo dio al problema el desarrollo y desen- lace que debxa tener en una sociedad cristiana como es esta de Colombia. La mayor parte de las novelas de los ultimos afios nos presentan casos monstruosos, y esa literatura terrorista ha influxdo en gran parte en el mal con- cepto que de Colombia se tiene hoy en los pueblos mas civilizados. Prada Sarmiento rompio esa coyunda/ y a mi juicio hizo bien. iPorque si lo monstruoso tiene derecho a presentarse, lo normal y corriente tiene que estar desterrado de la sociedad y por consiguiente del mundo de los escritores Father Restrepo goes on to say that although there may be differences of opinion about style, he feels that the novel will live for its sociological merits, especially because it upholds the Christian values of Western civiliza tion which are the bases of Colombian society and it does this with the considered opinion of a medical psychiatrist who in 1965, in spite of conflicting movements in the world, still considers them to be in full force. 35 "En torno a una polemica— El premio de novela ESSO, tempestad en un vaso de agua," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales (Bogota), June 6, 1965, p. 2. 98 Father Restrepo died of a heart attack shortly after writing the above. He was being driven to work at the Academia in the center of Bogota. While his chauffer sought aid, he succumbed in front of the great stone edi fice of classical Greek design which symbolized the tradi tions he so long had served and recently defended. The building, originally accompanied by others of traditional style, is now completely surrounded and dwarfed, "over grown, " one might say, by the mighty, burgeoning, bustling, sometimes ugly, but often beautiful modern Bogota. The real heart of the matter is contained in this image: sad, nostalgic, a dignified, white haired, scholarly humanist, a priest truly representative of the fine qualities of "el pais del sotano" and "El Atenas de Latinoamerica," slumped in shadows before the stately columns of classical learning, while the tumult of one of South America's fastest growing metropolis continues its surge as the bril liant clear blue sky sparkling with Andean brightness lends a note of cheer and a promise of hope. The contrast and conflict is quite real, of course, in Colombia as throughout the "Third World." Father Restrepo was not attacked personally for his viewpoint, 99 but the procedure through which such views could be imple mented in awarding the most important narrative prize of Colombia, to the exclusion of all other artistic and sur rounding considerations, and the fact that it had actually done so stirred the reactions of many persons who pre viously had chosen to maintain patient silence, glad that, in the absence of governmental encouragement, a powerful company such as ESSO had acted in a public spirited manner to encourage novelistic art in the nation. Their concern was not without foundation. The following year, 1966, the first prize was again conferred on a controversial work. Full scale hostilities broke out with two major results: ultimate revamping of the selection procedure for Premio ESSO; and establishment by dissident avant garde writers of the "concurso nadaismo de novela," sponsored by the important Bogota publishing house, "Tercer Mundo" whose name symbolizes its interest in bringing out material of value to developing nations. Daniel Samper Pizano, in an article entitled "'Guayacan,' o 'Ahi vienen los academicos,1" refers to the control exercised by the Academy over juries and selection: "El academismo ha logrado que aparezca ante los nucleos 100 culturales extranjeros una novela de inoperante calidad, 36 como la mas importante del ano en Colombia." This article, illustrated with cartoon drawings, depicts the Academy as out of touch with the times and unresponsive to present realities. „ 37 The 1965 selection, La picua ceba, also treated in Samper Pizano's article, seemed to represent the last straw for many commentators. The title means "La picuda se va," picuda being the name given to the barracuda on the northern coast. The novel, and again there are many who deny it more status than "relato costumbrista," concerns the adventures of a young man from the interior who shares some pleasant experiences with the simple fisherfolk, black, white, and mixed. He has a brief love relationship with a beautiful young black girl; he learns to handle a boat in flash storms? he learns to fish; he shares some pleasant activities and in an unpleasant one helps to van quish a giant lethal fish— "la Picua," which has killed one of the fishermen. 36 El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, June 12, 1966, p. 6. 37 (Bogota: Ediciones Lerner, 1966?). 101 The story is really quite charming in its sim plicity# written with a colorful sensitivity to the natural beauty of the Caribbean, and with language one critic relates to folk poetry of the area. This is really all the author, Lucy Barco de Valderrama, intended to do when she wrote the piece and submitted it for competition. As a prose description of her native area’s natural beauty it is quite successful. But the Bogota housewife, as in the case of the author of Guayacan, found her story the center of a critical storm. The Bogota critics, warming up to the growing literary activity, began to display their traditional wit, at times biting as in the case of one article which had a cartoon showing an austere boqotano replete with benapkined neck, sharpening his knife while eyeing a huge fish on the table before him with the title: 38 "La Picua se va no es una novela." A second drawing showed the same diner satisfied, with only the bare bones of the carcass remaining as evidence. A subsequent article by Oscar Piedrahita discussed the events surrounding "La Picua Ceba," "El Premio ESSO," 38 Ebel Botero, El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, June 19, 1966, p. 10. 102 and "El concurso nadaismo de novela, " one of whose winners was El terremoto. The cartoon showed a man blithely agi tating a cocktail shaker containing a recipe with ingre dients of "Picua Ceba" and "Terremoto." The article is 39 entitled "Los premios de novela, un coctel molotov." The debate, while at times acrimonious, manifests a growing awareness and concern for the novel as an art form of spe cial efficacy in analyzing and expressing the national reality, a task it is felt which must give some clue as to how Colombia will adapt to modern demands and remain true to her cultural authenticity. For this reason, probably, as well as due to intrinsic qualities, various critics pointed out the positive aspects of Doha Lucy's book and noted as a healthy sign that an unknown housewife, a mother of a family, should participate in one of the important artistic activities of her nation, thereby making a con tribution to all Colombians, and setting an example to other women to participate in national life. The last author to be presented in this section is Manuel Gonzalez Martinez, who is deliberately and El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, July 24, 1966, p. 6. 103 intentionally a costumbrista novelist who, because of his ability, at times reaches heights of expression remarkable for their effectiveness. Gonzalez' shortcomings are his lack of narrative unity, balance of characterizations, and self-imposed limit of scope in his basic concept of the novel as an art form. In spite of all these points, the communication of important aspects of Colombian reality comes through in his works with great force. His first novel was published in 1960, but, accord- 40 ing to a newspaper interview, Gonzalez wrote it when he was seventeen years old on the backs of bullfight posters approximately forty years before. The author was born in 1901, in Sogamoso, Boyaca, which is on the edge of the great llanos orientales. During his youth, Manuel had a fight with the son of the opposition political boss who took reprisals against his father. To save further harm, the youth escaped to the llanos where an uncle was in charge of a ranch. The future author worked, lived, and learned the ways and lore of plain and jungle, including 40 Daniel Samper Pizano, "Reportaje lxterarxo— Una novela escrita en el respaldo de avisos taurinos," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, September 12, 1965, p. 3. 104 prolonged contact with and knowledge of the many and varied forms of animal life. Finally, due to politics, he was forced to move on, this time crossing into Venezuela, where at one time he was pursued by the dictator Gomez. He worked his way back to La Goajira, Cartagena, the tropical jungles, and the interior. The novel is called Llanura, soledad y viento 41 (Casanare). Casanare is the name of a region on the llano. Martinez Gonzalez fell in love with the primitive environment and wanted to express his feelings in prose, just as he on occasion had paid for bed and board with recitation of original and common folklore and ballads. Llanura, soledad y viento is more than a description of an area, it is a hymn to nature in this virtually undeveloped section of Colombia. The work is basically a poeticized costumbrista description: reqionalismos llaneros; folklore, legends, myths, unique fauna and flora, mores, folkways, medicines, remedies, practices, beliefs, superstitions, work ways of hunters, cowboys, housewives, parties, music, fiestas, 41 (Bogota: Editorial Lumbre, 1960). ^ 105 dances, balladry, and much more. The plot, which is practically non-existent, involves a llanos youth who studies in Bogota, longs to return home, recalls life on the plains, and finally is able to go back. This really serves very little purpose structurally, though, since the descriptive sections form separate episodes in themselves, revolving around local persons who really constitute repre sentative types rather than characters. The reality of life in this environment clearly comes through. The harsh ness, privation, and real danger are starkly presented in such a way as to involve the reader vicariously in them. One is brought to feel the heat, thirst, and excitement of a day spent rounding up cattle on a seemingly endless ex panse or the terror of grassfire and helplessness upon being stranded by seasonal flooding. Perhaps the most unusual aspect of this work is the author's use of animals, in an almost Kiplingesque manner, as characters. The drama of the environment is thus seen in its entirety, with man being merely one of the players, interacting as part of the human group with members of the animal group and, of course, both groups placed in the setting of plain, jungle, expanse, heat, and storm. 106 In 1961, Gonzalez published Niebla en la sierra (La nifia Polita), a novel about the rural mountains sur rounding Sogamoso, Boyaca, his birthplace. The time is 1907, when the author was a small boy. His intention is clearly stated in the prologue: Este libro es la imagen de un pueblo. De una epoca de ese pueblo— cruda, naturalista y escueta— en donde el vocablo castellano, aun deformado, tiene el vigor y la desnudez de su fuerza expresiva que no he querido traicionar. Chocara su lenguaje y algunos de los personajes de ese pueblo— es natural que choquen— con aquellas mentalidades academicas, doctas, finas como un hilo endible y quebradizo que todavxa se ruborizan con la maritornes del Quixote, o La Celestina, y que se desmayarian de pudor; de ese pudor que otros mientan mojigateria, con las paginas de Pantagruel o El Deca meron . Se necesita, es verdad, buena dosis de coraje, de sinceridad y de amor a ese pueblo para no alambicar, pulir ni lamer— como lame una vaca a su ternero— la pelambre erizada del vocabulario de ese pueblo campe- sino, humilde, resignado y anonimo, que si vale algo es precisamente por ser asi, basto, como la estopa de sus ruanas, pero altivo y erguido como los inexplorados picos de su sierra nativa. Van dedicadas estas paginas a aquel lector des- conocido, valiente y desinteresado que sin prevencio- nes, ni reatos, se enfrenta a una verdad— la verdad de los humildes— que no por escondida ni tosca deja de ser verdad, simple verdad desnuda y desafiante como un marmol.^ It is important to emphasize here the intent of the author to depict real, live, simple, rural, human Colombians 42 (Bogota: AEDITA Editores Ltda0, 1961), p. 7. 107 in their authentic setting, speaking, acting, and feeling just as they do. In this work Gonzalez evokes a bygone day in order to depict the character and life style of the country people. It is to be noted that although the author began with costumbrismo, his scope broadened, and social and individual penetration increased. La niria Polita is the story of a girl whose sick, destitute mother must sell her daughter to an elderly hacendado to save her finances and her health. Polita refuses to succumb, and finally "marries" a rugged youth with whom she lives on the paramo. In the end she dies in childbirth and he keeps silent watch over her grave with the "niebla en la sierra." The work is dramatically defi cient but the atmosphere and flavor of the country people along with customs, some good, some bad, are vividly pre sented. 43 . » * La canija, Gonzalez Martinez' third novel, was published in 1967. In all respects, it is his best novel- istic achievement, but it falls short in terms of plot concept, narrative unity, and characterization. Again, ^(Bogota: Editorial "Vision," 1967). 108 in spite of these deficiencies, the work has been praised, and rightly so, as deeply Colombian, very authentic, with out negative influence of imitated foreign models. The unifying figure is Rodolfo, a worldly wise artist, who is disillusioned by the falsity, artificiality, and lack of authenticity in Bogota. He tries to find him self by returning to the wilderness and eventually disap pears into the jungle, immortalized by mating with the legendary spirit of the selva. Rodolfo is a mature man with graying temples who nevertheless is attractive to younger women. In a sense he symbolizes the virility, intelligence, cosmopolitanism, and popularity of the Hispanic aristocrat, considered as a matter of quality rather than as an empty title. Gonzalez Martinez seems also to be saying that Colombians and other Hispanic Americans should follow the positive virtues of their civilization and seek the autocthonous essence of their land, to develop it, thereby feeding their spirit and fulfilling their destiny. This is to be done in Colombia by Colombians for Colombians, not by imitating decadent European or other foreign influences. The title refers to a young prostitute, born in Colombia of a Colombian mother and a Middle Eastern father 109 who ran a plantation. The mother abandoned them and the girl was sent to school in England until her father re ceived a "machetazo" in the violence. She roamed around Europe for a few years and finally returned to Colombia# a physically and morally ruined person, but one who still had pride and a sense of dignity. Another young woman, Annaliese, is the picture of pulchritude physically, but spiritually she is sterile, unable to love. As a child in Eastern Europe she was ravaged at the age of twelve by prisoners working a coal mine. Later, the benefactor who had cared for her was killed. Annaliese overcame these tribulations. By the end of World War II she was an extremely attractive young woman and was able to work as a stewardess on international flights. A third feminine character is a Spanish noblewoman who is actually the lover of Rodolfo, and whom he also loves for her qualities but with whom it is impossible to marry because of her obligations of her family. When she must return to Spain, Rodolfo leaves the capital for a ranch in the wilds. There his body is strengthened by the hard life, and his spirit is revitalized through contact 110 with the teluric forces. The magic of the land which had enchanted conquistadors claims him also but not before he restores the vitality of "La Canija" and Annaliese/ both of whom he impregnates with his body and spirit. They will have the strength to complete the conquest of the continent, to bring about material prosperity and social justice. The novel is quite long (425 pages), divided into two books of eight and ten chapters. The first book relates the stories of the three women and of Rodolfo's experiences as an artist in Bogota. There are outstanding scenes of life in the capital especially in the "Cafe Rodrigo," where the principals first became acquainted and on "La carrera septima," where Rodolfo undergoes various experiences including a complete initiation into "La hampa de Bogota," which because of his humanity and "sentido popular" reaches out to protect him in the poor barrio where he lives out of feeling for the underprivileged. The second book takes place in the country, extolls its virtues, relates its legends, folklore, and myths and shows how its magic affects the lives of the people involved. The work contains numerous digressions and super fluous material but it is well worth reading. Manuel Gonzalez Martinez has an eye for interesting details and Ill a verbal gift for communicating the real atmosphere of Colombia. Contemporary Neo-Realism The contemporary rural novel, that is, the novel conceived and executed in consonance with the sensitivities and techniques contemporary to the Western world, began to appear during the middle nineteen fifties. The awareness and need for such an instrument of investigation and ex pression in Colombia was recognized and voiced in concerned circles beginning with the late nineteen forties. In 1958, the Premio Jaime Barrera Parra was awarded by a distin guished jury consisting of Juan Lozano y Lozano (author, intellectual, Ambassador to Italy), Eduardo Caballero Calderon, and Carlos Lopez Narvaez, respected critic, to 44 Aquas subterraneas (novela) by Guillermo Reyes Jurado. In the prologue to this novel Luis Lloreda Parra refers to the crisis in the Colombian novel: the scant quantity and quality and the lack of authenticity and realistic penetration into society. He felt at that time 44 (Bucaramanga: Editorial SIDERAL, 1959). 112 that the end of a period of transition was being reached. It was a period of struggle between the influence of in herited archaic, outmoded forms and the imperious necessity for situating themselves, with all of their faculties, in the middle of their world, the world in which they struggle, in which they must live. There is an obvious conflict of generations, the eternal battle between new and old with appeal to authority and antiquity. Following the old forms, the transcription of problems and conflicts of daily life into novelable material was difficult and uninterest ing because of systematic repetition of situations. Lloreda Parra considers Aquas subterraneas an im portant novel in spite of weak points because it is a true testimony of the present moment, of the actual world of provincial Colombia, of the characters who appear always to experience frustration. He believes that frustration is one of the principal characteristics of the Latin American: always subjected to colonialism? always struggling among his conflicts? always fighting against the environment? one by one his ambitions have been frustrated. The protagonist of Aquas subterraneas believes that above all there is a need for treating new themes, a con stant search which includes those "prohibited" themes 113 which have remained on the sidelines, hut which in reality have not ceased to exert great influence in the life of society. According to Lloreda, treatment of these themes, which for quite some time have been growing in acceptance, should be free of all hindrances. They should represent man as man, in the situations of his everyday life, of experiences and situations which far from being foreign or extraneous to him, are part and parcel of his very exis tence. When the novel wants to moralize, or even if it does not, it must situate itself within the realm of human authenticity. It must present the problem with all of its crudeness, peer into its innermost reaches, examine it in all of its facets, and finally offer the reader a way of penetration into human conflicts. Lloreda Parra affirms as an accepted fact today that the arts cannot escape or avoid their role. They must give testimony which by inevi table influences is the testimony of an epoch, of a moment rooted in a given time, place, and environment. He be lieves that Aquas subterraneas does this because it has as its aesthetic vital content that realism which more than Colombian is Latin American. The actions described, when related to the environment, with the ambitions and particu lar ideals of a certain culture, offer the possibility 114 of an exploration through one town which/ with its own characteristics, marks the dominant tone in the description of an atmosphere. By treating a controversial theme, but without excessive use of localisms or idiomatic peculiari ties, Lloreda Parra believes that the author achieved 45 authentic communication. The author of Aquas subterraneas, Guillermo Reyes Jurado, is quite conscious of the novelistic transition underway, and he describes his orientation in the intro duction. He begins by saying that in a country where for fifty years Julio Florez and Jorge Isaacs meandered about in a literature based on tears, sighs, and wailing senti mentality, his novel might appear scandalous because it treats life as it is without covering it over with false morality. He sees no point in repeating the primrose path wanderings of his predecessors. Moreover, science and civilization have done away with myths, prejudices, and superstitions which for centuries inhibited human progress. Furthermore, nothing is gained by disguising the facts: La literatura contemporanea ya no se escribe simplemente para entretener sino para descubrir nuevos aspectos de la vida: en la selva, en los rlos, en los 115 litorales, en los vericuetos de las grandes ciuda- des. Que fin persigue, en esta epoca convulsionada y azarosa en la vida Colombians, una novela rosa en donde los protagonistas se derritan de amor, o como dice Gonzalo Arango, se dediquen durante 200 paginas a jugar a las escondidas y a hacer pendejadas? La novela ha invadido terrenos que antes le esta- ban reservados a la filosofia, a la politics, a la sociologia. Su finalidad es inspeccionar nuevos terri tories del hombre, analizar los conflictos sociales, denunciar las injusticias, proclamar los vicios de una sociedad que se debate en un verdadero caos de contra- dicciones. Lo contrario es perder el tiempo y hacer- selo malgastar a los demas. Toda esa literstura para cantarle al lucero de la mahana, a la soledad tan sola, a las rosas y a los crepusculos sobra y estorba en un mundo en donde la sobrecarga demografica, la bomba atomica y el espectro del comunismo nos asedian y nos conturban. Se dira que soy un escritor comprometido. Es cierto. Pero no en el sentido peyorativo que se le da a esta palabra para significar con ello que el escritor esta atado a una faccion politica o a una secta reli- giosa o social. Mi compromiso es con la literatura. No quiero que se siga engahando a las gentes con esa literatura fragante, olorosa a jabon palmolive con la que se nos pinta un pueblo satisfecho y una sociedad justa en donde todo el mundo vive confiado y alegre. Ni admito el pregon de que nuestra moral y nuestras costumbres sean sanas. La verdad es que el pais anda al garete, que hay una quiebra de la moral y unas cos- tuiribres relajadas. Si ello es asi— y lo es desde el momento en que todo el mundo clama por una verdadera transformacion nacional— para que escribir mermeladas literarias que ni prestan ningun servicio ni resuelven finalmente nada? No faltaran quienes de nuevo afirmen— ya lo han hecho muchos— que esta no es la finalidad ni la esencia de la literatura. Estamos en total desacuerdo. En paises todavia barbaros como el nuestro el compromiso literario no puede ser con el arte por el arte. El arte puro puede ser una calistenia mental inofensiva 116 en parses de elevada civilizacion y cultura, pero peli- grosa por lo inutil en naciones atrasadas e incultas. En estos paises pasionales y fanaticos el escritor responsable/ consciente de su mision, tiene que desa- rrollar una tarea didactica. Por lo mismo tiene que ser un escritor comprometido. El intelectual neutral, el que se aparta, las mas de las veces constituye un muro de contencion a toda transformacion en la his- toria. Porque todo en la vida, hasta la caneca de la basura de mi casa, desempafia un papel. "AGUAS SUBTERRANEAS" es un intento, un modesto intento de sacar la novela Colombians del ruralismo violento, de la tonteria y del melodrama para situarla en un piano serio y realists. Es posible que la obra no contenga verdaderos hallazgos literarios ni auten- ticos o extraordinarios descubrimientos del hombre, pero nadie puede negar que es un enfoque valeroso y certero de un aspecto de la sociedad Colombians. Que contiene ingredientes sexuales, episodios escabrosos, un poco de cinismo, es absolutamente cierto. Pero de todo ello esta saturada la vida. Ademas, esos elementos no se han empleado como un fin sino como medios necesarios para llegar a un resul- tado moral. Porque la obra encierra una leccion de moral. Al final la ilicitud, los actos contrarios al ordenamiento social revierten en los protagonistas para asquearlos, anonadarlos, oprimirlos espiritual- mente. La novela ha logrado asi, por ese camino, una funcion de critics social. No ha sido un nuevo e intrascendente pasatiempo literario.^ The purpose of using this very lengthy quotation has been to let the author speak for himself, to express in his own words what point of view motivates his literary activity and what his mentality as a person is. 46pp. 9-12. 117 In 1958 the author, a resident of provincial Bucara- manga, still feels it necessary to apologize for the "dar ing" of his theme and treatment, and to assure the reader of the seriousness and uprightness of his intentions. Although in view of recent developments in the novel and on the screen, his themes and treatment seem rather tame. There can be no doubt of his consciousness of new trends and his deliberateness in pursuing them. These elements are typical of many Colombian writers during this period and are present explicitly or implicitly in those who reach artistic achievement. The intent of Reyes Jurado to depict the atmosphere of a small town, off the beaten path, filled with boredom and frustration, is quite clear. The plot involves a young married man who, bored and frustrated with his previous job, accepts a position as bookkeeper in an obscure tourist hotel. The wife of the owner is a nymphomaniac complicated by other emotional and psychological problems which are aggravated by the stultifying atmosphere of the town and the superficial insensitiveness of her husband, himself an example of a hypocritical, superficial, self-seeking type. The young man undergoes a change in awareness through 118 his adventures and misadventures with the compulsive hotel keeper's wife. The reactions, interactions, and attempts to explain them by the protagonist, who in the process discovers much about himself, society, and the value of morality, serve also to reflect these elements for the reader. The novel verges on mediocrity in places but manages to remain on the side of quality in the total analysis. The communication of the small town atmosphere and the psychological insights, which at times are highly effective, coupled with the explicit statements of the author concerning the transition in the novel, make it an interesting and illuminating example of the better rural novels of this period. The next writer to be considered represents a broad range of trends and influences over a long period of time and helped prepare the ground for the transition into the contemporary stage. Eduardo Caballero Calderon was born in 1910 when Colombia was struggling to strengthen her democratic institutions at the time of the "Centenario de la independencia. " Educated as a lawyer, he has been elected a member of the National Congress and has served his country in Latin America and Europe as a diplomat. 119 At the same time, he has been cultivating a parallel career as a man of letters— writing essays, novels, articles, and reviews, establishing a radio station, becoming a publisher in Madrid, and eventually entering the Academia Colombiana de la Lengua. His articles in the Bogota newspaper El Tiempo over the past twenty-five years have covered scien tific, literary, political, and religious subjects. In a country where literary excellence has become a source of national pride among statesmen, scholars, and diplomats, Caballero Calderon has distinguished himself as one of the most remarkable stylists of the twentieth cen tury. His complete works have been published in three six-hundred-page volumes by Editorial Bedout, of Medellin, Colombia. They contain an astonishing scope of subjects and genres cultivated by the author. From essays about the fate of man in the New World to highly personal interpreta tions and descriptions of the Castilian environment, from commentaries on Colombian events to analyses of the his tory of Latin America. Caballero Calderon might well be considered a forerunner as well as a participant of the contemporary Colombian novel. He early brought the focus of his art to bear directly on the life and environment 120 of the rural scene. He sought to express poetically as well as graphically the essence, the history, the total human charge of rural Colombia on a general plane as well as in a very specific remote location. In this way he concentrated his literary power in an exemplary manner on the real essence of Latin American life, the rural exis tence of the unknown, downtrodden campesino, be he black, brown, white, or any combination. As early as Tipacocrue (1941) , and Diario de Tipa- cogue (1950), the newer flavor and attitude are present. The desire to perceive and express the most basic elements, the underlying relationships, both causal and resultant, the superstructure of social values and mores and their subterranean counterparts, through their concrete mani festations or intangible symbolizations, was present in Caballero Calderon at an early date. His Cristo de espal- das (1952) was one of the first novels of violence, and it is still artistically superior to most of the genre (Curcio Altamar, pp. 255-260). The three rural narratives which fall within the scope of this dissertation are Siervo sin tierra, Manuel Pacho, and Cain. Significantly, they all take place in 121 the same general setting of the above mentioned works, and as such reflect the deliberate consistency of the author in his focus on the rural Colombian man in his specific environment. Caballero Calderon, although educated in Bogota, is the scion of a landowning family of quite long standing in Tipacoque, Boyaca. The great hacienda main house was constructed by his ancestors well over two hun dred years ago. On the wall of the veranda is a plaque commemorating the visit of the Liberator Simon Bolivar during the campaigns for independence. 47 In Siervo sin tierra (1954), the author examines the situation of the Colombian peasant, his conflict of being "siervo" and "sin tierra," embodied in the plight of Siervo Joya, the protagonist. Because he is subservient, his condition of ignorance works against him, since he gets into trouble and must suffer the consequences due to his own ignorance. First, the soldiers rob his shoes and his scant savings in the barracks, then they rob his bus fare back from a trip to the shrine city of Chiquinquir<a and he must walk back. Because he is ignorant, he must go to jail and pay for a crime of which at the very most he was 47 Eduardo Caballero Calderon, Obras, Tomo III, pp. 301-447. 122 an ignorant and innocent instrument. The imprisonment is the result of attending a political demonstration out of obedience to chiefs who, when they see him stranded in jail, will not lift a finger to help him. Also because he is "Siervo" he has to work one fourth of his time to pay the patron for the privilege of working the land and using the water for irrigation. But Siervo is also "sin tierra": to possess a piece of land has been the greatest ambition of his life, an aspiration which at times draws closer, as if to tempt him, and then retreats, without causing him to give up com pletely. Side by side, he and his wife work exclusively for this goal. When Siervo is released from jail, as a result of the revolution of April 9, he is under the illu sion that the right of property has been abolished by the revolution, but he receives the unpleasant surprise that the land continues to remain in the hands of the owners. Next comes the Conservative persecution; Siervo is a Liberal and must begin to be careful, but the situation worsens and he must flee. The house of his patron is burned. Siervo's daughter is killed. His animals are stolen. He manages to save enough money for the down payment on his piece of land. Then he gets sick and dies. 123 Transito, his wife, has no alternative but to ask for the money back so she can bury Siervo, no longer "sin tierra." 48 In Manuel Pacho (1962), Caballero Calderon con tinues his interpretation of the Colombian man on a very personal plane by relating through the works of a primitive llanos youth incidents surrounding the murder of his par ents and the memories of the boy1s life which communicate his mentality and reaction to his environment. The novel takes place in the llanos. As a result of an attack by bandits, the protagonist, Manuel Pacho, loses his home, his family, all that formed the base of his life. He, saved almost miraculously from the general massacre, decides to give his father a proper burial in accord with the reli gious practices in which he had been raised (his mother's body had been thrown into a river by the bandits). To do this he must carry the dead body to the nearest town. For three days and two nights, fighting hallucinations, revul sion, and fatigue, he walks to the town and accomplishes what he set out to do. These three days of solitary walk ing through the llanos are filled with figures from his 48 (Medellin: Editorial Bedout, 1962). 124 past life, with experiences and adventures, in such a way that the entire life of the protagonist appears before the reader. With superhuman effort, Manuel Pacho completes an act of heroism. In her analysis of the work Helga Krdger comments: El contenido revela la vida de un horribre en una region colombiana: los llanos, y una problemStica social determinada: el bandolerismo. Todo esto consti- tuye una tematica propia del realismo social. Sin embargo, considero que la novela sobrepasa este genero de reflejos realistas de un fenomeno actual y logra hacer un puro testimonio del ser humano como indivi dual.49 She bases her opinion in part on the words of the author in the "Epilogo que ha podido servir de prologo," an extract of which appears at the beginning of the book as the "Epigrafe (Del epilogo que ha podido servir de prologo)": He llegado a pensar que cualquier hombre, por humilde e insignificante que sea, tiene alguna vez en su vida un momento a aproximacion al extasis del mistico, a la intuicion del genio o al sacrificio del heroe.^9 Miss Krflger believes that Ortega y Gasset's phrase 49 > Helga Krdger, "Una novela de Caballero Calderon, 'Manuel Pacho' ante la critica estructural y objetiva," BCB, VII (1965), 389-405. 50 Manuel Pacho (Medellin: Bedout, 1962), p. 165. 125 "Yo soy yo y mi circunstancia,” referred to by the author later in his "prologue" is the idea that sustains Caballero Calderon's novel. The man is presented as an historic being, subjected to his external world. But he develops as an individual in a continual dialectical struggle with that external world which is his circumstance. His circumstance stimulates him and awakens in him forces to respond to his interrogant, and still more forces to overcome the circum stance itself. Thus the man needs the circumstance to realize himself and to raise himself up to become his "real self." Thus the violent slaughter of people and animals by bandits is an unfortunately common event in the life of the llanos. Esta situacion, caracterxstica de la novela de la violencia, en Manuel Pacho, sin embargo, no constituye un problema en si. Aparece solo como un hecho, como una fuerza superior y destructiva. As! la violencia no figura sino como la circunstancia necesitaria, como base o posibilidad para crear una situacidn determinada que exige del hombre todas sus fuerzas, le transforma y le conduce a sx mismo. La violencia se presenta entonces como servidora de una idea filosofica. Lo que le interesa al autor es una situaci6n individual de un ser humano y su problema propio. The characterization of Manuel occurs through his 51 Krtlger, p. 405. Filmed as received without page(s) 126 « UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS. 127 en su mundo. Caballero Calderon ha sabido contar esto de modo concentrado, sobrio, casi impersonal y de poeta / i 52 epico. At the end of the book, the author explains his intention and what probably became of the protagonist: Quiero decir que el Manuel Pacho de esta historia, pasado su fugaz momento de heroismo filial# de accesis inconsciente a un heroismo mxstico e ingenuo# recayo en el olvido y el anonimato donde ya no me interesaba seguirlo. Es facil imaginar que malbarato estdpida- mente lo poco que pudo coger de una herencia que los tinterillos, los picaros y la Administracion de Ha cienda Nacional quisieron dejarle al cabo de las mil y quinientas. Debio rodar por los caminos de Casanare, de hato en hato y de fundacion a fundaci6n, desempe- ftando los oficios mas viles: peon de establo, manda- dero, ayudante de cocina, criado, guardian de porqueri- zos y gallineros. Se reabsorbi6, pues, en la gleba mas humilde de la llanura, la que parece amasada con barro de corraleja humedecido por orines de novillos y de caballos. Su heroismo fue esteril no tanto por ser inutil como por ser anonimo. Para haber sido un heroe de verdad, y no apenas un pobre diablo literario# a Manuel Pacho le falta morir.53 The author has cleverly utilized the "prologue" to state his frame of reference for the narrative and also to speculate on the ultimate fate of the protagonist. Ironically, the effort and results of Manuel Pacho's life 52 "'Manuel Pacho,' La novela de Eduardo Caballero Calderon," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, March 19, 1967, p. 2. 53 Manuel Pacho (Bedout), pp. 167-168. 128 are the common fare of daily life in Colombia and other areas. The 1965 Nadal Prize winning novel El buen salvaje and another from 1955 will be considered in a subsequent chapter (see pp. 323-332 below). The latest novel Cain 54 (1969) will be included here in spite of its exceeding the general time limits of this dissertation (1953-1967). It is probably Caballero Calderon's best and most important novel to date and should rank among the top Colombian works of our period. It recapitulates many character types, moods, and insights of previous works and serves as one of the most telling representations of the rural situation in relation to "la violencia" as yet to be published. In addition, or rather, even apart from these considerations, the human authenticity and psychological and artistic authority of the author have surpassed any previous effort. At the time of my visit to Tipacoque in August of 1969, Don Eduardo had just received the first proofs from Barce lona. We discussed various elements related to his work. He was hopeful of good results. 54 Cain (Barcelona; Ediciones Destino, 1969j. This work will.be referred to as Cain. 129 The intention of the author to illuminate and ex press Colombian reality and the sophistication and artful mastery which he commands have here produced a mature, polished novel at once up to date and universal and at the same time brimming over with the insistent vitality of the contemporary national environment. The setting again is Boyaca, the eastern slopes of the Andes bordering on the llanos, in a small town outside of Sogamoso. As in El Cristo de espaldas, there is a rivalry between the illegitimate sons of a gamonal. In this case, as in the quote from Genesis which appears in the front of the book, "levantose Cain contra su hermano Abel, y lo mato." Here, "Cain’ 1 is "el indio Martin" and Abel is Abel. They are the sons of Don Policarpo Rodriguez. Don Polo had been the mayordomo of "El Paralso," under the aristo cratic family of Doctor Reyes, after whose death Don Polo has realized his ambitions by gradually acquiring posses sion of the hacienda. His power and influence in the area have grown and he finally has become a representative in the national legislature in spite of the fact that he neither knows nor does anything useful as a lawmaker except wield influence and help maintain the status quo. 130 The daughter of the former owner of "El Paraiso," Margarita Reyes and her two aunts, Tula and Matilde, live an impoverished life in town, in complete contrast to their landowning aristocratic beginnings. Because of conniving insistence by Father Hoyos who has great influence over the old aunts, Margarita is forcedly married to Martin. She does not accept him and runs off to be with Abel who is an officer on the llanos near Villavicencia. Nine months pregnant she returns to "El Paraiso" to give birth. During the night Martin kills Abel who is sleeping by her side in the master bedroom. Martin takes Margarita to a guerrilla headed by Captain Pedro Palos in the Cordillera. Don Polo offers ransom for Margarita because he believes she is carrying Abel's child whom he wants for an heir. The army is called in but Martin finally takes Margarita and disap pears with her into the llanos. The opening scenes of the novel present the ubi quitous machetazos of la violencia. Martin, holding Margarita with one hand, hacks to bits his half-brother with the other. A horrible scene, a tremendously brutal act, one which cannot be accepted, is irrevocably associ ated with the protagonist. The awareness grows in the 131 first few pages of the book that the protagonist is an assassin of terrifying cruelty. Scenes of massacres either personally witnessed or recalled from photographs of dis membered bodies, decapitated trunks and mutilated genitals, lined up in gruesome rows are suggested at the outset. Furthermore, the main character of this piece is himself mutilated; he has only one eye and it looks more like that of a jungle serpent than of a human: wild, yellowish, black pupil with streaks of blood (Cain, pp. 9-13). In the end it is possible to admire Martin and to wish him well and perhaps even to hope that the violence might somehow be related to a better future. One thing is certain; while Martin's murdering his brother may not be condoned, understanding of how he came to do it and sym pathy with his plight are developed. He represents the downtrodden, a hardworking mestizo who has been abused and exploited by Spanish conquerors, aristocrats, criollos, mestizos, Church, anybody and everybody throughout the ages. The brutalizing and dehumanizing practices of cen turies explode in the anguish of Martin's reptilian eye and the flash of his lethal machete. Through the story the author reveals how the strength of Martin's powerful body was developed: he is 132 the one who built the nation and did all the work, rising before the sun, sweating in the heat, getting things done with never so much as a "thank you" or the consideration of being treated as a human being, with dignity, treatment befitting a faithful and loyal servant. Martin was thought to be stupid, without feelings, on the level of a beast. He had been treated as such and it was assumed that he would always respond in kind, never varying from the habits instilled in his brain from childhood. He probably would have continued as before except for Margarita's forced marriage and adulterous union with Martin's half-brother Abel and the acceptance of this illicit violation by his father, his wife's aunts, and the priest (Cain, pp. 14-21). Martin in fact was a man, a man who shared the heritage of Spanish and Indian blood that flowed in his veins. His mother was the "india" (concubine) .of Don Polo. When she was pregnant with Martin, his father replaced her with a series of others, never recognizing him as his son, yet depending on his loyalty and ability to oversee the hacienda. By contrast, Abel, whose mother was unknown, but aristocratic, as much a bastard as "El Indio," was recognized by his father as his heir and enjoyed all of 133 his affection and consideration. Martin, a rude Indian type, idolized his younger brother and cared for him as a servant. He never so much as received a look or word of gratitude (Cain, pp. 38-48). Margarita showed kindness toward Martin but she always cared for Abel. Martin never hoped to have her for his wife, but when she was given to him he considered her rightfully his own. She rejected him from the depths of her soul which was conditioned to receive the gentlemanly Abel. At the end of the novel she saves Martin's life, having come to admire his fierce courage, dignity, and determination, and to reject the environment which mind lessly and selfishly had produced and condoned the condi tions which led to such grief. Her final acceptance of Martin is not based on romantic illusions. "El Indio" gave her no choice, he meant to keep what was rightfully his, hoping that eventually she would hate him less. Her moment of decision came when she faced becoming the camp woman of the idealistic, aristocratic guerrilla leader, Pedro Palos, or the cherished wife of the fierce, primitive but sincere "Indio" Martin. The choice was literally between two forms of life. She helped kill Pedro Palos who was about to kill Martin. Together Margarita and Martin disappeared into 134 the llanos. In a symbolic gesture Martin threw his machete into the river, put on the captain's guns and his military hat, and departed. The llanos is home of the pioneering constructive forces and is also a refuge to renegades and guerrilleros. "El Indio," coupled with the highborn woman come to grief, would seem to symbolize a hopeful solution to Colombia's agony. At the same time the elements of rebellion are also present, although the novel ends on a hopeful note (Cain, pp. 195-206; 226-235). The narrative technique is calculated to hold the reader's attention and lead him to the insight which the author has prepared for him. Caballero Calderon has intel ligently and artfully combined various elements of modern forms to give the interest and excitement of a new wave film, the teluric flavor of the twentieth century Latin American prose masters and the socio-philosophical authen ticity of the great nineteenth and twentieth century novel ists . He achieves this by using finely honed language and a deliberate expository style, concentrating on the facts being described. He keeps the focus ever on the factual details of the concrete environment, deepening them with highly effective imagery, of great suggestive power which 135 intensifies the reader's involvement in the atmosphere of the novel. Insistence on the commonplace details creates great tensions on the part of the reader because he is aware of the monstrous, extraordinary events which have occurred and the drama about whose outcome he is still anxious and distressed. The action and characterizations take place through a series of first person interior monologues, third person descriptions, truncated dialogues, flashbacks, photographic zooms, in and out, and other techniques. Don Eduardo appears to have made outstanding use of modern methods without being overcome by them. His novel is completely contemporary, and universal, as well as very Colombian. He has avoided extremism, but he has fully utilized valid, effective techniques. His mature cosmopolitan sophistica tion and scholarly, sincere dedication have yielded a novel which will truly be "ejemplar" throughout Colombia and beyond. Fernando Ponce de Le6n is another novelist who has dedicated himself to the interpretation and expression of the Colombian man in his real environment. He was born in Bogota in 1917. After brief law studies he has devoted himself to industry and commerce, including the Hermanos 136 Ponce de Leon Press in Bogota. Ponce de Le6n is a con secrated writer, a man of broad, self-acquired culture, who began his career in 1954 with Tierra asolada, a novel of violence. In 1958 he published Matias, which will be con sidered in a later chapter (see pp. 245-249 below) . In 1961 he made explorations in the theatre with La libertad es mujer, which satirizes and denounces the habits of various character types, politicians, and journalists. Two of his works will be treated here. In 1959, Fernando Ponce de Leon wrote a "novela comprometida" on the rural scene. The central characters are a composite rural type named Pepe, and his young wife and small children. A central figure might also be con sidered to be the land itself, the "tierra caliente," yel low and thirsty with overwhelming natural growth which must be constantly fought against under the unmerciful sun. In the center of the story, as though lost in a hostile world, moves the pathetic peasant family, slowly hemmed in by poverty, injustice, and pain. It is the drama of a man and the land, of a man who has an almost physical love for the earth and who is denied even a handful of it. La Castaha, the name Pepe gives to the tiny parcel he strives to make his own, is rich in description of the 137 landscape but it far surpasses costumbrismo in its intent. Ponce de Leon is concerned with the campesino, his feeling for the land and his need for it. The great value of the work is the simple, primeval mentality of Pepe, who feels himself in tune with and a part of nature. He knows all of the parcels of land, the trees, the fences, the streams, and the animals who have taken on individual personalities and form as intimate a part of his life as his own family. The poet Eduardo Carranza, in the introduction to the first edition, had the following appreciation of the book: Por el paisaje desfila una galeria de tipos traza- dos con nitidez y con honda veracidad. Un latido de humanidad que sufre se percibe a lo largo de estas paginas rumorosas de vida. La estampa del poblacho calentano— monotonia, can- sancio, bochorno, melancolia— con sus personajillos banales ... ambientes ironicos. ... Se percibe en todo el libro un anhelo de justicia que es como la atmosfera que rodea personas y peripecias. Y aunque este relato continua la linea pesimista ... ahora hay piedad y ternura en el pulso del escritor. Y un bellisimo final esperanzado. In La Castana, Ponce de Leon presented the mentality of the rural campesino beset by obstacles of nature and opposed by society, especially in the figures of mayordomos, 55 La Castana (Bogota: Editorial Hermanos Ponce de Leon, 1959), p. 6. 