University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

The Latin American Dictator In The Novel

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The Latin American Dictator In The Novel

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Content GONZALES, Raymond Joseph, 1938- THE LATIN AMERICAN DICTATOR IN THE NOVEL. University of Southern California, Ph.D., 1971 Language and Literature, modern University Microfilms, A X E R O X Company, Ann Arbor. Michigan C opyright Q by RAYMOND JO SEPH GONZALES 1971 THIS DISSERXATKM MAS MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED THE IATIN AMERICAN DICTATOR IN THE NOVEL by Raymond Joseph Gonzales 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 (Latin American Studies) September 1971 UNIVERSITY O F S O U T H E R N C A LIFO R N IA TH E ORADUATE SC H O O L UN IVERSITY PARK LO S A N OELES. C A LIFO R N IA 0 0 0 0 7 This dissertation, written by ............... Kayinxui<LJx«jRph..GanaaIes.................. under the direction of Ms Dissertation Com mittee, and approved by all its members, has been Presented to and accepted by The Gradu ate School, in partial fulfillment of require ments of the degree of D O C T O R OF P H IL O S O P H Y Ds^.JSeptembex^J.SlXJl j ftjLn£c~o r]| DISSERTATION COMMITTEE PLEASE NOTE: Some pages have indistinct print* Tilmed as received* UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ......................................... X Chapter I . A UNIVERSAL DEFINITION OF DICTATORSHIP .... 7 The Totalitarian State The Dictator II . THE LATIN AMERICAN DEFINITION OF DICTATORSHIP ............................... 27 Characteristics of Latin American Dictatorship Militarism The Democratic Principle Personalismo Classification of Dictators Some Characteristics of the Dictator III. CAUSAL FACTORS FOR THE EMERGENCE OF THE LATIN AMERICAN DICTATOR ................ 63 Spanish Colonialism Pre-Columbian Influences Psychological Factors Geographic Factors Economic Factors United States Influence ii Chapter P&98 IV. THE DICTATOR IN THE POLITICAL NOVEL........... 98 Chronology of the Political Novel in Latin America V. IA SQMBRA DEL CAUPILLO BY MARTfN LUIS GUZM/CN........................................ 128 VI. EL SEfiOR PRESIDENTS BY MIGUEL ANGEL ASTURIAS...................................... 158 The Dictator Estrada Cabrera The Nove1 VII. EL PUflO DEL AMO BY GERARDO GALLEGOS............. 197 Venezuelan Caudillismo El puno del amo VIII. LA LLAGA BY GABRIEL CASACCIA................. 22 3 The Author and His Works La llaga IX. LA FIESTA DEL REY A CAB BY ENRIQUE LAFOURCADE ..................................251 I The Novel and the Dictator The Plot El Desoensador X. EL TIEMPO DE IA IRA BY LUIS SPOTA............. 282! The Novel and the Dictator El Caudillo iii Chapter Page XI. THE LATIN AMERICAN DICTATOR IN THE Tirano Banderas by Ramon Maria del Valle-Inclan Muertes de perro by Francisco Ayala Nos tronto by Joseph Conrad The Comedians by Graham Greene The Latin American Political Setting WORKS OF FOREIGN AUTHORS 314 CONCLUSION 361 A Classification of Tyrants The Six Characteristics of Dictatorship The Prognosis BIBLIOGRAPHY 393 iv INTRODUCTION In 1937 Professor J. Fred Rippy stated in his article "Monarchy or Republic?" that "dictators have been so numer ous that the history of most . . . Latin American countries is to a large extent the biography of these imperious per sonalities."1 If one goes back far enough he may include in this group of dictators even such figures as Moctezuma and Hern^n Cortes. During the Colonial Period, too, the viceroys were endowed with almost absolute power over the subjects they governed in the name of the King. Since In dependence in the nineteenth century, dictatorship has been more the rule than the exception in Latin America, as Rippy has suggested. How could one possibly understand the Mexico of the mid-nineteenth century without understanding the nature of Lopez de Santa Ana, or grasp an understanding of ^In South American Dictators During the First Century of Independence. ed. A. Curtis Wilgus (Washington, D. C.: George Washington University Press, 1937), p. 16. Argentina without some knowledge of the man don Manuel de Rosas? The twentieth century is no different. For over a quarter of a century Juan Vicente G<5mez was Venezuela, just as Rafael Leonidas Trujillo was the Dominican Republic. Strangely enough, history has forgotten most of the politi cal figures who ruled their Latin American countries in peace and tranquillity, but has emphasized the tyranny of such men as Gomez and Trujillo. Consequently, there is today an ever-increasing amount of historical information available to the student of Latin American dictatorship. In the world of the arts, specifically literature, the Latin American dictator has also been immortalized. In poetry, fiction, and drama such characters as Doctor Fran- t cia, Santa Ana, Manuel Estrada Cabrera, and Porfirio Diaz 1 have been analyzed by the writer. There is no dearth of literature that is available to the reader who wishes to examine the artist's conception of Latin American dictators.! i Up to the present time, however, there has been little j I effort made to combine the two interpretations of Latin American dictatorship, the historical and the artistic. It is the intention of this work to analyze the Latin American dictator from these two points of view. To do this it has been necessary to limit the work to the study of twentieth- century dictators in a limited number of novels, since otherwise the topic would be too extensive. Since it is generally accepted that dictatorship is endemic to Latin America, it is hoped that this analysis of the phenomenon from a humanistic point of view will add to the understand ing of the political reality of the area. The work is divided into two parts: the first, which includes Chapters I through III, analyzes dictatorship from a sociopolitical point of view, chapter I studies dictator ship in the universal sense, analyzing the political system from the Greek and Roman period through absolute monarchy up to the twentieth-century totalitarian state. The char acteristics of dictatorship as described by Friedrich and Brzezinski in their work Totalitarian Dictatorship and ! Autocracy (1968) are also studied in this chapter. Chapter II presents a broad definition of Latin Ameri- j can dictatorship and its comparison and contrast with the i universal definition. Such peculiarly Latin American ele- ] ments as caciquismo. caudillismo. and personalismo are pre sented to demonstrate how despotism differs in this part of j the world. An effort is also made to show how in other areas, specifically the six characteristics of dictatorship jpresented by Friedrich and Brzezinski, the Latin American despot is similar to the universal model. Chapter III is an intensive study of the causal factors for the emergence of the Latin American dictator. The his torical factors, the racial elements, the psychological factors, and the geographic and economic elements that have resulted in dictatorship as almost a way of life in Latin America are analyzed in depth. The next nine chapters of the work deal with the lit erary analysis of the Latin American dictator in the novel. It should be remembered, however, that the sociopolitical factor in the study of dictatorship in literature is never absent, for the writer is at once artist and political scientist. Chapter IV begins this section with a historical discussion of the Latin American dictator in the political nove1. The next six chapters analyze both from a historical i J and an artistic point of view the novels of six Latin Ameri can writers who have attempted to depict dictators and the j t phenomenon of dictatorship in their works. La sombra del ! caudillo by the Mexican Martin Luis Guzman, El senor presi- j dante by Miguel Angel Asturias of Guatemala, and El puno del aroo by the Ecuadorian Gerardo Gallegos describe the dicta torships of three despots of the early twentieth century. The last three novels, La llaga by the Paraguayan Gabriel Casaccia, La fiesta del rev Acab by the Chilean Enrique Lafourcade, and El tiempo de la ira by Luis Spota of Mexico study three dictators of a more recent vintage. Chapter XI is an analysis of works by non-Latin Ameri can writers who have studied the Latin American dictator in their novels. Such writers as the Spaniards Valle-Inclan and Francisco Ayala, as well as Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene, and several other lesser figures are studied for the purpose of juxtaposing their view of Latin American dictatorship with that of native writers. The last chapter of this work is an attempt to present a consensus of opinion, that is, to discuss the similari- , ties in the analyses of dictatorship encountered in the six ! i major novels studied here. An effort is also made to dem onstrate how the six dictators presented by the novelists * i are accurate descriptions of the Latin American dictator as described in the first three chapters of this work. Though j I their personalities may vary and their methodology of ! tyranny may differ in some details, the six individuals presented in Chapters V through X appear to be accurate reproductions of the Latin American dictator. It is essential in the study of any society that the student of that society base his opinions of that culture on the interpretation of the artist as well as that of the historian or scientist. As has been stated above, much has been written about the Latin American dictator from a sci entific or historical point of view. The artist, as well, has attempted to analyze the uniqueness of dictatorship in this part of the world. It is hoped that this dissertation may serve as a bridge between artist and scientist in its study of the Latin American dictator in the novel. CHAPTER I A UNIVERSAL DEFINITION OF DICTATORSHIP Dictatorship as a political system is as old as monar chy or democracy. It is not a twentieth-century invention as is often believed nor are its characteristics so ill- defined as to make it indistinguishable from such similar political systems as absolute monarchy or autocracy. What has occurred in the twentieth century is the emergence of some dictatorial regimes of such thoroughness and political methodology that comparison with earlier forms becomes quite difficult. In the Roman Empire, where the term originated, the dictatus was appointed by the senate in times of emer gency to save the empire. The dictator who assumed absolute emergency power did so with a promise of returning all lib erties to the citizenry once the emergency passed. Emer gencies that threatened the empire were usually those occasioned by the imminent invasion by a hostile power, or the insurrection of a large portion of the empire. 8 Consequently, the individuals named to the position of die- ; tators were usually the most prominent military leaders of the empire. Thus, from its very beginnings, dictatorship was inevitably associated with military power.^ Other one-man governments had existed prior to the Roman creation of the dictatorship. The Greeks, for exam ple, suffered the tyranny of many rulers who could accu rately be defined as autocrats or despots. What distin guished them from the earliest Roman dictators was that they were not accountable to anyone else for what they did. The Greek despot was not charged with the preservation of the empire nor did he have to surrender his power at any time. He was, in fact, the autos who himself retained all power, I made all decisions, and was answerable only to himself.^ I i In the case of the Roman dictator, the senate could ulti- j mately be blamed for any disaster, such as its own elimina- ' i tion, for having bestowed dictatorial powers on the wrong i individual. ^Robert C. Brooks, Deliver Ua from Dictators (Phila delphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1935), p. 18. 2Carl J. Friedrich and Zbigniew K. Brzezinski, Totali tarian Dictatorship and Autocracy (2nd ed.; New York: iFrederick A. Praeger, 1968), p. 4. 9 Pure despotic rule eventually found its way into the Roman Empire just as it had in the Greek civilization. It i was not simply the result of a dictator's refusing to sur render his power after the passing of an emergency. In fact, it resulted from the very development of the empire's political system. As Roman Law became more and more com plex, the senate became too cumbersome a body to make nec essary decisions and the emperor became the decision-maker. Eventually, as the emperors sought to become deified, the senate lost all power and the will of the ruler became su preme. The role of the law or the legitimacy of power, which had as early as Plato and Aristotle been declared essential in the "right to govern," had been totally elimi nated (Friedrich and Brzezinski, p. 5). This aspect of deification served as the basis for the absolute monarchies i which developed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ! i and which were also based on the concept of "Divine Right." Absolute monarchies which existed prior to the French j j Revolution added several aspects that make them distinguish able from the Roman variety of dictatorship as well as from { i the twentieth-century models. The monarchies were based on the hereditary principle. Neither the Roman version nor the jinodern variety of dictatorship contains this element. Napoleon was one of the few dictators in the past who tried to preserve succession for his family, but he ultimately I failed. "The modern dictator traditionally achieves power, he does not inherit it" (Brooks, p. 9). Another area in which the modern dictatorship differs from both the Roman type of autocracy and the absolute mon archy is in the right to power. No modern dictatorship has claimed divine right. Many other fantastic claims have been made about the qualities of dictators, but none equaling the egotism of the Roman emperors or the divine right monarchs, although at one point in the development of the Third Reich ideology a group of Nazi leaders— Rosenberg, Hess, Ley, and Von Schirach— "formed a corporate body with the avowed in- i tent of setting up Adolf Hitler and the State as new divini-! ties to be worshipped by the German people" (Brooks, p. 14) This move, however, led to open revolt by various segments I of the Nazi Party and the idea was immediately dropped. j F Great variety has existed among twentieth-century die- | i i tatorial regimes . The dictatorship of Franco in Spain ob viously cannot be compared in all aspects with that of Adolf Hitler or Benito Mussolini. The Latin American var iety also embodies many distinguishable traits that will be discussed further along. For the moment, let us consider 11 the aspect of totalitarianism, a term which has been added to the twentieth-century dictatorship in order to distin guish it from previous forms. In a historical sense the resembla. ce between the modern totalitarian dictatorship and such older autocracies as Greek despotism, Roman caesar- ism, and absolute monarchy is very slight. Totalitarian dictatorship may, in a preliminary char acterization, be called an autocracy based upon modern technology and mass legitimation . . . The autocratic regimes of the past were not nearly as thorough as the totalitarian dictatorships of today. (Friedrich and Brzezinski, p. 4) Thus, the term totalitarian when added to autocratic rule suggests the control of the dictator and his organization of all aspects of national life, from the political to the cultural, as well as the control of the thoughts and actions of all members of the society (Friedrich and Brzezinski, P- 4) . Curiously enough, the rise of totalitarian dictatorship; in the twentieth century owes its success to the development of democratic principles. The separation of England from pontifical control in the sixteenth century was an initial movement to establish the sovereignty of the state. Though |it was originally a religious issue, it ultimately became I i |a political "challenge to the secular ambitions of the Church" (Friedrich and Brzezinski, p. 4) The ruler thus declaring himself and the state to be sovereign entered into the task of maintaining order free from all external re straints. From there it was a natural step to establishing ; the sovereignty of the state alone. The constitutional struggle in England during the seventeenth century achieved its "greatest victories in the American and French revolu tions and reached its classic form in the nineteenth cen- 3 tury." The new concept of shared and limited power became known as a constitutional monarchy in England and a consti tutional democracy in the new nations that had substituted an elected leader for the hereditary monarch. Modern dictatorship, thus, was born in an age of democracy. Democratic principles were at least recognized i by most Western nations by the twentieth century, although they might not be fully practiced. The dictatorships that i I emerged usually came about because of the inability of par liamentary governments to make the democratic process work. The fact that political instability often resulted in chaotic economic conditions also encouraged the emergence 3 Max Lerner, "Patterns of Dictatorship," in Dictator ship in the Modern World, ed. Guy Stanton Ford, 2nd ed. (Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1939), p. 3. ...... ' ........... " ' ' ' 13 ! of a dictatorial regime that promised progress and stability for the state and its citizens. Initially, most modern dictatorships make use of "the ■working machinery of democratic institutions, gaining power in typical stages of the parliamentary game, through and over coalition governments to the final creation of the one- 4 party state." Most of the methodology of a dictatorship is essentially that used by democratic states. Elections are held, the leaders are declared to be men of the people, nationalism is fostered, symbols are created, and the dic tator declares himself to be the servant of the people. The basic difference between the two forms of government is that the leaders in a democracy remain representatives of the institutions while a dictator becomes a substitute for the institutions.^ The masses that have become disillusioned with the democratic process because of its inability to copej with national problems then place their faith in the in dividual rather than in a program or an ideology. It is [ i i I i 4 Sigmund Neumann, "The Political Lieutenants in Modern Dictatorship," in Dictatorship in the Modern World, ed. Guy Stanton Ford, p. 296. ^Barrington Moore, Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (Boston: Beacon Press, 1966), p. 446. I only after the dictator is firmly established that the ideology evolves, and it does not always have as a goal the I betterment of social conditions. Quite often its sole pur pose is that of keeping the dictator in power. Host dictatorships in the twentieth century have taken root as the result of extensive intranational violence or international war. The three most obvious examples of this are the dictatorships that emerged in Russia, Italy, and Germany after World War I. Calvin B. Hoover in his book Dictators and Democracies affirms that: There can be no reasonable doubt that the damage done by the war to the political, economic, and social or ders of the three countries in question was one cause for the rise of the three dictatorships even though the events took place at such varying lengths of time ; after the war started.** The war had made it quite obvious that the ruling classes of the respective countries had bungled the job of I government. The cry for leadership from the masses re flected the collapse of the economic system, the shattering j i of social codes, and a reorientation of values. In Russia j the Bolshevist dictatorship replaced Tsarism, in Italy the I [Fascist dictatorship replaced a constitutional monarchy, and 6(New York: The Macmillan Co., 1937), p. 2. in Germany National Socialism replaced a republican regime. | One characteristic common to all three older forms of gov- I eminent, and which ultimately resulted in their collapse, was the fact that none of these governments could claim the ; support of the masses . All of the countries of Europe were hit by a severe economic depression in the years following World War I. The manner in which some of them responded to this depres sion resulted in the creation of four distinct types of dictatorships (Lerner, p. 5). The first was the constitu tional dictatorship created by the liberal-socialist bloc such as the Kerensky and Bruening regimes. Another type, i the Communist dictatorship of Lenin, proved to be unsuccess-| ful as a model in most places except Russia. A third, known as the White dictatorship, was actually counterrevolutionary! in nature and was the ultimate choice in countries such as ! Poland, Finland, and Hungary when the other types failed. | The fourth was the Fascist dictatorship, which up to World War II proved the most durable of the four (Lerner, p. 5). It is ironic that the two totalitarian forms of government, communism and fascism, though they were self-declared ene mies, resembled each other more than they resembled any pther political systems. 16 : International war does not always result in the com plete overthrow of existing governments. In England, France^ I and the United States the crisis of the depression that followed World War I was just as real as in other parts of the world. The difference was that the parliamentary re gimes of these countries, because they had already had long experience in constitutional government, were able to re store the state to tolerable conditions before a general revolution occurred. Civil war has also, on occasion, resulted in the emer gence of dictatorial regimes. The civil war in Spain that ended in 1939 produced Generalissimo Franco, one of the moBt durable of twentieth-century dictators. Fidel Castro is i considered a dictator by many political scientists who feel ; that his revolutionary government in Cuba, though it has chaotically altered Cuban society by deposing an autocratic ; ! ruler, has resulted in the creation of a new despot. ] I Modern dictatorships have not only emerged as the re- j suit of wars, violence, and economic collapse, they have j come about because of many other variables which made the ] field fertile for the growth of a new political system. ;Perhaps Sigmund Neumann best summarizes the causes for the emergence of a dictator in his discussion of modern 17 dictatorship. The modern dictatorship is the rule of the demagogue. He rises as the leader of the people in the age of mass democracy and as the substitute for shattered institutions. The cry for a leader is the result of the weakening or non-existence of political institu tions, of a ruling class, and of an accepted code of values. When an economic system becomes questionable, when a social code is shattered, when religious ties are loosened, people look for new authorities, for substitutes. The demagogue enters the vacuum and fills it with his person. (p. 298) The Totalitarian State Before analyzing the character of this demagogue, per haps it would be wise to discuss in some detail the totali tarian state. A distinction must also be made between the totalitarian rdgime and the more personalistic dictatorships I that are common in underdeveloped countries of the world. To begin with, we might say that totalitarian dictatorships, because of their thoroughness and dependence on sophisti cated political techniques, are more likely to occur in the more developed societies which have already experienced the i emergence of some sort of political machinery. These dic tatorships have basically a technical outlook on politics ' and rely heavily on basic political techniques for further ing their totalist intentions. The more personalistic die- 1 i tatorships, such as those that have occurred in Spain, Latinj ' ' ' ' " 18" i America, and Africa, have generally been of a military na ture and depend only moderately on any political machinery. , I The totalitarian state, whether it be Fascist, Communist, or National Socialist, must develop a highly disciplined , party, and in so doing carries to extremes many of the political techniques developed in democratic societies. One aspect common to all forms of totalitarian govern ment is "their insistence on the importance of group inter est over the welfare of the individual" (Friedrich and Brzezinski, p. 2 2}. Even though there may be a great deal of difference in the definition of the "group" whose inter est must be protected, all legal or constitutional rights of, the individual are eliminated for the preservation of the state. In Russia, for example, the group is called the j proletariat. In pre-World war II Italy it was the nation, while in Germany it was the race. All forms of totalitarian! i dictatorships, contrary to the beliefs held in most demo cratic societies, do wish to create an ideal society for the masses . They all have ideologies and direct every effort of the state toward the accomplishment of their ideals. The figure of the dictator, though instrumental in the formation pf the ideology, never surpasses the importance of that | jideology. He directs, guides, and personifies the Party but seldom becomes more important than the Party. Most totalitarian states are alike in their contempt , I for democratic ideals, liberalism, and parliamentary methods1 of government. The ideology usually includes the develop ment among the masses of militaristic virtues, that is, self-discipline and total obedience to authority. The con cept of power and force as part of the ideology usually leads to an urge to expand the totalitarian state beyond national boundaries. This, as World War 11 demonstrated, often leads to armed conflict. In addition to these general similarities among totalitarian dictatorships, there is a great deal more that they have in common in the area of techniques or methodology. | Friedrich and Brzezinski in their book Totalitarian ! i Dictatorship and Autocracy have listed six basic traits ex- ; i hibited by a totalitarian dictatorship: (1) the existence i of an ideology, (2) a single party typically led by one man,j t (3) a terrorist police force, (4) a communication monopoly, ! i (5) a weapons monopoly, and (6) a centrally directed econ omy. Before discussing these elements it seems necessary to i 7John Weiss, The Fascist Tradition (New York: Harper jand Row, 1967), p. 11. 20 add several other points to the list that will give a more complete picture of the totalitarian dictatorship. One i aspect that they have not included, for example, is the idea of permanence. The totalitarian dictator attempts to main tain office for life. He does not, as in the original Roman version of the dictatorship, assume only emergency powers, in most cases he "achieves" power; he is not granted power by some other authority, and he seldom relinquishes it without a considerable struggle. Also typical is the domi nance of executive power. If legislative and judicial organs are allowed to exist, they are merely superficial bodies that reflect the will of the dictator. The totali tarian regime essentially eliminates all vestiges of former ' 1 governments and imposes a new system based on a new and essentially revolutionary ideology. ; The matter of an ideology is the first area treated by j Friedrich and Brzezinski in their discussion of the dicta torial state. In the initial stages, the ideology may be poorly defined, but as the dictatorship becomes more and more successful, the ideology becomes more elaborate. It takes on the qualities of "an official body of doctrine" which covers all aspects of man's political and social life, jit elaborates on the concept of the state's supremacy over individual rights. It also attempts a cultural renaissance | that has as its ultimate goal the creation of supreme na tionalism. All aspects of art, science, and technology are aimed at proving the supremacy of the class, nation, or race. The doctrine of ideology is successfully advanced by the creation of a one-party system. Though the masses are all expected to be members of the party, only a small per centage of its members represent the actual political ma chine. The dictator, as party boss, and his lieutenants are "passionately and unquestionably dedicated to the ideology" (Lerner, p. 10). They spare no effort to assure its accept ance by the populace. | i One way the party has of assuring the acceptance of its! I ideology is by making extensive use of a terrorist police | i force. In Nazi Germany, for example, the "brown shirts" were used not only to control or eliminate any enemies of the state, but also to terrorize "selected classes" of the population. The Gestapo, on the other hand, had as a pri mary function policing the members of the party itself. Another way the party promulgates its ideology is by [maintaining a communications monopoly. By controlling all hmeans of mass communication, radio, television, motion pictures, and the press, it not only propagandizes the vir- ; tues of its ideology, it also attacks all enemies of the i state. Also, under the monopoly of communications it sub verts the educational system for its own ends. It attempts to shape the minds of the oncoming generations. It empha sizes the education of the youth and directs all educational agencies in the presentation of party ideology. By maintaining weapons control the dictator and the state can effectually avoid the threat of armed opposition to the ideals. The development of sophisticated war machin ery in the twentieth century has made it practically impos sible to overthrow a totalitarian dictator without the insurrection of some part of the military within the state itself. - A final aspect crucial to the totalitarian regime is a centrally directed economy. Just as the individual freedoms| i are eliminated in favor of the state, private economic in- | i terests are also replaced by the economic needs of the | I state. "Formerly independent corporate entities" are now bureaucratically controlled by the state. All economic en deavors must have as their prime goal the successful imple mentation of the national ideology. A review of these characteristics makes it quite obvious that most dictatorships of the totalitarian nature, whether they are Communist or Fascist ideologically, are basically the same. Because both of these also fear coun terrevolution, they carry their methods of maintaining power; to great extremes. They are based on total control of the thoughts and actions of the populace, and to carry this out they must maintain a very complex and thorough machine that is capable of detecting the earliest signs of resistance or dissent. The dictator must build an effective political machine. "He is a romantic figure in the machine age" (Friedrich and Brzezinski, p. 34). It is he who symbolizes the entire ideology that he has created. He is logically the most significant figure of the totalitarian system. The Dictator i The success of a dictatorship, be it totalitarian or I personalistic, is dependent upon the qualities of the die- | I tator. One obvious quality that the dictator must possess is what Nietzsche called "the will to power." Obviously, ! I to begin with, the hopeful candidate for dictatorship must ! have a thirst for power or a need for power in order to carry out personal social beliefs; the prospective dictator sets out to obtain power. The twentieth-century totalitarian dictator uses a unique approach to the acqui sition of power. Obviously he does not, like autocrats in the past, get it by blood descent, military conquest, and the like. Lenin, Mussolini, and Hitler first acquired their power through initiating and leading a movement and wielding its effective controls. By fashioning the movement's ideology, the leader provides it with the mainstay of its cohesion. It is in keeping with the "law of poli tics" that such leaders become the dictators, once the government is seized. (Friedrich and Brzezinski, p. 34} Once in power, the dictator takes on qualities that are believed to be superhuman not only by the loyal members of his own party, but by foreigners as well who have fallen victims to the "myth of the superman." Mussolini becomes 11 Puce; Hitler, Per FUhrer. [The dictator] ends by becoming a combination of Caesar and Messiah. And naturally so, for he comes to the end of a long romantic sequence. All the centuries of romanticism, by emphasizing genius and leadership and Promethean defiance of fate, have contributed to his construction. He stands there, mystic, adventurer, orator, fanatic, the man of action who moves by his words, the man of words Who incites to action, the hero of our time, which had begun to fear that it had lost its capacity for hero worship. (Lerner, p. 10) In some instances the dictator may be an instrument of some higher power such as the state rather than the symbol of the state. But even in such cases the state, because it Is an intangible entity, realizes the need to create a 25 symbol of its ideology. In such a case, once the dictator has been accepted, "it becomes immaterial whether he really . I possesses the Nietzschean qualities attributed to him: if he doesn't they can be created for him" (Lerner, pp. 10-11). More often than not, however, the dictator creates his own image. Because he is a man of action, because he does not suffer the timidity of other more thoughtful leaders, he usually acts first, and decisively. This is the essence of his success. Because he is an autocrat in the purest sense of the word, believing himself responsible only to himself, or some intangible entity such as the people, he determines to what limits, if any, he will use his power (Friedrich and Brzezinski, p. 8). . i He moves into power at a time when socioeconomic con- | i ditions manifest the need for a strong man, a need for what f the Spaniards call "el cirujano de la mano de hierro." Oncej power has been seized he establishes order, albeit his own variety, and through his own proclaimed "genius” molds an ideology that will perpetuate his rule. If other "geniuses" emerge in the meantime, they must innocuously await an opportunity to overthrow him. Or upon his death, they must |fight it out with others who, like themselves, can be satis- i jfied only with autocratic power. This cycle will continue 26 until such time as the "people” not only reject the indi vidual dictator, but also substitute for the autocratic ideology one that will allow them the personal liberty of creating political institutions that can function in accord ance with democratic principles rather than as a result of force and fear. CHAPTER II THE LATIN AMERICAN DEFINITION OF DICTATORSHIP In 1954, Domingo Alberto Rangel wrote of the Latin American nations, "Ahora somos el modelo favorito de quienes intenten hacer aprendizaje de la dictadura. Rangel is certainly correct in believing that Latin America offers many excellent examples of modern dictatorships. The truth is that dictators have been so numerous throughout Latin American history that one can find examples of almost" eve'ry variety imaginable. No single definition could ever be written that would accurately define the nature of dictator or dictatorship in this part of the world. The various countries of Latin America differ so greatly in so many respects that no single mold could be discovered as the ^"Una interpretsci6n de las dictaduras latinoaraeri- canas," Cuadernos Americanos. 87 (septiembre-octubre 1954), 33. progenitor of the Latin American autocrat. The many years of political and economic struggle since colonial indepen dence have produced a history that ranges from complete anarchy, to despotism, to semi-democracy. This semi- democracy is not always the last stage, for more often than not, constitutional governments become the first stage of a new cycle of chaos. The various stages of national evolution since the early 1800's has been matched by parallel stages of dicta torial evolution. The early caudillos of the post independence period, such as Juan Manuel de Rosas, Lopez de Santa Ana, or Facundo Quiroga, obviously cannot be con- pared with the transitional variety such as Porfirio Diaz or Juan Vicente Gomez; nor is it likely that such modern versions as Juan Peron or Fidel Castro will have a great deal in common with the earlier varieties. There will al ways be similarities, but these will have more to do with the nature of man and more specifically with the nature of the Latin American man, than with similarities in the style and methodology of the dictatorship. The variety of Latin American dictators is almost end less . Between independence and World War 1 there were at 2 least 117 Xnown despots. Some remained in power for only months, While others lasted as long as thirty years. Since the end of World War I, another thirty-five have been counted. There have been personalities and styles of great variety among this total number. Individuals from the machete v plstolazo variety to the almost saintly and bene volent types have ruled over the masses . There have been cruel tyrants, patriotic reformers, arch conservatives, leftist liberals, illiterates, and intellectuals. Some believed in nothing save power and riches, others dedicated themselves to the cause of the masses. Whatever their be havior or their personalities, they all seem to have been the inevitable results of three centuries of Spanish and Portuguese absolutism that neither prepared the colonies for! a smooth transition into self-government nor left them any idea of the meaning of legitimate, representative govern- i ment. I Characteristics of Latin American Dictatorship As has been stated above, any single definition of 2 John J. Johnson, The Military and Society in Latin America (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1964), p. 7. 30 ! Latin American dictatorship is utterly impossible. There can be, however, definitions suggested for some of the terms that are often associated with the concept of dictatorship such as caudillo, cacique. personalismo. and pretorian state. Perhaps by understanding the meaning of these terms as they apply to Latin America one may arrive at a better understanding of the diversity of dictatorial regimes in Latin America as well as their uniqueness when compared to dictatorships in other parts of the world. The elements vhich result in the creation of the cau dillo in Latin America are many and varied. The causal factors found in the geography, the racial mixture, the colonial history, the psychological makeup of the Latin i American, and the inherited customs and economic conditions ! i will be treated in the following chapter. For the moment, j it is the very term caudillo that needs clarification before| an in-depth study of the causal factors can be attempted. | i The Latin word capitaHum, meaning "little head," was originally applied to local military and political leaders who were under the authority of a Caesar or an emperor. In the Spanish-speaking world the romance form of caudillo imeans basically the same as the original form. However, in i Latin America the existence of the Caribbean Indian word cacique, meaning local Indian chief or regional strong man, resulted in an amplification of the term caudillo. "Whereas I a cacique was a ruler among men, a caudillo was a ruler 3 among caciques . ' * The existence of strong regional leaders , in Latin America ultimately resulted in the emergence of a national caudillo or in modern terms, the dictator. At one point in Latin American history cacique and caudillo were synonymous. The terms indicated regional leaders whose only claim to leadership rested on their ability to raise guer rilla armies in times of political crisis. The strongest of these regional leaders became the dictator through the political process of caudillismo. that is, by winning over the regional caudillos through the use of violence or by promises of a share in the spoils of the dictatorship. Thus, the period of caudillismo that followed immedi ately after independence was actually the only political | I process— if it can be termed as such— that was at all func- | tional in most of Latin America. Robert F. Gilmore states that "Caudillos were the natural leaders of a society whose colonial order was destroyed before the bases for an inde- 3 Hugh M. Hamill Jr., ed., Introduction to Dictatorship j in Latin America (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965), p. 11. pendent society had taken firm shape .1 1 These men combined the magnetism of their own personalities with military vio lence in the successful, though short-lived acquisition of political power. Caudillismo in the early years of inde pendence represented a substitute for the monarchical sys tem. It was indeed a means of establishing political lead ers in an environment that no longer recognized the heredi tary right to rule and was not yet capable of selecting leaders through a democratic process. The only alternative was that of natural selection; the man most accomplished in the use of military force and violence became the leader. But because the only prerequisite to leadership was force and violence, the caudillo was never too secure in the posi tion of power. At any moment an equally ambitious individ ual could initiate a violent quest for the role of national ; caudillo. i j [Consequently,] caudillismo as a system of political ; leadership for the state was an inherently unstable | hierarchical arrangement, a structure composed of a | network of personal alliances cemented together by | community of interest, by force of personality, by s ties of friendship and even family. ... As a polit ical system it imposed limitations on the authority 4Caudillism and Militarism in Venezuela. 1810-1910 (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1964), p. 50. of the caudillo effective in inverse ratio to the degree of dominance achieved by the caudillo over his associates. (Gilmore, p. 5) i There are three definite stages of caudillismo dis cernible in Latin American history. The first may be com pared to Roman caesarismo or the pretorian state. The sec ond is best compared to absolute monarchy, and the third is similar in form and function to modern totalitarian dicta torship. All three stages have distinct Latin American characteristics such as the personalismo and militarismo that make them distinguishable from other types of auto cratic rule and which make the term caudillo perhaps best suited to describe the Latin American dictator. The first group of caudillos. those whom the Bolivian writer Aleides Arguedas characterized as the caudillos 5 barbaros. emerged as a direct consequence of the political chaos and military violence that followed colonial inde- j pendence. After Ferdinand VII was removed from the Spanish j throne by Napoleon and the distant symbol of authority 5Los caudillos barbaros (Barcelona: Luis Tasso, 1929). This book deals with the theme of caudillismo during the period immediately following the wars of independence. Arguedas makes a distinction between the rural caudillos and (the urban types that represented ''civilization." eliminated, "many caudillos in Hispanic America tried with varying degrees of success to fill the moral vacuum them- i selves" (Hamill, p. 20). The leaders in the struggle for independence such as Sucre, Bolivar, San Martin, and 0'Higgins are not representative of the caudillos that emerged after independence was won. Instead, they repre sented men with certain ideals or at least plans for the future of the Americas during that tumultuous period. The caudillos barbaros were distinct individuals vdio were not restrained by any particular sense of the public welfare. They were individualists who had inherited from the pre- Columbian period the spirit of caciquismo or regional rule, and from the colonial period the dynamism of the conquista- ' dores, adelantados or captain-generaIs. They were men who had no vision of a common purpose. They saw that only force: L could attain power for the individual, and that power re- i suited in wealth and control. With very few exceptions I these men lived as parasites upon society (Johnson, p. 40). ] i They represented the feudal barons of the Medieval Period whose sole claim to power was the ability to raise instant armies from the terrorized masses under their control. caudillos who reigned up to the middle of the i {nineteenth century were the prototypes of regionalism. 35 i Because the rural peasant was basically a nonentity, it was < only in the figure of the caudillo that he assumed any identity at all; the caudillo. who was a personification of i physical force, of ruralness, of the masses themselves, lent his figure to the secret wishes for power buried in the heart of the peasant. Thus, Domingo Alberto Rangel is able to conclude: La base feudal de las dictaturas quedaba intocada. Asi pudieron sucederse, casi con puntualidad monarquica las dinastias de tiranos que pueblan el drama de nues- tra historia. (p. 36) The rule of the caudillos of this first group is closely associated with the concept of the pretorian state. The many years of war in the struggle for independence re- ' suited in an exaggerated emphasis on military leaders in the1 political arena. The caudillos who emerged as regional leaders, such as Facundo Quiroga in Argentina, usually did so because “they were generally the products and representa tives of the armed forces."^ If in turn they fell under the! i control of a national caudillo. it was as a result of the other's military superiority. Thus, Juan Manuel Rosas i i 6 : Edwin Lieuwen, Arms and Politics in Latin America (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, I960), p. 23. eventually brought under his wing the seven Argentine prov inces formerly controlled by Quiroga, as well as the rest of the republic. This exertion of military control was not unlike Roman Caesarism. The classic military struggles between Julius Caesar, Hark Antony, and Pompey were repeated time and again in Latin America for national control. It was in Darwinian terms "the survival of the fittest." Though there were a few notable examples of nonmilitary men such as Dr. Jose Francia in Paraguay and Gabriel Garcia Moreno in Ecuador, who as civilians played successful roles as caudillos. they were generally the exception. The image of the man on horseback, who was not only the best shot, the cleverest ' strategist, and the quickest to act was almost essential in j the acquisition of power. i In the second half of the nineteenth century a new I breed of caudillo emerged who represented a system of rule more like that of absolute monarchy than the machete v i pistolazo variety that had preceded it. A bureaucracy of patronage replaced the officer corps of the military as the main device to rationalize the personal political alliances of cacicruismo. The ma chete and the gun, the noisy violence of caudillo and campesino. gave way to the more selective, individual ized silent violence of abusive use of legal action | backed up by a professional army. (Gilmore, p. 67) 38 in Mexico. These were men who no longer depended solely on j their horsemanship or physical prowess to reach the presi- ! dential chair. By a subtle combination of limited force and political maneuvering they were able to assume absolute domination of a country. Even such twentieth-century fig ures as Rafael Trujillo or Anastacio Samoza can be included in this group despite their vintage; for, like their prede cessors, they became owners of countries, and were free to govern their private estates without the interference of either regional warlords of public democratic sentiment. The third type of caudillo. or dictator, that is in evidence in Latin American history is the modern twentieth- century version. This new variety "steps into the histori- ; cal vacuum created by disintegration of feudal type re- 7 gimes" and monarchical despotism. The myriad of social i changes occurring in the twentieth century as a result of two world wars, the great depression, and the expansion of | mass communication were bound to have an effect on the nature of dictatorship in Latin America, just as they did in Europe. "The cravings of awakening nations," as Tad 7 Tad Szulc, Twilight of Tyrants (New York; Henry Holt <and Co., 1959), p. 18. 39 ; i l Szulc puts it (p. 18), could be seen in their desire to free themselves from old social and economic systems. As a result, Latin America also witnessed an acceleration of industrialization, the growth of a new urban middle class, and the requisite growth of literacy that accompanied all of this. Any man who wished to rule as national caudillo was by the uniqueness of the times forced to adopt "more streamlined systems of oppression, borrowing freely and often with gruesome effects, from such European sources of inspiration as Germany's National Socialism, Italy's Fas- cism, and Portugal's Corporativism" (Szulc, p. 22). The modern despot in Latin America could no longer rely on only a small power group composed mainly of relatives, j compadres. and friends. He had to become the voice of grow-! ing public opinion and assume the role of a "social and i political demagogue." His cry became that of "social in- j justice." To placate the masses, his preferred allies over the intelligentsia, the middle class, and the aristocracy, I the dictator made promises. He was not governed only by the force and violence as his feudal predecessors had been. i Certainly he had to depend on his partnership with the {military establishment, but equally important was his sup port by the masses (Szulc, p. 25). 40 Szulc expressed the belief that five twentieth-century dictators, Getulio Vargas of Brazil, Juan Per<5n of Argen tina, Manuel Odria of Peru, Gustavo Rojas Pinilia of Colom bia, and Marcos Perez Jimenez of Venezuela represent Latin America's transition from a semi-feudal period to today's age (pp. 23-24). Szulc's mistake, as indicated by the title of his book, is to assume that the ultimate downfall of these dictators indicates a definitive more toward democracy in Latin America. The emergence of a Fidel Castro and the relative success of his Cuban brand of communism would in dicate that perhaps the future belongs to still an even more modern form of caudillismo in Latin America. Likewise, the current role played by Mexican presidents and the PRI party,j for example, would indicate that "the role of the executive i has changed to that of chairman of the board rather than a i charismatic hero or the super-caudillo" (Hamill, p. 25). i It can hardly be asserted that democracy reigns in Mexico ! or in any other Latin American country ruled by a single party or by a military junta. Nevertheless, the demise of five dictatorships suggested by Szulc does represent basic political, social, and economic transformations now in evi dence in Latin America. Militarism One of the most obvious manifestations in the twentieth century in Latin America is the new role of the military establishment in many of the republics. As John J. Johnson puts it in his study of Latin American militarism: Spanish America was the first part of the modern world where dictatorship became normal^ where it became the practice to tutor democrats with guns, where the mili tary pronunciamento was hallowed by tradition, and where military academies could with good reason be dubbed "schools for presidents." (p. 3) In the first decades following colonical independence the civilian aristocracy, consisting mainly of wealthy land owners, had been able to compete for political power by raising their own instant armies from the peasants on their | lands. But as national unification began to take shape and ! professional armies were formed, the landed gentry found itself increasingly at the mercy of the military. "The i comparatively easy achievement of military rank was a democ- i ratizing influence which placed on the same level men of allj i 0 classes and all strata." Thus the many revolutions that occurred in Latin America during the nineteenth century ®J. Fred Rippy, "Dictatorship in Latin America,1 1 in [Dictatorship in the Modern World, ed. Guy Stanton Ford, p. 1201. actually resulted in the creation of a "more liberal com monwealth.” The military men who often replaced aristo- i cratic dictators were quite often men who had emerged from the lower strata of society. Once in power, however, their , interest soon became the same as those of the oligarchy. The interest of the hacendados. the Church, and the caudillo himself were usually protected at the expense of the masses. Military men controlled most Latin American republics up to 1860. Such renowned despots as Juan Manuel Rosas in Argentina, Lopez de Santa Ana in Mexico, Francisco Solano Lopez in Paraguay, Jean Pierre Boyer in Haiti, and numerous others were able to remain in power as long as they had an effective military force at their disposal. Toward the end j of the nineteenth century, however, the effectiveness of | military power was overshadowed by the caudillo's ability i i to use foreign investments in his country to the utmost i advantage. The need for large armies to curb disorders ; ( disappeared as many Latin American countries realized a | i certain amount of progress by offering the exploitation of i their raw materials to countries such as the United States, France, and Great Britain. Thus, Porfirio Diaz in Mexico ;ruled effectively in cooperation with foreign investors for i ithirty-one years . The de-emphasis on the military, however, was short lived. The twentieth century saw the eruption of the Mexi- i can Revolution and the resulting effect of emphasizing anew . the importance of Mexican militarism. The violence of Worldj War I also did its share in re-establishing the rule of the military. Many Latin American governments availed them selves of the opportunity of acquiring sophisticated weap onry after the end of the war in Europe. As totalitarian states emerged in Germany and Italy, various Latin American governments sent their young officers to these countries to study the new brand of militarism. As Domingo Rangel puts it: La Europa de entonces estaba atravesando por el auge fascista. Hitler y Mussolini, con sus tropas podero- i sas, sus uniformes y la organizacion de la vida eco- ndmica y social con miras a la guerra, cautivo la escasa imaginacion de los officiales que hicieron su romerfa a Europa. Las academias militaries en ciertos i paises latinoamericanos se convertieron, al regresar j los viajeros en avanzadas del espiritu fascista. (p. 40) Thus, by the year 1940, most Latin American nations were ruled by dictators who had emerged from national mili tary academies. Their success in acquiring even more sophisticated war machines after the end of World war II jguaranteed that the casta militar would remain in power for jsome time to come. The threat of communism in the Western Hemisphere also insured that dictators would receive mili tary assistance from the United States. There were many reasons for the emergence of a new brand of militarism in the twentieth century, but perhaps the most significant was the fact that the rise of a new middle class in the cities and the unrest of the rural population threatened the role of the traditional estab lishment. The landholding class, the foreign fruit compa nies, and the new industrialists depended on the military regimes to maintain the order that allowed them to prosper. In recent years, the emergence of a new corps of young officers, who were not nourished on Fascist doctrines and who are more sympathetic to the needs of the masses, has resulted in several military coups, such as the one in Peru in 1968, which offer the possibility of the establishment of more representative governments in the future. As contradictory as it may seem, all of the new re publics that emerged after the wars of independence were characterized by the ideological acceptance of the demo cratic principle. "In all these states, constitutions of the most liberal and democratic character were promul- g gated." Almost immediately after independence was won, the leaders of the new republics, basing themselves on the constitutions of France and the United States, sought to write into their constitutions the concepts of individual liberties and representative governments. But equally prevalent in those days was the belief that the masses could not handle constitutional government. Even the "Liberator" Bolivar felt that autocratic rule was the only possible way of insuring peace and prosperity in Latin America. It was necessary for the new republics in Latin America to have constitutions of a democratic nature, for inter national opinion in that era required them. The Western powers of that age— England, France, the United States— had J I been instrumental in leading the way. If the monarchy was i rejected, the only other alternative was democracy. The | I conflict, however, resided in the fact that Latin America had no previous experience in representative government and that the authorities of the crown and the Roman Catholic Church were too deeply imbedded in Latin American society. I o j ^Cecil Jane, Liberty and Despotism in Spanish America j(New York: Cooper Square Publishing Co., 1966), p. 1. [Thus] . . . dictatorship lurked behind every principle; by means of forms, [political] parties attempted to save what could not be saved. The pelucones. the con servatives , the reds, the liberals, the democrats, the Unitarians, the federals, all had courted dictatorship. With the best intentions the parties had proclaimed dictatorship to establish welfare . . . That is to say, despotism to guarantee liberty. The Democratic Principle The dictators that emerged in the early years of in dependence did not necessarily negate democratic constitu tions, for in almost every case the constitution included an emergency clause that permitted the president to assume dictatorial powers and suspend personal guarantees in times of national emergency. Much like the early Roman dictatus. the president was to use this discretionary power only as I long as the crisis existed. This emergency clause is also contained in the constitutions of the modern Latin American ; i countries. And regardless of who the usurper of power is, he very seldom denies the validity of the democratic prin ciples . Most modern dictators have "maintained a facade of i representative institutions and sometimes even permit more Leopoldo Zea, The Latin American Mind, trans. James jH. Abbott and Lowell Durham (Norman: university of Oklahoma Press, 1963), pp. 72-7 3. 