138 gamonales, landowners, priests, and bureaucrats. In Cara o sello (1966), he reveals another aspect of the scene and updates his style and technique. While La Castana was conceived with a social protest thesis in mind, Cara o sello views a different aspect of the inexorable Latin- American social transformation which entrains multitudinous confrontations between man and his surroundings. Ponce de Leon probes into various levels of sensitivity of an hacen- dado who is under threat of kidnapping by a "guerrilla" band. Clemente Air& comments on the latest effort of the author: El necesario ajuste social latinoamericano es otro de los personajes de fondo de esta novela. El paisaje, los objetos, las ideas, los conflictos y las pasiones, bullen dentro de una tecnica novelistica donde pasado, presente, futuro, como nostalgias, pensamientos y realidades se funden en un gran tapiz, en una unidad: el hombre enfrentado a su problematica. Una gran am- bicion condujo a Fernando Ponce de Leon, una ambicion de indagatoria frente a lo fundamental humano, el per- sonaje en la dimension intima frente a los fenomenos o sucesos sociales. ... Sabemos que nos hizo apreciar una situacion, un planteamiento hondo y de gran reali dad, de esa realidad infra en creacion artistica, la de darnos una realidad artistica superior a la realidad historica, de superar el documento o el testimonio. The protagonist of the novel is anonymous, neither ^"Fernando Ponce de Leon, Caro o sello," Espiral (Bogota), Septiembre-Diciembre, 1966, pp. 73-74. 139 his name, nor the final outcome of the story are revealed. He incorporates the fears and sentiments of a large segment ■ ■ — of' society in his anguish. He is a man of the campo who loves things, animals, and people, and who in silence must bid them all goodbye. In the background arise the dis quieting problems of God, liberty, and destiny. He is a man who obstinately insists on not giving in, on being free in a world of slaves and who wants for himself, at least the freedom of choosing his death. Human misery, pain, and the mystery of evil darken the horizon. Fatalism advances, as a consequence. He is a man who questions. He reflects and ago nizes. Memories of his past life and illusions pursue him. The solution he finds to his disquietude is bold and irre versible: he decides to face his destiny. He knows how to look death in the eye, face to face. He is valiant, resolute, steadfast. Reality is interiorized. Time becomes indefinite, personal. The novel, more than of action or of space, is of character. Space is absorbed by the character- protagonist and is constructed in relation to him. The narrative procedure is by retrospective flashes or un certain anticipations of reality. The action developed 140 in the present is evocative of the past and a disquieting sign of the future. This is especially true of the counter- puntal activities of the kidnappers, whose preparations are bathed in the most commonplace reality. They are driven to their actions by the same tragic set of circumstances which lead the hacendado to refuse to run from a situation which none of them created. Father Alvaro G6mez Ortiz, S.J., sums up the situation: El hombre lucha por encontrar el sentido de lo humano, de la injusticia, de la violencia, de la vida. Los hechos hacen reflexionar, Su respuesta no es in- telectual, sino activa: resistir, oponerse, afirmar su libertad, antes que esta tambien se escurra entre las manos y se convierta en una moneda falsa. La tendencia terrigena es fuerte, apasionada, es- piritual y significativa. ... Los ojos deslizan sobre las cosas desgarrandolas. Con este ultimo paisaje el hombre se levanta y sereno avanza hacia la muerte. Se despide de las cosas mirandolas. Las descripciones son ricas, espontaneas, frescas. Revelan a un conocedor del ambiente campesino. Las palabras pintan y sugieren. Los personajes serenos, silenciosos, interiorizados, monologantes y reflexivos. Caracteres txpicos y bien definidos. Esta obra de Ponce de Leon pone de relieve un hombre en busqueda, extraha simbiosis de intelectual y campesino, que sufre y ama con las cosas y los seres humanos. Un hombre que se interroga abiertamente sobre su destino y lo afronta valientemente. Alguien que quiere realizarse en plenitud y en libertad. Pero tal vez es tambien un hombre que no ha llegado a comprender que el es responsable de su propio destino.^ 57 "Fernando Ponce de Leon, Caro o sello," Revista Javeriana, Mayo, 1969, pp. 432-433. 141 Eduardo Caballero Calderon and Fernando Ponce de Leon have utilized the newest novelistic techniques in their latest works. The next author to be considered, while undoubtedly aware of them, has, instead of empha sizing them, refined them and incorporated them to such an extent that the result is of classic simplicity. El dia 58 senalado was the first Latin American novel to win the Nadal Prize, which it received for the year 1963. The author, Manuel Mejia Vallejo, was born in Jeric6, Antio- quia, Colombia in 1923, but he moved with his family to Medellin, where he attended the university. He has studied journalism in Venezuela and Guatemala and has collaborated in various newspapers in Central America and Colombia. He has been professor of literature in the University of Antioquia and editor of the press. He is also the author of several collections of short stories, an urban novel, and another rural novel, Los negociantes, which as yet has not been published although individual chapters have appeared. Winning the Nadal Prize was an honor for Colombia and a personal triumph for the author, a man in his forties 58 (Barcelona: Ediciones Destino, 1964). 142 at the time who had spent his entire adult life in diligent dedication to his chosen profession. While increasingly drawn into intercontinental participation, Manuel Mejia Vallejo is not a man of the world in a "jet set" sense. In an interview with Juan Manuel Camargo, Mejia emphasized that he is not seeking themes in far off places. He wants to represent the "down to earth" Colombian reality, the authentic, "here and now, " and to tell it in simple, clear language. He believes that the great problems are those of one's own time and place and that they will achieve uni versality if handled properly. He believes the novel should present the psychology of Colombians, not in a stereotyped way, but with poetic reality. For him, the novel should examine the processes of social decomposition and motivational interactions of all orders. In the novel's analysis of characters there should be a reflec— 59 tion of all society. The theme of El dia senalado is the triumph of good over evil, love over hate, and life over death. The work is composed of three cuentos which are intertwined and 59 x "Un premio internacional 'Colombiano, ' El dia senalado," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, Agosto 16, 1964, p. 2. 143 unified by the setting in the rural town of Tambo. A young man comes down from the mountain in search of his unknown father, whom he cordially hates for having deceived his mother, leaving her a son and a fighting cock as proof that he would return. He never came back, but the mother's life was ruined, left dangling from an unfulfilled hope. The young man has sworn vengeance. A band of guerrilleros operating in the mountains have checkmated the army which, before the humiliation of their frequent failures with the enemy, have unleashed violence equal to the guerrilleros. In the middle of all this, as an absorber of the hatreds of all the people, as an expiation of the sins of the town, like a constant prayer before the blows of an adverse nature, stands the figure, profoundly human and attractive of the priest, in whom are combined with admirable mastery the simplicity of the campesino, the experience and comprehension of mankind, and the spiritual strength of a saint. The three subplots continue in marvelous interplay up to the point where: the youth desists from killing his father, realizing that he would be guilty of the identical sin for which he is seeking vengeance; the army is com pletely destroyed by the astuteness of the guerrilleros, 144 ably seconded by the townspeople; and the priest triumphs, with his virtue and his talent, over an environment that 60 in the beginning had been hostile to him. The structure of the work consists of a prologue and thirty chapters divided into three parts. In Tairibo, a town consumed with violence, there is little happiness: only two people have a sure job— the priest and the grave digger. The story of Jose Miguel Perez, twenty-four years of age, who loved his sweetheart, his horse, and his guitar, reverberates throughout the entire novel because it repre sents the unjust and tragic death of a simple young man who simbolizes the vital force in the atmosphere of violence and desperation which has taken hold of Tambo and its in habitants. His life and his death act in different ways on each character but in total they mark a change, that is, they cause each one to make a choice between the force of life or annihilation. The characterization of the atmosphere of violence is full of horror and human veracity. The gamonales in the mayor's office discuss matter of factly the violation and ^Gerardo Suarez Rondon, Novela sobre la violencia en Colombia (Bogota: 1966), pp. 39, 78-80. 145 mutilation of pregnant women. The grave-digger simbolizes the hatred for the government and the soldiers who killed his wife and child and then forced him to bury them. With each blow of his pick the invalid imagines he is killing his enemies. He is the first to go and greet the corpses from the massacre he helped to mastermind. The townspeople are not allowed to show their glee at the deaths of the soldiers. Finally, after a victory, the cantinero of the "Gallo Rojo," whose son is with the guerrilla, invites the conquering government troops in for a drink. He poisons all of the soldiers and the citizens welcome back the guerrilleros.^ But violence per se is not the preoccupation of the author. The bloody conflict deadens the lives of the people, but in literary terms it is the facade of the structure. Within, there is a town struggling to surmount its agonizing existence, to transcend the brutal reality of man's inhumanity to man. Thus, the mysterious young protagonist who sought to avenge his mother, finds peace in his search for blood, and good triumphs over evil— love is 61 Robert Kirsner, "Four Colombian Novels of 'La Violencia,'" Hispania, XLIX, No. 1 (March, 1966), pp. 70- 74. 146 the only answer to hate. Even Otilia, the "fallen woman, " previously completely impervious to transcendant spiritu ality, came to her own awareness, and for the first time experienced a feeling of sinfulness, that sin is its own punishment and virtue its own reward. These and other episodes lead to the suggestion that man must overcome his 6 2 tendency to evil, to seek good in life as he finds it. It is his style, his narrative art, which makes of this book a novelistic achievement. Manuel Mejia Vallejo has known how to order and manage his literary resources in such a way as to make a basically simple and universal theme produce highly effective results. The problem is to present a drama completely identifiable with any reader in its essential elements, but the difficulty is to communi cate it in national terms with simultaneous universal intelligibility. In all of this there is a certain element of mystery, uncertainty, and anticipation as an ingredient, mixed with basic human types which at the same time are symbolic figures of general identifiability as well as highly individualized personalities. The problem is to 62Ibid., pp. 73-74. 147 maintain identification with the characters and the inter est in their fate without abusive recourse to trickery or sentimentalism. The author has succeeded admirably: until the last page it is not certain how the fates and destinies of all the characters will be resolved and what will be the final judgment of the author. Manuel Mejia Vallejo dominates his resources, using language and imagery to greatest effect. Although he makes use of various stylistic devices, from "tremendismo" to impressionism, he always maintains himself in the straight and narrow path which leads to the right tone which is appropriate to the simple rural environment of the work but which is universal at the same time. For example, he refers to the parched aridity and heat of Tairibo to charac terize not only the difficulty in cultivating crops of the earth but also of the human soul. Thus, Father Barrios is represented in a double image which suggests complex sym bolisms: the simple Colombian peasant and Christ suffering while doing the will of the Lord in the Garden of the Olives. All the action of the novel unfolds to sound and rhythm of a nearby volcano which continuously threatens the complete destruction of all. In El dia seftalado, 148 Manuel Mejia Vallejo has communicated an experience of 6 3 great human truth and impact. Flor Romero de Nohra, author of 3 kilates 8 puntost mentioned above in connection with the infamous "Guayaca- nazo" of the ESSO Colombiana (pp. 93-94), and one of Colom bia’s better women novelists, confirmed in a dramatic manner her vocation by winning third place in the 1967 Planeta Prize, one of the most important in Hispanic let- 64 ters, for Mi Capitan Fabian Sicacha (1968). Out of 323 novels from the entire Spanish speaking world, this is indeed a victory for Colombia and feminists in general. Flor Romero de Nohra was born in La Paz de Cala- moima, a small town in the western part of Cundinamarca near Honda, in "tierra calida" approaching the Magdalena Valley, almost on the border with the Department of Tolima, scene of some of the bloodiest episodes of violence. Her home town is so small that it is difficult to find on maps. She lived there a few years of her youth and then moved to Bogota. On one of the occasions in which she returned 63 Pauline B. Deuel, "Sound and Rhythm in 'El Dia Senalado,Hispania, LII, No. 2 (May, 1969), 198-202. 64 (Barcelona: Editorial Planeta, 1968). 149 to visit her birthplace she was very impressed by finding it alone: the violence was marauding through the area, the inhabitants were seeking refuge in more secure cities, and those who remained lived under constant tension, expecting at any moment the assault of the armed groups. This im pression characterizes the novel, Mi Capitan Fabian Sicacha in a double sense, according to an interview she gave to Alfono Monsalve. In the first sense because it is probably one of the first artistically important novels dealing with the theme of violence and secondly, in the words of the author because it is the testimony of a woman: La forma como la violencia impresiona a la mujer. Posiblemente para un hombre hubiera sido mas impor- tante la descripcion de las matanzas, de los combates, de la lucha sangrienta. A mi me impresiono sobre todo la soledad del pueblo. Llegar a casas de gentes conocidas y encontrarlas vacias, preguntar por las ^ personas y oir siempre la misma respuesta: se fueron. This episode actually does form one of the most effective chapters of the novel where the co-protagonist school teacher, Cleotilde, walks through the dying town and it exemplifies the achievement of the author in fusing the characters with their environment. The lame, the feeble, 65 "Una entrevista con Flor Romero de Nohra, Mi Capitan Fabian Sicacha," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, Febrero 25, 1968, p. 4. 150 and the demented are often the only ones who are still remaining, such as the crazy blacksmith, Octaviano, or the wizened veterans of the "Guerra de los Mil Dias" who stub bornly refuse to be scared by anything. The novel is the story of two lives which are parallel but antagonistic: a guerrillero and a soldier who were school mates in their hometown and who later bore arms against one another. The first, Fabian, abandons the fight, disillusioned, when instead of needed arms and supplies he had been promised he received whiskey and cigarettes because there was more profit in smuggling than in revolutions. The second, Saulo Porras, retires from the military to earn a living in civilian life. This con frontation is one of the most interesting aspects of the novel and a unifying factor in the plot. In the above mentioned interview the author makes the following refer ence to her intention: Me interesa mostrar como en ambas vidas el pasado esta siempre presente. En el guerrillero, a traves de la persecucion permanente de la policia y de los detectives, que finalmente y a fuerza de encarcelamien- tos inmerecidos, lo obliga a volverse al monte. En el militar, porque en su vida castrense no pudo aprender a trabajar y es, por lo tan to, incapaz de integrarse a la vida pacifica de la sociedad. ^Ibid. 151 Around these two lives are woven two complete worlds. Around that of the guerrillero, who decides to return to the fight because "they would not give me a break," is unfurled the rural-urban net of supporters and also the web of illusions, intrigues, hopes, and promises from politicians, of loyalty and betrayal. The military officer, who joined the army to escape the taunts of his youthful companions about his short stature, reveals the artificiality of a mediocre life which seeks to perpetuate the tarnished lustre of the past from beyond the poverty and ruin of the reality into which he has sunk. Alfonso Monsalve rightly praises the author for her successful novelization of the woman's point of view: Los personajes femeninos acusan una interesante densidad psicologica, que no es tan obvia si se re- cuerda a algunas escritoras que nos dan una version masculinizada de sus heroinas. Cleotilde— Cle— , la compahera del guerrillero, que en algunos capitulos pasa al primer piano como narradora, es la maestra de escuela que se enamora de Fabian cuando ambos son aun adolescentes, y que se marcha despues a Bogota para servir de enlace, anorando siempre al heroe amado. En la capital sufre una metamorfosis (que alcanza a lastimar la congruencia y la congruencia y la coheren- cia del personaje), se convierte en una mujer de clase media con aspiraciones modestas y ribetes de bohemia intelectual, y se aleja del ideal revolucionario. Esto le permite volver a ser la compahera solidaria de Fabian cuando este se desencanta y abandons la lucha, ayudarlo en sus esfuerzos por hacer una vida opaca de trabajador urbano, soportar estoicamente a su lado 152 las persecuciones que sufre por su pasado subversivo. Y finalmente separarse definitivamente de el cuando, acorralado, tiene que volver a las montanas.^ Monsalve rightly praises Flor Romero for the sobriety with which she develops the various social aspects of her theme, her recognition of the heroism of the com batants, while at the same time she maintains a skeptical attitude toward mystical exaltations of violence and the results it brings to all concerned. He particularly praises her lyrical evocation of the heroine's devotion toward her beloved and her nostalgia when she finally must choose the responsibilities of a mother when he leaves for good. Also worthy of praise is the added dimension she gives of the women who must live with the men who deal with violence. The sacrifices they must suffer as a result of others' actions, and the constant efforts toward achieving a constructive and stable environment are subtlely pre sented by example, rather than blatantly emphasized. Mi Capitan Fabian Sicacha is a novel written along the lines of the modern technique whereby time is removed from the logical real plane. The first chapters speak of a time that might have been passed but later we find that 153 the last chapters are still delving into that past, while the middle chapters do not establish a situation of yester day— today— tomorrow, but rather continue with the same unraveling line, whose only effective support is the idea, the thought of the author, rather than the physical events in themselves. The highly shuffled feeling of time gives agility to the novel and obliges the reader to keep alert to a quickening sense of interest. Fernando Soto Aparicio points out a shortcoming of composition: Yo le encuentro un defecto. Y es el de que en muy pocas paginas se amontona una cantidad de historia que, por la limitacion del espacio, da la sensacion de que se queda a medio contar. La vida de Cleotilde, la del Capitan Sicacha, la de Saulo y Ruben Porras, aparecen contadas a rafagas. Y muchos, por eso, acaban volviendose figuras fantasmagoricas que danzan en la lejania, y de cuya identidad, de cuyo pensamiento, no puede empaparse nunca el lector. ... De todas maneras, "Mi Capitan Fabian Sicacha," es una buena novela. Agil, moderna en su estilo, Colom bians en su fondo. Flor Romero de Nohra confirma su vocacion literaria. ° There is accuracy in Soto Aparicio's criticism of the work, which in places gives a cluttered superfluous 68 ✓ "El espectro de la violencia— Mi Capitan Fabian Sicacha," El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, Febrero 25, 1968, p. 14. 154 impression, and also in his praise of Flor Romero's achieve ment and ability. The next novel to be "considered, the last in this chapter, while loaded with lightly sketched figures, gives neither the feeling of clutter nor of diffuseness. The novel Unos anos una noche (1968) won for its author second place in the 1963 ESSO competition. Alberto Dow, medical doctor and man of letters, was introduced above with his costumbrista novel, Guanduru (pp. 87-88). An unknown re viewer in El Tiempo criticized his latest novel because: "Los personajes carecen de estabilidad, hondura siquica, 69 apetecible sensacion de convencimiento." A possible explanation of this is that the better writers of this period often attempt new modes of expression which catch critics unawares but which in reality lead to greater understanding of the processes of national life. This con cept is central to the appreciation of Alvaro Bejarano in the introduction: Aqua, el paisaje no es el externo sino el interno, el introspectivo, cuyas faces muestranse en los tempera- mentos individuales del clan familiar, con relieves 69 "Alberto Dow D., Unos anos, una noche," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, Abril 14, 1968, p. 7. 155 recxprocamente determinados segun la simpatia o la antipatxa suscitadas por los encuentros y contactos. En esta forma entran en juego los profundos contrastes declarados y recatados, que actuan o que acechan en los grandes conjuntos familiares, consanguxneamente esclavizados a una paradojica desunion por causa de comunes intereses economicos. Novelxsticamente, re- sulta hermoso el dramatico juego argumental desde el principio hasta el fin, porque el autor demuestra cono- cer palmo a palmo, con finura, asx el terreno como el elemento humano que estructuran la novela, sin planteo de problemas, ni formalizaciones, ni suspensos. Pre- senta simplemente, con ponderada limpieza, momentos mas o menos decisivos de un devenir social.^® In this novel Dow relates the history of a sugar combine in the Cauca Valley near Cali, his native area. Dow tells the story of "La Mina" and of many people who are connected with it in one form or another. The main action takes place in one night, Christmas Eve, during a big party which is being held in the main house of the hacienda. Various characters are introduced as they arrive or move through the house, from guest to guest. At the same time, each one of these characters is weaving his own web of recollections until it is discovered that "La Mina" has been surrounded by many strange circum stances, which give the combine a life of its own, inde pendent of those who inhabit it. This is intensified when Unos anos, una noche (Cali: Editorial Pacxfico, 1968), p. 1. 156 the old house of the hacienda, built during the conquest, abandoned various times and then rebuilt, begins, as another character, to raise up her own complex of memories: painful, brutal, sad, they give substance to the walls, to the high roof, to the spacious rooms where, by night, pass the ghosts of yesteryear. Thus the title, "Una noche, unos ahos" tells much by uniting in one story the characters, combine, and house: together they give a variety of angles which all come to focus the same night. It is not David Serrano, nor Irene, nor Carlos, nor Miguel, nor Martin, who commands the atten tion of the reader: it is the combine, its great modern machines, its humble birth when it was alone under the watchful eye of Baltasar, a small ranch where oxen slowly pressed the cane. Fernando Soto Aparicio aptly sums up: Como novela, "Unos Anos, Una Noche," esta bastante lograda. Es un pedazo de vida. Muchos de los lados del relato quedan sin concluir, muchos circulos perma- necen abiertos. Pero, al final, esa determinacxon del autor se justifica, porque todo queda comprendido; porque a pesar de que los destinos individuales no lleguen a explicarse o a concluir se plenamente, el destino general queda cerrado. Ese destino es el del trapiche, el de la casona, que, como entidad pensante— 157 porque el autor asi lo quiso— tiene una importancia indudable.7 The novel also contains a suggestion of hope; that as Colombians seek to understand themselves as human beings interacting with their collective experience, their his tory, as well as with each other, the new era which they are in will offer the possibility of improvement, if not immediate solution to many of the problems plaguing the nation. At any rate, Dow would seem to recognize that the time for blind ignorance and enslavement to old ways which have repeatedly fostered conflict should be replaced by a more up to date, honest, level headed evaluation of the Colombian environment. In this he is joined by all of the writers presented in this section. In the next chapter we will consider the work of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the "Tropical Cycle," a rather unique examination of national reality, present and past, as refracted through the florid, shimmering light of the tropics. "Unos anos, una noche," El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, Noviembre 17, 1968, p. 14. CHAPTER II THE TROPICAL CYCLE "El Ciclo Tropical" is a name used to designate a group of writers from the northern coast who have distin guished themselves by the quality of their work. They vary in age, activities, and in many aspects of style but they all have demonstrated ability and dedication to the ex pression of that Latin American and very Colombian con tribution, "la novela tropical." Nestor Madrid-Malo touches on various elements in his comments on the leader of the "school," Gabriel Garcia Marquez: De Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1928) solo se conocian algunos estupendos cuentos escritos con una tecnica muy influida por los novelistas y cuentistas norteameri- canos contemporaneos Steinbeck, Faulkner, Saroyan, Truman Capote, cuando aparecio su primera novela en 1955, valedera asimilacion de la tecnica faulkneriana al tratamiento de temas nuestros. Porque es evidente que algo hay alii. del Faulkner de Mientras yo agonizo. Pero tan originalmente tratado que nadie puede pensar en una imitacion. Y es que, en realidad, con Garcia Marquez comienza en Colombia lo que podria llamarse 158 159 la "nouvelle vague" de la novela colombiana, caracteri- zada sobre todo por la orientacion hacia las tecnicas y modalidades de la novela norteamericana. Esto es sin duda una novedad, un gran acontecimiento en nues- tra novelistica, que hasta entonces habia estado orientada— en esta epoca contemporanea— por la novela europea (Proust— Gide— Mann— Huxley, etc.) y sefiala el comienzo de la mas reciente direccion que va asumiendo el genero en el pais, y del cual son abanderados los nuevos novelistas que por una curiosa coincidencia, son casi todos originarios de la Costa Atlintica Colom- biana. Es lo que podria advertirse, sobre todo en Garcia Marquez, Cepeda Samudio, y en cierto modo, Rojas Herazo y Zapata Olivella.^ Gabriel Garcia Marquez epitomizes the "new breed" of Latin American writers who have come to the fore since World War II. In contrast to aristocratic, humanist types, he is a "home grown" person, with roots firmly and deeply implanted in the native soil. Perhaps because of this he knows and feels profoundly the joys and sorrows of his people. He is also a seeker, with a thirst for experience to help him comprehend and communicate, and for this he travels extensively and engages in varied activities. In the case of "Gabito," it has paid off handsomely in the form of novelistic enrichment and, after some twenty years of effort, in a monetary sense also. 1"Estado actual de la novela en Colombia," BCB, IX, No. 5 (1966), 887-895; No. 6 (1966), 1129. 160 Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born in 1928 in Araca- taca in the torrid zone near Barranquilla. He lived there until his teenage years when he received a scholarship and went to study in a Jesuit school in Zipaquira, site of the famous Salt Cathedral, not far from Yerbabuena on the sabana outside of Bogota. He studied law at the National University but never finished the course. To earn a living he did newspaper work for El Espectador, traveling through the entire country. In 1954 he was sent to Europe as cor respondent. While in Rome, he also studied in the Experi mental Movie Center. As he travelled about Europe, his experiences began to come into focus, and his writing gained a new sense of urgency. At the end of 1955 the Rojas Pinilla dictatorship closed El Espectador, leaving the budding author without visible means of support. At one point in his plight he owed 123,000 old francs, a whole year's rent in a dreary Paris hotel where he occupied an attic. The management, seeing him busily typing in his room the whole time, never forced the issue. In 1958, he married his fiancee, Mercedes, who had waited four years in Colombia, and transferred to Caracas where he worked on the editorial desks of Momentos and 161 Elite. In 1959 and 1960, he represented the Castro Cuban Prensa Latina in Bogota and at the United Nations' Fifteenth General Assembly, famous for the Khrushchev shoe incident. He resigned when militant elements began to close in. In 1961, with one hundred dollars in his pocket he went to Mexico, where, with the help of friends, he established himself as a screen writer doing, among other things, scripts for "new wave" movies. He remained in Mexico until 1967 when he published Cien anos de soledad. Until that time he had realized very little from his writings. Since publication of his best known work he has divided his time 2 between travel and work in his Barcelona apartment retreat. Aside from scattered short stories, Garcia Marquez' published works are the following: La hojarasca (1955); El coronel no tiene quien le escriba (1961); Los funerales de Mama Grande (1962), a collection of short stories; La mala hora (1962); and Cien anos de soledad (1967). Actually, all of these books tell the same story, as in the case of William Faulkner and his Jefferson County. 2 A + The basic data about Garcia Marquez have appeared in scattered form in various articles and interviews. The most comprehensive treatment is by Luis Harss, an Argentine critic, in: Into the Mainstream, Conversations with Latin- American Writers (New York: Harper and Row, 1967), pp. 310- 341. 162 3 In La hojarasca, which covers the period 1903 to 1928, the year the author was born# the story of Macondo (named after a dilapidated banana plantation near Aracataca, the real scene, Marquez' birthplace) is told through the tor mented interior monologues of a grandfather, a married daughter, and her small son as they sit around a coffin containing the body of an elderly doctor who has hanged himself. He had come to Macondo as a stranger many years before, had experienced the growth during the "banana fever," and the decline and decay. The moral, as well as physical decay, of the town is concentrated on him: it is uncertain whether he will be allowed burial within the cemetery or not. While this is being decided, the members of three generations— the old Colonel, his daughter Isabel, and the boy— mentally rummage through the "dead leaves" accompanied by the stench of the decaying corpse. The result is: Una dramatizacion, en terminos miticos, del conflicto social entre el sentido de responsabilidad etica en el humanismo tradicional y la inmoralidad que trasunta la moderna relajacion. La oscura vision de una socie- dad feudal y decadente? el sino cruel e inexorable que 3 (Bogota: Ediciones S.L.B., 1955). 163 haciendo de los seres instrumentos, arrastra su exis- tencia hacia una finalidad irrevocable; la magia de un estilo hipnotico que trasciende los lxmites realistas sugiriendo mundos subconscientes mas profundos; la consideracion de un pasado historico fracasado; su recuerdo idealizado que presagia la leyenda: tradicion vuelta maldicion; orgullo inutil; condena fatal desti- nada a heredarse hasta no encontrar alguna forma de absorcion, y ese ininterrumpido pegajoso y agonico transcurrir: lo que Rodriguez Monegal en "Life" y Espe- ranza Aguilar en su libro, dicen sobre Faulkner tambien resulta valido aplicado a Garcia Marquez.^ While turning the spirits of Macondo over in their graves, Garcia Marquez seemed also to be turning the story upside down and inside out. The novel has been criticized for its makeshift composition which is lacking in strong narrative unity, due to the fusion of the voices of the three monologists, who are in reality the author, juggling backtracking time play, interwoven plots and subplots, causing a good deal of lost motion and irrelevant episodes which are unconvincing and tend to diffuse the end result. The new idiom, nevertheless, establishes itself in this work and begins to take on the qualities of a personal mode of expression. The prototypes begin to appear: the patri arch colonel, the soul-searching doctor, the figure of 4 J. G. Cobo Borda, "La hojarasca," BCB, XI (Mayo, 1968), 63-67, The reference to Esperanza Aguilar is: Yoknapatawpha, propiedad de William Faulkner, El espejo de papel (Chile: Editorial Universitaria, 1964). 164 the woman, strong in adversity. The mysterious affinities between people, for good or evil, deliberate cryptic refer ences, the anticipation of an unrevealed secret, the an guished mood of suffocating darkness of a town afflicted with senseless strife, pestilence and decay is dramatically presented. Colombians took notice of the new chords being struck in their midst. El coronel no tiene cfuien le escriba and Los fune- rales de Mama Grande came in close succession, 1961 and 1962, respectively. Funerales ... is a collection of short stories in which many of the characters of Garcia Marquez' repertory appear, in various stages of development. Proba bly a splinter from this group was El coronel no tiene 5 guien le escriba, one of the author1s best characteriza tions, done with great economy of style marked by clarity, precision, understatement, pregnant silences and omissions which tell more than rhetorical explanations, but which suggest nuances veiled in mystery. In this work, told with wry humor and irony, a new facet of Macondo is revealed. An old Liberal colonel, (Mexico: Ediciones ERA, 1961). 165 released under the general amnesty after the War of the One Thousand Days at the turn of the century, awaits patiently his pension, promised repeatedly for years. He doggedly maintains hope as everything in his life goes downhill. His long suffering wife is forced to sell her possessions to fight off poverty. Their health declines, their only son is killed as a "revolutionary," the colonel is fleeced and abused by a variety of lawyers, bureaucrats, and opportunistic types. Still, he hangs on, finally down to his last glimmer of hope, the chance that a fighting cock left by his son will win when the time comes. In order to fatten the rooster, he spends his last resources on feed and at last is reduced to eating chicken feed him self. At the end, all hope from any source completely gone, when asked by his wife what they are expected to eat now, he gives the classic response to end the story. So much for political promises of "haves" for "have nots." The story of the colonel is about as close to light heartedness as the author gets when depicting Macondo. Actually, the town has a troubled past. It was settled in the late nineteenth century by refugees from the various civil wars which devastated the Colombian countryside. 166 Prior to "la violencia," the last major conflict ended in 1903, although the remnants and results of it have per sisted to the present. The high point in the economic life of Macondo came between 1915-1918, at the time of the "banana fever" which brought a temporary boom and a perma nent bust when it was gone: Macondo was left with its old feuds and betrayals, its vanished heroes, its festering delusions of grandeur. It drifted into apathy and despair. There was a period of banditry, when the town was sacked, then there were plagues and epidemics that turned it into an open sewer. It was racked by droughts, washed away by diluvial rains. A "pacification" program only helped it stagnate. The blight was upon it. Fiscal ruin? In part. But the real problem in Macondo is moral gangrene. It is a town of guilty consciences, with a grudge against the world. The past was buried without being exorcised, and is back, a dark ferment that has become a collective nightmare.^ Although no one sleeps at night, the sultry days go by monotonously. But there is an atmosphere of distrust, suspicion, repressed violence, and hostility. There is dread and gloomy presages, the threat of imminent disaster. Macondo senses apocalyptic events: there are guerrillas in the brush; political activity clandestinely aided by the doctor, the tailor, and others; bad omens seem to mount. g Luis Harss, Into the Mainstream (New York: Harper and Row, 1967), p. 313. 167 Macondo lives in dread of its past and in horror of its future. The complete disruption of established values is a chronic threat of anarchy. In La mala hora (1962), the full force of impending eruption appears. The real action takes place within the span of seventeen days but, through flashbacks, a much longer span is included. The precipitating cause is the appearance on the walls of the town of pasquines which denounce sins and crimes, reveal family secrets, defame characters, and demolish reputations (an episode from the history of colonial days in Colombia actually involved use 7 of posters by students to oust a royal governor). The effect is bedlam. The first result is that Cesar Montero, a rich lumberman, without warning kills the innocent clari netist who was alleged on a poster to have been his wife's lover. Ghostly spectres of the past come back to life: old feuds, incests, infidelities. To complicate the situ ation, a storm strikes the town, unrelentingly, in Biblical 7 (Mexico: Ediciones ERA, 1966). Due to unauthor ized changes made by the publishers in 1962, the author considers this as the first unaltered version. The pas quines incident is referred to by Armando Gomez Latorre in "La conspiracion de los pasquines— Santa Fe de Bogota, 1794," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, August 31, 1958, p. 2. 168 fashion, and forces the inhabitants to seek higher ground. The only available plot, below the cemetery, belongs to the mayor, who extorts a handsome profit by selling it to the town. The situation has an eerie medieval Satanic cast to it as families adjust to living in a graveyard and even pay homage to Bacchus while seeking shelter from the flood. Finally, the flood relents but the posters persist. The mayor, under pressure from the priest and a rich widow, and fearing revolutionary activity, resorts to repression, declaring a state of siege and a curfew. No one knows who is placing the posters. The people denounce each other. In the end a scapegoat is found: a boy, Pepe Amador, is caught circulating leaflets for the nearby guerrilla forces. He is tortured and killed and his body is buried in the patio of the jail to avoid further repercussions, but the whole town knows the truth. Meanwhile each citizen, under collective blame, is isolated within his own conscience, discovering his own personal guilt. The posters had no single author. They speak for all and denounce all. The novel has been criticized as an incomplete, sporadically constructed book which presents characters and then abandons them without further explanation; also that 169 it injects episodes which tend to distract front tlie unity. An even more serious criticism refers to the deus ex machina solution to the source of the posters and the use of guerrillas at the end of the book: Por ende, el lector, en vez de llegar a la conclusion de que el desenlace ha surgido organicamente, obede- ciendo a una necesidad ineludible, de las condiciones tematicas y estructurales del asunto, acabarS. por decir para sus adentros que la novela bien pudo haber terminado de otra manera. ® Father Francisco Cajiao, S.J., considers Garcia Marquez to be a passionate observer of the sociological phenomena of the Colombian towns, as groups possessing a psychology and set of problems entirely their own due to circumstances in the country such as poverty, underdevelop ment, violence, and religion. Basing himself on this, Garcia Marquez delves into the human problems which this environment produces in those who experience it. Father Cajiao considers the inclusion of "cosas raras" a positive characteristic of the contemporary novel which calls for a deeper immersion in the subconscience of the author, the source of many of the symbols through which the author attempts to give more of himself by creating a new world D Ernesto Volkening, "A proposito de La mala hora, " Eco (Bogota), Agosto, 1963, p. 302. 170 in which the reader participates and to which he must con tribute his share: Como decxa antes, son tres los personajes que en- carnan la autoridad y el poder en el pueblo. La viuda de Asxs, el alcalde y el cura. Me parece que estos, sobre todo los dos ultimos, si llegan a poseer una sicologxa propia y personal. Ya no obran en funcion de lo que diga el pueblo, pero no logran ser total- mente libres, puesto que estan sometidos a un mutuo influjo entre los tres. El destino de cada uno de- pende fatalmente del modo de obrar de los otros. Todo e resultado de esta pugna de fuerzas, va a repercutir sobre el destino del pueblo. En realidad la obra con- siste en la forma como cuatro personas van dependiendo en todo una de otra: el pueblo que influye sobre la viuda de Asxs (con los pasquines); la viuda que in fluye sobre el cura (con dinero y con un sutil engafto); el cura que influye sobre el alcalde (con su autoridad espiritual). ^ Father Cajiao interprets La mala hora as reflect ing a crisis in authority and a crisis in responsibility, in public, institutional, as well as personal conduct and morality. At the time of his interview with Luis Harss, Garcia Marquez told him that the basis for most of what he wrote about had already been experienced by the time he was eight years old, that he had been greatly influenced by the environment of his childhood, his aunt, his grandfather, ^Revista Javeriana, LXXI (Abril, 1969), 248. 171 and especially by the extraordinary ability his grand mother had as a storyteller. She was highly imaginative, inventive, straightforward, fantastic, popular, and espe cially, extremely entertaining. He also told Harss that he was experiencing an excruciating dry period in which he went back and forth and around in circles in and out of Macondo, to no avail. All seemed doomed to frustration: apparently he was at the end of the line with no hope in sight. Then in November of 1965, he wrote to the critic saying that the book was literally gushing from him, that in a sense it was the same book he started to write when he was seventeen years old, but much broader now. ^ This turned out to be Cien anos de soledad.^ Luis Harss recounts how Garcia Marquez described it to him: "It will be the long-awaited biography of the elusive Colonel Aureliano Buendxa . . . [and also] that of his whole family, from the founding of Macondo to the day the last Buendia commits suicide a hundred years later, putting an end to the line.” There are many complica tions along the way. Names, for instance, in accord ance with Macondo1s laws of recurrence, tend to appear in duplicate and triplicate. A chronology of events and a geneological table might have to accompany the book, "because the Buendias were in the habit of naming ^Harss, p. 338. 11 (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1967). 172 their children after their parents, and occasionally havoc reigns. In the hundred years of history there are four Jose Arcadio Buendxas and three Aurelianos. " Of the Jose Arcadios, the most notable was the first of the line, the founder of Macondo, a young patriarch in his day who arrived in town through the sierra with his plucky wife, Ursula, another of Garcia Marquez' female bastions, and a man's life on his conscience. He was a bird lover who built traps and cages to fill the town with his feathered friends. He was also something of a mad scientist and inventor, and a great friend of an itinerant gypsy band led by the visionary Melquiades, a globe trotting magician who in his various transformations had suffered the plagues of the world— scurvy, beri-beri, pellagra— and survived them all. Melquiades and his people, and their descendants, heirs to alchemic secrets, bring wonders to town: a magnet that rips nails from the walls, a magnifying glass that concentrates solar rays, a telescope, a block of ice, flying carpets. With an early daguerreotype machine of theirs Jose Arcadio tries to photograph God, and with their sextants, as trolabes, and compasses he discovers, to the general consternation, that the world is round. His wife lives to be a hundred and fifteen, and he in his old age goes completely mad and dies tied to a chestnut tree in the yard, chattering away deliriously in Latin and dis cussing theology with the priest. But perhaps it is Colonel Aureliano, his son, who casts the longest shadow. He is "the most outstanding member of the second generation, which fought thirty- two civil wars and lost them all." Aureliano in the course of his adventurous life, fathered seventeen natural children, who were all massacred in a politi cal purge, at least one miraculously escaped the firing squad and died proudly urinating in his yard. There is, says Garcia Marquez, a kind of finality in it all. cien afios de soledad will provide "a sort of base for the puzzle I've been piecing together in my previous work. Here almost all the clues are given. You learn of the beginning and the end of the charac ters, and get the complete story, without gaps, of Macondo." We hear of the first plague— insomnia and amnesia— brought to town by Rebecca Buendia and spread 173 far and wide— until Macondo has to be quarantined— by Ursula's homemade candies; of the arrival of the first Mayor, known as the Corregidor (Corrector), and that of the first priest; Padre Nicanor Reyna, who is levitated each time he drinks a cup of hot chocolate; of the first death, which inaugurates the cemetery with the body of Melquiades; and of the tragic fate of the last suicidal Aureliano, who is born to solitude with an old family stigma: a pig's tail. In Cien anos, more than ever, the dead come back to life and flowers rain down from the sky. In spite of which, says Garcia Marquez, "it is probably the least mysterious of all my books, because the author tries to take the reader by the hand so he won't ever get lost or be left in the dark. With this book, I conclude my cycle on Macondo, and turn to something completely different in nature. The above summary, based on the words of the author, gives a reasonable impression of the general content and tone of the work and a bare inkling of the complexity and fantasy of incidents and episodes which are contained in the three hundred and fifty-one pages. At that it is more accurate than most attempts at lineal, logical exposition of Cien anos. For, as most of the more than one hundred thousand persons who have bought the novel since publica tion have discovered, this is not the Macondo nor the Garcia Marquez readers have been accustomed to meet. In this book Garcia Marquez apparently goes counter to all of the tenets and practices of the modern novel, 12 Harss, pp. 339-340. 174 reverting to straight story telling of politics, violence, and social protest with anecdotes, adventures, and charac ters, a chronological account, with beginning, middle, and end. He does this, but he also does much more. According to Emir Rodriguez Monegal the book contains some of the "novedades mas audaces que se hayan ensayado en las letras de este siglo,” summed up in the following quotation from Les manifestes du Surrealisme by Andre Breton: Todo nos hace creer que existe un cierto punto de espiritu en el que la vida y la muerte, lo real y lo imaginario, y el pasado y el futuro, lo comunicable y lo inefable, cesan de ser entendidos contradictoria- mente.^ Thus Garcia Marquez, with a "ficcion total," fol lows the dual tradition of the Latin-American novel, social realism, novel of the land, and magical realism, as well as the most sophisticated tendencies of the twentieth cen tury, and he adds his own imagination, combining elements from the most ancient traditions of narrative art: Recogiendo las invenciones de unos y otros, Garcia Marquez crea en Cien anos de soledad un mundo a la vez al margen del tiempo y hondamente enraizado en el tiempo, un mundo de fabula y magia, pero tambien un 13 "Novedad y anacronismo de 'Cien ahos de sole dad, '" Revista Nacional de Cultura (Caracas), XXIX (Julio- Septiembre, 1968), 3. 175 mundo totalmente real, suprarrealmente real. Porque lo que se suele olvidar al leer esta novela vertiginosa es que la realidad que describe Garcia Marquez no es menos sino mas real que las que suelen mostrar las novelas de la protesta. En su fabula, el ya ilustre narrador Colombian© no soslaya los datos mas terribles de una situacion politica que carribia con el tiempo pero permanece invariable en sus constantes de explotacion, injusticia, violencia y fraude. La colera helada que atraviesa La mala hora reaparece aqui metamorfoseada en ficci&n y en humor pero no es menos disolvente. Y cuando Garcia Marquez orquestra las variaciones de la locura del coronel Aureliano Buendia y sus guerras civiles, lo hace para revelar que en la entraria de esa lucha tal vez justa y noble, hay asimismo un germen de desmesura que habra de ir creciendo hasta la total destruccion de lo mismo que se quiere construir. Porque la ultima paradoja que revela el analisis es este: el humor y la felicidad del estilo, la vita- lidad y rapidez de la obra, su magia y su fabula estan edificados sobre la mirada mas triste, mas solitaria, mas lucida. ... Su novela separa a los amantes. ... Les hace morder el agrio fruto de la soledad compar- tida. En esa soledad se encierra al cabo la ultima clave del libro. Para llegar hasta ella hay que seguir el camino de Melquiades, el mago, el camino que el mismo autor ... encontro en el fondo mismo de su memoria, donde habia sido trazado ... por la mano ardiente de su abuela. En esa habla magica habian quedado fijadas imborrablemente las coordenadas, reales o imaginarias, poco importa ya, de este Macondo de Cien ahos de sole dad. Habla que ahora el nino asombrado de antes, el mago de hoy, ha convertido en el lenguaje de su novela. ^ An important work of literature is frequently uni versal, it offers something to many people, often of 14 Ibid., pp. 20-21. 176 diverse nature. This has been the reaction to Cien anos de soledad. In "De 'El Carnero' a Macondo," Arturo Uslar Pietri finds Garcia Marquez' fiction, no matter how fan tastic, not stranger than truth. He cites numerous examples from the Venezuelan and Colombian histories of the "Con- quista y colonia," as referred to in the famous work by Rodriguez Freile as verification of the authenticity of 15 Cien ahos. In commenting on the tremendous popularity of the novel as reflected in sales volume Andres Amoros notes that Garcia Marquez does something in his narration which is difficult to find anymore: he narrates in a highly en tertaining fashion, with suggestive and interesting charac ters, situations, and language, and at the same time gives as accurate a picture of Colombian social reality, or rather, a more accurate picture because of the added artis tic charge, than any sociological or costumbrista writings. Amoros cites Julio Cortazar as praising Garcia Marquez' use of the imagination as an excellent example of how the Latin-American novel is surpassing mere anecdote or chron icle to arrive at its goal: the really real land and people 15 Arturo Uslar Pietri, "De 'El Carnero' a Macondo," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, Noviembre 24, 1968, p. 4. 177 of the continent. Another curious aspect of "reality" and life is reflected in the following comment of "Gabito." In an interview, Antonio Monsalve mentioned that various critics considered the novelist's use of realism in Cien ahos as irresponsible and flippant and that the constant irruption of fantasy in reality degrades it, to which Garcia Marquez emphatically replied: No me refiero a un acontecer historico. Me inte- resa contar historias interesantes para el lector. Historias reales no son, ciertamente, historias docu- mentadas, pero son historias sacadas de mi experiencia vivida. Buscando me he dado cuenta de que la realidad en Latinoamerica, la realidad en que vivimos, en la que nos criamos, las que nos formo, se confunde diariamente con la fantasia. 7 As an example of the mixture of fantasy and reality in daily life he said that the ascension of the beautiful Remedios . "incorrupta, en cuerpo entero," in Cien ahos was just as real as the case of a lady in his home town whose granddaughter had run off with a traveling salesman. The 16 Andres Amoros, "Cien arios de soledad— 'Que otros lo juzguen,'" El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, March 30, 1969, p. 5. 17 Antonio Monsalve, "Una entrevista con Garcia Marquez— La novela, anuncio de grandes transformaciones," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, Enero 14, 1968, p. 4. 178 next day she told the people that the girl had ascended into heaven, transfigured and filled with light. To the incredulous response of her neighbors at such an unheard of occurrence she replied: "'Si la Virgen Maria subio al cielo en cuerpo y alma, £porque mi nieta no podia hacerlo?'" Esta forma de afrontar su problema— concluye Gabo— es parte de la realidad latinoamericana. Todo es real en Latinoamerica. Por eso no creo que en mi novela haya una mistificacion perjudical de la realidad. Otro caso: relato de la masacre de las bananeras en una forma que puede llamarse falsa, superficial, irreal, sin documentos hist&ricos. Todo lo que se quiera. Pero el hecho es que ahora hay en America ochenta mil lectores que saben que en Colombia, en las bananeras, hubo una masacre. Antes no lo sabian. Yo describo la mecanica del hecho. Y cuando alguien me decia que este libro era peligroso porque yo digo que hubo tres mil muertos y que en realidad no hubo sino 26, le respond!: yo se que hubo mucho mas que 26, pero ustedes, los in- formadores oficiales, reducen la cifra a 26. Yo la aumento a tres mil, a ver quien gana.-*-® Thus one is reminded that "reality" has tradition ally found the Latin American writer, himself, as a pro tagonist in the struggles of his people. Mario Vargas Llosa, also a leading member of the "new breed," praises Garcia Marquez1 use of "una magia y un simbolismo ameri- canos" which communicate a reality which goes beyond the mere listing of a newspaper account. Interestingly, Vargas 18 . , Ibid. 179 Llosa indicates points of similarity in narrative modes with ancient story tellers, with medieval and Golden Age writers, especially "novelas de caballerias" and Amadis de „ i 19 Gaula. In an enlightening article, Julio Ortega analyzes further the bases of the efficacy which make Cien anos such an appealing and attractive work. He observes that in the first place it is a \ong eulogy of the reader whose entire responsive and intellectual being is continually assaulted and transmuted because the book shatters reason, excites fantasy, clarifies sensibility, forces humor, and encourages compassion: Y reclama tambien un paralelo con su esquema, ese siglo de episodios latinoamericanos cuyas vastas posibili- dades de dolor y felicidad concluyen en la muerte y la destruccion, en el fin de un periodo y en la vecindad de un tiempo otro, porque el mundo y el tiempo que esta novela relata esta cerrado, concluido. La historia de Macondo es la historia del pasado. u Ortega believes that the "psychic effectiveness" is achieved by a surrealistic mixture of times and worlds 19 Mario Vargas Llosa, '"Cien anos de soledad,' el Amadis en America," El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, Noviembre 26, 1967, pp. 8-9. 20 Julio Ortega, "Cien anos de soledad," Razon y Fabula, Septiembre-Octubre, 1968, p. 7. 180 which finally became interfused in the mind of the reader to achieve the desired result. It will be recalled that in describing the atmosphere of Macondo in La mala hora (p. 166), Luis Harss described it as a town with "moral gangrene . . . of guilty consciences. . . . The past was buried without being exorcised." An interesting parallel occurs here, too, in Julio Ortega's evaluation of at least one significant element of Cien ahos; El hombre que perdio el paraiso y vuelve a conquis- tar inventando un mundo arquetipico, lo vuelve a perder asi en la soledad que transcurre en la vecindad del castigo y la muerte. La maldicion del hijo del pecado senala, por eso, una zona hecha de culpa y de rebelion. Denuncia la irreversible condena de una epoca, de un linaje y una historia: los cien anos de soledad en- cuentran en la dial^ctica de varios mundos y tiempos el exorcismo con que esta novela los hace hermosos y terribles, reclamando tambien otro tiempo para la ino- cencia.^ Cien anos de soledad concludes Garcia Marquez' cycle on Macondo as well as marking an important achieve ment in novelistic art. His next book, "El otono del patriarca," will deal with that most Latin American of themes, despotism, in which the dictator explains himself in a long monologue to the people sitting in judgment. Garcia Marquez was asked if the closing of his first phase 21 Ibid., p. 17. 181 as a novelist also presupposed a first phase in the evolu tion of his style: Uno de los problemas que tengo ahora es desmantelar el estilo de "Cien ahos de soledad." Trabaje tanto en el, que ya me cuesta trabajo escribir de otro modo y, sin embargo, es un estilo que no le conviene a la novela que quiero hacer ahora. Para facilitar el cam- bio, estoy escribiendo unos cuentos para niftos que son la simplicidad misma, que acaso no publique nunca, porque son mas bien ejercicios privados, pero que es- pero me abran el camino para el estilo del nuevo libro.22 There are several important considerations to be made here. One is that Garcia Marquez has enough talent and versatility for various styles. Another is that he has enough sense to curb his imagination and expressive powers to appropriate limits with regard to subjects. A third consideration to recall is that he "learned it all by the time he was eight years old." A fourth consideration brings us to a statement he made about the next writer to be dealt with which will shed light on both the unknown future of Garcia Marquez' style and the "school" of writers who have shared his territory: 22 Algazel, "Ahora que los criticos nos han descu- bierto," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, Mayo 26, 1968, p. 5. 182 La casa grande es una novela basada en un hecho historico: la huelga de los peones bananeros de la Costa Atldntica colombiana, en 1928, que fue resuelta a bala por el ejercito. Su autor, Alvaro Cepeda Samudio, que entonces no tenia mas de cuatro anos, vivxa en un caseron de madera con seis ventanas y un balcon con tiestos de flores polvorientas, frente a la estacion del ferrocarril donde se consumo la masacre. Sin embargo, en este libro no hay un solo muerto, y el unico soldado que recuerda haber ensar- tado a un hombre con una bayoneta en la oscuridad, no tiene el uniforme empapado de sangre "sino de mierda." Esta manera de escribir la historia, por arbitraria que pueda parecer a los historiadores, es una esplen- dida leccion de trasmutacion poetica. Sin escamotear la realidad ni mistificar la gravedad politica y humana del drama social, Cepeda Samudio lo ha sometido a una especie de purificacion alquimica, y solamente nos ha entregado su esencia mxtica, lo que quedo para siempre mas alia de la moral y la justicia y la memoria efimera de los hombres. Los dialogos magistrales, la riqueza directa y viril del lenguaje, la compasion legxtima frente al destino de los personajes, la estructura fragmentada y un poco dispersa que tanto se parece a la de los recuerdos, todo en este libro es un ejemplo magnxfico de como un escritor puede sortear honrada- mente la inmensa cantidad de basura retorica y dema- gogica que se interpone entre la indignacion y la nostalgia. Por esto, La casa grande, ademas de ser una novela hermosa, es un experimento arriesgado, y una invitacion a meditar sobre los recursos imprevistos, arbitrarios y espantosos de la creacion poetica. Y es, por lo mismo, un nuevo y formidable aporte al hecho literario mas importante del mundo actual: la novela latino- americana.^ The novel was first published in 1962 and centers 23 Alvaro Cepeda Samudio, La casa grande (Buenos Aires: Editorial Jorge Alvarez, 1967), back cover. 183 around the now infamous banana strike. A sort of "mythology of hate" is developed, based on a series of facts closely related to historical factors. The book is not an allegori cal fable, however? everything is firmly rooted in the most immediate reality. The anecdotes are refined to the barest minimum of detail and related out of logical order, in serted appropriately to heighten the total effect which involves the gamonal who controls and conditions events from "La casa grande." The atmosphere he engenders is related through his children, legitimate and illegitimate, his concubines, servants, workers, the soldiers who came to quell the strike, townspeople and others so that in the end the total communication goes beyond simply reporting the massacre of a number of banana workers. It includes the moral structure of the society that produced it. The gamonal is finally hacked to pieces by his peons? he had been warned but refused to believe they were capable of killing him. His pride and lack of genuine love are his undoing. He has begotten numerous progeny in the women and girls of his sphere, but has not truly loved any of them. He pridefully comes to the main house to "use" his latest favorite? he does so without love? she performs 184 this task as she performs others in the house but without affection and with a sense of being violated as a human person. She warns "El Padre," again, as a task, without genuine concern. He ignores her and goes to suffer the final act of pride and hate he has caused, just as he has caused the banana workers to suffer from the culmination of hate. Cepeda Samudio, in La casa grande, emphasized mythical types by using generic denominations such as los Soldados, la Hermana, el Padre, el Hermano, los Hijos, el Pueblo, and by using dialogue to produce the effect of a Greek chorus. In contrast to Cepeda, who writes with sim plicity, is another author who writes on the same basic themes. Hector Rojas Herazo was born in Tolu, Sucre, near Cartagena in 1920. He completed studies in the University of Cartagena and the Atlantico Normal School in 1939. He has worked as editor on various periodicals around the country and has been an active contributor to several of the more important periodicals of the capital in the field of culture. He has been a professor of art and Spanish in Honda and Barranquilla. He is well known as a poet, artist, and intellectual. 185 Rojas Herazo has published Respirando el verano (1962), Honorable Mention ESSO Prize 1962, and En noviem- bre llega el arzobispo (1967) which won the ESSO Prize for 1967. As in the case of Garcia Marquez, Rojas is basically telling the same story in the two books. The first is the account of Celia and her children, the gradual decline of a provincial family of the tropical coast near Cartagena: their lives are filled with love, hate, sickness, physical and spiritual, and the inevitable but sadly tragic aberra tions which seem endemic in large feudal groups in deca dence. Rojas Herazo's brilliant gift of words is directed toward creating the atmosphere of the summer, the tropics, a hallucinating atmosphere in which dreams, superstitions, and phantasmagorias acquire the category of real facts, torrid illusions which mesmerize the imagination. It is an atmosphere of exasperation in which the sweat, the thick heat, and the implacable sun take on form as prime elements 24 in the drama. En noviembre llega el arzobispo represents a Respirando el verano (Bogota: Ediciones Tercer Mundo, 1962). 186 25 further development of Rojas in his novelistic skill. The winner in a field of seventy was selected by the jury with the following comment: En noviembre llega el arzobispo presenta, en un ambicioso mural, la vida de un pueblo costefto y sus diarios aconteceres, menudos o grandes, con los cuales se teje el destino de numerosos personajes, en un len- guaje de tal elasticidad y riqueza que en ocasiones llega a la opulencia. Tiene, sin duda, la fuerza de una creacion perdurable, en la que se advierte una raadura asimilacion de las mejores tecnicas del relato moderno. En especial de la linea norteamericana en novela. El manejo sorpresivo y complejo del tiempo, la vigilia para mantener un enlace coherente entre las diversas partes de la narracion, la autenticidad y dinamismo de sus personajes, asi como la sorprendente belleza con que ha sido trasladada a la palabra una zona de nuestra geografia, nos ha llegado a calificar a En noviembre llega el arzobispo, sin ninguna vacila- cion, como un logro, no solo en el marco de nuestra literatura contemporanea, sino en el panorama actual de la novelistica latinoamericana. Using a technique reminiscent of a Federico Fellini movie in which past, present, future, characters, setting, and plot are deliberately "disarranged" so that the viewer must participate in their comprehension, Rojas Herazo narrates the coming into being of a town, "El Cedron," controlled by a gamona1, Leocadio Mendieta, its rise, 25 (Bogota: Ediciones Lerner, 1967). 26 Hector Munoz, "La novela entra en etapa de supe- racion, dicen criticos," El Espectador, Octubre 29, 1967, p. 4. 187 stagnation, agony, and disintegration on the tropical coast. In a mosaic of crude realism expressed in marvel ously polychromatic vocabulary, the reader seems to experi ence the sensation of contemplating an entire environment with all the color of a graphic representation. Rojas Herazo, being a poet and painter before becoming a novelist, appears to have made an important union which suggests interesting possibilities for novelistic expression, espe cially when combined with other modes and techniques of the modern novel. En noviembre has attracted praise but it has also drawn criticism because of its excessive recourse to "foreign" influences. More than this, however, there has been a negative reaction to vulgarity and a concentration on biological aspects of human existence which leaves little to be said, but of course, expressed in the most brilliant language, and related to the over-all effect. This criticism is probably justified to an extent as is the complaint that Rojas' tropical mentality runs away with him and leads him to an almost baroque exhuberance. While fascinating and impressive, it does lead to tedium and could profit from moderation. 188 In "La gran bestia, el sin-madre y la amatista, 27 intimidades de la novela de Rojas Herazo," Ebel Botero Escobar defends the author's composition and shows how the details are related to the creation of the total atmosphere/ especially symbolism related to elements of Colombian spiritual and social existence. At the end of a detailed examination of the structure of the novel, which reminds him of a pinacoteca, and in which he criticized some esca- tological and pessimistic elements, Maese Lucanor neverthe less concludes: Hasta ahora se ha venido analizando este libro quiza con el prejuicio de una concepcion novelistica tradicional: que los personajes deben confluir a una trama, que la accion debe concordar con un diseno, que se debe ir preparando un climax, que a la postre todo-- frases, parrafos y capitulos— debe ser una criatura, un organismo, un humano universo que, como el cosmos griego, difunde galaxias de armonia. A la luz de esa contemplacion, la furia por des- cribir, el abigarramiento de personajes autonomos, la sensualidad y la lujuria desbocadas, la voragine imaginativa, crean una atmosfera de desmesura, que si no se advierte tanto en los cuadros individuales, si en el conjunto. Pero tambien, la hermosura global de "En noviem bre ..,"— asi necesite catarsis desde clausulas hasta cuadros— plantea el interrogante de si se esta consoli- dando una novelistica diversa: se pincelan los cuadros y el lector los arma despues con su imaginacion y los pone a vivir, haciendo que las figuras salten de sus 27BCB, X (Noviembre, 1967), 127-136. 189 marcos, y cinematicamente, vuelvan a realizarse, no ya aislados sino entrelazados. Tales como existieron en Cedron a lo largo de sus dlas. <?0 esa seria su exis- tencia: vegetar separadas, aun viviendo en un mismo pueblo erosianado, a la orilla de una misma tierra ab- sorbente y junto a un mismo mar trepidante?^® Thus far the "Ciclo Tropical" novelists have mani fested an almost predictable tendency to move from the relatively simple to the highly complex in terms of tech nique and imaginative resources have been seen, with a point of classical simplification in expression of essen tially similar themes being reached in Cepeda Samudio and being suggested in future works of Garcia Marquez. With the exception of Garcia Marquez these writers have only published works during the 1960's and seem to have responded greatly to the most recent influences. Manuel Zapata Olivella, however, presents a tra jectory which forms a direct link with previous generations, and which also encompasses intensively and extensively the vital areas of Colombian life. He was born in Lorica, near Cartagena, in 1920. His home was poor materially but not spiritually. His father was interested in learning and 28 Maese Lucanor, "En noviembre llega el arzobispo," El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, Septiembre 8, 1968, p. 13. 190 himself engaged in writing. His brother, Antonio, later a Colombian cultural attache in Central America, and Manuel also tried their hands at writing. Manuel later expressed his African heritage by directing a folkloric dance en semble of which his sister later assumed leadership. His early years were difficult in terms of acquiring an educa tion, which he did in stages. After the first phase he worked as a village school-master. Later, after completing part of his medical education in Bogota, he was forced to interrupt his studies. From 1943 to 1947 he led a pre carious existence in Central America, Mexico, and the United States, experiencing Harlem as a black man from a different milieu. He knew Langston Hughes and others, and gained the advice of Ciro Alegria who wrote the preface to his first novel, which he published after returning to medical school. Manuel Zapata Olivella is now a practicing psy chiatrist, but he necessarily limits his practice to accom modate a staggering schedule of cultural, intellectual, and social leadership. He has been an active contributor to various periodicals and is publisher and director of Letras Nacionales, which he founded to foment literature, literary 191 scholarship, and cultural development in Colombia. He is a leading exponent of cultural strength as a means of aid ing evolution from a status of underdevelopment. Having served his government in the Ministry of Education, he is also extending his service beyond the limits of the country by visiting professorships in the United States and Canada as well as in Latin American countries. As a folklorist he has also visited Europe, Africa, and Asia. Manuel Zapata is intensely concerned with expres sion of the reality of Latin American life: the mixture of races, languages, civilizations, complicated by social, political, and economic factors which in the second half of the twentieth century are being drawn into a cyclotronic acceleration. He feels that cultural forms must express and serve man as he actually is, not as "society" has fil tered or distorted him, when, indeed, it has not ignored him, up to recent times. In an article entitled "Mis aje- treos en el novelar hispanoamericano," he notes some diffi culties he has faced as a writer endeavoring to accommodate quality art with growing mass audiences in essentially underdeveloped countries: La necesidad del estilo crea el conflicto entre lo que uno es como individuo y lo que sera transmutada en la obra. Por largo trecho— libros publicados de 192 relato, teatro y novela— escribi sin preocupaciones literarias. Tenia si, inquietudes retoricas y socia- les. Pero en ese tiempo la novelistica/ el g6nero literario al que me he ceftido ultimamente, se separo mucho de los modelos tradicionales. Las razones de este brusco salto son conocidas: el sicoanalisis y el cinematografo. La narracion directa y las especula- ciones filosofico-sociales del naturalismo se compli- caron con nuevas dimensiones: la ruptura del tiempo historico, la fragmentacion del espaciof el desdobla- miento del "Yo," el animismo antropomorfo de los objetos y animales o a la inversa: el zoo-morfismo del hombre, el autor— camara detras del ojo con simulada amputacion del cerebro. A esta complicacion del oficio se sumo otra, la militancia del lector. ... Abstraerse de ella es auto- amputarse cortar la importancia y el significado de la obra. Personalmente el atenerme al habla culta, me plantea dificultades de expresion. La claridad del concepto se oscurece cuando la gramatica me exige la omisi&n de un gerundio. Los pensamientos se empastan cuando hay necesidad de atender el regimen. Coyunda que no entorpece al vulgo cuyas palabras saltan y ex- presan el concepto con espontaneidad. La lengua es para el un instrumento, flexible, docil al freno del intelecto. Construyen, amalgaman y expresan con la simpleza de un descubridor. Son los primeros pasos de una revolucion del idioma. Creo en la urgencia de romper sus ataduras academicas— de hecho el pueblo las ignora— si deseamos involucrar a la novelistica hispano-americana las. necesidades de una nueva vida: la del mestizo.^ Zapata's early influence by social realism is evi- 30 dent in his first novel, Tierra mojada, published in 1947, 29BCB, X (1967), 72-73. 30 (Bogota: Ediciones Espiral, 1947). 193 with a foreword by Ciro Alegria. The novel suffers from the wooden plot structure of thesis, but the depiction of the Afro-Indio-Hispano rice growers of the Sinu Peninsula near Cartagena has a natural quality which is very attrac tive. His other novels will be dealt with in a subsequent chapter (pp. 258-266) except for the following one. 31 En Chima nace un santo (1963), which in 1962 won both a Premio ESSO honorable mention and a Formentor second place (the year it was won by Mario Vargas Llosa’s La ciudad y los perros), represents the high point of Zapata's novel- istic art to date, although he has published other works subsequently. The novel has been made into a movie en titled "Santo en rebelion." The editors characterize it as an "alucinante historia de supercheria." The setting is again the area of the author's birth place, the Sinu Peninsula, and, as is Tierra mojada, it is based on actual locations. The drama begins with in Chima, a small town lost among the alligator and reptile infested swamps, a birth defective paralytic, Domingo Vidal, per forms various "miracles," which cause his fame to spread 31 (Barcelona: Editorial Seix Barral, 1963). 194 throughout the swamps. His home becomes a place of pere grination for the local inhabitants. They venerate him as though he were a saint: they bring him gifts, they light candles, they pray to him. In vain the priest strives to counteract the heresy. The belief in the sanctity of Dominguito takes strong hold on the soul of the people. He "brings rain" with "supernatural powers"; sterile women conceive; maidens pursued by "Juan Patas," calm down; the blind see and idiots recover their wits. Domingo dies at thirty-three, the same age as Christ, and Father Berrocal, the parish priest, accompanied by a loyal sacristan and a policeman, proceed to bury him. They are met by the "prophet" of the dead "saint," Jeremxas, the former sacristan of Chima. He lets his hair and beard grow and donning a white garment he visits all the neigh boring districts preaching the miracles of the "saint." Later he is joined by Domingo's sister, Balaude, and others around whom a "vested interest" grows up. Finally, after grotesque episodes in which the priest dies of a stroke after dismembering and scattering the body, which had been exhumed "incorrupto" (actually ossified) after two years, and after several attempts to pacify the town, the soldiers, 195 themselves incapacitated by fear and superstition, are forced to flee after a bloody fight in which Chima success fully holds on to its great "miracle worker, 1 1 "San Domin- guito Vidal." Zapata's style is simple and popular. In his lan guage and narration he carefully seeks directness, which heightens the bizarreness of some of the episodes which often recall the "esperento" of Valle-Inclan. He pains takingly avoids doing violence to the credulity of the people or the reader by exceeding the limits of their men tality. The coincidences and aberrations actually are believable given certain circumstances well known to exist. The over-all approach is Zapata's usual neo-realism masterfully refined for maximum efficiency. Cinemato graphic techniques are skillfully but unobtrusively em ployed. The author, true to his intentions (as cited on pp. 191-192 above) , using methods appropriate to the needs of his people, registers a social commentary in an enter taining manner. J. M. Caballero Bonald presses the "message" to its logical limits: Zapata Olivella monta sobre una alucinante anecdota de supercheria, la denuncia de una determinada situa- cion social. Un pueblo elemental y oprimido a la vez por la miseria y la falta de horizontes, convierte en 196 un objeto sagrado la persona de un tullido a quien la casualidad encadena progresivamente al railagro. Eso es todo, en apariencia. Pero algo sobrecogedor se agazapa entre los hechos descritos. La fanatica deifi- caci6n del pobre inv&lido no es mas que la desesperada necesidad de evasion de unas gentes sepultadas en la miseria. El talisman liberador ha sido ahora de orden sagrado, impelido esencialmente por un patetico e irrazonable habito supersticioso. ... Zapata Olivella nos traza, con un ejemplar vigor literario y un acen- drado realismo, la moralizadora acusacion de una determinada descomposicion social. Su fibula no ha podido ser mas certera.^^ This consideration of the "Ciclo Tropical" will be completed with a brief mention of a work which shares ele ments with La casa grande by Alvaro Cepeda Samudio and the work of Manuel Zapata Olivella. In a short poematic piece 33 entitled Despues de la noche (sinopsis de una novela), winner of the "Primer Premio del Concurso Literario de Extension Cultural de Bolivar 1963," J. Eutiquio Leal com municates what it is like to be black, to be poor, to be a lone fisherman who has to row his boat with one hand because he lost the other fishing with dynamite and who realizes that if he cannot catch any fish, his wife will have to sell what she can in nearby Cartagena to help feed 32 "La ultima novela de Manuel Zapata Olivella, los talismanes de la evasion," El Espectador— Magazine Domini cal, January 10, 1965, p. 15. 33 (Cartagena: Editorial "El Marinero," 1964). 197 their children. Desperate, the fisherman tries to fish again with dynamite and loses the other hand, fatally in juring himself. The narration takes place between the hours of six-thirty P.M. and six-thirty A.M. , the dark night of the black fisher family. "La noche" symbolizes the plight of the black man as in the author's Biblical quotation in the frontispiece: "Ocupe aquella noche la oscuridad; no sea contada entre los dxas del ano, ni venga en el numero de los dias" (Job 111:6). The action is broken up cinema- tographically with scenes of the fisherman in his boat, stunned and wounded, thrown into jail, finally taken home, placed in a coffin, awakening in the midst of dancing at his wake to see his wife, who has given birth during the night, dancing fearfully with his father. His children rush to him, but he, as if dead already, knows there is only one thing left to do: he drags his mangled body to the shore and dies in the sea like a good black fisherman. The modern technique and the simple, popular, often poetic language give a sense of tragedy and of the absurd. The search for Colombian reality concentrated in a given section of the country and the coincidence of several 198 outstanding writers each contributing innovations to the national novelistic art have been manifested in the "Ciclo Tropical." The examination of Colombian reality included, especially in Cien ahos de soledad, the historical ante cedents of that reality. In the following chapter atten tion will be directed to the form which concentrates itself on the past: the historical novel. CHAPTER III THE HISTORICAL NOVEL The historical novel has enjoyed a long and varied existence in Colombia as was seen in the Introduction to this dissertation. In his La novela historica en Colombia 1844-1959, Donald McGrady found that the periods of La Con- Cfuista and La Colonia were most attractive to writers, with non-American themes and La Independencia following. The majority of the works dealt with in his study were published during the nineteenth century and early twentieth century.^ During the period covered by the present investiga tion the interest in La Concruista and La Colonia continued to hold its position, while La Independencia showed the strongest growth. The nineteenth and early twentieth cen turies also began to draw attention. Among non-American themes, Ancient Egypt and the Lands of the Bible persisted. ■^(Bogota: Editorial Kelly, 1962). » 199 200 Chronologically/ the oldest period covered in recent historical novels is Ancient Egypt. Ruben Ardila y Ardilaf born in 1942 in San Vicente, Santander Department, is a student of psychology and medicine in the National University of Colombia. Stimulated by the inundation of the antiquities with the completion of the Aswan Dam, he sought to depict the relevance of older civilizations by bringing to life a famous figure from that era. 2 In Neferetiti, reina de Eg-jpto (1961), the author depicts that thirty centuries ago there existed people very similar to those of today: people who loved, suffered, fought, people who were, perhaps, too human. Another objective of focussing on the ancient environment is the presentation of this very important culture, for example, the contribution of one of the first spiritual reformers in recorded history, Aquenaton, Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The style is simple, direct, almost popular. The lives of the Pharaoh and Neferetiti are followed through their childhood, adolescence, and maturity, narrated in such a manner as to allow an average Colombian to identify 2 (Bogota: Editorial Iqueima, 1961). 201 with the human problems of bygone personages and to under stand their lives in the setting of their civilization. The Old and New Testaments were also the source of themes whose relevance appealed to writers surrounded by 3 la violencia. Sodoma delves into the classic case of moral decay and social desintegration, presented in popular language, with dramatic dialogues and rapid changes of 4 scene and action. Judas carries the intention of the author expressed in the prologue, to teach Catholic doc trine through analysis of probably the most widely known betrayal in history. Of much greater appeal and significance were themes firmly rooted in Colombia. The force and seriousness of this tendency is reflected in the prologue to La Diosa de los salvajes set in the Conquest: El presente libro ha sido escrito en desarrollo de una serie que encierra aspectos historicos desconocidos de la conquista del occidente colombiano por los con- quistadores espanoles, hace cuatro siglos. El pasado nuestro es tan grandioso como el de todos los pueblos primitives porque ellos en su salvajismo Francisco Gomez Valderrama (Cali: Editorial Paci- fico, 1961). 4 Ignacio Escobar Lopez (Bogota: Editorial Santa Fe, 1955). 202 han conseguido muchas veces la gloria. Sin embargo, los colombianos estan mas inclinados a admirar las adventuras de los comanches o pieles-rojas, de los zulues africanos o de los primitivos habitantes de Australasia, que la de sus propios antepasados. Este fenomeno se opera en realidad porque no los conocen suficientemente. A juicio del autor, son tan interesantes las hazanas de los pijaos, paeces, moti- lones, lilies, o cualquiera otra de las innumerables tribus que poblan nuestros antiguos territorios, que las de los citados comanches norteamericanos y demas. Los colombianos se complacen en ridiculizarse a si mismos. En este caso se opera en todos los aspectos de la vida espiritual y economico. El aberrante com- plejo ha frustrado incontables actividades. Pero es el momento de relievar el valor que poseemos, de afirmar nuestras propias caracteristicas. "La Diosa de los Salvajes" no pretende, ni mucho menos, ser una obra extraordinaria. Su verdadero valor sera juzgado por los lectores y aqui es logico hacer una sugerencia a los criticos: cuando ellos quieran cumplir a cabalidad su mision, deben ubicarse en el piano de lectores, no en el de prepotentes dominadores del pensamiento ni de la forma literaria. Es paradojico que algunos criticos se consideren superiores para juzgar a quienes pertenecen al mundo de la literatura o el arte, cuando ellos mismos gritan: "En Colombia solo hay mediocridad."— No pertenecen ellos a nuestro mismo mundo? Al decir que esta es una obra de aspectos histori- cos, he querido simplemente significar que me he basado en el hecho real de la fundacion de una ciudad a pocas leguas del lugar que hoy ocupa Santiago de Cali al finalizar el siglo dieciseis. Lo esencial es destacar la forma como vivian y pro- cedian las naciones guerreras que hicieron una feroz y tenaz resistencia a los conquistadores espanoles llega- dos al occidente colombiano con el adelantado don Sebastian de Belalcazar. Aqui pues los criticos amigos de problemas sico- logicos como tema fundamental de la novela, no los hallaran. El autor sabe muy bien que el campo de la novela es muy extenso y que no solamente constituye actividad novelistica crear personajes de carceles y manicomios. 203 Aprendiendo a valorar nuestro pasado rico en gran- des y hermosos episodios, exaltando la importancia del conglomerado del cual forraamos parte, es como se con- tribuye al progreso. La novela terrigena tiene un campo ilimitado de accion pero como son mas los obstaculos que las posi- bilidades para que ella florezca, su actividad se ha visto reducida a esporadicos intentos. Con mi anterior libro sobre estos temas "Lili, 1 1 me propuse hacer la historia de ese pasado, no como la ensehan en los textos, arida y escueta, sino matizada con el sabor y la emocion de la novela. Esta es una tarea cuyo valor queda a juicio de los lectores.5 The author, Francisco Gomez Valderrama, followed historical fact more closely in another novel published a g year earlier. Lili is the name of a tribe of Indians which inhabited a part of the Cauca Valley at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The chief dies and his only descendant is a beautiful young daughter, Lili. She wants to marry Calima, but to keep peace with the other tribes the medicine man advises marriage with the chief who wins a warrior skill contest. The winner is Jamundi who kills all the rival chiefs and is about to kill Calima when announcement is made of the arrival of an expedition sent by Sebastian Belalcazar, under the command of Captains 5 ^ Francisco Gomez Valderrama (Cali: Editorial Paci- fico, 1959), pp. 6-7. £ (Cali: Editorial Pacifico, 1958). 204 Juan de Ampudia and Pedro de Anasco, in search of El Dorado. The Jamundies attack the Spaniards and defeat them, but they are themselves destroyed, along with Lili, Jamundi, and Calima when Belalcazar arrives with reinforcements. Afterwards he founds the city of Cali: Gran parte de la accion de esta novela es hist6rica, sobre todo, la referente a los espanoles. Segun la "Introduccion," Lili, Jamundi y otros caciques indios son tambien figuras historicas. . .. El hacer que los personajes centrales no sean figuras historicas famosas, es uno de los poquisimos aciertos de Gomez Valderrama.^ McGrady observes that while the style is simple and easy to read, the author does not succeed in awakening the reader's interest in the characters because of insufficient development of psychological, emotional, or conflictive elements. The death of the protagonist is as unemotional as was her bland acceptance of an unknown chief over her true love. The historical and descriptive aspects over whelmed the novelistic achievement. A novel which also suffers from technical problems g is La Gaitana by Luis Hernando Vargas Villamil. The work 7 McGrady, op. cit., p. 103. Q (Bogota: Editorial Minerva, 1959). 205 was originally written as a radio novel, to be transmitted chapter by chapter. The radio novel is a form which has special characteristics due to its medium and audience: it depends on hearing alone; it consists mainly of action, using narration primarily for transitions. The radio novel depends, like the theater, on dialogue but without the visual element; it makes extensive use of techniques calculated to heighten interest, mystery, and suspense, which often lead to absurdity and abuse. La Gaitana is set in southern Colombia in 1536-1538. The novel begins with the cacica of the Timanaes, La Gai tana, performing a rite in which she invokes the Gods to protect her son Timanco who is attending athletic games in the north. He emerges victoriously in the athletic con tests as well as in amorous ones: Princess Halida of the Pijao tribe is returning with him to arrange matrimony. Peripatetic obstacles now burgeon forth in the persons of Pigambo and Guadahira, boon companions of prince and prin cess respectively who love the principals in star crossed confusion. The wedding finally takes place but is soon followed by the arrival of the Spaniards. Pedro de Anasco burns Timanco alive and Halida commits suicide. La Gaitana 206 raises the tribes, defeats the Spaniards, and tortures and mutilates Anasco in vengeance. Although the uprising of La Gaitana against Ahasco is based on history, a great deal of the work is taken up in episodes and adventures aimed at keeping the listener's attention in typical fashion of the days of radio in the United States, Saturday afternoon movie serials, and some television programs. For example, a mysterious "Templo del Gran Espxritu," with a sacred jaguar and serpent, replete with secret doors and passageways, or the unknown monster who gallops in and out of the plot, impervious to arrows and bullets, who turns out to be Guadahira, the beauty rejected by Timanco. McGrady criticizes Vargas for his spurious arche ology, stilted locutions placed in the mouths of primitive Indians, and suspense trickery, but he notes that the audience for which the work was destined would find it much more acceptable than a strictly academic approach. He also ascribes major artistic shortcomings to the fact that the author did not revise the radio script prior to its pub- 9 lication as a novel, g McGrady, op. cit., pp. 106-107. 207 In this connection, the truly revolutionizing effect the transistor radio is having on the practically illiterate masses of Latin America should be emphasized. To our observation of the universally present transistor, even in the most remote areas, Don Eduardo Caballero Calde ron commented that it is probably an unrecognized factor for the good in the progress of the area, since it repre sents a direct form of communication which automatically extends the horizons even of those who are unable to read or write, while at the same time preparing their minds for further enrichment. This, coupled with the world-wide movement in ethnic cultural awareness and pride, and the intense and justified esteem Colombians hold for their indigenous heritage, epitomized in the magnificent Gold Museum of the Banco de la Republica in Bogota, makes more understandable the acceptance by critics which La Gaitana received in spite of shortcomings as reflected in the fol lowing appreciation by Agustxn Rodriguez Garavito, a well known critic who contributes regularly to the Boletin Cultural y Bibliografico: Seria pueril desconocer los autenticos y autoctonos valores literarios de esta obra del escritor huilense Luis Eduardo Vargas. En un medio como el nuestro donde se escribe y piensa en razon de ciertos inapetentes 208 europeismos, obras como La Gaitana, estan llamadas a despertar la conciencia de nuestros escritores para buscar en las fuentes primigenias de nuestro acontecer historico, anchos y profundos motivos para la imagina- ci6n. ... Por eso mismo, obras como La Gaitana, le conceden a su autor un sitio de primera calidad en el escaso mundo de nuestros valores literarios. Porque este libro ha sido escrito pensando en Colombia, en su noche lacustre de dioses, leyendas y cultura pre- colombina ... el libro es de una fuerza, una riqueza de colorido y un sentido ambiental tan completos, que le otorgan a su autor sitio muy iminente en las letras colombianas. Rodriguez Garavito is quite aware that the work has flaws, but he feels it is especially important at the pres ent time to "accentuate the positive" in the Colombian environment, both from the standpoint of the national self- image, autocthony, and from the standpoint of genuine relevance, authenticity. In addition to the books treated above, which em phasized the pre-Colombian heritage in contact with the Conquistadores, there were also several others which sought to give artistic form to historical or legendary episodes of La Colonia. In Del mismo oriqen,^ set in 1675, it is interesting to note a strong intention of uplifting the 10BCB, III (Marzo, 1960), 175-176. ■^Silvio Lopez Cardona (Medellin: Editorial Sale- siana, n.d.). 209 indio and mestizo. The novel, otherwise undistinguished, involves subterfuge over heirs and inheritance due to a union between a noble Spanish girl and a noble Indian prince. The result is that their children get what is theirs materially and there is recognition, spiritually, of the worth and nobility of both lines of heritage. The next major epoch of Colombian history is La Independencia. McGrady reports that it is the period of least literary merits during the span of his investiga- 12 tion. In the present study, this was not found to be the case. While no work reached masterpiece quality, in general, the works produced are of acceptable artistic com petence. There is a marked intensification of the tendency to popularize national history. There is in this a strong didactic purpose. Also present is the elevation of national achievements to inspire pride and confidence in Colombia, for unification and progress, as well as to counteract nega tive attitudes engendered by la violencia and subdesarrollo. Remoteness in time or space, of course, always offers the possibility of escapism as an added feature for the reader 12 McGrady, op. cit., p. 155. 210 who seeks respite as well as enlightenment or inspiration. The year 1781 marks the active beginning of the move toward independence in Colombia when the citizens of several rural towns refused to pay excessive taxes levied for the purpose of financing another of Spain's wars. There were proclamations, mustering of rebel forces, demands, ultimatums, skirmishes, deaths, and heroes. The revolt was finally put down by superior force. The leaders were hung, drawn, and quartered. The uprising has come to be known as the comunero rebellion, after the name given to the citizens of the towns. The comunero rebellion symbol izes Colombians' fight for justice and liberty, and is a 13 source of great national pride. 14 El alzamiento by Luis Castellanos Tapias tells the story of the uprising through an Indian tobacco farmer, Tomas Serrano, and the village priest, Father Vargas. To a degree, this seems to be an indianista social protest novel projected backwards. The narration begins by setting 13 Jesus Maria Henao and Gerardo Arrubla, History of Colombia, translated by J. Fred Rippy (Chapel Hill: Uni versity of North Carolina Press, 1938), pp. 160-171. 14 (Bogota: Editorial Guadalupe, 1962). 211 the scene of poverty, abuse, and degradation which charac terizes the Spanish exploitation of the natives. The novel later shifts into a spirited presentation of despair, doubt, hope, courage, and heroism. Although suppression of the insurrection yielded martyrs at the time, the legacy of valor in the cause of justice is clearly felt. The work is lively and dramatic, using popular dialogues and revolu tionary rhymes to good effect, over—all, but is at times stilted, heavy, and melodramatic. 15 ''Yanguaro" is another radio no vela by Luis Her nando Vargas Villamil, inferior to his previous efforts. This work also stresses the Indian theme but mixes it into incidents surrounding activities of a famous comunero leader, Jose Antonio Galan. Yanguaro, a robust Indian possessing all the physical and moral virtues, loves Hulina, daughter of a Spaniard. The work suffers from the ' limitations of the mass audience radio serial but demon strates Vargas1 dedication to authentic national elements In his review of this work in BCB, IV (Mayo, 1961), 391, Agustln Rodriguez Garavito does not list pub lication data. I examined the manuscript in the Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango. It had been selected as the best of several scripts submitted to a local radio station, but, again, no publication data were given. 212 in his efforts. The most comprehensive novel to appear on the Inde pendencia was written by Enrique Santos Molano, born in Bogota in 1942. In 1960 he published a short story and in 1963 edited and directed the magazine Yaravi. Since 1963 he has been a regular contributor to El Tiempo. Memorias fantasticas is the history of the liberation movement as related by Antonio Narino, "El precursor. 1 1 Narino, born of noble parents in Bogota in 1765, translated and published the Rights of Man in 1794. His stormy struggle for liberty brought him repeated exile and imprisonment as well as the highest positions of his government. He died in Villa de 16 Leiva in 1823. Santos Molano utilizes the old device of "discovering" a manuscript supposedly written by Narino and completed by his son. The manuscript was supposedly hidden in Leiva beneath the floorboards of the house where "El precursor" died. 17 Memorias fantasticas, novela de los tiempos de Henao and Arrubla, pp. 180-184, 193-195, 222-226, 242-244, 250-253, 350-351, 369-371. 17 The first four parts had been published as of September, 1969, by Libros del Condor, Sociedad Editora de los Andes, Bogota: in 1965, Part I; in 1967, Parts II and III; in 1968, Part IV. 213 la revoluci6n is divided into seven parts as follows: El Arcano de la Filantropia (1781-1803) En el Poder (1804-1813) La Campafta del Sur (1814-1815) Cartagena (1816) El Terror (1817-1818) Los Centauros del Llano (1819) El Resucitado (1820-1823) The novel, essentially, is a popularization of his tory. The choice of Narino was a good one since his reputa tion as a controversial figure and his numerous ideological and tactical conflicts, imprisonments, setbacks, and triumphs capture the imagination and lend themselves to novelization. Santos Molano has been careful to keep his language simple, with lively dialogues reminiscent of the times but also of common Colombian flavor. He has skill fully intermingled "memorias" with "fantasia" to take full advantage of the suspense and adventure possibilities of Narino and the Revolution. While some reviewers wish that he would have gone beyond the didactic entertainment level to attempt a work of more serious and lofty artistic sig nificance the preponderance of opinion is favorable to him 214 and appreciative of his efforts to elevate Colombia. Manuel Gonzalez Martinez, the costumbrista chronicler whose work was considered in a previous chapter (pp. 102-111), sums up: Lo admirable en Enrique Santos Molano es que con apenas 23 anos, no lo haya seducido, a pesar de su vasta informacion sobre las diversas corrientes lite- rarias, no lo haya seducido, decimos, echarse por los comodos caminos de la novelistica que mientan de van- guardia, sino que haya salido a la escena de nuestro tinglado literario con el sencillo atuendo de su prosa sin relampagos, sino castizamente liana y sin enigmas; natural y limpida como un chorro de agua; lejos, muy lejos de vestir la librea de lacayo de estilos y moda- lidades ajenas a nuestro airibiente, a nuestra sangre libre de taras psicopaticas que generan monstruosos absurdos que se leen y se aceptan por eso, por su estrafalaria demencia que mal puede ser normativa. Mas, desventuradamente, su impacto esta haciendo de quienes pudieran escribir lo suyo y en su propio es- tilo, escritores que al defraudarse a si mismos estan defraudando a la epoca y a la literatura colombianas, que mal podria calificarse como tal, porque nada tiene de lo propio, sino que es una manera de ensalada de imitaciones estilisticas y tematicas en las que, en definitiva, no se encuentra al dor, por mas que se le busque.