47 or less free elections." 11 If the results are unfavorable it is a simple matter to nullify the elections, as Perez Jimenez did in Venezuela in 1952. Whatever the causes for the abuse of democratic con- , stitutions in Latin America, one thing is certain, during the nineteenth and most of the twentieth century, the brief interlude between dictators resulted in anarchy rather than periods of peaceful republicanism. Any orderly regime in Latin America during the nineteenth century would have meant complete control by the hierarchy, the Church, and the land owners. The fury of revolution and the emergence of dicta tors meant "a sort of anarchistic equalitarianism," for the masses often aided the caudillo in power, feeling that all men were equal under his rule. If at times order and ! stability were achieved, it was due to the personal quali- ; ties of the dictator. The force of his character, the i strength of his will, and the breadth of his dreams often [ I constituted the destiny of the nation. j Personalismo The history of most of the Latin American nations has Otto Maria Carpeaux, "The Anatomy of Dictatorship, j Atlas. 9-10 (July-August 1965), 100. 48 been greatly affected by this concept we call personalismo. 1 Not unlike Nietzsche's concept of "the will to power, " Latin American personalismo signifies the ardent belief in the tradition of one-man control. "Spanish individualism, the individualism of the military leaders, and the individualism of the hacendado and the Indian chiefs" (Rippy, "Dictator ship in Latin America," p. 181) bequeathed to the Latin American caciques and caudillos the right to impose their power on the political structures of their society. Once the moral authority of the crown had been eliminated and anarchy resulted, order was established "not necessarily by substitute moral authority but rather by the personal mag netism of a given charismatic leader. Personalismo rather than principle tended to prevail” (Hamill, p. 21). This concept of personalismo is not unique to Latin r America; rather, it seems to be evident in the post- ■ independence periods of most former colonies. It has 1 I I emerged among the new nations of Africa and Asia and seems i i to be the result of such causal factors as the failure of | 1 imperial governments to train native leaders in the method ology of representative government. In the case of Spanish and Latin American personalismo, however, there seem to 1 jexist certain psychological factors that make personalismo 49 an even more dominant factor in the political arena. This idea will be treated in the following chapter. For the moment, a definition of the term is all that is intended. In addition to the concept of one-man control, Robert L. Gilmore suggests that personalismo also implies "the control and exploitation of the political units serving society by individuals and by extended family groups" (p. 12). Not only does this occur in Latin American politics, there is also much evidence that in the field of business, personal relationships are more valued than any impersonal or bureaucratic principles. The cases are too numerous to mention, in which sons, brothers, illegitimate children, and compadres have aided the caudillo in despoiling a na tion. Families and friends have been conditioned by many years of cultural tradition to lend unquestioning obedience to the head of the household or the ruler of the nation. For this they are repaid with gifts and privileges. Tradi- j ! tionally, in Latin America, devotion has been to a leader j < rather than to an ideal. The Mexican peasants followed Pancho Villa, not any ideology of the Revolution. The Argentine laborers were moved more by Per<5n's balcony speeches than by any actual improvement of their social I I condition. This element of personalismo. so much a part of Latin American political past and present, is perhaps the most distinguishable trait of the region's political real ity . It has not vanished from the scene. It is evident in "Fidel's" rule over Cuba, and in the military elite's con trol of various Latin American countries. Government is not an abstract concept or the bureaucratic machine that it is in other parts of the world. It is still quite personal and unsystematic. And for this reason, Latin American cau- dillismo has hardly come to an end. The idea of personalismo. though a characteristic of Latin American politics, is not limited solely to the political structures of Latin America. It may be said that personalismo is a political trait found in most under- i developed countries. In Africa, Asia, and the Near East ! political leaders have emerged after colonial independence that are not unlike despots of Latin America. A Nasser, a j ! Lumumba, or a Sukarno can best be classified as presidents j who rule rather than presidents who govern. These men who j emerged victorious after the struggles for self-government were quite often incapable of implanting a formal regimenta tion that has characterized modern totalitarian regimes; rather, they implanted their personal seal on all functions j of government and hindered the development of an effective political party system. What has emerged in most underdeveloped countries and particularly in Latin America in place of a political party system has been militarism. Quite often, in their zeal for immediate reforms, governments have depended almost exclu sively on the military to insure peace and foster progress. Of course, in the case of Latin America, nineteenth-century militarism was quite distinct from the twentieth-century variety. In the early years of independence civil strife took on the form of personal warfare among regional war lords. As stated by Edwin Lieuwen in his book, Arms and Politics in Latin America: Latin American militarism was peculiar in that its horizon did not extend beyond the domestic scene. Not military glory, but civil war, the fight for political power and for the opportunity to exploit and oppress the civilian population were its characteristics. (p. 20) In the twentieth century, militarism has become less a ; i i personal venture and more the unofficial policy of the state, although in contrast to the militarism of the modern totalitarian states, the Latin American brand continues to be domestic rather than imperialistic. "La posicidn pre- dominante de las Fuerzas Armadas en Latinoamerica no tiene, por lo tanto, una base en la politica exterior sino en la 52 I 12 politics interior." Latin American militarism in the , twentieth century has resulted in only one war outside the boundaries of a single country. The Chaco war between Paraguay and Bolivia is the only real example of an inter national war in Latin America during this century. Even the participation of Latin American countries during two world wars was almost negligible; Brazil was the only country to declare war against the Axis and actually send troops to Europe. During the Korean conflict, Colombia was the only country to send troops abroad. Yet with this very limited participation in inter national conflict, the military continues to be the moat significant element in the Latin American political struc ture . In countries where dictators have ruled during the i twentieth century— and this includes almost all of the Latin; American republics— they have ruled because they were able to successfully control the military establishment or they | I were indeed products of it. Fulgencio Batista rose from j the rank of sergeant to that of national caudillo. In i | Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Panama, the j i 12 Magnus M&rner, "Caudillos y militares en la evolucion hispano-americano," Journal of Inter-American Studies. 2 ;(July 1960), 299. 53 1 national militia trained by United States Marines in the | 1920's immediately took control of the countries when the i United States troops pulled out. The fact is that most military dictatorships in Latin America were maintained in , power by weapons supplied to the respective regimes by the United States Government. As was stated above, most Latin American dictators, in order to remain in power, have had to court the military establishment, or indeed command it. In most of the Latin American countries over one-fourth of the national budget is spent on the military {Mttrner, p. 307) . This may not seem unusual when compared to United States expenditures, but it should be remembered that the military in Latin America is concerned almost exclusively with maintaining domestic order. The bulk of military expenditure is spent on insuring the loyalty of the military toward the regime. ; i F or e x a m p le , t h e V e n e z u e la n d i c t a t o r , P e r e z J im e n e z , c o n - ! structed a luxurious military hotel that cost six times as | i i much as the government spent on social security in one | year. The incidents of payoffs, rewards, padded salaries, I etc., given to military men by the dictator are almost num berless . The close association between authoritarian rule and militarism in Latin America after the end of World War I led to the emergence of the so-called "modern" Latin Ameri can dictator. In many respects, the same economic condi tions of the Great Depression that in Europe resulted in the totalitarian states of Germany, Italy, and Russia, in Latin America resulted in the emergence of dictators vho borrowed freely from their European models. These men were governed by the same fetish that motivated the European despots. They were thoroughly convinced that the only way to achieve economic development was in an atmosphere of political peace and stability, and the obvious corollary to it was the suppression of most, if not all, freedoms. In contrast to the nineteenth-century caudillo. the modern Latin American dictator is not content with simply repres sing any views contrary to his own; in many instances he makes an attempt to establish some type of ideology. And quite often during the 1930’s and 1940's elements of the new ideology were supplied by the Axis radio programs that were easily received by cheap German-made radio sets manu factured expressly to provide clear reception of German- Spanish language programs.The fact that many Latin 13 Peter H. Odegard, "Propaganda and Dictatorship," in American military leaders received training in German and Italian military academies during the period prior to World : i War II also accounts for the emergence of the more sophisti-; cated dictatorial regimes of the twentieth century. Classification of Dictators As previously mentioned, Tad Szulc in his book Twilight of Tyrants has presented the five Latin American dictators who best manifest the modern techniques of authoritarian rule: Getulio Vargas of Brazil, Juan Peron of Argentina, Marcos Perez Jimenez of Venezuela, Gustavo Rojas Pinilla of Colombia, and Manuel Odria of Peru; more recently added to this number because of the thoroughness of his regime is i ! Fidel Castro. All of these political leaders have fashioned! governments that in many respects were modeled after Euro pean prototypes. In the case of Castro's Cuba the method- | ology of a socialistic regime is quite evident. In the [ f governments of the five other dictators the similarities to [ i i Fascist or Socialist governments of Europe may not be so | j clear* Nevertheless, a quick view of the six principles of totalitarian governments quoted from Friedrich and Brzezin- toictatorship in the Modern World, ed. Guy Stanton Ford, p. 267. ...... " ■ ........■--------- “ “ 56 ski (in Chapter I) will clearly dmonstrate some similarities between modern Latin American dictatorship and the totali tarian state. The first point essential to totalitarian dictatorship , is the creation by the dictator of a national ideology. Whereas in the early caudillos the only ideology was the personal craving for power, the modern dictator sees himself as the state, already endowed with power, and craves some greater accomplishment. Getulio Vargas, the first of the modern dictators, proclaimed his Estado Novo, a Brazilian version of European fascism "rich in studied demagogery, political opportunism and social appeal" (Szulc, p. 26). His famous cry "March to the West" was indeed the beginning j of the development of the Brazilian interior. In the case i o f Ju an P e r o n , w h o se d o c t r i n e w as q u i t e v a g u e i n c o m p a r is o n | ! with Vargas', the elements of a Fascist ideology were never-j theless present in his Justicalismo. The ideology went along the lines of a dictatorship of the proletariat, though more often than not it was nothing more than "chauvinism and mob rule in the street by workers whipped into hysteria by Per6n's fascist methods" (Szulc, p. 30). Odria of Peru resembles Vargas in his reasonable im plantation of a national ideology that had as its cornerstone sound administration and economic development. Rojas pinilla of Colombia not only initiated European tech- ; i niques, he also followed the soomed leadership of Peron. Rojas Pinilla mouthed such Fascist slogans as "Motherland above Parties" and established his "Third Force," a feeble imitation of the Third Reich ideology, pdrez Jimenez, one of the most ruthless of modern Latin American dictators, sought to create a new national ideal and sincerely believed himself to be a man with a vision. He proclaimed the "con quest of the physical environment." His idea of economic development became a mania which almost ruined Venezuela financially. And, of course, the ideology of Castro's revolution in Cuba is quite well known. It should not be | j assumed, however, that the Cuban brand of communism is identical with the Soviet or Chinese variety. i j The aspect of a single party system is perhaps the area! i in vfoich the Latin American dictatorship most differs from j i European models, for in Latin America when a dictator rules there is, practically speaking, no political party. As has been pointed out previously, personalismo with its intri- - w cate relationships of loyalties between the dictator and ,his family, friends, coropadres, etc. takes the place of a I jsingle party system of the Nazi variety. However, the dictator Juan Per6n was able to organize the labor forces into a dangerous political tool. The communications monopoly and the weapons monopoly have been used effectively in most Latin American countries whether or not they are ruled by dictators . To say, for example, that Mexico or Brazil presently enjoy freedom of the press would be a gross exaggeration. During the regimes of the five dictators previously mentioned and the actual reign of Fidel Castro the news media functioned as an arm of the state; likewise the military, being under the direct command of the dictator, naturally insured a weapons monop oly . The creation of a secret police force also character ized modern Latin American dictatorship and in fact is in evidence in most Latin American republics. However, under such despots as Perez Jimenez the secret police were char acterized by their excessive brutality. The final aspect of totalitarian regimes is that of the centralized economy. This is a characteristic that is also typical of most Latin American republics regardless of their political structure. Many republics are monocultures, producing a single crop on vftiich depends the entire economic i stability of the country. Thus, government regulations of 59 1 the coffee industry, the banana industry, the oil industry, ! etc., are essential. In the case of dictatorial regimes, however, the economy is even more controlled because it represents the dictator's personal source of income. Some Characteristics of the Dictator To conclude this chapter, it is perhaps wise to make a few remarks regarding the image of the Latin American dic tator, for it is his character, his personality, and his concept of self that perhaps most distinguish him from dic tators in other parts of the world. George I. Blanksten has outlined five characteristics that have generally been 14 present among most caudillos. First of all, he states 1 that they are often military men. Though there have been notable civilian exceptions like Dr. Francia of Paraguay and' the notorious Garcia Moreno of Ecuador, most dictators have I emerged from the ranks of the professional military or have i I been products of civil strife. Second, the dictator usu- J ! ally possesses some intellectual ability, though in this ! area there seems to also have been more than one exception. The intellectual ability, however, is usually more an 14 "Caudilliamo in Northwestern South America," South Atlantic Quarterly. 51, No. 4 (October 1952), 500-501. instinctive quality, a native cunning, rather than the result of formal education. The third characteristic is that the dictator views himself as indispensable. Thus, the caudillos have declared themselves with frequency to be "liberators, saviors of the country, restorers of order, defenders of the holy cause, guardians of the nation, etc., etc." {Rippy, "Dictatorship in Latin America," p. 185). Characteristically, the dictator is also a man of more than average vitality. Perhaps because they have often been worshipers of such figures as Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon and others, they have not been lacking in "sexual prowess, zest for action, incredible energy, daring, and absolute self-confidence" (Johnson, p. 41). This is onej reason why the statement made by the Mexican caudillo Alvaro! Obregon seems so typical of the aggressiveness of the Latin j American dictator. "1 declare myself a candidate for the j presidency of the republic, backed by my own pistol without j ties to any parties nor offers of any platform . . . He who 15 loves me, follow me." The fifth characteristic, according to Blanksten, is i i 15Prangois Chevalier, "The Roots of Personalism,” in iDictatorship in Spanish America, ed. Hugh M. Hamill, p. 41. 61 1 I i t h a t t h e d i c t a t o r i s a man o f som e r e p u t a t i o n b e f o r e h e j com es t o p o w e r . R o sa s o f A r g e n t in a w as a h e r o i n t h e s t r u g g l e f o r in d e p e n d e n c e . P o r f i r i o D ia z o f M e x ic o w as i n s t r u m e n t a l in d e f e a t i n g t h e f o r c e s o f M a x im ilia n . F i d e l C a s t r o w as w e l l known t o t h e C ubans b e f o r e h e u l t i m a t e l y o v e r t h r e w t h e d i c t a t o r B a t i s t a . There can be no doubt that most Latin American dicta tors have been men not lacking in personality. They repre sented all of the major racial groups of the area; some were whitej some black, some Indian, and most of them mestizos. Some have possessed great culture, others have been near beasts. Many were motivated by humanity and patriotism while others were moved only by greed or the lust for power.! A s d i v e r s e a g r o u p a s t h i s m ig h t a p p e a r t o b e , c e r t a i n ! common t r a i t s s t a n d o u t . " P erh a p s t h e m o st s t r i k i n g c h a r - i 4 acteristic of all of them has been their willingness to gamble with fate and their fondness for titles, pomp, and ceremony" (Rippy, "Dictatorship in Latin America," p. 185). The psychology of conceit is in full evidence among the Latin American dictators. Melgarejo of Bolivia decreed that his birthday should shift with the cycle of Easter. Rosas' statues hung over church altars along with the crucifix. i . ‘T r u j i l l o o f t h e D o m in ic a n R e p u b lic named to w n s , s t r e e t s , 62 parks, and buildings after himself and his family. Few have ever been willing to wait until they left "office" to be glorified by their countrymen. During their lifetimes they dressed themselves as generals and kings, wearing un earned medals, ribbons, and medallions as graciously as they carried their unearned titles. If they asserted their masculinity with vigor and force, they were followed and respected by the masses. They became charismatic figures whose power went uncontested until another individual with the same qualities emerged among those same masses. For these reasons one can conclude that there has not been a great deal of difference in Latin American dictators , / despite their historical vintage, for whether the dictator was of the machete v pistolazo variety of the early nine- ! teenth century, or the transitional variety of the 1880's J j and 1890's, or the totalitarian model of the twentieth cen- ! ' j t tury, certain elements continue to be present in Latin I I American politics that produce the caudillo. For it can j I still be said that: "El poder no esta en el estado o en una constitucion, sino en el que dice con mayor gallardia, 'quien manda, manda y cartucho al canon.'"16 | ! Antonio Carro Martinez, "El caudillismo americano," iRevista de Estudios Politicos. mayo-junio 1957, p. 149. CHAPTER III CAUSAL FACTORS FOR THE EMERGENCE OF THE LATIN AMERICAN DICTATOR In the previous chapter we have discussed in general terms the basic differences between the Latin American dic tator and his European, or to use a more encompassing term, universal counterpart. The differences mentioned are a direct result of what J. Fred Rippy calls the environmental factor which includes, of course, many physical, psychological, and social features which have tended to determine political forms and procedures, geography, racial composition, colonial heritage, intellectual climate, and the long and expensive struggle for independence. ("Dictator ship in Latin America," p. 179) In order to understand the uniqueness of the Latin American dictator, it is essential to study the causal fac tors that produced him. Of primary importance, then, are the historical elements encountered in the 300 years of Spanish Colonialism, a century of independence and anarchy, 64 an d t h e t w e n t i e t h - c e n t u r y h i s t o r y o f t h e s e s o - c a l l e d e m e r g in g n a t i o n s . O f e q u a l im p o r ta n c e w it h t h e h i s t o r i c a l f a c t o r i s t h e r a c i a l e le m e n t t h a t i n c l u d e s b o th t h e s p i r i t u a l an d p s y c h o l o g i c a l c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s o f t h a t h e t e r o g e n e o u s p e o p le t h a t i n h a b i t t h e L a t in p o r t i o n o f t h e W e ste r n h e m is p h e r e . The g e o g r a p h y o f t h i s p a r t o f t h e w o r ld h a s a l s o p la y e d a s i g n i f i c a n t r o l e in t h e e m e r g e n c e o f t h e l o c a l a s w e l l a s t h e n a t i o n a l c a u d i l l o . And f i n a l l y , t h e e c o n o m ic f a c t o r s , w h ic h o f n e c e s s i t y m u st i n c l u d e t h e a s p e c t o f f o r e i g n i n t e r v e n t i o n in o n e form o r a n o t h e r , m u st b e a n a ly z e d i n o r d e r t o g a i n a f u l l u n d e r s t a n d in g o f w h a t R ip p y c a l l s " th e e n v i r o n m e n ta l f a c t o r s " c o n t r i b u t i n g t o t h e e m e r g e n c e o f t h e L a t in A m e rica n d i c t a t o r . S p a n is h C o l o n i a l i s m M ost s t u d e n t s o f h i s t o r y a r e f a i r l y w e l l a c q u a in t e d w it h t h e d a r in g e x p l o i t s an d h e r o i c d e e d s o f t h o s e S p a n is h d e s c e n d a n t s o f Don Q u ix o te who u n d e r to o k t h e c o n q u e s t o f t h e A m e r ic a s . The e x p l o i t s o f C o r t e s , B a lb o a , C a b eza d e i V a c a , and C oron ad o s t i l l e x c i t e y o u n g m in d s , b u t t h a t m ore j p e r m a n en t and l e s s c o l o r f u l p e r io d o f S p a n is h C o l o n i a l i s m j i h a s , u n t i l r e c e n t l y , b e e n o f l i t t l e i n t e r e s t e v e n t o h i s - [ f t o r i a n s . I t i s , h o w e v e r , t h i s v e r y p e r io d o f m undane i n - i s t i t u t i o n a l i z a t i o n t h a t h a s h a d t h e l a s t i n g i n f l u e n c e o n ! ] t h e L a t in A m e rica n r e p u b l i c s a f t e r t h e i r in d e p e n d e n c e from 65 t h e M oth er C o u n t r y . To begin with, it is essential that one understand the political structure of the Spanish Empire at the time of the discovery of the Americas. By 1492, absolute monarchy had been established on the Peninsula. Either by force or by gentle persuasion, Ferdinand and Isabella had brought the feudal nobility under their control. They had also ended the war of reconquest by expelling the Arabs from their last stronghold in Granada. And through the political marriages of their children they had guaranteed that their descend ants, Charles I and Philip II, would be masters of the largest empire of their time. The institution of "Absolute and Divine Right Monarchy" was a fundamental element in the governmental system estab lished by Ferdinand and Isabella, and bequeathed to Charles I and Philip II. The Bourbon Kings also continued the tra dition to the extent that the intellectual concepts of democracy were given little opportunity to emerge as was occurring in England and France at that time.1 The Spanish Kings established in the American colonies the same governmental system that was used to rule at home. ^J. Fred Rippy, "Monarchy or Republic," in Dictatorship in Latin America, ed. Hugh M. Hamill, p. 87. 66 i ! In Europe, the King of Spain was the head of a number of kingdoms (Castilla, Le6n, ftntyurir etc;- )-all of whioh - following Roman precedent had been incorporated into the realm on the basis of equality. This tradition was continued in the New World. The conquered terri tories and the people were looked upon not as colonies of the English type, but as additional kingdoms, theo retically the equals of the kingdoms of the Peninsula, "units of Spanish collective life linked up to the European ones by the person of the King.“2 The King's authority, regardless of the distance, was su preme in the Americas . In order to transmit his wishes to the American kingdom, the Monarch created the Council of the Indies, ... a powerful body whose functions included the issuing of laws, the supervision of the church, jus tice, and finance . . . and the direction of trade and shipping. Instructions on almost every imagin able subject poured into the Kingdom. (Pendle, p. 54) The direct agent of the King in the colonies was the viceroy. This person ruled over a type of American kingdom ^ in the name of the Spanish King. As the personal represen tative of the King, he was by tradition a peninsular. "It was the policy of the Crown to exclude from the highest offices of the state in America even the Creoles, men of i pure European descent born in the New World” (Jane, p. 7). The only political participation enjoyed by the local 2 G eo r g e P e n d le , A H is t o r y o f L a t in A m e rica ( B a lt im o r e : P e n g u in B o o k s , 1963), p. 52. 67 criollos took place in the cabildos or the town councils. These bodies were hardly ever more than very weak inter preters of the colonists' needs, "for it was not part of the policy of an absolute monarchy to nurture vigorous The system of a monarchical control established by the Spanish Kings in America thus resulted in the ?Imost abso lute nonparticipation of the local citizens in administra tive affairs. This Viceroyal system existed in the Americas until the Wars of Independence which began in 1810. These 300 years of absolute monarchy had so influenced the Ameri cans that it was only partially altered by gaining political independence from Spain. The caudillos of the nineteenth century thus emerged as the heirs to the American thrones. j The struggle for independence was a long and expensive | ordeal. Not only had it cost thousands of lives and copious; logical crisis. After the fifteen years of warfare, the choice for the Americans in terms of a political structure they wished to adopt was between monarchy or republic. They municipalities." 3 am ou n ts o f m on ey, i t a l s o c r e a t e d i n t h e A m e r ic a n s a n i d e o - i thlone ^John Lynch, Spanish Colonial Administration (London: thlone Press, 1958), p. 204. j had not begun their struggle in 1810 as an effort to reject . King Ferdinand VII. Rather, they rejected Jos^ Bonaparte, i the Frenchman who had been placed on the throne of Spain by ! his brother. The very cry for independence of Padre Hidalgoi 4 was not "Viva Mexico" but "Viva Mexico y el rey Fernando." The leaders for independence were by temperament aris tocratic. Most of them believed in social divisions and were representatives of the white creole class. "Among the leaders, in fact, monarchists were rather the rule than the exception and there is no reason to believe that they were out of sympathy with the majority of their Indian and mes tizo followers" (Jane, p. 103). The idea of creating repub-; i lies was in a sense an afterthought that occurred to them J ! ! only after several attempts at making one of their own a i I king proved ridiculous, as was the case with Iturbide in j Mexico. In fact Bolivar, the great liberator, himself de- J clared that "The new states of America . . . need Kings with the name of President” (Blanksten, p. 499) . He felt that a life-term president with the power of naming his successor was the most practical manner of initiating a Republican j a | J. Patric McHenry, A Short History of Mexico (New jYork: Doubleday and Co., 1962), p. 80. system. This arrangement, he said, "had the advantage of avoiding the changing administrations caused by party gov ernments, and the excitement that too frequent elections produce" (Blanksten, pp. 498-499). San Martin and Belgrano were no more republicans in their views than Bolivar. Belgrano longed to create a vast empire along the same geographical boundaries as the Inca realm, but based upon Spanish principles. San Martin favored the establishment of a hereditary monarchy similar to the one established in Brazil by the Portuguese King, Dorn Pedro II, who preferred to remain in his Brazilian col ony rather than return to his hereditary realm in Portugal after the French were expelled. I t i s q u i t e o b v i o u s , t h e n , t h a t t h e d e c i s i o n i n f a v o r o f r e p u b l i c a n g o v e r n m e n ts in L a t in A m e rica w as n o t u l t i m a t e ly made b e c a u s e o f a n y d e e p - f e l t c o n v i c t i o n a s t o t h e I i virtues of this type of government. Cecil Jane states that j "North Americans in the days of Washington were Republicans by conviction and choice; the Spanish Americans in the days of Bolivar were Republicans by compulsion" (p. Ill) . To l have chosen a monarchy would have resulted in complete con trol by autocrats, the landed gentry, and the church. The irony is that their choice in favor of a republican form of government resulted in exactly the same thing, for the Americans had not been trained to govern themselves. The monarchical paternalism of the Spanish crown had never allowed them to participate in the creation of their own destiny. When the wars ended, the Spanish peninsulares. the only men with any administrative experience, were killed or ex pelled from the Americas. Those remaining criollos who had successfully driven the European powers out of the Americas, though men of lofty ideals and undaunted courage, were not experienced administrators. They readily accepted the rational, liberal ideals of the French Encyclopedists and such North American patriots as Thomas Jefferson and his i colleagues vrtio had written the American constitution. But j in practical administration, they were mere yearlings. Theyj had to struggle against the past in order to achieve true i freedom. "They had to seek models beyond their own cultural^ sphere . . . Latin America had to realize by its own efforts what North America had received as its heritage" (Zea, p. 79) . After the initial scrimmages during the first few years of the struggle for independence, the war became one I of ideals. Latin American intellectuals had gradually introduced those concepts of liberty that had found literary expression in France, England, and the United States. Thus E when the war ended, the new nations were unprepared to operate a governmental system established by idealistic individuals who 1 1 in brief hours of ecstasy . . . had written into virgin constitutions all the idealism of their time" (Rippy, "Dictatorship in Latin America," p. 182). What resulted was a century of anarchy and continuous revolution. During the period between Independence and the First World War, more than 115 revolutions occurred in Latin America (Lieuwen, p. 21). These revolts were seldom of a fundamental nature. That is, they rarely succeeded in re organizing basic institutions. Rather, they represented the| struggle within the privileged groups that had become heirs to the elite status of the Spanish dons. The church, the land owners, and the emerging military caste fought over thej i I land and right to rule while the lower classes, the bulk of j the population, anxiously awaited the victory of a benevo- j lent ruler. From this period of continuous civil war emerged the j first Latin American dictators, men who represented the same {conflicting conditions of the historical period they helped I J to write. They have been confusingly classified as 72 “reformers in desperate haste or champions of the status quo or reactionaries or advocates of moderate change or merely men covetous of power and prestige" (Rippy, "Dictatorship in Latin America," p. 211). The latter description is probably the most apt. Most of these men emerged from the ranks of the revo lutionary armies. After Spain had been defeated, the weal thier officers rejected political responsibility, preferring instead to retire to their secluded estates. Politics was viewed as a pastime for commoners. The lower-class criollo military men and the sprinkling of mestizos were thus left to determine the political destiny of the new republics, providing, of course, they did not infringe on the privi leges of the landowners and the church. i For these men an army career provided the opportunity | to break through the arbitrary restrictions of the old i social order to shoot one's way into a share of power, ! wealth, social prestige enjoyed by the landed oligarchy i and the church hierarchy. (Lieuwen, p. 20) j It was seldom the wealthy that suffered the scourge of tyrants; rather, it was the Indians or the lower classes who lost their land and their lives in the political struggle between pretenders to the crown of the dictator. For most of the nineteenth century the "caudillos barbaros” and their 73 ! I followers lived as little more than parasites upon the land and the society they were supposed to protect. I Pre-Columbian Influences The influence of Spanish colonialism is not the only historical element that has contributed to the emergence of the dictator in Latin America. Perhaps here it would be wise to retrogress a little to see how the political struc tures of the pre-Columbian societies were also significant in the creation of the caudillo. Among the Aztecs, for example, the king or ruler was elected by the Tlatoani. noblemen who chose from their own ranks that individual most distinguished in valor, war, and knowledge. The kingship, I then, not being hereditary, usually fell to the most power- ! I ful man in the realm. The political system was theoreti- I cally democratic since the ruler was elected, but he was not; j elected by the popular vote of all the citizens of the j i I realm. Rather, he was elected by the caciques. regional leaders who were not obliged to express the popular wishes . These cacique strongmen were probably the most significant element in the Indian political structure that survived the colonial period. i One American hierarchical group Which retained some i power after the conquest in Middle America, at least, granted tribute exemptions and a number of special privileges such as permission to ride horses, to wear Spanish clothing, to carry swords and to use Spanish honorific titles . . . Much is known of the individual members of this class during the 16-l7th centuries; some were wealthy ranchers; a few owned negro slaves; nearly all seemed to have held municipal offices ... The location of the class was however almost wholly confined to the towns and cities. Its privileges were hereditary; it included both males and females; and royal law accorded it the rank of the hidalgo class of the mother country.5 The Incas had an even more defined political structure which was based on absolute and divine right monarchy rather than the semi-democracy practiced by the Aztecs. The Inca Emperors were plenary rulers with a divine right to rule, held in check only by ancient custom. They were descended by direct line from the Sun, "the creator God." Everything | upon the earth belonged to the Emperor— the trees, the j i r i v e r s , t h e p e o p l e , t h e g o l d , t h e v e r y t e a r s o f t h e Sun an d j 6 ! M oon. He w as an a b s o l u t e r u l e r , h e w as G od. j I t i s no w o n d e r , t h e n , t h a t a n t h r o p o l o g i s t s an d h i s - ' i torians have concluded that the lower order of Indians in 1 both the Peruvian and Mexican societies were characterized ^ H a m ill, I n t r o d u c t io n t o D i c t a t o r s h i p in S p a n is h A m er i c a . p . 16 . ^ V ic t o r W. v o n H a g en , R ealm o f t h e I n c a (New Y ork : jM entor B o o k s, 1957), p. 113. ... ..... " ‘ '....... " 75 l before the arrival of the Europeans by habitual submissive- ness and obedience to their rulers, it was not difficult i i for the lower classes among the sedentary Indians to accept the Spaniards as masters after the conquest. Except for a few fierce hunting tribes like the Yaquis and the Arau- canians, who had a poorly structured political system, "it was quite easy for the Spaniards who disdained manual labor to make use of the already available servile labor force” (Hamill, p. 18). Psychological Factors The historical factors briefly discussed here which contributed to the emergence of the Latin American dictators after independence are actually the external elements of ! i what is basically a psychological reality. The events of history are no more than physical expressions of an indi- j vidual's or a society's collective mind. To understand j i dictatorship in Latin America, one must be able to define i those elements of national or, in a broader sense, racial character that have contributed to the emergence of the caudillo. A psychological analysis of the Latin American charac- I iter is an almost impossible task. For one thing, whom does 76 1 one analyze— the white, the Indian, the mestizo. the black? Is there any one group that embodies a sufficient number of psychological traits that can be considered typical of most of the Latin Americans? The Mexican sociologist Ariel Peralta believes that it is precisely in this racial mosaic that one finds the origin of Latin America's "insuficiencia politica." He further believes that it has been the very amalgamation of races that has led to the development of the caudillo. Por el momento, la psicologia popular mestiza ha im- puesto sus sentimientos colectivos: El tenue senti mental ismo, el estremecimiento ante la palabra encen- dida, la pasion androlatrica en general, han definido el caracter de Latinoamerica. ... La gran masa a mesti za da seria con su incapasidad definitiva, el reflejo "popular" que el caudillo latinoamericano descubre para j sus obscuros propositos. ... Esa masa, pauperizada en , la mayoria de los casos, naturalmente tiene que in- clinarse ante el paternalismo de un Cesar que le tiende la mano.7 ! i Peralta, as do many other students of Latin American i studies, believes that the Latin American has inherited fromj l i both his indigenous and Iberian ancestors certain psycho- j logical attitudes or traits that make the emergence of the dictator a common phenomenon in this part of the world. The 7El cesarisroo en America Latina (Santiago de Chile: jEditorial Orbe, 1966), pp. 64-65. 77 : I n d ia n c o n t r i b u t i o n s t o t h e p s y c h o lo g y o f c a u d i l l i s m o a r e m ore d i f f i c u l t t o d e f i n e th a n t h e I b e r i a n e l e m e n t s , f o r o n e ! i c a n o n ly g e n e r a l i z e on t h e m e n ta l m akeup o f t h e p r e - C o lu m b ia n s o c i e t i e s . A n t o n io C a r ro M a r tin e z m akes t h e f o l lo w in g com m ent on t h e I n d ia n in h i s a r t i c l e , "El c a u d i l l i s m o A m e r ic a n o /’ w h ic h i s a c o n c l u s i o n g e n e r a l l y a c c e p t e d b y m o st a u t h o r i t i e s on L a t in A m e r ic a : La herencia india es humilde, callada, cortea, pero sobre todo, indiferente ante la politica ... La apa- tia, modorra y desidia del indio puro en relacion con las formas politicas es bien notoria, y solo la pro- vocacidn de un buen caudillo es capaz de sacudirles del pasmo y la pasividad. (pp. 143-144) Octavio Paz in his Laberinto de la soledad also points out that the Indian, in this case the Mexican-Indian, pos- J I sesses that quality of stoicism that allows him to accept ! t h a t " r e s ig n a n c ia a la v id a " t h a t a l l o w s c a u d i l l i s m o t o 0 flourish. And though the Indian has accepted his role of j submissiveness and obedience, he has no faith in the politi cal system under which he lives. Politics, to him, is a I white man's game. If ever the Indian truly chooses to par- i ticipate actively in, say, a civil war or a so-called revo lution, he does so because he follows a man, not a 8The Labyrinth of Solitude, trans. Lysander Kemp (New jYork: Grove Press, 1961), p. 31^.__________ _________________ 78 l principle. The lure of the cacique is still a reality. Just as thousands of Indians knowingly followed Cuauhtemoc to his death in the war against the Spaniards, their twentieth-century descendants followed Pancho Villa and Zapata in the Mexican Revolution. The Indian participates in political struggles according to the principles of caudillaie: he remains a dormant political entity until aroused by the figure of the caudillo. As for the Iberian contribution to the psychology of caudillismo. Salvador de Madariaga believes it can be traced as far back as the Spaniard's medieval heritage (Hamill, p. 13). The wars of reconquest, for example, resulted in the glorification of military virtues, prowess at arms, and "thej psychology of the Knight errant." When the Arabs were \ ( finally expelled from the Peninsula, it was fortunate for | I the Spaniards that they had found America to conquer, for j their national psychology was oriented toward warfare. As Eric Wolf puts it, "the gain of riches by warfare, the acquisition of loot and ego enchantment motivated the Span ish knight" (Hamill, p. 14). Other writers have gone even further back than the medieval period to trace the Iberian roots of caudillismo. i For example, Cecil Jane points out that from the very 79 earliest times a love of individual and local freedom had been instinctive to the Spanish race (p. 19). He cites the mass suicide of the Numantinos who refused to surrender to Roman authority and the long tradition of independence among the Vascos and the Catalanes . This individualism that has survived in Spain even into the twentieth century was brought to the Americas by the first explorers. These men were Vascos, Extremenos, Andaluces, Gallegos. National unity had never occurred spiritually in Spain, even though the Catholic kings might have imposed a political unity. Thus individualism in Latin America— that individualism of the military leaders, of the hacendados and of the cau- dillos— arrived with the first conquistadores. El individualismo y la insurgencia liegaron con ellos i a America: Cortds en rebelion contra Velazquez y combatiendo a Narvaez en el propio imperio azteca aun no vencido; Olid sublevado contra Cortes . Alvarado navegando desde Guatemala para luchar contra sus com- patriotas en Quito; pizarristas y almagristas despe- dazandose en el Peru mientras la insurreccion indigene j hervia por todas partes; Gonzalo Pizarro aspirando a crearse un imperio propio sobre la mitad del conti- j nente; y la personalidad fascinante de Lope de Aguirre, j verdadero demonio sanguinario, que lleg<S a escribir al j propio Felipe II con tuteo insolente: "Y mira, ray y I senor, que no puedes llevar con titulo de rey justo ; ningun interns de estas tierras donde no aventurastes nada sin que primero los que en esta tierra han traba- jado y sudado, sean gratificados ... " Puede pedirse mas? El caudillismo americano tiene un ilustre abo- 1 lengo. (Peralta, p. 59) T h is q u a l i t y o f p e r s o n a l i s m o - i n d iv id u a lia m o i s c l o s e l y r e l a t e d t o t h e c o n c e p t o f m ach ism o w h ic h i s n o t , a s many b e l i e v e , o n l y a M e x ic a n c h a r a c t e r i s t i c . I t i s , i n f a c t , e v i d e n t i n m o st L a t in A m e rica n c o u n t r i e s . M achism o o r " th e c u l t o f v i r i l i t y , " a s Raymond V ern on c a l l s i t , a lm o s t i n v a r i a b l y p r o j e c t s t h e p i c t u r e o f t h e a g g r e s s i v e m a le p r o t a g o n i s t . . . c o n s t a n t l y p r e o c c u p ie d w i t h t h e im a g e h e i s c o n v e y in g , c o n s t a n t l y c o n c e r n e d t o c r e a t e t h e im p r e s s io n o f m a s c u l i n i t y an d c o u r a g e an d i n v u l n e r a b i l i t y an d i n d i f f e r e n c e t o t h e a t t a c k s o f o t h e r s . 9 T h is d e f i n i t i o n o f m a ch ism o , w it h v e r y fe w e x c e p t i o n s , c o u ld b e u s e d t o c h a r a c t e r i z e m o st L a t in A m e rica n d i c t a t o r s . M achism o i s , w i t h v e r y l i t t l e d o u b t , t h e f i r s t a t t r i b u t e o f t h e c a u d i l l o . I t e m b o d ie s on t h e o n e h a n d t h e | i c a p a c i t y t o d o m in a te f e m a le s an d on t h e o t h e r , t h e r e a d in e s s ; t o u s e v i o l e n c e . I t may n o t seem e x t e r n a l l y t h a t t h e d o m i- j n a n c e o f women i s a p o l i t i c a l l y r e l e v a n t f a c t o r , b u t t h e j I f a c t i s t h a t t h i s e le m e n t r e s u l t s in a v e r y a n t a g o n i s t i c i r e l a t i o n s h i p b e tw e e n L a t in A m e r ic a n m a l e s . W h eth er in p r a c t i c e o r i n t h e o r y , t h e id e a i s t o b e a t o t h e r men i n th e 9 j Evelyn P. Stevens, "Mexican Machismo: Politics and lvalue Orientation," western Political Quarterly. 18, No. 4 | (December 1965), 846. ' ' s i ; competition over females.The man who exhibits the most Masculinity by becoming the dictator has theoretically ! defeated other men in the competition for women. In other I words, he can have any woman he wants. Those who are de feated, then, are cast in the role of passive and submissive sufferers who, more often than not, admire tha victor rather than resent him. It is curious that this combination of individualism and machismo that causes the Latin American male to resist control "also leads him to welcome control when it is the result of a vigorous assertion of individual ity by another" (Jane, p. 27). In fact the more vigorous the assertion, the more readily the defeated male submits to the will of the victor. There are many other elements of national character i that have contributed to the emergence of the dictator but ; time will not allow us to pursue them in detail. One should mention, however, that the many years of Roman Catholicism ! in both the Peninsula and in Latin America have made it very! I difficult for the Latin American to act politically in any j way except an absolute way. After independence the Latin ; ^°Eric R. Wolf and Edward C. Hansen, "Caudillo Poli tics: A Structural Analysis," Comparative Studies in Soci ety and History. 9, No. 2 (January 1967), 174. iA m erican c o u ld n o t a d a p t h i m s e l f t o t h e s t a n d a r d s o f R e p u b - ! l i c a n i s m . H is m ind h a d f o r c e n t u r i e s b e e n m o ld e d b y t h e s t a n d a r d s o f Roman C a t h o l i c i s m . T h is v e r y e le m e n t i s v i s i b l e to d a y a s o n e o f t h e m ain r e a s o n s why L a t in A m e rica n d i c t a t o r s an d t h e i r a b s o l u t i s t r e g im e s h a v e b e e n s o f r e q u e n t ly a c c e p t e d b y t h e m a s s e s . G e o g r a p h ic F a c t o r s A n o th e r e le m e n t o f p r im a r y s i g n i f i c a n c e in t h e e m e r g e n c e o f t h e c a u d i l l o i s t h e m a t te r o f g e o g r a p h y . The a w e som e im m e n sity o f t h e m o u n ta in s ! t h e r i v e r s ! t h e p l a i n s h a s p la y e d a s i g n i f i c a n t r o l e in t h e p o l i t i c a l and e c o n o m ic r e a l i t i e s o f L a t in A m e r ic a . R e g io n a lis m and l o c a l i s m ! f e d e r a l i s m and c e n t r a l i s m p r o d u c e d by t h e g e o g r a p h ic b a r r i e r s an d t h e g r e a t d i s t a n c e s h a v e b e e n c o n s t a n t f a c t o r s i n t h e h i s t o r y o f t h e a r e a . S p a i n ' s f a i l u r e t o c o n s t r u c t g o o d : I r o a d s an d d e v e lo p a r i v e r s y s te m d u r in g t h e c o l o n i a l p e r io d j 1 r e s u l t e d i n t h e i s o l a t i o n o f t h e i n t e r i o r r e g i o n s and t h e j c o n s e q u e n t e m e r g e n c e o f l o c a l c a c iq u e l e a d e r s t h a t p la y e d j an im p o r ta n t p a r t in t h e w a r s o f in d e p e n d e n c e . Some o f t h e s e v e r y g u e r r i l l a l e a d e r s b ecam e p r e s i d e n t - d i c t a t o r s o f t h e c o u n t r i e s t h e y h e lp e d l i b e r a t e . T he v e r y f o r c e s o f n a t u r e — r i v e r s , sw am ps! m o u n t a in s , d e s e r t s — c o m b in e d w it h ...... ' ““ 83 an a lm o s t t o t a l l a c k o f c o m m u n ic a tio n a llo w e d t h e c a u d i l l o l e a d e r s o f t h e i n t e r i o r r e g i o n s t o b ecom e e x t r e m e ly p o w e r f u l b e f o r e t h e g o v e r n m e n t w as a w a re o f i t . T y p ic a l e x a m p le s o f t h e g e o g r a p h ic f a c t o r in t h e e m e r g e n c e o f t h e c a u d i l l o w e r e t h e c a s e s o f J o s e A n to n io P a ez in V e n e z u e la an d J u a n M an u el d e R o sa s i n A r g e n t i n a . The A m e rica n g e o g r a p h e r Raymond E . C r i s t , i n h i s a r t i c l e "G eograp h y an d C a u d i l l i s m o , " h a s w r i t t e n an e x c e l l e n t s t u d y o f how s u c h men a s P a e z an d R o sa s w e re n o t h in g m ore th a n t h e p r o d u c t s o f p a s t o r a l g e o g r a p h y . ^ He p o i n t s o u t t h a t th r o u g h o u t h i s t o r y , s u c h p a s t o r a l r e g i o n s a s t h e s t e p p e s o f R u s s ia , t h e m e s e t a s o f S p a in , t h e pam pas o f A r g e n t in a an d U r u g u a y , and t h e l l a n o s o f V e n e z u e la h a v e t e n d e d t o p r o d u c e a h i g h l y m o b ile p e o p le who h a v e t r a d i - ! i t i o n a l l y r e s i s t e d t h e a t t e m p t s o f c e n t r a l i z e d g o v e r n m e n ts J i t o c o n t r o l th e m . The C o s s a c k s , t h e B e d o u in s , t h e G a u c h o s, t h e L l a n e r o s , t h e S e r t a n e j o s o f B r a z i l , a n d t h e P l a i n s I n d ia n s o f N o r th A m e rica h a v e p r o d u c e d s u c h f i g u r e s a s F acu n d o Q u ir o g a an d G eron im o who h a v e b ecom e s y m b o ls o f t h e n om ad ic m a n 's s t r u g g l e f o r h i s c o n t in u e d in d e p e n d e n c e . i ■ ^"G eograp hy a n d C a u d illis m o : A C a se S t u d y ," i n D i c t a t o r s h i p i n S p a n is h A m e r ic a , e d . Hugh M. H a m ill, J r . , p . 72 . Among t h e p la in s m e n , t h e r e a lw a y s e x i s t e d a g r e a t s e n s e I o f e q u a l i t y and l i b e r t y . A l l men w e r e e q u a l in t h e i r r e l a - l t i o n s h i p t o t h e e n v ir o n m e n t . E ach man c a u g h t an d b r o k e h i s 1 own h o r s e , o b t a i n e d h i s own f o o d , an d fo u g h t h i s own b a t t l e s , w it h h i s f a c o n . h i s l a n c e , o r h i s s i x - g u n . The n a t u r a l l e a d e r e m e rg e d am ong t h e p la in s m e n b e c a u s e o f p e r s o n a l pow er r a t h e r th a n a n y t y p e o f p a r t y s u p p o r t , a lt h o u g h a t t im e s " th e i s o l a t i o n o f a p r o v i n c e , s m a l l p o p u l a t i o n an d i n t e r - 12 m a r r ia g e p r o d u c e d a p r o v in c e o f r e l a t i v e s , " w h ic h r e s u l t e d in t h e e m e r g e n c e o f t h e l e a d e r s from t h i s t y p e o f e x t e n d e d f a m i ly s t r u c t u r e . In e i t h e r c a s e , t h e c a u d i l l o s t h a t e m e r g e d i n L a t in A m e r ic a a f t e r t h e w a r s o f in d e p e n d e n c e f o u g h t t e n a c i o u s l y t o p r e s e r v e t h e i r own r u r a l in d e p e n d e n c e ; i ! an d w ay o f l i f e . | i The f a c t i s t h a t i n t h e f i r s t fe w y e a r s o f in d e p e n - j d e n c e , t h e r u r a l a r e a s d e f e a t e d t h e c i t i e s . A lm o s t im m ed i a t e l y t h e s t r u g g l e b e g a n b e tw e e n c e n t r a l i s m an d f e d e r a l i s m . "Though B u en o s A i r e s h a d c o n q u e r e d S p a in , R o s a s , t h e c a u - I dillo of rural federalism, conquered Buenos Aires" (Zea, j p. 49). The same thing occurred on the llanos of 12 Roger M. Haigh, "The Creation and Control of a Cau- jdillo," in Readings in Latin American History, ed. Lewis jHanke (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1966), p. 11. Venezuela. The liberal thinkers of Caracas had created the | dream of independence, but the lanceros of the llanos car ried Paez to ultimate power in the city It was not long, however, before the liberal spirit of the plainsmen was con-, verted to authoritarianism in the city. It was inevitable that vfaen the rural caudillo attempted to govern his estate from the capital city, he would rely on centralization and autocratic rule, for the many years of Spanish example made it inevitable. Antonio Carro Martinez indicates that cen tralism as a system of government was inevitable in Latin America and went hand in hand with the concept of cau dillismo . La centralizacion es, por el contrario, algo mas pri- vativo y peculiar de la especialisima manera de ser politics iberoamericana. Todo converge hacia la con- centracion del poder en una persona, y todo prueba que las constituciones templadas con ejecutivos debiles son las que menos se han seguido al pie de la letra. El presidencialismo es la etiqueta con que se ha pre- tendido encubrir el caudillismo, de ahi los plazos mas bien cortos del mandato presidencial frente a la natu- j ral tendencia que los caudillos manifiestan para esti- j rar dicho plazo lo mas posible. (p. 160) The effects of the geography of Latin America are ob vious during the nineteenth century, but even in the twen tieth century, geographic conditions have exerted a notable i influence on the mentality and the psychology of the Latin American. Regionalism has by no means disappeared. Getulio Vargas of Brazil, for example, relied heavily on the support of the gauchos of his home state of Rio Grande do Sul to stay in power for fifteen years. In other countries of Latin America, this traditional struggle between the rural areas and the cities continues to be a prominent factor in political instability. Fidel Castro's regime has attempted to use this rural-urban rivalry that exists in Latin America to get a foothold in such countries as Bolivia and Guate mala . The traditional isolation of the peasant and the Indian in many Latin American countries has also been significant in the emergence of the urban caudillo. for when these rural, masses move into the cities in search of work and welfare, 1 they often become the tools of such demagogues as Juan Peron, Perez Jimenez, or Rojas Pinilla, who become all the j | more powerful because of having at their disposal an angry mob, stirred up by a string of promises, which they can un leash against any group that resists the dictator's control. Thus the explosive nature of the rural dweller accompanies him into the city vftiere it also finds urban guerrilla war fare as a form of natural expression. I i 87 J ■ i Economic Factors The factors of the geography of Latin America have i indeed played a prominent role in the emergence of the cau dillo not only because of the regionalism and isolation that: resulted but also because of the effects it played on the economic development of the area. After the long wars of independence were over, Latin America found itself in dire economic straits. Throughout the fifteen years of warfare fields had lain fallow, mines had gone unworked, industry was unable to develop, and national treasuries were almost non existent. Foreign investors were also hesitant about in vesting in the fledgling republics until political stability could be assured. This resulted in the failure of any do mestic commercial class to emerge. What this meant, then, ! j was that a few large landholders continued to represent the 1 only segment of the society with well-defined economic in- | i terest (Johnson, p. 43). The criollo hazendados who had replaced the peninsulares continued the feudal practices of the Spanish landlords, with the result that the large masses of Indians, Negroes, and mestizos remained on the periphery of economic life. Though the economic structure of the {hacienda rested upon the peon's back, he was little more I jthan a beast of burden and since industry had little chance of emerging, the masses were destined to remain on the haciendas that represented the only world that they knew. It was from this hacienda system and its more or less defined economic interest that political action emerged in Latin America. This political action, however, most often resulted in anarchy, "for each hacendado's bitterest enemy was potentially his closest neighbor. In this competition, one must find the economic roots of criollo anarchy" (Wolf and Hansen, p. 171}. It has already been pointed out that this period of anarchy that followed independence resulted in the emergence of the caudillo leaders, for there existed a very "close and mutually advantageous association between the caudillos and landed aristocracy" (Hamill, p. 23). j While the hacendados controlled the wealth of a nation, the j i i caudillos controlled the military power, which more often I than not was placed at the service of the landed gentry for | i a reasonable fee. Consequently, in the absence of any real i framework for institutional politics, Latin American poli tics became personalized with both the military caudillo and the hacienda owner exchanging roles as the spirit moved them. , This period of economic and political anarchy was a 1 J traditional pattern in most of Latin America up to the mid-nineteenth century. However, it was gradually becoming i apparent to the political leaders of the respective repub lics that it was much easier to grant concessions to foreign investors than to extract taxes from wealthy landowners or the impoverished masses . Money was needed to run a country, even if it was not run well. Furthermore, the caudillo realized that he would be the principal beneficiary of for eign investments. His personal treasury would be enriched by the sale of certain investment privileges to foreign entrepreneurs. The dictator Porfirio Diaz of Mexico (1876- 1910) stands out as perhaps the most generous of Latin American dictators— generous in terms of his treatment of foreign capitalists. i During his dictatorship, 125,000,000 acres of land were sold, approximately one-fourth of the republic which contained the richest oil depostis and mineral < veins in the country . . . American capital alone, in j Mexico, was then $1,250,000,000. Ho wonder Mexico | was then being called the mother of foreigners and stepmother of her own children. (McHenry, pp. 162, 166) Diaz began a trend that was to be imitated by most dic tators during the early years of the twentieth century. Juan Vicente Gomez of Venezuela was another who saw the advantages of being allied with foreign investors. "From i 1918, United States, British and Dutch companies competed 90 ; i for Venezuelan concessions and Gomez who collected his own J share on all government transactions proved himself a shrewd, bargainer" (Pendle, p. 166). By mid-century the political heir to Gomez's domain, the caudillo Marcos Perez Jimenez, had carried on the tradition of his predecessor to such an extent that the united States investors, vdio accounted for 65 per cent of foreign investment in Venezuela, owned more than three-fifths of the petroleum industry, all of the iron mining enterprises, and a large share of the local manu facturing industry, commerce, banking, and utilities (Pendle, p. 169). During the twentieth century, the political and eco nomic destiny of Latin American republics has been deter mined to a great extent by international events. It is true ! that during the nineteenth century, European powers and the United States had shown an interest in Latin America and had begun to exploit the region's natural resources for their i own industrial needs, but it was during the first decades of the twentieth century that the industrialized nations of the West truly determined the economic condition of Latin I America. Fruit companies, oil companies, mining companies, land a myriad of other capitalistic organizations moved into r I the area by the thousands. As a result, whole nations became the private haciendas of corporations with the result; that the economic life of a given republic could become dependent on the production of a single crop such as bananas or the mining of a single mineral. This type of dependence placed many of the Latin Ameri can nations at the mercy of the international market, which in turn was dependent on political events which occurred in the industrialized nations. Thus, the two world wars that occurred in Europe in the first half of the twentieth cen tury resulted in tremendous chaos in both the economic and the political life of Latin America. Magnus Mdrner in his study of Latin American dictatorship points out that Latin American political instability during the twentieth century ; has been a direct result of the changing world market and ! international conflict. f I Bajo el impacto de los cambios conyunturales inter- nacionales y de un mercado mundial inseguro a partir de los anos de la decada de 1920, pais tras pais en j America Latina sufrio crisis econ<Smicas agudas, las cuales a su vez, provocaron la caida mas o menos inmediata de los regimenes politicos, fueron conser vatives, fueron liberales. (Chevalier, p. 301) United States Influence i Aside from the economic influence asserted by the i western industrialized nations in Latin America, the 92 diplomatic influence has been significant in the political life of this area. There is little doubt that the united States, because of its proximity to the region, has played the most significant role in determining the political reality of Latin America, although in recent years the Com munist nations of Europe have begun to show great interest in the region. Dating from the early years of Latin Ameri can independence, the United States has demonstrated by such measures as the Monroe Doctrine, the Dollar Diplomacy, the Good Neighbor Policy, and the Alliance for Progress that the destiny of the Latin American republics is directly tied to that of the United States . There are numerous examples of American military, diplomatic, and economic intervention in Latin America that i one might cite to demonstrate the major role played by the United States in Latin American affairs. Perhaps the most outstanding example of American intervention is in the hand ! the United States has had in the selection or longevity of Latin American leaders. It is a generally accepted fact that in the past, the United States' recognition of a new j i regime was the determining factor in the success of that regime, for with diplomatic recognition came a complement of weaponry that has always been essential to the political 93 survival of Latin American leaders. In many respects, united States intervention in Latin American affairs has been a colossal failure if its inten tion was to insure democracy and has actually resulted in the perpetuation of caudillismo in the twentieth century. The majority of Latin American specialists in the United States feel that "the U. S. policy of never condemning dic tatorship or doing so in such a round about way as to be totally ineffective amounts in a basic sense to failure of U. S. leadership in Latin America" (Szulc, p. 12). Latin Americans as well have been extremely critical of the role played by the United States policies and arms. Jesus Silva Herzog, for example, points out that: Es un hecho incontrovertible que ninguna persona hon- rada puede negar, que las armas entregadas por los Estados Unidos a las dictaduras latinoamericanas para la defensa del continente, para la defensa se la justi- cia, de la democracia y de la libertad, se han utili- zado y se estan utilizando por los dictadores para asesinar en sus propios territorios, la libertad, la justicia, y la democracia.*-3 It is perhaps this hypocrisy of the United States in proclaiming the virtues of democracy over the totalitarian 13 "Reflexciones sobre las dictaduras," Cuadernos Ameri canos . 64, No. 4 (julio-agosto 1952), 62. state while at the same time supporting dictators in various! parts of the world— including, of course, Latin America— f that most offends Latin American intellectuals. They see this as nothing more than an attempt by the United States to protect its economic interest in these areas at the ex pense of the democratic liberties of the citizens of these countries. Throughout most of the twentieth century, as Herzog points out, most of the dictatorial regimes in Latin America have been supported by Unites States arms. In fact, during the first few decades of the twentieth century, American Marines during their occupation of Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic actually trained the military men would eventually destroy the constitutional governments in | these countries that the united States mission had attempted to establish. ! After the Second World War, the United States policy in| Latin America was so motivated by the fear of communism that little distinction was made between dictatorial and demo cratic governments. The Eisenhower Administration, for example, recognized all Latin American governments as long as they were anti-Communist and pro-American. This non- discriminatory acceptance of dictatorship reached the ridi culous in 1953 when the Legion of Merit medal was presented to General Odria, the dictator of Peru, and in 1954 when the! same honor was bestowed on the Venezuelan dictator, P&rez Jimenez. Even the Kennedy Administration, despite its noble attempts at furthering the cause of democracy in Latin America through the Alliance for Progress, failed miserably in its attempt to encourage representative governments. The Kennedy policies were not at all consistent. On the one hand, the administration sought to encourage the growth of political and military establishments to enhance the chances of democracy, yet in order to isolate Cuba from the rest of the Latin American nations, the administration did not hesitate to make political use of the military against ; i the civilian governments of Frondizi in Argentina and i I Arosemena in Ecuador. It appeared that the Kennedy Adminis-j I tration was compromising democratic principles for the sake | of expediency. Edwin Lieuwen, in his book Generals vs . j Presidents. points out that by accepting the coups in Ar gentina and Ecuador and the military ouster of Ydigoras Fuentes in Guatemala in 1963, the administration actually "began to veer towards a watered down definition of 96 14 democracy.'1 The military had assumed veto power over the civilian governments of these countries. In that same year the civilian governments of Juan Bosch in the Dominican Republic, Villeda Morales in Hon duras , and Joao Goulart in Brazil were overthrown by the military. In most instances! the military forces that re placed the civilian regimes had received the tacit approval of the United States government simply by implying that they were anti-Communist. Some critics, like Lieuwen, have con cluded that "Latin American civilian parties were justified in claiming that U. S. weapons and trained Latin American military usually carried off the coups" (p. 129). What has become apparent in the last few years of Latin; American history is that the nations in this part of the ! world have not moved any closer to democracy than they were | i at the end of the nineteenth century, but perhaps it is not j i their wish to do so. Though there are still a number of , I traditional dictators in power, it seems that a new con frontation between right-wing military establishments, leftist-leaning military groups, and socialistic civilian parties will replace the traditional hierarchy of dictators, ^ (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1964), p. 127. landowners, and the Church in the struggle for the control of governments in Latin America. If the traditional dictator is being replaced by modern well-trained military men, as Szulc suggests in his book Twilight of Tyrants. there is no reason to believe that those same "environmental factors" such as racial and psy chological traits, geography, Colonial heritage, and eco nomic conditions that produced the caudillo are not impor tant in the new political experimentation that is currently 15 taking place in Latin America. It would be safe to say that as long as the "environmental factors" remain the same, the emergence of the dictator is always very possible in Latin America. If a president happens to be chosen from the ranks of the military or if he is swept into power by a coalition of political parties, the man himself will | I determine whether he will be a dictator, for the political I structures of most Latin American countries have as yet to j i eliminate this as a distinct possibility. *5Szulc’s thesis is that dictatorship is on the decline in Latin America. However, he does point out that the military establishment is beginning to play a much more active role in the political life of Latin America. The military is no longer merely used in support of a president |or dictator; it quite often determines who the president |will be. And more often than not, he is from among the military ranks. CHAPTER IV THE DICTATOR IN THE POLITICAL NOVEL The political situation in Latin America has often been characterized by chaos and violence. This atmosphere of political upheaval has also been a constant theme of Latin American literature, for in general Latin American writers have not been able to or have not cared to separate them selves from national crises. They have traditionally been men of action, or perhaps to phrase it in a more Hispanic way, "hombres de armas y de letras ." The cases are many of the Latin American writers who have participated in revolu- ! tions, coups, and civil wars as well as the milder forms of ' political activity, while at the same time gaining recogni- ! I j tion as men of letters. Such men as Sarmiento, Marmol, ; Gallegos, Azuela, and Asturias are but a sample of the many who have mixed politics and literature in a typically Latin American manner. The critic Ricardo Navas Ruiz, in his book I Literature v compromiso. points out that the Latin American writer "vive atento a la realidad circundante en cualquiera de sus formas y la lleva a su obra. En esa realidad, la politica es factor decisivo."^ He also believes that this preoccupation with the political environment is far more pronounced among Latin American writers than it is among European or North American authors. In fact, he feels that if one were to remove politically oriented literature from Latin American writing one would be removing the major, and perhaps the best part of that literature (p. 23). The novel, of course, has been the genre most preferred by Latin American writers to carry on their own manner of politics. Through it, they have attacked tyranny, denounced governmental corruption, and lobbied for liberty and social 1 I justice. In the early days, after independence, the novel- ! i ists went directly to the heart of the matter and attacked ' in their books the barbarous caudillos whom they considered to be responsible for the lamentable conditions in a coun try. In more recent times the novelists have preferred to criticize the political situation by trying to understand "la psicologia nacional." In either case, it is obvious ^Literature v compromieo: ensavo sobre la novela i politlca hlspanoamerlcana (Sao Paulo, Brazil; Universidad <de Sao Paulo, 1952), p. 22. that the Latin American writer has been strongly motivated by political realities, to such an extent that Luis Alberto | j Sanchez has expressed: “De all£, pues que la novela sea entre nosotros lo que Buckner ha senalado a la novela rusa I en tiempos de los Zares: tribuna, catedra, barricada, aula 2 campo de batalla, laboratorxo." Perhaps, before going any further, a distinction should be made between the types of novels that may be used as vehicles for political themes. The most obvious, of course, is the so-called political novel. According to Joseph L. Blotner, "a political novel is taken to mean a book which directly describes, interprets, or analyzes political 3 phenomena.'* Since political phenomena may also be the I i central theme of historical novels, they are often quite ! i similar to political novels. In fact, according to Enrique | Anderson Imbert, there is very little difference between most political novels and historical novels, since histori cal novels usually deal with the political history of a Froceso v contenido de la novela hispanoamericana (Madrid: Editorial Gredos, 1968), p. 427. i 3The Political Novel (Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday and Co., 1955), p. 2. 4 nation. Anderson Imbert feels that the relationship of events to the author distinguishes a political novel from a historical novel: " ... ya dijimos que una novela es historia, no porque presente una epoca pasada para nosotros,; lectores, sino una epoca que ya era pasada para el nove- lista" (p. 15). Thus, the author writing about contemporary political events, whether real or imagined, is creating a political novel, whereas another author writing about these events at a later date would be creating a historical novel. It seems, then, that the distinction is one of time more than of content. The critic Benjamin Jarnes in his article "Biografia y novela' 1 also introduces another aspect that should be mentioned in relation to the political theme. He feels that! i in "la biografia-histories, la biografia-novelada, y la j 5 novela-biografica" the political theme may be present i whenever the central character of the booh is a political j figure or is directly affected by the politics of the age 4 "Notas sobre la novels historica del siglo XIX," La novela Iberoamericana. ed. Arturo Torres-Rioseco (Albuquer que, N. M.: University of New Mexico Press, 1952), p. 15. SRevista de las Indies. 86 (febrero 1946), 24. in which he lives . i The political novel, which is obviously the most coiranon| I literary vehicle for expressing political phenomena, is relatively young as a genre. Morris Edmund Speare expressed; in his book The Political Novel the belief that "the politi cal novel was born in the prismatic mind of Benjamin Dis raeli."^ There is no doubt that Disraeli did much to fur ther the techniques of the political novel in such works as his Young England series. However, to accord him the honor of having created the genre seems a bit presumptuous, for while he may have been a leader in the English-speaking world, during his lifetime such Argentine romantics as Jose Marmol, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, and Jose Echeverria were; I shaping the political novel in Latin America. Luis Alberto j i Sanchez states that "oficialmente, Amalia es la primera | i i novela politica de America" (p. 428) . But even before the appearance of this book by Marmol in 1851, the criollo Jos^ de Irisarri (1788-1868) had described the political in trigues of the Spanish colonial system in such works as El Cristiano errante (1847) and Eoaminondas del Cauca \ (1864) . I ! I g j (New York: Oxford University Press, 1924), p. 1. Regardless of who the founder of the political novel was, one thing is certain, its characteristics are univer- i I sal. It seems to have undergone the same type of evolution 1 that political systems have experienced, from the simple to , the complex, from the theme of the individual to the theme of the masses* When demagogues have ruled they have found themselves portrayed in novels such as Amalia or All the King's Men: when political machines control men's minds, this too has been depicted in such works as George Orwell's 1964 or El Acoso by Alejo Carpentier. The emergence of the political novel in a country, according to Navas Ruiz, is directly related to the politi- cal situation of that country. "Hay literatura politics | donde hay poca estabilidad de regimenes" (p. 29). Luis 1 Alberto Sanchez adds to this that, "se escribe novela poli- 1 tica cuando no hay libertad para enunciar opiniones desem- . I bozadas ... " (p. 426). Thus, if one accepts the fact that the Argentine romantics initiated the political novel in Latin America during the Rosas dictatorship, it would appear that the above conclusions were certainly true in the begin- i hing. The "proscritos argentinos," as they were called, ,certainly exercised their literary talents in a period of i jsevere political conditions. The techniques of the p o l i t i c a l n o v e l d e v e lo p e d b y M armol in A m a lia s e t t h e p a t t e r n f o r m o st p o l i t i c a l w r i t i n g t h a t h a s f o l l o w e d . One r e a s o n f o r t h i s i s t h a t t h e p o l i t i c a l e n v ir o n m e n t o f d i c t a t o r s h i p t h a t M arm ol d e s c r i b e s h a s b e e n t h e c h a r a c t e r i s t i c n o t e o f L a t in A m e r ic a n p o l i t i c s . As h a s b e e n e x p l a i n e d i n p r e v io u s c h a p t e r s , d i c t a t o r s h i p in L a t in A m e r ic a h a s b e e n t h e r u l e r a t h e r th a n t h e e x c e p t i o n . I t i s no w o n d e r , t h e n , t h a t p o l i t i c a l n o v e l s a t t a c k i n g d i c t a t o r s h i p make up t h e b u lk o f L a t in A m e r ic a 's p o l i t i c a l l y o r i e n t e d l i t e r a t u r e . C a r lo s F u e n t e s , i n h i s s t u d y La n u ev a n o v e la h is p a n o a m e r i- c a n a . p o i n t s o u t how t h e p o l i t i c a l r e a l i t i e s o f L a t i n A m e r ic a e v o l v e d n a t u r a l l y i n t o t h e p o l i t i c a l n o v e l . La t r a g i c o m e d i a , c l a r o , c o n s i s t i o e n que la in d e p e n - d e n c i a s o l o s u p e r p u s o una n u e v a t i r a n i a a l a a n t i g u a d o m in a c io n : l a d e l a s d i c t a d u r a s m i l i t a r e s y l a s o l i - g a r q u ia s n a t i v a s q u e a h o r a c o n v i r t i e r o n l a e x p l o t a c i 6 n hum ana y n a t u r a l e n una s e g u n d a c o n q u i s t a , l i b r a d a e s t a v e z , no c o n t r a l o s a z t e c a s , l o s q u e c h u a s o l o s c a r i b e s , s i n o c o n t r a l o s m e x ic a n o s , l o s p e r u a n o s y l o s v e n z o - l a n o s . C o r teB r e e n c a r n a e n P o r f i r i o D ia z , P iz a r r o e n S a n ta C r u z , A lo n s o d e O jed a e n J u a n V i c e n t e G om ez. Y a l la d o d e l a n a t u r a l e z a d e v o r a d o r a , l a n o v e la h i s p a n o - a m e r ic a n a c r e a s u s e g u n d o a r g u e t i p o , e l d i c t a d o r a l a e s c a l a n a c i o n a l o r e g i o n a l . i n o t h e r c o u n t r i e s w h er e d i c t a t o r s h a v e b e e n (Guaymas, Mexico: Editorial Joaquin Mortiz, 1969) 11. 105 i i n f r e q u e n t , t h e p o l i t i c a l n o v e l h a s t e n d e d t o f o c u s o n m ore a b s t r a c t p r o b le m s . i n t h e U n it e d S t a t e s , f o r e x a m p le , s u c h n o v e l i s t s a s S i n c l a i r L e w is , J o h n D os P a s s o s , U p to n S i n c l a i r , a n d J o h n S t e i n b e c k r e f l e c t a s t a t e o f c r i s i s f o r t h e i d e m o c r a t ic s y s t e m b y f o c u s i n g on s u c h s u b j e c t s a s t h e la b o r i s s u e , t h e s y s t e m o f j u s t i c e , an d p a r t y i d e o l o g i e s . T h e r e h a v e b e e n , h o w e v e r , s u c h n o v e l s a s Number One b y D os P a s s o s an d A l l t h e K in q * s Men b y R o b e r t P enn W arren t h a t h a v e p a r a l l e l e d t h e s t r u c t u r e o f som e L a t in A m e r ic a n n o v e l s b y f o c u s i n g on t h e p e t t y L o u is ia n a d i c t a t o r , H uey L o n g . T h e r e h a v e a l s o b e e n a n y num ber o f L a t in A m e r ic a n n o v e l i s t s who h a v e p r e f e r r e d t o c o n c e n t r a t e on m a s s iv e s o c i o p o l i t i c a l p r o b le m s r a t h e r th a n t o f o c u s on t h e p o l i t i c a l d i c t a t o r s i t h e m s e l v e s . j i L u is A l b e r t o S a n c h e z h a s d i v i d e d t h e p o l i t i c a l n o v e l s o f L a t i n A m e r ic a i n t o t h r e e d i s t i n c t g r o u p s v d iich r e f l e c t j i t h e p o l i t i c a l i n t e n t i o n s o f t h e a u t h o r ( p . 427). The f i r s t | i g r o u p h e c a l l s " e l d e a ta q u e o d e f e n s a d e un c a u d i l l o o d i c t a d o r . " T h is i s b y f a r t h e l a r g e s t g r o u p , s i n c e , a s h a s b e e n m e n tio n e d a b o v e , t h e c a u d i l l o s y s t e m o f p o l i t i c s has b e e n t h e m o s t d o m in a n t i n L a t in A m e r ic a . T he s e c o n d g r o u p ih e c a l l s "de c o n s p i r a c i o n e s , i n t r i g a s , c o n j u r a s y r e v o l u - i c l o n e s . " T h is t y p e o f n o v e l l e a n s h e a v i l y o n t h e participation of the masses and reflects an attack on in stitutions rather than individuals. The third is What Sanchez characterizes as "novelas de prision o destierro," in which the author may emphasize the psychological effects of political tyranny on individuals. One might list here El senor presidente of Miguel Angal Asturias as a represen tative novel of the first group; El conspirador by Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera as representative of the second group; and El acaso by Alejo Carpentier as an example of the third group. Most Latin American critics who have devoted some time to the political novel, such as Navas Ruiz, Luis Alberto 8 Sanchez, and Alberto Zum Felde, have come to the same gen eral conclusions about the political novel in Latin America.! They indicate that few political novels have been produced | i in such relatively stable countries as Chile, Uruguay, and j g Colombia. In other words, menos libertad mas novela ®Alberto Zum Felde, La narrative en Hispanoam^rlca (Madrid: Aguilar, 1964), p. 264. The works of both Navas Ruiz and Luis Alberto Sanchez have already been cited sev- ieral times in reference to the point made above. ^According to the three authors, Chile, Uruguay, and ^Colombia were relatively stable countries prior to the times {they published their books. Political situations change jquite suddenly in most Latin American countries. Thus their 107 I politics. The number and variety of content of political novels also increases as the severity of despotism in- I I creases. And, finally, as tyranny diminishes the political novels become more socially oriented. The reason for the latter, according to Luis Alberto Sanchez, is that nlo social requiere libertad, para ser reflejado en la novela, lo politico cierta opresion" (p. 194). The motivation for the political novel is universally the same, political commentary. The degree to which the author comments, criticizes, and evaluates depends upon the degree of commitment or compromiso on the part of the au thor . If he is in fact a political scientist writing in artistic form, as Blotner believes, then "one should not go i to political novels expecting to find, except in rare cases,! i complete objectivity, solidly documented references, and exhaustive exposition of political theory” (p. 8)* The difference between the writer of political novels and the political scientist is that the appeal of the former is emotional while that of the latter is intellectual. Perhaps the fact that the Latin American has been characterized as a 'statements as to the political stability of the three [countries may not be accurate at the present time. more emotional creature rather than an intellectual type lends support to the conclusion that he would rather deal with politics artistically rather than scientifically. Navas Ruiz suggests that: La tendencia natural [del hispanoamericano] es una actitud apasionada ante la vida. Para el, abstraerse de la circunstancia, encerrarse en torre de marfil, elaborar un arte artistico, un arte deshumanizado, es algo ajeno a su esencia, algo que choca con su reali dad intima. (p. 31) Thus, one can conclude that throughout the literary history of Latin America, the artist has been motivated more by the sociopolitical themes than by escapism. Modernismo as a literary movement, for example, was short-lived, and indeed ultimately evolved into an americanismo that more 1 adequately reflected the Latin American spirit. In fact, j as Navas Ruiz further points out, most of twentieth-century j Latin American literature has been motivated by the socio political theme. Desde 1919 la aparente prosperidad americana se esfuma ante la descarnada realidad: el hambre, el abismo entre las clases, las dictaduras, los golpes de estado, el crimen politico. La literatura hispanoamericana detecta fielmente la situacidn politica. En Mexico la Revolucion se hace tenia obligado, Azuela, Guzman. Asturias ataca violentamente al dictador Estrada , Cabrera. En Ecuador y Peru Icaza y Alegria denuncian | la exterminacion del Indio con complicidad del gobi- | erno. Pablo Neruda ataca la tirania en su poesia. __ (p. 25)____ _____________ ______ ____________________ The literary techniques of the political novel, like its obvious objective of political commentary, are likewise i l universal. From its beginnings the political novel has ful filled the traditional function of art. "It has described and interpreted human experience, selectively taking the facts of existence and imposing order and form upon them in an esthetic pattern to make them meaningful" (Blotner, p. 1). It is both an art form and an analytical instrument. Its main function appears to be to offer the reader a means for understanding the political and social aspects of the complex society in which he lives. Indeed, even if a novel should overtly defend a cause instead of merely describing a political setting, it does not necessarily cease being { literature and become propaganda. Morris Edmund Speare feels that it is not difficult to make out a case for the state ment that in a sense all art is propaganda. By giving , your own vision, by making your own interpretation of a state of things, you immediately exclude the views of others. (p. 27) The only real difference between true art and pure propa ganda, as far as the political novel is concerned, is in the degree of success or failure of the author to combine form i land theme. If the author's message or commitment far outweigh his attention to form he becomes more of a propa gandist than an artist. This is generally true of all forms j of art. Navas Ruiz expresses it quite succinctly: "si el escritor tiene los motivos de la creacion muy presente sufre la forma; si no tiene muchos motivos sufre el fondo" (p. 34). Politics of one form or another have to be the underlying theme of the political novel. The successful political novelist is the one who selects the appropriate style to express the content in as close a balance between form and theme as he can achieve. Chronology of the Political Novel in Latin America It has been pointed out above that most critics of i i Latin American literature agree that Amalia (1851), by the I i Argentine Jos^ Marmol, is the first political novel to appear in Latin America. However, it seems that credit must| i be given again to the illustrious Domingo Faustino Sarmientoj for developing the theme of the caudillo in his book Fa- cundo. Just as he is credited with introducing the gaucho as a literary character in South American writing, so too i do the figures of Facundo Quiroga and Juan Manuel Rosas lappear in the pages of his immortal diatribe. Indeed, Sarmiento himself said of the book, "son pedazos de roca arrojados a la cabeza de un tirano." Though the book, which appeared in 1845 and was written \rtiile Sarmiento was in exile, cannot be classified as a novel, it certainly influenced the writing of political novels in Argentina and throughout Latin America. S a r m ie n to knew F a cu n d o Q u ir o g a and R o sa s a t f i r s t h a n d , t h e fo rm e r h a v in g b e e n t h e g o v e r n o r o f S a r m ie n to * s home p r o v in c e an d t h e l a t t e r b e i n g t h e c a u s e o f S a r m ie n t o 's e x i l e . I t w as h i s p e r s o n a l c o n t a c t w it h t h e b a r b a r l e o f t h e i r r e g im e s t h a t im m o r t a liz e d t h e d e s p o t is m o f b o th F acu n d o and R o s a s . In t h e b e g i n n in g o f h i s b o o k S a r m ie n to c a l l s o u t t o t h e c a u d i l l o . Som bra t e r r i b l e d e F a cu n d o v o y a e v o c a r t e p a r a que t e i l e v a n t e s a e x p l i c a r n o s l a v i d a s e c r e t a y l a s c o n v u l - j s i o n e s i n t e r n a s q u e d e s g a r r a n l a s e n t r a n a s d e un n o b le | p u e b l o . Tu p o s e e s e l s e c r e t o : r e v e l a n o s l o j ■ j E ven th o u g h t h e r e a r e fe w e r r e f e r e n c e s t o R o sa s i n t h e b o o k ,! h e t o o e m e r g e s a s t h e h e i r t o a l l d e s p o t is m i n t h e r e p u b l i c : ! ^Domingo Faustino Sarmiento quoted in Juan Liscano, "Sobre El senor presidents v otros temas de la dictadura," Cuadernos Americanos. 18, No. 2 (marzo-abril 1958), p. 67. ^ D o m in g o F a u s t in o S a r m ie n t o , F a cu n d o (M e x ic o , D . F .: [ E d i t o r i a l N o v a r o , 1958), p. 11. 112 Facundoj provinciano, barbaro, valiente, audaz, fue reemplazado por Rosas, hijo de la culta Buenos Aires, sin serlo 4 l ; por Rosas, faIso corazon helado, espiritu calculador, que hace el mal sin pasion, y organize len- tamente el despotismo con toda la inteligencia de un Maquiavelo. (p. 12) It was left to the other romantics of Sarmiento's gen eration, Jose Marmol and Esteban Echeverria, to present the figure of Rosas in the political narrative. Echeverria was the first to do so. In fact, his novelette, El matadero. pre-dates the publication of Facundo. It was published in 1836 and had a tremendous impact on Latin American writers. Its strange combination of romantic allegory and vivid realism was quite effective in its condemnation of the Rosas dictatorship. "El principal merito literario del breve i relato es su caracter simbolico. ... El matadero descrito j es realmente toda la naci<$n argentina bajo la tirania de i 12 1 Rosas ." I \ Amalia (1651) by Jose Marmol was actually the first j I true political novel that attached the Rosas dictatorship. j i i The first edition was published in Montevideo before the dictator was ousted from office. In the second edition, 1 ? Orlando 0<5inez Gil, His tor ia critica da la literature I hispanoamericana (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 11966), p. 247. 113 ! 13 t which was published in Buenos Aires in 1855, Marmol in troduces a great deal of information taken from secret I political documents obtained from Rosas' files after the dictator had been deposed. The book was expanded to two volumes and became a very concise chronicle of Rosas' reign of terror. Marmol, like Echeverria, Sarmiento, and a host of other victims of that period of despotism, lived in exile for a number of years. The plot of the novel, the fatal love story of two young victims of the bloody tyrant, is too well known to need a summary here. The true inspiration for the work and, in fact, its entire structure stem from what Luis Alberto Sanchez calls "el odio politico ... Eso, solo eso, alienta i la obra entera. Odio a la tirania, odio a Rosas, odio a la j i mazorca, odio al crimen politico" (p. 429) . The insertion of the love story of Amalia and Eduardo was added only to i intensify the tragedy of the entire political reality. This* element of the love affair in the midst of a bloody politi cal atmosphere became a standard element of the political novel (Blotner, p. 6 ). In fact, Marmol's book set a pattern ! 13Luis Alberto Sanchez (p. 428) gives the date of 1853 jfor the publication of the second edition of Amalia. Gomez |Gil (p. 328) gives the date of 1855. 114 I for a host of other political novels that were to emerge in ! Latin America. i The success of the work does not lie in its artistic form, for Marmol was at best a second-rate novelist. Its i success stems from the passion and intensity with which it was written, even though at times Marmol does succeed as a novelist. His characterizations of such figures as the dictator, Manuelita his daughter, and dona Maria Josefa are especially successful. The true worth of the novel, how ever, is historical and sociological. It is perhaps the best re-creation of the Rosas regime that has been at tempted . The next significant figure to write political novels of the type that Luis Alberto Sanchez calls “novelas de ' ■ 14 caudillos, dictadores, y tiranos" was the Peruvian Mer- i cedes Cabello de Carbonera (1845-1909). Like her contem- j ! porary countrymen Manuel Gonzalez Prada and Clorinda Matto de Turner, she was significantly motivated by the political ambiente of her time. Two political novels that had appeared earlier in Peru, Edqardo o un ioven de mi I ^Sanchez, p. 428. This is one classification given to 'the political novel by Sanchez. See above, pp. 105-106. g e n e r a c io n (1874) b y B e n ja m in C is n e r o s an d L os a m ig o s d e E le n a (1874) b y F er n a n d o C a s a s , w e re i n f l u e n t i a l i n s h a p in g h e r o u t lo o k o n P e r u v ia n p o l i t i c s . T h e se tw o w o r k s d e a l t w i t h t h e b r o a d e r t o p i c s o f r e v o l u t i o n an d m i l i t a r i s m , w h i l e in h e r m o st fam ous n o v e l , E l c o n s p ir a d o r (1892), w h ic h h ad a s a s u b t i t l e " A u t o b io g r a f ia d e un hom bre p u b l i c o ," s h e n o v e l i z e s t h e f i g u r e o f t h e P e r u v ia n p r e s i d e n t N i c o l a s d e P i e r o l a . T h is i n d i v i d u a l i s c r e d i t e d w it h h a n d - p ic k in g a s h i s s u c c e s s o r A u g u s to B . L e g u ia , o n e o f P e r u 1s m o st d u r a b le d i c t a t o r s . Dona Mercedes is recognized as having introduced in Peru (Zum Felde, p. 260) a realism which not only reflected the atmosphere of the times, but also introduced many living’ members of Peruvian society. El conspirador marks a dis tinctive departure from the traditional political novels j that sought to depict the bloody and barbarous world of the j traditional caudillo. "No trata de los barbaros caudillos, ! sino de la politica civil de la ciudad, del politico le- trado, no de los campos sino de los alfombrados bufetes" (Zum Felde, p. 260). She succeeds in capturing the reali ties of a new caudilliamo. the type perfected by such men as Porfirio Diaz in Mexico and Juan Vicente G&nez in Vene zuela. It was no longer that of the "sombrero y piatolazo" 116 variety characteristic of the early “caudillos barbaros," but one of refined political intrigue, secret foreign asso- , i ciations, and suspicious legal maneuverings. Her other i significant works, Blanca Sol and Las consecuencias. also deal with the political theme and help to establish her as one of the most astute political analysts of her time (Zum Felde, p. 264) . Her close association with Gonzalez Prada, Clorinda Matto de Turner, and other Peruvian intellectuals ultimately led to her exile during the Leguia dictatorship. The Bolivian Armando Chirveches, a contemporary of dona Mercedes, also exposed the typical South American manner of politics in his two works La candidatura de Roias and La casa solariega. In the first book Chirveches follows the candidacy of a young lawyer, Enrique Rojas y Castillo, in f the senatorial elections. The author describes the entire | electoral farce of Bolivian politics and graphically paints ; i the scenes of drunken parties and the criminal activities of the politicians. Chirveches' works were somewhat more j artistic than Carbonera's, but they too are primarily moti vated by the political intent of the author. The Colombian J. M. Vargas Vila (1861*1933) also pub lished two novels of intense political commentary, Judas i Capitolino and Los Cesares de la decadencia. in which the author's hatred of the politicians of his day reaches the intensity of the Argentine proscritos during the tyranny of Rosas. In Venezuela, as a result of the country’s long histoty. of dictatorship, the Venezuelan novelists found many sub jects for political novels. In 1909 Pedro Maria Morantes (pseudonym, Pfo Gil) published El cabito. a biting diatribe against the dictator Cipriano Castro, who ruled from 1898 to 1908. The caudillo who took over Venezuela after Castro, Juan Vicente Gomez, has also been the subject of various novels. Rufino Blanco Fombona (1874-1944) makes the dicta torship the subject of several of his works such as El hombre de hierro and La bella v la fiera. The political j I life of all of Latin America was extremely important to ! i B la n c o Fom bona, a s t h e t i t l e o f h i s c e l e b r a t e d e s s a y La e v o l u c i b n p o l i t i c s u e h is p a n o a m e r ic a w o u ld i n d i c a t e . ! It was Jose Pocaterra, however, who was the most ef- j fective in his description of the Gomez regime. His novel Memories de un venezolano de la decadencia is a most inter esting study of the effects of dictatorship on a society as well as on an individual. The book is autobiographical as |well as historical, the many years that Pocaterra spent as ! |a political prisoner make his descriptive passages of the 118 1 Gdmez tyranny come alive with hatred. Zum Felde feels that "en Pocaterra se puede vivlr de por dentro de una tfpica tiranla hispanoamericana" (p. 269). pocaterra wrote other novels with political themes, such as Politica femenista and; Vidas oscuras. but none with the intensity of Memoriaa de un venezolano de la decadencia. In 1928 another Venezuelan, Romulo Gallegos, published a classic Latin American novel dealing with caudillismo. The theme of the caudillo appears in various forms in Dona Barbara. The figure of "la mujerona criminal y lasciva" (Liscano, p. 6 6), dona Barbara, is a classic characteriza tion of the type of caudillos. or in this case caudilla. of the llanos that traditionally disrupted the country's polit-j ical structure. The view of the national caudillo is also ! presented in the figure of Juan Vicente Gomez, the dictator j who ultimately forced Gallegos into exile. Though the novel! has not traditionally been classified as a political novel, it is obvious that the political theme is quite significant in the work. The fact that Gallegos served as president of his country, was overthrown by a military junta, and was witness to the dictatorships of GcSroez and P^rez Jimenez make the political theme a constant, if not central, preoccupa- I i Ition of the author. One of his latest works, El foraatero. J .is a description of the political evolution of Venezuela in three distinct stages, ''la tirania franca y brutal ... el despotismo oligarquico disimulado ... y un regimen ya ver- daderamente democratico y constitucional" (Zum Felde, pp. ; 270-271). Zum Felde believes that this last stage was per haps Gallegos' own idealistic dream for his own presidency. The Venezuelan tyrant Juan Vicente GcSmez was also the subject of a political novel written by the Ecuadorian Gerardo Gallegos. His novel El puno del amo is especially interesting because it presents a view of a dictatorship by a writer from another country. This was also the case in the historical trilogy Escenas de la querra del Paraguay by the Argentine Manuel Galvez which presented the Paraguayan dictator Francisco Solano Lopez. This series of historical j i novels, made up of Los caminos de la muerte. Humaita. and j i Jornadas de aaonia. is especially interesting because it contains descriptions of a dictator from the point of view of the enemy in an international conflict, namely the war between Paraguay and Argentina. Hie Peruvian Manuel Bedoya, writing in the second quar ter of the twentieth century, reintroduces the theme of dictatorship in his country. La oarra roia deals with the I tenure in office of the despotic General Srfnchez Cerro. B e d o y a 's m o st im p o r ta n t p o l i t i c a l n o v e l , E l t i r a n o B e b e - v i d a s . i s a g r o t e s q u e , s y m b o lic e x a g g e r a t i o n o f t h e d i c t a - | i torship of Oscar R. Benavides (1933-1939), *dio in the novel is depicted as having to drink the blood of children in order to maintain his health. In 1926, t h e S p a n ia r d Ramon M aria d e l V a l l e - I n c l a n p u b l i s h e d w h at t h e c r i t i c J u a n L is c a n o c a l l s " la p r im e r a n o v e la m odern a y a l m ism o tie m p o d e p r o fu n d o s a b o r h i s p a n o - a m e r ic a n o , s o b r e e l tem a d e l a d ic t a d u r a " ( p . 64) . T h is n o v e l , T ir a n o B a n d e r a s . w i l l b e t h e s u b j e c t o f a s u b s e q u e n t c h a p t e r . I t s h o u ld b e s u f f i c i e n t t o s a y a t t h i s p o i n t t h a t V a l l e - I n c l a n ' s n o v e l h a d a tr e m e n d o u s im p a c t n o t o n ly on t h e p o l i t i c a l n o v e l o f L a t in A m e r ic a b u t on t h e n o v e l i n g e n - ! i e r a l . As A n d e r so n Im b e r t p u t i t : [ Tirano Banderas rehabilitaba el arte de novelar y el autor introducia elementos poeticos, plasticos, tea- trales, barrocos, persiguiendo una suerte de super- realidad expresiva. Era una ruptura con la t^cnica puramente documental, en prosecucidn de una forma de traducci6n de la realidad. (p. 64) i i I t i s c u r io u s t o n o t e t h a t a t t h e sam e tim e V a l l e - I n c l i n w as p u b l i s h i n g h i s n o v e l on L a t in A m e r ic a n d i c t a t o r s h i p , a G u a te m a la n w r i t e r , M ig u e l A n g e l A s t u r i a s , w as c o m p o sin g o n e o f t h e b e s t n o v e l s o n d i c t a t o r s h i p p r o d u c e d in L a t in A m er- j i c a . H is w o r k , E l s e n o r p r e s i d e n t e . th o u g h i t sh o w s g r e a t similarity to Tirano Banderas and was not published until 1946, was actually begun by 1924, two years before the pub- ; i lication of Valle-lnclan's work. The fact that both books were written with a great deal of metaphoric inventiveness and surrealistic liberty is more a coincidence than the result of one author's influence on the other. El senor presidents will also be the topic of a later chapter in which it will be pointed out that Asturias' presentation of the Estrada Cabrera dictatorship is gener ally conceded to be "la mas importante novela de todas las que se han escrito sobre el tema de la dictadura en America Hispanica" (Liscano, p. 71). i The influence of both Valle-Inclan and Asturias seems i to have bypassed the Mexican novelists of the revolutionary ; period. Perhaps this is because of the fact that such men 1 as Mariano Azuela, Martin Luis Guzman, and Rafael F. Munoz participated in the Revolution in 1910 and consequently created works of a more documentary nature. The most cele brated member of the group of "novelistas de la Revolucion" was Mariano Azuela, and perhaps the reason he appears to I have been the most successful was due to the fact that his jworks were less documentary than most of the others . Though the political and historical elements are indeed 122 significant in such works as Los de abaio. Mala verba, and Los caciques. Azuela did not enter completely into the field of the "novela politica" until he published La nueva bur- guesia in 1941. The book is a devastating criticism of post-revolutionary politics in Mexico. The historical events presented in the novel are those surrounding the presidential election of Avila Camacho. What Azuela actu ally intends is an attack on the one-party control over the country by the Partido Revolucionario institucional and the hypocrisy of the pseudo-revolutionary government. Even in this work, however, Azuela is able to maintain that element of naturalism typical of his first works which made of him the most successful novelist of the Revolution. j Martin Luis Guzman, more than any other member of the i "novelistas de la revolution," succeeded in immortalizing I the great figures of the Revolution. His three major | works, El aouila v la serpiente. Memoriae de Pancho Villa. and La sombra del caudillo. are fascinating re-creations of i the history of Mexico during the Revolution, villa, Car ranza, and 0breg6n had only appeared as shadows in the revolutionary novels. Guzmrfn gives them life by reproducing Itheir speech, their mannerisms, and their deeds. The last I jof these works, La sombra del caudillo. published in 1929, is perhaps the only one of his works that can truly be called a political novel. It is fiction based on fact in- I stead of the type of memoirs that were characteristic of ihis other works . La sombra del caudillo. because of its intriguing analysis of the Mexican presidency, will also be studied in a later chapter. Other novelists of the Revolution also presented the great caudillos of the war in their novels. Jos^ Rub^n Romero, for example, presents a graphic picture of Pancho Villa in his novel Mi caballo. mi perro. v mi rifle. Gregorio Lopez y Puentes in Tierra creates a monument to the revolutionary caudillo Emiliano Zapata. Rafael F. Munoz in Vamos con Pancho villa and Se llevaron el canon para | l Bachimba characterizes villa and Pascual Orozco respec- ! i tively. Two generals, Manuel W. Gonzalez and Francisco L. Urquizo, on the other hand, glorify the caudillo Venustiano i i Carranza in their respective works Mexico Tlaxcalantongo and Con Carranza. All of these novels of the Revolution were obviously sociopolitical as well as historical in na ture, but perhaps the most outstanding quality they pos- i sessed was the very accurate re-creation of the many cau dillos who fought over Mexico for a quarter of a century. There are few countries that have had recorded for them with such vividness the lives of their most famous men. The Guatemalan Rafael Ardvalo Martinez was not con- } cerned with portraying the great heroes of his country. Instead, like his countryman Miguel Angel Asturias, he pre sents a devastating view of the bloody tyranny of Estrada Cabrera. The book Ecce Pericles (1946) is considered by many critics to be the most complete account of a dictator ship published in Latin America (Sanchez, p. 430). The document is so thorough, in fact, that it is difficult to consider the work a true novel. The influence of Valle-IncIan's Tirano Banderas and El senor presidents by Asturias is becoming more apparent in recent years. Both in terms of style and structure the | I I modern novelists who wish to dwell on the political theme ! are choosing to do so in a more artistic manner. Like ! Valle-Inclan and Asturias, they seek a blend of fondo v j i forma where artistry is as essential as the message. One of the more recent novelists to deal with the theme of dictatorship in this manner is the Dominican Andres Reguena, who in 1949 published Cementerios sin cruces. subtitled j i "Martirio de la Republics Dominicans bajo la rapaz tirania ;de Trujillo." His other works, Los enemiqos de la tierra and Camino de fuecro. also treat the dictatorship of Rafael 125 ; L. Trujillo. The Chilean Fernando Alegria was even more successful | than Requena in arriving at the vallenclanesque artistry in depicting a political setting. His novel Camaleon. pub lished in 1950, presents the political intrigues of a fic tional island country that is not too difficult to recognize as Chile. The novel is somewhat autobiographical, and Luis Alberto Sanchez states that Alegria himself appears as the character Martin Littleford (p. 433). The most recent political novels dealing with dictator ship in Latin America are: Muertes de perro (1958) by the exiled Spaniard Francisco Ayala; La fiesta del rev Acab (1959) by the Chilean Enrique Lafourcade; La 1laoa (1964) j I i by the Paraguayan Gabriel Casaccia; and El tiempo de la ira j (1967) by the Mexican Luis Spota. These four novels will be1 i studied in depth in the following chapters. They should ! i present an interesting contrast to such works as El senor presidente and La sonibra del caudillo. since they deal with the more totalitarian regimes that seem to be the trend in Latin America today. i There have also been a number of European and North [American writers who have explored in fiction the topic of I ! [Latin American dictatorship. These writers will also be studied in a later chapter because of their distinctive point of view in the analysis of Latin American dictator ship. Especially interesting are Nostromo by Joseph Conrad, Cabbages and Kings by 0. Henry, The Adventurers by Harold Robbins, and The Comedians by Graham Greene. Each of these works presents a very interesting analysis of Latin American dictatorship. In some cases, as in Conrad's Nostromo. the dictator who is characterized is essentially a fictional character, while in The Comedians by Greene, the Haitian dictator Francois Duvalier is graphically presented. There have been numerous other non-Latin American au thors who have studied dictatorship in Latin America, but their books have been more of a historical nature rather \ k 1 than fictional works. Such books as John Samson's In the | Dictator's Grip (1901) dealing with Dr. Francia's reign in Paraguay and Edward Lucas White's El Supremo (1916) dealing j j with the same tyrant are illustrative of this point. I With the long list of -atin American writers already presented and the number of European and North American authors briefly mentioned here, there should be no doubt I that the dictator is indeed one of the most significant |literary personages encountered in the Latin American novel. I f Perhaps it would be fitting to conclude this chapter with a 127 ! description by Alberto Zum Felde of what one can expect to find in most novels dealing with Latin American dictator ship, since that is the subject of the remainder of this work: En las paginas de muchas novelas . . . se documentan esas realidades histdricas lamentables, en medio del estado de subversion, manifestandose frondosamente en las for mas del servilismo y del logrerismo oficialista; y abajo, en la calle, un populacho ignorante y miserable, sirvi- endo de comparsa multitudinaria; el espectaculo frecu- ente de las muchedumbres vitoreando en las plazas al generalote o al caudillo erigido sobre su ingenuidad demagdgica primaria, ascmade este al balcon del palacio presidencial, rodeado de su canallesca y pintoresca cohorte de complices, adulones y guardaespaIdas (mien- tras los enemigos traman en la sombra, peligrosamente, el motin o la "revolucidn" que ha de voltearlo). Y los grandes negociados secretos detras de todo eso— que no es mas que la fachada— , enriqueciendo a dictadores, presidentes y paniaguados, la hipoteca del patrimonio nacional al oro extranjero, mientras el pais permanece en estado de terrible crisis econdmica, de subdesarrollo material y moral, de analfabetismo cronico, de inferiori- dad, de descredito. (pp. 259-260) CHAPTER V LA SOMBRA DEL CAUDILLO BY m artI n LUIS guzmAn Lo que l a R e v o lu c io n s u p u s o que e r a una s e n c i l l a d o t a c i o n d e t t e r r a s , s e h a b ia c o n v e r t i d o e n c h ic a n a p o l i t i c s . — G r e g o r io L op ez y F u e n t e s , E l I n d io War has been as frequent as the harvest of corn in the history of Latin America, and even more common than war have been tyrants, dictators, and caudillos. Mexico has had her j share; Santa Ana was president nine times, Porfirio Diaz wasj president for more than thirty years. The former lost \ M e x ic o m ore th a n h a l f o f h e r t e r r i t o r y , t h e l a t t e r o c c a - t sioned one of the longest civil wars to be fought in the ' Americas. Shouts of "Viva la libertad, viva la revolucidn, j I 1 muera el tirano" were heard across the land when in 1910 j the Mexican mestizo and the Indian began the monumental i struggle for equality and social justice. 