^ Gonzalez Martinez also reflects the attitude of many critics who reject trends which they consider "extran- jerizantes" and pernicious to Colombian culture, especially in undigested or unadapted form, which they consider 18 "En torno a un libro, Memorias fantasticas," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, January 2, 1966, p. 2. 215 inappropriate to national traditions and needs. There are, of course, critics who might be classified as ultra conservative or reactionary in general, but Gonzalez Mar tinez, who is also an important novelist, along with others, does not belong in this category. This case, rather, serves to exemplify some basic aspects of cultural processes as related to social change. These men love their country and her traditions which they learned in an earlier, less com plicated era. Since World War II their country has been struck by a series of waves: the waves of global change, good and bad; the wave of la violencia; in the arts, the "new wave." As educated men they recognize new develop ments on an intellectual level, but on an emotional level many of their responses seem nostalgic of the "good old days." The confrontation between purely Colombian subject matter, such as the historical novel, and "foreign new wave imitations," uncomfortably present in the modern environ ment, gives rise to the kind of venting of frustrations which seem to be universal in the contemporary era. The pattern is observable in several critics: it begins with praise for the author, gratitude for his work, and expresses relief at being presented with a simple Colombian work on 216 Colombian themes by a Colombian writer who obeys Colombian traditions (examples are Gonzalez Martinez, p. 214 above, and Rodriguez Garavito, p. 217). At any rate, the interest in the country's past is high. National holidays are enthusiastically celebrated with colorful parades, ceremonies, and elaborate reenact ments, in full martial array, of important battles, with groups of horsemen retracing the Liberators' forced marches over the highest paramos of the Andes. The newspapers and periodicals reflect the widespread, genuine appeal of this subject with high quality, colorfully illustrated com memorative articles on major events as well as less well known facets. Augusto Morales Pino, also author of several novels to be considered in subsequent chapters (pp. 27 2-275, 322- 323), has produced two historical novels. Dedication and devotion to the novel and Colombia are the watchwords of his career. He has labored long and arduously with little recognition and has only recently begun to receive a modi cum of sustenance from his writings. For the most part his works have held strictly to Colombian themes. Born in 1914, his style, represents a balanced traditional blend. 217 He is a humble, very human writer and obviously a keen observer who has deliberately set himself the task of novelizing national themes and has proceeded competently in workmanlike fashion. Agustin Rodriguez Garavito, a well known critic who tends to favor the more traditionalist novels, gives a fair appraisal of Morales Pino and at the same time illustrates what his own preferences are: El escritor colombiano Augusto Morales Pino, ha venido empenando en una honesta tarea intelectual que merece nuestro publico agradecimiento. Trata de reconstruir en hermosos y coloreados frescos, la his- toria de episodios y personajes tlpicamente colombianos que, en su hora, hicieron la historia y la an^cdota nacionales. Sus novelas y ensayos biograficos confir- man su maestrla para una tarea que es preciso emprender si no queremos que muchos episodios nacionales se pier- dan en la bruma del tiempo. ... El escritor Morales Pino es fiel a una forma estillstica que usa con personal maestrla: saber colo- rear y redondear el relato, sin abusar de los elementos retoricos o de los galopantes caminos de la imagina- cion. Es la suya una prosa clara, directa, sin vanos oropeles. No muy rico en giros verbales es cierto, pero eficaz para su trabajo de narrador respetuoso de la verdad hist6rica y que se aventura poco por caminos de personal fantasia. ... Tiene el sentido de la His- toria y refleja su urdimbre en su prosa, caliente de nobles adivinaciones. Y no se deja conducir por caminos vedados, ni permite que el personaje central se pierda entre el polvillo brillante del estilo. Es cauto en todo: en el manejo de las situaciones, en el ritmo, atemperado de la prosa, en la presentacion de los per sona jes del drama.19 19 "Redoblan los tambores, de Augusto Morales Pino," BCB, VII (1964), 271. 218 20 In Redoblan los tambores, Morales narrates the story of La Pola, Policarpa Salavarrieta (1795-1817), a martyr heroine of Independence. She was shot for aiding the insurrectionists in Casanare, among whom was her fiance. A series of statues commemorate her valor near La Cande laria, the old section of Santa Fe de Bogota. Una noche de Septiembre^ relates events of the famous conspiracy against Bolivar in 1828, after he had assumed dictatorial powers. A love story is included, the supposed last episode in his well known affair with Doha Manuela Saenz. The atmosphere of old Bogota including La Quinta de Bolivar at the foot of Monserrate is vividly made present. 22 La epopeya del terror, by Antonio Granados Forero, recounts the reign of terror of General Pablo Morillo, 1816- 1819, and also the campaigns of liberation culminating in the decisive battles of Pantano de Vargas and Puente de Boyaca in 1819. It follows the fate of a family from Bogota 23 to the llanos, through the fighting. El Capitan, by 20 (Bogota: Editorial Kelly, 1964). 21 (Bogota: Editorial Kelly, 1969). 22 (Bogota: Editorial Antares - Tercer Mundo, 1967). 23 (Bogota: Editorial Tercer Mundo, 1968). 219 Bernardo Jaramillo Botero, is an attempt to present the life and times of the heroic generation through the experi- I ences of an hacendado who is a composite patrician paragon of patriotic and practical commercial virtues. The land owner, a native of Rionegro, Antioquia, renders valuable service to the cause of liberty during the wars and to the Republic after the death of the Liberator by making a busi ness trip to the United States to set up markets for the reconstructed industries of his homeland. In the course of the story many important personages are introduced, giving a good idea of the course of events, military, economic, and political. From a novelistic standpoint the work leaves much to be desired. In spite of this, however, book store operators in Bogota report that readers find it of value as an additional dimension on their past. The only recent historical narrative available on the Post Independence period is a novelized biography en- 24 titled Yo, Tomas Cipriano Mosquera, by Mario H. Perico Ramirez. It was printed in the press of the Universidad Pedagogica y Tecnologica de Colombia for the Fondo Especial 24 (Tunja: Ediciones "La Rana y el Aguila," 1969). 220 de Publicaciones y Ayudas Educativas. The work appears to be a popularized presentation of the life of General Mosquera, Revolutionary War hero, defender of the Republic against Obando's attempted take over in 1840, Chief Execu tive of Colombia during troubled times that followed, espe cially controversial for his stand on the Church, and various foreign and domestic high handed intrigues. He was an aristocrat from Popayan, that most patrician of Colom bia's cities, where a very interesting museum has been established in his home. His life was truly stormy and ad venturous and symbolizes the unleashed energy of the criollo which resulted in creative brilliance as well as chaotic violence during the forging of the modern era. The story is narrated in an interesting manner as the General ex plains his own life and times in the first person. It thus does become personal as he tells foibles as well as tri umphs. As a novel, however, it does not succeed since it never departs from what was actually known to have happened a priori, rather than a conflict of possibilities which 25 produced known results. ^Henao and Arrubla, pp. 445-446, 449-454, 481-489. 221 Aside from a very few novels which border on bio graphy or political treatise the next work to be considered is the only remaining example of a historical narration produced during the span of this investigation. It is qualitatively probably the best artistic effort. As a his torical novel (it could also be considered under rural, social, psychological, feminist aspects) it marks an impor tant tendency: the application of modern attitudes to the investigation of the past. 26 The genesis of Catalina, which received a special award and publication in tribute and encouragement of the women of Colombia by the 1962 ESSO Prize committee, is best told by the author herself. Elisa Mujica was born in pro vincial Bucaramanga in 1918. She devoted herself to study and journalism. After suffering a spiritual crisis which resulted in her rejecting Catholicism for Communism she spent some time in Europe, especially Spain. She later returned both to Colombia and to the faith of her child hood. Before doing so, she sent various articles to peri odicals at home. In one entitled "Desde Espana— Colombia en el corazon," written in 1955, she registers shock at 26 (Madrid: Editorial Aguilar, 1963). 222 la violencia. She said that she, like most Colombians, thought their country was perfect, then it suddenly ex ploded, without warning. To explain this, she says, one must look to past history and traditions: to see Colombia as it really is and was in order truly to understand the national character: En nuestra historia reciente, la de solo sesenta o setenta afios atras, aparecen soldados, abogados, guerrilleros, hombres civiles y hombres militares, capaces de heroxsmo y abnegacion, pero a los que caracteriza especialmente un rasgo comun: su completo desprecio por la vida humana. Existe una obra, "Remi- niscencias de Santa Fe y Bogota," en la cual el autor, con lenguaje familiar y domestico, nos narra los acon- tecimientos menudos de la vida diaria ocurridos no solo en Bogota sino en otros lugares del paxs, que la gran historia no suele recoger, pero en los que reside sin embargo la explicacion de muchos de los hechos inraortalizados por aquella. Cordovez Moure salvo buena parte de nuestra tradicion oral, la mas empapada del delicioso encanto de lo vivo. Los cuadros que traza ofrecen una mezcla de la sencillez provinciana de nues- tros abuelos, y de sus pasiones siempre dispuestas a estallar y a llegar a los extremos por la menor causa. En esa obra sin pretensiones duerme el espxritu del siglo XIX colombiano, con sus sesenta y tantas guerras y revoluciones. No se explica uno por que no han sido aprovechados por los nuevos novelistas muchos de los personajes que pinta Cordovez ... como Faulkner a las [historias] de la Guerra de Secesion de Norte America. Los temas novelxsticos colombianos no comenzaron el 9 de Abril [de 1948] como se ha crexdo ultimamente. .,. Al lado de relatos donde se encuentran pruebas extraordinarias de la inteligencia y nobleza de nuestro pueblo, hay otros sorribrxos, en que las vidas caen como hojas arrancadas por un viento adverso. ... Historias de orgullos que quedan como una herencia de la aristocracia espanola, 223 y de lucha por la igualdad y la justicia latente en las sociedades de artesanos. Un fondo sociologico da sen- tido y coordinacion a los hechos. Y casi de ninguno se ha11a ausante la huella de un puftal o un revolver con los cuales dirimxan sus litigios nuestros antepasados, considerandolos como el unico desenlace posible de sus problemas politicos y personales. No puede negarse que, por lo menos hasta hace muy poco tiempo y entre los jovenes, existxa en Colombia una verdadera indife- rencia por el estudio de nuestra historia patria. £No se deberla esta actitud, quiza, al deseo subconsciente de no recordar un pasado inmediato que, sin embargo, sentxamos pesar? Cuando presumxamos de orden y de pacxficas costunibres pretendxamos olvidar los motines, las matanzas, los episodios sangrientas acaecidos decadas antes. Pero la ignorancia no podxa cambiar la realidad. Los sucesos de sangre que se producxan noche tras noche en los barrios pobres de Bogota, por los motivos mas baladxes demostraban que en el pueblo seguxa en marcha el terrible desden por la vida. Como conclusion podrxa repetirse el topico de que la tempestad americana no ha cesado desde la epoca de la Independencia. A lo largo de nuestro siglo XIX se pasea un guerrillero sobre su caballo. Pero el pode- roso espxritu engendrado por los conquistadores espa- noles para dominar nuestro terrible medio geografico, despierto de nuevo desde 1810, puede acometer con el mismo empuje las empresas de paz. Aprender lo que en realidad somos y luchar por todos los medios contra la inclinacion a las soluciones de fuerza y no de razon, constituye un buen programa para algunos ahos. Un programa que seria mucho mas hermoso si se cumpliera a la luz de las palabras y enserianzas del Libertador, con las cuales el sigue librando todavxa por nosotros su arriesgada y emocionante batalla.^ In 1963, eight years later, after publication of her ESSO Prize novel, she reiterated her inspiration 27 El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, Julio 17, 1955, p. 4. 224 and added: [Comenze a escribir Catalina] en el ano de 1958, aproximadamente. Vivia en Espana y acababa de dirigir la edicion de las "Reminiscencias" de Cordovez Moure para la editorial Aguilar, lo que me obligo a leer, para hacer el prologo y las notas, muchas obras colom- bianas del siglo pasado y principios de este. Queria describir en una novela el proceso por que puede pasar una mujer a causa de un sentimiento de inferioridad, que la lleva de derrota en derrota hasta aniquilarse si no interviene una ayuda. Entonces resolvi aprove- char mis lecturas para tratar de recrear el ambiente formado despues de la Guerra de los Mil Dias, y colocar en el a mis personajes. ... La escribi tres veces. Cambie el orden cronologico. La novela estaba escrita en tercera persona en tiempo presente. ... No creo que sea preciso que todas las novelas colom- bianas se concreten al tema de la violencia actual, aunque es cierto que a la violencia la encontramos en todas partes.^® Catalina is divided into three parts, twenty-seven chapters, and covers 163 pages. The first chapter in order is really the last chronologically. Catalina tells her story in the first person, recalling the details of her personal tragedy, which she extends to previous generations by remembering episodes in the life of her grandmother in volving Simon Bolivar in Bucaramanga during a lull in fighting. Reminiscences of her mother's fate also reflect that of Catalina's. 28 "Entrevista— La novela colombiana se ha desviado hacia un tipo de documento, de reportaje o de pastiche," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, Abril 14, 1963, p. 6. 225 The action of the novel takes place in Bucaramanga. It begins during the battle of nearby Palonegro, May 11-26, 1900, the decisive engagement which turned the tide against the insurrectionists, the Liberals. The main action con tinues after the war when Catalina1s future husband, a bogotano and Liberal, decides to seek his fortune in the provincial area where he had been severely wounded and nursed back to health by the protagonist. Catalina Aguirre is a girl formed in the strict, closed environment and puritanical customs of the turn of the century. As a flashback, with knowledge given in the first chapter that both her husband and her lover are dead, she recalls her life: her infancy, her curiosity as a budding young woman, her marriage, its failure, her new love for a stranger who finally possessed her and engendered in her body the fruit which would not bloom in legitimate union. Catalina is surrounded by interesting personalities who, in one way or another, are connected with her. An important one is Samuel Figueroa, retired officer, oppor tunist, ambitious; he meets her, woos her easily, and aided by the family doctor and Catalina's own mother, ends by 226 marrying her. He immediately takes over administration of the fincas which belong to the girl: "Las Hojas" and "Madro- nal." The latter is barren, while the other is fertile and productive. Samuel devotes himself completely to the fin cas. Catalina, in the city, sees that indifference between them is increasing more and more. When she accidentally loses the child they both anxiously wanted, the situation becomes impossible. Legal separation is out of the ques tion and the two estranged partners torment each other when ever they meet. Samuel takes a mistress from among the tenant farmers of "Las Hojas." When Catalina discovers his infidelity, the remainder of her love for Samuel is extin guished. To combat her soledad, the spurned wife organizes a literary tertulia in her house. She forms an uncompli cated friendship with a young man who later marries her cousin. Another man arrives who is to play a more dramatic role in her life. He is Giorgio Volta, an Italian engineer, who discovers oil in the barren lands of "MadroRal." The marital difficulties increase when Samuel learns that Catalina's half-sister, Maria Amalia, is the real owner of the finca. Engulfed in her soledad, Catalina becomes 227 deeply involved with Volta. Upon discovering this Samuel prohibits her from leaving her house. Nevertheless she goes to an understanding brother of Samuel in Bogota where she learns that her lover has been shot to death on the edge of a chasm and her husband1s mangled body has been found at the bottom of it. She is left to begin another cycle of desolation with the child she carries in her womb. Elisa Mujica's narration is told in a simple realis tic style which highlights the poetic sensitivities of the feminine psyche. This is one of the great achievements of the novel. She communicates what it is like to experience a woman's reaction to her "circunstancia intima," in the phrase of Ortega y Gasset. It is interesting to note the complaint of some masculine commentators who decry the attention given to "detalles insignificantes," like the name of a perfume or the title of a novel, or the melan choly eyes of the Liberator, recalled years afterward, as illogical or superfluous in the total structure of the novel. The inclusion of such details contributes, of course, to the establishment of precisely what the author intends to express— the essence of the feminine immersion in her situation, and to project the analysis, in histori cal perspective, to preceding generations. No one familiar 228 with Latin America will miss the implications of Catalina for contemporary observers also. Elisa Mujica has skill fully avoided the pitfalls of lo cursi inherent in her theme. She has written a very effective novel which as a bonus has human, sociological, and historical perspectives. That her feminine authenticity is not wasted on her distaff readers is amply illustrated by Helena Araujo, one of Colom bia's best prepared and ablest critics, male or female, in an article in which she compares Catalina to Teresa de la Parra’s Ifiqenia of "las casas chatas de Venezuela": Las memorias de Catalina transcriben el vivir de una Colombia feudal cuya gloria es la tierra heredada, o mejor, rapiftada en un clima violento, bastante surista, que podria ser el Estados Unidos de una Ellen Glasgow, Willa Cather, o, todavia mas, Margaret Mitchell. Pues no solo en su mito telurico sino en su enfoque de la personalidad social de la mujer, se situa la Norte- america de la Guerra Civil en una paralela con Colombia y— sobra decirlo— con la Venezuela de principios de este siglo. ... Pero Elisa Mujica va mas lejos de Teresa de la Parra ... en el planteamiento lucido de una proble matical la de la condicion femenina. Cuando Catalina Aguirre es declarada esteril por un facultativo, cuando su familia y su comunidad la consideran fallida en cuanto muj er, pues ya no sirve para lo que habria de servir, Elisa Mujica proyecta en ella, no solo el interrogante biologico, mitico, historico, de la con dicion femenina, sino la presencia de una evolucion liberal de las ideas. <?Ideas en torno a qu&? Precisa- mente a la condicion femenina. Pues en Catalina inicia Elisa Mujica el camino que ha de recorrer toda mujer para transformarse de objeto en sujeto de cualquier conglomerado. ... Y decimos sujeto, no individuo, pues 229 Catalina es desde su nifiez un objeto de las circunstan- cias y de las gentes, es decir, del acaecer historico, del orden familiar o de la convencion social: y sola- mente cuando da el paso— asx reflexivo— de tomar un amante, adquiere cierta capacidad de subi etivizaci6n en que cualquier posibilidad de individualizacion es apenas promisoria. Y la posibilidad de que Catalina se convierta en un individuo actuante y dotado de albedrio, esta en un detalle del relato. Luego de haber vivido aferrada a la memoria de su padre, a la autoridad de su marido, al dominio de su amante, Catalina, sola ante el mundo de su devenir, se niega a orar, es decir, a aferrarse a su Dios, asumiendo un orgullo y una rebeldia que iran desbrozando camino hacia su conciencia de ser. Al final del relato, Catalina Aguirre es casi una per- 29 sona.^ Catalina is seen the analysis of past history as individual human behavior reflecting and revealing basic realities of national life. As such it is one of the 'most successful manifestations of various novelistic tendencies brought together in the historical novel. In the next chapter the diffuse settings of rural and provincial nar ratives will be transferred to the nation's great cities as the investigation continues. 29 "Dos novelas de dos mujeres," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, Marzo 26, 1967, p. 7. CHAPTER IV THE URBAN NOVEL The urban novel, during the period under consider ation, reflects most of the elements present in the country as a whole, in some cases magnifying them, or developing certain aspects, and in other cases adding unique dimen sions peculiar to an environment containing both the most localistic, teluric ingredients and simultaneously recep tive to and active in the most universal international interchange. Bogota, the Colombian metropolis in the ful lest meaning of the term, is microcosmically representative of the nation's constituents individually as well as col lectively. The unprecedented growth common to many urban centers began earlier and has been more rapid and intense in the capital. Violence, which had been sparked in the provinces, exploded in the principal city. Being a gateway to South America and a crossroads of international air travel, a maximum of outside contact and perspective have 230 231 become increasingly present in the intellectual and cul tural atmosphere to foster expression and illumination. The urban novel has reached its greatest achieve ments in Bogota, although, as in many other phases of national life, the processes of distribution are taking place in various large municipalities throughout the nation. As concerns the neo-realistic novel dealing with the com plex of urban themes, the novels set in Bogota are quanti tatively and qualitatively superior to most other areas. While following the Bogotanos1 lead at self examination and expression, many provincianos have not yet managed to find their true voice. This is so for various reasons. The first is, simply, cultural lag, commonly associated with provincial environments. Many of those engaged in literature are still following older models, usually rural. Others, when dealing with the city, write of bygone days, while still others moralize or bring forth treatises of didactic nature. Another reason is that the intensity of urbanization has not everywhere kept pace with the capital, which has had more time to experience growth. Still another factor, per haps most important of all, is that many of the people who 232 otherwise might have written about their native area, have moved to Bogota and made their contribution there instead. Most of the novels considered in this chapter are set in Bogota. They generally represent trends in provin cial cities as well, except that they surpass them in scope and perspective. There are, however, some very important exceptions to the preceding exposition, namely, works in volving psychological, philosophical, and avant garde elements, which will be treated separately in Chapters V and VI. As in the case of the rural novel, the biggest single factor affecting its urban counterpart during the span of time covered by this investigation occurred before it began: the bogotazo. The specific boqotazo, which by now has come to be "the" bogotazo, broke out on Friday, April 9, 1948, in the early afternoon. Again, as in the case of the rural novel, it is not at all unusual that such a transcendental event should have produced a literary reflection and that artistic, intellectual, philosophical, and social repercussions should have continued in extensive wave-like reverberations. One of the first novels to appear on this subject 233 was El dia del odio,^ published in 1952 by Jose Antonio Osorio Lizarazo. Although it precedes our time limit (1953-1967), a brief mention is warranted here because of the author, who will be treated more fully below (pp. 266- 272), and because of the work itself, which helps illumi nate patterns common in many novels subsequently produced. J. A. Osorio Lizarazo did not invent these patterns, but he was one of the most widely known Colombian novelists who incorporated them into a narrative which, in a timely manner, expressed the reaction of multitudes who felt the storm breaking over them. Transito, a good, simple peasant girl, is sold into servitude by her family. In Bogota, the servant girl is abused and "misused" in the house where she works and forced to flee. She passes from bad to worse, always seeking a decent, secure place, but never finding anything but misery, poverty, suffering, and degradation. Prostitution is not the bottom of the scale for her. she would gladly return to it if only her ruined health would permit. She barely manages to stay alive to take up arms, cry for justice, loot and pillage after the death of Gaitan, whose demise ^■(Buenos Aires: Ediciones Lopez Negri, 1952). 234 unleashed the holocaust of outrage and despair. Yet Tran- sito does not die of sudden violence. She succumbs piti fully to the merciless agony of malnutrition and social injustice. 2 Another novel, Viernes 9, also reaches its climax on that fateful day. Ignacio Gomez Davila adds penetrating analysis of bourgeois psychology to the description of 3 urban poverty. In El cuarto sello, published in 1951, he had examined the estrangement of two marriage partners, whose entire relationship, from betrothal, honeymoon, chil dren, to final withdrawal, was the result of hollow class ritual. In Viernes 9 he continues the analysis, but with the extra dimension of the rest of society, especially the masses, injected by the cataclysm. The protagonist, Alfredo, in his fifties, is totally estranged from his spouse, with whom he continues to live with their daughters. Materially and socially, she is a perfect wife but mentally and spiritually she is not human, the victim of false upper class values. Alfredo plans to run away with Yolanda, a slightly reclaimed fallen woman. 2 (Mexico: Impresiones Modernas, 1953). 3 (Mexico: Editorial Galatea, 1951). 235 Their fateful day is society's fateful day. After sur viving the initial riot and being rejected by Yolanda as a hated establishment maricdn whom she only wanted for se curity, Alfredo returns to his wife. At first she seems changed but soon reveals her inhumanness, clamoring for the slaughter of the lower classes. Alfredo, disillusioned, resignedly longing for the peace and justice of the here after, is bizarrely accused of stabbing to death Yolanda's thieving macho boy friend. He is innocent of the crime, but as in society, there will be a common letting of blood of those who are more or less guilty and those who are more or less innocent. A third work which contains elements subsequently 4 utilized thematically is Los eleqidos, by Alfonso Lopez Michelsen, a member of the upper classes and a prominent 5 politician. The work, in the opinion of Hernando Tellez, is barely classifiable as a novel rather than as a politi cal expose. It bears the subtitle El manuscrito de B.K. and is supposed to be the confession of an exiled German 4 (Mexico: Editorial Guaranxa, 1953). 5 "A proposito de Los eleqidos, el libro de Lopez Michelsen," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, Julio 26, 1953, p. 1. 236 refugee tycoon who tries to join the oligarchy in Colombia. In his efforts to get along with the establishment, he discovers their attitudes and in-group solidarity which expressly intends to relinquish control to no one outside their own members. Whether true or not, the work points up much that is problematical to an emerging nation. The theme has appeared in other narratives as well as social science essays. These works appeared just at the beginning of the time period of this dissertation. They represent treat ments and themes which had been in existence previously but which received additional significance after the bogotazo. Several others should also be mentioned. Of a less weighty nature they, notwithstanding, continue the urban costum- brismo trend, resurfacing after the shock of violence. Alberto Montezuma Hurtado, Ambassador to Guatemala, mentioned above (p. 93) for his regionalistic work on mining and the Amazon jungle, El paraiso del diablo (1966), had previously turned his observations toward the city of Bogota. The novel, Ceniza comun,^ is loosely structured, g (Bogota: Editorial Argra, 1954). 237 thinly unified, by an old technique. All of the characters are passengers on a local crosstown bus in the big city. The author shifts from first person character to omniscient narrator who examines personalities and experiences of people as they board, ride, and exit the bus. In spite of its thinness, the plot manages to give a unified impression of Bogota from the days preceding World War II to 1954. The author cleverly uses well known streets and landmarks to cue pertinent associations so that the reader feels he is on the bus, moving through time as well as space, sharing the lives of a broad cross-section of people who have lived through the initial transitions of one of the world's most rapidly growing centers. Another book, which on the surface appears to 7 promise very little, is Una mujer perdida, by Arcadio Dulcey. The plot is reminiscent of a peninsular comedy of manners, presented as a middle class farce. The story in volves a man who reaches the "dangerous age" and verges on disaster by his philandering. The problem is to save his pride and self-respect graciously without letting him know he has been helped. The remedy is to disguise a woman 7 (Madrid: Ediciones Guadarrama, 1958). 238 as one of his lovers and by a series of tricky maneuvers condition him to reject the hectic life and return to his fireside. The story is cleverly, tastefully developed, reflecting delightful facets of Colombian culture; yet it is realistically, believably written with local color and details. A clever twist is to cast the entire narrative in the guise of a detective story, with a very boqotano inspector patiently unravelling clues, which make less and less sense. As the wayward husband increasingly believes he is going crazy, the reader becomes more baffled and finally, along with the detective, discovers the truth. The inspector discreetly renders assistance to the wife in the cause of family well being. There are other novels, of course, such as La 0 aduana, by Manuel Jose Jaramillo, which manifests Colom bians ' interest in the possibilities of intrigue, smuggling, and adventure in the busy customs section of El Dorado Airport. The purpose here is to point out the ever expand ing scope of novelistic endeavor. In this regard, the recurrence of the priest pro tagonist should be noted. In a later chapter (pp. 311-315) , Q (Bogota: Editorial Cosmos, 1960). 239 two very important more recent examples will be analyzed. At this stage it will be sufficient to register the defi nite early presence of the clergyman socially active in the service of God. He is humble and obedient, but he wants to apply Christ's mission to the people here and now, and must struggle to overcome resistance from the establish ment, within the Church and society. This foretells the same split which has occurred in actual practice. The first novel of this type is Extranjero en la 9 casa cural, published in 1956 with a nihil obstat from the Archdiocese of Bogota. The author is Zoltan Nyisztor, a missionary priest from Eastern Europe who is assigned to South Bogota, to a neglected parish ridden with clerical and lay indifference and social corruption of the rankest order. The novel reveals his old world common sense and humanity and the perspective it affords him in his efforts to surmount obstacles both within the hierarchy and the environment. In dedicated priestly manner, he does make progress and keeps the faith. In Bienaventurados los rebeldes,Francisco 9 (Bogota: Editorial Mensajero, 1956), 10 (Bogota: Bibliografica Colombiana, 1958). 240 Gonzalez Patifio stretches the priestly endurance to the limit. The novel is set in a large unnamed provincial city, undergoing a large influx of rural poor, attracted by the hope of a job and fleeing from the violence. Padre Alberto, in charge of the school in an established parish bordering on the shanty town, is accused of appropriating school funds for use in his projects to help the destitute youngsters who increasingly constitute the bulk of his concern. All of the ills inherent in the situation are introduced: the discouraged father of a pupil, unable to find work, turns to drink and disappears; the mother, living in indescribable filth, valiantly tries to keep her family together, but finally succumbs to the ravages of malnutrition and poor sanitation; the young teenage daughter ultimately drifts into prostitution simply because it offered her a better existence than her miserable hovel. The efforts of the priest are concentrated on trying to help young people like her brother, who desperately wants to become a useful member of society. Father Alberto manages to build a school, provide nutrition, adapt educa tion to the needs of his young flock and enjoys brief response. Although he has been aided by a wealthy woman 241 parishioner, the establishment in the Church and society muster forces to discredit the priest and defeat his pro ject. They do not want to encourage the poor people to stay in the area. They feel that the priest's practical programs exceed requirements, which are fulfilled by the spiritual charities of the local matrons. The hierarchy, feeling pressure from the established community, in spite of some initial leeway granted to the priest, responds by curtailing his work and transferring him to a different parish. Years later, one of the boys he would have helped dies in his arms, killed for petty robbery. Father Alberto returns to Monteclaro, wondering what has become of the barrio. He finds poverty the same, but discovers what "wonderful" use has been made of the property he had used for his school: a fancy movie house has been built, to en rich further the powerful of the neighborhood.' Father cannot suppress his feelings of rebellion against the au thorities he has devoted his life to obeying. In his prologue, the author takes great pains to assure that he is not a renegade Catholic, but that as Christ said, "The truth shall make you free." His intention to point up situations that clamor for improvement cannot be clearer 242 either in the prologue or in the work itself. Similarly to the rural novel, the 1950's, in the case of the urban novel, were a period of development, of transition, in which previous elements were transformed, under the shocks of the days, into new varieties of the older forms and in some instances into radically new forms, expressing attitudes and reactions which were in reality harbingers of the new generation. The more extreme of these, as has been indicated, will be dealt with in a sepa rate chapter (Chapter VI). Here, the examination of the process of transformation will continue. The concept of generation, when dealing with Span ish American literature, does not refer exclusively to chronological or physical age, but rather cultural and en vironmental factors and attitudes and responses to them.^ As regards the novelistic representation of authentically Colombian reality, the basic problem was to convince writers that their experiences and reactions were worthy of artistic formulation and to encourage production and improvement of narrative art. With this in mind, the Editorial Iqueima ^See Juan Jose Arrom, Escruema generacional de las letras hispanoamericanas (Bogota: Instituto Caro y Cuervo, 1963). 243 established a prize for novels, the Espiral, which included publication. Such dedicated efforts began to bear fruit as more interested groups and individuals appeared. The 1954 Espiral Prize was awarded to German Bel- 12 tran for El diablo sube el telon. The novel is the story of a young lower middle class boy growing up in Bogota. He is a sickly, sensitive lad who is more intellectual than is comfortable in his immediate surroundings. He experi ences the problems of growing up without adjusting to a maladjusted society. He finally wins a lottery ticket, travels through Central America, Mexico, and the South western United States, where the story ends in Los Angeles. He has just been rejected for service in the United States Navy because he has incurable tuberculosis. He is eighteen years old with only six months to live. He feels abandoned, a martyr of fate. The novel really falls far short of prize winning quality, but it apparently was the best one submitted in the contest. The structural weaknesses, melo dramatic devices, and pedestrian anecdotes are symptomatic of the state of the art as a whole at the time, but the work does communicate a sincere desire to express what is 12 (Bogota: Ediciones Espiral, 1955). 244 genuinely one's own rather than a purely imaginary imita tion. The author was born in Bogota in 1928. He has long dedicated himself to journalism in his native city which 13 he again depicted in Burbujas, a short work, told through a woman in her sixties who has operated a boarding house in a rundown middle class barrio. Without condemning or moral izing, the lives of numerous tenants contribute episodes which together make up the atmosphere in which millions live in the big city. Especially effective is the sense of change and frustration: as the city grows, the tenants change and life becomes more difficult; the woman moves through her experiences which had begun when she was con siderably younger. Beginning with 1958, a marked increase in quality made itself present in the urban novel. Manuel Mejia 14 Vallejo published Al pie de la ciudad, which treats of life in the barrancos, a miserable group of tugurios fes tering in the sewer outlets by the river at the base of a large provincial city. Mejia Vallejo writes with social protest zeal in his effort to denounce the conditions in 13 (Bogota: Editorial Iqueima, 1961). 14 (Buenos Aires: Losada, 1958). 245 which the rural refugees writhe in wretched filth, fetid hovels, subhuman sanitation. At the same time, they are shunned by the local inhabitants who begrudge them an un steady menial employment, always clinging desperately to the hope of a more propitious fate. Mejia Vallejo weaves his lively narration in episodic descriptions which en grave, in hard lines and dark colors, the plutonic details more appropriate to sewer rats than to the lives of human beings. The episodes resemble cuentos, but taken together, they communicate to the reader what millions of people must accept as life day by day. The naturalistic crudity under scores the repugnance of the atmosphere, while Mejia Vallejo's artistic effectiveness achieves poetization of the common humanity which subsists, persistent in its right to existence as creatures of Light. Also published in 1958 was Matias by Fernando Ponce de Leon, author of several novels dealing with vio- lencia and rural themes (Tierra asolada, La castafia, and Cara o sello, treated above, pp. 136-140). Ponce de Leon is a consecrated novelist who has achieved artistic quality 15 (Bogota: Editorial Ponce de Le6n, 1958). 246 in rural and urban narratives. Born in 1917 in Bogota, he belongs to a generation of Colombian writers who grew up in conditions dominated by anguish and discord. He is realistic in his attitudes and direct in his style but he is interested in making detached, objective analyses of situations concentrating on the human significance con tained in them rather than unrelated anecdotal prolifer ation. His second novel, Matlas, is a detached study of the common environment of the lower class neighborhoods of the capital city. Ponce de Leon masterfully constructs the plot of the novel around the figure of a blind man. He writes with descriptive forcefulness and psychological sensitivity which characterizes with great penetration the details presented for consideration. The populous urban scene, with all of its vices, anxieties, perversions, and miseries, is depicted, giving the impression that the modern world, with all of its complications, its problems, its disenchantments, has continued to push men to disdain the basic values and has made them coarser and more skeptical. What previously was stimulus is now inertia: no one feels the urge to self improvement, as though there is no use 247 since all are doomed anyway. Matias gives a good insight into the life of a burgeoning Latin American city, one of many which only recently turned from a village into a metropolis. The author's concentration on the lower classes is especially significant since they constitute one of the greatest problems for Colombia to solve, as was dramatically evidenced just ten years previously with the bogotazo of 1948. The keynote of the novel is spiritual isolation within the multitude: human indifference to man's inhumanity to man. The protagonist, Toti, tells his story in a very plain matter of fact manner. His entire life has been spent in physical darkness and has been a search for spiritual light. He is unaware of this and unable to articulate it, but he tells his story and how he feels about his life and the reader articulates it for him. Ponce de Leon artfully uses the four senses remaining to his blind protagonist, to communicate what it must be like to be in his position. This is not just an account of misery; it has a disquieting impact produced through the utilization of physical repug nance and limitation which leads to the spiritual level. Born to a couple who never should have married, Toti never knows love in his home. His mother's family is of the 248 upper class come to naught since her grandfather lost his capital in one of the many periods of turbulence. As a result, there is also a feeling of self pity and rejection in the home. Toti's mother has never given him the love even poor mothers have for their children, but he has learned to long for something on the occasions when he has had contact with her. Later he is sent to an institute for blind youth where he meets Matias, a partially sighted boy who has been raised in all the Christian virtues by the good fathers in the asylum. Matias serves as his lazarillo, and he learns what friendship is. Later they are put to work for a man who uses the blind to sell newspapers and otherwise exploits them. In Floro, he finds a concrete manifestation of evil. In Rosa Maria he discovers carnal excitation. His brief encounters with the young girl lead to an unsuccessful rape attempt. But his desires are ful filled in Josefa, the woman of Floro, who turns to Toti out of need for spiritual communion. Their physical union en genders a son. When Floro discovers that Josefa has de ceived him he tries to kill her. Toti stabs Floro and is arrested for murder. Later he is released when Matias confesses he has done it, taking his place in jail out of 249 conscience although the judge is convinced that Toti had acted in self defense. Josefa, pregnant, takes Toti home. They at last have found some spiritual light in the midst of darkness. But not for long: their boy, due to poor living conditions, is dying of fever; trying to take him to a clinic, Josefa is killed by a car; the boy dies in Toti's arms and is taken away. Toti's despair is complete. His physical world, which never has been anything but darkness, continues. His spiritual world, which has come to know friendship, love, companionship, and fatherhood, is now plunged into darkness as the light is snuffed out. At the beginning of the novel Toti says that he has never known what it is to see, so he does not miss it. Now, his spiri tual life has been illuminated and he is left with the longing for what he has had and what has been taken away. The final scene leaves him surrounded by boisterous humanity, going about their business, totally indifferent to his plight. Colombia's present population is over 21,000,000 inhabitants half of whom live in urban areas. In addition to Cali, Medellin, and Bogota, which is over two million and growing, Colombia has twenty cities whose populations 250 number more than 100,000. Children of violence, as well as their parents, fled their homes when, to political slaughter was added slaughter for gain— take over of holdings aban doned under terrorism. The population explosion is the nation's biggest single problem. In eighty years it will equal that of the United States in 1970; by 2070, it will reach 300 million at the present rate of increase. The 19601s were years of unprecedented increase in municipali- 16 ties. The tremendous problems of the nation, so impres sive statistically, were expressed in 1961 by Clemente Airo 17 in La ciudad y el viento. The novel gives dramatic form to realities which were overwhelming at the time, and pro vides a classic example of the role art plays in clarifying and foretelling movements in human affairs. German Arci- niegas paid tribute to the author in 1964: Vista desde afuera, la obra que ha venido cum- pliendo Clemente Airo a traves de su revista, de su editorial y de sus novelas, adquiere proporciones seguramente mayores de las que le dan en Colombia. 16 Loren McIntyre, "From Amazon to Spanish Main, Colombia," National Geographic, 138 (August, 1970), 246. 17 (Bogota: Ediciones Espiral, Editorial Iqueima, 1961). 251 "Espiral" es una guxa inteligente y segura para seguir el desenvolvimiento de las letras colombianas en los ultimos veinte afios. Esto lo saben muy bien cuantos se ocupen de los teraas latinoamericanos en Estados Unidos o en Europa y lo siguen todos nuestros companeros de letras en America Latina. Como Colombia es un pais de obstinada insularidad, al cual diriase que no le gusta que lo conozcan por fuera, la obra de "Espiral" puede considerarse como un servicio unico en las letras.'*-® Clemente Airo was born in Madrid in 1918. He has resided in Bogota since 1941, when he founded the review Espiral in 1944. He is the director of Espiral and of Editorial Iqueima. In addition to several collections of short stories, he has published two other novels: Yugo de niebla, 1948, and Sombras al sol, 1951). Clemente Airo epitomizes the dedicated man of let ters who is also engaging in practical measures to upgrade literary quality in the underdeveloped lands of Latin America. Like many others, he emphasizes the social as pects very strongly and has been a prime mover in the lite- ratura comprometida tendency, being one of its founders. He believes in literature as an indispensable means of uplifting the deprived masses, but insists, for practical reasons, that the autocthonous be represented, as most 18 El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, Noviembre 29, 1964, p. 7. 