129 ; ! The dictatorial regime of Porfirio Daz and the litera- I i ture that emerged from the military struggle to overthrow i I him can be compared to many similar situations throughout Latin America. Many republics have suffered the tyranny of the caudillos "de la mano de hierro," and from the suffer ings and the ruins of dictatorship has emerged some of Latin America's greatest literature. Such was the case in Argen tina. The tyrant Juan Manuel Rosas dominated the country between the years 1819 and 1852, and from his tyranny were born El matadero. Facundo, and Amalia. The men who created these works, Esteban Echeverria, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, and Jose Marmol, had been formed as writers in one of the bloodiest and most painful periods in Argentine history. , t In Mexico, from a very similar setting of tyranny and war- \ fare, were born the works of Martin Luis Guzman. Guzman can be compared with the Argentine proscritos , > who were inspired for their works during the Rosas dictator-' ! ship. Like the proscritos. Guzman served in the forces that] fought against dictatorship. As a secretary to Pancho villa and the Dlvisi6n del norte. he knew at first hand the rav ages of war. Like the proscritos. he also went into exile land wrote about the sufferings of his people. The Argentine jromantics had created the political novel of Latin America 130 ■ I b y a t t a c k i n g d e s p o t is m in t h e i r c o u n t r y . A lm o s t a h u n d re d y e a r s l a t e r , Guzman b e g a n t o p u b l i s h h i s e s s a y s an d h i s n o v e l s on t h e M e x ic a n R e v o l u t i o n . H is w o rk s a r e p o l i t i c a l ; I t h e y a n a ly z e an d c r i t i c i z e t h e p o l i t i c a l e n v ir o n m e n t o f M e x ic o a f t e r t h e R e v o lu t io n a s w e l l a s d e s c r i b i n g t h e e v e n t s o f t h e w ar i t s e l f . A l l o f h i s w o r k s — La Q u e r r e lla d e M e x ic o . E l a q u i l a v l e s e r p i e n t e . La som b ra d e l c a u d i l l o — h a v e a p o l i t i c a l b a s i s . T h ey a l l h a v e a t h e s i s , b u t t h i s i s n o t t o s a y t h a t t h e y a r e n o t w ork s o f a r t . G uzm an's s t y l e , b o t h i n h i s n o v e l s an d i n h i s e s s a y s , i s c o n s i d e r e d t h e b e s t s t y l e o f a n y o f t h e w r i t e r s o f t h e r e v o l u t i o n a r y p e r i o d .^ I t i s l u c i d and c l e a r ; i n f a c t , e v e n p o e t i c a t t i m e s . j i G uzm an's f i r s t m a jo r w o r k , E l a q u i l a v l a s e r p i e n t e . | i w as p u b l i s h e d in S p a in i n 1928 w h i l e h e w as l i v i n g i n e x i l e ! i in that country. He had participated in the unfortunate j de la Huerta revolt in Mexico and had been obliged to leave | the country. The book, which can only remotely be called a novel, deals with the period from 1913 to 1915 during the .Revolution when Guzmrfn served in the Villista forces that i i ^ | E m ilio A b reu G om ez, " M a rtin L u is Guzman: c r i t i c a y b i b l i o g r a f £ a , " H is p a n la . 35 ( f e b r e r o 1952), 23. ifought against Victoriano Huerta. Guzman was twenty-six when he joined the Revolution in 1913 and he was already aware of his desire to be a writer. "Se encontraba siempre con su cuaderno donde registraba sus impresiones de los hechos historicos y de las mas destacadas figuras de la 2 Revolucion." From this notebook and from his outstanding narrative ability was born one of the most exciting chroni cles of the Revolution. El aquila v la serpiente has no thematic plan; rather, it is a loosely knit narrative of autobiographical sub stance. It has no single thesis, but it does contain a great deal of criticism of the events of the Revolution and of the men who participated in them. His great sense of j balance and understanding allows him to penetrate with greatj clarity the monumental revolution in trtiich he participated. | His interpretation is very personal and totally without \ j outside influences. He analyzes such military leaders as Obregdn, Lucio Blanco, Villa, Carranza, and Iturbe, painting i them in the pages of his book only as he saw them, not as they have been re-created by history or immortalized by the i | 2 I Helen Phipps Houch, "Las obras novelescas de Martin [Luis Guzman," Siempre. 8 de abril 1964, p. 33. m y th s o f t h e m a s s e s . He a l s o s p e n d s a g r e a t d e a l o f tim e t r y i n g t o u n d e r s ta n d t h e r e v o l u t i o n a r y i d e o l o g i e s o f t h e s e I m i l i t a r y men who f o u g h t i n t h e w a r . T h is a n a l y s i s an d t h e c o n c l u s i o n s r e a c h e d b y G uzm an, t h a t t h e m i l i t a r i s m t h a t e m e r g e d from t h e R e v o l u t i o n w as t h e g r a v e s t d a n g e r t o t h e n a t i o n , a r e p r o b a b ly t h e c l o s e s t t h i n g t o a c e n t r a l th em e i n t h e b o o k . I t i s i n t e r e s t i n g t o n o t e t h a t a t t h e sam e tim e t h a t Guzman w as p a r t i c i p a t i n g i n t h e R e v o l u t i o n , t h e fam ou s S p a n is h n o v e l i s t V i c e n t e B l a s c o I b a n e z t r a v e l e d t o M e x ic o t o s t u d y t h e R e v o lu t io n f o r h i m s e l f . H is i n t e n t i o n w as t o c o l l e c t h i s t o r i c a l d a t a f o r a n o v e l h e w as g o i n g t o b e g in o n M e x ic o an d vftiich h e p la n n e d t o c a l l "E l a g u i l a y la I s e r p i e n t e . " H is id e a w as t o w r i t e a n o v e l b a s e d on t h e > M e x ic a n R e v o l u t i o n , a r e v o l u t i o n w h ic h h e f e l t w as w it h o u t j I 3 i d e o l o g y . The n o v e l w as n e v e r w r i t t e n , b u t from h i s e x p e r i e n c e i n M e x ic o I b a n e z p u b l i s h e d i n 1920 t h e e s s a y E l. \ m i l i t a r i s i n g m e x ic a n o i n w h ic h h e t r i e s t o d e m o n s t r a t e how "una m in o r ia i n s o l e n t e d e m a c h e t e r o s , d i v i d i d a e n d i v e r s o s g r u p o s a n t a g o n i c o s q u e s e c o m b a ten p o r c o n s e g u i r e l p o d e r , i 1 3 — V i c e n t e B la s c o Ib r fn e z , E l m l l i t a r l s m o m e x ic a n o I (Valencia: Prometeo, 1920), p. 8 . 133 ’ I domina el pais por el terror" (p. 25). He points out that ! the country of Mexico has become a playground for a military game in which the players of the opposing sides kill each other and the innocent masses in the struggle for the prize. According to Ibanez, there are many victors . The Mexican military men converted into politicians and men of wealth by the tragedy of war are the prize winners. Me ha asombrado de ver la cantidad de revolucionarios ricos que hay en Mexico ... hombres que hace seis o siete anos eran vendedores ambulantes de leche, vende- dores de legumbres secas, sombrereros de campesinos ... (p. 25) It is these men and their seduction of Mexico that Martin Luis Guzman describes in his classic novel of the Revolution, La sombra del caudillo. All of the corruption and "despotismo de los generales de machete" (p. 24) is I i described with feeling, understanding, and artistry in one i I of the most powerful novels to emerge from the Mexican ; i Revolution. As a literary genre the political novel does not really exist in Mexico. The novels of the Revolution have con- i tained certain political elements and there have been var- ! ious isolated works such as Acomodaticio by Gregorio Ldpez i iy Fuentes and Los treinta dineros by J. Cardenas vftiich have 134 i contained political commentary, but these works are most frequently considered either historical novels or novels of social commentary. One novel that can genuinely be con sidered a political novel is Guzman's La sombra del cau dillo . According to Luis Leal, this is probably the only novel produced in Mexico up to 1950 that can accurately be 4 considered a political novel. Even though La sombra del caudillo. like most of Guz man's works, grew out of the Revolution, it can be dis tinguished by the fact that it analyzes the post-revolu tionary setting of Mexico and penetrates the more subtle political maneuverings taking place during this period rather than merely chronicling an armed rebellion. Hie Revolution itself plays a secondary role. It is the politi- i cal immorality of the period just following the war that Guzman highlights. Most of the critics who have done any work on the novel have concluded that it is perhaps the best political novel to come out of Mexico.5 Luis Leal and i Helen Phipps Houch also feel that it is by far the I i \ ^"La sombra del caudillo: Roman a clef," Hlspania. 36 j (January 1952), 16. j 5Houch and Leal, already cited, are prominent in this group. 135 | s t r o n g e s t c r i t i c i s m o f M e x ic a n p o l i t i c s w r i t t e n t o d a t e . i In t h e i r a n a l y s i s o f t h e n o v e l , h o w e v e r , t h e y f a i l t o p o i n t i j o u t j u s t w h a t Guzman i s c r i t i c i z i n g . One r e a s o n f o r t h e i r l a c k o f in - d e p t h a n a l y s i s o f t h e w ork c o u ld b e t h e f a c t th a t! many a s p e c t s o f t h e c o r r u p t M e x ic a n p o l i t i c a l s y s t e m t h a t Guzman d e s c r i b e s h a v e n o t c h a n g e d a p p r e c ia b ly i n r e c e n t t i m e s . The f a c t t h a t t h e f ilm e d v e r s i o n o f t h e n o v e l t h a t w as p r o d u c e d i n M e x ic o e i g h t y e a r s a g o w as c o n f i s c a t e d b y t h e M e x ic a n g o v e r n m e n t m ig h t i n d i c a t e t h a t many o f t h e a b u s e s t h a t Guzman d e s c r i b e s i n t h e n o v e l h a v e n o t y e t d i s a p p e a r e d from t h e p o l i t i c a l s c e n e . D e s p it e t h e l i m i t e d p o l i t i c a l a n a l y s i s d o n e b y m o st o f t h e c r i t i c s o f t h e n o v e l , t h e r e i s o n e t h i n g t h e y a l l a g r e e upon an d t h a t i s t h a t t h e ; | p l o t o f t h e n o v e l i s b a s e d on t r u e h i s t o r i c a l i n c i d e n t s an d i t h a t m o st o f t h e c h a r a c t e r s a r e m o d e le d a f t e r h i s t o r i c a l I f i g u r e s . 6 J I B e f o r e e n t e r i n g i n t o a s t u d y o f t h e p o l i t i c a l p l o t th a t] j Guzman p r e s e n t s i n t h e n o v e l , i t i s n e c e s s a r y t o d i s c u s s b r i e f l y t h e tw o h i s t o r i c a l e v e n t s on w h ic h t h e n o v e l i s ^ a s e d . Guzman p e r s o n a l l y p a r t i c i p a t e d i n t h e f i r s t e v e n t i I I g | T h is i s t h e c o n c l u s i o n r e a c h e d b y L e a l, H ou ch , and jAbreu Gdroez. an d w as g r e a t l y a f f e c t e d b y t h e s e c o n d , b e c a u s e many o f h i s : f r i e n d s w e r e p a r t i c i p a n t s i n t h a t e v e n t . j In 1923, toward the end of Alvaro Obregon's term, I M e x ic o w i t n e s s e d o n e o f i t s f i e r c e s t e l e c t o r a l c a m p a ig n s . O bregdn s u p p o r t e d G e n e r a l P lu t a r c o E l i a s C a l l e s , h i s M in ls - t r o d e G o b e r n a c io n . f o r t h e p r e s i d e n c y . M ea n w h ile M a r tin L u is Guzman, who w as a c o n g r e s s m a n from t h e F a r t i d o C o o p e r a - t i s t a N a c i o n a l . an d P r i e t o L a u r e n s , p r e s i d e n t o f t h i s p a r t y , b e g a n a m ovem ent t o b a c k A d o lf o d e l a H u e r ta f o r t h e p r e s i - y ^ d e n c y . De l a H u e r ta w as h i m s e l f a member o f O b r e g o n 's c a b i n e t , s e r v i n g a s M in is t r o d e H a c ie n d a . I n i t i a l l y h e d i d n o t w a n t t o a c c e p t t h e c a n d id a c y , b u t a f t e r h a v in g b e e n f a l s e l y a c c u s e d o f e m b e z z lin g fu n d s from t h e t r e a s u r y , h e th r e w h i m s e l f i n t o t h e c a m p a ig n . As w as t h e c u sto m in M e x ic o , t h e p r e s i d e n t i a l ca m p a ig n t u r n e d i n t o c i v i l w a r . On D ecem b er 5, 1923, d e l a H u e r ta t o o k up arm s a g a i n s t t h e { i c a u d i l l o A lv a r o O bregd n an d h i s c a n d i d a t e , P lu t a r c o E l i a s ! I I C a l l e s . i When t h e r e b e l l i o n b e g a n Guzman w as s e n t t o t h e U n ite d j S t a t e s a s a s p e c i a l e n v o y o f t h e d e l a h u e r t l s t a p a r t y . The i ■ 7 I Alonso Capetillo, La rebelidn sin cabeza (Mexico: jlmprenta Botas, 1925), p. 53. 137 1 ■ rebellion failed almost immediately and Guzman was forced ; to remain in exile until Calles's control of Mexican poli tics ended in 1936. Needless to say, Obregdn's support of Calles had given the latter the election while de la Huerta was forced to flee into the United States. The second historical event on vftiich the novel is based occurred in October 1927 while Guzman was living in Spain. Calles was in his fourth year in office and as the presi dential elections of 1928 were approaching Alvaro Obregdn threw his hat into the ring for a second presidential term. Through his efforts an amendment to the constitution of 1917 had been authorized allowing re-election to a second term after an intervening term by another president. Obregdn ] ) had apparently forgotten his criticism made during the j Revolution of military domination of politics, for he and Calles employed the customary military techniques to put an j end to all political opposition (Leal, p. 16). | Their first political obstacle was Francisco R. Serrano and his close supporters. Initially, Serrano was the most popular candidate, but as he began to challenge the politi- i cal machine of Calles and Obregdn his supporters began to Idwindle. Some were scared off, others sold out, and those i jthat remained were in a position to offer only enthusiasm. '..." ...................... 138 ] i i Nevertheless, the traditional rebellion began on October 2, < 1927. Serrano and the principal members of his party had established their headquarters in Cuernavaca. Among them were the Generals Carlos A. Vidal, Angel Peralta, Daniel , Peralta, Captain Ernesto V. Mendez, and several others. The Serranista rebellion lasted only one day. On October 3 fourteen hey members of the party, including Serrano, were captured in Vera Cruz and escorted to Mexico City. They never reached the capital, however. Halfway to the city they were taken down from the automobiles “con las manos atadas con alambre del usado para las instalaciones elec- tricas" (Leal, p. 19), and in a place called Huitzilac they , g w e r e a l l m u rd ered b y o r d e r s o f P r e s i d e n t C a l l e s . > i A m onth a f t e r t h e t r a g e d y o f H u i t z i l a c , C a l l e s a l s o e l i m i n a t e d o p p o s i t i o n b y a n o t h e r p r e s i d e n t i a l c a n d i d a t e , G e n e r a l A r n u lf o R . G om ez. He t o o w as m u rd ered i n t h e j m id d le o f t h e n i g h t . T h u s, t h e b r u t a l i t y o f M e x ic a n m i l i t a r i s m h a d o n c e a g a in d e te r m in e d t h e o u tco m e o f a p r e s i d e n t i a l r a c e in M e x ic o . The o p p o s i t i o n h a d b e e n e l i m i n a t e d ; in t h e sam e m anner a s M ad ero, C a r r a n z a , v i l l a , an d Z a p a ta I i ®Morton F. Rand, Los novelistas de la Revolucldn mexi- I cana (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 1960), jp . 1 2 1 . ....... " 139' | h a d b e e n e l i m i n a t e d . The p o l i t i c a l t a c t i c s o f C a l l e s and O bregd n w e r e i n m o st w ays i d e n t i c a l t o t h e s a v a g e r y o f t h e " m a ch ete y p i s t o l a z o " p o l i t i c s o f t h e n i n e t e e n t h c e n t u r y . Guzman w as l i v i n g in S p a in w hen h e r e c e i v e d t h e new s of; t h e m urder o f G e n e r a l S e r r a n o . C o m p le t e ly in d ig n a n t o v e r t h i s a c t o f b r u t a l i t y an d t h e b a r b a r is m o f M e x ic a n p o l i t i c s , h e d e c id e d t o w r i t e La som b ra d e l c a u d i l l o . H a b la e s t a d o p la n e a n d o una t r i l o g l a q u e h a r i a un r e s u me n d e l a v id a p o l i t i c s d e M e x ic o . E l p r im e r v o lu m e n h a b ia d e t r a t a r d e una m anera n o v e l i s t i c a d e l a d e r r o t a d e C a r ra n za p o r O b reg d n . La se g u n d a d e l a a so n a d a d e l a - h u e r t i s t a y l a t e r c e r a d e l r e g im e n c a l l i s t a y s u s m a q u i- n a c io n e s p o l i t i c s s . C uando l e i e l r e p o r t a j e d e l a m a- t a n z a d e S e r r a n o e n "E l U n i v e r s a l , " d e c i d i e m p le a r e s t o j u n t o c o n a lg u n a s d e m is e x p e r i e n c i a s d e l a h u e r t i s t a s y me p u s e a e s c r i b i r e l se g u n d o v o lu m e n in m e d ia t a m e n t e . Me senti hondamente conmovidp por lo que habia leido. . (Rand, p. 121) I i Up t o t h i s p o i n t we h a v e s e e n a b r i e f sum m ary o f t h e ! i tw o h i s t o r i c a l e v e n t s t h a t o c c u r r e d d u r in g t h e e l e c t i o n s o f : 1924 an d 1928. Guzman h i m s e l f e x p l a i n e d t h a t h i s n o v e l w as i i b a s e d o n t h e s e h i s t o r i c a l e v e n t s an d t h e c h a r a c t e r s who p a r t i c i p a t e d i n th e m . He c o m b in e d h i s e x p e r i e n c e in t h e d e l a h u e r t i s t a r e v o l t w i t h t h e d i s a s t e r o f t h e S e r r a n o t r a g e d y t o p a i n t a b le a k p i c t u r e o f M e x ic a n p o l i t i c s d u r in g t h e 1920's. i I | The c r i t i c s L u is L e a l, H e le n P h ip p s H ou ch , an d M orton Rand h a v e made e x t e n s i v e e f f o r t s t o i d e n t i f y t h e c h a r a c t e r s ! in t h e n o v e l t h a t a r e b a s e d on h i s t o r i c a l f i g u r e s . The f o u r t e e n h i s t o r i c a l f i g u r e s o f t h e S e r r a n o p a r t y who w ere m u rd ered b y C a l l e s ' s o r d e r s h a v e a l l b e e n i d e n t i f i e d i n t h e . g n o v e l . The c h a r a c t e r I g n a c i o A g u ir r e , who i s t h e p r e s i d e n t i a l c a n d id a t e i n t h e n o v e l , a p p e a r s t o b e a c o m b in a t io n o f G e n e r a l S e r r a n o and A d o lf o d e l a H u e r ta . The f a c t i s t h a t t h e b u lk o f t h e p l o t o f t h e n o v e l i s b a s e d on t h e d e l a h u e r t i s t a r e v o l t , w h i l e t h e c lim a x , t h e a s s a s s i n a t i o n o f t h e f o u r t e e n , i s b a s e d o n t h e S e r r a n o i n c i d e n t . Guzman s t a t e d i n an i n t e r v i e w w it h R a f a e l E lio d o r o V a l l e t h a t "La som b ra d e l c a u d i l l o c o n c lu y e c o n l a m u e r te d e i un p r e s o n a j e q u e l l e v a e l nom bre d e I g n a c io p e r o qu e e s t a i i n s p i r a d o e n S e r r a n o , p o r q u e e s un p e r s o n a j e s i n t ^ t i c o que ! 10 r e c i b e e le m e n t o s n o v e l i s t i c o s d e o t r o s p o l i t i c o s . " T h e r e ! i i s n o d o u b t , h o w e v e r , t h a t A g u ir r e , t h e c h a r a c t e r i n t h e ! i n o v e l , i s a p e r f e c t im age o f G e n e r a l S e r r a n o . Es un f i e l r e p r e s e n t a n t e d e l m i l i t a r p o l i t i c o q u e g o b e r n a b a a l a n a c id n e n l a ^ p o ca d e l a p o s t - r e v o l u c i o n . g By c o m b in in g t h e d a t a c o l l e c t e d b y t h e t h r e e c r i t i c s i n t h e w o rk s a l r e a d y c i t e d , t h e f o u r t e e n c h a r a c t e r s a r e a l l i d e n t i f i e d . ! i 10Rafael Eliodoro Valle, "Dialago con Martin Luis Guz- jmin," Universidad. 1 (mayo 1936), 21. El Aguirre de Guzman, tipico representante de los generales de la ^poca, es un joven sibarita y poco honesto, aunque franco, bondadoso, Inteligente y muy correcto. (Leal, p. 16) it is clear that Guzman is sympathetic toward Aguirre in the novel, but this does not mean that he does not criticize his immorality in the same way he criticizes that of General Hilario Jimenez, who represents Plutarco Elias Calles. The intention of the entire novel is to criticize both sides of the political battle, the Partido Cooperatista which in the novel was called Partido Radical Froqresista. as well as the 0breg6n-calles faction. The caudillo in the novel who is always referred to as simply the Caudillo is actually a combination of the figures of Alvaro Obregdn and Plutarco Elias Calles . For most of the novel the Caudillo ■ j functions as in fact Obregdn did when he backed Calles in I the 1924 elections. At the climax of the novel, the assas- i ! sination of the members of the opposition party, the Cau dillo acts as Calles did when he ordered the mass murders just prior to the 1928 elections . In order to understand Guzman1s political criticism in I the novel, it is essential to know when he expresses his |Own opinions. This is not difficult to determine, since it jean be proven that the character Axkana Gonzdlez, the close 142 ! friend of General Aguirre, is actually Guzman. "Si re- corremos la lista de los diputados cooperatistas que apoya- , i I ron a de la Huerta, el grupo llamado 1encauzador' hallamos que entre los mas prominentes se encontraba el mismo Guzman" (Leal, p. 20). The role played by Axkana Gonzalez in the novel is identical to that played by Guzman in the elections of 1924. It was he and the president of the Cooperatista party, Jorge Prieto Laurens, who in the novel is Emilio Olivier Fernandez, who initially encouraged Adolfo de la Huerta to seek the presidency. Alonso Capetillo, who unfortunately was a member of the group of fourteen serranistas who were assassinated by Calles. had written a book. La rebelidn sin cabeza. dealina ; I with the delahuertista revolt in which he had also partici- ! pated. Martin Luis Guzman appears frequently in this his torical document, in order to demonstrate how Axkana Gon- j zalez represents Guzman in the novel, one need only point out several occasions on which his role is identical to that played by Guzman in the actual historical event. Ocurrio [dice Capetillo] que el senor Martin Luis Guzman sugirid la necesidad de ir a visitar al senor de la Huerta para cambiar impresiones con el acerca de la resolucidn del Ejecutivo sobre el caso San Luis. A bordo del automdvil del general y diputado Josd ! Villaneuva Garza, se dirigieron inmediatamente a la | casa del Lago, donde vivia el senor de la Huerta, el 143 I mencionado diputado y sus colegas Guzman y Prieto. En la residencia del senor de la Huerta encontraron el entonces Gobernador de Puebla, don Froylan C. Man- jarrez. El senor de la Huerta estaba un poco enfermo, habiendolos hecho pasar a su recamara en donde celebro una larga conferencia con ellos. (Capetillo, p. 6 8) This same scene appears in the novel; the only differ ence is that Axkana is alone when he visits Aguirre in his bedroom. This scene is as significant in the novel as was the one in which Guzman participated, for in both cases the generals decided to become candidates for the presidency of the republic. In the novel Aguirre from his bed indicates to Axkana his intention to come to a decision on the matter by the following morning. "Me levantare a las once, con la cabeza despierta, con el cuerpo entero, y apto para entender y sentir bien todas las cosas. Quiero decir que entonces sabr^, sin equivocos, a que atenerme."11 In addition to the fact that in the novel Axkana played a similar role to that played historically by Guzman, he is ; the only politician in the novel who appears to have a lit erary background. This would indicate that Guzman's inten- 1 tion was to juxtapose Axkana and the other military politi- ! cians, as he himself was juxtaposed to the military men who ; j 11Martin Luis Guzman, La sombre del caudillo (Mexico, D. F.: Compania General de Ediciones, 1964), p. 61. Whom he associated during the Revolution. The references to Axkana's philosophic temperament are found throughout the novel. "Pero vuelvo a decirtelo: ipara que te sirve toda tu filosofia, la tuya de los libros que dicen que lees?" (p. 30). A conclusive bit of evidence to support the con tention that Axkana Gonzalez is indeed Guzman is the fact that Axkana was the only member of General Aguirre's group of supporters who escaped the mass murders at the end of the novel. Guzman had not actually taken part in the Ser rano incident of 1928, but he did escape the de la Huerta fiasco in 1924 by virtue of the fact that he was serving as de la Huerta's envoy in New York when the revolt was crushed. I I Having established that Axkana Gonzalez does represent i j the figure of Guzman in the novel, the matter of analyzing t Guzman's political commentary is greatly simplified. One I i need only study Axkana's words and thoughts throughout the j book to arrive at Guzman's own sentiments. The novel begins with a meeting between General Aguirre and Axkana. In this encounter Guzman contrasts the character of Axkana with that iof his military friend. | En el interior del coche seguian conversando con la ! animacidn caractoristica da los j6venes politicos de | Mexico, el general Ignacio Aguirre, ministro de la________ Guerra, y su amigo inseparable, insustituible, intimo; el diputado Axkana. Aguirre hablaba envolviendo sus frases en el levf- simo tono de despego que distingue al punto, en Mexico, a los hombres publicos de significacion propia. A ese matiz reducia, cuando no mandaba, su autoridad incon- fundible. Axkana, al reves: dejaba que las palabra fluyeran, esbozaba teorfas entraba en generalizaciones y todo lo subrayaba con actitudes que a un tiempo lo subordinaban y sobreponian a su interlocutor, que le quitaban importancia de protagonista y se la daban de consejero. Aguirre era el politico militar; Axkana, el politico civil; uno, quien actuaba en las boras decisivas de las contiendas publicas; otro quien creia encauzar los sucesos de esas boras o, al menos, expli- carlos. (p. 9) One can note that Guzman is preoccupied with the par ticipation of military men in national politics. He hopes to find in Axkana, "el politico civil," the salvation of the nation. Even though Axkana and Aguirre are close friends, i i they are quite different. Throughout the entire novel, J | General Aguirre, the most powerful and dynamic of the two, repeatedly seeks the advice of the philosophical Axkana. I Later in the same scene described above, the General, referring to a promise he had made to end his affair with the young Rosario, uses the word that becomes the theme for the entire novel. "De veras [dice Aguirre] bajo mi palabra de honor" (p. 11). The word honor becomes the basis for the entire plot. The novel becomes Guzman's burlesque of honor ^mong Mexican politicians. Speaking through Axkana, he 146 states: "Aunque hablando en plata, el honor entre politi cos, maldito lo que garantiza" (p. 12). A bit later when Rosario climbs into Aguirre's Cadillac, she utters the word after receiving an unexpected kiss from the General. "Y me dio usted su palabra de honor" (p. 23). Guzman's thesis seems to be that neither in love nor in politics does the word honor have any meaning for the militares who dominated the political scene at that time. Axkana continues to give us Guzman's observations on the events and the characters as the plot develops. Especi ally interesting are Guzman's expressions of antimilitarism. He paints devastating portraits of the military types that had, in his opinion, corrupted the Revolution. j Axkana, que por primera vez veia entonces al general i Catarino Ibanez, gobernador del estado de Mexico, se j decidio a observarlo. De pronto el aspecto exterior ; del general nada le dijo. Era el de tantos otros sol- [ dados de la Revolucion, convertidos, como por magia, ; en gobernadores o ministros: analfabetas, con patente i de incultura, en los cargos publicos de responsabili- dades mas altas . (p. 86) Catarino Ibanez had been a milkman before the Revolu tion. He is one of the many military men Blasco Ibanez i refers to when he states in his book El militerismo mexi- cano: ... resulta imposible explicarse honradamente como unos hombres que hace seis o siete anos eran vende- dores ambulantes de leche, vendedores de legumbres secas ... y que poseen hoy varios miHones de d6lares despues de haber figurado en una revolucion. (p. 49} The figure of Governor Ibanez becomes even more a subject of criticism as the reader discovers that the ex^milkman has just purchased a prize Jersey cow from England for 25,000 pesos, while the peasants working in his luxurious dairy are shoeless and hungry. On another occasion, when the delegates of the Coope- ratista party arrive in Toluca to participate in an elec toral assembly, Governor Ibanez once again demonstrates his crudeness and hypocrisy. During the dinner that followed i the assembly, the Governor gave a little speech to the dele gates in the banquet hall. Ibanez was in the process of j pointing out that the guacamole that they were eating was | I the same as that being enjoyed by the peasants who were | i celebrating the event outside in the garden. "iQuien se atreveria ahora a decir que nosotros no sentimos a fondo la Revolucion? ^Estariamos comiendo aqui, tan contentos, sin haber asistido enantea al convite del pueblo?” (Guzman, p. 109). Infuriated by these words, Oliver Fernandez, the I president of the party, stands up and attacks the statement of the ex-milkman turned governor. "El guacamole sera igual," afirmo Olivier, implacable; "no lo discuto. Pero la mentira consiste en que llamas 'companeros* a los pobres indios de la manifestacion y en que dices que nosotros no disfrutariamos de este banquete si antes no los hubieramos visto comer a ellos . Si son nuestros companeros, £por que a ellos les das huesos y tortillas mortajadas, dejando, ademas, que eso lo coman en el suelo, mientras a nosotros nos tratas regiamente? Aqui no pasamos de treinta: alia son mas de mil. Sin embargo, estoy seguro de que la comida nuestra va a costarte lo doble o lo triple de lo que pagaras por la misera barbacoa de los que vinieron a gritar tus vivas y tus mueras." {p. 110) Up to this point we have said little about the plot of the novel. The truth is that the plot follows with a great deal of accuracy the two historical events discussed pre viously. The names of the characters are fictitious but the i events described parallel the political situation which occurred in 1923 with the de la Huerta revolt; and the con- ' elusion of the novel actually describes the assassination | of General Serrano and his supporters during the 1928 cam- j I paign. This study concerns itself more with Guzman's polit-[ i ical commentary and his description of the Caudillo than with the historical events per se. Nevertheless, Guzman is an astute interpreter of the historical environment. He is fully cognizant of the polit- jical situation during this period. "La sombra del I 1 ^ .... . ' ................... " " “. 149 ■ ' i 1 j caudillo," Obregon, fell over the entire political scene in j Mexico. For most of the novel the Caudillo is actually I I ObregtSn. As has already been pointed out, it is only at the i conclusion, the murder of the fourteen politicians, that thej Caudillo represents Plutarco Elias Calles, for it was actu ally Calles' order that resulted in the mass murders of the 1928 elections. This is not to say that Obregon was in capable of such a deed. He, in fact, had been responsible for the murder of Carranza in 1919. In the historical event, Adolfo de la Huerta was cer tainly risking his life by running against Calles, the Cau dillo "s candidate. In the novel, Axkana expresses the irony; of the situation in which his friend Aguirre found himself 1 i by opposing the Caudillo. "Sentia en Aguirre la tragedia ! | del politico cogido por el ambiente de inmoralidad y mentira que el mismo ha creado" (p. 63). From the beginning Aguirre did not wish to be a presidential candidate, but in spite of his efforts to convince the Caudillo and his candidate that he had no intention of entering the election, they would not jbelieve him. Axkanrf, in his typical political astuteness, i I replies to this situation: "No lo cree el caudillo porque |se imagine que tu haces lo que ^1 haria en tu caso: fingir I I hasta lo ultimo para no perder las ventajas que te da tu 150 ! I caracter de ministro" (p. 65). Aguirre tries futilely to convince the Caudillo's can- , j didate as well that he has no interest in running. "Las causas son varias; pero nomas necesitas saber 1 esta: no aspiro ahora a llegar a presidente porque me consta que el Caudillo te apoya a ti, no a mi; y aun cuando comprendo que tal apoyo en tu favor no constituye obstaculo insuperable, prefiero detenerme por consideraciones afectivas. Openerme a ti serfa oponerme al Caudillo, desconocerlo, negarlo, y has de saber que eso, justamente, es lo que no hare nunca por ambiciones chicas ni grandes." (p. 69) Finally, after all of his efforts fail and finding himself pushed into a corner, Aguirre exclaims: "<*Quieren a fuerzas que luchemos? Pues iremos a la lucha: que al fin y al cabo, en politics, en Mexico, todos pierden. Veremos ahora , i a quien le toca" (p. 79). ! | The campaign battle begins. The Caudillo1s candidate, ! i General Jimenez, is assured of victory from the very begin- j i ning. He has faith in the Caudillo *s words when he says, t i I "en Mexico no hay mayor£a de diputados o senadores que re- [ E sisten a las caricias del Tesoro General" (p. 79). Such wasj the case in both the de la Huerta and the Serrano campaigns i when large numbers of their supporters were bought off by 0breg6n and Calles. i I On the other hand, Aguirre, as had de la Huerta and Serrano, attempted to use the other traditional method of running a campaign. He was counting on a number of gen erals who were enemies of the Caudillo. "En Mexico, le aseguro estos ultimos, todos los presidentes se hacen a balazos" (p. 2 06). He attempted to organize "los generales de Division" in case he had to take up arms. Resuelto de levantarme en armas estoy, [decia Aguirre] ... porque en Mexico el sufragio no existe: existe la disputa violenta de los grupos que ambicionan el poder, apoyados a veces por la simpatia publics. Esa es la verdadera Constitucion mexicana; lo demas es pura farsa. (p. 211) The Caudillo's candidate, on the other hand, used an other tactic. Beneath quiet words and patriotic slogans he prepared his conspiracy. He covered all of his diabolic j acts with one word: La Revolucion. In its name he pre- ! i i pared his presidential campaign. j Entonces, senores, aplastemos la reaccion una vez mas; j suprimamos de un golpe esas dos docenas de traidores, ya que actos asi son propios e inevitables en cuantos j traemos a cuesta el enorme fardo de la pureza revolu- j cionaria. (p. 171) j I Aguirre is at least honest in his approach to politics, honest to himself, that is. He rejects hypocrisy, for he recognizes the rules one must follow in Mexican politics. IWhen he meets with the other candidate, Jimenez, he does not try to glorify the political contest he is engaged in with democratic slogans. i I I I Estamos hablando con el corazon en la mano, Hilario, no con frases buenas para enganar a la gente Ni a ti ni a mi nos reclama el pais. Nos reclama (dejando a un lado tres o cuatro tontos y tres o cuatro ilusos) los grupos de convenencieros que andan a caza de un gancho de donde colgarse; es decir, tres o cuatro ban- das de politiqueros ... 1 Deberes para con el pais ... (p. 70) The two candidates prepared their campaigns with fer vor. It was a question of obtaining the support of as many generals as possible in case open civil war should result. They both recognized the fact that "la politica de Mexico, politics de pistola, solo conjugaba un verbo: madrugar. Esa era la regia, si no le madruga usted a su contrario, su | i contrario le madruga a usted" (pp. 208, 212). i The elections drew near and both parties were preparing! for all-out conflict. General Aguirre had gone to Toluca with his supporters to prepare a revolt if necessary. What j he did not know was that General Elizondo, who had offered him support there in the state of Mexico, was prepared to betray him. Hilario Jimenez had been the first to madrugar. i Aguirre and his group spent the first night in Toluca get ting drunk in honor of their escape from the capital. The i second night they were already prisoners of the army men who supported Jimenez. The campaign of Ignacio Aguirre and , el partido Cooperatista Nacional was over. i The thirteen members of Aguirre's party found them selves on the highway Mexico-Toluca with their hands tied behind their backs. It was beginning to get dark, but the darkness was not only from the effect of the disappearing sun. There was very little light shining on the men of Aguirre's party. They had all come to the end of that road that they knew so well, for they were all Mexican politi cians . But Aguirre, standing there in full awareness of the end, could not forgive the betrayal of the Caudillo. "Diez anos he estado cerca de el; diez anos de abso- luta disciplina, de obedencia, de sumision; diez anos de ... fusilar a enemigos comunes; de quitar de en j medio, acusandolos, negandolos, traicionandolos, estor- i bos y rivales solo mios porque lo eran suyos ..." Muchas monstrosidades habia visto, hecho y ayudado a hacer en la Revolucion, pero todas ellas, los robos, los saqueos, los raptos, los estrupos, los asesinatos, los fusilamientos en masa, las mas negras traiciones, no valian juntas, lo que esta sola. (pp. 63, 235) I Twelve Mexican politicians died there on the highway Mexico-Toluca; only one survived. Twelve were murdered in the novel, fourteen in the actual historical event. General i Serrano and his party had taken refuge in Cuernavaca, not jToluca; they too had descended from automobiles with their hands tied behind their backs. They were also victims of their own work, their own deeds, their own creation, "la politics mexicana." The figure of the Caudillo is indeed a shadow through out most of the novel. Though his name is never given, the word caudillo is spelled with a capital letter whenever it refers to him. In very few instances is the title of presi dent ever used in reference to him, and on these occasions it is usually used sarcastically. There are approximately twenty-five references to the Caudillo in the novel. This seems a rather small number, except for the fact that all of the action from the beginning to the end of the novel revolves around what the Caudillo has said, has done, is doing, will do. The motivation for almost all of the acts of the entire cast of characters rests ultimately with the ! I I Caudillo. | There are only two scenes in which the Caudillo actu- | ally appears. Both of these are scenes in which the pro- j tagonist Aguirre is confronting the Caudillo. In the first instance, Aguirre has gone to the presidential offices to attempt to convince the Caudillo that he has no intention of running for president. What is interesting in this scene is the description that Guzman gives of the Caudillo'a (physical appearance and his mannerisms. ..... " " ~ ...... " 155 El Caudillo tenia unos soberbios ojos de tigre, I ojos cuyos reflejos dorados hacian juego con el de- sorden, algo tempestuoso, de su bigote gris. Pero si fijaban su mirada en Aguirre, nunca faltaba en ellos (no habia faltado ni durante las horas criticas de los combates) la expresi6n suave del afecto. Aguirre estaba ya acostumbrado a que el Caudillo lo mirara asi, y ponia en eso tal emocion que acaso de alii nacieran, mas que de cualquier otra cosa, los sentimientos de devocion inquebrantable que lo ligaban con su jefe. Con todo, esta vez noto que sus palabras, mencionando apenas el tema de las elecciones, dejaban suspensa en el caudillo la mirada de costumbre. Al contestar el, solo quedaron en sus ojos los espurios resplandores de lo ironico; se hizo la opacidad de lo impenetrable. (p. 54) In the second encounter Aguirre has with the Caudillo. Guzman concludes his description of the president by refer ring once more to the "ojos de tigre" image that he initi ated in the first meeting. In this last meeting, however, i Guzman attempts to show the tiger as he prepares himself for| the kill. i "No, Aguirre; no contestaria usted asi. Porque esas j cosas, cuando yo gobierno, no se dicen en mi presencia." j Y el Caudillo se habia quitado los anteojos y habia dejado acentuarse, por sobre la nota gris del bigote en desorden, su expresion a la vez riente y dominadora. Le fluian de los ojos, como de tigre, fulgores dorados, fulgores magnificos. (p. 162) The entire plot develops in an atmosphere not unlike a tragic puppet show. The Caudillo holds all the strings, {moving the figures deftly to the edge of the precipice. Those that he does not take over the side, such as his own candidate Jimenez, do not really survive; they are merely given a reprieve until another day. The figure of Hilario Jimenez is also interesting. As has been mentioned, he represents Calles in the 1924 elec tions. One can see in Jimenez the next caudillo being trained for his future role. The Caudillo has chosen him to be his successor. No reason was ever given in the novel as to why the caudillo decided on him instead of Aguirre. Perhaps it was that he appeared to be more trainable than Aguirre, for historically, Obregon attempted to be president again after Calles4 term ended. Only an assassin4s bullet prevented him from taking office again. Hilario Jimenez, after being accused by Aguirre of hypocrisy and of possessing pseudo-revolutionary ideals, responded with the famous line of most would-be caudillos: "Pero conmigo no estan ellos [los politigueros]; conmigo estan las masas, los obreros, los campesinos” (p. 70). Jimenez was right, the masses were with him just as they had been with the Caudillo. They had no other choice. The i iPRI organization was already developing its one-party con trol under Obreg<5n and Calles. The intellectuals who sup ported Aguirre in the novel and de la Huerta in the 157 ; I historical event were actually idealists. They believed ] i that the Revolution had been the beginning of a great demo- I cratic experience. They were wrong. As had been Axkana Gonzalez, Martin Luis Guzman had been spared. He lived to tell the story another day. In the novel Guzman attacks politics, the politicians, all that contributed to the immorality of the Mexican gov ernmental system. La sombra del caudillo. which was pub lished in 1929 while Guzman still lived in exile, is the strongest attack attempted by any Mexican against the polit ical system of that country (Leal, p. 16). It is a frontal attack that does not vacillate nor does it spare anyone. The book in its very artistic manner condemns and accuses. j I Even the protagonists are stripped of their masks. All of I | the corruptness, the immorality, the inhumanity is attacked.j i Axkana, speaking for Guzman in the novel, gives the final reason for the condition of Mexican politics: "Fijate bien, decia Axkana, fijate en la sonrisa de las gentes decentes. Lea falta a tal punto el sentido de la ciudadania, que ni siquiera descubren que es culpa suya, no nuestra, lo que hace que la politica mexicana sea lo que es." (p. 6 8) No one escapes criticism. No one is innocent. Caudillos are made by the people. i_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ I i i CHAPTER VI I I EL SEflOR PRESIDENTE BY MIGUEL ANGEL ASTURIAS Miguel Angel Asturias is perhaps the best-known novel ist of Latin America today. His recent international fame is due largely to the fact that he won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1967. However, this Guatemalan writer had acquired a great deal of fame prior to the winning of the coveted prize, largely because of the universal appeal of his works. Though he is considered by many critics a novel-1 i ist of sociopolitical commentary whose setting is generally 1 I the tropical zone of Latin America, his universal appeal i results from his deep penetration of character and his astute understanding of human psychology. He has added to this a diversity of style that has made of him one of the most complex and competent of Latin American novelists. Asturias was born in Guatemala City in 1899. He was ieducated there and received his doctorado en laves from the i ! 158 National University, perhaps the most significant period , of his life occurred between 192 3 and 1933 when he lived in r Europe. His interest in the pre-Columbian civilizations had taken him, ironically, to Paris to study at the Sorbonne under Professor George Raynaud who, assisted by Asturias and other Central Americans, translated and published the Popol Vuh. the Mayan Bible. Asturias' interest in the Mayas- Quiches was to have a profound effect on his later works . But his years in Europe were to have other effects on his life, as they had on Cesar Vallejo, Vincente Huidobro, and a host of other Latin American writers who found their way to Paris during this same period. Like Hemingway, Joyce, Gertrude Stein, and the other members of the so- i called "lost generation," Asturias and the other young Latin: American writers of the entre querraa were to be in the van- guardia of the new artistic styles that affected not only j I literature but the arts in general. j Perhaps another reason for Asturias' universal appeal is the fact that vftiile in Europe he served as correspondent for El Imparcial. a Guatemalan daily, vfoich afforded him I the opportunity of traveling to Egypt, Greece, Palestine, and most of Europe. Upon his return to Guatemala in 1933, Asturias found himself in the midst of another d i c t a t o r s h i p . He h a d l e f t G u a tem a la s h o r t l y a f t e r t h e dow n f a l l o f t h e t y r a n t M an u el E s tr a d a C a b r e r a and r e t u r n e d t o w i t n e s s t h e e m e r g e n c e o f J o r j e U b ic o , a n o t h e r c a u d i l l o o f t h e sam e c u t a s E s t r a d a C a b r e r a . A s t u r i a s l i v e d a lm o s t i n i s o l a t i o n d u r in g U b ic o 's r e i g n . He d i d n o t p u b l i s h a s i n g l e w ork d u r in g t h e y e a r s 1933 t o 1944 . A f t e r U b ic o w as th ro w n o u t o f o f f i c e i n 1944 b y a s t u d e n t - i n t e l l e c t u a l r e v o l u t i o n , A s t u r i a s s e r v e d a s a d ip lo m a t in P r e s i d e n t J u a n J o s e A r e v a l o ' s a d m i n i s t r a t i o n . I t w as w h il e h e s e r v e d a s A q re q a d o C u l t u r a l i n M e x ic o t h a t h e p u b l i s h e d h i s m o st s i g n i f i c a n t w o r k , E l s e n o r p r e s i d e n t s . i n t h a t c o u n t r y i n 1946. P r io r t o t h e p u b l i c a t i o n o f t h i s n o v e l , A s t u r i a s w as know n p r i m a r i l y a s a j o u r n a l i s t an d a p o e t . H is c o l l e c t e d i poems that covered the years from 1918 to 1948 were also I p u b l i s h e d i n M e x ic o i n 1949 u n d e r t h e t i t l e o f P o e s i a s : ' ! Sien de Alondra. The stylistic influence of la Vanquardia is as visible in his poetry as it is in his works of fic tion. The first work to bring him international fame was his Levendas de Guatemala (1930), "vision poetica y evoca- tiva del mundo desaparecido de los mayas, atrav^s de sus |historias tradiciones, mitos, consejos y creencias" (G6mez I I Gil, p. 681) . This work carried a prologue by the famed 161 ! F r e n c h p o e t P a u l V a le r y , who h a s b e e n n o t o n ly o n e o f A s t u r i a s 1 g r e a t e s t a d m ir e r s b u t a l s o o n e o f h i s f o r e m o s t I l i n t e r p r e t e r s . i In 1949, A s t u r i a s p u b l i s h e d H om bres d e m a iz . a v e r y c o m p le x I n d i a n i s t n o v e l t h a t i n p e r c e p t i o n s u r p a s s e s t h e w ork s o f C ir o A l e g r i a and G r e g o r io L op ez y F u e n t e s . A s t u r i a s d o e s m ore th a n r e l a t e t h e a b u s e s s u f f e r e d b y t h e I n d ia n a t t h e h a n d s o f t h e w h it e m an. He c a p t u r e s t h e e s s e n c e o f t h e r e d man a n d h i s a t t a c h m e n t t o t h e e a r t h an d i t s p r o d u c t s — i n t h i s c a s e , e l m a i z . T he t r i l o g y t h a t f o l lo w e d H om bres d e m a iz — V ie n t o F u e r t e (1950), E l pap a v e r d e (1954), and L os o i o s d e l o s e n t e r r a d o s (1960)— r e p r e s e n t s A s t u r i a s a t h i s r e g i o n a l i s t i c b e s t . The w o rk s a r e c h a r a c t e r i z e d b y t h e i r i social commentary and description of the foreign banana | I i n t e r e s t s and t h e i r e f f e c t s on C e n t r a l A m e rica n s o c i e t y . | I One work that appeared in 1956 between the last two books of his trilogy was Weekend in Guatemala. a political novel obviously inspired in the American intervention during the Arbenz Guzman presidency. Asturias1 more recent works, such as El alhaiadito (1961), Mulata de tal (1963), El espeio de Lida Sal (1967), and El mal ladr6n (1969), seem to lack the power and appeal I o f h i s f i r s t w o r k s . P e r h a p s , a s som e c r i t i c s h a v e a s s e r t e d , 162 his international fame has made him a bit self-conscious i as a writer.^ He still stands out, nevertheless, as one of Latin America's foremost novelists. As Emir Rodriguez Monegal affirms, his success is due largely to the fact that he has been able to combine social commentary with the qualities of style that make for good literature: ... sus libros aparecen superpuestos simultaneamente a las dos corrientes que entonces se disputan el campo narrativo latinoamericano. Si por sus temas y por su actitud comprometida, Asturias esta del lado de los novelistas de la tierra y al protesta, por su preocu- pacion linguistics y por su temperamento podtico, Asturias no esta lejos de sus coetaneos mas importan- tes: de Borges, de Leopoldo Marechal, de Alejo Car- pentier, de Agustin Yanez.^ El senor presidente is, of course, Asturias' most im- I portant novel, not only from the standpoint of its inter- 1 national acclaim but also because of its influence on the other novelists of Latin America. Seymour Menton affirms ' that "en su arte original, su vision politics y social y su | i poder de captar el mundo magico de Guatemala, donde co- existen la realidad y la fantasia, lo convierten en la Alfonso Orantes, "Miguel Angel Asturias y el premio Nobel," Culture. 92 (octubre-deciembre 1967), 12. Orantes lists several critics who support this thesis. i ! 2 | "Los dos Asturias,“ Revista Iberoamericana. 35 (enero- abril 1969), 13. 163 ! 3 ! f i g u r a m axim a d e l r e a l is m o m a g ic o ." T h is l i t e r a r y ten d e n c y ! t h a t h e s h a r e d w it h A g u s t in Y an ez and A l e j o C a r p e n t ie r h a s I h a d a tr e m e n d o u s i n f l u e n c e on s u c h y o u n g e r w r i t e r s a s C a r lo s F u e n t e s , M a rio V a r g a s L l o s a f A u g u s to Roa B a s t o , G a b r ie l G a r c ia M arq u ez, and a h o s t o f o t h e r L a t in A m e r ic a n s . A n o th e r r e a s o n f o r t h e s i g n i f i c a n c e o f A s t u r i a s ' n o v e l i s t h e f a c t t h a t i t d e a l s w it h a s o c i o p o l i t i c a l phenom enon t h a t i s e n d e m ic t o L a t in A m e r ic a , n a m ely d i c t a t o r s h i p . As a s t r i c t l y p o l i t i c a l n o v e l , d i s r e g a r d in g i t s s t y l i s t i c c o n t r i b u t i o n s t o t h e L a t in A m e rica n n o v e l , J u a n L is c a n o f e e l s t h a t "E l S e n o r P r e s i d e n t e . . . e s l a mas im p o r ta n te n o v e la d e t o d a s l a s que s e h a n e s c r i t o s o b r e e l tem a d e l a d i c t a - d u ra e n A m e rica H isp a n a " ( p . 71). L is c a n o h a d s t a t e d p r e - j I ! viously that V alie-Inclan's novel Tirano Banderas (1926) j was the first to profundizar on the theme of dictatorship, i and in s p i t e o f t h e f a c t t h a t V a l l e - I n c l a n w as n o t a L a t in j i A m e r ic a n , h i s w ork h a d a tr e m e n d o u s A m e r ic a n ism t h a t w as ! i 1 s u b s e q u e n t ly r e f i n e d b y A s t u r i a s . T h e r e i s n o d o u b t t h a t ] t h e r e i s a d e f i n i t e r e l a t i o n s h i p b e tw e e n t h e tw o n o v e l s b o th t h e m a t i c a l l y an d s t y l i s t i c a l l y , b u t t h e d i f f e r e n c e s a r e | 3 " A s t u r ia s , C a r p e n t i e r , y Y i n e z : p a r a l e l i s m o s y d i v e r g e n e i a s ," R e v i s t a I b e r o a m e r ic a n a . 35 ( e n e r o - a b r i l 1969), 152 . I_____________ __ ____________________________________________________ perhaps more significant than the similarities. Both Valle- i I n c la n an d A s t u r i a s a r e s u p e r b s t y l i s t s an d i t i s t h i s f a c - j j I tor that perhaps most attests to the originality of both works. Many critics have already pointed out that when Valle- Inclan published his novel in 1926, Asturias' work was al ready well underway. It was conceived first as a short story, "Los Mendigos politicos," in 1923 while Asturias was still in Guatemala. That same year he took it with him to Europe where it was transformed into a novel "Malebolgue" of Dantesgue inspiration and then renamed "Tohil" in honor o f t h e a n c i e n t Mayan g o d o f w a r , who w as a l s o in c o r p o r a t e d 4 1 into the work as a symbolic device. Asturias himself re- j i c o u n t s t h e e f f o r t s h e e x p e n d e d t o p r o d u c e t h e w o r k . " T r a - j b a j e m ucho e n e s a o b r a . La c o p i e a m agu in a mas d e n u e v e i v e c e s . M uchos d e s u s c a p i t u l o s l o s s a b i a d e m e m o r ia . F ue j 5 ! escrita de 1925 a 1932 y se publico en 1946." The r e a s o n f o r t h e l a t e a p p e a r a n c e o f E l a e n o r 4 Francis J. Donahue, "Miguel Angel Asturias: escritor comprometido" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, university of Southern California, 1965), p. 224. I C I 3Ricardo Trigueros de Le6n, "Miguel Angel Asturias,'1 j Cultura (San Salvador), enero-febrero 1955, p. 107. 165 I I presidents as a published work was due ironically to another| | dictatorship,, that of Jorge Ubico. Asturias had returned toj i Guatemala in 1933 only to find the country once more in the ! claws of another ruthless tyrant. Consequently the book remained unpublished until a modicum of democracy had come to the Republic with the Revolution of 1944 that overthrew Ubico. When it first appeared the novel went almost unnoticed except in Mexico, where it had been published, and in Guate mala, where Asturias was already well known. One reason for its lack of impact on the rest of Latin America was due ironically to the fact that a reign of despotic terror ex isted in a significant number of Latin American republics j (Donahue, p. 230) . It was the era of Peron, Perez Jimenez, I Rojas Pinilla, Trujillo, Samoza, Vargas, and a number of , I other lesser figures. In some countries Asturias' novel was among the list of prohibited works (Donahue, p. 230) . Grad ually, however, the novel won the recognition of most Latin American intellectuals and eventually a significant number of the reading public. Today it is recognized as one of ithe most powerful novels to have emerged in Latin America. | Its appeal is both regional and universal. Its ameri- I I canismo does not derive merely from the fact that Asturias 166 ! I attacks the Latin American phenomenon of caudillismo. it is 1 found also in the creation of the setting, in the masses of , ! people that amble across the American landscape, and in the language of both author and characters. Its universal appeal is more a product of the atmosphere of fear and ter ror than of the creation of a believable despot. It pos sesses that same quality of Orwell's 1984. or Warren's All the Kina's Men, or Koestler's Darkness at Noon. And above all, it has universal appeal because of the superb artistry of the author. La excelencia de El senor presidente. sobre todo si la comparamos con otras novelas que se escribieron en Hispanoamerica por los mismos anos, se debe precisa- mente a la fusion de mundo social y mundo psicologico , dentro de la fantasia de un autor-omnisciente que no 1 renuncia a su propia vision de poetica. i ! As a political novel, El senor presidente is an obvious^ attack on dictatorship in Latin America. The actual his- j I torical setting for the work is well known. The location is, of course, Guatemala, even though the country is never specifically mentioned. The time is 1916 and the dictator is Don Manuel Estrada Cabrera, even though he too is never j 6Enrique Anderson Imbert, "Analieis de El senor presi- i dente." Revista Iberoamericana. 35 (enero-abril 1969), 54. I f 7 , mentioned by name. Asturias was born in 1899, just one y e a r a f t e r E s t r a d a C a b r e r a h a d com e t o p o w e r , an d t h e f i r s t j I t w e n t y - o n e y e a r s o f p o l i t i c a l t e r r o r t o w h ic h G u a tem a la w as s u b j e c t e d s h o u ld h a v e a p r o fo u n d e f f e c t on t h e s e n s i t i v e m in d o f t h e y o u n g A s t u r i a s . The r e s u l t , o f c o u r s e , w as a n o v e l o f many a r t i s t i c q u a l i t i e s t h a t r e c o r d e d h i s t o r y i n a n a lm o s t s p i r i t u a l m a n n er . A s t u r ia s * d e p e n d e n c e on s p e c i f i c h i s t o r i c a l f a c t s i s a c t u a l l y m in o r , f o r w h a t h e h a s c r e a t e d i s a n o v e l t h a t r e f l e c t s t h e e le m e n t s o f d i c t a t o r s h i p th r o u g h o u t a l l o f L a t i n A m e r ic a , an d t h e e f f e c t s o f t h i s p o l i t i c a l s y s t e m on t h e p o p u l a c e . The B r a z i l i a n F r i t z T e i x e i r a d e S a l l e s , i n an a r t i c l e on A s t u r i a s , su m m a rize s t h e t y p e o f d i c t a t o r th a t; t h e G u a tem a la n w r i t e r h a s c r e a t e d : I j O r e g im e a p r e s e n t a a s t r £ s m a sc a r a l e g a i s : o s p o d e r e s l e g i l a t i v o s , o e x e c u t i v o e o j u d i c i a r i o , como a c o n s e q u e n t s e a p e n a s a p a r e n t e a d i v i s a o d o s p o d e r e s ; a c l a s e 1 s o c i a l d e m a io r a u t o r id a d e e a m i l i t a r . . . s e n o ta a s u p e r v a l o r i z a g a o d e s u fd r g a . . . Q uase t o d o s o s d i t a - d o r e s c e n t r o e s u la m e r ic a n o s fo ra m o u s a o g e n e r a l s . 7R ic h a r d J . C a l l a n , " B a b y lo n ia n M y th o lo g y i n E l s e n o r p r e s i d e n t e . ” H is p a n ia . SO (S e p te m b e r 1967), 417. **" M i g u e l A n g e l A s t u r i a s e a n o v e la p o l i t i c s h i s p a n o - a m e r i c a n a ," R e v i s t a B r a a l l e i r a d e E s tu d o s P o l i t i c o s . 6 . ( j u l i o 1959), 158. The Dictator Estrada Cabrera Guatemala and the dictatorship of Estrada Cabrera serve I merely as prototypes of Latin American republics under the iron hand of a despot. "Asturias no hizo otra cosa que trasladar a la obra de arte sus experiencias, sus observa- clones de primera mano sobre aspectos y circunstancias ambi- 9 entales de este sufrido pais." He himself has said that "el mismo aire que se respira en el libro transferido a la realidad de ahora [1950] es el que se respira en el Santo Domingo de Trujillo, en la Honduras de Carias, o en la Nicaragua de Samoza."10 Since Asturias does, however, use Estrada Cabrera as a model for his tyrant, brief mention should be made of this I individual and his ascendance to power in Guatemala. Don i Manuel had been abandoned at birth by his mother in 1857. 1 He was taken in by a religious community and educated in thej i Church. He eventually turned to law and as a young lawyer pursued an undistinguished career in the city of Raul Leiva, "Miguel Angel Asturias," Letraa del Ecuador (Quito, Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana}, enero- tmarzo 1954, p. 14 . ^Quoted in Donahue, p. 234, Salvador Canas, "Homenaje |a Miguel Angel Asturias," Repertorio Americano (San Jos^ de ICosta Rica), marzo 1950, p. 83. 169 1 Quezaltenango. In his formative years he had never shown ! any political ability or even ambition. Another Guatemalan i writerj Rafael Arevalo Martinez, in his biography of Estrada1 Cabrera entitled Ecce Pericles (1940) has perhaps presented the best description of the dictator that has thus far been written. The lengthy quotation that follows is essential if one is to understand fully Asturias' own characterization of Estrada Cabrera in El senor presidente. Por aquel tiempo don Manuel era un joven robusto, de estatura mediana, color moreno y aspecto vulgar. Las anchas espaldas, el cuello muy corto, la cara llena, la nariz recta y corta y el bigote poblado y lacio le daban apariencia plebeya; pero la frente era ancha y despejada y los ojos negros y sombrios delata- ban una fuerte voluntad de dominio. Su oido se cre- yera el del tirano de Siracusa, por su finura. Don Manuel, fisicamente, no causaba una impresion j desagradable, salvo cuando hablaba, porque su voz de timbre metalico era inarmoniosa, y cuando movia las manos, porque estas mas que tales parecian garras. j Le gustaba vestir bien, imitando la indumentaria j de los Aparicio y otros quezaltecos de buena cepa; j pero, a lo largo de su vida solo se puso las prendas interiores de vestir, incluso cue 1los y camisas, que cosia una modista de su conocimiento. Juzgado intelectualmente, sin duda tenia talento; pero no rayaba este a gran altura, hasta llegar a las altas cumbres de la abstraccion. Volaba sobre las cosas diarias de la vida, como un buen instrumento de defensa y de dominio. En aquel tiempo, las disciplinas necesarias para obtener el titulo de abogado no eran tan severas como en la actualidad, mas si permitian alcanzar un nivel medio de cultura. Don Manuel ni por su talento ni por su preparacidn cientifica era un | hombre extraordinario. Como abogado no habia adqui- ! rido conciencia juridica ni le interesaba la filosofia j del derecho; no tenia asplraciones de estadlsta; le_______ 170 ! interesaba, si, la profesion como un medio pragmatico de obtener dinero ... Afectivamente, era un individuo de pasiones violen- tas, sumamente energico y profundamente egoista. Todo lo subordinaba a sus deseos sensuales. Tenia— ya lo senalamos— un fuerte complejo de inferioridad, produ- cido por los vejamenes que recibiera en su ninez y en su primera juventud, a causa de su situacion social inferior a la de aquellos con quienes sus estudios lo relacionaban. Este complejo, como siempre, revestia la forma de orgullo excesivo y de anhelo de supremacia. Los duros apremios de la pobreza durante los pri- meros anos de su vida le hacian darle al dinero un valor excesivo, lo que duraria toda su vida. Don Manuel en los anos proximos adquiriria miHones; pero seguiria pensando en centavos, los centavos con que pagaran las bolitas que vendia cuando era nino. El mismo complejo de inferioridad lo hacia suma mente sensible, tanto al halago como a la ofensa, agradecia sobremanera toda lisonja y no perdonaba ni el mas pequeno agravio. Cuando necesitaba de alguien para medrar o para obtener alguna satisfaceion sabia halagarlo. Los que entraban en esta categoria se ex- presaban bien de el. No conocia escrupulos cuando se trataba de la conse- cucion de sus deseos. Ninguna valla moral le impedia el paso entonces. Los jesuitas le habian dejado, de una manera inde- leble, la hue11a de sus ensenanzas religiosas; esto no lo reprimia mucho, y cuando mas faltaba a los manda- mientos de la ley de Dios mas fervoroso parecia, con una concepcion religiosa elemental, como la del asesino y la prostituta que encienden mas velas a la virgen conforme mas han ejercido sus negras artes. El ancestro indigene--a1 que ya nos referimos antes-- lo hacia fuertemente supersticioso. Era lo que los tratadistas modernos de psiquiatria denominan "un hom bre mrfgico," es decir, un hombre con una concepcidn primitive de las fuerzas misteriosas que gobiernan al mundo. Tenia fe en los oraculos y en las predicciones de los adivinos. Su educacidn universitaria lo habia familiarizado con las doctrinas cientificas y positivistas de su aiglo j habia leido a Comte, BUchner y a otros materialistas y i no negaba radicalmente sus teorias, pues tambien sentia 171 ! un respeto supersticioso por la ciencia. Estas tres influencias, la catolica, la supersti- ciosa y la cientifica, debieron de darle tres opuetas direcclones en la vida. El jamas intento realizar una sintesis personal que las unificara, porque no era muy dado a las abstraceiones y no concebia el conocimiento sino como un instrumento necesario para triunfar. El anhelo de obtener una idea general del cosmos o el cono cimiento de las causas primeras y los fines ultimos, no turbaron nunca sus suenos por la noche; y le interesd aun menos la genesis de las ideas de derecho y de Dios que tan vivamente preocupaban por entonces a los pensa- dores. Sus violentas pasiones y su sed de dominio lo impulsaban a la accion y se sometia alternativamente a las tres influencias distintas que hemos mencionado, tratando de servirse igualmente de las tres para su medro personal. En resumen, moralmente, don Manuel era un hombre egoista y sin escrupulos que no poseia verdadera vida espiritual.^ In spite of Estrada Cabrera’s few personal qualities, he was named Ministro de Gobernacion and first Designate in ; the cabinet of Reyna Barrios. After the president’s assas- ; sination in 1898, Estrada Cabrera served as interim preai- i dent and with the help of a few key military figures was i able to make himself president. On October 2, 1898 he was | r constitutionally elected and remained in office for the next; I twenty-two years, holding farcical elections in 1904, 1910, i i and 1916. If one reads the official government publication of 1XJos4 Arlvalo Martinez, Ecce Pericles (Guatemala: [Tipografia Nacional, 1945), pp. 10-11. JSstrada Cabrera's era, he would find such statements as ! "The president devotes himself solely and exclusively with i sacrifice of his own interest to the advance of the father- 12 land." Even though this is a gross exaggeration, the dic tator did accomplish a few gains in the area of crop produc-, tion, support to the railroads, and public health projects that were primarily supported by the Rockefeller Foundation., The other side of the picture, however, depicted "Estrada Cabrera, a robber and a murderer and his adminis tration to blame for keeping the Indian in peonage, for debauching the army and for pocketing wholesale the public revenues" (Jones, p. 65). Objective historians indicate that under Estrada Cabrera, citizens' rights vanished almost! i totally in Guatemala, the crime rate increased, freedom of i the press was denied, individuals were shot without trials, | and private citizens were not allowed to bear arms. The so-called elections were run by the military, vrtio summoned the voters to the polls by bugle call. There they were handed a ballot which read "I hereby give my vote for the Licenciado don Manuel Estrada Cabrera for the President of i 12 Chester Lloyd Jones, Guatemala Past and Present. 2nd ed. rev. (New York: Russell and Russell, 1966), p. 64. the Republic for the term 1917-192 3" (Jones, p. 66). The voters then signed or put their mark on the ballots and deposited them in the election urn. The Guatemalan intellectual Julio Bianchi, who wrote an; extensive prologue to Arevalo Martinez's book on Estrada Cabrera, characterizes the dictatorship in the following terms: La administracion de Estrada Cabrera se caracterizo antes que todo por el estancamiento de todo progreso. Fue para Guatemala un letargo de un cuarto de siglo mientras todos los otros pueblos avanzaban en la senda del progreso. Finanzas, economia, agriculture, educa- cion, caminos, comercio exterior, e interior, ejercito, policia, todo sin excepcion sintio el efeeto enervante de aquel dictador, que como el hada de la leyenda, con el pinchazo de su aguijon sumio a Guatemala en un sueno profundo del que solo desperto a la voz magica del Acta de los Tres Dobleces.1^ i The "sueno profundo" of which Bianchi speaks becomes a nightmare of Asturias' El senor presidents. Asturias’ book ; 1 ends While the nightmare is still in progress . Historically,! j Estrada Cabrera's hold began to loosen by 1919. One reason for the waning of his power was the change in the United States position toward the dictatorship. During the Theo dore Roosevelt administration, the United States-Guatemalan 13 Introduction to Ecce Pericles, p. viii. relations had been generally quite favorable. When Wilson became President, however, the United States opinion of the dictator changed drastically. Estrada Cabrera, in fact, felt that the major reason for his fall was the change in the United States position. He felt that he had been aban doned. Many years before his fall, he had declared to a United States State Department official that "the first rule of behavior for a dictator in the Caribbean was never fall out with the United States" (Jones, p. 6 8). In the last few years of his administration the Church, unable to sanction his inhumane activities, also began to turn against him. The unionist party, joined by students and intellectuals, was also working actively for his over- j throw. In 1920 a committee of the Assembly, after examining! i Estrada Cabrera, "found that the President was disqualified from his duties because of mental disturbances, and that he i i should be removed from office and be granted permission to j leave the country" (Jones, p. 6 8). On April 14, 1920, after l many public demonstrations and a general strike, and a fear ! that the military was no longer disposed to back him, Estrada Cabrera surrendered the presidency and was driven away from his office seated between the Ministers of Spain I j and the United States (Jones, p. 6 8). The Nove1 I El senor presidente is not a historical novel that deals with the entire period of the Estrada Cabrera dicta torship. Rather, the novel presents the emotion, the feel- , ing, the atmosphere of fear and terror that ooze from the cancerous sore that is the dictatorship. Fernando Alegria feels that the element of fear is the true theme of the book. Nace la novela en al ambiente caracteristico de la tirania hispanoamericana; se nutre de aisladas anec- dotas, de rebeldias, de exilio, de amargas y brutales injusticias, pero, por encima de todo, en una emocion que, convertida en motivo literario, es nueva en la novela hispanoamericana: el miedo. Crueldad despotica nos dio Sarmiento en Facundo. ferocidad y aventura Marmol en Amalia. Asturias creo en El senor presidente la epopeya de miedo y de la impotencia.14 j Asturias himself emphasizes the aspect of fear and i I terror in his novel. He feels that this atmosphere of fear ! i is the endemic characteristic of most Latin American dicta torships . Sin pretender juzgar mi obra, considero que el ele- mento temor que se desprende de sus paginas, temor pavoroso y cdsmico hacia la figura central de las tiranias, es producto no logrado mediante artificio j i Breve historla de la novela hispanoamericana (Mexico, D. F.: Ediciones de Andrea, 1959), p. 224. ! literario ni como resultante de situaciones intencio- j nalmente dramaticsa sino manifestacidn de mi subcon- ciencia, porque de nino percibi el temor caai telurico que producia la figura del Senor Presidente. Para 1 hablar de el, se cerraban las puertas, se atenuaban las luces, se retiraban nuestros parientes hasta el fondo de la casa, y se esperaba que la servidumbre durmiera. Ese miedo tremendo y pavoroso esta vivo en El Senor Presidente. (Trigueras de Leon, p. 107) There are, of course, any number of levels upon which one might approach the novel. Its universal appeal stems precisely from the fact that it is more than a purely polit ical novel. In fact, Francis Donahue affirms that there is even a scarcity of political ideas in the work (p. 238). Instead, one can find such elements as the purgatory theme developed by Seymour Menton; or the more specific Dantesque theme offered by Alberto J. Carlos. The Babylonian myth ology theme is encountered in the novel by Richard J. Cal- | lan, while Francis Donahue explores the Maya-Quiche myth- j ology encountered in the work. Carlos Navarro has also donej I extensive work on the social disintegration theme in the novel.^ Richard J. Callan has perhaps best summarized Asturias' principal preoccupations in the work trtiich have obviously contributed to the success and universality of 15 j The references to Menton, Carlos, Callan, Donahue, land Navarro will appear as each of the themes is presented in the following pages. El senor presidente. The novelist's attention Is not limited to his times and nation, but ranges across the world and reaches back through the ages. By linking his created world with the dawn of history, and his twentieth-century characters with myths and archetypes, he has anchored them to themes of universal significance, themes such as: the eternal recurrence of all things; the regen eration wish; the drive to transcend time and attain immortality through death-resurrection rites; the struggle for freedom to fulfill one's person. (Callan, p. 423) Before commenting on the various interpretations that have been made of El senor presidente. perhaps it would be wise here to review the plot briefly. The work is, of course, written on two planes, the realistic and the sur realistic. On the first level, the story begins with the death of Colonel Jos^ Parrales Sonriente, the dictator's l agent, at the hands of the idiot Pelele. The dictator then orders the secret murder of Pelele so that he can develop a i complex plan to liquidate two of his political foes, General] Eusebio Canales and Abel Carvajal. The police are success ful in getting the beggars who were witness to the murder of Parrales Sonriente to say that Canales and Carvajal had j committed the crime. The dictator then instructs his ^ "favorito" Miguel Cara de Angel to pretend sympathy to i i General Canales by warning him that he is to be arrested. The plan Is for the police to shoot Canales while he is trying to escape. This technique, commonly called "la ley de fuga," had been perfected by many other dictators of the era. Two things go wrong with this plan, however. First of all, General Canales is successful in his escape. Second, Cara de Angel, who kidnaps Camilla, the General's daughter, with the intention of seducing her, falls sincerely in love with her. As Cara de Angel's affection for Camilla grows, his favor with the President begins to diminish. The dic tator sees this situation as an opportunity to rid himself of Cara de Angel and severely wound the pride of General Canales, who is preparing a revolt outside of the city. ! The President publishes a false news release announcing the 1 t wedding of Cara de Angel and Camilla. The fact is that these two actually do marry and Cara de Angel begins to make, i plans for leaving the country. Miguel is then commissioned ; I by the dictator to make a diplomatic trip to the United ] i States. The trip is never realized, however, for the dic tator sends an impostor in Miguel's place with instructions to disappear. While this is taking place, Miguel is im prisoned . There he remains physically broken and, ulti- i mately, spiritually broken \dien he is falsely told that Camilla has become the dictator's mistress. j Camilla in reality has left the city in the hopes of j finding a suitable, uncontaminated environment in which to raise the young son who was the product of her marriage to J Cara de Angel. This is perhaps the only optimism shown by Asturias in the entire novel. The rest is symbolized by dungeons, dirty streets, and houses of prostitution. In all, the subplots that are intertwined with the main story line— the agony of Fedina Rodas, for example— the pessimism is equally intense. The plot is, in fact, secondary to the atmosphere that the author wishes to create (Donahue, p. 255) . i The bleak environment that Asturias succeeds in paint- j ing brings us to the surrealistic level of the novel. It j i is here in the style and technique that Asturias employs ! that one can find the other themes that criss-cross through-! i out the book. Through the use of symbol and metaphor, as I j well as a host of literary references, Asturias develops at least four different planes on which the novel may be read beyond the obvious realistic level. Seymour Menton in his i Historia critica de la novala quatemalteca points out that Asturias has created "un infierno— purgatorio" where all hope is gone, where the characters hang suspended like titires over the engulfing flames of dictatorship.^ Alberto J. Carlos in his article "El curioso infierno ! I i dantesco en El senor presidente" carries this purgatory scene to its reasonable conclusion by pointing out the in fluence of Dante on Asturias and the specific references in the novel to the Italian's work.^ As Dante did in the Inferno, Asturias begins his work with an invocation di rected at the Prince of Darkness: fAlumbram lumbre de alumbre, Luzbel de piedralumbreI Como zumbido de oidos persistia el rumor de las cam- panas a la oracion, maldoblestar de la luz en la sombra, de la sombra en la luz. tAlumbra, lumbre de alumbre, Luzbel de piedralumbre, sobre la podredumbrel I Alumbra, lumbre de alumbre, sobre la podredumbre, Luzbel de piedralumbre1 tAlumbra, alumbra, lumbre de alumdre ... , alumbre ... , alumbra ... , alumbra, 1f t lumbre de alumbre ... , alumbra, alumbre ... ° j i The beggars fight among themselves and wait at the vestibule of hell, called "El Portal del Senor" in the 1 novel, just as they do in Dante. This world of the wretchedj 16Historia critica de la novela quatemalteca (Guate mala: Editorial Universitaria, 1960), p. 204. ^In La novela Iberoamaricana contemporanca. XIII Con- greso Internacional de Literatura Iberoamaricana (Caracas : Universidad Central de Venezuela, 1968), p. 75. j i i p j El senor presidente. 10th ed. (Buenos Aires: Edi torial Losada, 1969), p. 7. 181 and broken, of the beggars, of Genaro and Fedina Rodas, of the La Masquata, and of Lucio Vasguez corresponds to the first cycle of the Inferno where the sins of the incontinent are punished (Carlos, p. 77). Like Dante, Asturias punishes all sins, but above all those of the intellect committed by members of the elite. He criticizes the clergy and the religious hypocrisy of El Auditor de Guerra "quien toca el Armonio en la Iglesia y assiste a la primira misa todos los dias" (Carlos, p. 78), and then goes off to his work as the dictator's executioner. All the sinners that populate Dante's world are found in the novel: the adulterers, the liars, the hypocrites, the thieves, the traitors, "es decir todos los pecadores que Dante coloca en la ciudad de Dite" (Carlos, p. 78). Carlos summarizes succinctly the relationship between Asturias and Dante, between the Inferno and Guatemala, when he concludes: La capital de Guatemala que describe Asturias no es entonces simplements otra ciudad que sufre las atroci- dades de una cruel dictadura. Es la citt'a dolente. la ciudad dolorosa, tal como Dante la imagin6 , donde impera Luzbel, donde el miedo, la ignorancia, la po- breza y la corrupci6n atormanta al pueblo, donde San Niguel el Arcrfngel permanece en un lobrego calabozo mientras que Luzbel reina an el mundo ... Asturias funde la alegorla del infierno dantesco y la aluci- | nante realidad tr^gica de su Guatemala en una roar a - villosa creaci6n literaria, en una gran novela donde ! se expresan la angustia, la desesperacidn y el terror de un pueblo subyugado por un implacable dictator ' diabolic©. (pp. 80-81) Richard J . Callan finds in El senor presidente a number of references to another theme, the parallelism with Baby lonian mythology. To begin with, Callan interprets the novel as the classic re-enactment of the archetypal struggle between fertility and destruction (p. 417). The dictator represents death and destruction, as evidenced throughout the novel and specifically in the death of Fedina's son while she is imprisoned. On the other hand, Cara de Angel represents fertility and life, for it is he, the dictator's "favorito," who begins to love and ultimately begets a child. In the novel, the theme is summarized in the words of Ticher, the English teacher, who states: "A la muerte j unicamente se le puede oponer el amor porque ambos son igualmente fuertes" (Asturias, p. 212). | i C ara d e A n g e l s a v e s G e n e r a l C a n a le s a n d h i s d a u g h te r an d in s o d o in g p r o lo n g s l i f e . I t i s h e r e , t h e n , t h a t t h e f e r t i l i t y th em e e m e r g e s , f o r C ara d e A n g e l f a l l s i n l o v e ! w i t h C a m i l ia . C a lla n f e e l s t h a t t h e f e r t i l i t y th e m e , th o u g h i t a l s o h a s s i m i l a r i t i e s w it h t h e M ayan f e r t i l i t y m y th , i s b a s e d o n t h e Tammuz an d I s h t a r m yth o f B a b y lo n ia n o r i g i n | (p. 418) . I t i s e a s y t o r e c o g n i z e t h a t B a b y lo n , c o m in g from t h e 183 i i A s s y r ia n w ord m e a n in g " g a te o f G od ," i s r e f e r r e d t o a s "E l P o r t a l d e l S e n o r ” an d t h a t A s t u r i a s j u x t a p o s e d t h i s a n c i e n t c i t y , " th e m o th e r o f h a r l o t s and a b o m in a tio n s t r a d i t i o n a l l y s y m b o lic o f c o r r u p t i o n an d c r u e l t y w it h G u a tem a la o r a n y o t h e r c i t y i n t h e g r i p o f an inhum ane d i c t a t o r " ( C a lla n , p . 418) . A c c o r d in g t o C a l l e n , t h e B a b y lo n ia n f e r t i l i t y m yth t e l l s t h e s t o r y o f I s h t a r , g o d d e s s o f l o v e an d w a r , m o th e r o f m an k in d an d i t s e n e m ie s , who f e l l i n l o v e w it h Taimnuz an d w h o se l o v e p r o v e d f a t a l t o h im . [Ishtar] is portrayed in part by Camilla. The role of Tammuz, who embodies fertility and whose death stands for the coming of winter barrenness, is played by Miguel, although little Miguel, a prolongation of him self born the following spring, represents the resur rected Tammuz and suggests the beginning of a cycle, j the nature cycle. (p. 418) I n t h i s s t u d y b y C a lla n o n e c a n s e e t h a t A s t u r i a s ' j i e m p h a s is i s n o t l i m i t e d t o t h e e n v ir o n m e n t w h ic h h e h i m s e l f I knew o r t o a n y s p e c i f i c t im e in h i s t o r y . In o t h e r w o r d s , h e d o e s n o t m e r e ly s t u d y G u a tem a la u n d e r t h e i r o n f i s t o f E s tr a d a C a b r e r a b u t t h e w h o le s p e c tr u m o f s c e n e s o f u n i v e r s a l s i g n i f i c a n c e , " th e e t e r n a l r e c u r r e n c e o f a l l t h i n g s , t h e r e g e n e r a t i o n w is h ; t h e d r i v e t o t r a n s c e n d t im e and ! [ a t t a in i m m o r t a lit y th r o u g h d e a t h — r e s u r r e c t i o n r i t e s ; th e struggle for freedom to fulfill one's person" (Callan, p. 423) . Francis Donahue in an unpublished Ph.D. dissertation explores another myth, one much closer to Asturias and Guatemala, that of Tohil, the ancient war god of the Maya- Quiche peoples. The dictator in his thirst for blood is compared to Tohil, who demanded human sacrifice. Donahue points out that in the first edition of El senor presidente Asturias used as a subtitle a sentence taken from the Popol Vuh which refers specifically to the war god: "entonces se sacrifico a todas las tribus ante su rostro ... " (p. 240). In addition to this specific reference Asturias pre sents such characters as the American business man, Hr. Gengis, who like a priest sorcerer granting Washington's protection, makes the god strong. The citizens of Guate mala, whether members of the elite class or destitute beg gars, are all potential victims of the god Tohil. The dic tator at any given moment may choose from among even his "favoritos” his next sacrificial victim. The entire novel seems to represent the endless parade of victims to the i altar of el senor presidente. Carlos Navarro, in a recently published article, dis- 1 cusses another theme— that of social disintegration: 185 La complejidad de causas y efeetos que constituyen la estructura interior de El Senor Presidente, se resuelve en un desproporcionado proceso de desintegracidn social. No hay nada positive, y parte del mecanismo del todo negativo esta articulado por el encadenamiento de ad- versidades que hemos apuntado: el enajenamiento del individuo produce y es resultado de la desunidn social; la desunion social produce y es resultado de la mentira; la mentira, de la confusidn; la confusion, del estanca- miento; el estancamiento, de la encarcelacion; la en carcelacion, del enienamiento; y asi sucesivamente en un ciclo infernal.-^* The enajenamiento is evidenced in the figure of the idiot Pelele who, while longing for his mother, is repeat edly thrown out of churches and homes. It is seen also in the rejection of Camilia by her uncles, and finally it cul minates in the dictator's rejection of Cara de Angel and the latter's total separation from his wife and child. La desunion social results in the absence of communi cation between characters . La idea de accion colectiva por consiguiente no existe en El senor presidente. Los personajes transitan por la novel totalmente solos como impotentes nulidades perdidas en una turba invisible. (Navarro, p. 63) Once again the idiotic grunts of Pelele are symbolic of the | absence of real communication. The jeriqonza of the | IQ ^ "La desintegracion social en El senor presidente." Revista Iberoamaricana. 35 (enero-abril 1969), 76. prostitutes also reflects the uselessness of language: — Ilndi-pi, a paj — iYo-pol Pe-pe, ro-po, chu-pu, la-pa ... ! — dQuitin-que? — jNa-pa, la-pal — jNa-pa, la-pal — ... iChu-jul (Asturias, p. 159) Throughout the novel, Asturias employs onomatopoeic devices that serve no purpose except to emphasize the inability of the characters to communicate. The prison walls that sep arate husbands and wives, mothers and sons, and the innocent from their executioners also reflect the total disunion of the society. La mentira is the basis for the entire plot. The story i begins with a lie; the pordioseros tried to say that it was i Pelele who killed Parrales Sonriente, which in fact he did, but the police convinced them that it was Canales and Car- i vajal (Asturias, p. 15). Lies are then strung along throughout the novel making up the plot and reflecting Cara i i t de Angel1 s relationship with the dictator. The culmination ' j is el senor presidente's final lie, which falsely declares that Camilla is his mistress; the lie causes the total 9 i I despair and death of the imprisoned Cara de Angel. I j A partir de ese momento el prisionero empezo a ras- carse como si le comiera el cuerpo que ya no sentia, [ se arano la cara por enjugarse el llanto en donde 187 solo le quedaba la piel lejana y se llevo la raano al pecho sin encontrarse: una telarana de polvo humedo habia caido al suelo ... (p. 284) La confusion results because the characters are unable to communicate with each other. The mendiqos respond like animals. The prostitutes speak in ieriqonza. Don Benjamin and Dona Verjamon play word games. Canales, Camilia, and Cara de Angel are all separated and the dictator has con trol of the press. The estancamiento results because only the dictator and his government can act collectively— indeed, act at all— and his action is dedicated to the de struction of the populace. The dictator himself makes reference to the theme of estancamiento when he credits him- i self with the only real action in the Republic. ... Y es asi como entre nosotros el industrial se pasa ! la vida repite y repite: voy a montar una maquinaria | nueva, voy a esto, voy a lo otro, a lo de mas alia; el j senor agricultor, voy a implantar un cultivo, voy a exporter mis productos; el literato, voy a componer un j libro; el profesor, voy a fundar una escuela; el comer- j ciante, voy a intentar tal o cual negocio, y los perio- j distas — jesos cerdos que a la manteca llaman alma I— ( vamos a mejorar el pais; mas como te decia al princi- pio, nadie hace nada y, naturalmente, soy yo, es el Presidente de la Republics el que lo tiene que hacer todo. (pp. 257-258) The encarcelamiento. then, of both body and mind jemerges as the ultimate symbol of social disintegration. 188 i Prison, torture, and isolation are the constant elements in i the novel. Cara de Angel and Carvajal are literally buried ; alive with the other prisoners. The student and the sacris tan spend the major part of the novel in jail. There exists: an atmosphere of total despair, visible not only in the lives of those imprisoned but also in the lives of those supposedly free individuals who wander the dark streets of the city or take refuge on the steps of "El Portal del Senor.1 1 The Auditor de Guerra presents the grim view of life in the country when he states, "En mi casa, lo que todos debemos saber, hasta el gato, es que no se dan espe- ranzas de ninguna especie a nadie" (p. 2 34) . The cycle is complete then, as Carlos Navarro has summarized, from ena- j jenamiento to encarcelamiento. "sucesivamente en un ciclo 1 I infernal" (Navarro, p. 76). j Like Jose Marmol in Amalia and Martin Luis Guzman in j La sombre del caudillo. Asturias does not devote a great deal of time to specific descriptions or analysis of El Presidente. Of the forty-one chapters in the book, the tyrant appears in only six, Chapters V, VI, XV, XIX, XXXII, XXXV, and XXXVII. His shadow, however, like that of Guz- (man's caudillo. "pesa como una presencia omnisciente y omnipotente ineludible— policla y verdugo— atraves de toda la accidn" (Navas Ruiz, p. 76). Like the bloodthirsty Mayan god Tohil, his priests, in the guise of the secret police, scurry about the city rounding up victims. Asturias introduces the dictator for the first time in Chapter V by giving the reader a clearer picture of the tyrant's need for victims. An elderly male secretary of the President, in his haste to leave the dictator's office after the latter has signed several documents, accidentally knocks over a bottle of ink on the dictator's desk, "iGene ral, que le den doscientos palos a este, ya, ya,!— rugid el Presidente; y paso en seguida a la Casa Presidencial. La comida estaba puesta" (Asturias, p. 36). The fact that Asturias ends the paragraph with the sentence "la comida ya estaba puesta" is significant, for when the general returns to inform the President that the old man "no aguanto los doscientos palos" (p. 35), the dic tator is eating dinner. The naive servant girl who is i serving the dictator his repast runs out of the dining room to ask the general why the old man had not been able to take the 200 blows. i — cdmo por qud? j Por que se muridl Y siempre con el plato [la sirvienta) volvid al comedor. — tSenor— dijo casi llorando al Presidente, que comla tranquilo— , dice que no aguantd porque se murid. — IY que? Traiga lo que sigue. (p. 35) 190 The P r e s i d e n t c o n t in u e d d e v o u r in g h i s e v e n in g m ea l a s h e d e v o u r s v i c t i m s th r o u g h o u t t h e n o v e l . G e n e r a ll y , i t i s th e A u d it o r d e G u erra who s e r v e s t h e g o d h i s v i c t i m s , f o r i t i s h e who f u n c t i o n s a s h ig h p r i e s t in t h e r i t u a l o f f e a r , t e r r o r , an d d e a t h . Asturias adds to the atmosphere of death an almost comical satire visible in the President's character. Shortly after the scene presented above, while the dictator is still eating, his favorito Niguel Cara de Angel arrives and apologizes for being late. He explains that he had to help an injured man on the road. The President responds favorably to this: "Alguien que se precia de ser amigo del Presidente de la Republica no abandona en la calle a un i infeliz herido victima de oculta mano" (p. 36). This is ! indeed true irony, for the person whom Cara de Angel has ; aided is none other than the idiot Pelele, whom the dictator subsequently has hunted down and shot like a mad dog. Dur- | ing this same dinner scene, the general who has tortured the old secretary to death returns to the room and is in structed by the dictator: --Vaya usted mismo, general: presente a la viuda mis condolencias y hrfgale entrege de esos trescientos pesos que le manda el Presidente de la Republic para que se ayude en los gastos de entierro. (p. 36) 191 | , There ia little subtlety intended here by Asturias * In | fact, the very description of the physical appearance of the* i dictator is considered by the critic Navas Ruiz to be an ironic luto for the people he ordered murdered and tortured ; as a daily routine (p. 76). £1 presidente vestla, como siempre, de luto riguroso; negros los zapatos, negro el traje, negra la corbata, negro el sombrero que nunca se quitaba; en los bigotes canos, peinados sobre las comisuras de los labios, disimulaba las enclas sin dientes, tenia los carrillos peliejudos y los parpados como pellizcados. (Asturias, p. 36) What Asturias has done has been to take the real figure of Estrada Cabrera and modify his traits to make of him a universal figure or at least one representative of a Latin I American dictator. The earlier novels of dictatorship, such| as Amalia or El Supremo by the American Edward Lucas White, ! I sought to show how the barbarie of Rosas and el doctor Francia led to chaos in their respective countries. Astu- i j I rias, on the other hand, denounces the type of personalistic dictatorship that replaced the nineteenth-century variety of "the man on horseback." Estrada Cabrera represents personal ownership of a country. Like Samoza, Trujillo, and Batista, he made Guatemala his personal hacienda. El Presidente t makes it quite clear that it is he vrtio does all in the j 192 republic: ... naturalmente, soy yo, es el Presidente de la Re publics el que lo tiene que hacer todo, aunque saiga como el cohetero. Con decir que si no fuera por m£ no existiria la fortuna, ya que hasta de diosa ciega tengo que hacer en la loterla ... (p. 258) The significance of the loteria mentioned by the dic tator in the life of the citizens had already been pointed out early in the novel when General Canales despairs of attempting to proclaim his innocence of the murder of Parrales Sonriente: I La loteria, amigo, la loteria1 iLa loteria, amigo, la loteria1 Esta era la frase-sintesis de aquel pais, como lo pregonaba Tio Fulqencio. un buen senor que vendia billetes de loteria por las calles, catolico fervoroso y cobrador de ajuste. En lugar de Cara de Angel miraba Canales la silueta de esqueleto de Tio Fulqencio. cuyos huesos, mandibulas y dedos parecian sostenidos con alambres nerviosos. Tio Fulqencio apretaba la carters de cuero negro bajo el brazo angu- loso, desarrugaba la cara y, dandose palmaditas en los pantaIones fondilludos, alargaba la quijada para decir con una voz que le salia por las narices y la boca sin dientes: "jAmigo, amigo, la unica ley en egta tierra eg la loteria: pog loteria cae ugt^ en la cagcel, pog loteria lo fugilan, pog loteria lo hagen diputado, diplomatico, pregidente de la Gepublica, general, mi- nigtrol £De que vale el egtudio aqui, si to eg pog loteria? tLoteria, amigo, loteria, compreme, pueg, un numero de la loteria I1 1 Y todo aquel esqueleto nudoso, tronco de vid retorcido, se sacudia de la risa que le iba saliendo de la boca, como lists de loteria toda de numeros premiados. (p. 102) And since it is El Presidente who serves as "la diosa ciega" — j 193 : who chooses the unfortunate winners of the loteria of death,, he is both judge, jury, and prize winner of the whole af- I fair. The country is governed, as Tio Fulgencio says, by "la ley de loteria." In Chapter XXXII Asturias presents a most devastating and critical picture of the dictator as a contrast to his supposed role as "Benemerito de la Patria, Protector de la mujer desvalida, del nino y de la instruccion" (p. 98). Cara de Angel, having been summoned to the President's residence, arrives to find him extremely drunk and proclaiming that "El se ... norrr Presidente, todo lo sabe— Ja! JaI ja! Jal ... " Asturias then describes the dictator's appearance to add emphasis to his mockery of the phrase "todo lo sabe. " J i Y carcajeandole continuo persiguiendo la mosca que iba y venia de un punto a otro, la falda de la camisa al aire, la bragueta abierta, los zapatos sin abrochar, la j boca untada de babas y los ojos de excrecencias color de yema de huevo. (p. 222) | I The last thing El Presidente does as he is carried off to j ! his bed is vomit "un chorro de caldo anaranjado" all over himself and Cara de Angel, symbolizing no doubt the blood thirstiness of the tyrant. The dictator concludes his re gurgitation in a wash basin that has painted at the bottom I |the seal of the Republic. | Asturias 1 criticism reaches almost comical proportions in Chapter XXXVII when the so-called poet electioneering for El Presidente proclaims the greatness of the tyrant in a public bar by claiming that Nietzsche had declared that el superunico was to be born in Latin America and that he had been in the figure of el senor Presidente. Not only this, but the poet declares that el Presidente was in the process of creating a super-democracia: such was the mission of such a superhombre (p. 255) . As this scene is talcing place, Cara de Angel arrives at the President's office to receive instructions on a mission he is to undertake to Washington for the dictator. As Es trada Cabrera had feared in real life, El Presidente states ; ! that he is in danger because “Washington me retira su con- fianza" (p. 258), but he does not actually intend to send Cara de Angel on this mission. It is really one of the j tyrant's last acts of treachery, for he sends another in | Miguel's place while the latter is placed in the dungeon. Cara de Angel thinks that this trip will be his opportunity to escape, for he does not yet understand the meaning of the vision he has while he is still in the President's of fice . it is a vision of a sacrifice being prepared for the | jgod Tohil, a sacrifice of "hombres cazadores de hombre," which in fact is what Cara de Angel is. For years he had , b e e n t h e h u n t e r who h a d g a t h e r e d v i c t i m s f o r E l P r e s i d e n t e . ; Now i t i s h e who i s t o b e s a c r i f i c e d . T o h i l e x i g l a s a c r i f i c i o s h u m a n o s. L as t r i b u s t r a j e r o n a s u p r e s e n c i a l o s m e j o r e s c a z a d o r e s , l o s d e l a c e r b a - ta n a e r e c t a , l o s d e l a s h o n d a s d e p i t a s ie m p r e c a r g a d a s . "Y e s t o s h o m b r e s, t q u e i ; <?cazaran h o m b r e s? " , p r e g u n t o T o h i l . f R e - t u n - t u n l f R e - t u n - t u n . . . , r etu m b o b a j o l a t i e r r a . "jComo t u l o p i d e s — r e s p o n d ie r o n l a s t r i b u s — , c o n t a l q u e n o s d e v u e lv a s e l f u e g o , t u , e l D ador d e F u e g o . y q u e no s e n o s e n f r i e la c a r n e , f r i t u r a d e n u e s t r o s h u e s o s , n i e l a i r e , n i l a s u n a s , n i l a le n g u a , n i e l p e l o ! ic o n t a l q u e n o s e n o s s i g a m u r ie n d o l a v i d a , a u n q u e n o s d e g o lle m o s t o d o s p a r a q u e s i g a v i v i - e n d o l a m u e r te !" " j E s to y c o n t e n t o i " , d i j o T o h i l . t R e - t u n - t u n l j R e - t u n - t u n ! , r etu m b o b a j o l a t i e r r a . " lE s t o y c o n t e n t o ! S o b r e h o m b res c a z a d o r e s d e h om b res p u e d o a s e n t a r m i g o b i e r n o . No h a b r a n i v e r d a d e r a m u e r te n i v e r d a d e r a v i d a . iQ ue s e me b a i l e l a j i c a r a l " (p. 260) T h is i s t h e l a s t c h a p t e r i n w h ic h t h e d i c t a t o r a p p e a r s . The r e s t o f t h e n o v e l d e a l s w i t h t h e im p r is o n m e n t o f C ara d e l r A n g e l, h i s s e p a r a t i o n from h i s w i f e , h i s t o t a l d e s p a i r , a n d 1 h i s u l t i m a t e d e a t h . The n o v e l e n d s i n t h e d a r k n e s s o f t h e i 1 J p r i s o n c e l l w h ere C ara d e A n g e l h a s e v e n l o s t h i s n am e. He b e c o m e s m e r e ly t h e c o r p s e o f " c a la b o z a num ero d i e c i s i e t e , " an d new s o f t h i s l a s t s a c r i f i c e i s s e n t t o E l P r e s i d e n t e . i A s t u r i a s h a s s u c c e e d e d i n c r e a t i n g n o t o n l y a n o v e l o f h i s t o r i c a l v a l u e vriiioh c o u l d h a v e b ecom e m ere p r o p a g a n d a , jb u t a w ork o f u n i v e r s a l a p p e a l and a r t i s t i c r e l e v a n c e . H is brilliance of style and adept use of surrealism and poetic j prose allow him to explore “the innermost recesses and 20 realities of the human mind," while at the same time he presents the realities of a Latin American country caught in the grip of a ruthless tyrant. All of the acts of murder and treachery committed by, or in the name of, el senor Presidente are real and believable. In spite of the nightmare-like quality in vfcich Asturias presents them, they have occurred time and again under some of Latin America's dictators. Yet despite the obvious political commentary, the book is not a diatribe. It is, in the words of Navas Ruis, "una leccidn admirable de como el arte puro, el arte mas exigente puede ir asociado a la actitud mis comprome- ; i i tida, a la postura humana mas apasionada" (p. 72). I I i i 20 j Richard L. Franklin, “Observations on El senor pre- sldente by Miguel Angel Asturias," Hispania. 44 (December 1961), 683. CHAPTER VII EL PUflO DEL AMO BY GERARDO GALLEGOS The Ecuadorian novelist Gerardo Gallegos (1906) is primarily a writer of historical novels. His writings are not limited to the history of Ecuador. Rather, they span both continents of the Americas and focus on the history of the Caribbean area. Gallegos began his writing career as a young man in the capital city of Quito, where he devoted himself to cronicas de viaie and costumbrismo. While still J in his twenties he left his homeland and took up residence ! in the Antilles, spending time in Haiti, the Dominican Re- i public, and Cuba. i It was after he left Ecuador that he began to write i novels, publishing his first significant work, El embrulo de Haiti, in Havana in 1937. This first work is a histori cal novel that has colonial Haiti as a setting. In the words of Gast<Sn Figueira, "es una narraci6n de ambient I 197 afro-antillano, original, intensa, alucinante. Gallegos* second major work, El puno del amo. which is the subject of this chapter, appeared in 1939 and represents one of the foremost attacks on the Venezuelan dictator Juan Vicente Gomez . In 1942 Gallegos published Eladio Segura. ”una deli- ciosa pintura del norte del Peru y la frontera sur ecuato- riana, sus tipicos bandoleros y sus alegres usos populares, todo ello expresado en vivo estilo poetico" (Sanchez, p. 229). The young hero of this novel, Eladio Segura, is one of the few Ecuadorian characters to appear in Gallegos' works. The author seems to have rejected his homeland and become an adopted son of the Antilles. One other novel, however, that developed an Ecuadorian theme was El fraile cue cabalqo en la muerte. which was based on a popular legend of colonial Quito. Gerardo Gallegos' most successful novel appears to have been Beau Dondon conquista el roundo♦ published in Havana in 1943. The work is a combination of historical novel and novela costumbrista whose setting once again is i ^Gaston rigueira in the Appendix to Gerardo Gallegos, El puno del amo (La Habana: Cultura, S. A., 1938), p. 249. 199 1 j colonial Haiti. Beau Dondon, a black Haitian and the son of a slave, is based on the historical figure of Cristofer t 1. In the novel Beau Dondon takes up arms against the imperial French who occupy the island. He later changes sides in the revolt but finally sacrifices himself by turn ing himself over to the English who execute him, thus allow ing the Haitians to defeat the French without the aid of foreign powers. The other characters in the novel, such as General Greene, Father Anselmo, and the voluptuous Jacque line, are superbly described, as is, of course, the figure of the hero Beau Dondon. Another interesting aspect of the book is Gallegos' descriptions of voodoo ceremonies and other folk customs of the Haitians that demonstrate the j artist's fine perceptive abilities. Gallegos' work has been i influential on other Caribbean writings, inspiring El reino ! de este mundo (1949) and El siglo de las luces (1965) by the Cuban Alejo Carpentier, which were also based on the era of \ Henry Cristophe, the hotel keeper turned king (Sanchez, p. 554) . The predominant element in the works of Gallegos, "es el paisaje, en el cual se mueven sus personajes y sin el ,que, la acci6n no podr£a desenvolverse con la facilidad que 200 ! 2 t i e n e e n s u s n o v e l a s . " The s e t t i n g s o f h i s h i s t o r i c a l n o v e l s an d e s p e c i a l l y t h e C a r ib b e a n S e a a r e d e s c r i b e d b y G a ll e g o s w it h t h e v i g o r o f a man who i s a l o v e r o f n a t u r e . i Few w r i t e r s o f t h e C a r ib b e a n a r e a c a n m a tch h i s g i f t e d 3 s t r o k e s i n t h i s r e s p e c t . G a l l e g o s ' o t h e r i n t e r e s t , b e s i d e s t h e la n d s c a p e and t h e f o l k c u s t o m s , t h a t a p p e a r s i n h i s n o v e l s i s t h e s o c i o p o l i t i c a l a tm o s p h e r e o f t h e h i s t o r i c a l s e t t i n g h e d e s c r i b e s . He i s a n a d e p t i n t e r p r e t e r o f t h e i n t r a - h i s t o r i a . t h a t s u b s t r a t u m o f h i s t o r i c a l e v e n t s t h a t t h e S p a n ia r d s Unamuno an d A z o r in w e r e s o s u c c e s s f u l i n d e s c r i b i n g i n t h e i r w o r k s . L i k e w i s e , G a lle g o s i s a b l e t o d e s c r i b e t h e e m o t io n s a n d t h e a t t i t u d e s o f t h e m a s s e s o f p e o p le t h a t p o p u la t e h i s t o r y b u t j i a r e u s u a l l y n o t t h e s u b j e c t s o f h i s t o r i c a l n o v e l s . G a l l e - | g o s ' h e r o e s a r e n o t j u s t t h e n o t o r i o u s c h a r a c t e r s s u c h a s j B eau D ondon o r J u a n V i c e n t e G om ez; h e a l s o p o p u l a t e s h i s w o rk s w it h t h e many r e p r e s e n t a t i v e f i g u r e s o f H a i t i a n , V e n e z u e la n , o r E c u a d o r ia n s o c i e t y who c o n s t i t u t e t h e p e r - I s o n a l i t y o f t h e m a s s e s i n t h e s e r e s p e c t i v e c o u n t r i e s . The i Isaac J. Barrera, Hlstoria de la literature ecuato riana (Quito: Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, 1955), IV, 152. i 3A n g e l p . R o j a s , La n o v e la e c u a t o r i a n a (M e x ic o : F ond o d e C u lt u r a E c o n o m ic a , 1948), p. 190. m any g l i m p s e s o f s t r e e t v e n d o r s , p r i s o n e r s , s h o p k e e p e r s , p e t t y o f f i c i a l s , an d t h e l i k e g i v e t h e r e a d e r an i d e a o f th e ,1 i e n t i r e h i s t o r i c a l p e r io d b e c a u s e i t h a s b e e n a r t f u l l y r e f l e c t e d b y G a ll e g o s i n t h e im age o f t h e s e m in o r c h a r a c t e r s . So i t i s w i t h h i s s o c i o p o l i t i c a l n o v e l E l p u n o d e l am o. i n w h ic h t h e im a g e o f t h e d i c t a t o r J u a n V i c e n t e Gomez i s b e s t r e f l e c t e d i n t h e e y e s o f t h e many u n f o r t u n a t e V e n e z u e la n s vftiom h e t e r r o r i z e d d u r in g t h e m ore th a n t w e n t y - f i v e y e a r s o f h i s r u l e in V e n e z u e la . V e n e z u e la n C a u d illis m o ^ A s h a s a l r e a d y b e e n p o i n t e d o u t , d i c t a t o r s h i p i s e n d e m ic t o a l l o f L a t in A m e r ic a . V e n e z u e la , h o w e v e r , c a n p r o b a b ly b o a s t o f h a v in g h a d som e o f t h e h e m is p h e r e 's m o st i n o t o r i o u s c a u d i l l o s . S i n c e in d e p e n d e n c e i n t h e e a r l y n i n e - ; t e e n t h c e n t u r y w h ic h f o l l o w e d m ore th a n a d e c a d e o f w a r f a r e ,| V e n e z u e la se e m s t o h a v e r e a p e d t h e h a r v e s t o f v i o l e n c e an d d e s p o t i c r u l e . The f i r s t t y r a n t t o e m e r g e a s lo r d o f t h e p l a i n s w a s t h e l l a n e r o J o s d A n t o n io P a e z , who a f t e r g r e a t s e r v i c e i n t h e w a r s o f in d e p e n d e n c e u s e d h i s t r o o p s t o k e e p h i m s e l f in p ow er from 1830 t o 1848. A n o th e r d i c t a t o r , A n t o n io Guzman B la n c o , e m e r g e d i n t h e e a r l y 1870' s and j ip u r s u e d l i b e r a l p o l i t i c s t h a t i n c lu d e d s h a r p c o n t r o l o f t h e 202 ; I Church, the fostering of Venezuelan nationalism, and gov- j ernmental organization. Unfortunately, his egoism and I opportunism resulted in civil war and the emergence of an other dictator, General Joaquin Crespo, in 1892. A totally corrupt ruler who possessed none of the brilliance of his predecessor, Crespo was succeeded seven years later by Cipriano Castro, who perfected the art of treachery and despotism initiated by his mentor. Castro was the first of several national military rulers to emerge in the state of Tachira in the Andean region of the country. The second Andean dictator, a man who earned the ungracious title of "Tyrant of the Andes,” was of course Juan Vicente Gomez, who took advantage of Castro's illness and visit to Europe j in 1908 to take over control of the country. Gomez ruled ! i with absolute tyrannical control until 1935 when he died of ! I old age. In more recent times Venezuela again has felt the | ! scourge of dictatorship and militarism vfcen in 1948 the I military overthrew the constitutional president Romulo Gallegos. A military triumvirate ruled Venezuela for two i years until 1950, when Colonel Marcos P&rez Jimenez emerged las the military dictator of the country. His decade as I dictator resulted in a few short years of prosperity for 2 03 ] 1 Venezuela but ended in the customary chaos for the country. | "Perez Jimenez profited enormously from his presidency and i in his penchant for grandiose construction schemes squan- i dered huge sums while social and economic difficulties 4 mounted." His rule ended in the almost traditional popu lar uprising that had toppled dictators in the past. A coalition of students and younger military men led to the establishment of the reasonably representative government of Romulo Betancourt, who labored tirelessly to overcome the problems he inherited from Perez Jimenez. Since Betan court's election in 1958 Venezuela has experienced a rela tively calm evolution toward a more representative govern ment and economic prosperity. In Venezuela's many periods of dictatorial rule no | period stands out as much as the reign of terror and vio- j lence under Juan Vicente Gomez. His twenty-seven years of j I absolute rule from 1908-1935 have been surpassed in Latin I America in duration only by the thirty-one years of Mexico'sj Porfirio Diaz and the Dominican Republic's Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. In terms of his despotism and absolute rule he i 4 John D. Martz, "Venezuela," in Political Forces in Latin America, ed. Burnett and Johnson, p. 204. 204 ; h a s b e e n e q u a l l e d b y a few o t h e r L a t in A m e rica n d i c t a t o r s , p e r h a p s P o r f i r i o D ia z o f M e x ic o an d M achado o f C u ba, b u t t p r o b a b ly n o t s u r p a s s e d b y a n y . The d i c t a t o r s h i p o f J u a n V in c e n t e Gomez i n V e n e z u e la i s u n iq u e i n m odern t i m e s . T h e r e i s no p a r a l l e l f o r i t . I t i s u n iq u e n o t o n l y f o r i t s many y e a r s ' d u r a t i o n b u t a l s o f o r i t s p e r f e c t i o n , i t s s m o o th n e s s o f o p e r a t i o n , i t s r u t h l e s s n e s s , a n d , a b o v e a l l , i t s s t e a l t h . I t w as c a r r i e d o n s o q u i e t l y , t h a t , i n t h e s e t im e s o f r a d i o an d a i r t r a v e l an d m o tio n p i c t u r e s , s c a r c e l y a n y o n e o u t s i d e o f V e n e z u e la knew o f i t s e x i s t e n c e . I t w as s o p e r f e c t t h a t n o t h in g b u t d e a t h a v a i l e d a g a i n s t i t — n a t u r a l d e a t h , d e a t h from o l d a g e — an d e v e n d e a t h w o u ld h a v e b e e n d e f e a t e d i f Gomez h a d h a d an y lu c k i n t h e s o n s h i s women b o r e h im .^ Gomez r e m a in e d i n pow er f o r t w e n t y - s e v e n y e a r s b y f o r c e o f arm s an d b y m a in t a i n i n g t e r r o r i n t h e la n d . H is s u b j e c t s w e r e i n s t i l l e d w i t h a b l i n d an d a lm o s t s u p e r n a t u r a l f e a r . | i L ik e t h e r e c e n t d i c t a t o r i a l c o n t r o l o f P apa D oc D u v a lie r i n ■ H a i t i , GcSmez w as c o n s i d e r e d a b r u j o b y many o f h i s s u b j e c t s . 