252 relevant to the public. Airo has encouraged development of national talent# as was pointed out in considering El diablo sube el telon (pp. 243-244), above, even though the results leave much to be desired in the beginning. In his own work Airo has endeavored to set an example of artistic quality in his narratives. In Yuqo de niebla (1948), he describes the excruciating process of a budding artist in Bogota, striving to find himself and relate to his world. In Sombras al sol (1951), he combines some previous themes and enlarges his scope to include analysis of Bogota through the lives of an aristocratic family. He reworked his material for another ten years and in 1961 brought out La ciudad y el viento, one of the best novels produced in Colombia during the span of this in vestigation. The city of Bogota is marvelously brought to life in its past, present, rich, poor, glorious, infamous. The reader is surprised by the structure: there are no chapters as such, rather sections; there is a mixture of italics and regular type; each section carries descriptions or slices of lives in suspension. The characters appear suddenly, without previous introduction, at times without names or physical descriptions. In the background is the 253 city of Bogota and surrounding areas; in it, an hour of the day is given which unites the existences, serving as a leitmotiv of landscapes and moods. There is a central dynamic: the growth of the city, the city in evolution which engulfs the spirit, disorients it, causes it to seek mistaken paths which may lead to triumph, to escape, to the bankruptcy of values, to cultural and moral regression. The characters Airo depicts seem to be real people of flesh and blood, whom he actually has known, presented humanely, although at times they move in naturalistic ter ritory. He does not lose his perspective in spite of occasional realistic pessimism. This, of course, grows naturally out of the environment, filled with intrigue and duplicity: some rise to the heights while others sink into disillusion and disenchantment. The politician seeks to find the least noxious path among the corrupted practices of the day. Three characters are salvaged: Elvira, the typist, "un animalito puro, " according to the author; Don Carlos Camacho, a member of high society, withdrawn into his own retreat, united to the world only by his university professorship, with faith in the future, but with very little in the present; and Leonor, in an arduous struggle 254 to survive, resolved to uplift musical culture by the school she operates in her impoverished home, whom the very city she has sought to enrich, rejects finally, resulting in her emigration to the United States. Surrounded by double dealing and falsity, various characters appear. "El Chivo" is an elderly beggar who serves as a bridge to the past, recalling "the good old days" (Bogota has always had real characters of this type; they are recurring figures in Colombian literature). Even Ines, who is capable, well educated, and virtuous, will do anything to achieve a high position in life. There are Don Ricardo, the unscrupulous businessman, and his daughter Patricia, with the soul of a tramp; Armando, the man on the make, over aggressive, hard and brutal, the way others were with him; Vicente, who has turned to drink because he can not support his family as a petty aboqadillo; and Ramon, the idealistic, capable student, who engages in political agitation when he cannot see the road clear by other means. The spectre of violencia assumes a horrifying dimen sion when associated with perpetuation of the oligarchy in the person of Don Ricardo who uses his own daughter to gain a son-in-law, Armando Jimenez, a man of the people, to 255 front a land corporation which is secretly using terror to gain control of land by corruption of government reform programs. There is tremendous irony and contrast in Don Ricardo's thoughts while attending Mass and his later cold blooded decision to have his son-in-law murdered because his rural conscience balked at the crucial moment. Elvira, the young secretary, is pure and naive at the beginning of the novel, awakening to the forces of life but very susceptible to Armando, who seduces her, promises marriage, and ultimately abandons her for the rich but treacherous Patricia, daughter of Don Ricardo, leaving her a small son whose birth brings ostracism from her family and friends. For Carlos De Arce: El personaje mas grande y tal vez mas humano, el verdadero heroe de esta novela de antiheroes, es Elvira. Su amor, su entrega tiene la razon de ser en hechos naturales. Esta fundamentado en una logica natural y no casuistica de mujer. Tambien es el que se refleja mas plena y certeramente. Su palpitacion, su desnudo sexual, se sublimiza en ocasiones. Es mujer que da en la esperanza, que quiere en la necesidad biologica y espiritual. Que confia en el hombre y en sus semejantes no por deseos, ambiciones o futilidades, sino de acuerdo al instinto de una naturaleza realmente humana.^ 19"Consideraciones a una novela," Espiral (Bogota), Marzo, 1965, p. 38. 256 Elvira, older but wiser, marries Don Carlos Camacho; she is now in her late twenties, he is fifty, at the end of the novel. His first wife had died years before and he had withdrawn, depressed and disheartened by the turmoil and disintegration of society. The union of the two closes the novel on an optimistic note and seems to bear out, as De Arce suggests, that Elvira symbolizes the natural vital forces of humanity, the aspect of man which must be served. Don Carlos Camacho comments on this subject just before the final scenes, observing that the emphasis on sex in modern life might basically be a wise vital force, an affirmation of the collective subconscious trying to save the life of mankind when science, trapped by all powerful governmental regimes, is creating instruments of total destruction. This was interesting in 1961 and seems even more prophetic ten years later. For specific application to Colombia, the union of Elvira and Don Carlos is symbolic in still another sense. Elvira is from the common people while the professor is an aristocrat. He is a highly cul tivated man and finds Elvira a receptive and intelligent companion, sincere and essentially decent, in contrast to most of the upper class characters in the novel, whose 257 lives are sterile or tainted for the most part. It is her common sense, natural goodness, and vitality which make him hope again, returning from the past where he had withdrawn, back to the present, where, falteringly, he begins to hope, :and projects him confidently and optimistically into the future. The child he will help to rear is the progeny of Elvira and Armando, of strong common stock; he will be raised with the fullness of maturity and traditions in a burgeoning Bogota cheered by a dazzling sunset on the eve of a better day. The novel provides a unique projection of the atmo sphere of the city, which can be confirmed by a visit after reading it. In an article apparently based partly on an interview, Cecilia Hernandez de Mendoza reports that Air6 admits to various influences in his writing, especially Dos Passos and Virginia Woolf. From the latter he has taken poetic aspects— that is, the creative aspects— he resembles her in impressionistic technique and in the examination of the subconscious. From Dos Passos he has taken the lens which moves about focussing on details from the collective background, and which contributes a sense of collective participation. Sehorita Hernandez concludes: 258 El valor de "La Ciudad y el Viento" reside en el interes que no decae, en la posicion objetiva del autor y en la t&cnica nueva— desde Dostoiewski hasta Joyce y los modernos— por la cual hoy, como ayer Garcia Marquez y como Zapata Olivella, se va situando Colombia en la novelistica contemporanea. Airo no improvisa. Su novela es obra de varios ahos de estudio y de tra- bajo. Ha perfeccionado la tecnica de su novela "Som- bras al Sol" (1951). Trabajo fichas separadas para cada personaje y fichas especiales para la ciudad. La ordenacion y colocacion le llevo mucho tiempo. Tuvo el cuidado de que las palabras dieran una clave en el reencuentro de los personajes. Cualquier pagina suscita el interes. La corriente de conciencia situa la accion por dentro y allx se va desenvolviendo. Esa accion va entremezclada con sentimientos y pensamien- tos, con descripci&n de ambientes. La letra bastar- dilla va senalando la intimidad de cada YO. Hay descripcion e introspeccion, narracion de dentro hacia afuera. Y esta tecnica, que a primera vista puede parecer confusa, esta realizada con tal maestria que llega a la claridad. Cuando en este desarrollo por pianos se corta la accion hacia otro personaje, el interes se va acumulando gradualmente. Son muchas las historias en una sola; el lector va tomando una y otra hasta igualarlos a veces, hasta llevar a diferenciar- - las. Todas terminan en algo, llegan a algo. ... La poesxa cruza la novela de punta a punta, dice Clemente Airo. La descripcion de la ciudad es, para el, verso puesto en prosa. .., No es necesario dar mas explicaciones. Clemente Airo se ha consagrado como novelista colombiano, his- panoamericano, en una obra que puede competir con las mejores del genero universal. Like Clemente Airo, Manuel Zapata Olivella has dedicated himself to literatura comprometida. As was seen 20 "La ciudad y el viento," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, Abril 8, 1962, p. 2. 259 in the chapter on the Ciclo Tropical (pp. 189-195), Zapata, psychiatrist, publisher, folklorist, and much more, had previously published novels dealing with rural themes of his native Sinu Peninsula near Cartagena. It will be re called also that after his trip to the United States he returned to Bogota to complete his medical education in Bogota, in the old Facultad de Medicina near the Plaza de 21 Bolivar. La Calle 10 is the evocation of a street near the medical school which must have captured Zapata's atten-. tion. The novel, unfortunately, does not live as the original experiences no doubt did. La Calle 10 is still a seedy area and is reputed to have been among the leaders in the bajo fondo, hampon category. Zapata’s characters, how ever, are one dimensional stereotypes, merely naming the unfortunate wretches who provided the models. As always, the author is a keen observer, but in this work as in some previous ones he still tends to be overbearing on revolu tionary social protest and theorizing about causes, ills, and remedies. This might have been good ideology from his point of view, but it is poor art. 21 (Bogota: Ediciones "Casa de Cultura," 1960). 260 This has always been a problem for Zapata Olivella except in En Chima nace un santo (1964) treated above 22 (pp. 193-196). In Detras del rostro, which won the 1962 ESSO Prize, he avoids it to a greater degree, but is occa sionally unsure in his artistic adaptation of concept to structure. As a result, the novel moves from a rather promising beginning to an artistically diluted treatise at the end. Zapata's redeeming quality, nonetheless, saves him again in this case: he is an intelligent, keen observer, sensitive, sincerely involved, and deeply committed to alleviating social ills. He is at his best when he avoids explaining why people do or should act a certain way but rather relates characteristics which he has observed. Thus his works always offer gems in spots but at times hobble structurally in between. Zapata Olivella, a medical doctor and psychiatrist, is acutely aware of the problem of the juvenile detention centers for the gamines, the children of violence and paren tal abandonment, a frightful by-product of mass urbaniza tion. In an interview with Gloria Pachon Castro he candidly 22 (Madrid: Aguilar, 1963). 261 reveals the motives behind Detras del rostro, the story of a small boy, injured, placed in an asylum: "Detras del rostro," aunque muchos consideren que es una novela escrita con un afan de ficcion, esta muy lejos de ser un cuadro vivo y realists del infierno que es una casa de reclusion infantil; sistematica- mente rechace aquellos casos de mayor dramatismo para no caer en una literatura truculenta. La historia, la vida, siempre es un autor mas veridico que el mejor novelists. La intencibn al escribir este libro fue sehalar como el aparente aislamiento de la sociedad, de un huerfano, repercute en la vida de una serie de personas ubicadas en diferentes estratos sociales. Plantear, en resumen, que nadie debe sentirse ajeno a la culpabili- dad que tiene en la vida del gamin o mejor dicho del nifto callejero que ocasionalmente nos pide una limosna, nos hierre con un guijarro o nos enfrenta a un homi- cidio involuntario. Si el lector, al cerrar las pagi- nas del libro, ha cambiado su indolencia por una acti- tud de combate contra las causas de esta orfandad infantil, me considero afortunado. Aunque es una obra que recoge mis ultimas inquietudes literarias, mas la aprecio como una contribucion del medico que aspira a ayudar a resolver una enfermedad social.23 Zapata succeeds in pointing up the abandonment of these children, starting with a small boy whose parents were killed with machetazos while he watched from the bushes near their rural home. Still under ten, he is set adrift in Bogota. He talks hardly at all, behaving more like a frightened animal. He acts as a watch dog for an elderly 23 "Proposito de una obra literaria— El drama de la nihez victima de la violencia," El Tiempo— Lecturas Domini- cales, Octubre 11, 1964, p. 8. 262 lady who keeps a tiny hosiery shop downtown. He was going to rob her but she begins to win his confidence and draw him out. Then one day he disappears. A street gang has forced him to take part in a theft. A bullet strikes his head causing amnesia. In the children's ward of the deten tion center, a young psychiatrist takes an interest in his case. While the boy lies in bed, the reader is led through a detective-like search which brings out the points the author intends to publicize on the problems of the gamines. His points are well taken and vividly described, with naturalistic emphasis on the brutality, sexual abuse, and over-crowded unsanitary treatment of the boys within the detention center. Their abandonment in the streets is described as an animalistic training ground for vice, crime, and violence. The novel has great value as a social document and psychological validity in presentation of mental states, attitudes, and reactions. Zapata shows how the boy is really a composite type who is many things to many people. In his prologue the author suggests that novelists move from concentration on the gory details of la violencia to causes and effects. In this sense he has made an important 263 contribution, leading the way to a more meaningful novel- ization of Colombian reality. It is noteworthy that the work won the 1962 ESSO Prize so it was written prior to that time, that is, roughly at the beginning of the decade, and thus illuminates the author's role in tendencies fur ther developed during the period. In response to an encuesta, Zapata admits that the psychiatrist in Detras del rostro was based on his own free service in Bogota and the investigation he contributed gratis to the government. In part, he wrote the novel to dramatize his protest at the lack of adequate remedial measures on the part of officials. In reply to the ques tion of the relationship of this novel to the rest of his works, he replied: Cronologicamente es la penultima, pero de acuerdo con mis propias cuentas, es la segunda del perxodo de responsabilidad literaria que inicie en 1959. La anterior, "En Chima nace un santo," y la posterior, "Chambacu, corral de Negros." Las tres y "Detengan la lluvia," que corresponde a la epoca en que escribxa obedeciendo ciegamente el impulso narrativo, estan ineditas en la actualidad. ... Corresponden a un pe rxodo de ebullicion literaria. Apenas descubierto un hallazgo y asimilado en el curso de la obra, debia complementarlo en la siguiente con nuevas adquisiciones o abandonarlos debido a exigencias del tema. Sin em bargo, creo que "Detras del rostro" es una muestra bastante aceptable de mi narrativa actual, aunque en "Chambacu, corral de Negros," he podido utilizar mas libremente la plasticidad idiomatica alcanzada. 264 Pregunta: £Cuales son los principales problemas literarios que ha afrontado ultimamente? Respuesta: No se que fronteras separan lo estricta- mente literario de lo temperamental. Si el escribir fuera simple comunicacion, llevado por una febril acti- vidad fisica y creativa, produciria verdaderos mamo- tretos. Esto es facil evidenciarlo en la desarticulada produccion anterior. Ultimamente, consciente de ciertas responsabilidades y de las exigencias de la artesania literaria, mi principal lucha ha sido levantar muros y muros de contenci6n a mi mania narrativa. Siempre me encuentro embarbascado en la poda. Los personajes no se resignan a estar encarcelados en jaulas al igual que los animales en un zoo t&cnico, sino que saltan de un lugar a otro produciendose verdaderas batabolas. Se que la vida y los temperamentos no estan supeditados a talanqueras. Un rio puede desbordarse de un momento a otro. Un hombre incapaz de matar una mosca, en un instante de locura podria asesinar a toda su familia. Y algo mas: nosotros, mulatos y mestizos, mas por virtud que por defecto, somos vigorosamente versatiles. Entonces, se preguntara: iPor que esculpirlos contra un muro? Aqui es donde surge el problema estetico. La novela, digase lo que se quiera, no es la realidad. Es un mundo pe- queno en el cual han de suceder los hechos dentro de una logica minima, la misma que hace que agua ascienda y un granizo caiga. Esto permite perfilar la unidad tematica. Las dimensiones de tiempo, velocidad, ritmo y lenguaje han de estar acordes con el gerundio. Es decir, se corre, se rezaga, se salta o se detiene res- pecto del tiempo. Si se llega a tener conciencia de todo esto cuando se escribe, no cabe duda de que el resultado tiene que ser un batiburrillo. Desafortu- nadamente hay que conseguir que sea bueno al paladar del lector y de los criticos.^ 25 In Chambacu, corral de Negros, his latest work, 24 "Novela premiada, 'Detras del rostro,'" El Espec- tador— Magazine Dominical, Abril 21, 1963, p. 15. ^(Medellin: Editorial Bedout, 1967). 265 published in 1967, Zapata again displays his great humanis tic power which, as he confesses above, at times leads to himself being overpowered in constructing narratives. In this case, the setting is a black ghetto under the walls of Cartagena. The people live in unspeakable poverty and overcrowding. They want justice to be able to work for a decent wage and to have better conditions for themselves and their children. The work begins by showing how the government rounded up at gun point men from this barrio to send them to the Korean War. After the war the protagonist, Jose Raquel, goes to Sweden and brings back blond Inge, his wife, to live in the downtrodden barrio. Zapata contrasts the people and situation in Chambacu with that of Inge's native environment. In spite of many negative factors, Inge understands and accepts her husband and his people. Another marked contrast is that of the government authori ties in Cartagena who persecute the inhabitants of the "Corral de Negros" partly because a corporation wants their island for resort hotels. When a Peace Corps school is stoned by the Negroes because they were treated as inferiors and with insensitivity to their needs, armed force brings violence into the barrio. At the end, the people, awakened. 266 resolve to organize and find means to combat the negative situation maintained by the establishment. When Jose Raquel wants to join the establishment and take her away from Chambacu, Inge insists on remaining with him and his family to work for their betterment. This is Zapata's home territory. He knows the people and the setting exceptionally well and he depicts them and their attitudes with great skill. The use of lan guage and dialogue is especially effective. Of outstanding value is the fiesta scene in honor of Jose Raquel1s return with his bride. All of the author's teluric skill and experience with Afro-Hispano folklore and dancing brings the environment vividly to life. Manuel Zapata Olivella's contribution to Colombian culture during the past twenty years stands as a living monument to his devotion and ability. He has ever strived to set an example by his energy and efforts at self-improvement. It is reasonable to assume his activity will continue to benefit the novel and society as well. In 1963, the ESSO Prize was awarded to El camino en 26 la sombra. The following year its author, Jose Antonio ^(Madrid: Aguilar, 1965). 267 Osorio Lizara'zo, died ending a writing career that had covered more than thirty years. El camino en la sombra is the story of a rural family that moves to Bogota in the aftermath of a civil war in which they lost most of their possessions. The story begins before the turn of the cen tury and stretches into the first several decades of the present one. Osorio relates the experiences of the Garcias as they establish themselves in the capital. When they arrive, they build a house on the edge of town buying extra lots and opening a small store as time goes on. During the War of One Thousand Days they make extra money supplying govern ment troops, while also aiding the Liberals, whom they support. They become moderately successful petty bour geoisies, but little by little, they succumb to the ravages of their own defects. The father, persecuted because he is a Liberal, finally gives up, surrendering himself to drink and dissipation, unable to adjust to expulsion from the landed establishment. His wife, Doha Rosario, is the symbol of the self- denying woman of the past century who never ceases to subject herself to the authority of her lord and master, 268 no matter how mistreated she might have been. Although making a valiant effort, she, too, had been accustomed to another set of circumstances. Gradually she recedes into the background while her children seek to make their way in the life of the capital, starting its surging growth which will last through the new century. The children work out their fates. Feliciano, a promising young man, is consumed in the politics and hatred of the civil war. Betulia, monstrously obese and helpless, succumbs to her illnesses. Lucia, the simple peasant sister, is seduced and abandoned by a local dandy. Raquel is the opposite of Betulia: she is animation, youth, hopefulness, a steadying influence. At first she offers the possibility of redeeming the story but ends up suffocating in greed which contaminates the family like spiritual leprosy. She finally dies, a symbol of useless ness and hate. The real heroine of the piece is Matilde. She was left on their doorstep as a small child during a smallpox epidemic. She survives, nonetheless, and though her growth is affected, she turns out to be the most durable of all. She outlives all of the family, ending her days in an 269 asylum after Raquel puts her out when she no longer can work. Matilde never considers escaping from her servitude except briefly when it is too late. She endures abuse, cruelty, hatred, and ingratitude for the unbelievably faithful service she renders to the family. In the end she is rejected by the family and persecuted by the authori ties. Matilde seems to symbolize the plight of the down trodden masses in Colombian society, historically, and extended into recent times. The work is long (332 pages) and monotonous. There is very little dialogue, so the story is carried by descrip tion, which soon begins to repeat the situations and scenes over and over again. The author makes the Garcia women a group of monsters who only have in common their unexplained, unbounded hatred and abuse of a humble mestiza girl who only wants to be their slave. Matilde, on the other hand, is pictured as the personification of goodness, and dis interested servitude in the clutches of diabolical patronas. Osorio Lizarazo does have ability, however, to bring out certain aspects of his characters1 personalities and sentiments which within limits brings life to the story. Fernando Soto Aparicio observes: 270 Con todo, El camino en la sombra es una obra nues- tra que sin duda merecia el Premio. Los defectos que le anoto, y que son los mismos que marcan toda la obra novelistica de Osorio, pueden pasarse por alto, pa- liarse, pero no borrarse. De ahi que repita mi afirma- cion de que J. A. Osorio Lizarazo es uno de los novelis- tas mayores de Colombia, pero anadido que sin duda su obra no alcanzari a perdurar. Queda como testimonio de un estilo, de una personalidad, de una epoca. Quede en el sitio que la historia le senale dentro de nuestra panorama cultural. En sintesis, y sin que El camino en la sombra sea una obra excepcional, merece leerse como ejemplo de un periodo, ya superado, de nuestra novelistica. ' During his lifetime, Osorio Lizarazo was considered one of the best novelists Colombia could offer. Certainly, he was one of the very few whose production exceeded a few brief works and extended over his entire lifetime. He was severely criticized for writing favorable pieces in the pay of such figures as General Trujillo of the Dominican Repub lic. In the interest of clarifying his position relative to tendencies and generations, the following evaluation by Dario Ruiz Gomez which appeared in the first issue of Manuel Zapata Olivella's literary review, Letras Nacionales, is helpful: A partir de Rivera y de Osorio Lizarazo, la novelistica colorribiana, como la de toda Hispanoamerica, tomo lo 27 "El camino en la sombra," El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, Febrero 27, 1966, p. 14. 271 social y no el estilo por fundamento artistico. No se niegan los valores de su instrumento narrativo, ya lo hemos sehalado. Se trazaron un proposito y lo reba— saron admirablemente. Pero mucho antes de morir el, la literatura siempre influida por el desarrollo social, en su afan de evolu- cionar herramientas de investigacion— psicoanalisis, cine, antropologia— se habia replanteado el problema del estilo, no como meta sino como simple exploracion para mejor profundizar en el hombre y su problematica social. A esta nueva preocupacion artistica fue ajeno o desinteresado Osorio Lizarazo como lo fue Carrasquilla y lo son mucbos otros escritores vivos de su generacion. Es la distancia que lo separa de la novela de Garcia Marquez, Mejia Vallejo, Zapata Olivella, Clemente Airo (en su ultima novela). Desde luego que no se cir- cunscribe a un simple fenomeno de edades. Hay jovenes anacronicos. Lo decisivo es la claridad asumida ante una nueva perspectiva de valores. Una vez mas es esta sociedad la que determina la nueva concepcion de arte. Por eso creemos que son injustas las criticas que pretenden substraer su obra del momento historico en que se encaja para condenarla por su falta de nexos con la compleja mecanica del novelar contemporaneo, No solo su vision literaria sino tambien su instinto poli tico anduvo rezagado para enjuiciar una sociedad que ya encerraba el germen de urgentes replanteamientos. La misma distorsion se opera cuando recientemente se ha querido contraponer dos generaciones de poetas. Sen- cillamente estan ubicados en dos pianos, en dos epocas, en dos clarividencias divergentes. Al analizar la novela de Osorio Lizarazo en su epoca, no la que alcanzo a vislumbrar, sino la que lo formo y en la cual quedo aprisionado en vida, encon- tramos que su obra reune cualidades notorias que le valieron disputar un galardon con los mas destacados escritores hispanoamericanos contemporaneos, pero en la que no alcanzo a ser de los primeros. Gallegos, Alegria, Icaza (con su Huasipungo), Azuela, le aventa- jaron. Le falto una mayor preocupacion creadora. Entregaba su obra sin bruhir, sin afan de acrecentarla con ese poco de ingenio con el cual la realidad pierde sus aristas pronunciadas para hacerla aparecer como un arquetipo de situaciones. ... Osorio Lizarazo consiguio 272 en todas sus obras darnos una iraagen seca, cruel, tan dura como la realidad misma, de sus ambientes socia- les ... le valio colocarsele en un puesto, si no primario, al menos destacado en cualquier investigacion acuciosa que se haga en la literatura Hi spanoamericana. En lo que respecta a Colombia, de su generacion, vivos o muertos, a excepcion de Carrasquilla . . . nadie le aventajo en su oficio de novelar la problematica social de nuestro pais. ... No pretendemos justif icar sus debilidades . . . por- que el con junto de sus novelas, sin exceptuar una, son su mejor defensa. El Premio ESSO 1963, con que fue galardoneado poco antes de morir, fue un reconocimiento publico de que las virtudes de su obra fueron inmensa- mente superiores a sus vacilaciones. Augusto Morales Pino is a good example of the sig nificance of generations and tendencies referred to above. Osorio Lizarazo was born in 1900 and died in 1964. As was indicated, his productive career coincided with the realistic social protest movement and he never wandered very far afield. Morales Pino, however, was born in 1914. While his work reflects tendencies similar to Osorio's, being younger and still active, he has been aware of new concepts and has attempted to incorporate some of them into his work. Morales has published poems, cuentos, urban novels, and two historical novels (treated above, pp. 216-218). 28 "Osorio Lizarazo y su obra," Letras Nacionales, February, 1965, pp. 83-85. 273 His novels dealing with Bogota are an attempt to chronicle life in the city roughly, since World War I, the years covered by his own life span. His principal work Los de 29 en medio (as opposed to Azuela's Los de abajo) has been published in three installments, each recapitulating its predecessor. The complete version, which came out in 1967, contains Infancia (1938), JMatucha (1960), and Los inte- lectuales (1967). The three stories are relatively inde pendent but unified by the common character, Enrique Hernandez, whose growth accompanies that of Bogota up to April 9, 1948 and its aftermath. Enrique is raised by his mother after his father disappears. Morales recalls the various stages of early growth and development of the protagonist in Infancia. In Matucha, Enrique meets his future wife and progresses as a sensitive young newspaperman discovering his vocation of writer. Later, he suffers setbacks as he tries to buck the establishment with his own small independent paper. A parallel action within the novel shows how Carlos Andrade, a youthful chum, achieves material success by becoming a car salesman, while Enrique struggles and while another 29 (Bogota: Editorial Kelly, 1967). 274 friend, Jose Vicente, unable to support his family, turns to drink. In Los intelectuales, the ideological, political, and social processes which produced the bankruptcy of the bogotazo are presented. Morales has set himself a difficult task and has worked valiantly to achieve his goal. In 1957 he published Dias en bianco^ and in 1961, La confesion,^ which tells the life of a middle class woman who recalls twenty-five years of her adult life in the capital which saw the ruin of her husband, destruction of her marriage, alienation of her family, and her own drift into vice and prostitution. Cielo y asfalto (1966) will be considered in a subsequent chapter (pp. 322-323). The documentary value of Morales' works is their most important asset. One can verify situations, attitudes, and reactions of bogotanos to life during the period between |the two world wars. Changing conditions and responses to them are interestingly presented. Artistically, Morales Pino has not yet reached the breakthrough in technique and approach which will bring him closer to the accomplishment 30 (Bogota: Editorial Kelly, 1957). ^ (Bogota: Editorial Kelly, 1961). 275 of Clemente Air6. His works at times achieve poetry espe cially when he evokes emotions or reactions of childhood and youth or the atmosphere of Bogota. He also uses the figure of "el Chivo," the mendicant, and another, "el hombre de los discos," as bridges to the past, to other classes of people, parts of town or for transformation of mood or time. One is impressed by the dedicated effort amply evidenced by his production which by its very pres ence constitutes a valuable contribution. Hopefully, the magical quickening of his art will follow his efforts. 32 Brief mention will be made of Un hueco en el aire for sake of completeness, due to the long silence of its author, Jaime Ibanez, who published several rural novels prior to the span of the present investigation. The first part recapitulates rural violence but then follows the victim to Bogota, where she is held captive in prostitution by the gang which deliberately perpetrated the assaults in her native Tolima. Her novio follows her to the capital, seeks for months in detective story fashion and finds her in an unbelievable melodramatic ending. Ibanez is still 32 (Medellin: Editorial Gamma, Ediciones La Tertulia, 1963). 276 a good narrator, in the style of his generation, but his latest work shows very little extension of his scope, nor does it add to his standing, established years before. In 1965, Daniel Samper Pizano wrote an article en- 33 titled: "La ciudad, terror de nuestros novelistas," in which he commented on the growing number of narratives dwelling on the negative elements of urban life. He ob served that in many cases, the authors seemed to be over whelmed by the very conditions they were describing, especially poverty, misery, health, vice, unemployment, and a multitude of others. In his article, Samper noted this "horror" but suggested that, as in the case of the rural novel of violence, it was time to move on from mere report ing to artistic transformation as well as novelization of additional themes from the many present in the urban en vironment. Samper's point was well taken and in actual practice what he suggested was already being done. As has been seen from some of the novels considered in the present chapter, the attempt was being made and in the case of La ciudad y el viento, an outstanding work of art, of great 33 El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, Noviembre 7, 1965, p. 2. 277 scope, had already been published in 1961. The subgenre of bajos fondos is ubiquitous in Colombia and it is well to consider its development in the latter half of the 1960's, a decade of vast changes gener ally. Of importance is the appearance of several novels set in provincial cities which reaffirms the trend, ob served as early as 1958 in Mejia Vallejo's Al pie de la ciudad and Fernando Ponce de Leon1s Matlas, discussed above (pp. 244-249). The largest city outside of Bogota will serve as an example for other areas as well. Medellin, the capital of Antioquia, is already past the one million mark and growing steadily. Tomas Carrasquilla was an antiocrueho. Mejia Vallejo and many other important figures are from the region, so the literary tradition is strong. Mejia Vallejo's work on the urban scene has not yet been sur passed, although, as is true in other Colombian centers, writers are testing their novelistic skill on the problems they see around them. In La tercera generacion, episodios de la vida de 34 una mujer sin vida, Rocio Velez de Piedrahita tells the 34 (Medellin: Editorial Alvarez, 1966) . 278 now familiar story of movement of landed gentry to the provincial capital and of the steady erosion of resources and life itself in the clan, starting with the happy simple country existence of her girlhood continuing through her maturity leaving the reader wondering if the sins of the fathers will be visited on the fourth generation. Another feminine novelist, Soraya Juncal (pseudo nym of Amanda Escobar Correa) wrote her first novel when she was twelve years old and published it in 1966. Miseria 35 V amor is filled with intricate melodramatic episodes involving the lives of children who arrive in the metro politan shantytowns, suffering blight on their lives. One interesting twist is the presence of Indians who spy on the migrants who gradually encroach on their ancient domain. 36 In Jacinta v la violencia (1967), an orphan Indian girl who is seduced by an aristocratic captain hunting bando leros in her native region is presented. She goes through many adventures with bandits, and in the city she suffers the most degrading hardships to raise her son who does not know she is his mother. In the end he accepts her 35 (Medellin: Editorial Alvarez). 36 (Medellin: Editorial Alvarez). 279 gratefully as she is and appreciates her human qualities in contrast to the aristocrats with whom he has grown up but who prove to be unworthy. 37 Calle negra by Humberto Chaves Villa is an example of what can easily occur with inexpert writers dealing with volatile material. It is the story of the shantytown slums on the outskirts of Medellin: the characteristic types of petty thieves, prostitutes, lottery ticket vendors, their deformed language, and their revolutionary intentions curbed only by their own abysmal ignorance. The themes of human suffering, pain, injustice, the desire to rebel, have traditionally served as acceptable narrative material. Chaves Villa, however, has not had the capacity to raise them to the artistic level, instead they have remained in the realm of accusatory pamphlets inciting revolt. This hurts the novel, of course, because the action becomes lost in semi-philosophical disquisitions, and when it resurfaces, it is no longer convincing, either as denunciation of real misery and injustice or the ray of hope which occasionally filters into the barrio. Chaves, furthermore, does not 37 (Medellin: Ediciones Carpel-Antorcha, 1966). 280 observe the limits of proportion in his use of vulgar and | openly filthy language, which exceeds the requirements of atmosphere, characterization, or action. In the opinion of Fernando Soto Aparicio: "Esto hace que la lectura de Calle 38 negra se torne en un 70% de su.extension desagradable." In marked contrast is La ratonera by Gabriel Mejia Gomez. In his introduction he explains that the manuscript was suppressed for a number of years by a member of the establishment who wanted to avoid unpleasant publicity about these conditions: Las paginas que siguen son una pincelada caustica sobre la llaga social y habra de arder, indudablemente. Fueron escritas cuando el tragico problema universal de "los tugurios," estaba en el incontenible y tremendo auge de su iniciacion. ... Pero ya habra ocasion de ampliar muchos de los aspectos aqui tratados, con igual crudeza y con la misma diafanidad. En las cuartillas siguientes no se presenta solucion alguna para ninguno de los problemas que atormentan a "la pobre gente," Son apenas el fiel relato de algo directamente compro- bado y en ciertas circunstancias casi dolorosamente vivido. Y si nada resuelven <?para que se publican? No en todo casi para satisfacer un sentimiento de vani- dad que el autor no experimenta. Pero hay hechos que no obstante ser tan palpables, parecen pedir que se haga repetida mencion de ellos, para que asi sea aun mejor su notoriedad y mas claro el contraste con otros hechos igualmente reales. 38 "Calle Negra (Novela)," El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, Noviembre 13, 1966, p. 14. 281 Sea lo que fuere, el publico dird si estas paginas sqn dignas de acogida y si es verdad o no que en este ambiente "tan cristiano," "tan saturado de buenas cos- tumbres," todavia hay seres que moran y mueren a la interaperie y que no tienen para saciar el hanibre, nada distinto de la esperanza en "la vida eterna," la pa- ciencia y la resignacion tan parecida a veces a la cobardia. Y son seres humanos.39 The intention stated above is carried out in the novel. There is undisguised social protest about the situ ation of the poor people and of the society which instead of alleviating their suffering cruelly rejects them and forces them to seek still another shelter in their pilgrim age of sorrow. The unifying character, "El Persa" is crushed by a bulldozer which has come to clear away the shantytown, his blood mixed with the very ground on which the city grows, symbolically representing the fate of exiled inhabitants. The action takes place in thirty-six hours, from the first visit of "el doctor" with his pistol telling them they must leave, to the squashing of "El Persa" and the final exodus. By means of flashbacks and numerous interrelated vignettes the totality of the environment is highlighted in an encompassing mosaic which involves the 39 (Medellin: Editorial Albon-Interprint S.A., n.d.), pp. 5-7. 282 reader in wliat this new tragedy means in terms of collec tive and individual experience thus far. Each vignette is illustrated with a line drawing and bears a slogan taken from political or moralizing pronouncements by the estab lishment concerning social problems, their causes, and solutions. This is one of the better works on the bajos fondos for its poetization of the human experience although that experience is essentially shocking and repugnant. Mejia Gomez provides an example of what can be accomplished with difficult material. 40 With Al final de la calle, winner of a second place in the ESSO Prize for 1965, a new dimension was added to the bajos fondos novel of Bogota. Mario Hernandez Mon- salve, born in 1925 in Medellin, a boyhood friend of Manuel Mejia Vallejo, is better known for his poetry, editorial and journalistic work in his native city and in the capital. Al final de la calle is a gallery of pictures more than a narration: portraits, not landscapes. The first chapter focusses on the corner with its cafe, its grocery, its second hand store, the tailorship of Adarve, the rats, the bird in the cage. In later chapters appear the loanshark, 40 (Bogota: Ediciones Lerner, Ltda., 1966). 283 bitter, skeptical, mocking; "Tortuga" or the crazy mystic who paid with his life when he did not have a peso demanded by a thug who was a friend of his. There is also "Chiquito" the old marihuanero who taciturnly philosophizes in his barbershop. Olivo, the thirty-five year old petty thief who spends all his time on the corner primping and Rosita, the prostitute who later commits suicide, Tipinote, the guitarist, "La Dos Muletas" an old Celestina, the paralytic in his carrito who pushes "La yerba" and more are members of the small society surrounding the intersection. The corner is near a cemetery; Adarve, the tailor turned alco holic, panics and contemplates in fascinated horror each time a funeral procession passes. Ebel Botero comments on the atmosphere which is created by Hernandez: La Esquina— Asi se llamo la novela antes de este concurso— es un sitio simbolico, la punta de una ciudad moderna, donde conviven ociosos los hampones y los chiflados, la escoria de la humanidad, los enemigos del sol. Todos los puntos cardinales "se acercan," en su ultima dimension, hasta la verdadera esquina. La tota- lidad de aquellos futuros hacen rueda a las alcanta- rillas que reciben las aguas llegadas del oriente en menudos arroyos. ... Pero no se trata de una denuncia social. Oscar habla— creo yo— por la humanidad toda, simbolizada en esos tristes seres. Alii convergen todos los puntos cardinales: el norte del progreso, el oriente de los refugiados, el occidente de los monjes, y el sur de los desposeidos. Es una novela universal, ambiciosa. ... 284 iAsfixiante, verdad? Y, sin embargo/ asi concibe el mundo el poeta Hernandez. Nada de luz, ni amor, ni belleza. ... Cada autor es dueno de su mundo. Puede que no sea del agrado de algunos academicos, pero no cabe duda de que esta muy bien descritO/ que Oscar lo convierte en una obra de arte, que el todo resulta un estimulo mental. Hace pensar. Como contraste, enno- blece al lector mas que una novelita rosa. Estimula en vez de corromper, Eleva, por reacci&n. Quizas el novelista no se propuso nada de esto intencionalmente: el artista suele ser inconsciente. Pero salta a la vista que el autor de "Al final de la calle" quiere mejorar el mundo. Y para mejorarlo, £no hay que cono- cerlo antes? <?0 sera mejor enterrar la cabeza en la ^41 arena? x Botero points out that Hernandez' treatment of his characters is sketchy and poetically suggestive, leaving many questions unanswered, which is meant to involve the reader in active participation in filling in the unknown areas. The last two novels to be treated represent a cosmo politan sophistication as applied to Bogota and the people who constitute its social complexity. Though not of the high category of artistic achievement as La ciudad y el viento of Clemente Airo, they reaffirm relevance of the tendency and promise its continuation. 41 "El Premio ESSO 1965, Una novela dolorosa," El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, Agosto 21, 1966, p. 10. 285 42 The first novel is The Hour of Giving by Luis Zalamea, born in Bogota in 1921. The novel was published in English in 1965 and has not as yet appeared in Spanish. It is not exclusively set in Bogota but also includes Cali, the tropical coast, and other areas. The author, however, vividly describes the profligate life of some members of the oligarchy who live in the capital. The protagonist, thirty-six year old Hernan Zaldivar, wealthy sugar heir, after a binge suddenly wakes up to his sterile way of life and position as a member of the aristocracy. The novel reconsiders the class, economic and social situation in Colombia, with intensely interesting studies of types in the process. The protagonist concludes that the hour of giving has arrived. If the "haves" do not give a little soon, the "have nots" will suddenly cut off their heads. The class attitudes, in-group manipulations, human waste and uselessness of many aristocrats studied in the book support Zalamea's conclusion. (For interesting studies of a broad range of Bogota groupings, La Canija by Manuel Gon zalez Martinez (pp. 107-110), and Mi capitan Fabian Sicacha (pp. 148-154) by Flor Romero de Nohra, treated above under 42 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Cambridge Press, 1965). 286 the rural novel, also contain excellent contributions.) The last novel to be considered in this section is 43 Las luces de la tarde (Bogota 6 P.M.). The author, Julio Alejandro Camelo, was born in Bogota. After completing secondary school he traveled in Europe, studying languages and literature in the Sorbonne and completing a course in journalism in Madrid. He has taught languages and social sciences in Bogota since his return and has contributed to various journals and newspapers of Latin America. The solapa bears the comment: Nacio en Bogota y precisamente esta novela es como un testimonio de amor a su ciudad natal, en la que pone en escena singulares y vivos personajes que se entre- lazan en una interesante trama para conformar una obra de analisis sobre la sociedad colombiana y, por exten sion, sobre la sociedad latinoamericana de nuestra epoca. Tiene en preparacion otra novela "Un Camino Al Amanecer," en donde trata temas de actualidad, preocu- pado siempre por la realidad colombiana, la que enfoca verazmente, valerosamente, sin rodeos, sin artificios verbales, sin velos, como corresponde a un escritor serio, consciente de una dura e implacable misi6n. The intention of the presumably relatively young author to follow as faithfully as possible the vocation of his generation is strongly indicated by the following 43 (Bogota: Ediciones "Nuevo Mundo," 1968). 287 section which serves as his preface, taken from the speech of acceptance given by Mario Vargas Llosa in Caracas on receiving the Romulo Gallegos Prize: "La vocacion literaria nace del desacuerdo de un honibre con el mundo, de la intuicion de deficiencias, vacxos y escorias a su alrededor. La literatura es una forma de insurrecci&n permanente y ella no admite las camisas de fuerza. Todas las tentativas destinadas a doblegar su naturaleza airada, dxscola, fracasaran. La literatura puede morir pero no sera nunca confor mists. Solo si cumple esta condicion es util la literatura a la sociedad. Ella contribuye al perfeccionamiento humano impidiendo el marasmo espiritual, la auto- satisfaccion, el inmovilismo, la par&lisis humana, el reblandecimiento intelectual o moral. Su misi6n es agitar, inquietar, alarmar, mantener a los hombres en una constante insatisfaccion de si mismos: su funcion es estimular sin tregua la voluntad de cambio y de mejora, aun cuando para ello deba emplear las arraas mas hirientes y nocivas. Es preciso que todos lo compren- dan de una vez: mientras mas duros y terribles sean los escritos de un autor contra su paxs, mas intensa sera la pasion que lo une a el. Porque en el dominio de la literatura la violencia es una prueba de amor."^4 These words are quite relevant to Camelo1s purpose in the novel, which is set among the affluent society in Bogota. Enrique Tobar is at first a typical man with his business projects, his drive for success, his desire to break into the controlling circles of a society which, if in some respects is in a period of formation, in others 44 Ibxd., pp. 5-6. 288 is in a process of decomposition. Enrique is involved with several women during the novel, who symbolize various possibilities of feminine character types: Betty, petite, empty headed, silly; Carmen, destructive, consuming passion; Claudia, strange, who will do anything to possess a man and then coldly go on to her next conquest; and Gloria, the woman, very human, but who is capable of inspiring devotion and energy, of aiding a man to his fullest achievements. Gloria is a daughter of the oligarchy, educated in Europe. She is cosmopolitan, modern, beautiful, intelligent, and very frustrated by her loveless marriage, imposed for dynastic purposes, to a greedy, lecherous, shallow son of the rich. She is disenchanted with her endless, meaning less succession of boring gatherings with the useless, superficial, idle wealthy and the series of adulterous diversions. In the end, Enrique and Gloria sacrifice their secure but unsatisfying lives, flaunting the empty values of the establishment, and move to Mexico where Enrique, aided and inspired by a liberated Gloria, finally at peace with herself, will devote himself to her and to his mission of enlightenment: Renunciaria al cargo diplomatico que le habian ofrecido, se alejaria de la politica, que estaba tomando en los 289 ultimos meses rumbos diferentes a los que se imagino en un principio: en verdad el pueblo seguia desamparado, explotado por gentes sin escrupulos; los politicos solo pensaban en hacerse reelegir y en aumentarse los suel- dos, prometiendo el cielo y la tierra a unos electores que los miraban con desconfianza; los partidos ya no tenian ideas; ni metas que justificaran su razon de ser. Las masas anhelaban un canibio necesario y ur- gente. Desataria los lazos que lo unian a una sociedad absurda, estatica, donde para sobrevivir era necesario no salirse de un conformismo que reaccionaba ante cualquier idea nueva, una sociedad donde se creia en "milagros" y se fabricaban algunos. Lejos de este medio, en otro pais de civilizacion y cultura mas avan- zadas, formaria con Gloria un hogar y se dedicaria a escribir. Que le importaban falsas amistades, falsas posiciones. Gloria lo obligaba a decidirse, a "aterri- zar"; con ella muchas veces habian conversado acerca de las necesidades de cambio: como era posible que en pleno siglo XX aun subsistieran costuiribres medioevales y que la mentalidad de algunos dirigentes de la nacion viviese anclada en un pasado remoto? Que le importaba un mundo que habia perdido su significado al estar en contradiccion con su propia vida. Viajaria, escribi- ria, criticaria duramente, cumpliria una mision no politica, sino de desinfeccion, como escritor y como hombre libre, aunque lo persiguieran y tuviese que pasar hambres. Para eso tenia un ideal y una mujer * * i 45 que creia en el. In Colombia, as was mentioned above, the trend toward the cities has resulted in an urban population of more than 50 per cent. This in turn implies that more and more people will have greater contact with educational facilities, mass communications and experience with univer sal influences. The presence of an up to date, effective 45 Ibid., pp. 167-168. 