1 i H is w i t c h - d o c t o r - l i k e c o n t r o l o f t h e c o u n t r y in s u r e d t h a t h e w o u ld l i v e t o o l d a g e . J u s t a s i n t h e c a s e o f Papa D o c , t h e t e r r o r an d f e a r h e i n s p i r e d in h i s s u b j e c t s made h im immune t o v i o l e n t d e a t h ; t h u s , l i k e t h e H a i t i a n d o c t o r , h e s im p ly d i e d w hen h i s b o d y w o re o u t . ^Thomas Rourke, Gomez. Tyrant of the Andes (New York: William Morrow and Co., 1936), pp. xiv-xv. 205 1 It is difficult to accurately describe the historical | period of the Gomez dictatorship. For one thing, during the twenty-seven years of his rule in Venezuela, "there was i I not one line of free unsubsidized opinion set up in type andj i preserved in public archives nor indeed one work of free opinion uttered in public" (Rourke, p. xiii). Occasionally some naive newspaperman might attempt to express some honest opinion but he would be immediately silenced by being sent to prison or liquidated. After Gomez died in 1935, the flood of material published by the many returning exiles and the liberated Venezuelan press so exaggerated the diabolical qualities of the tyrant that the image of the real man was once again distorted. As is the case with most significant j Latin American dictators, the true caudillo must be found somewhere in between the creations of his enemies on the one! I I hand and those of his friends on the other . As one Vene- i I zuelan once put it, "There never lived and there never will live a man so cruel as G<Smez was" (Rourke, p. xiv) . Juan Vicente Gomez, like his predecessor Cipriano Castro, was a vacruero from the state of Tachira. He had i been born in 1857, the illegitimate son of a Spanish immi- , grant and an illiterate women. His mother eventually mar ried a poor farmer by the name of Pedro Cornelio G6mez who 206 ; ! gave Juan Vicente his family name. The stepfather died vftieh Juan was only fourteen and the young boy assumed the re sponsibilities of providing for the nine other children of the family. He was successful in managing the small farm his stepfather had left and at the same time succeeded in teaching himself how to read and write. He became an avid student of national affairs, and when cipriano Castro became involved in a regional uprising in the vicinity, Gdmez threw in his lot with the insurgent. He became Castro's most successful guerrilla leader, leading the andino warriors from one victory to another. After the Castro revolt was successful Gomez was awarded the first governorship of the federal district, then the ! Vice-Presidency in 1904. When Castro's ill health caused ! j him to travel to Europe for surgery in 1908, Gomez succeeded! I in stacking the Congress so that he would replace Castro in J the elections of 1910. Through his native cunning and his willingness to use violence, he remained in power until he died of old age in 1935. Gdmez w as a v e r y c o m p le x m an. H is p e r s o n a l i t y w as s u c h t h a t a n a c c u r a t e d e s c r i p t i o n o f t h e man i s q u i t e d i f f i c u l t ,t o p r e s e n t in r e t r o s p e c t . E dw in L ie u w in , h o w e v e r , i n h i s i b o o k V e n e z u e la , su m m a r iz e s b r i e f l y som e o f t h e c o m p l e x i t i e s of the "Tyrant of the Andes ." Gomez w as a m ix t u r e o f t h e tw o r a c e s , t h e I n d ia n an d t h e S p a n i s h , t h a t g a v e t h e n a t i o n i t s m e s t i z o b l e n d . S i m i l a r l y h i s r e l i g i o u s b e l i e f s c o m b in e d S p a n is h C a t h o l i c i s m w i t h p r i m i t i v e I n d ia n s u p e r s t i t i o n . The v i c i s s i t u d e s o f h i s y o u th c o n v in c e d h im o f t h e u s e f u l n e s s o f s h r e w d n e s s , f o r c e , an d c u n n in g i n t h e a t t a i n m e n t o f p ow er a n d w e a l t h . He w as an u n ca n n y ju d g e o f m en . He r e w a r d e d t h e l o y a l , b u t p u r s u e d and p u n is h e d t h o s e whom h e d i s t r u s t e d . H is r e l a t i o n s w it h women w e r e e p h e m e r a l. He f a t h e r e d m ore th a n a h u n d r e d c h i l d r e n an d p r o v id e d f o r a l l o f th e m , b u t h e n e v e r m a r r ie d . He l i v e d q u i e t l y , a l o n e , i n m o d e s t s u r r o u n d in g s i n M a r a c a y . A b s o l u t e p ow er an d u n l i m i t e d w e a lt h w e r e h i s c h i e f a im s an d v a l u e s . 6 The t e c h n iq u e d e v e lo p e d b y Gomez f o r k e e p in g h i m s e l f in p ow er p r e d a t e s som e o f t h e p o l i t i c a l m e th o d o lo g y o f t h e t o t a l i t a r i a n s t a t e s t h a t w e r e d e v e lo p e d in E u r o p e . F o r e x a m p le , b y s u s p e n d in g a l l o r g a n i z e d p o l i t i c a l a c t i v i t y h e ! s u c c e e d e d i n c r e a t i n g a r u b b e r sta m p c o n g r e s s an d j u d i c i a l i s y s t e m . He r e o r g a n i z e d a n d m o d e r n iz e d t h e arm y s o s u c c e s s - i f u l l y t h a t h e e l i m i n a t e d t h e t h r e a t o f a n y im prom ptu r e v o l t s . H is t r o o p s w e r e t r a i n e d b y C h ile a n o f f i c e r s , who i n t u r n h a d b e e n t r a i n e d i n G erm any. W ith h i s p r o f e s s i o n a l arm y, w h o se o f f i c e r s w e re p a i d h an d som e s a l a r i e s , h e w as a b l e t o c o n t r o l o r t o t a l l y e l i m i n a t e r e g i o n a l c a u d i l l o a . ® (O x fo r d : O x fo r d U n i v e r s i t y P r e s s , 1961), p p . 45-46. in addition to prohibiting political parties, elimi- i nating freedom of the press, and creating a professional army, Gomez subverted any possible opposition in the society by implementing a vast spy system that included paid in formers from every walk of life. His secret agents could be found in the army, in foreign embassies, among the clergy, and on the streets. It was almost impossible for any in dividual in the society who opposed the regime, whether physically or only verbally, to remain free. "In three major prisons— La Rotunda in Caracas, El Libertador in Puerto Cabello, and San Carlos on a small island at the entrance of Lake Maracaibo— the opponents of the regime were, i clamped into leg irons and subjected to tortures" (Lieuwen, ! | i p. 47). Thousands of Gomez's political prisoners died of i thirst, starvation, and disease. Many others were used in t the extensive road building projects that insured the army'sj I I easy access to most regions of the country. Gomez also began to develop a technique initiated by Porfirio Diaz and later developed by such dictators as Samoza and Batista, that of opening up the country to for- i eign investors. The Royal Dutch Shell Company was the first to tap into Venezuelan oil supplies and was followed after the end of World War I by United States companies. The 209 I l a r g e in co m e p r o d u c e d b y t h e o i l i n t e r e s t a l lo w e d Gomez t o ! m ove t h e c o u n t r y i n t o a f a v o r a b l e e c o n o m ic p o s i t i o n , a s w ell^ I I as to enrich himself and his close followers. Except for those directly employed by the foreign oil companies, how ever, most Venezuelans did not gain a great deal. "The living standards were miserably low; there was no government housing; health and education were neglected in spite of the opulence of the state; agriculture and industry were pros trate" (Lieuwen, p. 49). The true Gomez ideology, again similar to that of Porfirio Diaz of Mexico, held that the Indian and the mestizo were incapable of handling any other type of government except a "benevolent" military dictator ship. GcSmez's insurance of law and order, he felt, was the i i ! only curb on anarchy and communism. j D e s p i t e a l l o f t h e t y r a n t ' s c o n t r o l , h i s u s e o f t e r r o r ,! i violence, and torture, he was not entirely able to silence | opposition. Inspired by the Mexican and Russian revolu- ! tions, a number of students, intellectuals, and exiles con tinued the struggle for democracy and social justice. Their attempts, however, were poorly organized and unable to com pete with the dictator's efficient structure. During 1924 and 1931 Gdmez succeeded in crushing several invasion at tempts and student revolts and remained master of the 210 ; situation until his death in 1935 at the age of seventy- ! nine. E^un^de^aiw Gerardo Gallegos does not call his book a novel; others have given it this classification. He calls it in stead "simples fotografias en movimiento sucesivo que pro- ducen en la retina la ilusion de vida" (El puno del amo. p. 7). The life of which Gallegos speaks is, of course, that of Juan Vicente Gomez who, for twenty-seven years, was el amo of Venezuela. The manner in which Gallegos gives life to these "fotografias en movimiento” is indeed exceptional. In a style similar to that of John Dos Passos, who interwove newspaper stories, newscasts, and songs to give atmosphere ■ to his political novels, Gallegos creates Venezuela under the "Tyrant of the Andes." He is also successful in cap turing the dictator at his vulnerable moments, such as in j j the scene in the beginning of the book where Gdmez is having! ( ( dinner with his grandchildren, or at the moment when he is ordering the torture of a political prisoner. In this way 'Gallegos succeeds in re-creating the man who was Venezuela. Gallegos is totally aware of the inaccuracy surrounding {the life of the dictator. In the prologue of his book he " 211 | indicates that "a Juan Vicente Gomez entre sus amigos y sus j enemigos le han disfigurado la cara" (p. 7). What Gallegos | attempts, then, is to reject the image of those friends of the dictator who sought for him the Nobel Prize in 1933 as well as to reject the image of the man created by the vic tims of his tyranny. Possibly because he is an Ecuadorian with no political axe to grind, Gallegos has been successful in his portrayal. Even though the work is based on historical data— the murder of Gomez's brother Juancho in 192 3 and the student uprisings of 1928— it is more than mere reporting. Gallegos adds color, dialogue, and depth to his narration in such a fine balance that the critics are truly justified in calling] i the book a novel, for it contains all the elements of crea- 1 i tive writing while at the same time representing accurately : t the period in history that the author describes. i The work is divided into four parts. The first is j I called "El pdrtico" and gives us a glimpse of the dictator at home with his family as well as describing the awesome police state that is Venezuela in that year of 192 3. The next section, "Juancho Gomez," is the narration of the mur der of the dictator's brother and the subsequent reprisals. i ]The third section, "Forzados," describes the conditions in 212 | i t the prisons of the country and the state of the many politi-j cal prisoners who were their major inhabitants. The last { i part, entitled "La rebelion de los estudiantes," is the description of the 1928 student uprisings in the country | and of the students who were the victims of the dictator's wrath when he squelched the feeble demonstrations. Despite the fact that history is the basis of the book, Gallegos advises the reader not to look for documentation, but to accept the work as an interpretation "que su autor pudo personalmente apreciar": Seria inutil que el lector buscara en este libro exactitud de datos, nombres y fechas. Para documen- tarse en esta forma precisa ir a desempolvar archivos. En cambio, encontrara aqui una veridica interpretacion de la dramatica realidad venezolana cuando la dictadura del general Juan Vicente Gomez. (p. 9) , j The most interesting view of the dictator that appears I i in the first section of the book occurs in the scene where Gdmez is having his evening meal with his grandchildren. Gomez, in real life, actually sired over 100 children and i provided for them and his grandchildren even though he never married. In this particular scene, Gallegos demonstrates i the true nature of the man, the sudden change from tender- ;ness to terror for which he was well known. His favorite grandchild of the many he had, Juanchito Ignacio, is teasing 213 ; the dictator while they are having dinner, "Papa, yo quiero j pedirte una cosa ... una cosita ... Pero yo quiero que me | I digas antes que s£." The dictator plays along with the child, gamefully guessing at what it could be. "No sabes abuelito ... no sabesI" Finally the grandfather gives in and the child asks for the favor that the entire nation has been asking for for months: "La libertad de los estudian tes" (p. 17). The grandfather's tender expression changes to that of the "Tyrant of the Andes." To this request, to this challenge to his authority, he responds by turning to one of his daughters and saying in anger, "Llevate afuera ese chico1 . . . Y que no vuelva presentarse nunca mas delante de mi" (p. 18). The child is banished from his presence and loses forever the favor of his grandfather. What Gallegos has done is to show the nature of this ! man who craved absolute power and authority, this man who | j granted favor in an instant, who granted pardons, who com muted sentences, not when justice warranted it but when it i I was his whim to do so. His authority was never questioned. Those who attempted to were banished to the prisons of the I country and forgotten, just as his favorite grandson had Ibeen banished from his home. i t j In the second section of the book, entitled "Juancho 214 G6mez,'' Gallegos gives a terrifying portrayal of the insane terror that followed the murder of the dictator's brother. What others have described historically, Gallegos presents as a nightmare. The historian Thomas Rourke described the event as follows: . . . one morning in July, 1923, the dead body of Juancho G&nez, the Vice-President of the republic and the brother of the President, was found in his bed in the presidential palace in Caracas, Miraflores . There were twenty-seven stab wounds in his heart, liver and stomach. The storm broke then, the calm had been too good to last. The sleepy eyes of the brujo flashed wide, show ing for an instant their deadly wrath. The lightning struck everywhere— swiftly, but without thunder. It struck in dead silence. The screams of the tortured victims were muffled behind the thick walls of the prisons. Into prison everyone, all the old offenders, Gonza lez, Bello, all the hundreds of them, and new hundreds as well, anyone who looked suspicious or smelled sus picious, anyone who had a brother or a father or a cousin who looked suspicious. The Libertador opened its reeking cells, the Rotunda yawned wide and swal lowed. Confessions. Confessions were wanted. The Well- Deserving wanted confessions. Julio Hidalgo, the Governor of Caracas, Rafael Maria Velasco, the Prefect of Police, and Pedro Garcia, the chief of La Rotunda, three men well-suited to getting confessions, went about their jobs. Their favorite instruments were put to good use— the tortol, the cepo and the verga. All of the palace guards and the servants of Miraflores were put to the torture. Many of them were never heard of again. Four women servants were hung by their breasts. They got confessions all right, plenty of them. They got confessions from people who had never heard of Juan cho G6mez before. (p. 199) 215 ; i G a l l e g o s , in h i s f a s h i o n , d e s c r i b e s t h e p l i g h t o f o n e , o f t h o s e u n f o r t u n a t e i n d i v i d u a l s c a u g h t up in t h e w eb o f , t e r r o r an d v i o l e n c e t h a t f o l lo w e d t h e m u r d e r . E l C a p ita n L eon w as t h e c a p t a i n o f t h e g u a r d i n t h e p a l a c e o f M ir a - j f l o r e s on t h e n i g h t o f t h e m u r d e r . He h a d s e r v e d t h e d i c t a t o r f o r many y e a r s and h a d b e e n g i v e n t h i s p o s i t i o n o f im p o r ta n c e b e c a u s e o f h i s l o y a l t y . Y e t , a lt h o u g h h e w as i n n o c e n t o f a n y c o n n e c t i o n w it h t h e m u r d e r , h e h a d t o f l e e . He w as h u n te d down a l l o v e r t h e c i t y w h i l e h i s w i f e a t t h e sam e t im e b ecam e t h e m i s t r e s s o f t h e p o l i c e c h i e f . He w as f i n a l l y c a p t u r e d an d im p r is o n e d in La R o tu n d a , w h er e a f t e r w e ek s i n t h e p i t c h b l a c k c e l l an d a f t e r t h e c o r p s e o f t h e p r i s o n e r who h ad b e e n c h a in e d t o h im b e g a n t o r o t , h e j i w e a k e n e d . ! Leon se tapa las narices, pero la asquerosa fetidez j le penetra por la boca, por los o£dos, por todos los poros del cuerpo. No puede alejarle ni un metro de | distancia de su lado. A cualquier rincdn del calabozo que quisiera huir tendria que arrastrar consigo el cadaver. (Gallegos, p. 101) C a p t a in L eon c o n f e s s e s t o a c r im e h e d i d n o t c o m m it. H is o n l y c r im e w as t h a t o f k n o w in g who h a d c o m m itte d t h e i m u r d e r , b u t h e d a r e d n o t t e l l , f o r t h e m u r d e re r o f J u a n ch o G 6m ez, b r o t h e r o f t h e d i c t a t o r , h a d b e e n t h e d i c t a t o r ’ s own s o n V i c e n t i c o . L e6n i s k i l l e d a n d t h e s e c r e t i s b u r ie d with him, for even though the dictator had known from the very beginning who the murderer was, he persecuted the en- ! i tire republic to vent his wrath rather than condemn his own son. Rourke tells us that in real life too, "G<5mez knew that Vicentico was guilty of the crime; however, he must have confessions to cover up the name of his son" (p. 2 0 0). The most the dictator was able to do to his son, after the discovery of the murder plot, was to send him into exile in Europe accompanied by his wife and family and sufficient money with which to live regally. Yet he had maimed and tortured numerous individuals who he knew from the start were innocent of the crime, thus demonstrating the complex nature of the man who, unable to punish his own son, pun- | i ished numerous innocent individuals for a crime he knew theyl | had not committed. \ I The next section of the book, called "Forzados," de- j scribes the fate of the political prisoners during the tyrant's reign. Just as G<Smez had filled his three infamous prisons of La Rotunda, El Castillo Libertado, and La Isla ;San Carlos with the unfortunate citizens of Venezuela, I Gallegos fills them in the pages of his book. The torture, the starvation, and misery that existed in real life in these institutions is more than accurately depicted in the 217 : novel. J One of the sub-plots that is developed in this section ; is based on the actual invasion attempt of the country by the exiled General Ramon Delgado Chalbaud in the winter of 1929. The movement, which originated in Paris, was poorly coordinated and easily crushed by Gomez' extremely efficient army. In the novel it is Adolfo Louis, a Frenchman, who after his escape from Devil's island Prison in French Gui ana leads the unsuccessful revolt from within the prison walls. As in real life, the treachery of the Venezuelans themselves, who had sold out to the tyrant by becoming his spies, was the reason for the failure of the revolt. After the plot is discovered the prison officials allow the in- j i mates to continue their plan. But instead of permitting j them to be supplied with weapons as had been arranged, the ! i prisoners are led to empty rifles. They are slaughtered in 1 ! I the patio of the prison as they wave their useless guns at the guards. In what Gallegos considers typical fashion, the leader of the revolt, Adolfo Louis, ends up by finding favor with i the unpredictable dictator. "Cuando Adolfo abandond la casa (del jefe de Venezuela llevaba en el bolsillo el nombramiento \ (de jefe-inspector de caporales destinado a una de las 218 : mejores haciendas de Gomez en el estado de Zulia" (Gallegos, p. 176) . The last section of the book, Which is called "La re- belibn de los estudientes, ' * is probably the most significant. In fact, Gallegos begins by stating that "ni los motinea, las insurrecciones y las invasiones de los caudillos rivales tinen la significacion de este hecho. La rebelion de los estudiantes sacudio a Venezuela por sus bases. Conmovib a la America" (p. 183). In addition to the newspaper account that Gallegos presents and the factual data, he also tells a very human story of how the sixteen-year-old student of the Liceo, Pancho Cubliar, led his schoolmates to the prison of La Rotunda to offer themselves as prisoners until the j s "companero de clases," Carlos Narvares, should be released | from prison. The young Narvares had been in prison for t giving a speech on the celebration of Simon Bolivar's birth-i j 1 day. And even though the speech had not caused the demon stration that followed, it had at least taken place at the same time. His young friends are accepted as prisoners but he is not released, nor are they for the next three years. When Pancho Cubllar and his schoolmates present them- jselves to the jailers, he utters what Gallegos considers the most significant statement to be pronounced during the entire dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gomez: j — lAoul estamosl— le dice Pancho Cuellar. Esa sola j frase en los labios de un muchacho de diecis^is anos, es intraducible a grandilocuentes discursos. "jAgui estamos I" En esa sombria y tragica dictadura de treinta anos, bajo la ferrea mano de Juan Vicente G6mez, no se dijo en Venezuela una frase de un conte- nido mas sincero y mas profundo. (p. 233) After three years of prison, after torture, forced work in the road camps, starvation, and death for many, the stu dents are released. Released because Pancho Cuellar's sis ter reminds the dictator of Isabel, the young Colombian girl he had loved in his youth but was forbidden to marry by her parents. Cuellar's sister asks the dictator to free her brother and because of the tyrant's youthful memory he does i so in an unpredictable gesture that also sets free all of j l 1 the other students. Historically, on December 31, 1921 i i Gdmez s e t f r e e a l l o f t h e p o l i t i c a l p r i s o n e r s who w e re e n - ! tom bed in E l L ib e r t a d o r , La R o tu n d a , an d San C a r l o s . The s t o r y g o e s t h a t h i s s i s t e r R e g in a h a d i n f l u e n c e d h im b e c a u s e o f a p r o m is e s h e h a d made t o t h e v i r g i n Mary d u r in g o n e o f j i i Gamez's illnesses. Whatever the reason for his action, it was a typically unpredictable gesture by a man who was never fully understood. * The novel ends with the return of the student Pancho " 220 Cuellar to the open arms of his mother, but she greets another person. It is not the young boy whom she saw leave , I her home three years ago: " ... tuvo la impresion de que su hijo lo habian cambiado. Volvio otro. Salio un nino para la Rotunda y a los tres anos regresaba viejo. Viejo de expranza y de ideales como si tuviera setenta anos." And indeed Pancho Cuellar had lost his youthful illusions, his dreams of justice and fair play, for in his three years of prison he had learned the realities of his country and indeed the realities of life. — iTu crees, madre — le dijo— , que a Venezuela le hace falta esto para ser "grande'*, "libre" y poderosa? Despu^s de una pausa sigui6 diciendo: — Sin embargo en las carreteras y en los calabozos de los penales he descubierto que los enemigos de G&nez no son mej ores \ que ^1. Intrigantes, ambiciosos, falsos patriotas y traidores. dPara qu£ luchar? ipara qu£ sacrificarse? La libertad y la democracia resultan a la postre pala- bras vaclas de sentido ante la realidad. (pp. 246-247) | < Gallegos concludes on a very pessimistic note. He seesj I little hope for Venezuela, at least in that generation. Thej i tyrant has succeeded again. He has crushed his opposition with violence, terror, fear, and by understanding the human greed of the citizenry. In the prisons of the country he had given the young students a very powerful lesson, a les- json "que las habia quebrado en bus raices la voluntad idealista sonadora emperendedora y romantica ... Juan Vi cente GkSmez habia asesinado el alma de una generacion" (p. 247). Venezuela, during the reign of terror and fear that constituted the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gomez, indeed found itself in El puno del amo. Just as Porfirio Diaz's "cientifiacos" had corrupted Comte's positivist philosophy with which to rule over Mexico, GcSmez's intellectuals, namely Loureano vallenialla Lanz and Pedro Manuel Arcaya, fashioned what they termed "cesarismo democratico," which was the justification for Gomez's despotic control of the country. These two men sought to give their new philosophy a scientific basis, asserting that sociologically and psy chologically it could be proven that the Venezuelan people needed the iron hand of a dictator.7 i In many respects it was fortunate for Venezuela that Juan Vicente G&nez "was not a glutton, a drunkard, or an international nuisance, nor even an impostor, or charlatan" (Rippy, "The Dictators of Venezuela,” p. 422), as many Latin American dictators have been. The justification for 1 7 J. Fred Rippy, "The Dictators of Venezuela,” in South American Dictators. p. 423. 222 despotism, however, presented by the court philosophers seems to be no more than the justification for their own continued well-being, for Gdmez paid his supporters well. And in spite of the fact that GcSmez cared little for pomp and ceremony or even for the personal luxuries that more sensuous dictators have craved, he also cared little for "the rights of man" and for human dignity. His insatiable thirst for power, albeit a type of extreme paternalistic power, led him to squeeze all vestiges of hope and idealism out of the soul of his subjects. This perhaps is what Gerardo Gallegos has attempted to demonstrate in his novel of the country caught in El puno del amo. i i J CHAPTER VIII LA LLAGA BY GABRIEL CASACCIA In the words of Arturo Torres-Rioseco, ”El Paraguay ha sido, desde el punto de vista de la literatura, uno de los parses mas improductivos de America." 1 This point of view is supported by many other critics of Latin American litera ture. Indeed, even such Paraguayan writers as Josefina Pla have stated that the scarcity of Paraguayan letters results from "la fijacion en el pasado, con su consecuencia el con- servadurismo narcisista, los constantes recelos de orden 2 I politico, los prejuicios sociles y religiosos." During the! i entire nineteenth century, there was not a single Paraguayan! writer who achieved international acclaim, or indeed even obtained a prominent literary position in the Spanish- 1Quoted in Roque Vallejo, La literatura paraguava (Asuncion, Paraguay: Editorial Don Basco, 1966), p. 9. 2"Situaci6n de la culture paraguaya en 1965," Cuader- nos. 100 (setiembre 1965), 151. 223 224 3 speaking world. The reason for Paraguay's lamentable j position in literature even in this day is probably the most, j graphic example of What a century or more of dictatorship can do to a nation. i From its very beginnings as a nation, Paraguay's his tory is nothing more than the story of tyranny and suppres sion. It was born as a nation in the iron grip of Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia, who from 1814 to 1840 ruled with more absolute power in the country than even the Spanish Kings had had. One of Paraguay's leading literary historians, H ugo R o d r i g u e z - A lc a l a , i n r e f e r r i n g t o P a r a g u a y 's e a r l y c u l t u r a l d e p r i v a t i o n u n d er E l D o c to r F r a n c ia , s t a t e s t h a t 4 "enmudecio hasta la guitarra." Another Paraguayan scholar,j I Efraim Cardozo, in his extensive work on Paraguayan history,, p a i n t s a v e r y b l e a k p i c t u r e o f t h e c o u n t r y u n d er F r a n c ia : j ! j ... Cred Francia un estado totalitario, guizas el pri- mero del mundo en el sentido moderno de la palabra, y se abandonaron los planes culturales, hasta el punto de suprimirse el unico establecimiento de ensenanza superior legado por la Colonia: el seminario. El Paraguay que hasta entonces habia irradiado doctrines, j 3Efraim Cardozo, Introduction to Roque Vallejo, La literatura paraguava. p. 1 0. I 4La literatura paraguava (Buenos Aires: Centro Edi torial de Amdrioa Latina, 1968), p. 12. hombres y bienes hacia todos los ambitos de America* rornpid toda comunicacion con el mundo exterior. Co me nz o el fabuloso enclaustramiento que iba a durar todo lo que duro la vida del doctor Francia artifice ' unico del notable experimento ... After twenty-six years, Francia was succeeded by two other dictators who perpetuated the atmosphere of total darkness and cultural emptiness. The first, Carlos Antonio Lopez (1844-1862), was not an altogether bad ruler, though he continued to govern with absolute power as had Francia. He did accomplish much in the organization of the country. His one big mistake, however, was to leave Paraguay in the hands of his son, Francisco Solano Ldpez (1862-1870). Under the younger Ldpez, Paraguay was plunged into a war from which she has never recovered. From 1865 to 1870, Solano J Lopez engaged the country in the War of the Triple Alliance I in which Paraguay fought the combined armies of Argentina, i i Brazil, and Uruguay. Paraguay, as expected, lost the war, j i and in so doing lost an estimated one-half of its popula tion.6 Had it not been for the fact that Solano Lopez was 5Apuntes da historial cultural del Paraguay (Asuncion, Paraguay: Imprenta Modelo, 1959), II, 235. ^Fredric Hicks, "Interpersonal Relations and Caudillis- roo in Paraguay," Journal of Inter-American Studies and World Affairs. 13 (January 1971), 90. 226 ! i i killed in battle in 187G, the results of the war might have j been even more disastrous. Solano Lopez, "Un gobernante avido de glorias y presti- 7 I gios para su patria y su persona," had failed to heed the i words of his dying father when he had handed over the reins of government to him: "Hay muchas cuestiones pendientes a ventilarse, pero no trate de resolverlas con la espada, sino con la pluma ... " (Cardozo, p. 8 6). But the younger Ldpez did just the opposite. His fanatical engagement in the war was a disastrous blow to the country's political evolution, for it resulted in foreign intervention and as a consequence the country was "opened up to hordes of adventurers and speculators of diverse nationalities who poured in to take j i advantage for personal gain of the disorganized conditions ! ( and the corruption which soon prevailed" (Hicks, p. 91). ! It was under these conditions that Paraguay passed into the twentieth century, a victim of foreign economic control which resulted in a nonfunctional national polity and a cultural vacuum unequaled in South America. During this century, Paraguay engaged in another international war, La 7 Efraim Cardozo, Breve historia del Paraguay (Buenos Aires: Eudeba Editorial Universitaria, 1965), p. 8 6. 227 I Guerra del Chaco, fought against Bolivia from 1932 to 1935. Once again, the human and natural resources of Paraguay were severely taxed and cultural development was hindered. The ensuing years of the nation’s development have been charac terized by militarism and the typical political struggles between liberals and conservatives, with the conservatives — ironically called Los Colorados— winning out in most cases. In 1954 General Alfredo Stroessner seized control of the presidency and has held it ever since. "Stroessner has proved to be more skillful, more durable and more powerful than his predecessors" (Burnett and Johnson, p. 377). In 1958 he was re-elected by 98 per cent of the vote which was insured, of course, by his skillful use of the armed forces under a system of patronage. Thus far, he has survived guerrilla invasions and internal uprisings and gives every indication of continuing in office for some time to come. It is not difficult to see how such a country as Para- ; guay, "enclaustrada" in its early days as a nation cut off from cultural exchange with the rest of Latin America by a fanatical dictator, got off to an extremely shaky beginning.' i Habian sido arruinadas las principales familias, fusi- j lados los prdceres, apalastada la tflite intelectual del pais. Sin clase dirigente, sin instituciones de culture, los templos y las escuelas amenazando ruina, el Paraguay en 1840, tras veintis^is anos de tirania, despertaba, 228 1 I como Segismundo en su prision ... (Rodriguez-Aleala, , p. 12) I And what followed, the disastrous Guerra de la Triple Alli- anza, left the country "reducida al final de esta a dosci- entos mil habitantes en su mayoria mujeres ninos, ancianos, y invalidos" (Rodriguez-Alcala, p. 15). In the opinion of Rodriguez-Aleala, it has taken the country 100 years to recover from the effects of that war, 100 years "para re- cuperar sus energias y poder al final ofrecer a America escritores de primer rango en el continents' * (p. 15). Josefina Pla in her article on "La cultura Paraguaya" agrees with her countryman Rodriguez-Aleala that Paraguay's political history has had a disastrous effect on the arts i n . ' i i that country. It has resulted in j ... la ausencia de instituciones culturales de orienta- I ci6n organica y caracterizadas en continuidad; el en- j claustramiento, ciertamente atenuado en los ultimos [ anos, pero aun operante psicologicamente. La falta de > tradicion, asi, no hace sino alargar su huella est^ril 1 en esta trayectoria sin nombres. (Pla, "Situacion de la cultura," p. 151) So culturally deprived has the country been that Luis Alberto Sanchez, when he published his Historia de la lite ratura amaricana in 1937, referred only briefly to three iParaguayan authors: Juan E. O'Leary, Juan Stefanich, and 229 Natalicio Gonzalez, none of vftiich stands out in Latin American letters, indeed, they are seldom included in any anthologies of Latin American literature. Sanchez refers to "La incognita paraguaya" in his brief mention of the country's literary contributions. It is not until the 1950's with the success of Gabriel Casaccia (1907- ) and Augusto Roa Bastos (1917- ) that "la literatura de Para guay deja de ser 'incognita' y se incorpora a la del conti- nente como la noche a la manana, atrayendo sobre el Paraguay la atencion de la critica internacional" (Rodriguez-Alcala, p. 45) . But even the success of these two Paraguayan writers has had some negative effects on Paraguayan culture, for they both write from exile. Casaccia's latest book, Los , exilados (1966), "completes the picture portrayed in other novels— that of the Paraguayans who have either fled tyran- g nical governments or were banished by them.” Both Casaccia; and Roa Bastos, then, serve as prime examples of what a history of tyranny and suppression have done to a country. r It is indeed an indictment of the nation's political past i I ®Thomas E. Case, "Paraguay in the Novela of Gabriel , Casaccia," Journal of Inter-American Studies and World Affairs. 12 (January 1970), 81. 2 30 \ that her two most famous novelists of the twentieth century ; should be obliged to publish their works in exile. It is to^ be hoped that their success may have some effects on the cultural and political evolution of their homeland. The Author and His Works Gabriel Casaccia is the pen name of Benigno Casaccia Bibolini, who was born in the Paraguayan capital city of Asuncion in 1907. He holds a doctoral degree from the Facultad de Derecho of the National University. Since 1935 he has lived in exilef spending most of his time in Argen tina. His first novel, Hombres muieres v fantoches. was published in Buenos Aires in 1930. Like most of his later works, it is a curious blend of psychology and political science. The love affairs of the young protagonist Jorge Lazarra that take place in the late 1920's are intertwined I with Casaccia's political commentary, which "contends that Paraguay has remained in the backwater of political and cultural development held there by reactionary governments { i and by the church" (Case, p. 81). { I In 1939, Casaccia published his second novel, Mario Pareda. This work, like its predecessor, deals with a young man’s search for a meaning in life. It is not a highly political novel; rather, its plot results from what Thomas E. Case calls "the protagonist's agony in life . . . Mario's failure to find an acceptable political ideology" (p. 77) . The hero has been disillusioned by communism and becomes progressively more pitiable as he witnesses Paraguay's lamentable situation in the late 1930's after the Chaco war. The pessimism that Casaccia gives to this novel is a re flection of his own spiritual crisis which in effect is a result of the national crisis of that time. In 1952, Casaccia published his most celebrated book to date, La babosa. It is a sordid tale of small-town gossip and scandal, much resembling Galdos' Dona Perfects. In the words of the Paraguayan critic Roque Vallejo, "Ga- i briel Casaccia dio con La babosa aparentemente el tiro de I gracia a una sociodad tradicionalista y inconsecunte ..." | I (p. 44). Enrique Anderson Imbert feels that with this novel, "Paraguay contribuyd por primera vez a la novelistica continental y llam6 la atenci6n aun a pueblos de otras lenguas. g ; Historia de la literatura hispanoamerlcana. 3d ed. (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Economica, 1961), II, 261. 232 Once again, Casaccia's direct political commentary is minimal. Instead, he paints a realistic picture of the society of a small resort town near the capital of Asuncion. Though the gossip and meddling of the middle-aged soltera dona Angela Guiterrez is the unifying thread of the novel, the deep psychological probing into the lives of several of the other characters, such as a young lawyer, an elderly widow, and a Spanish priest, is obviously more significant. Although Casaccia seems to be painting a realistic cuadro of Paraguayan life, he is essentially presenting a moralis tic view of modern Paraguay. "Aregua's society, meant to be a microcosm of Paraguay, is materially and morally bankrupt” (Case, p. 77) . The country, as the author sees it, is politically, economically, and morally corrupt. Paraguay continues in a semibarbarous state, lacking any promise of improvement, its backwardness is epitomized in the novel by its corrupt politicians and degenerate middle class. The state of the nation is symbolized by the babas stream ing from the mouth of dona Angela. ^illaga Between La babosa and Casaccia'a next novel, La llaqa (1964), there was an interval of eleven years. This period served to heighten the author's pessimistic view of Para- I guayan society. In addition, Casaccia seems to have reached^ full maturity as a writer with this work, which won for him first prize in the Kraft series, "La novela en america." La 1laga is not, in reality, a political novel; it is a novel of national character that attempts to demonstrate how the Paraguayan citizenry is itself to blame for its inept political system and its disastrous socioeconomic conditions. Much of what the Spaniard Azorin termed as abulia is present in the novel— that is, the inaction and estancamiento of most of the population. The plot of the novel deals with an abortive attempt to overthrow the fictional Paraguayan dictator, General Raimundo Alsina. Gilberto Torres, a mediocre artist who ! has visions of being sent on a diplomatic mission to Paris j I after the success of the revolution, hides the revolutionary leader Colonel Matias Balbuena in his home. Torres is also in the midst of a love affair with the attractive middle- aged widow Constancia. It is this clandestine affair that proves disastrous to the intended revolution, for Constan- i cia's teenage son, suffering from a quite pronounced Oedipus |complex, informs the dictator’s henchmen of the vfoereabouts j ■of Colonel Balbuena. The colonel is able to escape but Torres is arrested and severely beaten until he reveals all i he knows about the revolutionary plot. In fact, he even I exaggerates the information he gives, hoping that the police; will go easy on him. Through the political contacts of his i mistress Constancia, who has as much pity for Torres* wife and children as she does for her lover, the young artist is set free and sent into exile in Argentina. The plot to overthrow the dictator is crushed, the participants are arrested, and the country continues in its state of marasmo. One very interesting aspect of the novel is Casaccia's very "able handling of the psychological description of his characters" (Case, p. 78). The conflict between Constancia and her son, Atilio, constitutes a significant part of the i story. Atilio is tortured by his mother's promiscuity, at the same time that he longs for the touch of her body. In i the mornings after she has left the house, he goes into her j I bedroom so that he may lie in her bed taking in all the [ I fragrance of her body that still lingers there. He is also > ! fond of bathing himself in mud, which in the opinion of one critic "is the morbid obsession with self-destruction” i i (Case, p . 80). Atilio is indeed obsessed with the idea of suicide. His father, several years before, had killed himself in a 235 easa de cita without having left any indication as to why he had done so. Atilio is tormented by the fact that he does not know why his father took his own life. He is also tortured by the fact that his mother does not seem to care why her husband committed this act. When Atilio finally discovers that his mother is involved in a love affair with Torres, he denounces him out of revenge and takes his own life. His suicide was partially the result of the remorse for his action after seeing the torture his mother's lover was subjected to, but mainly it resulted from his inability to cope with his Oedipus complex and the lingering thoughts of his father's suicide. The other characters in the novel are equally inter esting. Constancia, for example, represents the older established generation that is concerned merely with its own pleasures. The care of her body is a fixation with her. "El cuidado y la atencion de su cutis y su persona consti- i tuia algo as! como un rito." Her own sexual fixation makes her as guilty of incestuous thoughts as her son. "Le producia un placer voluptuoso verse y que la viesen ( 1 i ^Gabriel Casaccia, La llaga (Buenos Aires: Editorial Guillermo Kraft, 1963), p. 29. 236 l semidesnuda aun cuando el que la contemplase fuera Atilio, entreviendo en su mirada indignada una oculta admiracion" (Casaccia, p. 29) . After the suicide of her husband, she concerned herself with only one thing, the satisfaction of her sexual needs. She was even willing to pay Torres in gratitude for their relationship. Her only fear in life was not that the young artist would lose his life in the revolutionary effort, but that she would lose him as a lover. Torres' wife, Rosalia, is also an interesting charac ter, though she is not studied in depth. Except for the raising of five unwanted children, her life has come almost to a standstill. Disowned by her family, disfigured by overwork, her state of depression and stagnation seems to be a symbol of what Casaccia recognized in the entire Para guayan population under the dictatorship. The author's presentation of Rosalia's thoughts in the early morning hours is a superb expression of his own pessimism: ... Mird el reloj . "Las seis" — exclamo— . "Ya es hora de preparar le desayuno. Tengo que mandar a com- prar pan. Hoy vendra la lechera con la cuenta. Tengo que ir tambidn a lo de Casiana a buscar dulce para los chicos." Cansada, lanzd un suspiro. Apenas comenzaba la manana, no habia dado un paso aun, y ya estaba fati- gada coroo si estuviera al final del dia. 0y6 llorar al mas pequeno de sus hijos, y un escalofrid le recorrid el cuerpo. Sintid como si ese 1lanto fuera el aviso que le anunciaba que empezaba otro dia igual a tantos otros, remachados entre si como eslabones de una ca- dena atada a su vida. (p. 89) Rosalia’s husband, the young artist Gilberto Torres, is the character on which the plot is based. He is not as fully developed, however, as are Constancia and her son Atilio. Torres, nevertheless, is the figure that brings all the other characters together. He offers concealment to the revolution-bent Colonel Balbuena; he is unfaithful and in considerate of his wife, Rosalia; he takes money from Con stancia in return for sex; and finally he is turned in to the police because of Atilio's Oedipistic jealousy. Torres' weakness is that he is a dreamer. Casaccia t seems to personify in Torres the irrationality of the Para- I guayans' existence. His participation in the revolutionary j l conspiracy is done more out of a youthful dream he had had j i of studying art in Paris. He feels his reward will be a j diplomatic mission to that Olympus of the artist. It is j I not until he is arrested and tortured that he wakes up to the realities of Paraguayan life. "Lo terrible de estos gobiernos sin ley es que le quiten hasta esa felicidad pe- quena, simple, mediocre, de todos los dias" (p. 50). The political commentary encountered in the novel is t jalso considerable in spite of the fact that it seems to be 238 [ 6 s e c o n d a r y t o t h e p s y c h o l o g i c a l a s p e c t s . As p r e v i o u s l y ; i stated, the novel is one that portrays "national character.” The very title, La llaga— the wound, the sore, the ulcer— is: evidence of Casaccia*s intention of portraying the national ; neurosis or mental sickness that makes possible the politi cal phenomenon of a totalitarian state in the 1960'sj and although the dictator never actually appears in the novel, Casaccia gives us all of the details of his rise to power and his tenure in office. Considering the historical setting of the novel and Casaccia*s exile from Paraguay, there is every indication that the tyrant is supposed to be the current Paraguayan dictator, Alfredo Stroessner. This is merely a theory, . i h o w e v e r , s i n c e i t i s o b v io u s t h a t C a s a c c ia * s i n t e n t i o n w as j I not so much that of attacking a dictator as it was of show- ' I ing how the sickness of the national character has permittedj the rise of such tyrants. In s u p p o r t o f t h i s c o n t e n t i o n , i t s h o u ld b e n o t e d t h a t t h e h e a l t h i e s t c h a r a c t e r in t h e n o v e l se em s t o b e C o lo n e l M a tia s B a lb u e n a , t h e m i l i t a r y l e a d e r o f t h e r e v o l u t i o n a r y i conspiracy who has secretly returned from exile in an at tempt to overthrow the dictator. The fact that Balbuena i escapes at the end of the novel when the revolutionary plot 2 39 ' I ; I is crushed seems to be an indication that Casaccia envisions) I him as the next dictator who will succeed in his quest for i power then the timing is right. Balbuena's view of the pro posed revolution at the beginning of the novel is essen- ; tially pragmatic. His methods for the handling of future problems are a good indication that he is perfectly suited for becoming the next dictator. — Yo nunca le tuve confianza al coronel Salcedo. Desde Clorinda le escribi al doctor Osuna para que se cuidase de el y no lo pusiera al corriente de los planes princi- pales ni le diera los nombres de los comprometidos. Pero estos politicos son unos estupidos para hacer revolu- ciones. Lo unico que les preocupa es distribuirse por anticipado los cargos. — Permanecio un rato pensativo, y luego exclamo con un relampagueo de ira en los ojos— : Si el coronel Salcedo nos traiciona hay que matarlo para que sirva de escarmiento a los futuros traidores. (p. 175) Essentially what Casaccia has done is present in the figure of Balbuena the image of the future dictator while at* the same time indicating what his rule will be like by de scribing the current police state of General Raimundo Al- sina. In other words, the dictator presented in La llaqa is really a combination of Colonel Balbuena and General Alsina— the before, the during, and the after of the crea tion of a tyrant. Casaccia presents a very concise de- i scription of the relationship between Colonel Balbuena and 240 ! I the dictator, a description that could serve as a model of many such military dictatorships throughout Latin America. The vicious cycle of militaristic politics is quite evident in Casaccia's presentation. Constancia quiso quedarse para conocer al famoso coro nel Matias Balbuena, el mas temible y encarnizado ene- migo del general Raimundo Alsina, quien desde hacia diez anos, arbitrariamente y con mano de hierro, gober- naba el pais, acompanado por un grupo de militares obsecuentes. A ese grupo habia pertenecido el coronel Balbuena, el cual, desde el cargo del ministro de Defensa, durante tres anos sirvio incondicionalmente al general Alsina. Pero el coronel Balbuena a su vez durante este tiempo se habia ido rodeando de unos cuantos subordina- dos y amigotes que le llenaban la cabeza de humo y lo adulaban, por lo cual el general Alsina se ingenio con astucia y malas artes para sacarlo sorpresivamente del ministerio. Y luego lo alejo del pais designandolo agregado militar a la embajada en Roma; pero al ano suprimio ese cargo, por economia en el momento en que se le adeudaban al coronel seis meses de sueldo. El coronel Balbuena paso en Roma las penas del purgatorio, y antes de embarcarse de vuelta en un buque mixto por falta de dinero, dirigio al general Alsina una carta violenta e insultante. Al arribar a Buenos Aires supo | que el general Alsina habia ordenado se le prendiera en cuanto pusiese los pies en el puerto de Asuncion. j No le quedo entonces otra salida que permanecer en Buenos Aires a la espera de la caida del dictador. Hacia cinco anos que vivia en esa ciudad, conspirando sin descanso, poseido por un sentimiento en que se mezclaba el rencor con unas ansias furiosas de retornar a su pais. Y cuanto mas pasaba el tiempo tanto mas crecian y enconabanse su odio contra el general Alsina y sus anhelos de vengarse contra "ese cobarde que me ha traisionado miserablemente": eran sus propias palabras. (p. 70) It is obvious that Balbuena and Alsina are figures I I _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 241 made from the same mold. Both are military men, both par ticipated in the Chaco War, and both use force, fear, and violence to achieve their ends, which in this specific situation are political ends. Furthermore, their minds work in the same way. Colonel Balbuena makes this quite clear when he analyzes the reasons for the dictator's successful continuance in power. — El general Alsina es un animal, y como buen animal huele el peligro a distancia. En la guerra del Chaco, su instinto le advertia por anticipado de una batalla para que ella lo encontrase en un servicio de reta- guardia, o con permiso. Ahora, ese mismo instinto le sirve para sostenerse y no caer — dijo furioso el coro nel Balbuena— . En estos relevos y cambios en el mando de algunas unidades se descubre su temor y se mano co- barde. (p. 55) I The reason Balbuena understands Alsina so well is that j he is just like him. Everything about them is the same. They are both forceful, greedy, unscrupulous, and egotisti- 1 i i cal. They both possess that necessary element of machismo | i to make them caudillos. That is why, as in so many similar i occurrences in Latin American history, a dictator like ! t General Raimundo Alsina is toppled from power by another caudillo with characteristics almost identical to his own. In La llaga, the attempted coup fails but Balbuena is able I jto flee to Argentina to “seguir conspirando.” There is no I 242 ” 1 I doubt that he will try again. | The reasons why the revolutionary plot fails, aside i from the fact that Atilio informs the police as to the whereabouts of Colonel Balbuena, are typically Latin Ameri- : can. Arguments begin among the conspirators even before any fighting can begin as to who will be the new president. No discussion of ideology or social programs ever takes place. It seems to be a simple matter of overthrowing a president by revolution because in the Paraguayan political structure that is how elections are held. Throughout the book, ref erences are often made to many other successful and unsuc cessful revolutions in the previous decades. Perhaps a better word than "revolution" would be "coup," since true ■ political and social reforms are never really intended and because there is an absence of true revolutionary ideology. i The participants in the revolt act for purely personalistic | goals. Frederick Hicks, in his article "Interpersonal Rela tionships and Caudillismo in Paraguay," points out that to ! a large extent Paraguayan politics "are based on the estab- [ lishment of ties of mutual loyalty and obligation on a I person to person basis" (p. 96). [ In La llaoa a larger number of personal ties seem to i jbe with the dictator than with Balbuena. At the last 243 ,moment some of the key military figures in the conspiracy decide not to participate. One general absconds with the 40,000 pesos he had been paid to turn over his division to the revolutionaries . Casaccia summarizes in one paragraph the difficulties Balbuena has in organizing an uninspired revolt and how the dictator Alsina responds to the threat of a coup: Desde su llegada a Aregua habian transcurrido ya nueve dias f y la revolucion se iba postergando de un dia para otro. A ultimo momento, la defeccion de un militar comprometido o un cambio inesperado de guardia obligaba a un cambio en los planes. No pudiendo el general Alsina descubrir a los cabecillas del movimiento subversivo ni atinar de donde partiria este, ganaba tiempo y lo des- gastaba con relevos y traslados de militares de cuya lealtad dudaba, y prendiendo a politicos sospechosos. Para el coronel Balbuena el tiempo estaba en contra de la insurreccion y a favor del general Alsina. (p. 60) General Alsina*s control of the country has been in sured by his adept creation of a police state. His hench men, given the uniforms of policemen, have been "reclutados entre antiguos delincuentes y otros deshechos sociales" (p. 60). As Porfirio Diaz had done with his Bravi, Alsina recruited his police force from the roving bands of bandits ithat infested the country. With such a merciless force of i policemen, immune to any civil laws themselves, Alsina has created an atmosphere not unlike the one encountered in 244 Orwell's 1984. casaccia1s description of the departamento 1 I de investigacion indicates the extent of the dictator's con-, trol of Paraguayan society. | Ese movimiento de visitantes y peticionantes, ese ir y | venir de empleados con expedientes daban la impresion de ser el Departamento de Investigaciones una de las tantas oficinas administrativas, tranquilas y burocra- ticas, y nadie hubiera podido imaginarse que en esa pacifica oficina residia toda la fuerza tenebrosa y omnipotente del general Raimundo Alsina; que en ella descansaba y se apoyaba un regimen que dominaba el pais desde hacia diez anos; y que, a traves de ella, como si fuese un poderoso radar, se registraba el movimiento mas insignificante de los habitantes del pais y el suceso mas minusculo e innocuo al parecer. Nadie daba un paso, nadie hablaba, nadie pensaba sin que de imme- diato lo enfocase y analizase aquel ojo invisible e implacable que como el de Dios atravesaba muros y lle- gaba a los rincones mas ocultor y lejanos. (p. 151) The scenes in which the artist Torres is being torturedj i also reveal the thoroughness of Alsina's police. Romualdo 1 Caceres, Jefe de Investigacion, is a sadistic ex-boxer who | I I is described quite graphically by Casaccia. He embodies thej i qualities of intelligence and ruthlessness that are essen- ' i tial in a good chief-of-police in a police state. Caceres1 entire political ideology or reason for supporting the dic tatorship is summed up in Casaccia's description of his one main interest in life, his automobile: "Le era dificil a jCrfceres explicar la sensacidn extrana de goce y plentitud i due le henchia el corozdn al guiar ese Cadillac de marcha 245 I I docil y mulelle" (p. 157). i After Caceres succeeds in frustrating the conspiracy, the dictator's propaganda machine comes into action. What was a feeble and unorganized conspiracy by a handful of , exiles and a few citizens was termed a full-scale revolution by all of the government-controlled newspapers, and this included all of the Paraguayan press. The headlines told of a massive revolt that "la policfa, con una eficiencia y celeridad que la coloca entre las mejores del mundo, ha descubierta y desbaratado ... " {p. 156). The stories go on to tell how the enemies of the "progressive and patri otic" government of General Alsina, assisted by "communist elements," were seeking to overthrow the "liberal and demo- | cratic" institutions of the country. A large quantity of ■ armaments and revolutionary pamphlets were supposed to have ] 1 been encountered in the home of that "known communist" | Gilberto Torres, who had concealed in his home Colonel ! i I Natlas Balbuena, the leader of the conspiracy. The truth, j of course, was that the only thing taken from Torres' home were two of his paintings that the police stole. The propa ganda machinery concludes by stating on the radio that "cada una de estas conspiracions nos atrasan cincuente anos" (p. 1167), thus intimating that the backwardness of the nation was due to the conspirators, not to the present regime. Just as Caseres controls his docile Cadillac, the dic tator controls the lives and minds of the populace through his police force and his propaganda machinery. Casaccia leads one to believe that Paraguayan society is trapped in the dead sea of its own creation. The entire novel is a symbol of "Paraguay's miserable existence and of a genera tion which has grown up in resentment, undisciplined in its attitudes and goals" (Case, p. 81). This is obvious when one analyzes the reaction of the major characters to the revolutionary conspiracy. Gilberto Torres participates in the plot mainly in an effort to succeed at something since he has failed both as a husband and as an artist. His wife, Rosalia, has no faith at all in the adventure. She is a purely pessimistic figure, perhaps echoing the author's feelings vdien she states, "Nosotros no tenemos suerte. Somos unos fracacados. La desgracia y la mala fortuna se nos ha pegado para siempre" (Casaccia, p. 46). Constancia's reaction to this proposed revolution is naive and unrealistic. Her own sexual drives do not permit her to view anything with any clarity or realism. She jspeaks of the revolution as one would speak of an impending i spring shower. In response to her son's inquiry as to a : ' .. ' ' 247 ] : i i > loan she has made to her lover, she responds, "ademas, Torres esta seguro del exito de la revolucion y entonces no ; i j s6lo me devolvera el dinero que le prest^ eino que podra i llenarse el brazo de relojes como ese que tiene ahora" (p. j i 104). The young Atilio perhaps best embodies the sterility and emptiness of Paraguayan society. As a representative of the younger generation he should possess the romantic revo lutionary spirit that one attributes to this generation. Instead he is retrogressive, subconsciously longing to re turn to his mother's womb. He is, in modern terms, "hung up" on death, sexuality, and total disillusionment. He is I not able to recover from his father's suicide or his moth- J er's promiscuity. In answer to his mother's insistence that! i he do something about his bad teeth, he responds symboli- j cally; "Es un dolor distinto. Pero no te preocupes que en cuanto se me caigan todos los dientes ya no sufrir^ mas. Es cuestidn de aguantar y esperar" (p. 26). His stoicism combined with his disillusionment have given him a totally negative outlook on life. He represents i the total apathy of the country. At the moment he is making ja telephone call to the police to inform them as to the vdiereabouts of Colonel Balbuena, he recalls that he had 248 taken his wrist watch to the jewelers over a year ago for repairs. In other words, time had had no meaning for him. Also at this crucial moment, when he is shattering the plans of the revolutionaries, he realizes that he has not had his shoes shined in more than a year. Such subtle hinting by Casaccia as to the stagnation of the society is constant throughout the novel. Atilio seems to personify the abulia of the society. When Atilio kills himself at the end of the novel, Casaccia seems to be indicating that Paraguay's future is still very bleak. Colonel Balbuena, who is supposed to be the leader of the revolutionary conspiracy and seems to be the logical successor to the dictator Alsina, represents Casaccia's pessimism toward Paraguay's political future. Balbuena is the prototype of Paraguay's militaristic leadership. His participation in the conspiracy is purely personalistic. He| I seeks to overthrow the dictator, not because the latter has abridged all civil liberties and suppressed democracy, but | i because he holds a personal grudge against the dictator who has forced him to live in exile away from the coffers. His entire ideology is summarized in his declaration to Torres, j"Hace cinco anos que estoy conspirando y siempre sin resul- I tado. iHe puesto tantas ilusiones en este golpel si fracasa tendre que volver a esa asquerosa pension de Buenos j Aires ..." (p. 71). i 'The future is indeed bleak for Paraguay. Colonel Bal- buena will eventually triumph. This man of limited intel- | ligence and totally devoid of social consciousness, who has no more right to call himself a revolutionary than does the dictator Alsina, will eventually become the next dictator. He will do so almost on his own with little support of the masses; with a handful of followers he will topple the dic tator when enough of the tyrant's generals sell out or some of his key supporters, such as El Jefe de Investigaci6n, desire a larger share of the booty under a new leader. In the meantime, the masses— and this includes all the coun- , 1 try's social classes— will continue in their state of marasmo. oblivious, except for a few individuals, of the 1 I political maneuverings . j I Gabriel Casaccia, in the words of Rodriguez-Alcala, ; i "Es un moralista cuyo mensaje se formula por un lado, a trav^s de un exhaustive estudio de paaiones y, por otro, en virtud de una iluminacidn critica de las condiciones socio- I economicas ... que condena" (p. 48). His view of Paraguayan jsociety, its decadence, its political realities, and its i I precarious future, is all the more believable because Casaccia presents it in the figures of several very believ- ! able characters . Except for his first novel, Hombres. muieres v fan- toches. Casaccia's view of Paraguay is a very pessimistic i one; "happiness is an illusion, an almost nonexistent ob ject and there is a noticeable lack of humor" (Case, p. 83) . He explores the very center of the country's llaga in an effort to isolate the disease, but he concludes that the infection has spread throughout the body. There seems to be no cure except perhaps a new beginning. This may be possible, for in the novel Gilberto Torres, after suffering torture and pain, regains the love of his wife and is al lowed to flee the country into Argentina. Perhaps Casac- j ( cia's own exile is an indication that only some external i force can cure the country. Indeed, the Paraguayan Josefina| I Pla, writing of La llaga. concludes that "nos hacen falta muchos novela como esta, descarnadas, acusadoras, revulsi- .,11 vas ." i i i li,’ Gabriel Casaccia; La llaga." Cuadernoa. 