290 novel of the city is emphasized by Fernando Soto Aparicio, himself one of Colombia's more important writers of the younger generation, in a review of Las luces de la tarde in which he begins by repeating the stereotype tradition ally used to characterize the Latin American and Colombian novel as the description of oppressed rural masses, strug gling against ignorance, nature, and the mean patron, relentlessly exploiting them, goading them on to inevitable revolution: Y de pronto, entre el mar de la novela rural, se encuentra el lector con una obra de ciudad, donde los personajes son esas gentes que podemos encontrar a la vuelta de la calle, en esa esquina, en la penumbra de un cafe, en una casa de citas, en una iglesia, ante las puertas de un colegio, en un desfile militar o en un desfile de un burdel. La novela se deja leer facilmente. Esta escrita con un estilo agradable, escueto. Camelo podra dar, sin duda, raucho mas de si como narrador en un futuro cercano. Para quienes confiamos en la renovacion constante de la literatura, para quienes esperamos en ella como en la verdadera "tierra de promision," esta novela es como un punto de apoyo, como una voz de aliento.^ Some of the burning questions raised by Camelo's writer-critic-seeker of truth will be considered in the 46 El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, Noviembre 3, 1968, p. 14. 291 succeeding chapters in his counterparts who have presented novelistic analyses responding to psychological, philoso phical, and cosmopolitan influences. CHAPTER V THE PSYCHOLOGICAL, PHILOSOPHICAL, AND COSMOPOLITAN NOVELS The novels considered in this chapter represent tendencies toward analysis and psychoanalysis of Colombian society and the extension of artistic perspectives to realms beyond the national boundaries with a view to illuminating individual or group responses to various circumstances. The psychological novel as such, as was indicated in the Introduction, has had a limited but continuing num ber of cultivators up to the beginning of the present study. As has been seen from preceding chapters, psychological elements are ever more present in the various narratives. The most common trends among novels which give major em phasis to the analysis of the psyche are the emotional, social, therapeutic, and mind expanding varieties. The analysis and expression of individual, subjec tive states of women vis-a-vis the traditional Colombian 292 293 system and the emerging modes have been studied by Lucia Lugue de Valderrama in La novela femenina en Colombia/1 which traces development to approximately the beginning of the time span of this dissertation. There are several examples of discontent and frustration at women's subser vient role in terms of personal development and exercise of ability and education in the professions, of the novels published from 1953 to 1967/ two will serve as examples of 2 the average type. In Demasiado tarde, Maria Teresa Mejia tells the story of an upper class young lady who falls in love with a man's mind by correspondence. Her personal contact with him is very slight, but through epistolary exchange they come to love each other and she has the oppor tunity to marry him. Due to class moral and social scruples she dares not proceed but regrets it later as she realizes that the habits of restraint have in reality kept her from experiencing true human emotions. In Anochecer en la albo- 3 rada, Anna Vanegas, although not an accomplished novelist ^"La novela femenina en Colombia" (Tesis para optar al grado de doctor en Filosofia, Letras y Pedagogia, Pon- tificia Universidad Cat6lica Javeriana, Facultad de Filoso fia, Letras y Pedagogia, Bogota, 1954). 2 (Madrid: Editorial Guadarrama, 1959). 3 (Bogota: Editorial Iqueima, 1967). 294 either, gives, in a lively and sincere manner, an insight into the repercussions within a woman’s soul of the conse quences of the emancipation of woman, the exercise of her prerogatives in marriage, divorce, and changing social relationships. The male psyche is unraveled in Proustian fashion 4 in Las roanzanas del paraiso by Jaime Ardila Casamitjana, responding to tendencies of a previous era. Set in a tropi cal hacienda, the protagonist, through almost 300 pages, agonizingly relives his melancholy monologue, recalling in slow motion the minute details of his remote, tenuous, ill- fated amorous encounter with a woman of his aristocratic class who belongs to another. The work is artfully done and gives testimony of the incorporation into Colombian letters of the influences of Huxley, Rilke, Proust, and others; although the theme and personalities are somewhat exotic in the second half of the twentieth century, the style and psychological attitudes lend themselves to subse quent adaptation to later forms. The same cannot be said 5 of Frustracion, published by Leon Tarquino the following 4 (Bucaramanga: Editorial La Cabana, 1960). 5 (Bogota: El Grafico Editores, Ltda., 1961). 295 year, 1961. Whereas Ardila actually communicated the atmosphere and psychology of the protagonist, Tarquino emotes melodramatically about the pain, anguish, and "mental cruelty" of a long gone unrequited erotic projection. The expression or evocation of emotional states associated with libidinous experiences, melancholy, pathetic or traumatic, but within the broad range of normalcy were accompanied by studies of abnormal behavior. Eduardo Santa, social scientist, political figure, and author of previous works dealing with rural violence, added the dimension of sexual psychopath to his repertoire of provincial personal!- g ties in El Girasol, which effectively evokes the tropical atmosphere of a small town where violence is linked psycho- tically to illicit desire of another man's wife. The hal lucinatory representation of the demented vision of the infernal environment is fascinatingly accomplished by use of color, light, vegetation, insect sounds, and other natural elements, while certain naturalistic devices heighten the satanic presence of death and perversion. The world of "la yerba" is depicted in Salto al vacio g (Bogota: Editorial Iqueima, 1956). 296 7 (marihuana) and Las Haves falsas, diario de un toxi- g comano. Both novels document the negative effects of the drug, Daniel Caicedo emphasizing the Bogota hampon aspects in the former, resulting in the deterioration and death of the anti hero, while Jose Velez Saenz describes the curi osity of provincial thrill seekers who discover the highs as well as the lows of "grass" in the latter. The psychological novel of didactic or therapeutic intention appeared early with the publication in 1953 by Arturo Sanin Restrepo of Los medicos del amor, novela sobre el psicoanalisis del matrimonio en Colombia. The anonymous introduction refers to the rise of grave social problems and how this book tells what psychoanalysis and psychiatry are and how this science: ... trata los males y propone los remedios, frente a la decadencia de nuestra raza latina. Para Sanin Restrepo el problema que aflige al hombre y a la mujer de hoy, es un "estado de alma" que requiere compren- sion de sujetos y terminante y resulta revolucion en la medicina, en las entidades de orientacion, en jerar- quias y metodos. La situacion aflictiva del hombre frente a la epoca que atravesamos en el mundo oscuro y amenazante de ahora, exige una necesaria revoluci6n espiritual. La lucha esta planteada: renace el espiritu rehabilitado 7 (Bogota: Editorial Iqueima, 1955). g (Bogota: Editorial Iqueima, 1959). 297 y dispuesto a luchar por los caminos de la superacion o el triunfo de la liquidaci&n sera total y violento. En su genero literario pertenece esta obra a la novela de tesis que tiene por objeto plantear proble- mas y en su mismo contenido dar formulas de soluci6n. De sencillo estilo, rapida descripcion, sin adjetivos ni adornos retoricos, Sanin Restrepo presenta los casos de desequilibrio mental en hombres y mujeres casadosr en la juventud y en la ancianidad, todo ello, resultado de un estado enfermo; una sociedad que se destroza a si misma, ahora sin principios y oprimida por una civi- lizacion que se abre paso arrasando los ideales de cultura y la razon de vivir.' Y como el tema principal es el Amor, el "amor equi- vocado," "falso" o "cierto" que une a hombres y mujeres en la vida, veamos como esta novela que sera en detalles dolorosa y tragica para muchos lectores y lectoras, se expresa: Dice una escritora cubana que "Hay mujeres que son esposas y no conocen el amor." Agrega que hay mujeres y son madres y lo ignoran, y que vivieron otras que tuvieron hijos y sin embargo, murieron sin conocer ni sentir el verdadero amor. Es en este terreno tan complicado— pero sobre el cual lucha por sostenerse la supervivencia humana— que el autor en esta obra, partiendo de inquietudes cientificas— no filosoficas ni romanticas— nos entrega hoy un valioso aporte para la cultura y el progreso social.^ The author's intention is to provide the scientific aid of psychoanalysis compatibly with Christian values to counteract the godless despair and nihilistic agnosticism rampant in the modern environment. The novel is not a high artistic achievement but as a dramatization which treats 9 Coleccion Novelas Cortas, Edifilms-Sur-America (Medellin: Tipografia Salesiana, 1956), pp. 7-8. 298 realistically and openly actual problems in need of dis cussion, the work has found a receptive audience among a public rapidly awakening to contemporary attitudes. Of similar nature and intent is Irresponsables^ by Alvaro Navia Monedero. The author is a medical doctor who wants to popularize sex education scientifically, and promote good morals, especially the instillment of sound values by the mother within the family. He feels this is necessary because many upper class Colombian women have been kept in ignorance and have tended to leave the rearing of children to uneducated servants, while they devote most of their time to social activities. The husband, on the other hand, has traditionally devoted himself to business, politics, or extra marital affairs taking it for granted that his wife has been effectively raising the children. Suddenly both parents discover themselves in the middle of the generation gap and the "sixties syndrome," that is, all around alienation, drugs, sex, incommunication, and other problems. Dr. Navia fabricates a "horrible example" to get his point across. ■^(Cali: Producciones Latinoamericanas, Ltda., 1962). 299 In addition to the above items, a daughter studying in Switzerland becomes pregnant by a man her mother wanted her to marry for social reasons but to whom she discovers she cannot relate. She subsequently decides to marry a teutonic non-Catholic because he sincerely loves her, accepts her with her past and shares her desire for honesty and naturalness in their relationship. This turn of events deranges her mother who has gradually awakened to the com plete destruction of the system she grew up with. The novel is not of elevated artistic stature but it spells out the details of complex problems which plague Colombians as they do other peoples, and which cry out for constructive attention. The mid-1960's marked the transformation of psycho logical themes from mere didactic morality dramatizations to literary creations representing psychic processes of stimulus, response, cognition association, assimilation, recollection, integration and disintegration and others in relation to the full gamut of emotions, personality types and circumstances. In doing so, it is interesting and highly significant to note that the anguish, despair, iso lation and sense of the absurdity of modern life common 300 to the Existentialist and Avant Garde movements form a prominent part in this tendency. El diario inconcluso^ by Eduardo M. Rueda and Suicidio por reflexi6n by Adalberto 12 Agudelo Duque both reflect this trend. Neither work is better than average in quality but, curiously, both deal with an isolated individual doomed to destruction, dementia or disappearance. Both are almost exclusively interior monologues. El diario inconcluso is the story of an inmate of a provincial asylum whose contact with reality is con stantly blurred by misconception, misinterpretation, or mistaking of time, place, or incident. The reader gradu ally comes to realize that he is inside the mind of a murderer, but at the end he is not sure if the patient shifted personalities and failed to complete his diary, if he suppressed memory of the crime or if he responded to therapy, leaving the asylum and the imagined crime in the past or if the reader himself has been mistaken in his reading of the story. Suicidio por reflexion is the story of a provincial man who meditates himself into oblivion, first passing through the stages of a disembodied spirit 11 (Cali: Imprenta Marquez, 1966). 12 (Manizales: Editorial Renacimiento, n.d.). 301 revisiting his familiar surroundings, later preferring complete annihilation to the absurdity of his existence. At this point, of course, the tendencies converge to produce new forms. The psychic conditions presented as dramatizations of clinical examples in Los medicos del amor, Irresponsables, and others now take on literary functions as creative tools for the novelistic investigation of the human condition especially of homo colombianis. Such is the clear cut case of Alfonso Bonilla Naar, a medical doctor, born in 1916 in Cartagena, who had pre viously published poems and short stories. His Viaje sin 13 pasajero won a "galardon adicional" in the Premio ESSO 1965. According to Enrique Uribe White, one of the judges, tlfe theme, loosely defined, is composed of the aberrations of mankind, embodied in one individual who dreams he is, in turn, the various monsters who have served tragedians and novelists from Sophocles to Kafka and Beckett to show the cavern which the interior of man can be. It is a "novela onirica." The author rips off handfuls of skin to expose the protagonist's motivations, the larvas which reside in 13 (Bogota: Ediciones Lerner, 1966). 302 the labyrinths of the mind. Uribe White believes that "Es una concepcion atrevida y no ensayada, una especie de sxn- tesis de los estados represivos, que estudian individual- 14 mente psiquiatras y crxmxnalistas." Unity is provided by the protagonist who is involved in all of the episodes which reflect various psychic manifestations of culturally conditioned behavior patterns, obviously the result of extensive studies on the part of Doctor Bonilla. To em phasize the mind expanding aspect of the novel, Uribe White asks: <*Cuantos de vosotros tendrxan el valor de some- terse a una dosis de alucinogenos como el acido dextro- lisergico que hoy hace furor entre la gente joven de otras latitudes? <*De esas sustancias ensayadas por Aldous Huxley que— al decir del doctor Sidney Cohen— le dieron la oportunidad de contemplar realmente, para encogerlo de miedo, los espantos vislumbrados en su interior? 0, en palabras de otro adicto: "No ensayarxa de nuevo esas sustancias porque he estado en sitios de la conciencia en donde nadie debiera penetrar." Preguntaban a un psiquiatra lo que harxa si le lle- varan de paciente a un hombre "normal," y contesto: "Lo euro. " (iQuien se atreverxa a exhibir sin hipocresxa esas inhibiciones, herencia de la humanidad desde que partio en compahxa con los pitecantropos lubricos? ilnhibiciones que se agazapan en rincones tenebrosos de ser, y que, gracias a la bondad divina, no afloran a pianos superiores de la conciencia de nosotros, los "normales"? Esto es lo que Bonilla-Naar quiere expresar, de manera originalxsima, en una verdadera novela, juzgue- sela con el patron que se quiera, que rompe la frontera ~^Ibid. , solapa. 303 costumbrista patria, la del examen de experiencias municipales, de barrio o de estrato social/ para planear en ambito mas amplio.'*'^ The novel depicts universal psychic states but they function within the framework of Colombian society. Placed within the mind of a thirtyish bachelor, who weighs 72 kilos and works in a bank, the reader is not sure how the dream was induced or for what purpose: the shock therapy of a psychiatrist, a mind expanding "trip," the dream-like state of a mental patient, the post mortem meanderings of a dis embodied soul, or the subconscious gropings of a "normal" individual. The subject, believing himself awake, sees the day as a serpent slithering through the city seeking whom it may devour. Anxiety ridden because his money and social position do not allow him to satisfy his infinite wants, he chooses to suppress all desires and live like a "Don Nadie" in extreme poverty. When in order to accomplish this change the subject desires to be born again, he falls asleep and has a nightmare in an ancient monastic church, whence, after confessing his Oedipus complex, he goes in search of his mother, without finding her, and finds himself Ibid., solapa. 304 first in a coffin and then in an urn, finally returning as a fetus to his mother's womb. He is born again and returns to infancy. Within his dream, the reborn subject believes he has awakened in the bloom of youth and, arriving at masoquism, closes the cycle again by insisting on desiring nothing in order to be happy, including foregoing sexual pleasures, or to do good or evil in order to be no one in the eyes of the world. The subject has another dream, this time in a city of the future where he accidentally kills God and feels himself all powerful. In dreams he is transported to the Plaza de Bolivar in Bogota with a microphone in his hand. After harranguing a deaf multitude with diatribes against agricultural reforms and justice, he falls asleep again. He reawakens in the ultra modern labyrinthine offices of the bank where he works. From there he passes to a narcis sistic state where he is a genius whose semen is quick frozen for the artificial insemination of posterity. In the next to the last dream everything is extra pleasant. He falls asleep contented to accept life the way it is. The patient has liberated himself from his inhibitions. As an epilogue the subject is accused of sadism, masoquism, 305 profanation of the maternal womb and the fetal mind, of megalomania and of deicide. He is declared innocent by a jury of his own conscience. The 1965 ESSO Prize went to La picua ceba by Lucy Barco de Valderrama, the 1964 Prize having been awarded amidst great controversy to Guayacan, as will be recalled from the chapter on the rural novel (pp. 93-102). Realizing the heated state of reaction to literary selections after the Guavacanazo and aware of incomprehension and skepticism on the part of various critics toward the innovative form and content of Viaje sin pasajero, but desiring to com municate its value to his readers, Doctor Rayo (pseudonym of Efrain Lezama, 1967 ESSO Jury) wrote a hilarious parody of the novel in which he dreamed a version in which a surrealistic mental and physical striptease was done by Sophia Loren (vividly illustrated in color by the cartoon ist) accompanied by a kaleidoscopic changing of parts of the bodies of Brigitte, Gina, Liz, Popea (Popeye1s girl friend, Olive Oil), Ursula, Kim, Tongolele. Later, there is a boxing match refereed by Porfirio Barba-Jacob in volving Kid Tolima (Bonilla Naar), "La Cancion de la Vida Profunda," Joe Disney, Mickey Mouse, Tom and Jerry, 306 Life Magazine, space men, science-fiction, "Titanes Plane- tarios," Superman, Kid Gagarin, Jules Verne, Fray Martin de Porres, "El gladiador Demetrio" (Sanin Echeverri, one of the ESSO jury), "La picua," "God is Dead," Luis L&pez de Mesa (great Colombian humanist) spouting latinisms, and various figures of the "Nadaismo" movement in iconoclastic poses. Doctor Rayo later praises the work for its attempt to present the interior of a man, universally human, but also very Colombian, in a new way which seeks to penetrate the inner reaches.^ The innovative contribution of the work is the attempt to circumvent the habitual, culturally provided and conditioned thought processes and response patterns by inducing an internal state of psychic fluidity in which new associations, perhaps the beginnings of new concepts, new insights, new sensitivities, can occur. The author, using familiar material in a new way, seeks to bewilder the reader, to create a state of perplexity, emergence from which will be accompanied by the desired results. Achieve ment of this is vital because new modes of life are 16 "Viaje sin pasajero— El striptease de un opita," El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, Julio 24, 1966, pp. 8-9. 307 inundating the world and Colombians must be in readiness for an appropriate response. This conscious, deliberate awareness and intention is expressed by Jose Gutierrez in his prologue to the book: Al despuntar una nueva manera de pensar y de vivir, los modos que nos eran familiares se ven perturbados? es la revoluci&n y el "desorden"? es lo insolito que choca o que asombra. Es la perplejidad.17 Una nueva manera de vivir arranca siempre de la superacion de las mallas que la antigua tendia dentro de nuestro cerebro. De una radical renovacion de los modos y rituales a los que estabamos acostumbrados. Pero esto no es posible sino pasando por la experiencia purificadora de la perplejidad. Ella es la unica que puede liberarnos del esto y del aquello. Que puede ampliar el campo de nuestra conciencia que se habla aferrado a las posibilidades unicas que percibia nuestro intelecto y que, final- mente, nos permitiria— iquien lo sabe?— entrar en con- tacto con todo aquello que, mas alia de las fronteras de nuestro yo y de nuestra vida individual, de nuestra potencia y de nuestra impotencia, de nuestro comienzo y de nuestro final, de nuestro pasado y de nuestro porvenir, constituye la esencia de la realidad de todo este proceso que llamamos vivir. "VIAJE SIN PASAJERO, " es la diseccibn de un pedazo de perplejidad. Y esta destinada, ademas, a meternos de lleno en la perplejidad.' Quien la lea con el sufi- ciente cuidado que lo nuevo merece, se vera empujado fuera de las reglas y de las normas, de las significa- ciones y de las teorxas, de los raciocinios y de las moralejas, al reino de la perplejidad. Y como un mistico del momento, encontrara su yo y el del autor, el del otro y el del de mas alia, dividido en mil 17 Ibxd., p. 9. 308 fragmentos que como electrones giran y circulan en un' orden que trasciende el desorden: el orden inmanente de la vida que brota del manantial de la perplejidad. This trend is continued in 1967 with the publica- 19 tion of El ejemplo de Fermin, by Sergio Vargas palomino. Writing with humor in clear, concise style, he tells about a man. Rather, the man tells about himself. He is a multiple character with various names, confronted with dif ferent difficult situations. Fermin is a man who follows his father, a travelling salesman; he is also a rich idle playboy; he is a famous jockey; he is singular and plural and he experiences multiple relationships with various women on many planes usually under conflicting circum stances. Due to shifting identities the reader is not sure if the same person who terminates the narration is the one who began it. This narrative form opens up many possibili ties for the novel of the absurd. .In this instance the facts are concrete, but the person who recounts them seems fantastic. 20 In the case of El periodista muere mil veces, by 18 Ibid., pp. 12-13. 19 (Bogota: Biblioteca "Timana," 1967). 20 (Bogota: Editorial Vision, 1968). 309 Alberto Manrique, the fantasy quotient escalates sharply. He focusses on a newsman, Pedro Piedra (or Peter Stone) who had died some time back, but who later goes to a psychiatric clinic. He comes from the imaginary land of Karnasis, founded by Karnemeluk III (there never was a I or a II, so that makes him a "tercero"). Peter has had his problems with women. He has also travelled, smuggling bamboo into China and taking a blue eyed cow to the moon (she died in a crash, trying to lock horns with the horns of the moon). Peter manages to drive all of the doctors and attendants crazy. Peter's life is interesting, like an office with all of the phones disconnected. In a way, his life is like death because he "cuelga los tenis" when his built in resig- nation-hope coefficient burns down to almost zero and he loses the desire to live after futilely battling the system with frustration his only reward. The novel is quite short (77 pages) with lively dialogue. It is an interesting and amusing use of absurdity and psychology in commentary on modern life. The philosophical novel in Colombia experienced a similar development as the psychological up to the begin ning of the time span of this investigation, a limited, 310 but continuing cultivation. As is common in traditionally Catholic countries of the Hispanic world religious or moral indoctrination often serves as a point of departure. This has been especially true in "el pais del sotano." 21 Common examples are Vidas vacilantes, by Hermes del Valle, which involve fantasy flights and philosophizing of a roving reporter in Bogota who conducts interviews on Hitler, super race, World War II, fear of annihilation, anguish of man and his need for redemption in religion to avoid a holocaust. The work is melodramatic and of poor 22 quality. El ultimo evangelio, by Alcides Mogollon, is actually a novelized dramatic dialogue whose aim is to popularize the message of Pope John XXIII. Los ninos y la 23 ciudad, by Hernando Loayza Camargo, is an allegorical morality piece featuring a play within a play; symbolic characters comment on points made in the play and respond to events related in the novel. The work is for morality, love, and peace and against immorality, hate, and war. Andres symbolizes youthful mankind concerned with surviving 21 (Bogota: Editorial Peni. Central, 1955). 22 (Bogota: Editorial Kelly, 1965). 23 (Bucaramanga: Editorial Progreso, 1966). 311 the threat of total destruction posed by World War III. Vicky is a forceably ravaged pregnant girl, victim of violencia, symbolic of motherhood and hope. Rencor en las 24 semillas, by Gaston Lasso Aponte, is an allegorical prose poem calling for brotherly love to end the strife in society. Gonzalo Canal Ramirez is an example of a profes sional man of letters who has achieved artistic excellence in dealing with religious and philosophical material. Born in 1916 of a prominent Santander family, he has directed his own publishing company in Bogota, for a number of years, at the same time taking active part in intellectual affairs. He is a strong supporter of the Catholic Church but is deeply concerned for its survival in Latin America in the current climate of rapid change and social pressures. His previous publications include a novel of social protest on oil drilling, Oru, aceite de piedra (1949). In 25 1963 appeared Eramos doce, which takes place in Germany during World War II. A Colombian family takes a trip be fore the war and must remain through famine, bombings, and 24 (Cali: Editora Feriva, 1967). 25 (Bogota: Imprenta Canal Ramirez, 1963). 312 the rest of the war. Canal conducts a philosophical dia logue with Guenther, at first a defender of Nietzschean attitudes with later nihilistic tendencies, who ultimately is converted by the protagonist to hope in the good and the soothing doctrine of brotherly love. He leaves a fortune to Silva who founds an orphanage in Colombia; Silva fills it with waifs of all hues symbolizing the vitality of the civilization of the New World. 26 In Contra la eternidad, Canal Ramirez, basing himself on the ancient struggle between the world, the flesh, and the devil, produces a good novel dealing with a theme of high interest in Latin America— clerical celibacy. Using the reaffirmation of Vatican II as his starting point he traces the life of David, son of a provincial mayor, in whose eyes a visiting prelate saw "el brillo de los elegi- dos." With his family's encouragement, David becomes a seminarian, doing apostolic work in rt’ral areas. Later he goes to Rome for further studies before taking final vows. He finally decides to continue in his vocation but only after excruciating psychic, emotional, and physical 26 (Bogota: Imprenta Canal Ramirez, 1968). 313 struggles within himself, especially involving his own sexuality, in contact with Claudia and Tina, who put his spiritual theory under severe practical strain. Canal does a good job of depicting the provincial atmosphere, and the seminary where David is formed. David's reactions of mystic zeal, spiritual devotion of his early youth followed by his awakening manhood, his temptations, doubts, the ups and downs of daily life, make an interesting narrative and present an accurate picture of a growing problem in Latin America. 27 In Nicodemus, Canal again directs himself to novelization of a burning spiritual problem: the role of the priest in the changing societies of the "Third World." The novel is based on the execution in February, 1966, of Father Camilo Torres Restrepo, for his revolutionary activi ties as a guerrillero, in favor of popular causes. The names have been changed but the case is so famous that most important figures are recognizable. The use of recent historical material has limited to a degree the author's scope in plot manipulation. There are fatiguing discourses 27 (Bogota: Imprenta Canal Ramirez, 1968). % 314 explaining incidents, philosophies, and points of view, which dampen the dialogue. These are common weaknesses of novels emphasizing a given thesis, but the situation is well depicted; the characters have strong, well-defined human qualities: Tanto Gabriel, con su incertidumbre, con la ingenuidad de su conformismo, como Nestor con su mas positivo interes, con su mas firme vocacion de apostol. Gabriel suena con ofrecerse en holocausto, para redimir a su patria, a un continente que tiene el comun denominador del hambre, de la angustia, de la miseria. No importa que el precio sea su propia vida. Se diria que el la ofrece gustoso, que esta buscando una ocasion para entregarla. Y asi cae en manos de gentes inescrupulo- sas que aprovechan su franqueza y que tras de el se escudan. Su periodico se vuelve la tribuna del in- con formismo. Pero, mal encaminado, llega al unico final previsible. La situacion del pais puede ser no solamente la de Colombia sino la de cualquier pais del sur de America. El ministro de Guerra, gobernado por su esposa, Irene; el general Vivascrisancho con todos los poderes publi- cos en la mano, son gentes de nuestro ambiente y de nuestro tiempo. La situacion de las guerrillas esta bien planteada. Es real. Porque al lado de grupos disciplinados (como el de Ocho y Medio), que buscan una revuelta iniciada desde abajo, al estilo de la cubana, hay pandillas constituxdas por bandoleros, cuyo unico fin es sembrar el terror y la muerte.^® The case of Father Torres has profound philosophical and practical implications for Colombia and all of Latin 28 Fernando Soto Aparicio, "Nicodemus (novela)," El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, Septiembre 8, 1968, p. 14. 315 America. One of the nation's foremost young sociologists, Orlando Fals Borda, who earned his Doctorate in the United States, dedicated his book Subversion and Social Change in 29 Colombia to Father Camilo Torres Restrepo. As Fernando Soto Aparicio concludes in the commentary cited above: "'Uicodemus' es el testimonio de un hombre frente a su epoca." The last novel to be considered in this section is 30 El despertar de los demonios, a two-volume work of some 740 pages, by Victor Aragon, born in 1905, in Popayan, seat of Colombian aristocracy, of an intellectual family. He 31 previously had published Los ojos del buho, a brief novel of costumbrismo and rural violence which gave no inkling of the narrative gestating within. The author literally filled the work with everything that he could, from his broad background. There are disquisitions on philosophy, on conceptions of life and death, on man, his antecedents and future projections. Aragon speaks of the great 29 Trans. Jacqueline D. Shiles (New York: Columbia University Press, 1969). 30 (Bogota: Sociedad Editora de los Andes, 1968). 31 (Bogota: Editorial Revista Colombiana, Ltda., 1966). 316 thinkers, introducing controversial topics from all over the world, past and present, analyzing diverse doctrines and philosophical systems from the beginning up to the present. A plethora of diverse subjects are touched includ ing dreams, prayer, Marxism, satire, politics, landscape, prostitution, spiritism, art, psychology, religion, phi losophy, demons, magic, exorcism, violence, campesinos, vampires, and passion. Aragon centers his novel around the women of the Castillo Rueda family: Adelaida, Susana, Laurita. Adelaida is memorable for the passion and strength of her life and death. Susana, like her, is predestined for love? a male ficent destiny pursues her since she kills Ricardo in a state of passion. She is a vortex of lethal libido. In contrast, Laura is an innocent flower born in a swamp, delicate even in her death. Other women move through the novel and also leave their traces. Alina is a child-woman who discovers that she is a magical fountain of pleasure. There is a gallery of negative feminine types perching like vultures ready to pick in the rotten corpse. Doha Teotiste Perez is sadistic, with an obscure past herself, but 317 zealous in defense of "buenas costumbres." Ruth, the prostitute, is a simple girl who suddenly learns that life has more to offer; she dignifies her life and is redeemed by love. The male characters are headed by Julian, the nar rator, a young man who experiences the horrors and pleasures of life and who is in danger of being destroyed by them. There are his companions: Lisandro Cervantes and Antonio Caldes, each with his own philosophy; the bohemian, Eduardo, defiant of death and the hereafter; Don Jorge, pillar of a family which is suddenly consumed; Paco Rueda, always ready to sacrifice himself for others; Teofilo and Jose Miguel, happy, valiant, and gentlemanly. The figure of the doctor moves through the novel as a unifying axis for all of the philosophical thoughts of the work. It is he who comments on the destiny of man and the gods and demons man has cre ated. There are also hypocrites, deceivers, priests of various stripes, ignorant, fanatical, saintly characters. The action takes place in an outwardly calm villa, "La Estancia," in a town that knows only peace and goodness (Popayan). Suddenly the town is wracked by strange in terior convulsions which unleash a wave of barbarism and insanity. 318 In an interview with Teresa Herran, Aragon states that he has always been fascinated by the Renaissance and the social, cultural, and political transformation of that time. He says that he has attempted a "Ficcion dramatica" about Erasmus and intends to incorporate in it Ann Boleyn, Pedro de Urdenlas (Urdemalas?), "nuestro diablo espanol," Mefistofeles, Juana la Loca, Carlos V, Saracens, Chris tians, Cortes, and Pizarro, using fantasy and irreality to discuss history and civilization. He says that he wrote El despertar de los demonios for the 1966 ESSO contest, which, unexplainably for many writers and critics, was declared vacant for lack of qualified entries, and it took him three months to complete. The setting is the Popayan of his youth: still a small, introverted colonial town, epitomizing the height of Colombian aristocratic traditions. To the question as to whether one could meet flesh and blood counterparts of his characters in the streets of present day Popayan, he replied: Quien escribe, siempre retrata la sociedad en que vive y se basa en sus experiencias personales o en el conocimiento de las gentes que lo rodean. Sin embargo, a pesar de basarse en una realidad, la transfigura. En la novela, el personaje se va formando con una serie de rasgos que se han observado aqux y alia. Adelaida y Susana existieron: las tome de muchas mujeres. Lo mismo se podia decir de Laurita, que en parte fue nues tra reina estudiantil. A veces hay influencias mas 319 fuertes que otras. El doctor Manuel, por ejemplo, tiene mucho de Manuel Paz Urrutia, un hombre extra- ordinamente inteligente, con el que tuve gran amistad a pesar de mis pocos anos cuando lo conoci. Era neurastenico. Murio en medio de una locura silenciosa. Pero seria un absurdo decir, que el doctor del libro es el mismo que el de la realidad: un abismo los separa. A este fenomeno lo llama Jung de "disociacion": despu^s de conocer al personaje real, se va creando en la mente otro, que es su sxmbolo. Asi mismo sucede con las cosas. La "Estancia" de la novela es un poco como Calibxo, la hacienda de nuestra familia, con su inmensa caserona. Otros elementos de la novela no corresponden exactamente a la realidad: por ejemplo, el fen6meno de la violencia fue muy tenue en Popayan. Y— anade mali- ciosamente— jnunca conoci a un cura tan bueno como el padre CanencioJ La idea central que me guio fue la de que en la sociedad como en el individuo se dan una sub-existencia, unas fuerzas inconscientes, unas premoniciones, unas advertencias sobre el propio destino. Esa sub-existen cia es mayor mientras mas introvertida la sociedad y mas primitivo el hombre. Porque este, a medida que se civiliza, pierde tambien sus primitivas reservas de instinto, de ese mismo que se da en los animales, El hombre se alejo de su propia naturaleza. Yo quise explorar ese sub-mundo de donde salen magias, exorcismos; en donde se producen los "desdobla- mientos" sxquicos que hacen posible la famosa anecdota del rey Federico de Prusia, cuyo reloj se paro en el instante mismo de la muerte de su dueho. Un sub-mundo que en ciertas personas puede revestir el caracter de lo que en la Laurita de mi novela llamo "Anapsicasia," o sea no impregnacion sxquica de las ideas. Un sub- mundo inagotable, fuente de las religiones y de lo demonxaco, de lo sublime y de lo pavoroso, en el que los fantasmos somos nosotros mismos.^ 32 "Otra novela de Victor Aragon," El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, Febrero 16, 1969, p. 6. 320 Arag6n considers himself more a traditionalist, akin to Dostoyevsky and other great writers, than to Garcia Marquez, Rojas Herazo, Cortazar, Vargas Llosa, Puentes, Cabrera Infante, and others. In his view, many of the currently prominent writers of "Nueva Literatura Latino- americana" seek to shock, surprise, and scandalize, with subject matter and structure, but make the mistake of neglecting to make best use of the Spanish language, to refine their work and to include in their narratives the vast, intellectual, cultivated society that also forms a substantial part of their homelands. The author of El despertar de los demonios maintains the classical concept of the novel, concerning himself less with finding new forms than with careful development of substance. The cosmopolitan novel, like the psychological and philosophical novels, has enjoyed a limited but continued cultivation up to the beginning of the present study. Many upper class Colombians have traditionally engaged in inter- i national activities and novels have reflected such themes. During the period under investigation the growing pace and scope of extra-national contacts have experienced simi lar manifestations. World War II scattered millions of 321 refugees all over the world. Colombia opened her doors to 33 many of them. In Pogrom (1954), Galo Valencia Velasquez tells the story of a doctor in Germany who suffers persecu- tion under Hitler; he seeks peace in Colombia only to be 34 involved in la violencia. In Vendaval rojo, Ion Coman* a Rumanian refugee, tells about his experiences in Europe during World War II. Ihe Colombian Battalion sent to Korea, veterans of which still proudly march in Bogota on Inde pendence Day, produced novelistic reflections, not all of them pleasant, as was pointed out in Chambacu, corral de Negros, treated above under the urban novel (pp. 264-266) . A desire for universal peace and brotherhood prompted Juan 35 de J. Galindo to write Conferencias en Marte and dedicate it to the Lion's Clubs of the World. It involves science- fiction like magic carpet gadding about with philosophical platitudes. In 1965, Samuel Jaramillo Giraldo, journalist and sometime teacher at Northeastern University, Boston, 36 published Nadaismo diplomatico, which deals with a young 33 (Bogota: Iqueima, 1954). 34 (Barranquilla: Graficos Mora Escofet, 1958). 35 (Cali: Imprenta Marquez, 1957). 36 (Bogota: Editorial Colombia Nueva, 1965). 322 man who serves his country abroad sincerely, idealistically, but who is frustrated by the organized hipocrisy of the 37 established official system. Sangre sobre la nieve, by Reinaldo Barrera Gomez, sets forth many of the problems of the urban novel but involves a broad range of Colombians residing in New York under various circumstances. To the usual human conflicts are added those of cultural shock resulting from contrasts in life styles of many provincials who emigrate, study, or work abroad. In 1966, Augusto Morales Pino, treated under the urban novel above (pp. 272-275), extends the scope of his activities to Guatemala and El Salvador where he spent part of his boyhood with his father who was a musician. In 38 Cielo v asfalto, the protagonist is a painter flying north to an exhibition of his work in New York. As the plane flies over Central America the painter reminisces about his childhood. The brief work focusses on two periods in the boy's youth which served as inspiration for his best paintings. The first is set in a revolution to 37 (Bucaramanga: Imprenta del Departamento, 1966). 38 (Bogota: Editorial Kelly, 1966). 323 overthrow a dictator. His sister is killed in an earth quake and his father dies in the revolution. The sheltered innocence of infancy is brutally smashed. The second epi sode involves the transition of the boy, from a gamin to a young man who has begun to find his vocation in life after exploratory affairs with different types of young women and with the guidance of a wise master painter. Eduardo Caballero Calder6n, a thoroughly Colombian and cosmopolitan man at the same time, as will be recalled from the chapter above on the rural novel (pp. 118-135), accompanied his father in ambassadorial posts as a youth and himself later served on diplomatic and journalistic assignments in Latin America. Many of his essays deal with themes of common interest to the Hispanic world. In 1955, 39 he published La penultima hora, a novel which extended his scope to include most of South America, the United States, and Europe. By means of an old device he draws all of these spheres together: the story concerns the passen gers on a flight from Buenos Aires to New York with stops at Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, Belen del Para, Trinidad, 39 (Madrid: Ediciones Guadarrama, 1955). 324 La Guaira, Barranquilla, and Miami. The novel recalls "jet set" movies with scenes involving the airport, the pilot, an ambassador, his wife, their Pomeranian lap dog, a General fleeing from a revolution, an international assort ment of female types, refugees from Europe, diplomatic and commercial travelers, entertainment and sports personali ties, students, children, and others. There are interjec tions in several languages and conversations among the American Ambassador's family and the flight personnel which characterize cultural differences. There are discussions of the Zionistic movement, of the economics of international affairs in the Post World War II era, with emphasis on the broad scale internationalization of life produced by tech nology which links Chicago with Rio and Frankfurt like streets in a neighborhood and cities within South America, like next door. A Jewish musician from the concentration camps relates his experiences and in other conversations the point is made that mankind must find the way to peace ful coexistence before it is too late. The attitudes of various nationalities are brought out during the flight. The thoughts and lives of all are punctuated finally when a storm causes the plane to crash in the Caribbean leaving 325 only a spot of oil. La penultima hora was not an editorial success, being overshadowed by El Cristo de espaldas. The really cosmopolitan quality of Caballero Calder6n's life and ex periences was overshadowed as well by his rural novels which were not only Colombian but set almost exclusively in Boyaca, either Tipacoque or nearby llanos localities. In his essays he dealt with the past, present, and future of Latin American man and his culture and enlarged his range to include Spain, the mother of Hispanidad. He spent many years there in diplomatic and intellectual pursuits and in recent years has spent much of his time as Colombian representative before UNESCO in Paris. Caballero Calderon is intensely interested in the nature of culture and is desirous of aiding his homeland in its passage from the vestiges of an isolated colonialism to the challenges of the twenty-first century in such a way as to preserve tra ditional values and practices in so far as they are benefi cial. The necessity to preserve "lo autoctono" and to achieve "autenticidad" as relates to Colombians and Latin Americans is as essential to stability and constructive development as it is for Africans, Asians, United States 326 Blacks and Chicanos to "do their own thing" as they work out their destinies in the ultra modern world. These aspects of Caballero Calderon's background were overlooked by many critics after the appearance of 40 El buen salvaje, for which he won the 1965 Nadal Prize. The abrupt departure from what had come to be expected of him novelistically, led many to wonder if this work were not a subtle satire on the exaggerations of many exponents of the nouveau roman and if in fact it should be taken seriously. in an interview following announcement of the prize, the author said that the novel is about: Un estudiante que defiende una posicion conservadora delante de los hechos culturales. ... Se trata de la vida de un estudiante hispanoamericano que vive en Paris y que trata de escribir una novela. ... No puede. ... Por una serie de razones. ... En realidad "El buen salvaje" es una critica sobre la creacion literaria.41 In our conversation with Don Eduardo in Tipacoque (August 7, 1969), he reiterated the above statement and re emphasized that the novel was meant to be taken seriously, but that it is complex, treating various themes on various levels. He was especially interested in developing the 40 (Barcelona: Ediciones Destino, 1966). 41 "Dijo la prensa espanola:— Premio Nadal, 1965," El Espectador— Macrazine Dominical, Enero 16, 1966, p. 3. 327 personality and reactions of the student, representative of Latin America as well as Colombia, in his make-up and responses to a given situation. There is great contrast as a relatively naive middle class youth nearly drowns in the opulent cultural fount of the City of Lights, ingenuously intent on achieving immortality by mere presence in the great center and by writing down his attitudes and impres sions in response to his surroundings. The novel signifi cantly ends with the student's return to his native land, depressed, defeated, disappointed in his dismal failure to accomplish what he flippantly thought to be a lark, four years earlier. His illusions are gone, burned, beaten, and wrung out of him by his experiences in Paris. He mis takenly thought that what he did there, in itself, would constitute great literature by simple transcription. He tried to write the novel at least five times but each time encountered difficulties. The failure of the young Latin American and his return to his homeland says a great deal about what literary creation is and what it is not. More importantly, it tells a great deal about the mentality of the student as a type. He is an individual undergoing the normal transition from youth to man, physically, emo tionally, and spiritually. But symbolically his return 328 home begins a new cycle: he is a man, drained of illusions, richer in experience who is now capable of accepting him self as he is and his family, home, and culture as they are, as the starting point of his own authentic reality within which he must work and help to develop. Don Eduardo told us that he is not completely against the contemporary trends but that art demands judi cious and appropriate use of all techniques, that creative writing is a demanding profession which requires training, dedication, and craftsmanship as well as brilliance, inspi ration, and imagination. He believes that a great deal of what is being produced today is superficial and exaggerated; that true art has always made use of various techniques and will continue to adapt and develop them in the interests of artistic expression but that the true criteria will remain the artful application and not the technique itself. The author has shown himself capable of masterfully utiliz ing whatever elements are deemed appropriate to a given situation as summed up by Kurt L. Levy in this comment: For anyone who remembers well El Cristo de espal- das, the present novel is at once perplexing and fascinating. It is fascinating because of its psycho logical penetration and its intellectual message, it is perplexing because it defies classification, joining 329 autobiography, novel and essay. The subtitle of the book might well be "Notes of a Foreign Student in Paris."... While the literary devices and aesthetic criteria in this novel bring to mind the name of Marcel Proust and its title reminds us of Jean Jacques— indeed, its motto stems from the Discours sur I'origine et les fondements d l'ineqalite— there is a great deal that is decidedly Caballero Calderon. The big city smothers him, not so much by its visual impact as by its olfac tory and above all auditory sensations. The candid words of confession which he voiced in Diario de Tipa- coque ring true for El buen salvaje. The novel which has all the cosmopolitan earmarks and which in its frequent sallies into the essay genre is imbued with European literary echoes— a tribute to the author's broad cultural background— cannot conceal Caballero Calderon's nostalgic love for his native land. On the literary plane his success is two fold, as he conjures up the maze and magic of the Paris en vironment and captures effectively the human dilemma of a young man who perishes in the "eternal dialogue" between imagination and reality.^ Eduardo Camacho Guizado comments on the signifi cance of the title quoted from Rousseau, as the basis of a "novela de tesis" demonstrating how the environment of Paris corrupts a bon sauvage from the New World: Lo serla si la obra partiera de la base susodicha: de la bondad del salvaje, de su inocencia, de su buena naturaleza. Pero no es asl, a mi juicio. Este sal vaje es, desde el principio, un mal salvaje, o lo que es peor, un salvaje tonto. El inominado joven que 42 "El buen salvaje, Premio Eugenio Nadal 1965," Hispania, LI (May, 1968), 373-374. 330 a traves de casi trescientas paginas nos va presen- tando su acontecer espiritual esta lejos de ser "natu- ralmente" bueno, originalmente inocente. Superficiali- dad, abulia/ carencia de espiritu y de inteligencia no son sinonimos de bondad. Nuestro joven salvaje escribe unos cuadernos en los que expresa su obsesion de crear una novela. Mono- tonamente va barajando impresiones, sucesos reales o imaginarios, opiniones sobre la religion, las calles de Paris, el comunismo, la historia de Latinoamerica, el amor, el olor, el existencialismo, la literatura actual y la de antes, las posibles maneras de escribir una novela, etc. Este joven, a quien no le gustan los judios, ni los negros, ni las chinas, ni los comunis- tas, ni los jovenes ... ni el nouveau roman (tal vez por ello mismo sus ideas sobre la novela se quedan en Andre Gide, a lo sumo)? este especialista en el lugar comun, en las ideas generales, cuya mentalidad se ha formado, al parecer, en la lectura de las Selecciones del Reader's Digest ... no concuerda en verdad con lo que Juan Jacobo Rousseau pensaba del "buen salvaje." Al final ... Paris consuma su obra: el joven de veintisiete anos encuentra el amor, pero el amor se ausenta? comienza a escribir su novela, pero la inspi- racion lo abandona; el Ricard que bebe constantemente (con el dinero que el gobierno de su pais le ha entre- gado para su repatriacion) se apodera de el y lo con duce al lindero de la locura y la muerte. Pero entonces el salvaje comienza a dejar de serlo. ... Y cuando nuestro salvaje comienza a dejar de ser tonto, cuando empieza a escribir con talento y vigor, cuando su obra esta a punto de cuajar ... un consul bondadoso y celoso de sus deberes, un cura santifi- cable, una chilenita virginal y un generosisimo y desinteresado aristocrats, su compatriota, lo salvan del caos y lo envian, custodiado por un gendarme de civil, a su tierra, a su abuelita anciana y a su her- mana miope, a su barrio de clase media, donde podra volver a ser, seguramente, el salvaje de antes, el "buen salvaje. ^"El mal salvaje," Eco, XIII (Mayo, 1966), 94-96. 331 Father Alvaro Gomez 0., S.J., in an excellent de tailed study, analyzes the student's behavior patterns, the cultural shock of new surroundings, isolation, evasion, and final emergence: La evasion no puede prolongarse indefinidamente y se crea un verdadero complejo de angustia al afrontar la realidad que durante tanto tiempo ha sido deformada por lo imaginario. Sin embargo, el estudiante logra afrontarse y se recupera para si mismo, "Lo unico positivo dentro de aquel retorno a la pobreza, era la recuperacion de mi mismo en presencia del farmaceutico. Quiero decir que mi abuela y mi hermana volvian a ser lo que realmente eran: gente modesta que vive humildemente en un pais desconocido y lejano. Mi padre habia readoptado su condicion de empleado publico muerto de fatiga y agobiado de deudas y preocupaciones. Y yo era un pesimo estudiante que habia desperdiciado un dinero que no me pertenecia, y ahora no tenia un centimo entre los bolsillos. El no tener que mentir, continuamente y construir castillos de naipes para Rose Marie, su familia, sus amigos y los que habia adquirido en mi rapida incursion por el barrio de la Estrella, todo eso me regocijaba dentro de mi amargura, si asi puede decirse."^ Father Gomez concludes that the novel has been the cause of the student's disaster, the continual confusion of the real and imaginary which brought him to his nervous crisis of repression, obsession with death, delirium, 44 > "La novela del monologo interior, El buen sal- vaje," Revista Javeriana, LXXI (Marzo, 1969), 198. See also by the same author: "La tecnica en El buen salvaje— II," Revista Javeriana, LXXXI (Abril, 1969), 263-276. 332 hallucinations, memories and so forth, but that his return to Colombia, although under depressing circumstances, represents the reestablishment of reality. The last writer to be considered in this section is Marta Traba. Although she was born in Buenos Aires (1930), she has resided in Colombia since 1956. Her entire back ground is cosmopolitan. After graduation in Letters from the National University in her native city, she went to Paris where she studied painting and worked in journalism. In Bogota she founded the review Prisma, was professor of Art in the University of the Andes and in charge of Cultural Extension of the National University. At the present time she is director of the Museo de Arte Moderno which she founded in Bogota. She has published a book of poetry, several essays on art, and two novels: Las ceremonias del 45 . . verano, which won the 1966 Casa de las Americas Premio Novela (Havana), awarded by a jury consisting of Mario Benedetti, Alejo Carpentier, Juan Garcia Ponce, and Manuel 46 Rojas, and Los laberintos insolados, which won second 45 (Buenos Aires: Editorial Jorge Alvarez, S.A., 1966) . 46 (Barcelona: Editorial Seix Barral, S.A., 1967). 333 prize in the 1966 Concurso Nadaismo de Novela and which she rejected amidst controversy. Her first novel takes place in Buenos Aires, France, Italy, Switzerland, New York, and Bogota. It deals with four stages in the life of a woman as she goes from adoles cence to adulthood. In the process, many aspects of cul ture are treated in various settings. In Los laberintos insolados, a man from Cartagena, bored with his life, undertakes an odyssey in search of himself. In his travels he goes to New York and then to various places in Europe seeking the trail of the ancient hero, Ulysses, finally returning to his own home in Cartagena. Marta Traba has brought the stimulation of a cosmo politan background to cultural circles of her adopted country. She has been credited with a major role in the plastic arts, especially with her constant, knowledgeable criticism of art and the artist's role in national life, at a time when it had reached a low ebb in creative power. Her activities in this field acted as a stimulant to litera ture also, and many authors and critics made reference to her accomplishments as an example of what people in the field of letters should be striving for. She is outspoken 334 and controversial. Her two novels, which show an excep tional ability, caught many people unawares; making their appearance during a period of intense turbulence in 1966 added to the uproar. Since she is inextricably involved in the ferment and growth of the new movements and the new generation, her works will be considered in the next chap ter dealing with the avant garde novel. CHAPTER VI THE AVANT GARDE NOVEL This chapter deals with a separate group which is designated Avant Garde. The novels treat many of the same themes as are found in the preceding groups but they tend toward the more advanced positions of the experimental novel. There are elements of existentialism and in general a sense of anxiety, rejection, and frustration, character- istic, in part, of the "Nadaista" movement of the early 1960's. The novelists tend to be younger, in their twen ties and thirties, with some of the most promising making their presence known at a relatively early age. This is the new generation in Colombia; their counterparts are world wide; their attitudes are universal but with the peculiar twist of having grown up in an emerging nation haunted by "La Violencia." The term Avant Garde can be applied here in a multiple sense which helps to clarify the confusion 335 336 resulting from a purely chronological or stylistic approach to analysis of the Colombian scene during these years: the elements of the "Novisima Generacion" in the nation and the universal youth crisis of the 1960's are present; the liter ary methods, techniques, attitudes, and "Zeit-Geist" of the times continue their influences; the older generation in creases its contact with the most recent movements, reject ing some, but incorporating others and in a large sense providing leadership and encouragement to their juniors for even more audacious expression of life style and literary experimentation, although the process is frequently characterized by the now all too familiar turbulence of acrimonious, parrying and thrusting typical of generational "gapsmanship." The already well established sense of generational cohesion was clearly set forth in "La Novisima Generacion Colombiana," by one of its leading writers, Fanny Buitrago, who was eighteen years of age when she wrote in 1961: La mezcla inconsecuente y didactica de este siglo, mezclade grandes progresos cientificos, religion, cine, coca-cola, chicle, rock and roll, cohetes alimen- tos enlatados, premios Nobel y proyectos de guerra nuclear, ha dado a la juventud actual la mas extraha concepcion que generacion alguna pudiera poseer. Los jovenes se visten estrafalariamente y fuman marihuana. Suehan con ser astros de cine pero- escriben con mas 337 ahinco que el mas respetable escritor. Amenazan siempre con el suicidio, pero no resisten para revolu- cionarlo todo. La ultima generacion no se rebela, nacio rebelde. No hace planes para revolucionar/ ya que es la revolucion misma.' Y los brotes cuasi- histericos-culturales de esta juventud asombran al mundo o lo horrorizan, pero nadie puede negar que autenticos valores en todas las ramas del arte se gestan vertiginosamente. Pretendo mostrar aqui, una minima parte de estos seres. Elios forman lo que llamare: "La novisima gene racion Colombians." Todos pretenden destruir lo que hicieron las generaciones anteriores a base de la construccion misma. "Construiremos— dicen— y lo otro se derruiribara solo. " La literatura, las artes plasti- cas y el teatro tienen mas de un representante en esta juventud. Sin embargo/ los intelectuales van a la cabeza en Colombia, y han comenzado ya a realizar la revolucion literaria mas rapida de que el pais tenga noticia. En menos de 5 aftos cerca de 25 escritores nuevos se han dado a conocer, todos menores de 30 ahos, incluyendo universitarios, niftos de colegio, revolu- cionarios sociales y muchachas estudiantes, etc. La prensa abrio paso a muchos de ellos y desde 1959 sus nombres y escritos comenzaron a salir a la publicidad. Ciertas ciudades del pais se han hecho famosas por los nucleos representatives de algunos de ellos.^ Senorita Buitrago lists numerous young people ranging in age from nine years to thirty, engaging in all of the creative and performing arts, making their contribu tion in more than a dozen of Colombia's growing urban cen ters. She concludes: La nueva generacion no es de ningun modo perfecta. Tiene mucho de infantilismo. Errores, mitos, aberra- ciones. Confia, en ocasiones, demasiado en su propia 1BCB, IV, No. 8 (1961), 727. 338 genialidad, y pasa a veces de lo extraiio a lo absurdo, y de lo absurdo a lo descabellado. No obstante es la mas autentica generacion de que tengamos noticia. Y eso tan importante que es su autenticidad, indica definitivamente que algo ha comenzado.^ These observations of the young author proved to be prophetic, as will be seen at the close of the period, but in 1961, they were uttered on the crest of fresh optimism which would be subjected to severe strain in the excruci ating transition under way during this decade. The "Nadaista" movement, an iconoclastic extremist Avant Garde tendency which began in 1959 and lasted into the second half of the following decade, will be treated more fully below. For the present it is well to note its existence as an important factor in the cultural climate while consideration is given to developments among some of the younger writers whose works, while not all of high quality, corroborate the opinion of Fanny Buitrago as to the intensity and will to expression of the group. Her novel, one of the best produced by her generation, will be presented shortly, but first, another young woman, also of highly controversial subject matter, who preceded her, will be treated. 2 Ibid., p. 730. 339 Vera Zacs, pseudonym of Elvira Vernaza Issacs, of Cali, published a novel in 1959 which demonstrated the unabashed determination of the younger age group to "tell it like it is" and let the chips fall where they may. Mis respetables jefes is the story of a young secretary who successively serves various employers including a long stint at an exclusive country club. The book is an expose of the hypocrisy prevalent in the upper classes. Vera Zacs describes a broad range of shady business practices and sexual aberrations as well as social prejudices, mincing no words in her situations or descriptions of them. Her subject matter and its treatment were not well received generally in the press; one commentator said that as a woman "habria sido mejor que hubiera tenido un hijo," but as a reflection of her relationship to the times, Alfonso Sierra Partida points out: En el libro de Vera Zacs se aprecia la influencia del "Nadaxsmo" que surgiera en Medellin, creado por Gonzalo Arango e incrementado en Cali al parecer. Posicion que como el estridentismo literario en Mexico o la filosofica actitud existencialista— de univer- sales manifestaciones— todo lo niega; rebeldia o inadaptacion que si bien puede no conducir a nada, exige en cambio una revision total de las formas de la vida; va— aun cuando rabien los conservadores y los retrogrados— a la busqueda de una etica, de una moral superada por la conviccion, no por imposicion o temor, 340 de la que tan falta anda la humanidad, en todas sus manifestaciones, cambiando tan solo, tr&gicamente de careta.^ 4 In 1961 she published Iniciacion impudica which again deals with a secretary and with sex, but this time the girl is driven to experimentation by her family's strict hypocritical double standard. This novel is better artistically than the first and is even more explicit in details while more penetrating in psychology and morality, that is, the relationship of individual to group behavior. An introductory comment compares her to the French authors Franpoise Sagan and Colette, but allows her more passion and involvement with her characters, observing that, in the theories of Freud, to be aware of the problem is to be on the way to its solution. The implication is that Vera Zacs performs the service of uncovering society's hidden defects and that she has every right to do so since the time that these subjects must be spoken of in a whisper is past. In 5 1969 she published <jQue ha sido esto?, which is the story 3 Mis respetables jefes (Mexico: Editorial Memphis, 1961), pp. 8-9, 4 (Mexico: Editora Mayo, S.A. , 1961) . 5 (Cali: Editorial America, Ltda. , 1969). 341 of an aristocratic member of the jet set who has experi ences with men of various ages and situations, partly due to in-group considerations and who realizes at the end that it is all rather meaningless. Interestingly, another caleno, Hernan Hoyos, mani fests the new liberation by trying his hand at various > 6 themes. In Ron, ginger, y lxmon, he wrote a rather good novel about the conflict of old versus new values in the up-coming young business people of Cali. The effects of years of violence and lack of faith of recent times are effectively presented in concrete details of the area. In 7 1968 he published two works, Cronica de la vida sexual and g Todos nos condenamos, both with numerous small photographs on the covers depicting scenes which could easily be from a pornographic movie (there are a number of books from this period which have covers implying a more "liberated" atti tude) . The first is a series of interviews of the author with all types of people regarding their sexual practices. It appears to be the documentation of a libidinous lexicon. g (Bogota: Editorial Antares, 1962). n (Cali: Ediciones Exclusivas, 1968). 8 (Cali: Ediciones Exclusivas, 1968). 342 The second book deals with violence, crime, prison, and a priest who is dragged, and in part slithers, through various experiences. For an encore, Hoyos published an g eerie tale of the supernatural, Cronica de ultra-tuiriba. In themselves, the works of Vera Zacs and Hernan Hoyos are not transcendental, in fact, there is a frequent suspicion that the main intent is scandalous shock and pornographic suggestion, but they share these characteristics with many other contemporary writers who have taken advantage of the more open scope and have raised their work to a higher artistic level. Fanny Buitrago, quoted above for her commentaries on the "Novisima Generacion," is herself the author of one of the best novels produced by the group. She has published short stories, poems and a play, but her best work to date is El hostigante verano de los dioses, a story of "Hastio, sol e inconformismo." The work was published when the writer was only nineteen years old. The setting is a town in the banana zone of the Northern Coast (she was born in Barranquilla, but lived also in Cali and Medellin). It is 9 (Cali: Ediciones Exclusivas, 1969). 343 very interesting for its psychological and sociological in sights as well as its skillful manipulation of contemporary techniques which contribute to the poetic expression of the existential anguish of the "gods" (the young protagonists, created in God's likeness, but who are mere shells of their traditional image, as well as the mythical gods of Western and Colombian Indigenous antiquity). The author creates an "anti-myth" as a frame of reference for the atmosphere in which the novel transpires: En las tierras bajas, donde el verano tiene la misma esencia que la piel de una mujer hostigada por el deseo y el invierno parece un murmullo sordo, apagado, igual a la oracion de todos los dioses viejos; donde los hombres se arrugan jovenes bajo un sol lujurioso y los rios son mas poderosos que los mitos y los hom bres, existe un pajaro de un bello plumaje azul. Canta tan dulcemente, que a muchos kilometros de su nido se detienen los seres y las cosas a escucharle. ... Segun el decir popular el monte se puebla, dia a dia, de trinos tristes y ojillos ciegos. Y la leyenda indica que el ave solo puede ser atrapada con una red hecha con los cab el los de una jovencita impura, cuya alma no haya sido contaminada por el remordimiento. The novel, with contrast and paradox, uncovers the limitless anxiety of young people who are seeking their point of orientation among many conflicting principles, as they search out their own life style: to live in accord 10 (Bogota: Ediciones Tercer Mundo, 1963), p. 9. 344 with naturalness and their own points of view rather than traditions which undermined their own validity. The dia lectical essence of the novel is this rebellion against ideologies and situations inherited or imposed, but not chosen by the young people. Fanny Buitrago gives the im pression of authentic artistic expression of youth in her characters. Abia is a young woman who is absurdly simple and thus obviously very complex. She is the lyric embodi ment of a naturally amoral woman, libertine in her conduct, but not thereby vicious. Esteban is cruel, despotic, but at the same time noble. There are the beautiful Leo, sweet Hade and eccentric Dalia. All of the many characters repre sent a microcosm of human motivations that move about in the Hostigante verano de los dioses. Nestor Madrid-Malo suggests the influence of Lawrence Durrell1s Alexandria Cuartet on the author's pro liferation of episodes and characters, and adds: Hay, pues, una tecnica aceptable en esta novela, aunque quiza los personajes son demasiados y aparecen poco diferenciados, circunstancia que los hace hablar y actuar en forma muy semejante, como si cada uno de ellos fuera solo una variante del unico y siniestro personaje que por estas paginas ronda: la angustia, con sus variantes proteicas: la inutilidad, la frustracion, la nada. Y al escribir esta ultima palabra— nada— no se puede menos que recordar la estirpe "nadaista" de su autora, quien en union de Gonzalo Arango y otros 345 jovenes escritores ha integrado este movimiento pseudo- existencialista que, en realidad, es la negacion de toda existencia valedera. Por eso, en muy buena parte, se puede explicar as! el mundo en descomposici&n, la sociedad desintegrada, las personalidades desdobladas y el ambiente de relajacion que Fanny Buitrago repre- senta alii con un despliegue de tremendas experiencias vitales que en ella— teniendo en cuenta su juventud— resultan sin duda precoces.-^ Concerning her affiliation with the "Nadaista" movement and the characters in her novel, Fanny Buitrago answered in an interview: "Que si soy nadaista? "Le dire: hace tres anos los conoci en la ciudad de Cali. Me entusiasme mucho y Gonzalo Arango resolvio decir que yo era de su grupo, pero en verdad no lo soy. Naturalmente que ese movimiento es muy respetable, en el sentido en que ningun grupo le ha dado al pais en el corto lapso de cuatro anos escritores tan buenos {es una opinion muy personal) como X-504, J. Mario y Elmo Valencia de Cali; Humberto Navarro de Medellin y Eduardito y Alberto Escobar. En cuanto a Gonzalo Arango considero que es todo un personaje, pero como escritor no cuenta, aunque tiene capacidad, pero no ha querido o no ha podido serlo hasta ahora. Gonzalo es una persona estupenda, en fin, que es un personaje con todas las de la ley. "En que me diferencio de los escritores nadaistas? "Mire: Para mi, para Fanny Buitrago todo es im- portante: la vida, las cosas, el amor, A todo le doy caracteristicas de montaha, en cambio ellos hasta cierto punto subestiman todo. "Que por que me entusiasme entonces con los nada istas cuando los conoci en Cali? 11 "Dos juicios sobre una novela colombiana, " Americas, XVI (Julio, 1964), 38-39. 346 "Porqu6 tienen una cuestion que no tiene nadie mas en este pais: son autenticos. Hacen lo que les gusta hacer y lo que quieren hacer. Nada mas. No les inte- resan las conveniencias, ni lo que diga la gente, ni como reacciona# nada de eso. Si yo no tuviera el pavor horrible que siento de formar parte de grupos, o de que me identifiquen con un grupo* cualquiera que sea, seria nadaista. Y le tengo pavor a formar parte de grupos porque ello trae obligaciones, conveniencias. Ademas, soy enemiga de mas de tres personas juntas. Me dan dolor de cabeza. Para mi tengo que la soledad es muy importante en la vida de las personas, porque es lo unico que una tiene de una misma. "... 'El hostigante verano de los dioses' es la historia de un grupo de muchachos, algunos intelectua- les, algunos buenos, pero todos puros. "iQue para mi, que significa ser puro? "La definicion que tengo es que una persona es pura, cuando no establece diferencias entre el bien y el mal; cuando mira unicamente lo justificable de las cosas, pues todo tiene su justificacion y por lo tan to el bien y el mal vienen a constituir un todo. El bien utilizado en cierta manera puede hacer dafio y el mal puede hacer bien, por falta de actividad, o menos dano por exceso de actividad. Podemos decir, en fin, que el bien y el mal van de la mano. "£Que en qu£ escuela filosofica y literaria me ubico yo? "Eso no lo puedo decir, porque soy una persona casi sin cultura y no conozco mucho de escuelas filosoficas 19 ni literarias." ^ More will be said later on the "Nadaista" move ment, but at this point it is well to note that one of the leading figures among the young writers, although in close 12 "No Soy Nadaista; Escribia Cuentos Absurdos," El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, June 9, 1963, pp. 14-15. 347 sympathy, would not or could not bring herself to total commitment to a single point of view. At the same time, while her novel and her general orientation exude elements of contemporary philosophies and life styles, she herself is either unwilling or unable to limit or define her basic posture. This is not uncommon in a nineteen year old or in her generation, nor is it necessarily negative, since an open mind allows the possibility of further evolvement. For the purposes of this chapter, however, her participa tion in many aspects common to Avant Garde artists relates her to other members of her age group who exhibit marked tendencies in this regard. In Dos o tres inviernos (1964), Alberto Sierra pre sents, full blown, a deliberate attempt to accommodate contemporary techniques into the Colombian novel. As part of the work, he has included explanatory quotations from Edouard Dujardin, James Joyce, Heinz Decker, Eugene Ionesco, Lawrence Durrell, A. Holguin (Colombian critic), and A. Milkar U. ("Nadaista") on interior monologue, space, time, various psychological and emotional aspects of characterization, the real, the imaginary, and the trans formation of reality into narrative form. 348 The novel is the interior monologue of a woman enclosed within three walls and a window: the history of the creation of a love engendered by isolation and boredom; the diary of an adventure that takes place completely in the netherworld of her delirious dreams and frustrated desires. Her only contact with the world of the city out side is by looking out of the window. She transforms what she observes into the substance of her fantasy, including a lover and an adventurous exploration of the city with an eventful visit to a nightspot, "El Bar." The highly respected poet, dramatist, and novelist, Jorge Zalamea, praised the work and lamented the lack of notice it had merited from the Colombian press. He pointed out the contribution of such costenos as Garcia Marquez, Cepeda Samudio, Rojas Herazo, and Zapata Olivella and re lated their use of modern techniques to those of the newest 13 crop of writers to arrive on the scene. One of these, Alberto Duque Lopez, in his twenties, as is the author of Dos o tres inviernos, wrote a prologue for the work in 13 * ✓ Alvaro Monroy Caicedo, "Nueva dimension de la novela costena," El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, Novem ber 18, 1966, p. 11. 349 which he gives an appreciation of its importance to novel- istic expression in the nation: esta es una obra escrita por un hoiribre que en el infierno de los primeros veinte aftos de recorrer el laberinto increiblemente desesperante de la vida busca por intermedio de la tangencia bellisima de la palabra escrita dejar un testimonio de el en la humanidad. sin embargo alberto sierra ha podido en una forma limpia impecable y meticulosamente personalista llevar de la mano una tecnica que aunque no original si valida por la aplicacion subjetiva y el tratamiento maravilloso que lo impulsa merced a sus dotes de escri tor joven a descarnar ante un universo arrullado por el bibibibibi de los satelites y los vbmitos de las coca-colas [teen age girls, "mini boppers"] sobre las esquirlas de los avisos luminosos de neon etcetera etcetera una imagen una conciencia un rincon de ser humano y que mas laberintico que ese infierno trau- matico y apabullante de la mujer tenemos pues la gran impresion que ... es la deter- minada y fisica manifestacion de un angosto angostisimo desesperantemente angosto universo de la protagonista ... en dos o tres inviernos la desesperacion abre sus brazos y llama vorazmente a quien abra las paginas de esta obra ... despues de pesar el globo terraqueo de la prota gonista . . . con un hastio con un movimiento convulsio- namente agonico de sus labios ... yo los imagino me los represents siempre humedos siempre enrojecidos y envueltos en una saliva pegajosa que de tener a alguien a su lado podria identificarse con un abrazo o intento de fiesta sexual imagino sus labios entreabiertos ab- sorbiendo el calor txpico tropical de cartagena ... ella es la protagonista de esta obra maravillosa tiene muchos antecedentes yo los llamaria antecesores sobre todo en el cine en el cortometraje de jorge pinto en la heroina de margueritte duras en moderato canta- bile y hiroshima en la preciosisima existencia de nuestras hermanas las monjas nadaistas que nos acompa- han a propagar nuestrastarasporestospedazosllamados 350 mundosamericanos ella es ella y aunque el autor por boca de su hija-personaje no la identifica estoy seguro de haberla visto en este manicomio de piedra estoy seguro de haberla topado cualquierdlaalasdocedeldiaalas- doce jugando con algun cangrejo borracho en boca grande o en la boquilla o en boca-chica o reventandose la piel con un desgarrado grito de cualquier saxofonista negro- gringoafricano o revolcandose de cualquier cosa se que la he visto en cartagena o en barranquilla calles avenidas barrios templos tabernas prostibulos proce- siones borracheras encualquier parte porque ella es y por eso me parece un personaje maravillosa ella es un rasgufio de la garra del monstruo que los mortales H a inan siglo veinte y por ser la protagonista de dos o tres inviernos ... el personaje de esta novela es el prototipo de la mujer moderna yo la entiendo como el producto de una excesiva maquinacion ... de fuerzas materiales ... de este nuestro pedazo de tiempo y espacio la conducen como docil borrego al matadero ... su desesperacion paranoica ese universo existencial que como lepra le corroe el espiritu ... el estilo de alberto sierra esta Integramente vol- cado dentro de la narracion subjetiva utilizando dis- tintos tiempos con predileccion del futuro y el presente de indicativo nos lleva por todo el kafkiano laberinto que es el interior del ser humano utiliza maneja emplea las frases rapidas con una pretension de absorber en cada una idea fija y determinada demasiado tajante me parece esa su primera frase cuando ella dice que mi corazdn estara manchado al comenzar el invierno me- diante una tecnica bastante y suficientemente pulida y esteticamente definida tenemos en nuestras manos la obra de un promisorio valor intelectual y lo que es mas importante de nuestro tiempo y de nuestra tierra. Alberto Duque Lopez, author of the foregoing pro logue, was later awarded the ESSO Prize (1968) in a very 14 Alberto Sierra, Dos o tres inviernos (Cartagena: Ediciones Modernas, 1964), pp. 9-14. 351 controversial decision for his extremely advanced experi mental offering, which will be considered below (pp. 378- 380). Many of the techniques of Dos o tres inviernos as well as the ideology and form contained in the prologue are consubstantial with the latest Avant Garde modes. 15 Also in 1964 appeared Las bestias de aqosto by Enrique Posada, who had previously published prize winning short stories dealing with violencia. In this novel he depicts social and human conditions of life in the big city, delving into character and passions in an atmosphere of obsession produced by police persecution of the protago nist for his clandestine activities. The internal conflict of the rebellious versus the conformist aspects of the principal character's personality are developed and pro jected to characters and situations in his environment. The very real, excruciating conflicts of man in a develop ing society are presented with a realism that also admixes the absurdity, unreality, and anguish of the contemporary narrative style. In 1965, Pedro Acosta Borrero published El cadaver 15 (Bogota: Ediciones Espiral, 1964). 352 16 del Cid, which received the praise and appreciation of critics for its ultra modern treatment of the theme of la violencia. It is divided into three parts which can be taken individually, and thus depict the process of violence as it affects the rulers, the soldiers, and the peasants as groups, or it can be taken as whole with the protest against violence being its unifying theme, supported by overlapping topics (love, sex, religion, morality, meaning of life) and symbolic characters (patriarch, peasant, ser geant) . The accommodation of contemporary techniques and attitudes to an intensely contemporary Colombian theme was noted by Fernando Soto Aparicio: La prosa de Acosta Borrero es, en nuestro medio literario, desusada. Estamos acostumbrados a una manera de escribir novelas que podriamos llamar cla- sica o tradicionalista. No importa que a veces se abandonen los cauces del costumbrismo, y se ensayen otros nuevos: el modo de narrar persiste. Acosta no lo sigue. Acosta hace algo novedoso. La narracion se interrumpe, salta atras, adelante, recupera el presente, vuelven a imperar los recuerdos a las premo- niciones, los fantasmas de dias idos se apoderan de los protagonistas y del lector, los presentimientos meten sus dedos frios, tiznados por la muerte, entre los renglones. 16 (Bogota: Ediciones Voces Libres, 1965). 353 No es un libro facil ni asequible para cualquiera. Pero es una buena obra. Sobre todo una nueva dentro de nuestro medio que sufre de oxidamiento literario, Tal vez esto sea para "El Cadaver del Cid," un factor de exito.-^ Hugo Ruiz also considers Acosta's expression to be heightened by modern innovations: El libro contiene apartes en que a traves de mon6- logos, fragmentos de cartas, diarios y otros recursos de que se vale el autor, logra criticar determinadas actuaciones de sus personajes, es decir de la sociedad Colombians, Asx, el fragmento de una carta— es posible tairibien que no se trate de una carta sino de un diario o simplemente un apunte— del militar que dirige una patrulla contra los guerrilleros, es bastante diciente respecto al pensamiento del autor. Se observa en este fragmento la condicion del novelista que ve en su oficio no la de guardian de la patria sino la de vic- timario, de igual forma que el personaje de Malraux de la "Condicion Humana." No obstante, este mismo estilo y la t^cnica em- pleada hacen a veces confuso el desarrollo de los acontecimientos, y si se gana en atmosfera, y el estilo encuentra, como lo he anotado, inesperados y fulguran- tes aciertos, se pierde en claridad. A la manera de las obras de Samuel Becket, en las que cuenta mas la atmosfera y la sensacion que logre plasmarse en el lector, "El Cadaver del Cid" crea un clima al que puede encontrarsele cierto parentesco con Faulkner, pero que en rigor se confunde con los mejores modelos de la narracion moderna.: Joyce, Kafka, y otros, sin excluir a Proust.-*- ® 17 "El Cadaver del Cid," El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, Febrero 13, 1966, p. 5. 18 "Novela 65," Letras Nacionales, Enero-Febrero, 1966, pp. 35-37. 354 Up to this point in the present chapter consider ation has been given to manifestations of the Avant Garde narrative elements among the younger generation, bearing in mind that many of these elements have been used by previous writers in Colombia as well. Mention has been made of "Nadaismo" as a factor in most recent vanguardista tenden cies. Since 1966 was a key year in several respects for the novel it will be most illuminating to consider "Nada ismo" at this juncture. In "La Novisima Generacion," Fanny Buitrago describes the foundation and early years of the group: En Medellin se inicio un grupo muy especial que reune a varios. Gonzalo Arango de 27 anos, autor de cuentos, teatro, ensayo, y ademas catedratico. Fundo el llamado movimiento "Nadaista" cuyos miembros se especializan en escribir, escandalizar y divertirse; sus componentes mas famosos son conocidos a lo largo y ancho de Colombia por las "posses" [sic] prefabricadas, la aceptacion consciente de la genialidad y las vesti- mentas escandalosas. Gonzalo Arango el maximo pon- tifice del movimiento gano un tercer premio en el con- curso nacional de cuento de 1959 auspiciado por "El Tiempo" con "Batalion Antitanque." Un segundo premio en el mismo ano por su obra teatral "Nada bajo el cielo raso" en el coneurso nacional de teatro. Public6 un libro de obras teatrales (1961) algunas de las cuales ("H-K-lll" y "Los Nadaistas") han sido llevadas a escena. Sus cuentos mas conocidos son "Soledad bajo el sol," "Dios no se aburre los domingos," "Los muertos no toman te." Ha publicado en "El Tiempo," "Cromos," "El Espectador" y en la ultima antologia del Cuento Antioqueno. 355 Amilkar U. llaraado el raago del nadaismo. Salio de un seminario, se hizo famoso por sus poemas y cuentos "objetales"; su verdadero nombre es Amilkar Osorio, tiene 23 aftos y es ademas novelista y autor teatral; entre sus escritos mas conocidos estan "Plegaria nuclear de un Coca-Colo" ... "Barquillo," autor de poemas modernos; su nombre es Jaime Espinel. ... Por ultimo cabe destacar el filosofo del nadaismo antioquefto, Jorge Orlando Melo, de 20 anos, estudiante de Filosofia y Letras en Universidad Nacional. ... En Cali hay un tercer nadaista muy famoso: Elmo Valencia. . . . Tiene 28 afios y esta listo a publicar su ya conocida novela "La ciudad de los gatos." Hace poco protagonizo una inverosimil aventura cuando la prensa public& que habla muerto ahogado en el Paclfico. "X-540." Su nombre es Jaime Jaramillo y de poeta tradicional se convirtio al nadaismo.^ The list continues with numerous young people who have adopted names reminiscent of those used by "Rock" music groups in the 1960's. The titles of many of their works suggest iconoclastic protest and black humor, "toma- dura de pelo." In "Nuevos Escritores Colombianos," Hugo Ruiz com mented in 1962 that the most recent writers were having an effect on modernization of Colombian letters helping to bring it into accord with its role of expression for all of society, not just the aristocracy: Todas estas cosas empiezan, con los nuevos escri tores, a ver una solucion. Nos ayudaron en la tarea ■^"La Novisima Generacion," BCB, IV, No. 8 (1961), 728-729. 356 de romper el lastre dejado por toda una literatura coloitibiana gente que tenia ya un concepto moderno y consecuente de su oficio. Son ellos Jorge Zalamea, Hernando Valencia Goelkel, Gabriel Garcia Marquez y Jorge Gaitan Duran. Se esta escribiendo pues en Colombia con otra vision y otro sentido. Gonzalo Arango, X-504, Fanny Buitrago, Pilarica Alvear Sanin, Amilhar U., J. Mario, Elmo Valencia, Bor Torre, J. Eutiquio Leal, Diego Le6n Giraldo, Jorge Orlando Melo, German Colmenares y otros se encargaran tal vez de crear una literatura respon- sable y consciente de sus deberes. Todo esta en poten- cia. Habra que esperar a que se desarrolle. The patience and hope expressed by Ruiz began to wear thin as publicity seeking scandalous stunt followed stunt and the "Nadaistas" generally failed to produce quantity and quality sufficient to satisfy many critics. By 1966, the comments of Daniel Samper Pizano in "Nadaismo, saldo en rojo," sums up: Han pasado casi diez afios desde que empezo a mencio- narse— en cafes, tertuliaderos, suplementos literarios, librerias y reuniones— el movimiento nadaista del cual es padre y pontifice, "estrella" y activista Gonzalo Arango, Gonzaloarango o gonzaloarango. Cuando irrumpi6 el nadaismo en nuestra literatura, produjo algo de zozobra, un poco de sorpresa y, sobre todo, mucho de expectacion. La gente, la critica, se sacudio ante la llegada del nifto prodigo Gonzalo Arango y de su sequito, que fue aumentando a medida que algunos jovenes se daban cuenta— gracias al cine de la nueva ola francesa, algunas revistas extranjeras y los libros de Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir y Christine Rochefort— de que eran una juventud incomprendida. Los nadaistas empezaron a espaciar los interregnos de 20 BCB, V (1962), 1589. 357 lucha, a dejarse crecer la barba y el pelo, y a me ter se, desaliftados, a cafeterias como El Cisne o el Automdtico de Bogota, o librerlas como la de Aguirre en Medellin. Tres o cuatro niftas de esas que hoy llamarian— a la luz del nuevo cine sueco— "liberadas," se pusieron las primeras medias negras hasta el talle. ... En los articulos de prensa escritos por Gonzalo Arango se leyeron las primeras palabras feas y los tomaduras de pelo iniciales a todo el mundo. Algunos muchachos entraron a una iglesia en Medellin, bailaron sobre las hostias y por poco son linchados. ... ... La gente, la critica, compro los libros, los leyo y gusto de ellos con una sola condicion: que eso no fuera todo. Que eso fuera, apenas, el comienzo de algo mas grande y mas serio. De todos modos, existla un nuevo aporte, una cuestion distinta en materia literaria: el tema urbano se habia incorporado a la novela y a la poesla, sacando del falso florido y facil letargo campestre en que se encontraba, a la literatura nacional; la crudeza estaba presente; se hablaba de una nueva concepcion y una revolucion formal en la poesla; la tecnica novellstica era dife- rente; se agotaron los volumenes y la critica, como quien ha tornado apenas un aperitivo, quedo en espera del resto del almuerzo. . . Todos los comulgantes con la nueva ola lite raria proclamaban que eran los unicos de vanguardia, los unicos liberados, los unicos puros. ... ... Gonzalo Arango se habia empenado en una fuerte campana para dar a conocer el nadaismo, y lo habia logrado. Sin embargo, este esplritu fue el que dio al traste, a la postre, con el movimiento. Tres notas caracterizaban al grupo, comprensibles apenas como la primera etapa de un proceso: el sentido del escandalo, la obsesion de la originalidad y la aplicacion del humorismo burlon. Las tres sazonadas con una dosis harto grande de publicidad. El sentido del escandalo, primera de ellas, habia sido elemento despertador de la opinion publica. Las palabras fuertes, las ideas chocantes con el ambiente burgues de nuestras letras, la permanente arremetida 358 contra los valores morales, religiosos y esteticos consagrados, favoreclan ese anibiente de escandalo. Gonzalo Arango se quemaba el sexo con un cigarrillo manifestando que ese era el unico dios. X-504 "lamio el vomito de su perro con su tremenda lengua sangui- nolenta." Humberto Navarro se hacia preparar "extra- Ros platos con esqueleticos sexos de ascetas." Alberto Escobar pedla que le inyertasen "una bocina de telefono en el ano." La gente y la critica esperaron. Sabian anibos que el fenomeno del escandarb~~es casi siempre concomitante con el nacimiento de una revolucion lite- raria. Simultaneamente con este, se presento la originali- dad extrema ... mas que esto, la estramboticidad. Decir cosas raras, escribir de manera incomprensible, ser distinto a todo, utilizar lo nunca utilizado, sacrificar la mayoria de las veces el sentido. ... La gente y la critica tambien sabian que el surgimiento de una generacion en el arte esta rodeado, en muchas oportunidades, de un anibiente de originalidad excesiva pero que si el movimiento es consistente, la depura luego un poco, ya que esta es un principio, lo mismo que el escandalo: piedra para llamar la atencion.^ Samper criticizes Gonzalo Arango and "Nadaismo" for never evolving from their beginning stages, but rather stagnating and degenerating into endless, ever more scan dalous, sterile repetition. He considers the "concurso de la noveladevanguardia," sponsored by them in protest against the 1966 ESSO Prize being declared vacant, as the death knell for the movement as an active coherent force since it had become 90 per cent publicity for Gonzalo Arango, and was a circus like final blow out: 21BCB, IX, No. 6 (1966), 1184-1186. 359 Es justo ahora proceder a efectuar el inventario de este movimiento. Al cual, por supuesto, hay que reconocerle y abonarle— en equidad— varios aportes clarisimos a la literatura nacional. Ese despertar, finalmente desviado, que produjo en el pais intelec- tual. Esa revaluacion de elementos que se estaba necesitando de tiempo atras. Esa alarma para atender a los movimientos vanguardistas. Pero el nadaismo no logro ser sino el sacudon para buscar el progreso lite- rario, y no pudo ser el progreso; fue la sed de una revolucion, pero no alcanzo a ser la revolucion; la necesidad sentida de nuevos valores, pero no— plena- mente— los nuevos valores. El nadaismo, como movimiento, esta llamado a desa- parecer, entre otras cosas, porque hay muchos parasitos literarios a el adheridos. Individualmente, y si se decide a superar las etapas faciles, podran subsistir varios de sus integrantes. Pero el inventario del nadaismo hay que seftalarlo, hasta este momento, como un saldo en rojo.22 Samper's evaluation of "Nadaismo" is generally accurate and fair, although some might wish to be even harsher while others would distinguish various points. Gonzalo Arango has in fact been an influential figure, although perhaps somewhat diminished in the last years of the decade, especially in comparison to the beginning and middle years. His function has been more that of a catalyst and theoretical polemicist. He has produced no novels although his Los ratones van al infierno 22 Ibid., p. 1188. 360 23 24 y consaqracion de la nada and De la nada al nadaismo have aroused controversy and stimulated interest in various sectors. The first consists of two dialogued morality plays with an allegorical tone to them pleading for love, understanding, honesty, and justice. The second is a col lection of short stories, poems, and position statements by various members of the "Nadaista" inner sanctum. Inter estingly, Hector Rojas Herazo a one-time adherent and Fanny Buitrago, a non-"Nadaista," were invited to participate. In fairness to Gonzalo Arango, while he has been much criticized, he answers his critics, for the most part, stating his position with conviction. It should also be noted that he has received some very pointed praise for his role in the renovation of Colombian literature from re spected quarters. At any rate, he was in the thick of a controversy which came to a head in 1966 but which had actually been brewing for some time. It will be recalled that the 1964 and 1965 ESSO Prizes were awarded under highly controversial circum stances, and the criteria and manner of selecting jury, 23 (Bogota: Ediciones Tercer Mundo, 1964). 24 (Bogoti: Tercer Mundo, 1966). 361 novels, and winners were attacked devastatingly after the "Guayacanazo" and "Picudazo." In 1965, Gonzalo Arango made the following response in an article entitled "Defensa de la literatura de vanguardia: c6mo ser jurado en tres leccio- nes": Que los suspicaces entiendan esto: no ataco a un hombre sino una situacion que considero funesta para la literatura. En esta polemica que se ha suscitado a raiz del reciente Premio ESSO de Novela, no hago cosa distinta a sustentar la posicion que desde hace aftos ha caracterizado al nadaismo como movimiento de rebelion contra los desuetos esquemas de la sociedad y la cul- tura. ... Porque mientras ustedes duermen sobre los laureles, nosotros velamos; porque mientras ustedes se anquilosan y vuelven sus miradas a la colonia con un romanticismo nostalgico y cobarde, nosotros sabemos que todas las desgracias de la patria, de la politica, de la cultura, radican en el escandaloso divorcio entre vuestro pensa- miento caduco, conformista y contemplativo, de un lado, y esta arrolladora realidad nueva que desborda los estrechos y antiguos moldes en que se tiene confinada la historia colombiana.^ The following year the prize was declared vacant although, it was learned later, a number of worthy entries had been submitted. Arango, under the auspices of Editorial Tercer Mundo, which had taken the movement under its pro tection, promoted a contest for Avant Garde novels, which ultimately bore the title "Concurso Nadaismo de Novela," p. 3. 25 El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, Junio 6, 1965, 362 and included publication plus a modest monetary prize. The first prize was shared by two novels, one written by a "nadaista" initiate. The second prize was awarded twice: Marta Traba's entry was withdrawn under claim that she had been treated unfairly due to proceedings during the contest. The circus atmosphere and apparently arbitrary selection of "Nadaistas" seemed to widen the gap and galvanize differ ences among Avant Garde writers who had previously felt that in spite of deficiencies the movement was better than none. Furthermore, the controversy precipitated and coin cided with a reconstitution of ESSO procedures which made selection of vanquardistas a real possibility for the future. Thus, the Avant Garde tendency which was traced up to El cadaver del Cid in 1965 (pp. 351-353), emerges during 1966 to assert itself independently, although not exclusively, of "Nadaismo." The novels chosen for the prizes vary in quality but definitely belong in the Avant Garde category. The 26 first prize winner was El terremoto, by German Pinzon. It is the story of a middle class couple who gradually 26 (Bogota: Tercer Mundo, S.A., 1966). 363 watch their marriage disintegrate under the erosion of daily tribulations, egoism, drab existence, lack of a better future. The indefinite use of time and unconnected episodes reflect latest trends. This is true especially, also, in regard to space, which is barely defined and adds to the creation of the atmosphere intended by the author. The first prize was shared by Pablus Gallinazo. 27 His La pecrueRa hermana is more characteristically ''nada ista" for its content, tremendista outlook and black humor, as well as for its deliberately fragmented construction, joking tone and avoidance of a focussed message. The novel does not tell a connected story, rather it is carried for ward by the author's skill in maintaining expectation on the part of the reader. Various devices are used such as drawings, blank pages, typesetting arrangements and a small envelope with sealing wax attached to a page near the end that is supposed to solve a mystery which really does not exist. 28 Los dias mas felices del ano, by Humberto Navarro, was the official second prize winner. It deals with absurd 27 (Bogota: Tercer Mundo, S.A., 1966). 28 (Bogota: Tercer Mundo, S.A., 1966). 364 lives, base passions, sex and tears, blasphemy, thought processes, unconnected words, unexpected turns of speech. Time, order, and logic remain in "la nada." The tavern of Acosta is the focal point for various broken lives which seek an unknown orientation but which instead become even more disoriented. The novel leaves a sense of emptiness and frustration. Most critics who commented on these novels were able to distinguish between the manner of their selection and the novels themselves. In this regard it is important to observe that, while not all considered them high achieve ments, the fact that they were brought to public attention was considered a positive sign. In addition, all three authors were praised for their potential and at least part of their execution. In terms of style, form, and approach, there were many caveats relative to advanced positions of the "new novel" but the potential contributions of at 29 least some of them were considered. 29 See: Dario Jaramillo Agudelo, "La pegueha hermana de Pablus Gallinazo," Arco, Octubre, 1966; Fernando Soto Aparicio, "Las 3 Nadaistas," El Espectador— Magazine Domi nical, Octubre 30, 1966, p. 14; Hernando Valencia Goelkel, "Triptico negligente," Eco, XIV (Diciembre, 1966), 214-217. 365 Two novels which treat old themes in the new manner 30 are El dia octavo (de que se rien, malditas ratas. 