99 (agosto 11965), 94. CHAPTER IX LA FIESTA DEL REY ACAB BY ENRIQUE IAFOURCADE At age forty-three and still in the prime of his years, Enrique Lafourcade (1927), after publishing eight novels and several volumes of short stories, appears to be one of Chile's most important novelists of this present generation. For the last nine years Lafourcade has lived in Europe and the united States where he has taught at several universi ties, among them the University of Utah, the University of Illinois, and Columbia university. His absence from Chile has caused some of his countrymen, among them Manuel Rojas, j to criticize his works for their lack of Chilean themes . ! Indeed, Rojas has gone so far as to state, "Lafourcade tiene tanta pasta cono cualquiera y si dignara fijarse mas en los chilenos, entre los cuales se ha formado, y olvidar un poco a los personajes internacionales, su obra alcanzaria la base que parece haber perdido." What Rojas objects to, and perhaps erroneously so, is that Lafourcade has diminished as a writer because he has rejected Chilean themes. The truth is that Lafourcade is j being recognized today precisely because of his universal appeal. Too often the Latin-American writer has clung too tenaciously to regionalistic themes and lost sight of the universe. In Lafourcade, however, this is not the case. His last two novels, Invencidn a dos voces and Prondmbres personales. "retratan en forma destiadada virtudes y vicios 2 de la condicion humana en los Estados Unidos." Contrary to Manuel Rojas' opinion, these works are noteworthy because i they demonstrate Lafourcade's find understanding of human j y i psychology. j Another of Lafourcade's novels that attempts to portray' i a human condition rather than a Chilean theme is El Principe] v las oveias (I960), which has as a setting La Cdte d'Azure in France and Italy. In Para sublr aI clelo (1959) Lafour cade "demuestra haber adquirido del existencialismo francos i ^Manual de literatura chllena (Mexico: Universidad Autdnoma de Mdxico, 1964), p. 132. ^Nancy Santibanez, "Entrevista con Enrique Lafourcade," Imaaen. 80 (setiembre 1970), 34. 253 ] e italiano una predileccion marcada por la paradoja de J 3 Indole social y filosofica." This interest also manifests i i itself in a very interesting book called La muier ciberne- tica (1963), which has the United States as a setting. In 1956 Lafourcade published a short novel Asedio and a very interesting short story entitled "La muerte del poeta" which deals with the last hours of the controversial Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro. Perhaps his most acclaimed book to date has been Pena de muerte, which appeared in 1952 . The theme of the novel is a bit unusual for a Latin American writer, but not an uncommon theme in twentieth-century literature. It deals with the psychological disintegration of a homosexual art ist. The greying gentleman Aurelio de Arze is not in the I least repugnant. Rather, he is a tragic individual Whose : relationships are genuinely platonic, "En el fondo un ser desequilibrado y dolorido; hambriento, sobre todo, de un 4 p o c o d e f r a t e r n i d a d ." W ith d e l i c a t e a r t i s t r y L a fo u r c a d e ^Fernando Alegria, Las fronteras del realisroo (Santiago de Chile: Editorial Zig Zag, 1962), p. 129. ^ R au l S i l v a C a s t r o , H i s t o r i a c r i t i c a d e l a n o v e la c h l l e n a (1843-1956) (M ad rid : C u ltu r a H i s p i n i c a , 1960), p . 400. " ' " 254 ; ] unties "Los nudos pasionales" and develops them into a themej of universal desperation (Alegria, p. 128). The artist Aurelio is condemned to "la pena de muerte" because of his impossible position in the real world and his inability to escape from it. This novel* as do many of his others, demonstrates Lafourcade‘s predilection for unusual themes, but themes that are in essence universal. The problems or conflicts that he presents are not Chilean, nor are they American or French; they are broader in scope; they reflect basic human conflict. One can overlook the criticism of Manuel Rojas, who feels that Lafourcade is not Chilean enough, for Rojas is the product of another generation. There is no doubt ‘ I that Rojas, in his works such as Hombres del sur (1926) and i ~ ” ” I Hiio de ladron (1956), speaks forcefully as a Chilean, even | though he was born in Buenos Aires of Chilean parents. i "Desde el punto de vista psicologico y emotivo, en la re- , i accion human, hasta en las apariencias fisicas nadie hay tan chileno como Manuel Rojas" (Silva Castro, p. 319); thgs his severe criticism of an ex-patriot like Lafourcade. Enrique Lafourcade is a member of the Chilean genera tion of the 1950's and in the opinion of the critic Nancy I jSantibanez, is recognized as "El representante mayor de la 255 igeneracion" (p. 34). This group, which also includes Jose Donoso, Enrique Lihn, Jorje Edwards, Armando Cassigoli, and Pablo Garcia, emerged in the early fifties "en una actitud renovadora agresive, experimental, modificando la tradicion lite±aria chilena" (p. 34). In contrast to Manuel Rojas' evaluation, the critic Hernan Poblete varas, representing a more modern point of view, recognizes Lafourcade as one of the most able writers of his generation. In view of his international success, obvious in the number of translations of his works, Poblete Varas1 evaluation of the novelist is perhaps the more accu rate . ... Creador dotado de potente imaginacion, Lafourcade es a la vez uno de los escritores con mas oficio de nuestra literatura actuante. Posee una riqueza esti- llstica envidiable, una capacidad de inventiva pocas veces superada, si alguna, entre las gentes de su tiempo, y un don de simpatla literaria que hace de la lectura de sus libros un verdadero y libre goce. El cuidado del estilo, la dindmica de su prosa, la abun- dancia y libertad metafdrica son algunas de sus cuali- j dades mas sobresalientes. Pocas veces se ha escrito en Chile con una prosa tan agil y brillante, pocas veces se ha imaginado— se ha inventado— con tanta auda- cia y libertad, pocos libros como los de dl logran apresar al lector y obligarlo grataroente a la tarea de j leer sin descanso ni peaadumbre.® I 5 * » "Novelistas de hoy," in Cien anos de novela chilena. Homenaje de la Universidad de Concepcidn al Sesquicentenario de la Independencia de Chile (Concepcidn, Chile: Ediciones ■ - - - - - - - - - ■ -- - 2 5 6 1 i The Novel and the Dictator One of Lafourcade's most powerful works is La fiesta i del rev Acab (1959), which has as a theme the dictatorship i o f R a f a e l L e o n id a s T r u j i l l o , who r u l e d in t h e D o m in ic a n R e p u b lic from 1930 t o 1961, w hen h e w as s l a i n b y an a s s a s s i n ' s b u l l e t . O nce a g a in L a fo u r c a d e p r e f e r s a b r o a d e r th em e th a n a u n iq u e ly C h ile a n o n e . In f a c t , i t m ig h t b e s a i d t h a t d i c t a t o r s h i p , w h ic h i s e n d e m ic t o m o st o f L a t in A m e r ic a , e s p e c i a l l y in t h e t w e n t i e t h c e n t u r y , h a s h a r d l y b e e n p r e s e n t in C h il e i n t h i s c e n t u r y . W ith t h e e x c e p t i o n o f p e r h a p s a fe w e a r l y r e g i m e s , C h il e h a s e n j o y e d a f a i r l y s t a b l e dem o c r a t i c p o l i t i c a l s y s t e m . L a f o u r c a d e , i n c h o o s in g t h e d i c t a t o r s h i p o f T r u j i l l o a s t h e th em e f o r h i s b i z a r r e com m en- j ! t a r y o n s o c i a l i n j u s t i c e , i s o b v i o u s l y c o n c e r n e d w it h th e p r o b le m s o f L a t in A m e r ic a in g e n e r a l , n o t w i t h j u s t t h o s e 1 of one island nation. In "Hispanoamerica" he states, “ha vivido la violencia, la inseguridad la explotaci6n, la in- justicia" (Santibanez, p. 35). All of these are themes of La fiesta del rev Acab and in this respect reflect many of ; the sociopolitical problems that Chile too has had to face. i To fully understand Lafourcade*s novel, one must Revista Atenea, 1961), p. 180. u n d e r s ta n d t h e T r u j i l l o d i c t a t o r s h i p . T h is i s n o e a s y t a s k , | s i n c e t h e T r u j i l l o d i c t a t o r s h i p h a s b e e n t h e s o u r c e o f a I i g r e a t d e a l o f c o n t r o v e r s y among p o l i t i c a l s c i e n t i s t s and h i s t o r i a n s , b o th in L a t in A m e rica an d in t h e U n ite d S t a t e s . : On t h e o n e h a n d T r u j i l l o h a s b e e n c o n s i d e r e d a r e p r e s e n t a t i v e o f t h e o l d s t y l e d i c t a t o r s h i p : "he r e l i e d on h i m s e l f a l o n e — on h i s g u n s , h i s p o w e r , h i s c a p a b i l i t i e s . And t h e y w e r e s u c h t h a t h i s aw ed s u b j e c t s cam e t o lo o k upon T r u j i l l o a s a s o r t o f su p e r-h u m a n f o r c e . " 6 O th e r s o c i a l s c i e n t i s t s f e e l t h a t T r u j i l l o w as t h e f i r s t o f t h e m odern t o t a l i t a r i a n d i c t a t o r s t o em e rg e i n L a t in A m e r ic a .7 P o s s i b l y t h e b e s t i n t e r p r e t a t i o n o f t h e T r u j i l l o d i c t a t o r s h i p i s t h a t p r e s e n t e d b y Howard J . W ia r d a : D i c t a t o r s h i p s s u c h a s T r u j i l l o ' s a p p e a r t o b e p r o d u c t s j o f t h e t r a n s i t i o n from t r a d i t i o n t o m o d e r n it y . T h ey te n d t o a p p e a r a t a tim e o f b rea k d o w n i n t h e o l d o r d e r ; and a t a tim e w hen no new o r d e r h a s b e e n f i r m l y | 6Arturo R. Espaillat, Trujillo: The Last Caesar (Chi cago : Henry Regnery Co., 196 3), p. x . 7Szulc, p. 22. Szulc believes, for example, that the dictators who were in power in the 1940's "evolved more ^streamlined systems of oppression, borrowing freely and Often with gruesome effects, from such European sources of inspiration as Germany’s National Socialism, Italy's Fas cism, and Portugal's Corporativism." Trujillo was among [this group of dictators Who led the way for the evolution iof the totalitarian state in Latin America. , implanted. They emerge in a legitimacy vacuum when the traditional ways are no longer relevant, appropri ate, or fully acceptable, and in systems characterized by the absence of well-established institutional struc tures. The transitional dictator is a product of the societal cleavages and discontinuities vfcich ordinarily accompany the early stirrings of modernization and in dustrialization. He usually rules in a deeply divided society where new demands and new conflicts are becoming rampant. He may come to the fore in societies which are not fully integrated, which are experiencing accelerated economic and social changes, where l o c . . . 1 autonomy is beginning to give way to centralism, and where a sense of nationhood has begun to appear. The transitional dictator may thus be an embryonic nation-builder, uni fying his country behind a new ideology or his own per son, playing on nationalism, building communications and transportation systems, and centralizing authority.** Regardless of the classification one attributes to the Trujillo dictatorship, one thing is certain; the image of the man dominated Dominican life for thirty-one years. There have been many who have attempted to evaluate Tru- i jillo's private and public life. The biographers that he ; i I hired, of course, have left an almost holy sy^ol of the | I man, while his enemies have painted a diabolical image. E x - j j i treme emotionalism has prevailed on both sides. Fortu nately there have been a few, such as Robert D. Crassweller, who left accurate, unbiased accounts of the man and his p Dictatorship and Development: Methods of Control in Trujillo1* Dominican Republic (Gainesville, Fla.: Univer sity of Florida Press, 1968), pp. 188-189. 259 ] t i m e s . The le n g t h y q u o t a t io n t h a t f o l l o w s i s b u t a summary i o f C r a s s w e l l e r ' s e x t e n s i v e i n v e s t i g a t i o n . W ith i t p e r h a p s t h e a r t i s t ' s r e n d i t i o n o f t h e c a u d i l l o i n L a f o u r c a d e 's n o v e l m ig h t b e b e t t e r u n d e r s t o o d . i I . . . I f c o m p a r is o n s m u st b e d raw n , h i s e s s e n c e and s t y l e fo u n d t h e i r c l o s e s t p a r a l l e l i n t h e O r i e n t a l d e s p o t s o f a n c i e n t t i m e s — t h e r u l e r s o f P e r s i a , I n d i a , and C h in a , w h o se s y s t e m s o f a b s o l u t e pow er r e m a in to d a y t h e p u r e s t e x p r e s s i o n i n h i s t o r y o f t o t a l p e r s o n a l d o m in io n . F or T r u j i l l o , t o o , w as a g e n i u s o f p o w e r . H is i n c o n s i s t e n c i e s an d f o i b l e s an d q u ir k s o f p e r s o n a l i t y f a l l i n t o a k in d o f p a t t e r n o n c e t h e y a r e g r o u p e d a r o u n d t h e p ow er i n s t i n c t a s a c e n t r a l s t r e a m . Pow er w as t h e g r e a t r i v e r o f h i s b e i n g , f lo w in g th r o u g h e v e r y e x t r e m i t y o f h i s l i f e . T r ib u t a r y t o i t w e re a l l t h e o t h e r q u a l i t i e s o f h i s m in d , s p i r i t , and w i l l . T h er e w e r e a g r e a t many o f t h e s e q u a l i t i e s , an d t h e y w e re d i s t i n g u i s h e d f o r t h e m o st p a r t b y m u tu a l i n c o n s i s t e n c y . B e l i e v i n g i n b o th e l e c t r o n i c s and t h e e v i l e y e , h e o b t a in e d a d v i c e from s c i e n t i f i c e x p e r t s an d from i p r a c t i t i o n e r s o f s u p e r s t i t i o n s t h a t w e re a l r e a d y o l d | w hen t h e f i r s t s l a v e s t r a v e l e d t h e m id d le p a s s a g e from j A f r i c a . He h a d t h e c u n n in g s u s p i c i o n s o f a p e a s a n t , ; an d y e t l i s t e n e d a v i d l y t o e v e r y p r o m o te r who cam e t o ; p e d d le n o str u m s an d w i l d s c h e m e s . H is r u l e w as h a r d [ an d b r u t a l an d m a s c u lin e t o e x c e s s , b u t h e u s e d p e r fu m e b y t h e c u p and b e a u t y a i d s , an d h e d e l i g h t e d in f e m in in e i g o s s i p . He t r u l y lo v e d c a t t l e , b u t , w it h t h e r a r e s t o f j e x c e p t i o n s , h e h a d n o l o v e f o r h u m an s. He h a d no r e a l i n t e r e s t in o r t a l e n t f o r b u s i n e s s , b u t h e a m a sse d a f o r t u n e t h a t w as p r o b a b ly am ong t h e f i v e o r s i x l a r g e s t i n t h e w o r ld . He c o m m itte d a v a s t num ber o f c r i m e s , b u t som e o f t h o s e f o r w h ic h h e w as con d em n ed h e p r o b a b ly d id n o t c o m m it, an d o t h e r s v d iich h e d i d com m it a r e m y s t e r i e s n o t y e t d e c ip h e r e d . . . He w as e g o t i s t i c , e v e n t u a l l y t o t h e p o i n t o f m e g a lo m a n ia . He w as g r e e d y . H is s e n s u a l i t y an d s e x u a l d r i v e w e r e e x t r a o r d i n a r y . He w as n o t m e r e ly a m o r a l b u t p r o fo u n d ly im m o r a l. He lo v e d d i s p l a y an d dram a in e v e r y a c t o f l i f e ; t h e d e l i b e r a t e t h e a t r i c a l i t y o f h i s r e g im e , 1 e s p e c i a l l y i n t h e f i n a l y e a r s , w as n e v e r f u l l y _______________ comprehended by even the closest of foreign observers. He loved to build, to create large and striking effects; and to transform the landscape. He was always hovering over some inner abyss; some sense of rejection, in which unfulfilled social aspiration played its part. There is no doubt that the dictator in Lafourcade's novel; Cdsar Alejandro Carrillo Acab; is supposed to be Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. The phonetic similarity between Carrillo and Trujillo is obvious. The country described in the novel is an island nation that has in the twentieth century been occupied by American Marines; as was the Do minical Republic on several occasions. The capital city of the supposedly fictitious nation is called Ciudad Carrillo. During the Trujillo dictatorship the capital city of the Dominical Republic was similarly called Ciudad Trujillo. i And numerous events; especially the assassination of the [ Basque that parallels the infamous Galindez case; leaves no [ i doubt that Lafourcade intended his description of Tru- i i i I jillo's dictatorship; despite his tongue-in-cheek affirma tion that the work was not based on fact. As a prologue to the work, for instance; Lafourcade insists that the novel j is purely fictional: i g | Trujillo: The Life and Times of a Caribbean Dictator I(New York: Macmillan Co.; 1966); pp. 4-5. 261 ! i I Esta es una obra de vnera ficcion. Por tanto, el esce- narlo y los personajes, lncluido el dictador Carrillo, son imaginarios y cualquier semejanza con paises, situ- aciones o seres reales es simple coincidencia. En efeeto, nadie ignora que ni las Naciones Unidas ni la Organizacion de Estados Americanos permitten regimenes como el que sirve de pretexto a esta novela. This bit of satire is a clear indication of Lafour cade's intentions throughout the novel. His gift as a writer is nowhere clearer than in his ability to understate or de-emphasize that which he actually wishes to criticize. His innuendo, his subtle play on words, his humor all com bine to make of La fiesta del rev Acab one of the most art fully written novels of political commentary to come out of Latin America.^ The plot All of the action of the novel takes place in exactly twenty-four hours. The chapter headings represent the time of day: Chapter I is "11 horas," Chapter II "11.15 horas," and continuing until the eleventh hour of the following day. But the story is more than just the events of twenty-four ^°Enrique Lafourcade, La fiesta del rev Acab (Santiago de Chile: Editorial Zig Zag, 1959), p. 7. ^Harriet de Onis, "The Feast of King Ahab by Lafour cade," Saturday Review of Literature. 32 (May 1962), 87. 262 hours. Lafourcade has compressed into these twenty-four hours and 268 pages the thirty-one years of Trujillo's dic tatorship in the Dominican Republic. By means of flash backs , stream of consciousness techniques, and direct his torical commentary, the author is able to supply the reader with enough information to make this one day in the life of the Latin America dictator shockingly meaningful. La fiesta del rev Acab is externally a description of the celebration of the birthday of the dictator C4sar Ale jandro Carrillo Acab. Internally, however, it is much more. It begins with a description of a military parade in honor of the dictator which takes place at 11 o'clock. As the numerous military armaments supplied by the united States pass the reviewing stand, the dictator, beaming with pride, I I asserts: "Es la base de mi democracia. Esol La base de mi democracia" (Lafourcade, p. 12). | i The parade is followed by a banquet in honor of the caudillo. who succeeds in inebriating himself at the affair. Returning to his bedroom for a change of clothing, the dic tator is stricken with sudden indigestion because of his enormous consumption of food and drink. He mistakes this !sudden illness for an assassination attempt on his life, I |fearing he has been poisoned. After vomiting all over 263 ihimself and realizing that he has not been poisoned, Ca rrillo prepares himself for the next event of the day. ... Aquel era su dia mas agitado y terrible. No podria dormir su siesta. Debia seguir a itinerario el ceremo nial vario e interminable. Comer, beber, condecorar, destruir conspiraclones, firmar pactos. Se detuvo un instante. dQue venia ahora? iAh, las ejecuciones! A las cuatro de la tarde, muerte de sus enemigos. (p. 33) The next event, the execution of seventeen citizens accused of conspiracy against the dictator, takes place at 4:30. Lafourcade describes the almost casual air of the ceremonial firing squad that has been prepared in honor of the dictator*s birthday. After the seventeen men have fal len to the ground, the important part of the ceremony be gins . Carrillo luego desenfundo su pistola. Se aproxim6 al grupo de hajusticiados. Era el momento mas importante de la ceremonia. El tiro de gracia. Ah, pocos como el sabian darlo con mayor precicion, en el sitio justo. (p. 225) By 8:30, the dinner and dance in honor of the dictator are in progress. All of the foreign ambassadors and impor tant businessmen are present, as are the military officers from the United States military installation on the island. The Bacchanalian festival goes on until sunrise, culminating in the sexual orgy at the command of the dictator. "iTodoal . . - . . . . - 264 ] ! j £Me oyen? Desnudarsel Es un ordenl Todos desnudos imme- diatamentl jJosafatl llama a la guardial El que no se desnude lo fusilas ... 1" (p. 268). The last event in the twenty-four-hour celebration of the dictator's birthday occurs at 11:00 in the morning with a Te Deum service offered in the cathedral in honor of Carrillo. This event occurs only six hours after the cau- dillo1s orgiastic birthday feast has ended. As he listens to the priest recite the Te Deum laudamus he is aware of his stomachache and the pain in his head, the result of his drunkenness of a few hours before. As the celebration comes to an end, he is presented a bouquet of lilies by a young lady. ; i I Carrillo sonrio a su vez. Hacia tiempo que nadie le regalaba floras. {Era una buena idea regalarle flores para su compleanosl Terminar la fiesta con un gesto tan tierno, tan delicado ... (p. 268) j I As he takes the flowers he is overcome with emotion. He hears a persistent tick-tock of something; it must be his | i i heart. "Su viejo corazdn de monarca," he thinks, as the bomb goes off. j 1 The events described by Lafourcade in the novel that [have been summarized here are What constitutes the ficti- ! jtious elements of the novel. What events take place in " " ' 265 i between the parade and the banquet, the Fiesta and the Te | ! I Deum are based on actual facts of the Trujillo dictatorship ; in the Dominican Republic. In the hours and minutes between the celebration of the fictitious dictator's birthday party,; Lafourcade gives the reader a glimpse of the dictator's family, basing himself on the realities of the Trujillo clan. He also describes the events of the assassination plot that actually culminated in Trujillo's death in May of 1961. The thirty-one years of the period known as the "Era de Trujillo" are compressed into the twenty-four-hour period of the plot of the novel, resulting in an extremely effec tive attack on the Trujillo dictatorship. * The two events described by Lafourcade, the assassina- j tion plot and the execution of Jesus Galindez, are based [ primarily on factual data and remove any doubt that Trujillo, was, indeed, the dictator in the novel. The first of these incidents, dealing with the kidnapping and murder of the Spanish-Basque ex-patriot, was based on the actual Galindez I case which was the subject of a great deal of international intrigue in the mid-fifties. Lafourcade describes in the i novel the gruesome details of the Spaniard's execution and Jthe events surrounding the actual case. His description of i jthese events almost parallels Robert D. CrassweHer's analysis of the case in his study of Trujillo. ' The essential facts are easily stated: Jesus de Galin dez , a Spanish exile then aged forty-two, was teaching and working for his doctorate at Columbia University in New York City. At 10 P.M. on the night of March 12, 1956, he entered the subway station at 57th Street and Eighth Avenue. He has never been seen or heard from since, except by the person or persons w ho presumably kidnapped and killed him. Beneath these bare recitals, however, lies an immense and complicated story, descending through coil after coil of intrigue into an ultimate mystery that even to day has not yielded its final secrets . Galindez had been a loyalist in the Spanish Civil War. As a refugee he went to Ciudad Trujillo in the winter of 1939. He taught there in the Diplomatic School maintained by the Foreign Office and served as legal advisor to the Labor Department. He was a bookish man, a type frequently found among political activists in Latin America. He was pictured in the Anniversary Album of 1944, serious, youthful, and mustached, as the winner of a prize in poetry. In Ciudad Trujillo he began to encounter trouble, either of his own making or of Trujillo's. It is cer tain that when he arrived in New York at the beginning of 1946, now an exile from two countries, he was strongly ; opposed to Trujillo. His personality was pleasing and ; his mind active. His scholarly and political interests j soon led him to the numerous interlocking circles of Latin-American exileB and intellectuals who congregate in New York, conversing incessantly, economizing piti fully, and devising endless political stratagems. He soon became the Western Hemisphere representative of the Basque Government in Exile, collecting and disbursing on its behalf substantial funds. He advised on matters of Dominican law, wrote articles, and became active in the programs of the Ibero-American Poets and Writers Guild, the International League for the Rights of Man, and the Inter^American Association for Democracy and Freedom. It would have been well for him if he had been con- j tent to pass his days in these activities. Unfortu- | nately, he had developed another interest which proved fatal. He had become fascinated by the character and career of Trujillo, and he had collected much informa tion on this dangerous subject. He determined to write his doctoral thesis on the Era of Trujilloj the work had been completed except for final revision at the time of his death. (crassweller, pp. 312-313) The reason this particular case caused so much inter national attention when it occurred was that Galindez was o n t h e p a y r o l l o f t h e c e n t r a l I n t e l l i g e n c e A g e n c y w hen h e 12 disappeared. The fact that Trujillo's men had kidnapped Galindez in the United States also surrounded the event with intrigue and mystery. In actual fact, the "morbid atten tion" given to this case resulted ultimately in the fall of Trujillo. The caudlllo was accused of having disposed of Galindez by cooking him in the furnace of a ship. There were many other descriptions of the crime offered, but of course none of them were ever proven conclusively, because — mysteriously enough— most of the individuals connected i 1 with the crime died before the whole event could be inves- j i t i g a t e d b y U n it e d S t a t e s o f f i c i a l s . In the novel, Lafourcade describes the Galindez case in detail. The Basque professor had been kidnapped in the 12 Drew Pearson disclosed proof during the case (quoted in Espaillat, p. 168). United States and brought to Carrillo on the island. The j I dictator wishes to witness the death of this man whose only ! real offense had been to cause him "vergUenze." After he has ordered that Jesus be thrown into the furnace, he shouts, "iSil Todol ; Ah or a, todol Quiero oirlol Quiero verlo gemir, temblar ... Quiero sentir su dolor ... £Qui hora es?" (Lafourcade, p. 193). It is time now to return to the party that is going on in honor of the caudillo's birthday. Carrillo returns to the festivities and drinks to ex cess because he is unable to put the Basque out of his mind. The next morning vfcen he stands in the church awaiting the bomb that is to signal the end of his era, he reflects on I his years as dictator and asks God for understanding. A 1 i premonition of his death also causes him to think about the ! I Basque, whose image still lingers on in the dictator's mind 1 I and whose name was also Jesus. " ... iComprenderia su vida, sus esfuerzos, sus luchas, sus ambiciones? El trabajd por su pueblo, a su manera ... Ese pueblo asqueroso no merecia mis. Les dio cami- nos, escuelas, desfiles, fiestas ... Les enseno a leer. Desperto su aficidn por los fuegos artificiales. iQui mis? £Qui querian que hiciera? Impidid el comunismo con todas sus fuerzas ...tEsoI Dios tendrfa que tenerle I en cuenta eso ultimo ... (No deji, Senor, que el corou- ! nismo se apoderara de la islal, le diria. Estermini la langosta antes que comenzara a volar ... Y Dios compren- deria su obra. 'Pero mataste a Jesus' ... Me hacia dano ... 'Mataste a Jesus porque te devolvia a la in- j fancia' ... Me hacia dano, Dios ... Volver a la infancia es lo peor. ' puedes saber tu de la infancia, cuando j naciste grande? ... Porque era pobre e inocente le diste i muerte' ... Me causaba vergiienza. Lo mate porque me causaba vergiienza .. . Nadie puede mostrar mis vergtienzas ..." (p. 262) Jesus Galindez is not the only individual taken from historical fact in the novel. The American pilot referred to as Tonio Stanley in the novel is based on the figure of Gerald Lester Murphy, a young Oregonian flyer who was be lieved to have flown the plane that brought Galindez into the hands of Trujillo, in the novel, Tonio mysteriously disappears and is presumed liquidated, just as in the case of his counterpart Murphy in the Galindez incident (Crass- we Her, p. 314). j The second historical factor that emerged in the novel ! i and on vrtiich the plot is based is the assassination con- | spiracy. In the actual situation, the two conspiracies that! i were organized, the Action Group and the Political Group, seem to have been put together by military men with the blessings of the CIA, who thought that this cause might aid their side in the pending Bay of Pigs invasion. The function of the Action Group was to assassinate Trujillo and immediately present proof of its success, in the form of Trujillo's corpse, to the second group, the Political Group. The latter would then launch a coup, taking over the machinery of the government and the Armed Forces. (Crassweller, p. 436) i These two groups appear to have been headed by General Anto nio imbert Barreros and General Ramon Fernandez. In the novel, the assassination conspiracy varies in a few details. First of all, the leader of the conspiracy is a young student, Cosme Santa Maria, rather than a military man, and second, the thoroughly efficient Cosme has put together four distinct plots rather than the two of the historical event. Habia calculado hasta el menor details, un grupo podria fallar, arrepentirse, no concurrir ... [Pero cuatrol Cuatro equipos gue no se conocian entre ellos . Cuatro equipos de estudiantes, de hombres de accion. (Lafourcade, p. 199) j i ! The student plot was successful, just as the actual military! one was. In the novel, however, Carrillo was killed by a ; bomb, while in the actual assassination he was machine- i i I gunned to death on a lonely stretch of highway. ; There were a great many other historical realities that found their way into Lafourcade*s novel— too many, in fact, |to be covered here. Another very interesting one, however, was the presence of other deposed Latin American dictators I in the Dominican Republic at the time of the dictator's i j d e a t h . _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Trujillo's own fall seemed far in the future in the late 1950's. But during the same year as Castillo Armas' assassination, the first of an influx of dis placed dictators sought sanctuary in the Old Man's seemingly impregnable stronghold. First to arrive was Rojas Pinilla of Venezuela, then came Perez Jime nez of Venezuela, followed by Argentina's Peron, and finally, Batista of Cuba. (Espaillat, p. 135) Most of these individuals appear in the novel under a not too subtle combination of names. For example, Rojas Pinilla and Perez Jimenez are combined to produce the fic titious Perez Pinilla, and Juan Domingo Peron is obviously supposed to be represented in the figure of Josd Domingo Absaldn. In the novel, the description of the situation of these ex-dictators almost parallels the one given above by Arturo Espaillat. "El dictador tendio su mano generosa ! cuando Absalon, pdrez Pinilla, y tantos otros, destituidos I de su poder, mendigaban asilio en Arodrica" (Lafourcade, p. I 169). Throughout the novel, Lafourcade indicates the des- i p e r a t e s t a t e o f D o m in ic a n a f f a i r s b e c a u s e o f t h e p r e s e n c e j i i of all of these degenerate individuals on the island. Not only have they succeeded in the ruination of their own countries, they are honored guests at the demise of still j another. I i Another interesting element in the novel that was based i I [partly on fact was the role played by the United States 272 ;th r o u g h o u t t h e p e r io d o f t h e d i c t a t o r s h i p . L a fo u r c a d e i n d i c a t e s t h a t t h e A m e r ic a n N a r in e s h a v e o c c u p ie d t h e c o u n t r y , a s in d e e d t h e y d i d fro m 1916 t o 1924. C a r r i l l o ' s t r o o p s h a v e b e e n t r a i n e d b y t h e M a r in e s . The m i l i t a r y w ea p o n s t h a t h a v e b e e n s u p p l i e d b y t h e U n ite d S t a t e s w e re s u p p l i e d " p ara d e f e n d e r l a d e m o c r a c ia e n A m e r ic a . . . 1 1 a s t h e U n ite d S t a t e s A m b assad or C e c i l T . R aven s t a t e s , "para d e f e n d e r c o n t r a e l d e s o r d e n . . . c o n t r a e l comm unism o" ( p . 177). In the chapter entitled "18.45 horas" the American ambassador instructs his personnel on how to behave at that evening's birthday banquet in honor of the dictator Carri llo. It is obvious that Lafourcade's opinion of the United States is a common one shared by many Latin American in tellectuals. He sees the American presence on the island as one dedicated to the sole purpose of making economic gains for the "yankees": — No se olviden, gentlemen — continud el embajador— , que no solo estan el ejercito y la armada en este asunto. Sobre ellos, los banqueros y bus companies, la United Fruit, la American Railways Co., la "Flota Blanca", la Andes Oil Inc., la Creole Co., la Shell, la Standard Oil, etc. ... Elios merecen atencion pre- ferente — concluyo Cecil T. Raven, no sin cierta ironia en la vox. (p. 135) The dictator in turn demonstrates his dependence on the Americans when he states, "si el Gobierno americano nos 273 i l quita su apoyo, estamos liquidados ... " (p. 127). Lafourcade's criticism, however, is not limited solely I to the dictator and the Americans. As in most novels deal ing with dictatorship, Lafourcade places on the citizens of the country a large portion of the blame for allowing such despotism to continue. The idealistic revolutionary Cosine Santa Maria reflects on the possibility of succeeding in his plot to overthrow the dictator. In this passage he indicates his pessimism about the eventual success of his plot: "Esa era su isla, cubierta por la selva, estremecida por la presencia de una raza sonambula. Y de ello, de todo este mundo primitivo, vegetativo, dpodria Cosme hacer una patria? ilba a formar y dar un espiritu a esa inanimada y ciega potencia?" (p. 91) I Cosme's questions are quite valid. "Will he be able toj inspire the populace and overthrow the despot? Will he be 1 t abot to carry out his program by ending terror and violence I and guaranteeing the rights of man?'1 Lafourcade leaves the j question unanswered, but one feels that his opinion is one of pessimism, for the new regime, like the one it destroys, ! ihas been born of violence and death— not only the death of the dictator but of those innocent people in the radius of I I [the bomb's destructive power. Such disregard for human life 1 ^ can only lead to a continuation of the reign of violence and! terror. The history of Latin American dictatorship is re plete with the stories of young idealists who, after gaining power by means of revolution or coup d'etat, lose their idealism and become just like the tyrants they overthrow. E^Desygensador There is no doubt that the figure of Cesar Alejandro Carrillo Acab is based on Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. Much evidence has already been presented above that demonstrated the similarity of the historical events in the Dominican Republic during the Trujillo era with those described by Lafourcade in the novel. Beyond this, however, is the ob vious similarity between the dictator Trujillo and the fic- j titious dictator Cesar Carrillo. Both characters, of i course, embody many of the traits attributed to the image i i of the typical Latin American dictator. j l To begin with, Trujillo in real life was fond of titles: "The Savior of the Republic," "The Father of the Country," and above all, "El Benefactor." Similarly, Jcarrillo in the novel is frequently referred to as "El Deepensador." Likewise, both men dressed in military uni- i iforms and covered their chests with the numerous medals they 275 had received from foreign governments or had granted them selves. Lafourcade tells us in the novel, "no era el sin sus medallas. Se sentia guarecido por ellos, acorazado. Constituian su defensa, su justificaci<5n, maxime" (p. 183). It was in these titles and decorations that both Tru jillo and the fictitious Carrillo sought to justify their existence. In both cases their relatively humble origins, the poverty of their early years, and the rejection by the elite class of the Republic moved them to extremes once they reached their positions of political power. Howard J. Wiarda explains how, in the case of Trujillo, his early years conditioned him for the role of tyrant: Trujillo's fervent desire to reach the top may be seen prior to his entrance into the military when, as his first daughter recalls, he was proud and arrogant, despising his home town as "vulgar" and its people as "common." His intense ambition for power plus his feel ing of social rejection help explain Trujillo's rise to power in the military, a rejection of his first family and his remarriage into the social elite, his seizure of power and rejection of the old order, his constant harassment and humiliation of the traditional elite once in power, his megalomania, his claim to nobility, his extraordinary desire for wealth and prestige, and ! his maintenance of absolute personal power for thirty- : one years. (p. 4 0) j We see that in the novel, Carrillo has rejected his | i first mulatto wife and married a French woman whom he i neither loves nor wants but holds on to because of her status and beauty. His two children from his first marriage* are also rejected, as were Trujillo's own children. In the ; novel, Carrillo obviously gives all of his fatherly love to Carlitos, the child born to his French wife, even going to such extremes as making the eight-year-old child a general of the Air Force and asking his advice on major decisions. His other children— Delfina, the promiscuous teenager and Amenophis, the alcoholic poet--are total disasters as the offspring of the president. Carrillo abandons any effort toward communicating with them. Instead he devotes all of his attention to Carlitos, who no doubt represents the in- fantilesque Rafael, Jr. of real life. While playing with Carlitos, Carrillo tells his son, "Tienes que aparecer mas hijo. Quiero irte formando. Algun dia heredaras mi puesto" (Lafourcade, p. 76). But this was | not to be, either in fiction or in real life, for Crass- | i ! weHer tells us of Trujillo, "he could dominate his country men to an incredible degree but failed totally to shape his own children according to his desires" (p. 4). And what were the desires of these two dictators for J their children, for themselves, and for their country? What motivated these men? What did they hunger for? A brief description of Trujillo's social aspirations and his :.' ~." ' 277 I ! I Napoleonic tendencies has been given above. This seems to i be an element encountered in most dictators— the need to achieve, to stand above all others, to dominate, to create as well as to destroy. In the case of Trujillo, his deep- rooted psychological problems obviously moved him to ex cesses in his use of power. He was egotistic, eventually to the point of megalo mania. He was greedy. His sensuality and sexual drive were extraordinary. He was not merely amoral but pro foundly immoral. He loved display and drama in every act of life; the deliberate theatricality of his regime, especially in the final years, was never fully compre hended by even the closest of foreign observers. He loved to build, to create large and striking effects, and to transform the landscape. He was always hovering over some inner abyss, some sense of rejection, in which unfulfilled social aspiration played its part. (Crass- weller, p. 5) i T r u j i l l o ' s n e e d t o d e m o n s tr a te p ow er w as p r o b a b ly n o - 1 w h er e m ore o b v io u s th a n i n h i s b r u t a l m a s s a c r e o f from I 15.000 t o 20,000 d e f e n s e l e s s H a i t i a n s i n 1937 o v e r a b o r d e r | j d i s p u t e w i t h H a i t i ( C r a s s w e l l e r , p . 156). In t h e n o v e l , j I ! L a fo u r c a d e s u g g e s t s t h a t C a r r i l l o o r d e r e d t h e s l a u g h t e r o f 10.000 Haitians to impress his mistress, Ursula, with his power. "Por amor, Carrillo, el cerdo, alii mismo desde el prostibulo de Ursula hizo asesinar a diez mil haitianos" (Lafourcade, p. 92). The dictator's power was also demonstrated in his tremendous sexual drive which was, of course, an expression I of his machismo. In order to convince himself of his power i over men, the dictator would take their wives and virgin daughters to his chambers where they were sexually assaulted! and subjected to all types of indignities. Crassweller speaks of Trujillo's excessive sexuality: His sensual cravings seemed to multiply with age accord ing to some mathematical formula of progression which denied biology itself . . . The groups of women selected for his bed not only continued but increased. These remarkable occasions were now often staged three times a week and perhaps forty women might appear in each one. (p. 434) In the novel it is a young American gangster, Peter Raft, who procures the virgins for the dictator "Carrillo se i entusiasmd con el negocio. Significaba renovar los leno- J i cinios . Cada muchacha era una mina de oro. Estaban sanas ' i aseguro Peter" (Lafourcade, p. 118). j i But the excesses of debauchery, gluttony in both drink and food, too much promiscuity, combined with the excesses of government— the murders, the tortures, the traffic in vice— led both Trujillo and Carrillo to the brink of insan ity. As Crassweller explains it, "beneath all the surface ! of activity, however, like the slow shifting and sinking of i i |the subsoil, was Trujillo's descent into mental imbalance” 279 (p. 434) . In the novel, Lafourcade enters the mind of the aging tyrant to give the reader a glimpse of Carrillo's i mental condition just before he is assassinated: Se detuvo en su paseo. No estaba bien. £A que venia todo eso? Tenia malos los nervios. Si su medico no fuera un infeliz, un sucio curandero homeopata, ya lo habria sanado ... , se ponia nervioso con facilidad. Entonces, tenia que esconderse, como ahora. Todo co- menzaba con la manos. No podia mantenerlas tranquilas. Le temblaban. comenzaban a temblarle, independientes. Tenia que sostenerselas, una con la otra. Los nervios ... De las manos pasaba al cuerpo, y entonces ... jAh, esa lucha, tanta lucha y sacrificiol jTanto miedo con- tenido durante anos para llegar a eso! Para esconderse en sus habitaciones, porque temblaba, porque sentia ganas de matar, de hacer pedazos ... Una limpieza en forma, eso era ... Una limpieza que recordaran en todo el raundo. C^SAR ALEJANDRO CARRILLO ACAB LIMPIA SU PALACIO DE GOBIERNO, LIMPIA LAS PESEBRERAS . (p. 185) I in both the fictitious and the real life of the dicta- ! j tor, the mental imbalance led to a strange premonition of i \ death. Trujillo, on several occasions before his assassina-! tion, was warned of his death in his own dreams and the i dreams of other individuals near him. Only a few days be- | i i fore his assassination on May 30, Olga Brache, a former j friend of the family, called Trujillo's daughter by tele phone from the United States to tell her of the dream she had had in which the virgin Mary foretold the assassination |of Trujillo (Crassweller, p. 435). In the novel, Carrillo j begins to hear the voices of the many innocent people he ! ' ' “ “ 280 ! i ; i has murdered; he hears the voices of the prisoners in the dungeons of his palace. Above the sound of the other spirits, he hears the voice of the Basque professor he burned in the furnace of the freighter. The Basque had re- called to him the story of King Ahab, but Carrillo did not understand the story— he did not understand the meaning of his name, Acab, the name of his dead Negro mother and the wicked Israelite king. Moments before he dies, in an effort to convince himself of his immortality, he asserts, " ... Era capaz de todo y podia hacer dano. Era el amo, el rey. I El Rey Acab! £Que era esa historia?" (Lafourcade, p. 213). Carrillo dies without understanding the prophecy. He dies not understanding the meaning of his name or how the 1 I "Fiesta del rey Acab" should end. Mas la batalla habia arreciado aquel dia y el Rey estuvo en su carro delante de los sirios, y a la tarde murio; y la sangre de su herida corria por el suelo del carro. Y a puesta del sol salio un pregon por el campo, diciendo: iCada uno a su ciudad y cada cual a su tierra1 Y murio pues el Rey y fue traido a Samaria; y sepul- taron al Rey en Samaria. Y lavaron el carro en el estanque de Samaria; lavaron tambi^n sus armas; y los perros lamieron su sangre, con- forroe a la palabra de Jehova, que habia hablado. (p. 159) Thus Enrique Lafourcade concludes the tale of "el rey Acab," otherwise known as Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. His novel is a remarkably artistic re-creation of one of the j most savage and inhumane periods of Latin American history, : currently referred to as "la era de Trujillo." In the plot that covers only twenty-four hours of the tyrant's life, Lafourcade has been able to paint, with frightening accu racy, the realities of true tyranny. His book is so much more powerful than any historical document of the era be cause he takes the reader into the minds of the principal characters . This venture into the psyche of the tyrant and his friends is not fiction, however, for one can see in the actions of the fictitious characters as well as in that of their historical counterparts, the validity of Lafourcade's psychoanalysis. In addition, he has also been successful J I in capturing the atmosphere of the island nation during this[ reign of terror. The book is indeed frightening, for when | one awakens from the nightmarish tale of La fiesta del rev j I Acab. he realizes that there had really been a fiesta and that it lasted for thirty-one years. CHAPTER X EL TIEMPO DE LA IRA BY LUIS SPOTA Unfortunately for the Mexican novelist Luis Spota (1925- ), his generation of novelists in Mexico includes such figures as Agustin Yanez, Juan Jose Areola, Carlos Fuentes, and Juan Rulfo. With such writers as these to compete with, it is no wonder that Spota is considered "second rate" by some critics. Probably the most severe criticism of his work is that offered by Julia Hernandez in ; ■ * I I her book Novelistas v cuentistas de la Revolucion, a work which in fact includes almost all well-known Mexican fictioni f t writers of the twentieth century. She believes that: Es una lastima que con Spota la novela mexicana vuelva | a caer en la servidumbre extranjerizante, aun cuando i por el momento solo sea en la forma. Sus personajes, arrancados de la realidad, se han vuelto titeres que el autor maneja a su capricho, un capricho que llega 262 a c a u s a r n a u s e a s . N ot a l l e v a l u a t i o n s o f S p o t a ' s w ork a r e s o s e v e r e , h o w e v e r . J o s e R o ja s G a r c id u e n a s i n B r e v e h i s t o r i a d e l a n o v e la m e x ic a n a w r i t e s t h a t " S p o ta e s un a u t o r que s a b e e n - c o n t r a r s u s te m a s y p r e s e n t a r l o s d e modo a t r a c t i v o ; s u com p o s i c io n e s e l e m e n t a l y p o r e s o a c c e s i b l e a t o d o s , s u s p e r - 2 s o n a j e s s o n s u p e r f i c i a l e s p e r o d i n a m i c o s ." W h a tev er t h e o p i n io n o f S p o t a ' s w o r k , o n e t h i n g i s c e r t a i n : h e i s o n e o f M e x ic o 's m o st p o p u la r n o v e l i s t s . H is p o p u l a r i t y n o d o u b t s te m s from t h e f a c t t h a t h e i s e a s y t o r e a d . H is j o u r n a l i s t i c s t y l e , r e m i n i s c e n t o f M a r tin L u is Guzman an d o t h e r c h r o n i c l e r s o f t h e r e v o l u t i o n , d e r i v e s from t h e f a c t t h a t S p o ta b e g a n h i s w r i t i n g c a r e e r a s a j I i j o u r n a l i s t f o r t h e m a jo r n e w s p a p e r s o f h i s b i r t h p l a c e , ; M e x ic o C i t y . " E sta p r o f e s i o n l e h a d ad o una e v i d e n t e f a c i - | j l i d a d p a r a l a n a r r a c i 6 n ” (B ru sh w ood a n d G a r c id u e n a s , p . i I 127). His success in fiction was both sudden and spectacu lar. Not only were his books immediate best sellers, he *(Mexico: Unidad Mexicana de Escritores, 1960), p. 1191. 2John S . Brushwood and Jos6 Rojas Garciduenas, Breve historia de la novela mexicana (Mexico: De Andrea, 1959), p. 128. - 284 ; also won the literary prize Ciudad de Mexico two years in ] a row, 1950 and 1951. ■ I In addition to his work as a novelist, Spota has writ- I ten for television, radio, and the theatre. He has also j served in several public agencies as Jefe del pepartamento de Divulqacion de Noticia and Jefe de la Oficina de Especta- culos del Pepartamento Central as well as being a member of several other governmental commissions. His participation in these activities is not unusual for a Mexican writer. It is such a role as this that has prompted the Mexican novelist and critic Rosario Castellanos to state of the Mexican writer: i ... El escritor ha sido, al mismo tiempo, el politico, | el funcionario, el hombre de accion y estos otros de - beres, impostergables desde el punto de vista moral, I robaban tiempo, energia para la creacidn as£ como hacian | imposible adoptar un punto de vista imparcial en rela- j cion con los hechos.^ j Indeed, Spota is not noted for his impartial view of Mexican society. Rather, "se nota por una critica social de vastas proyecciones," states Fernando Alegria fBreve j historia. p. 258). There is little doubt that "he finds his i 1 3 ! "La novela mexicana contemporrfnea y su valor testi monial," Hispania. 47 (May 1964), 22 3. [favorite themes in the far from perfect social order of | 4 Mexico." From 1947, when he published El Coronel fue i echado al mar, to the present, his efforts have been di rected at showing the injustice and hypocrisy that is evi dent in Mexican society. In many ways his books are a refinement and an enlargement of what he prints in his newspaper column.5 The first book that brought Spota national attention as a novelist was Murieron a mitad del rio (1948), a novel that tells the tragic story of the Mexican braceros. "Rebano de campesinos Mexicanos que se alquila periodicamente a capitalistas norteamericanos" (Brushwood and Garciduenas, i p. 127) . This novel definitely places Spota in the line of j ! novelists of social protest, for he presents the very ser- j ious problem of Mexican society in that era, when over 5,000| "wetbacks" a day were illegally crossing the border into the United States.6 The novel, however, presents no solutions, 4Carlos Gonzalez Pena, History of Mexican Literature. 3d ed., trans. Gusta Barfield Nance and Florence Johnson Dunstan (Dallas, Texas: Southern Methodist University jPress, 1968), p. 439. | Sjohn s. Brushwood, Mexico in Its Novel (Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1966), p. 28. 