1 ?) , by Guillermo Martinezguerra Z., and El sueho de los parpa- 31 dos, by Mauro Alvarez Atehortua. The first is a novel of v'iolencia which takes a jungle town on the Magdalena River as a microcosm of Colombia. It then, based on "sexo y violencia," turns it into a Nazi like police state where the keepers and kept are all equally miserable. They finally exterminate one another, leaving the rats to take over. "El dia octavo" refers to the eighth day of Creation; God, disgusted with what He has created, looks the other way while man, obeying his baser nature, destroys himself. The second novel is the psychological theme of reality versus irreality, fact and fantasy, set in a mental hos pital with the added anguish of loss of identity. Gonzalo Cadavid Uribe also published two novels in 32 1966. Visibilidad cero, which bears quotes from Jean Paul Sartre, covers the life of an introverted, frustrated provincial youth from 1945 to 1961. His existence is 30 (Bogota: Ediciones Tercer Mundo, 1966). 31 (Medellin: Editorial Carpel-Antorcha, 1966). ■^(Medellin: Editorial Uryco, Ltda., 1966). 366 exasperatingly dull and meaningless, including his love less marriage to an unfeeling country girl. The man is "desengage," "turned off," a case of constitutional incom munication. What is worse, he does not know whom to hlame 33 for it or what to do about it. In Pozo cegado, a lower middle class man tells his life to the prosecutor who reads sections from law codes as the introduction to the chapters. Each one serves to evoke criticism of social ills of which the man serves as a horrible example. He is the victim of a social game he cannot win, keeping up with the country club set. The club turns out to be crooked. He is forced into crime and deceit. His mind finally snaps and he com mits a horrible knife murder of a woman in expiation of his isolation, frustration, and inadequacy. The year 1966 also saw the publication of novels by two writers who qualify as Avant Garde but who also touch other tendencies. Marta Traba, as will be recalled from the last chapter (pp. 332-334), made a significant contri bution as an artist, critic, exhibitor, and essayist. In 1966, she entered Los laberintos insolados in the contest 33 (Medellin: Editorial Carpel-Antorcha, 1966). 367 promoted by Gonzalo Arango. In the controversy that fol lowed she wrote an article in which she explained her concepts of "vanguardia": En ningun momento el nuevo certamen se planteo como una competencia "nadaista," sino como un concurso de vanguardia. En ese termino residio todo el problema, que con- fundio tanto a los jurados como a los concursantes. Para mi, el termino "vanguardia" carece por com- pleto del significado histrionico y carnavalesco que puede revestir para los nadaistas; entrar en un burro a una conferencia, quemar libros, escribir en papel higienico, insultar a los oyentes que son, en mi con- cepto (y lo he afirmado siempre), actos circenes que llenan de regocijada satisfacci&n a la pequena bur- guesia avida de bufonerias. Para mi, la vanguardia (pese al recelo con que usaria ese termino), se identifies en literatura con una novela en que se suman o aparecen expresados dentro de una forma literaria eficaz, distintos niveles narra- tivos, nuevos tratamientos de la nocion de un tiempo discontinuo, protagonistas "sin cualidades," tensiones internas de la narracion que proyectan la accion hacia marcos vagos e imprecisos, contra puntos entre poesia y el realismo mas brutal, la ambigdedad que llama Robbe Grillet, "la perdida de la certeza acerca de lo que se cuenta." Es decir, entiendo como vanguardia la litera tura contemporanea, desde Proust hasta James Purdy, y, en nuestro continente, desde Carpentier hasta Adalberto Castillo.^ Jaime Mejia Duque compares Marta Traba's vanguar- 35 dismo m Las ceremonias del verano to that of Julio "La novela de vanguardia el trescientos uno," El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, Julio 10, 1966, p. 11. 35 (Buenos Aires: Editorial Jorge Alvarez, S.A., 1966). 368 Cortazar in Rayuela and Carlos Fuentes in the short stories of Cantar de ciegos: Esta doble tendencia (poetizacion y experimentalismo de la "forma," y decidida subjetivacion o nebulizacion de los "temas") constituye la lxnea extrema de la denominada vanguardia en la actual novelistica latino- americana. Dentro de esta modalidad, que lucha todavia por imponerse al lado de las distintas expresiones del realismo crxtico y del llamado realismo magico, la novela de Marta Traba, premeditadamente "literaria," ocupa un lugar tan decoroso como el que mas. En cuanto a los problemas estetico-literarios que su intento nos propone, sobrepasan ampliamente su caso particular, el de la autora y su libro, pues abarcan fenomenos conti- nentales.^ Mejia Duque praises the author's virtuosity as she recreates the atmosphere of solitude and burning desire to communicate through love which the protagonist no longer finds in the once magic atmospheres of Paris, Rome, Flor ence, New York, and Bogota, but he criticizes her tendency to create a subjective mystery about words and their mean ings which in his view tends to reduce communication with the reader: Y conste que en dichas circunstancias cualquier cosa puede verse erigida en misterio, ritualizada, feti- chizada en sus posibilidades simbolicas o en su real significacion como lenguaje en determinado momento, segun nuestro efxmero capricho. Un poco mas lejos por este sendero, y se desembocara en el esnobismo ^6 "Las ceremonias del verano," BOB, X (1967), 867. 369 verbalista (la seftora [Natalie] Sarraute, el sefior Robbe—Grillet con frequencia y Julio Cortazar en algu- nos capitulos de Rayuela, serian ejemplos para el caso)• .. * Contintia en discusion la validez, a largo plazo, del subjetivismo vanguardista y "poetico" en la novela de este Continente. £Por que no volver a contar una historia exteriormente reconocible por todos, como un rostro, segun se ha visto en Carpentier, Asturias, Rulfo y Vargas Llosa, adelantados de una narrativa latinoamericana de recibo universal?"^ In her next work Marta Traba remains true to her basic concept of "la vanguardia" as expressed above in her response on "nadaismo," but she surpasses her first attempt at narrative, overcoming some of the pitfalls mentioned by Mejia Duque. In her second novel, Los laberintos insola- 38 dos, she presents the circular voyage of a modern odyssey. The protagonist, Ulises Blanco, is impelled to abandon his home in Manga, Cartagena, his wife, his son, his familiar landscape, his nearby Caribbean, his memories, to strike out in search of something not clear even to himself, pro duced by boredom, fear of stagnation, anxiety of being by-passed in human terms, that is, man’s traditional uni versal striving for excellence and betterment. His home is the epitome of established traditions, so much so, that 37 Ibid. 38 (Barcelona: Editorial Seix Barral, S.A., 1967). 370 he feels his intelligence and hope are gradually decaying for lack of stimulus or contact with the mainstream of life. In a sense, Ulises' voyage is a journey around him self which allows him to gain perspective through more extensive and varied contact with such places as New York, France, Greece, which in turn uncover hidden areas of his own interior world and eventually lead him back to Manga, his wife, son, and family mansion, outwardly unchanged from when he had forsaken it but perhaps charged with new pros pects due to the experiences of the man who occupies it. Marta Traba has done an excellent job of novelistic craftsmanship. The form of the novel is a sort of invo luted serpentine in which immediate reality, memory, and fantasy are intermixed to produce great suggestive and associative effectiveness. Marta Traba's extensive cul tural experience and personal artistic discipline earned her novel the "book of the month" award in Madrid and the praise of the respected Spanish critic, Guillermo Dxaz- Plaja, quoted from ABC: Modernidad cultural ... original y fuerte, riqui- sima en recursos, muy al dia de los formalismos re- tdricos, esta escritora nos sorprende por la madurez de su proceso narrativo y por el substrato cultural que transparenta. ... 371 La manera fluida, el rxo fluido del relato se di- suelve en una cronologxa sin contornos, en la que el presente y el pasado confluyen y se alternan sucesiva- mente. El novelista juega a esta "recherche du temps perdu," en la que lo proustiano no es solamente el m&todo narrativo, sino el encuadre en una barroca ele- gancia de rasos desteftidos, de cornucopias de oro cansado y de espejos cuyo azogue se convirtio en bruma, en irreal encaje, en blonda amarillenta. ... El nombre del protagonista— Ulises— titulo de algunos capltulos— "Circe," "Penelope," "Itaca"— transparentan el juego historico de escribir una narra- cion pautada sobre la peripecia de la Odisea, al modo como James Joyce da un substrato de historia antigua, de relato homerico, a su "Ulysses." Las imagenes fluidas, como en la famosa serie daliniana, "relojes blandos," y partiendo de una tec- nica parecida— la estetica del surrealismo, la escri- tora procede por encuadres— con un procedimiento de "travellogue cinematogr^fico"— pasando de un "principio" a otros— como en la descripcion de las manos de Ulises— pero de manera que las imagenes no adquieran la nitidez del ojo cinematografico, sino la calidad de las que se contemplan tras un esmerilado. De ahx la importancia que alcanza lo musical (uno de los capitulos se entitula "Partitura de Saxof6n") y que hace que la obra este como circulada y transcurra un juego de efluvios modulados. La situacion fronteriza del relato entre la reali dad y mito pone a la escritora en trance de constante error sin decidirse a incidir en el mundo real o fantas- tico. Como en Max Ernst, Marta Traba crea atmosferas irreales con indubitable realidad ... onxrica. ... La expresi6n que traduce todo ello es de extra- ordinaria calidad y la lengua sin estridencia ni loca- lismo. Es un relato gentxl lleno de curvas, calido sinuoso lenguaje de una escritora excepcional. 39 "El nuevo libro de Marta Traba, 'Los laberintos insolados,El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, Enero 7, 1968, p. 10. 372 The other writer in a category with Marta Traba is Fernando Soto Aparicio, born in 1933 in Santa Rosa de Viterbo, not far from the Tipacogue of Eduardo Caballero Calderon. Soto Aparicio began his novelistic career in 40 1960 with Los bienaventurados followed by La rebelidn 41 de las ratas in 1963, both novels of social protest. La rebelion de las ratas, however, which won the 1962 "Selec- ciones Lengua Espanola" Prize (Plaza y Janes), gives evi dence of Soto's exceptional ability which can start with a tale of miners fighting for justice and decent conditions and by adding touches of tremendismo, existentialism and poetry, convert it into a universal expression of human anguish and isolation. 42 Mientras llueve (1966) carries these tendencies farther by replacing the mass prototype in his natural en vironment, the mine, with a completely alienated, withdrawn woman, whose every normal impulse is made to seem unful filled and meaningless in the diary of her life written in her death row cell, while she awaits execution for a crime 40 (Madrid: Aguilar, 1960). 41 (Barcelona: Editorial Plaza y Janes, 1963). 42 (Bogota: Ediciones Tercer Mundo, 1966). 373 which only intensifies the impression of distance and absurdity which pervades the work with an aura of nostalgic bitterness and disappointment, unfulfillment, and the in ability to attain even a modicum of what a human life has a basic right to be. 43 In El espejo sombrio, Soto Aparicio combines all of these tendencies and adds the theme of violencia, or rather its effects, in human terms. The protagonist, Alberto Franco, is in love with the daughter of the man who murdered his father. The work follows a trajectory from hate to love, passion to rebellion, brutality to tender ness, poetry, elegy and anguished outcry, from despair to hope. The author discusses his outlook and his novel in an interview with Isaias Pena Gutierrez: P.— Yo creo que su obra literaria hasta ahora ha girado alrededor del amor, la angustia, y la esperanza. iQue son para usted esos tres sentimientos? R.— El amor es una fuerza importantisima; motor de todo acto vital, del arte, de la belleza, causa inme- diata de la existencia. Por eso, alrededor del amor gira la mayor parte de mi obra: por lo que tiene de entrahablemente humano. Porque amor es calor y ter- nura, es pasion y violencia, es amistad y redencion y condena. En cuanto a la angustia, puede decirse que ha venido apoderandose gradualmente del hoiribre contem- poraneo. La constante y progresiva maquinizacion; 43 (Barcelona: Ediciones Marte, 1967). 374 el sistematico anulamiento del individuo, para desem- bocar en una casi total mania de colectivismo, hacen que la angustia sea el sentimiento predominante en la segunda mitad del siglo XX. El hombre de este tiempo no encuentra c6mo justificar el hecho de que mientras esta pronto a poner un pie en la luna, todavia siga el mundo desangrandose en una lucha que en realidad no ha terminado nunca. Y, finalmente, la esperanza, presente tambien en una gran parte de mi obra, es la astilla salvadora a la que se agarra el naufrago, no importa a donde lo conduzca.^ In El espejo sombrio, the protagonist outlines a plan for writing the type of novel needed by Colombia at the present time: (1) abandon costumbrismo; (2) recognize the intellectual problems of the world and assimilate them to new forms; (3) abandon "las huellas trazadas por los extranjerizantes"; and (4) project the national scope to ward the rest of the world without forgetting that which is truly Colombian. In response to Pena's request, Soto Aparicio replied: Yo siempre he sostenido que una novela mientras mas hondamente se meta en los problemas de una region, de un grupo determinado, es mas importante y mayores equivalencias universales alcanza. Lo que pasa es que el costumbrismo ha venido degenerando, si lo tomamos como un movimiento epidermico. ... Universalizar un libro— para el caso concreto, una novela— no es salirse del terreno inherente al escritor, no es hablar de di- versas razas y de multiples problemas. Universalizarla 44 ^ "La angustia ha venido apoderandose del hombre," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, Agosto 27, 1967, p. 6. 375 es primordialmente ahondar en el hombre como tal, sea este habitante de Rusia o de Africa, o de America. ... Yo encuentro en muchos narradores colombianos los rastros de Faulkner, de Kafka, de Camus. Adaptarse a esos moldes sin inyectarles una savia propia, es un error evidente, y las huellas de otros quedan tan Cla ras que hacen fastidiosa la lectura. Yo creo, honestamente, que tanto Colombia, como America Latina, con sus actuales cargas de problemas, con su desbarajuste social, con su permanente busqueda de algo nuevo y quiza mejor, tienen derecho a la es peranza. Y aun diria mas: que la esperanza en un caso como este, es un deber. Me parece la unica fuerza capaz de controlar la estampida definitiva de estos pueblos, que se debaten entre la indiferencia de los vecinos poderosos y la permanente tentacion de un cambio radical en sus sistemas de vida. P.— £Su ultima novela podrxa denominarse como una obra tragico-poetica? R.— Completamente. Yo busque un estilo, una tec- nica narrativa, que permitiera hacer una amalgama de prosa y poesia, predominando esta. ... No podria escribir como una mascara, es decir, ocultando hipocritamente los hechos desagradables o dolorosos, porque la gente acabaria no creyendo nada. Pero por desgracia, en nuestro medio tampoco puede escribirse abiertamente, ya que hay una apreciable cantidad de trabas de toda indole: sociales, religio- 45 sas, famxliares, etc. Fernando Soto Aparicio is one of the most important young writers of Colombia. In addition to his articles of literary criticism in El Espectador, he has published 45 Ibid. 376 cuentos, poetry, essays and is author of several highly successful "telenovelas," a field which only recently has delivered him from the distracting necessity of holding down several menial jobs simultaneously to be able to afford the "luxury" of intellectual pursuits. His firm conviction of the important role of literature in the bet terment of Colombian society is more than amply attested to by his dogged personal struggle. His commitment is reiter ated in an interview with another young writer, Enrique Santos Molano: — cCual es su meta como escritor, es decir, cuales son las proyecciones que busca para sus escritos? — Mi meta es buscar, por todos los medios y con la totalidad de mis posibilidades, una superacion permanente. Yo creo que el escritor tiene que ser un perfecto inconforme con su propia obra. ... — cCual dirxa usted que es el signo de nuestra £poca, desde el punto de vista del hombre, esencial- mente? — Yo diria que esos signos son dos: la angustia y la duda. Y lo explico asi: la angustia, por cuanto el aceleramiento de la vida en nuestro tiempo lleva al hombre a sentirse cada vez mas solo frente a una colectividad de la que no puede esperar ni comprension, ni ayuda; y la duda, por el hecho simple de que cada avance cientlfico hace volver al hombre sobre sus con- ceptos, sus tradiciones y sus creencias y lo lleva a un estado de inseguridad no fisica sino intima. — Entonces, <*el hombre tendra que acudir al indi- vidualismo de los primeros filosofos, para salvar su esencia? 377 — Siempre he creido que la colectividad anula al individuo. Y por lo mismo, pienso que si el hombre puede refugiarse en si mismo, se realizara plenamente como tal. La colectividad hace que cada hombre sea dentro de su enorme organismo solamente una cedula, y que se sienta tan minusculo como ella. Lo que puede salvar al mundo contemporaneo, en mi concepto muy per sonal, no es la colectividad, sino el hombre, el solo, con sus posibilidades y sus limitaciones.^6 Fernando Soto Aparicio and Marta Traba represent a middle ground of broad cultural background and deliberate, consciously balanced literary tendencies which in the long run will probably be of great importance to younger writers seeking to gain perspective and orient themselves to Colom bian realities while attempting to accommodate newer out looks and trends. The very young writers are often unaware of their debt to national forbears even though they consciously strive to imitate latest nouveau roman modes. A case in 47 point is La infancia leqendaria de Ramiro Cruz, by Mario Arrubla. The work is the search for identity of a very young man, who traces his life from a fantastic legendary beginning in the mountains to a prosaic series of juvenile 46 "Fernando Soto Aparicio, de la Estirpe de los Sonadores," El Tiempo, Julio 27, 1969, p. 14. 47 (Bogota: Ediciones Tercer Mundo, 1967). 378 episodes in a middle class urban setting. While one critic implied that the only way he could have gotten the work published was through influence, another youthful critic in a university publication saw in the work a valid attempt at contemporary expression; thus, critical perspective must be maintained on this level also, in order to avoid a gener ation gap among professionals.^ This is especially true in the case of Mateo el 49 flautista, by Alberto Duque Lopez, who wrote the prologue to Dos o tres inviernos by Alberto Sierra, cited above (pp. 347-350), noteworthy for its lack of punctuation, intense anguish, extreme "nadaista" tone. Of similar ten dency is his own novel whose complete title is Nueva his- toria de Mateo el flautista segun la version de su hermano Juan Sebastian y las memorias de Ana Magdalena. The award caused what has been referred to as an "explosion criti- grafica" by people from all walks of life appalled that 48 See: Jaime Lopera, "La mitologia de Ramxro Cruz," Razon y Fabula, Julio-Agosto, 1967, pp. 146-147; Agustin Rodriguez Garavito, "La infancia legendaria de Ramiro Cruz," BCB, X (1967), 126-127; Fernando Soto Aparicio, "La infan cia legendaria de Ramiro Cruz," El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, Agosto 20, 1967, p. 4. 49 (Bogota: Ediciones Lerner, 1968). 379 the nation's highest prize should have been conferred on such a piece. Finally, Hugo Ruiz conducted an "encuesta" of novelists representing various trends and one of the judges, historian and writer, Abelardo Forero Benavidez, praised the potential of the author and insisted on the necessity to keep an open mind and give an opportunity to the younger authors even though they might use "dirty words," touch "unrefined subjects," and employ forms which are confusing, unstructured, and even puerile by traditional standards. Forero's defense seemed to indicate the desire on the part of the jury to use the ESSO Prize as a means of encouraging all writers, especially "nadaistas," as well as others, who had previously been excluded from serious consideration, which had caused a damaging rift in 1966. The selection did not mean the triumph of "Nadaismo" but rather the recognition and acceptance of diversity in com petition. The extremely unstructured story involves a small boy who roams about "el puerto" (Cartagena-Barran- quilla) engaging in scabrous black humor episodes charac terized by "tomaduras de pelo" reminiscent of "nadaista" tendencies. Most critics felt there was not enough novel there to give a prize to, nor was their confidence or 380 acceptance of the jury's decision increased by Forero Bena vides' explanation. Chagrin was expressed that publication and money should have been "wasted" on "Mateo." Objec tively, however, while critics may be right from one point of view, Forero's view is worthy of serious consideration, concerning encouragement of all novelists, especially the very young who might otherwise suffer a reaction of further alienation since the "concurso Nadaismo de novela" seems to have languished in the bud. Henceforth, theoretically at least, all tendencies currently active in the national scene will have precedents for competition in the ESSO Prize with the inclusion of novels representing advanced 50 positions of Avant Garde trends. To recall the words of Fanny Buitrago cited from "La novisima generacion" at the beginning of this chapter, "algo ha comenzado." The "algo" that has begun is the authentication and 50 For a collection of representative viewpoints see: Hugo Ruiz, "Encuesta sobre Premio ESSO 1968 y Mateo el Flautista," El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, Febrero 16, 1969, pp. 10, 11, 12. For additional points of view see also: Luis C. Herrera, S.J., "Mateo el Flautista," Revista Javeriana, Abril, 1969, pp. 326-327; Camilo Restrepo, "Mateo," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, Febrero 29, 1969, p. 6; Fernando Soto Aparicio, "Mateo el Flautista," El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, Marzo 23, 1969, p. 14. 381 conteraporization of Colombian literature as has been clearly illustrated in an "encuesta" conducted by Oscar Collazos entitled "La nueva literatura coloiribiana— voluntad de ruptura" which answered the following questions: 1. £Existe en las actuales manifestaciones literarias del pais un sintoma o ejemplos personales de ruptura con las "formas tra- dicionales" de la literatura colombiana"? £En que terminos y con que caracteristicas se da esta eventual ruptura? 2. cComo y donde ubicaria usted las ultimas manifestaciones literarias de Colombia en el contexto de la literatura latino- americana? Collazos states his view: Pero sucede que cuando el escritor quiere que su obra se reconozca en la realidad vivida y se afirme en su confrontacion con la misma, tiene que acudir a unos elementos racionales, a unos instrumentos de juicio que la literatura, por si sola y aislada de la cultura (como totalidad sociolbgica) no podria proporcionar. El nuevo escritor colombiano esta buscando abrirse (partiendo de la expresion de la realidad vivida) a nuevas formas expresivas menospreciadas por una "tra- dicion" nacionalista, aun ilusionada en la existencia de unas precarias manifestaciones literarias dadas dentro del desorden y la asistematizacion del trabajo creador, sucedidas violentamente entre saltos y retro- cesos, manifestaciones sin procesacion alguna, dadas en el marco de una sub-cultura que se acentua en su falsedad justamente en el encierro obstinado que ha regido la vida de un escritor para quien la realidad siempre fue solo el sintoma de una "tragedia opti- mista," la manifestacion violenta de un caos, la fachada de una crisis que podria ser expresada mila- grosamente sin mas recursos que el "talento," la 382 "intuicion" o la voluntad lirica de responder urgente- mente a una necesidad documental.51 Hugo Ruiz believes that a rupture has occurred in writers like Alvaro Cepeda Samudio/ Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Alvaro Mutis, and Jose Felix Fuenmayor. After these— he discounts the "estruendoso fracaso nadaista"— he sees: Un grupo de escritores que busca integrar nuevas formas a la poesia y a la narracibn, como base para bucear mas y mejor en la pesca de valores propios, no solo a escala nacional sino tambien continental. Asi la rup tura se continua dando en terminos de busqueda. ... Para esto, los nuevos escritores cuentan con la fortuna de que existe ya en Latinoamerica toda una lista de autores valiosos. ... Ahora, los ejemplos tanto lite- rarios como humanos estan a la mano en el continente y la trabajada calidad y lucidez de las obras de un Sabato, un Cortazar, un Guimaraes, un Onetti, etc., estan indicando el camino, si bien este debe ir cada C p vez mas lejos. Nicolas Suescun is of the opinion that the Colom bian classical tradition has been in itself an "extran- jerizante" influence since "nosotros no somos labradores castellanos del siglo de oro": Contra esta actitud, tonta cuando no deshonesta, si hay una fuerte reaccion por parte de algunos es critores que en vez de describir el paisaje, hacer 51 El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, Noviembre 10, 1968, p. 1. 52 Ibid. 383 literatura comprometida, reproducir dialectos campe- sinos/ poner metaforas como las gallinas o recurrir a la truculencia de peleas de gallos, violaciones colectivas, asesinatos en mosa, etc. En los libros de Garcia Marquez y en los de algu- nos j6venes estamos empezando a vernos los colomibianos tal cual somos. Estos tiltimos, que estdn explorando su propia experiencia con voluntad casi confesional, son los primeros, en cuanto generacion, que por lo menos se han propuesto analizar y aclarar (y por lo tanto modificar) lo que los rodea, en lugar de taparlo con arandelas.^ Humberto Valverde points out that the new gener ation in Colombia, beginning with the new attitude of Cien ahos de soledad, has had to establish the basis for the modernization of literature, the writers looking forward 54 while the critics look toward the past. 53 Ibid., p. 4. The accuracy of this statement has increased during the time span covered by this investiga tion. Fortunately, a growing number of independent instru ments for verification exist, among which the following two are excellent sources: Subversion and Social Chancre in Colombia, by Orlando Fals Borda, translated by Jacqueline D. Skiles (New York: Columbia University Press, 1969), and Internal Colonialism and Structural Chancre in Colombia, edited by A. Eugene Havens and William L. Flinn (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1970). Doctor Fals Borda is a United States educated Colombian sociologist who has dedicated himself to understanding his country's social complexities, what their history has been, and what their future trends are likely to be. Professors Havens and Flinn have co ordinated results of field projects aimed at investigation of sociological processes. 54 El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, Noviembre 10, 1968, p. 4. 384 Dario Ruiz Gomez relates the innovative aspects of the recent Colombian scene to events of continental magni tude: La poesia y la narrativa joven de Latinoamerica, en especial la de Cuba, Argentina, y en alguna medida Mejico, se caracterizan por ese proposito de romper con un mundo, por incorporar el lenguaje de un hombre concreto que hasta ahora fue como una especie de tabu. Ese fondo prohibido y terrible de que habla Cortazar. De ahi que en Jitrik o en Garcia Robles encuentre uno "no la poesia en abstracto" sino el recuento de los lugares y experiencias comunes. Con las palabras que no son respetables, segun la norma de los viejos aca- demicos. Como creo que esto es lo historico lo que sehala la emancipacion, en esa misma medida en que se haga conciencia de la literatura como una via de libe- racion se estara entrando tambien en el ambito del gran proceso liberatorio en que vivimos. Porque finalmente hay que senalar un hecho decisivo: la audiencia ha crecido desmesuradamente; el escritor no esta solo como antes. Y esto es algo que supone un cambio radical de exigencias y propositos. 55 Ibid., p. 6. CONCLUSION The contemporary Colombian novel is in a period of transition which had causes antedating the span of this investigation but whose main impetus coincided with it and continues beyond it. The quantitative and qualitative growth in the novel is unprecedented in the history of Colombia. Such impressive expansion stands in specific relation to factors of growth and change in the nation as a whole, which in turn are related to hemispheric and global movements. That these factors are significant to Colombian intellectuals is amply illustrated by Fernando Soto Aparicio (born 1933) who is novelist, poet, essayist, dramatist (stage and television), and active literary critic. Against a background of new generation students in the university in Bogota, he has protagonist Alberto Franco in El espejo soiribrxo (cited p. 374), refugee from rural violence, seeking orientation and meaning in the metropo lis, read newspaper accounts of a full gamut of problems, 385 386 including threat of nuclear destruction as a result of con flict between the great powers (United States and Russia). This brings him to consideration of the Colombian novel and the key words of his conclusion: "Estamos renovcindonos. " The vital process of renewal gained momentum during the period of this investigation under the impetus of Gabriel Garcia Marquez who did'rather than said what had to be done. His novels; — his actions— spoke much louder and more eloquently than any amount of literary theorizing— words— either his own or those of other writers or critics. The essence of Garcia Marquez' contribution was basically to make the novel once more "life itself," that is, the true expression and reflection of living breathing, real, flesh and blood Colombians of the second half of the twen tieth century. Whatever criticisms may have been levelled against him have not altered the fact that millions of people have seen real life, the fruit of creative imagina tion, in his works and have bought them up as soon as they appear. Artistic truth is the key to "estamos renovandonos" and Gabriel Garcia Marquez has shown the way and stood as an alter ego for a generation of Colombians of all ages as they have sought to make truth be the guide for their life 387 and literature: "autenticidad" in literature, no matter what the form. The will to authenticate literary expression is a concomitant of cultural change in general. This has been clearly illustrated in the "encuesta" conducted by Oscar Collazos entitled "La nueva literatura colombiana— Voluntad de Ruptura" (cited pp. 381-384). The striving for renovation and authenticity charac teristic of the latest trends in the novel has more than reaffirmed the truism that Latin American literature pro vides an almost documentary reflection of society. In the case of Colombia, the accuracy of this statement has in creased during the time of the present study, although, due to innovations and new tendencies, some interpretation might be required to verify this. The interesting and significant point is that the social contents of social science documents and investigations are often inter changeable with that of many novels considered in the pres ent dissertation, either directly or by extrapolation. As a means of studying Colombian society, the novel can defi nitely be considered a most rewarding source. That this is so is largely the result of efforts on the part of novelists studied in preceding chapters. 388 Beginning with La violencia, of course, the social pressure was great. This was intensified by population, develop mental and political factors which, as has been seen, proved to be too excruciating in their effects to be ex cluded by traditional limits and they were to prove ulti mately stronger as themes of expression than the barriers which previously had contained them. Thus the true themes of Colombian reality forced their way into national expres sion. In like manner, the artistic quality of novelistic production was enhanced by inclusion of new expressive modes. Culturally speaking, it can be said that the foun dation and initial stages of the modernization of the Colombian novel were greatly advanced during the time span of this study. At the same time, the cultural climate for up-dated consideration of a range of complex human problems improved. This was reflected in the novel and in part aided by it. Although, true to their vocation, many writers are far from contented in various respects, it is obvious from the material presented that the novel is a significantly improved creative instrument and, in general, healthier and on more solid ground, with markedly freer and broader scope than in the early 1950's, 389 Clemente Airo, Eduardo Caballero Calderon, Manuel Gonzalez Martinez, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Alvaro Cepeda Samudio, Manuel Mejia Vallejo, Hector Rojas Herazo, Eutiquio Leal, Elisa Mujica, Flor Romero de Nohra, Marta Traba, Fanny Buitrago, Fernando Soto Aparicio, and a number of potentially good novelists, some young, some old, some more traditional, some extremely "experimental, " are con sciously dedicated to the professionalization of their art in Colombia. In the main, the novel is on the average more modern than before in theme, treatment, and form and, more importantly, it is expected to be, and will no doubt in crease in this regard since Colombia's geography which once fostered isolation is now witnessing "mass isolation," physically, with more than half of the population now in urban centers with a growing trend in evidence. This, of course, exposes more and more Colombians to education and mass media of all forms, including television, movies, and novels. The population is also growing younger in median age which, again, suggests a more receptive atmosphere to change of various types. Considering the outstanding role of members of the younger generation in the renovation of the narrative (with the aid of such young minded members 390 of the senior set as Eduardo Caballero Calderdn and others), the increase in the "youth movement" will likely be re flected in the area of novelistic activity. This dissertation has been an attempt to present the main trends in the novel between 1953 and 1967 and this has been done according to the plan mentioned in the Intro duction. The quantity of material obviously precludes detailed consideration of the novels presented in each category. Further studies should be conducted on many of these novels and categories as well as aspects suggested but not fully developed. In addition to being an intensely interesting field, these studies are of crucial importance to our vital interests which are increasingly dependent upon our informed understanding of our fellow Americanos in Colombia, who, with the contemporary generation of novelists contemplating their past, express a "voluntad de ruptura," but can also say "estamos renovandonos." BIBLIOGRAPHY 391 BIBLIOGRAPHY Novels Acosta Borrero, Pedro. El cadaver del Cid. Bogota: Ediciones Voces Libres, 1965. Airo, Clemente. La ciudad y el viento. Bogota: Ediciones Espiral, Editorial Iqueima, 1961. Arag6n, Victor. El despertar de los demonios. Bogota: Sociedad Editora de los Andes, 1968. ________ . Los ojos del bubo. Bogota: Editorial Revista Colombiana, Ltda., 1966. Arango, Gonzalo. Los ratones van al infierno y consaqra- cion de la nada. Bogota: Ediciones Tercer Mundo, 1964. Arango Jaramillo, Euclides. Un campesino sin regreso. Medellin: Editorial Bedout, 1959. Ardila Casamitjana, Jaime. Las manzanas del paraiso. Bucaramanga: Editorial La Cabana, 1960. Ardila y Ardila, Ruben. Neferetiti, Reina de Egipto. Bogota: Editorial Iqueima, 1961. Arrubla, Mario. La infancia legendaria de Ramiro Cruz. Bogota: Antares - Tercer Mundo, 1967. Barco de Valderrama, Lucy. La picua ceba. Bogota: Edi ciones Lerner, 1966. Bayer, Tulio. Carretera al mar. Bogota: Editorial Iqueima, 1960. 392 393 Beltr&n, German. Burbujas. Bogota: Editorial Iqueima/ 1961. ________. El diablo sube el tel6n. Bogota: Ediciones Espiral, Editorial Iqueima, 1955. Bonilla Naar, Alfonso. Viaje sin pasajero. Bogota: Ediciones Lerner, 1966. Buitrago, Fanny. El hostigante verano de los dioses. Bogota: Ediciones Tercer Mundo, 1963. Buitrago, Jaime. La tierra es del Indio— novela indiqe- nista. Bogota: Editorial Minerva, 1955. Caballero Calderon, Eduardo. Cain. Barcelona: Ediciones Destino, 1969. ________. El buen salvaje. Madrid: Ediciones Guadarrama, 1955. ________. La penultima hora. Barcelona: Ediciones Destino, 1966. Manuel Pacho. Medellin: Editorial Bedout, 1962. ________. Siervo sin tierra— Obras. Tomo III. Medellin: Editorial Bedout, 1966. Cadavid Uribe, Gonzalo. Pozo ceqado. Medellin: Editorial Carpel-Antorcha, 1966. ________. Visibilidad cero. Medellin: Editorial Uryco, Ltda., 1966. Caicedo, Daniel. Viento seco. Segunda edicidn. Bogota: Cooperativa Nacional de Artes Graficas, 1954. Camelo, Julio Alejandro. Las luces de la tarde (Bogota, 6 P.M.). Bogota: Ediciones "Nuevo Mundo," 1968. Canal Ramirez, Gonzalo. Contra la eternidad. Bogota: Imprenta Canal Ramirez, 1963. 394 Canal Ramirez, Gonzalo. Eramos doce. Bogota: Imprenta Canal Ramirez, 1963. ________ . Nicodemas. Bogota: Imprenta Canal Ramirez, 1968. Castellanos Tapias, Luis. El alzamiento. Bogota: Edi torial Guadalupe, 1962. Cepeda Samudio, Alvaro. La casa grande. Buenos Aires: Editorial Jorge Alvarez, 1967. Cocherin, Ivan (pseudonym of Jesus Gonzalez). Tunel. N.p.: Imprenta Departamental de Caldas, 1963. Coman, Ion. Vendaval rojo. Barranquilla: Graficos Mora Escofet, 1958. Davila Gomez, Ignacio. El cuarto sello. Mexico: Editorial Galatea, 1951. Dow, Alberto. Guanduru (El espiritu del mal). Cali: 1958. Dulcey, Arcadio. Una mujer perdida. Madrid: Ediciones Guadarrama, 1958. Duque Agudelo, Adalberto. Suicidio por reflexion. Mani- zales: Editorial Renacimiento, 1966. Duque Lopez, Alberto. Mateo el flautista. Bogota: Edi ciones Lerner, 1968. Galindo, Juan de J. Conferencias en marte. Cali: Imprenta Marquez, 1957. Gallinazo, Pablus. La pequena hermana. Bogota: Tercer Mundo, S.A., 1966. Garcia, J. J. Dialogos en la Reina del Mar. Bogota: Tercer Mundo, 1966. Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. Cien anos de soledad. Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1967. 395 Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. El coronel no tiene cfuien la escriba. Mexico: Ediciones ERA, 1961. ________ . La hojarasca. Bogota: Ediciones SLB, 1955. ________ . La mala hora. Mexico: Ediciones ERA, 1966. Due to unauthorized changes made by the publishers in 1962, the author considers this the first unaltered version. Giraldo Jaramillo, Samuel. Nadaismo diplomatico. Bogota: Editorial Colombia Nueva, 1965. Gomez Barrera, Reinaldo. Sanore sobre la nieve. Bucara- manga: Imprenta del Departamento, 1966. Gomez Valderrama, Francisco. La diosa de los salvajes. Cali: Editorial Pacifico, 1959. ________ . Lili. Cali: Editorial Pacifico, 1958. Sodoma. Cali: Editorial Pacifico, 1961. Gongora Martan, Helcias. Socav6n. Bogota: Internacional de Publicaciones, 1966. Gonzalez Patino, Francisco. Bienaventurados los rebeldes. Bogota: Bibliografica Colombiana, 1958. Granados Forero, Antonio. La epopeya del terror, 1816- 1819. Bogota: Ediciones Tercer Mundo, 1957. Hilari6n, Alfonso. Balas de la ley. Bogota: Editorial Santa Fe, 1953. Hoyos, Hernan. Cronica de la vida sexual. Cali: Ediciones Exclusivas, 1968. ________ . Cronica de ultraturaba. Cali: Ediciones Exclusi vas, 1969. ________ . Ron, g-increr y limon. Bogota: Editorial Antares, 1962. 396 Hoyos, Hernan. Todos nos condenamos. Cali: Ediciones Exclusivas, 1968. Hurtado Montezuma, Alberto. Ceniza comun. Bogota: Edi torial Argra, 1954. ________. El paraiso del diablo. Madrid: Editorial Cultura Clasica y Moderna, Graficas Canales, S.L., 1966. Ibaiiez, Jaime. Un hueco en el aire. Bogota: Biblioteca AHPIA de Colombia, 1968. Isaacs, Jorge. Maria. Introduction and Notes by Daniel Moreno. Mexico: Editorial Porrua, 1966. Jaramillo Botero, Bernardo. El capitan. Bogota: Editorial Tercer Mundo, 1968. Jaramillo, Manuel Jose. La aduana. Bogota: Editorial Cosmos, 1960. Juncal, Soraya (pseudonym of Amanda Escobar Correa). Jacinta y la violencia. Medellin: Editorial Alvarez, 1967. ________. Miseria y amor. Medellin: Editorial Alvarez, 1966. Jurado Reyes, Guillermo.~Aquas subterraneas. Bucaramanga: Editorial Sideral, 1959. Lasso Aponte, Gaston. Rencor en las semillas. Cali: Editora Feriva, 1967. Leal, Eutiquio J. Despues de la noche (Sinopsis de una novela). Cartagena: Editorial "El Marinero,1 1 1964. Lopez Cardona, Silvio. Del mismo oriqen. Medellin: Editorial Salesiana, n.d. Lopez Escobar, Ignacio. Judas. Bogota: Editorial Santa Fe, 1955. 397 L6pez Freyle, Isaac. La casimba novela. Bogota: Editorial Iqueima, 1959. L6pez Michelson, Alfonso. Los eleqidos. Mexico: Editorial Guarania, 1953. Manrique, Alberto. El periodista muere mil veces. Bogota: Editorial Visi6n, 1968. Martinez Gonzalez, Manuel. La canija. Bogota: Editorial Vision, 1967. ________. Llanura, soledad y viento (casanare). Bogota: Editorial Lurnbre, 1960. ________. Niebla en la sierra (La nifta Polita). Bogota: AEDITA Editores, Ltda., 1961. Martinez Guerra F., Guillermo. El dia octavo (de que se rien, malditas ratas. 1?). Bogota: Tercer Mundo, 1966. ________. El sueno de los parpados. Medellin: Editorial Carpel-Antorcha, 1966. Mejia G6mez, Gabriel. La ratonera. Medellin: Editorial Albon-Interprint, S.A., n.d. Mejia, Maria Teresa. Demasiado tarde. Madrid: Editorial Guadarrama, 1959. Mejia Vallejo, Manuel. El dia senalado. Barcelona: Ediciones Destino, 1964. Mogollbn, Alcides. El ultimo evangelio. Bogota: Editorial Kelly, 1965. Monedero Navia, Alvaro. Irresponsables. Cali: Produccio- nes Latinoamericanas, Ltda., 1962. Monsalve Hernandez, Mario. Al final de la calle. Bogota: Ediciones Lerner, Ltda., 1966. Morales Pino, Augusto. Dias en bianco. Bogota: Editorial Kelly, 1957. 398 Morales Pino, Augusto. En cielo y asfalto. ' Bogota: Editorial Kelly, 1966. ________. La confesi6n. Bogota: Editorial Kelly, 1961. ________ . Los de en medio. Bogota: Editorial Kelly, 1967. ________. Redoblan los tambores (1795-1817). Bogota: Editorial Kelly, 1964. ________. Una noche de Septierribre. Bogota: Editorial Kelly, 1969. Mozo Tovar, Efrain. Zig, Zaq en las bananeras. Bogota: Offset de Colombia, 1964. Mujica, Elisa. Catalina. Madrid: Editorial Aguilar, 1963. Navarro, Humberto. Los dias mas felices del ano. Bogota: Tercer Mundo, S.A., 1966. Nijisztor, Zoltan. Extranjero en la casa cural. Bogota: Editorial Mensajero, 1956. Osorio Lizarazo, Jose Antonio. El camino en la sombra. Madrid: Aguilar, 1965. ________. El dia del odio. Buenos Aires: Lbpez Negri, 1952. ________. Viernes 9. Mexico: Impresiones Modernas, 1953. Palacios, Eustaguio. El alferez real. Cali: Alberto Carvajal, 1959. Pinzon, German. El terremoto. Bogota: Ediciones Tercer Mundo, S.A., 1966. Ponce de Le6n, Fernando. La castafia. Bogota: Editorial Hmos. Ponce de Leon, 1959. ________ . Matias. 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"Fernando Ponce de Le6n, caro o sello," Revista Espiral (Bogota), Septiembre-Diciembre, 1966, pp. 73-74. De Arce, Carlos. "Consideraciones a una novela," Espiral, Marzo, 1965, p. 38. Gomez O., Alvaro, S.J. "El mal salvaje," Eco, XIII (Mayo, 1966), 94-96. Gbmez Ruiz, Dario. "Osorio Lizarazo y su obra," Letras Nacionales, Febrero, 1965, pp. 83-85. Gonzalez Martinez, Manuel. "Redoblan los tambores de Augusto Morales Pino," BCB, VII (1964), 271. 406 Herrera, Luis C., S.J. "Mateo el flautista," Revista Jave- riana, Abril, 1969, pp. 326-327. Jaramillo Agudelo, Dario. "La pequena hermana de Pablus Gallinazo," Arco, Octubre, 1966. Krdger, Helga. "Una novela de Caballero Calder6n, 'Manuel Pacho,' ante la critica estructural y objetiva," BCB, VIII (1965), 389-405. Lopera, Jaime. "La mitologia de Ramiro Cruz," Razon y Fabula, Julio-Agosto, 1967, pp. 146-147. Lleras de la Fuente, Carlos. "La literatura de la violen- cia," BCB, IV (Julio, 1961), 659-662. Madrid-Malo, Nestor. "Dos juicios sobre una novela Colom bians, " Americas, XVI (Julio, 1964), 38-39. ________ . "Estado actual de la novela en Colombia," BCB, IX (1966), 887-895, 1128-1133. McIntyre, Loren. "From Amazon to Spanish Main Colombia," National Geographic, 138 (August, 1970), 246. Mejica Duque, Jaime. "Las ceremonias del verano," BCB, X (1967), 867-870. Ortega, Julio. "Cien ahos de soledad," Razon y Fabula, Septiembre-Octubre, 1968, p. 7. Piedrahita, -Ivan. "Nuestra nueva literatura— examen de la novela Colombians contemporanea," Revista de la Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, XX (Agosto- Noviembre, 1954), 125-127. Pizano Samper, Daniel. "Nadaismo saldo en rojo," BCB, IX (1966), 1184-1188. Rodriguez Garavito, Augustin. "La Gaitana," BCB, III (Marzo, 1960), 175-176. . "La infancia legendaria de Ramiro Cruz," BCB, X {1967), 126-127. 407 Rodriguez Monegal, Emir. "Novedad y anacronismo de cien afios de soledad, " Revista Nacional de Cultura (Caracas), XXIX (Julio-Septiembre, 1968), 3. Ruiz, Hugo. "Novela 65," Letras Nacionales, Enero-Febrero, 1966, pp. 35-37. ________. "Nuevos escritores colombianos," BCB, V (1962), 1586-1589. Santa, Eduardo. "Presencia y realidad de la novela," Bolivar, Enero-Febrero, 1955, pp. 163-164. Traba, Marta. "Las ceremonias del verano— La novela del Monologo Interior, El buen salvaje," Revista Javeriana, LXXI (Marzo, 1969), 198. ________. "La tecnica en El buen salvaje II," Revista Javeriana, LXXXI (Abril, 1969), 263-276. Valencia Goelkel, Hernando. "Triptico negligente," Eco, XIV (1966), 214-217. Vargas Villamil, Luis Hernando. "Yanguaro," BCB, Mayo, 1961, p. 391. Volkening, Ernesto. "A proposito de La mala hora," Eco, Agosto, 1963, pp. 294-304. Zapata Olivella, Manuel. "Mis ajetreos en el novelar hispanoamericano,” BCB, X (1967), 72-73. ■ ' ! . Newspaper Reviews Algazel. "Ahora gue los criticos nos han descubierto," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, May 26, 1968, p. 5. Amoros, Andres. 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Herran, Teresa. "Otra novela de Victor Aragon," El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, February 16, 1969, p. 6. "La novela colombiana se ha desviado hacia un tipo de docu- mento, de reportaje o de pastiche," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, April 14, 1963, p. 6. Lucanor, Maese. "En noviembre llega el arzobispo," El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, September 8, 1968, p. 13. Monsalve, Alfonso. "Una entrevista con Flor Romero de Nohra, Mi Capitan Fabian Sicacha," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, February 25, 1968, p. 4. Monsalve, Antonio. "Una entrevista con Garcia Marquez; La novela anuncio de grandes transformaclones," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, January 14, 1968, p. 4. Mujica, Elisa. "Desde Espana," El Tiempo— Lecturas Domini cales, July 17, 1955, p. 4. Muhoz, Hector. "La novela entra en etapa de superacion, dicen criticos," El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, October 29, 1967, p. 4. "Novela premiada— Detras del rostro," El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, April 21, 1963, p. 15. 410 Pach6n Castro, Gloria. "Proposito de una obra literaria: El drama de la niftez victima de la violencia," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, October 11, 1964, p. 8. Pefta Gutierrez, Isaias. "La angustia ha venido apoder^n- dose del hombre," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, August 27, 1967, p. 6. Piedrahita, Oscar. "Los premios de novela, un coctel molotov," El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, July 24, 1966, p. 6. Pietri Uslar, Arturo. "De El Carnero a Macondo," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, November 24, 1968, p. 4. Pizano Samper, Daniel. "La ciudad terror de nuestros novelistas," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, Novem ber 7, 1965, p. 2. . "Guayacan, 0.' Ahi vienen los academicos, " El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, June 12, 1966, p. 6. . "La picua se va, no es una novela," El Especta dor— Magazine Dominical, June 19, 1966, p. 10. . "Reportaje literario, una novela escrita en el respaldo de avisos taurinos, 1 1 El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, September 12, 1965, p. 3. Raya, Doctor (pseudonym of Efrain Lezama). "viaje sin pasajero— El striptease de un opita," El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, July 24, 1966, pp. 8-9. I I Restrepo, Camilo. "Mateo," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominica les, February 29, 1969, p. 6. Restrepo, P. Felix, S.J. "En torno a una polemica— El Premio de Novela ESSO, tempestad en un vaso de agua," El Tiempo— Lecturas Dominicales, June 6, 1965, p. 2. Rojas Herazo, Hector. "<?Porque carecemos de una nove listica de la violencia en Colombia?" El Tiempo— Suplemento Literario, December 2, 1962, p. 1. 411 Ruiz, Hugo. "Encuesta sobre Premio ESSO 1968 y Mateo el flautista," El Espectador— Magazine Dominical, Febru ary 16, 1969, pp. 11-12. Santa, Eduardo. "Observaciones a la critica colombiana," El Tiempo— Suplemento Literario, Marzo 6, 1955, p. 2. Santos Molano, Enrique. 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Creator Pedersen, Carl Erol, Jr. (author)

Core Title Main Trends In The Contemporary Colombian Novel, 1953-1967

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Spanish

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Literature, Modern,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Advisor McMahon, Dorothy Elizabeth (committee chair), Berkey, Max Leslie, Jr. (committee member), Curtis, Robert E. (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c18-534101

Unique identifier UC11361961

Identifier 7200575.pdf (filename),usctheses-c18-534101 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 7200575.pdf

Dmrecord 534101

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Pedersen, Carl Erol, Jr.

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Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

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