6Ernesto Galarza, Merchants of Labor (Santa Barbara, Calif.: McNally and Loftin, Publishers, 1964), p. 59. 266 : i I I for as one critic has succinctly phrased it, "the reader is j left with the impression that even if the ill, in this par- i i ticular case, the problems of the Mexican wetback, were 7 cured, the basic unhappiness would still remain.” Few, if any, of Spota's works have demonstrated any optimism. Murieron a la mitad del rio (1948) set the tone for all of the works that followed: La estrella vacia (1950), vaaabunda (1950), Mas coronadas da el hambre (1952), Las qrandes aquas (1956), Casi el paraiso (1956), Las horas violentas (1959), La sangre enemiga (1959), El tiempo de la ira (1960), La pequena edad (1964), and La carcaiada del qato (1964) . Most of these novels can be classified as works of social commentary that not infrequently reach the | 6 1 point of tremedismo. as Torres-Rioseco has affirmed. [ I Spota's most successful work to date appears to be Casij t el paraiso, a novel which in sales surpassed any other pub- ; i I lished in Mexico in 1956 . This of course does not guarantee; that it will be considered a Mexican classic of the Dorothy McMahon, “Changing Trends in Spanish American Literature,'' Books Abroad. 39 (Winter 1965), 15. ®Arturo Torres-Rioseco, Historia de la literature I iberoamericana (New York: Las Americas Publishing Co., ;1965), p. 283. twentieth century. In fact, two years after it appeared < it was overshadowed by La reqi<5n mas transparente. another j novel of a similar theme written by Carlos Fuentes. Spota1s novel, nevertheless, deserves recognition be cause of its aggressive style and its biting satire of Mexico City's cafe society. His attack on the high society hypocrites who have reaped the wealth of the Revolution while the poor continue suffering reintroduced the theme of the Mexican Revolution in the novel. This new technique of criticism, introduced by Spota and perfected by Carlos Fuentes in La region mas transparente and La muerte de Arte- mio Cruz. seeks to point out "escandalosamente, lo mas obivio de lo mucho rediculo y estupido de toda esa canalla j en que ha fructificado la Revolucion" (Brushwood and Garci- j duenas, p. 128) . There is little sympathy shown toward the snobs who are the object of the attack, for as a group they i i represent the greatest threat to the progress of Mexico, not so much because of their wealth, as John Brushwood has pointed out (p. 35), but because of their lack of human jConcern. This above all preoccupies Spota; he sees in his 'country islands of humanity totally alienated and foreign jto one another. The society of street vendors and that of i ] ithe scrubbed elite sitting around their white, tableclothed 288 1 I caf^ tables have almost nothing in common except a vague remembrance that someone, somewhere, fought a revolution for the sake of equality. The Novel and the Dictator In 1960 Luis Spota published El tiempo de la ira. a novel that has as its basis the concept of caudillismo and the Mexican Revolution of 1910. It is obviously not unique in this respect, since the Revolution and its great heroes have long been a theme of Mexican novelists . Modern writers such as Agustin Yanez in Al filo del aqua, Juan Rulfo in Pedro Paramo, and Carlos Fuentes in La muerte de Artemio Cruz, however, have preferred to treat the Revolution in a i new way with new stylistic devices and techniques borrowed j from Joyce, Faulkner, Comeos, and other innovators. Luis I Spota's work, however, stands alone. It 1b a novel of the | Revolution possessing much of the same style as Guzman, Azuela, and Lopez y Fuentes, yet published in 1960. In spite of this fact, it is not merely a reproduction of the novels of the Revolution. It goes much further, penetrates [deeper, and understands more fully the entire social and ! political dilemma that was the Revolution. Where Azuela and i Guzman lacked the perspective to view the entire significance of the armed conflict, Spota views it from a I 0 ^ different perspective, and while Yanez and Fuentes attempt to penetrate the spiritual effects of the Civil War, Spota limits himself to the social effects. What Spota has done, essentially, has been to present possibly the most complete and accurate account of the emergence, development, and decline of a revolutionary dictator that has thus far been written in Latin America. In the figure of Cesar Dario one can see not only Carranza, Obregon, and Calles but all of the Latin American dictators of the twentieth century who came to power as the leaders of what have been loosely termed "popular revolu tions." Here lies the value of Spota's book. It is not really the story of Mexico's Revolution (the time and coun- 1 i try are not actually mentioned); it is the story of Latin j American dictatorship in the twentieth century. Colonel ! i Cesar Dario is none other than Fulgencio Batista, Juan I Vicente Gomez, Leonidas Trujillo, and Alvaro Obregon. Mili tary dictatorship, egocentricism, political corruption, abuse of the masses, and violence are the themes of the ; novel, as they are the constants in Latin American dictator ship. Everything mentioned in the previous chapters of this !work that characterize Latin American dictatorship are 290 [ p r e s e n t in E l tie m p o d e la i r a . The n o v e l c a n , i n a w a y , b e c a l l e d t h e g r a n d c l i c h e . S p o ta p r e s e n t s t h e s t e r e o t y p e I i o f t h e L a t in A m e r ic a n d i c t a t o r , b u t t h i s in n o w ay d e t r a c t s fro m t h e w o r k . I t may n o t b e a n e x t r e m e ly s u c c e s s f u l w ork o f a r t , b u t i t i s a s u p e r b ly a c c u r a t e d e s c r i p t i o n o f L a t in A m e r ic a n d i c t a t o r s h i p . I f f o r no o t h e r r e a s o n th a n t h i s t h e w ork d e s e r v e s a p r o m in e n t p l a c e in L a t in A m e r ic a n l e t t e r s . The p l o t o f t h e n o v e l i s s im p le e n o u g h ; i t i s t h e p o l i t i c a l e v o l u t i o n o f a L a t in A m e r ic a n d i c t a t o r . S p o ta d i v i d e s t h e w ork i n t o t h r e e p a r t s . The f i r s t h e c a l l s E l a l b a . w h ic h r e p r e s e n t s t h e m i l i t a r y r e v o l u t i o n t h a t b r o u g h t : i C e s a r D a r io t o p o w e r . P a r t tw o i s c a l l e d E l d i a . an d i n t h i s s e c t i o n S p o ta a n a l y z e s t h e d i c t a t o r ' s c o n s o l i d a t i o n o f p ow er an d m ovem ent to w a r d t o t a l c o n t r o l . The f i n a l p a r t i s 1 te r m e d La n o c h e an d r e p r e s e n t s t h e c a u d i l l o 1s m ove to w a r d | e x tr e m is m , h i s l o s s o f s u p p o r t e r s , and h i s e v e n t u a l a s s a s - j i I s i n a t i o n . As p r e v i o u s l y m e n tio n e d , t h e w ork i s a m o st d e t a i l e d a n d e x t r e m e ly a c c u r a t e d e s c r i p t i o n o f L a t in A m e r ic a n d i c t a t o r s h i p . C e s a r D a r io i s a b e l i e v a b l e c h a r a c t e r i n h i s j r o l e o f c a u d i l l o b e c a u s e S p o ta h a s made h im a b e l i e v a b l e c h a r a c t e r a s a m an. N ot o n l y i s t h e w ork s u c c e s s f u l a s a p o l i t i c a l s t u d y , i t a l s o h a s m e r it a s a w ork o f a r t . The story begins in a border town in a foreign country,! possibly the United States . From this country a group of exiles cross the river and begin the revolution. It would j be assumed then that the Latin American country described ■ is Mexico, since it is the only Spanish-speaking country that borders on the United States. This is difficult to ascertain, however, for on several occasions the characters refer to Mexico in the third person, speaking of it as though it were a foreign country. The historical setting is also difficult to determine, since no date is ever given. The existence of television sets, tanks, and other material objects would indicate that the story takes place in the ! 1950‘s. These two elements— the fact that Mexico is re- j i ferred to as a foreign country and that the story takes [ place at mid-century— would seem to indicate that the Mexi- ! ! can Revolution of 1910 was not the basis for the novel. However, what Spota has done is create a work of fiction ! i that describes a popular revolution in the 1950's which j i takes place in a tropical Latin American country but which is based on his own knowledge and understanding of the Mexi can Revolution. It is not coincidental that there should be such a figure as Orlando Macin, a regional caudillo leading the 292 j fam ed D i v i s i o n d e l O e s te and whom t h e d i c t a t o r h a s a s s a s s i n a t e d b e c a u s e o f t h e t h r e a t h e p o s e d . I n d e e d , o n e d o e s n o t h a v e t o s t r e t c h h i s im a g in a t io n t o r e c a l l t h e s i m i l a r f a t e o f P an ch o V i l l a , who l e d t h e e q u a l l y fam ed D i v i s i o n d e l N o r t e . Nor i s i t c o i n c i d e n t a l t h a t o n e o f t h e d i c t a t o r ' s f r i e n d s who u l t i m a t e l y t u r n s a g a i n s t h im i s a o n e -a r m e d g e n e r a l who g r e a t l y r e s e m b le s A lv a r o O b r eg o n , who w as a l s o m i s s i n g an a p p e n d a g e . E ven t h e r o l e p la y e d b y t h e U n ite d S t a t e s A m b assad or an d o t h e r S t a t e D e p a r tm e n t a g e n t s much r e s e m b le s t h e r o l e p la y e d b y t h e U n ite d S t a t e s i n t h e M e x i c a n R e v o l u t i o n . I t i s d i f f i c u l t , h o w e v e r , t o d e te r m in e j u s t w h a t M e x i c a n c a u d i l l o t h e f i c t i o n a l C ^ sa r D a r io i s s u p p o s e d t o r e p r e s e n t . In som e r e s p e c t s h e c o u ld b e V e n u s t ia n o C a r r a n z a , t h e b e a r d e d c a u d i l l o who o v e r t h r e w V i c t o r i a n o H u e r ta , and in o t h e r w ays D a r io r e s e m b le s A lv a r o O b r eg o n , who w as a l s o f e l l e d b y an a s s a s s i n ' s b u l l e t a s D a r io w as i n t h e n o v e l . 1 i In h i s p o l i t i c a l i d e o l o g y D a r io a l s o se e m s t o r e s e m b le P l u - j I I tarco Elias calleB, Who served as President of Mexico from | t 1924 to 1928. But Dario also possesses many characteristics! ! of more modern dictators, such as Venezuela's P^rez Jimenez or Colombia's Rojas Pinilla. Regardless of whom C^sar Dario iis supposed to represent, one fact is certain, in the major p o i n t s o f h i s c h a r a c t e r , h i s m o t i v e s , an d h i s a c t i o n s , h e i 1 r e p r e s e n t s m o st o f L a t in A m e r ic a 's t w e n t i e t h - c e n t u r y d i c t a - ; t o r s . i c d s a r D a r io , l i k e s o many o f L a t in A m e r ic a 's d i c t a t o r s , . b e g a n h i s a s c e n t t o p ow er b y l e a d in g a r e v o l u t i o n . From e x i l e in a f o r e i g n c o u n t r y , h e a s s e m b le d a g r o u p o f e x i l e d p o l i t i c i a n s , i n t e l l e c t u a l s , a n d m i l i t a r y m en . "Los e x i l i a - d o s ; t i p o s a l a d e r i v a ; h om b res a l o s q u e h a b ia em p u jad o g h a s t a a l i i e l v i e n t o d e la p o l i t i c a . " W ith f i n a n c i a l a id from an u n d i s c l o s e d f o r e i g n i n t e r e s t , D a r io s e t o u t t o t o p p l e from pow er " e l G e n e r a lis im o P r e s id e n t s " who h a d r u l e d a s d i c t a t o r f o r many y e a r s . L ik e s o many o t h e r r e v o l u t i o n a r y l e a d e r s b e f o r e an d j a f t e r h im , D a r io i n s p i r e d h i s f o l l o w e r s w it h l o f t y w o rd s | j and p a t r i o t i c p h r a s e s . When t h e c a u d i l l o i n s t r u c t s Don H e c to r Gama, t h e i n t e l l e c t u a l among t h e i n s u r g e n t s , o n t h e ! i ! w r i t i n g o f t h e R e v o l u t i o n ' s i d e o l o g y f o r E l M o v im ie n to d e L i b e r a c io n . h e d e c l a r e s : . . . a s i , p u e s , e l p u e b lo d e n u e s t r a p a t r i a d e b e s a b e r q u e l a r e v o l u c i d n q u e n o s l i b r a r a d e l a t i r a n i a t i e n e j com o i d e a l e s : l a l i b e r t a d d e c r e e n c i a y d e a s o c i a c i o n ; i e l r e s p e t o a l v o t o p o p u la r ; l a n o r e e l e c c i d n d e l o s I 9Luis Spota, El tiempo de la ira (Mexico: Editorial Diana, S. A., 1967), p. 13. 294 I gobernantes y, sobre toda la reafirmacion de nuestro nacionalismo. (p. 41} But the caudillo is challenged by Gama on his use of the word "nacionalismo." The intellectual feels that such a word is taboo if one wishes to avoid being considered part of the Communist camp. Dario grudgingly concedes that those who are secretly financing the revolution might react ad versely to any association with communism. The Revolution begins even before the exiles cross the border into their homeland. The killing in the name of the Revolution also begins when Dario personally kills Oreste, the first of the traitors to the revolution, his pregnant mistress, and one of the dictator's agents. This personal act by Dario foreshadows the future slaughter that is to take place in the name of the liberation. Like Hernan Cortes, Dario leads his small band of men on a one-way adventure, "Al desvanecerse comprendieron que de esa hora en adelante no les quedaba mas recurso que triunfar para seguir viviendo" (p. 52). With the financial support of the united States oil interest, American merce naries, and the peasants, C^sar Dario sweeps over the coun try in a short period of time. At every stage of the con flict Dario sends his messages out to his countrymen over 295 ! an impromptu national radio system. The intellectual Hdctori Gama senses an impending danger in the power of this revo lutionary leader as he hears him broadcast his message to the populace. "Ahora," penso el catedratico, "Dario es solo un orador de plazuela; pero llegara a ser un gran lider capaz de provocar la histeria de quienes lo escuchan. Hay en el un autdntico conductor de masas; un demagogo intuitivo. Tiene--y se sacudio al descubrir inesperadamente la ver- dad— los tamanos, los recursos y la madera de los dicta- dores." (p. 57) And indeed the power of the caudillo was tremendous. He seemed to gain strength from the smell of blood and gun- smoke. It was his strength and his rage that he transmitted to the peasants in his speech. "Hermanos: no olvidemos que todos sin excepcion tene mos una vieja deuda que cobrar, un antiguo agravio que vengar. Que los verdugos paguen con su sangre la sangre inocente que hicieron correr. Cuando cada uno de noso- i tros haya liquidado a su enemigo, al soldado, al poli- j cia, al oficial, al espia criminales, habremos librado j definitivamente a nuestra amada patria de la feroz dictadura que la asfixia ..." (p. 57) j In a short time Dario defeated all of the Federal forces with the exception of colonel Orlando Macin's Divi- sidn del Oeste. In typical Latin American manner, Dario avoids a showdown fight with Macin's troops by reaching an ! agreement with the latter. It is decided that Macin and 296 his Division will join up with the revolutionaries and both he and Dario will rule jointly until elections can be held. But both individuals have other plans. Dario mumbles to himself, "el pais es demasiado chico para que vivamos ambos Orlando y yo. En concecuencia uno de los dos sobra" (p. 116). Macin, for his part, begins to plot the assassination of Dario almost immediately, but it is Dario who is victor ious, for after Macin's men fail in their assassination attempt Dario's men are successful in theirs. The caudillo is not content, however, in merely destroying Orlando Macin; he declares: "La d e s a p a r i c i o n f i s i c a d e O rla n d o M acin n o b a s t a . Necesito acabar con sus amigos, sus partidarios, sus oficiales. Necesito aplastarlos a todos; borrar hasta el ultimo vestigio de orlandismo. Si quiero un gobi- erno eatable, es preciso no tener piedad por nadie; no dejar viva a ninguna persona que pueda, con el tiempo, disputarme el mando. Mejor oportunidad que esta no se me presenter^ nunca. La situacion justifies mis actos; el desconcierto los facilita.'1 La matanza fue rapida, implacable, absoluta. De la Division del Oeste no que- daron mas que los sargentos. Las carceles fueron llena- das con centenares de individuos que publics o privada- mente hicieron profesion de fe macinista. (p. 141) Thus ends the first part of the novel. For in only thirty-six hours Cesar Dario completes his purge of the country— arresting, convicting, and sentencing to death any individual who could possibly pose a threat to his total 297 I : i icontrol of the country. I i The second part of the book, called "El Dia," repre- j ! sents Cesar Dario's first six years as president of the republic. Known as the Attila of Julapa, the scene of his | first victory, the little colonel is transformed into the national caudillo— the savior of the fatherland. Using the typical revolutionary rhetoric, he promises that the country will belong to the people, not a select few. He promises schools, dams, factories, hospitals, and jobs. The amazing thing about Dario was that he began to fulfill his promises. He enjoyed an euphoria of energy. For him there was no measure of, nor any limit to, the solv-1 ing, analyzing, and discussing of problems with any of the | I nation's technicians. He had no family. He needed no com- ! I i panionship except that of his appointed functionaries and j his work. His biggest virtue, and that of all successful j dictators, rested in his ability to act where others would hesitate. His enemies, the conservatives, led by Tiberio Mariel, could do little more than accuse him of being a Communist and of raising taxes. The crowds, on the other hand, in response to the new jobs, the construction, the obvious prosperity, would greet the caudillo wherever he went with shouts of "Dario, Dario, Dario; Viva el Presidente." Dario succeeded and the country prospered materially, but spiritually— as Don Hector Gama had feared— the populace » was being converted into a rebano. a flock of sheep that followed almost without will the wishes of the caudillo, Dario ensured his success by creating an effective police force headed by the very same sadist who had terrorized the ; citizenry under the previous dictator. Senor Joe Flynn, the American gunman, had willingly accepted Dario's offer to return to the country and regulate the terror and vio lence . Thus ended the dream of democracy that a few like Hector Gama and the young lieutenant, Victor, had held. Dario determines this when he states after an attempt has j i been made on his life: i i "No es posible seguir adelante mientras me rodeen ene- j migos capaces de pagar a un ases ino para que me mate. Es necesario descubrirlos y exterminarlos. Jure hacerlo y no puedo faltar a mi promesa. Quiza todo esto, como dice Octavio Uribe, sea consecuencia de la excesiva democracia que he concedido. Pero se acabo. No tole- rare que la libertad que el gobierno otorga se utilice para conspirar contra mi vida, contra el orden, contra la estabilidad del regimen. Es preciso matar a unos cuantos. La sangre que derrame no me serrf reclamada | por nadie." El atentado, en cierta forma, le serviria para desembarazarse de algunos eleinentos que le estor- baban, le irritaban, no le merecian confianza. — Para salvar al tronco, hay que podar las ramas— se dijo en voz alta. Tomo la pluma y en una hoja de papel comenz<5 a escribir una lista de nombres. (p. 168) With no other obstacles before him, the caudillo is converted into an absolute dictator. He restructures the military forces, thus ensuring the impossibility of a mili tary coup; he nullifies the power of the Church; he appoints; a cabinet of emasculated politicians; and above all, he wins the hearts of the populace. From such a position of power he is able to complete many of the great public works, strengthen the economy, reduce unemployment, strengthen the country's credit, and win a name for himself in the foreign press. Like so many other dictators of Latin America— Per<5n, Rojas Pinilla, P&rez Jimenez, Getulio Vargas— he succeeded for a time through sheer energy which was fed constantly by the cries of "Dario, Dario, Dario." [ | As a monument to himself, he had built a presidential i I fortress in which were located not only his offices but alsoi I those of his ministers. In order to retain complete control of the government and to be aware of every conceivable ac tion, he had foreign technicians install hidden microphones in all of the offices and living quarters of his ministers. :He also had bombs planted in the homes of all of his chief i i I functionaries and he controlled the detonation switches, |thus ensuring their loyalty. [ For six years Cesar Dario ruled the country with the proverbial iron hand. He was competent, efficient, and proud. His pride took him to great ends and placed him in very dangerous situations, but Dario always survived. He brought the giant Wall Street-controlled Tropical Fruit Company to its knees, extracting from it fantastic guaran tees and concessions. The same was true of the foreign-run oil monopolies in the country. With the threat of nation alization, he made them dance to his music, but at the end of six years C^sar Dario was obliged to step down. He was obliged to do so because of his own promise of no re- election, and since he was a man of his word, he would not run again. Instead he would back his minister of education, Don Hector Gama. The old intellectual fails, however, as a president. His idealism, his faith in the democratic principles, his estrangement from the masses all lead the country to the brink of civil war. How could such a passive man expect to fill the boots of Cesar Dario? Consequently, in typical fashion, the leaders of the national army seek out the old caudillo. who has painfully remained in the shadows, and I ioffer him their allegiance. "El ejercito nacional, senor general C^sar Dario, ha decidido desconocer al gobierno. Nosotros, j^fes oficials, desearmos que acepte usted nuevamente el mando y asuma la responsabilidad de salvar a la Republics" (p. 394) . The role of savior suits Dario well; he has played it before. In less than half an hour he and his military aides reoccupy, without a gunshot, the pres ident ia1 fortress. In t h e n e x t s c e n e , a f t e r D a r i o ' s r e t u r n t o t h e p r e s i d e n t i a l o f f i c e s , h e c o n f r o n t s t h e d e p o s e d p r e s i d e n t , H e c to r Gama. The o l d g e n tle m a n a s k s D a r io a q u e s t i o n t h a t h a s p u z z le d h i s t o r i a n s an d p o l i t i c i a n s f o r g e n e r a t i o n s r — Usted, general, pisoted derechos, mane11Id liberta- des, asesino gente, chantajed en gran escala, y todo lo justified diciendo que era para bien del pueblo ... — La voz del presidente era suave, firme, digna. No habia resentimiento en ella; ni odio, ni amargura tam- poco— . Yo, en cambio, por considerar indignos de un gobernante tales procedimientos, no los usd; los con done siempre. Trate de hacer un gobierno basado en la justicia y en la honestidad administrative, y fracase. iAcaso para mantener el control de un pais es preciso que el rdgimen se tina las manos de sangre? lAcaso nuestros pueblos prefieren el latigo de la dictadura a la mano amiga del hombre de buena voluntad? (p. 397) The second section of the novel ends with Dario once again in the presidential chair. The third part, called "La Noche," deals with the secret return from exile of |Victor, the young lieutenant who had faithfully served the caudillo during his first term in office. Victor, an or- i phan, had been treated like a son by the caudillo. He rep- resented, in a sense, the only family the dictator had. But 302 ! i i I I t h e y o u n g l i e u t e n a n t h a d b ecom e p r o g r e s s i v e l y m ore d i s i l l u - s i o n e d b y D a r i o ' s t e c h n iq u e s o f g o v e r n in g . He o p p o s e d t h e v i o l e n c e a n d t h e t e r r o r o f t h e r e g i m e . When h e u l t i m a t e l y !had t o c h o o s e b e tw e e n D a r io an d Gama, h e c h o s e t h e l a t t e r , p u t t i n g a l l h i s f a i t h in t h e r e a s o n and t h e i d e a l s o f d e m o c r a c y t h a t t h e o l d g e n tle m a n f o s t e r e d . T h u s, w hen H e c t o r Gama w as o u s t e d , V i c t o r w as a l s o s e n t i n t o e x i l e . I t w as in t h e f o r e i g n c o u n t r y t h a t t h e p la n w as c o n c e i v e d t o a s s a s s i n a t e C e sa r D a r io . H e c to r Gama h ad f i n a l l y b e e n c o n v in c e d b y t h e o t h e r e x i l e s t h a t t h e o n l y way t o s a v e t h e c o u n t r y an d p u t a n en d t o d e s p o t is m w as t o e l i m i n a t e C e s a r D a r io an d s t a r t a n e w . V i c t o r v o l u n t e e r e d f o r t h i s m i s s i o n . He v o l u n t e e r e d b e c a u s e h e lo v e d h i s h o m e la n d and h e f e l t som e t y p e o f l o y a l t y t o t h e d i c t a t o r . F o r som e u n e x p la in a b le r e a s o n , h e f e l t t h a t i t s h o u ld b e h i s h an d t h a t k i l l e d t h e d e s p o t . | I I V i c t o r r e t u r n e d t o t h e c o u n t r y a m id s t t h e t r a d i t i o n a l i I c r i e s o f " D a r io , D a r io , D a r io ." He saw th e c a u d i l l o e l e c - j i i t r i f y t h e p o p u la c e w it h h i s s p e e c h . He saw t h e o l d c i t i - z e n s f a l l t o t h e i r k n e e s w e e p in g l i k e c h i l d r e n . O th e r s < i l i s t e n i n g t o t h e d i c t a t o r s t o o d on b e n c h e s w it h t h e i r arm s r a i s e d t o h e a v e n , t h e i r f i n g e r s fo r m in g c r o s s e s . Women t o r e t h e i r c l o t h e s and s t r u c k t h e i r b o d i e s a n d t h e i r f a c e s u n t i l ........ 303 ! l : I ithey drew blood (p. 488) . Victor himself was hypnotized by ! the caudillo1s speech, by his promise to take away the oil i lands from the foreigners and return them to the people. From this day forward, the caudillo shouted, "El petroleo es nuestro, el petroleo es nuestro" (p. 489). victor broke away from the crowd, freeing himself from the hypnotic control of the dictator. He thought to him self, "Y son siempre los pueblos los que pagan, con su propio dolor, el error de haber hecho idolos de los tiranos. Cesar Dario ha llegado ya a ese puento. Si antes servia al pueblo, ahora se sirve del pueblo" (p. 490) . With tears streaming down his face he broke through the crowd, faced the man he had loved as a father, and assassinated him. i i I El Caudillo l As a dictator Cdsar Dario embodies most of the traits ! j generally attributed to this type of individual. Spota has j j been thorough in his creation of the despot. The element of machismo appears almost immediately as one sees in the first few pages of the novel Colonel Dario taking command iof a small group of exiles with whom he begins a revolution. I With his own hand he kills the first three individuals in- i volved in counterrevolutionary activities . As Hector Gama observed, Dario was the leader because he acted, because he j did not vacillate. “Ye todo tenia que resolverlo el Cau dillo : para cada pregunta, una respuesta; para cada con- flicto una solucion y una palabra amable para todos” (p. 66) . Tliis too was a sign of a leader— a kind word, a gesture of understanding toward those he felt were less macho than himself. When his young friend Victor runs away from the first battle, Dario forgives him: “Bra la primera vez que olias la pdlvora. Asi que no te apures. Ahora ya paso todo ... Ven" (p. 73). This mixture of gentleness and virility also stands out as a trait of the caudillo. for several scenes later he orders Victor to kill a prisoner. | i Victor refuses, but the caudillo insists: "tienes que i hecerlo ... para que no crea que eres cobarde" (p. 74). j victor kills for the first time in his young life, then runsj off to vomit. i i Just as the young lieutenant submits to the will of the caudillo. so should all the others. Dario makes this quite clear from the very beginning when there is a dispute as to Mhich city they will attack next, Mayan or Copala. His chief military aides insist that Mayrfn is the logical choice, since it is not as well guarded by government troops as is Copala. But Dario has decided on Copala for his own reasons. After the others have submitted to his will he i muses, "RtSmulo y los demas deben irse acostumbrando a saber que la unica voluntad es la mia y que mia ha de ser la pa- labra final de cade decision" (p. 79). The caudillo has selected Copala because it is there that the government troops have their one armored tank. This tank becomes an obsession with the caudillo. He will take the city and possess the tank regardless of the number of lives that are needlessly lost. "No me imports cuanto esfuerzo haya que hacer, ni cuanta sangre derrarmar, pero el tanque ha de ser mio" {p. 81). Later, when the fighting has ended and the revolutionary army has surrounded the f capital city and is prepared to make its triumphant entry, Cesar Dario mounts the polished and manicured tank and leads' I his soldiers into the city. Like Christ's triumphant entry ; ! into Jerusalem, Cesar Dario rides his tank and beams at the j shouts of "Viva Dario, viva la revoluci<5n, Mueran los ti- ranos." And the vicious political circle of Latin American politics begins anew. i i c£sar Dario, like so many other dictators, was a gifted |man, a man of great energy and willpower, a man who was able i l ito dominate the other men around him because of his own f a n t a s t i c e g o , a n e g o t h a t l e d h im t o b e l i e v e t h a t h e w as i a lm o s t s u p e r n a t u r a l . When h e i s b e t r a y e d b y a f r i e n d , h e i a s k s t h e t r a i t o r i f h e h a d r e c e i v e d t h i r t y p i e c e s o f s i l v e r i in p a y m en t f o r h i s b e t r a y a l . A f t e r h e i s i n s t a l l e d a s P r e s i d e n t , h e h a s m onum ents e r e c t e d t o h i m s e l f i n e v e r y p a r t o f t h e c o u n t r y . In m a t t e r s o f j u s t i c e , h e h a s t o t a l pow er o v e r l i f e an d d e a t h . " K i ll t h i s o n e , h e h a s d is o b e y e d m e; o r s e t t h a t o n e f r e e , I f o r g i v e h im h i s t r e s p a s s e s . " P r o b a b ly t h e m o st o b v io u s e x a m p le o f D a r i o ' s s u p e r e g o t h a t t h e a u th o r p r e s e n t s in t h e n o v e l i s fo u n d i n t h e d e s c r i p t i o n o f t h e I n d ia n g o d , L a ik ip u . S p o ta c o m b in e s h e r e t h e C h r i s t i a n d e i t y w i t h t h a t o f t h e p r e -C o lu m b ia n p a n th e o n i o f g o d s t o e m p h a s iz e t h e f a c t t h a t D a r io t a k e s t o t a l c o n t r o l | o f t h e p e a s a n t ' s m ind b e c a u s e h e b e c o m e s b o th t h e C h r i s t i a n I i an d t h e I n d ia n g o d s t h a t t h e y w o r s h ip . The m yth o f L a ik ip u 1 j p r e s e n t e d in t h e n o v e l i s q u i t e s i m i l a r t o t h e A z t e c m yth j I o f t h e g o d Q u e t z a l c o a t l who i s , o f c o u r s e , t h e m o st s i g n i f i c a n t d e i t y i n p r e -C o lu m b ia n M e x ic o . L a ik ip u — q u e e n l a le n g u a in d ig e n a d e l p a i s s i g n i f i c a " P adre y S a lv a d o r d e T od as l a s C o a a s ''— v i n o d e l m ar, | s e g u n l a l e y e n d a , a b o r d o d e un h e r m o so b a j e l d o r a d o , y e s c o g i d e s a s f e r a c e s t i e r r a s , d e c lim a i d e a l y a b u n - d a n t e r i q u e z a , p a r a v i v i r . E n sen d a l o s n a t i v o s , lu e g o i d e a p r e n d e r s u id io m a , l a c i e n c i a d e l a a s t r o n o m ia y l a ! m a te m d tic a ; a e d i f i c a r te m p lo s y p a l a c i o s ; a b e n e f i c i a r ! m e t a le s y p u l i r l a s p i e d r a s p r e c i o s a s q u e h a l l a b a n e n t r e i l a s r o c a s ; a f a b r i c a r im pl a m e n to s a g r i c o l a s v a r o t u r a r con ellos los campos. Convivio con ese pueblo, que le dio el nombre de Padre, mas de una generacidn; y un hermoso dia, sintidndose Laikipu nostalgico del remoto imperio del que habia venido, se despidid de sus amigos. Al marcharse prometid regresar alguna vez para continuar gobernando con sabiduria y justicia. No dejaba hijos, pero si discipulos. Era, claro, una leyenda similar a cuantas se encuentran en la tradicion y aun en la histo- ria de los paises de Amdrica, pero Cesar Dario la juz- gaba fascinante. El mas secreto de todos sus pensa- mientos era el de considerarse el mismo capaz de reen- carnar al "Padre y Salvador de Todas las Cosas”; porque, £no lo animaban acaso profundos y purisimos deseos de conducir a la republica por la senda del orden y la prosperidad? £No habia venido dl tambien a traves del agua, para liberar a su patria de los males que la aquejaban? iY no deseaba el tanque de Copala para entrar a bordo de el a la capital? (pp. 83-84) Cesar Dario, in addition to his obvious spiritual power over the masses, was an astute political leader. He pos sessed a true ideology, which was something contrary to most; j Latin American dictators, and moved swiftly and ruthlessly j i to implement it. And contrary to many Latin American die- I tators, as well, he did think of the good of the nation ; i rather than his own personal gain. He did not endeavor to J i amass a private fortune, as many tyrants had; in fact, he | ! lived a very spartan life, barely attending to his own per sonal needs. His error was in believing that he alone 'understood all of the nation's problems and that only an iiron will such as his own could solve these problems. He i j felt that because the masses loved him— and they did— he had a mandate to be the "cirujano de la mano de hierro" that would cure all of the ills. i Dario began by affirming "la libertad de creencia y de asociacion," but it did not take him long to realize that such guarantees to the citizenry only meant opposition by the conservative groups and special interest groups such as the Church. If he wished to solve the problems of hunger, illiteracy, crime, and unemployment in the nation, he needed a free hand. Thus, even though he had said that "nuestra revolucion tiene como ideal basico el raspeto a la vida y la libertad del hombre" (p. 69), he did not hesitate to eliminate his adversaries with the system of people's courts that always passed the sentence that the caudillo ordered, j With his opposition eliminated and the country under i I his control, he declared his ideology, his personal politi- ; cal prognosis for the country: ” ... No soy comunista, como me acusan de serlo los sicarios del gobierno. No tengo nexos de ninguna clase, tampoco, con los fascistas o los clericales ni mucho menos con los capitalistas extranjeros, como el regimen ha hecho escribir en la prensa internacional a sus edi- torialistas a sueldo. Ni unico compromiso, tporque tengo uno muy grande!, es con el pueblo, y esto no es un lugar comun. A ese pueblo, mi pueblo, empeno hoy mi palabra de hombre y de soldado. No ambiciono ni poder ni fortuna; cuando la Republica vuelva a ser I libre, yo la pondre en manos de quien ese pueblo de- signe para gobernarlo." (p. 95) >fith this declaration of his concern for "la patria" he begins to shape the destiny of the country. His only enemy ■ i is time, time to accomplish all he hopes to while he is in power. For he will remain faithful to his pledge of not running for a second term. He has only six years to perform his miracles. In many ways, Cesar Dario was a unique dictator— unique because he understood so well the history of Latin America's struggle with dictatorship and caudillismo. He demonstrates this knowledge when he instructs his aide de camp on the shortcomings of other revolutions in the Hemisphere: " ... Casi nunca son revoluciones del pueblo. General- mente, los gobiernos son derrocados por un reducido grupo de jefes del Ej&rcito que desean la situacitSn , politics y econdmica de los que estan arriba. Al cabo de un tiempo, meses o anos, otros oficiales, o acaso los mismos que fueron echados antes, conspiran, invier- ! ten algo del dinero que robaron, o lo consiguen donde ; pueden, y tratan de volver, o vuelven, por otro periodo. Son como los jugadores de azar: cuando ganan no quieren i retirarse; cuando pierden empenan hasta la camisa, o la honra si les queda, para seguir en la partida.” Victor lo escuchaba con atencidn casi religiosa, pues para 4 l la palabra de Cesar Dario era siempre, en todo, la buena. Saberse depositario de las confidencias del hombre mas poderoso del pais, le proporcionaba la sensa- cidn de estar no sdlo fisica, sino espiritualmente, mas cerca de el; y la certeza y el anhelo de que llegaria con el tiempo a ser continuador de su obra; ejecutor eficiente de sus proyectos. , Recargandose al respaldo de la silla, y aun con la pluma entre los dedos fatigados, continu<5 cdsar Dario: "Estos caudillos milltares son, sin excepcidn, individuos I » guienes sdlo preocupa el dinero. Los hay _____________ inmensamente ricos, aunque sus haberes sean en realidad modestos. Son voraces y traidores como las serpientes; pero como estas, en cuanto tienen la barriga llena bus- can una sombra y en una siesta interminable hacen la digestion. Y que sigan haciendola es la que me pro- pongo. Pronto tendran demasiado que cuidar para arries- garse a perderlo. iSste es un secreto de alta politics, Victor: enriquece a tu enemigo, c6lmalo de honores y favores; nulificalo asij cuando el enemigo esta ahito ya no tiene fuerza." fpp- 188-189) Yet in spite of his knowledge and in spite of his sin cere effort to do good for his country, Cesar Dario becomes a tyrant and a ruthless assassin of both men and ideals. In his frenzied haste to accomplish his ends, to free his country from the economic control of foreign capitalists, to feed the peasants, to cure their ills, to insure their happiness, he destroys their will. The tragedy of the cau- I I dillo's ideology is echoed in the words of Don Hector Gama when he challenges the dictator on his supposed accomplish- | ments: I i I — Esta equivocado, general— monologaba— ; muy equivo- i cado. No cebe al pueblo, no le llene la tripa como lo j esta haciendo. No deje que sea la digestion lo unico j que aprenda a hacer bien. Es necesario inventar una mistica para todos; otra clase de fe, menos materia- lista. Una fe superior. £Me pregunta cual? Bien. Tengo la respuesta. He pensado mucho ... y creo ... I Yo ... — abri6 los ojos; torpemente mir6 en torno. El Caudillo no estaba mas con il— . Una fe superior es lo que nos hace falta ... mucha falta ... (p. 212) i To the Mexican novelist Luis Spota, Cisar Dario represents one strain of Latin American dictators. He is not the greedy egotistical type such as Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic or Rojas Pinilla of Colombia. In stead, he represents the sincere, yet ruthless, patriotic type such as Getulio Vargas of Brazil or Manuel Odria of Peru. In many respects, one can see in c£sar Dario the type of Mexican president that emerged after the Revolution of 1910. It is not unreasonable to believe that Dario embodies the characteristics of Alvaro Obregdn, Plutarco Elias Calles, and even L£zaro Cardenas. Obregdn, for example, was assassinated after he had sought a second term in of fice, just as Dario was in the novel. Calles had been ruthless in disposing of his opposition and controlling the , Church. So, too, had Dario acted during his six years as j I I President. And similarly to the fictional Dario, L&zaro j Cardenas in the 1940's was accused of being a Communist ! I because of his nationalization efforts and his restrictions ; on foreign capitalists. It is obvious, then, that Spota is speaking satirically in the novel when he has Dario state that, "exceptando la mexicana, las demas revoluciones en i i America han sido meros atracos organizados por roilitares I ... " (p. 188). It is obvious that Spota considers the Mexican , . . . . - ' ~ ' 312 1 ! i i R e v o lu t io n a p o l i t i c a l f a i l u r e , j u s t a s C e sa r D a r i o ' s j r e v o l u t i o n h a s f a i l e d , in b o t h c a s e s t h e m a s s e s c o n t in u e d t o b e " r e b a n o s s i n v o l u n t a d ." I t i s o b v io u s t h a t " e l tiem p o , d e la ir a " d o e s n o t e n d i n t h e n o v e l , f o r D a r io i s f e l l e d ! b y an a s s a s s i n ' s b u l l e t a n d t h e c y c l e o f v i o l e n c e b e g i n s a n e w . In M e x ic o , a f t e r O b r e g o n 's a s s a s s i n a t i o n a m o n o l i t h i c o n e - p a r t y s y s t e m e m e r g e d and h a s s u s t a i n e d i t s e l f t o t h i s p r e s e n t d a y . L ik e m o st o f t h e o t h e r w r i t e r s o f h i s g e n e r a t i o n — C a r lo s F u e n t e s , J u a n R u l f o , A g u s t in Y a n e z — L u is S p o ta h o l d s a v e r y p e s s i m i s t i c v ie w o f t h e r e s u l t s o f t h e M e x ic a n R e v o l u t i o n . T h is i s o b v io u s i n a l l o f h i s m a jo r n o v e l s . E ven th o u g h h e may t r e a t h i s c h a r a c t e r s in a s u p e r f i c i a l m a n n er, ' S p o ta h a s a r e a s o n f o r w r i t i n g a s h e d o e s . As J o s ^ R o ja s G a r c id u e n a s b e l i e v e s , “l o q u e s e h a c e e s s e n a l a r , e s c a n d a - lo s a m e n t e , l o mas o b v io d e l o m ucho r i d f c u l o y e s t u p i d o d e j to d a e s a c a n a l l a e n q u e h a f r u c t i f i c a d o l a R e v o lu c io n " | i ! (Brushwood and Garciduenas, p. 128). Spota, it would ap pear, in contrast to, say, Fuentes or Rulfo, prefers to ideal with the obvious and the concrete rather than to delve iinto the abstract realms of the Mexican reality after the Revolution. His novels may lack subtlety and grace, as jmany critics have suggested, but on the other hand, he is 313 ! I one of Mexico's most dynamic and prolific contemporary j movelists. I I I i I CHAPTER XI THE LATIN AMERICAN DICTATOR IN THE WORKS OF FOREIGN AUTHORS There have been numerous novelists outside of Latin America Who have attempted to describe the Latin American dictator. Some have selected specific historical figures such as Doctor Francia of Paraguay, who was the subject of El Supremo (1916) by Edward Lucas White, or Ldpez de Santa Ana of Mexico, who appears in Remember the Alamo (1888) by Amelia Edith Barr. Others, however, have preferred to syn- j i thesize the various elements of Latin American reality and j i i create fictional dictators who serve as prototypes of the j Latin American caudillo. They have also preferred to localize the action of their novels in fictitious countries that could be almost any of the nineteen republics of i Hispanoamerica. Most of the authors in this last group have jpublished their works in the twentieth century and reflect a I imuch broader view of dictatorship than their predecessors. 314 315 I , One r e a s o n f o r t h e i n t e r e s t i n L a t in A m e r ic a show n b y f o r e i g n a u t h o r s i n t h e e a r l y p a r t o f t h e t w e n t i e t h c e n t u r y i was, of course, the result of the Spanish-American War of 1898. The aftermath of the war saw the citizens of England,: France, and the United States descend upon the Latin Ameri can countries for the purpose of exploiting the vast natural resources. As a result of Latin America's womb being opened up to the mining companies, the oil companies, and the fruit growers, she was also put on display to the rest of the world. Latin America's political systems were analyzed, the geography was explored, and the various races were studied. In short, both the ills and the virtues of the region were put on public display. | j Among t h o s e who sh ow ed an i n t e r e s t i n t h e a r e a w e re th e | i i writers of fiction. Such authors as 0. Henry, Joseph Con rad, and the Spaniard Valle-Inclan capitalized on their | visits to Latin America to create works that have long been j recognized as significant studies of Latin America. These 'three authors chose to emphasize the political phenomenon ;of dictatorship in their fiction. 0. Henry in 1904 pub lished Cabbages and Kings. a loosely unified collection of stories that are based on his Central American adventures and emphasize the role of a political tyrant. In 1904 Joseph Conrad published Nostromo, a powerful novel of poli- ! tics and adventure that was inspired by Conrad's brief visit i i , I to Latin America. Valle-Inclan's novel Tirano Banderas appeared in 1926 and was also inspired by the author's visit' to the "green continent." In more recent times other writ ers, such as the exiled Spaniard Francisco Ayala and the Englishman Grahame Greene, have also introduced the element of Latin American dictatorship in Muertes de perro (1958) and The Comedians (1966) respectively. One element encountered in the five novels mentioned in the previous paragraph is the fact that all five writers have had only a second-hand experience with Latin American dictatorship. That is, their point of view is obviously not; I Latin American. In some ways this is an advantage, as it j often leads to more objectivity that one finds in the I i political novels of the Latin Americans themselves. But on ! ! the other hand, their works rely more on the imagination ; i than on actual experience. It appears that because of the combination of these two elements in the works of these jwriters and the balance they have been able to achieve, i I their works have contributed in some respect to an under standing of dictatorship in Latin America. Of course, one must not expect to find the same intensity, the same passion, the same force in the condemnation of dictatorial | regimes found in the works of those Latin American writers who have dealt with the theme of dictatorship and who have i likewise experienced the tyranny of that particular politi- j cal system. Tirano Banderas by Ramon Maria del Valle-Inclan The significant value of Tirano Banderas as a work of fiction is without dispute. Ramon Maria del Valle-Inclan greatly influenced novelistic techniques in both Spain and Latin America. His varied use of language, the poetic, the theatrical, the super-realistic elements of his expression I placed him in the vanguard of his generation of novelists. His understanding of the political environment of Latin America, however, has been argued on both sides by many j I critics of Latin American literature. Juan Liscano, for example, feels that Valle-Inclan succeeds in his creation of the dictator Santos Banderas, "no sacrifice la verdad human y social al pintoresquismo del personaje ni a la plastica tan seductora del folklore" (p. 70). Ricardo Havas Ruiz, on the other hand, feels that Valle-Inclrfn failed in his interpretation of Latin American dictatorship because he did not fully understand "el alma americano." Valle-Inclan no ha sabido calar hondo en la esencia de las dictaduras, tematica de la obra, quedandose en lo tipico, en lo efectista como qualquier turista intran- scendente deseoso de admlrar a sus coterraneos con his- j torlas extravagantes de Ultramar. (Navas Ruiz, p. 57) Most critics fall somewhere in between Liscano and Navas Ruiz, concluding that Valle-Inclan's interpretation of Latin American dictatorship may perhaps not be as sage as that of writers native to the area, but that it has a great deal of validity just the same. Prominent among this group is Seymour Menton, who feels that "el lector puede apresiar intelectualmente la experimentscion del novelis- ta,"1 while recognizing his somewhat limited understanding of the realities of Latin American dictatorship. Prior to the publication of Tirano Banderas in 1926, ! Valle-Inclan had visited Latin America three times, the | I first visit in 1892, the second in 1910, and the third in i i 1922. On the first and last visits he spent most of his j i time in Mexico, where he witnessed both the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz and the post-revolutionary presidency of I Seymour Menton, "La novela experimental y la republics comprensiva de Hispanoam6rica: estudio analitico y com parative de Nostromo. Le Dlctateur. Tirano Banderas y El senor presidente.1 1 Humanitas. anuario del Centro de Estudios Humanisticos, Universidad de Nuevo Leon, Mexico (1960), p. 441. [A lvaro O b r e g o n . T h e se f a c t o r s , p lu s a h o s t o f o t h e r d e t a i l s ! in t h e n o v e l i t s e l f , h a v e l e d many c r i t i c s t o b e l i e v e t h a t th o u g h T ir a n o B a n d e r a s i s s u p p o s e d t o b e a n o v e l b a s e d on a f i c t i t i o u s d i c t a t o r i n a f i c t i t i o u s c o u n t r y , m o st o f t h e 2 w ork i s i n s p i r e d b y t h e M e x ic o o f V a l l e - I n c l a n ' s v i s i t s . Emma S p e r a t t i - P i n e r o t e l l s u s t h a t o n h i s s e c o n d t r i p , V a l l e - I n c l a n " se e n t e r o c o n mas m in u c ia d e P o r f i r i o D ia z , l a a c t u a c i 6 n d e M adero y d e l o s e s p a n o l e s r e s i d e n t e s , l o s p r o - y e c t o s d e d i s t r i b u c i o n d e l a t i e r r a y s u s i m p a t i a p o r e l t 3 i n d i o y p o r la r e v o l u c i o n s e a c e n t u o ." A l l o f t h e s e e l e m en ts a p p e a r in t h e n o v e l an d d e m o n s t r a te Don R am on's c l o s e n e s s t o M e x ic o an d t o i t s h i s t o r y . One o f h i s f i r s t w o rk s on M e x ic o , w h ic h w as a c o l l e c t i o n o f g e o g r a p h ic d e - i I s c r i p t i o n s o f t h e c o u n t r y , w as g i v e n t h e t i t l e o f " T ie r r a i C a l i e n t e . ” T h is p seu d on ym f o r M e x ic o a l s o form ed p a r t o f j t h e t i t l e o f t h e n o v e l u n d e r d i s c u s s i o n , T ir a n o B a n d e r a s : ! una n o v e la d e T ie r r a C a l i e n t e . f T h e r e a r e nu m erou s o t h e r a l l u s i o n s t o M e x ic o in t h e | ! L is c a n o , N avas R u iz , and Seym our M en ton a l l e x p r e s s t h i s o p in io n i n t h e t h r e e w o rk s c i t e d a b o v e . "Valle-Inc lan y Mexico, ” in Ramon Maria del Valle- Inclan : An Appraisal of His Life and Works, ed. Anthony jN. Zahareas (New York: Las Americas Publishing Co., 1966), ip. 25. ! 320 novel and if they do not make the work a re-creation of the Porfirian era, they certainly demonstrate the influence of the period on the novel. For example, Valle-lnclan repeat edly refers to "los cientificos" who were likewise the sig nificant part of Don Porfirio's administration. The revo lutionary plans of Filomeno Cuevas in the novel also paral lel the Mexican Revolution. One of the regional caudillos in the novel is called Doroteo Rojas and seems to be a fic tional representation of Pancho Villa, whose real name was Doroteo Arango. And more significantly, the Ecuadorian ambassador in the novel points out that Santos Banderas is supported by the same elements that supported Porfirio Diaz. "Se unen para sostenerlo los egoismos del criollaje, duenos 4 de la tierra, y las fxnanzas extranjeras." The critic Emma Speratti-Pinero has also pointed out that in addition to the mexicanismos that predominate in the i artificial American language, Valle-lnclan has created “hay i muchos otros rasgos qua indican hasta que punto Valle habia eneontrado en Mexico una veta riquisma para alimentar su ! libro” (p. 702). Still in the area of language, for ! j 4Ram6n Maria del Valle-lnclan, Tirano Banderas (Madrid: j&spasa Calpe, S. A., 1968), p. 25. 321 ' i ! instance, valle-lnclan speaks of Santos Banderas' sword, which was called La Matona. the name also given to Forfirio ^ Diaz's sword in real life. The revolutionaries also speak I of their Plan, the word used in Mexico for revolutionary | manifestos; Zacarias the Indian calls his dog "Porfirio," an obvious demonstration of his animosity toward the dicta tor; and finally, the action of the Spanish colony, Los qauchupines, in the novel parallels the reaction of the Spaniards in the time of the Mexican Revolution. Valle- lnclan seems to be attacking his own countrymen for their support of the dictator. "Toda la colonia espanola eleva sus homenojes al benemerito patricio, raro ejemplo de virtud i y energia, que ha sabido restablecer el imperio del orden j j imponiendo un castigo ejemplar a la demagogia revolucio- j naria" (Valle-lnclan, p. 17). valle-lnclan not only criti- j cizes the Gauchuplnes that support the dictator, he is also j critical of the five centuries of criollo egoism that has resulted in the maltreatment of the Indian and the evolution ; I of a caste system. Valle-lnclan, of course, does not use the name of Mexico or that of any historical figure. Even though he was jprimarily influenced by the Mexican situation around the time of the Revolution of 1910, he attempted to create a lLatin American country that could represent most of the I region and to re-create a dictator who was a composite of many of the hemisphere's most notable tyrants. In a letter to Alfonso Reyes in 1923, valle-lnclan indicated his inten tion of writing a novel that would incorporate all of Latin America: ... Hablaremos de nuestro Mexico. — Estos tiempos tra- bajaba en una novela americana: "Tirano Banderas". La novela de un tirano con rasgos del Doctor Francia, de Rosas, de Melgarejo, de Lopez, y de don Porfirio. Una sintesis el heroe, y el lenguaje una suma de modismos americanos de todos los paises de lengua espanola, desde el modo lepero al modo gaucho. La Republics de Santa Trinidad de Tierra Firme es un pais imaginario, como esas fortes europeas que pinta en algun libro Abel Hermant. (Speratti-Pinero, p. 708) The name of the country is never given, though the ! I capital city is called Santa Fe de Tierra Firme. The action: I of the novel is supposed to take place within two days, but what Valle-lnclan has actually done is present in cubistic j j fashion a mural of 100 years of Latin American history. The! period that can be deciphered covers the years between the Wars of Independence from Spain until the Mexican Revolution of 1910. The author tells us, for example, that Santos i Banderas had fought against the Spaniards in Peru. This would indicate a date around 1824. Seymour Menton points out that Emilio Castelar mentioned in the book was a m i n i s t e r in S p a in in 1873 ( p . 439) . The p o s i t i v i s t p h i l o s - I o p h y o f A u g u s te C om te, a l s o m e n tio n e d i n t h e n o v e l , i n f l u - i e n c e d t h e " c i e n t i f i c o s " i n M e x ic o b e g in n in g a r o u n d 1880. The o i l i n t e r e s t s t h a t a r e d i s c u s s e d i n t h e n o v e l and t h e U n ite d S t a t e s in v o lv e m e n t o c c u r r e d a r o u n d 1900. And f i n a l l y , t h e a g r a r i a n r e v o l u t i o n t h a t u l t i m a t e l y t o p p le d T ir a n o B a n d e r a s o c c u r r e d in M e x ic o in 1910. T h u s, v a l l e - l n c l a n h a s h i g h l i g h t e d t h e s i g n i f i c a n t a s p e c t s o f L a t in A m e r ic a 's s t r u g g l e f o r in d e p e n d e n c e s i n c e t h e e n d o f t h e arm ed c o n f l i c t w i t h S p a in in t h e 1820's: t h e a l i e n a t i o n from t h e m o th e r c o u n t r y , f o r e i g n e x p l o i t a t i o n , r a c i a l c o n f l i c t , and a g r a r ia n r e f o r m . The p l o t o f t h e n o v e l i s e q u a l l y w e l l d e s i g n e d . I t f o c u s e s on t h e r e v o l u t i o n a r y p l o t i n w h ic h a l l o f t h e m a jo r I c h a r a c t e r s a r e i n v o l v e d i n o n e way o r a n o t h e r . The o v e r - i j th r o w o f t h e d i c t a t o r S a n t o s B a n d e r a s i s t h e o b v io u s g o a l j i o f t h e r e v o l u t i o n , f o r , a s w as t h e c a s e w it h P o r f i r i o D ia z , ; i a n o t h e r L a t in A m e rica n d i c t a t o r a t t h e t u r n o f t h e c e n t u r y , B a n d e r a s h a s s o l d o u t h i s c o u n t r y t o f o r e i g n i n t e r e s t s . V a l l e - I n c lr f n p o i n t s o u t t h e i d i o c y o f c i v i l w ar b y h a v in g ! t h e m a jo r e v e n t s i n t h e n o v e l d e p e n d upon s u c h f o o l i s h i n c i d e n t s a s t h e a c c i d e n t a l b r e a k in g o f som e c h e a p e a r t h e n v e s s e l s . C o lo n e l D o m in ic o d e l a G tfndara a c c i d e n t a l l y b r e a k s 324 t h e s e v e s s e l s a s h e h u r r i e d l y p a s s e s b y Dona L u p i t a ' s r e fr e s h m e n t s t a n d . The d i c t a t o r u s e s t h i s i n c i d e n t a s a p r e t e x t t o e l i m i n a t e C o lo n e l d e la G a n d a ra , who h a s lo n g b e e n h i s a l l y an d f r i e n d . T hus t h e t y p i c a l b e t r a y a l b e g i n s . As a r e s u l t o f t h e b r o k e n p o t s . Dona R osa P i n t a d o ' s s o n i s im p r is o n e d . D ip lo m a t ic r e l a t i o n s w it h S p a in a r e a lm o s t b r o k e n o f f a n d N acho v e g u i l l a s l o s e s f a v o r w it h B a n d e r a s . A l l o f t h i s t a k e s p l a c e b e c a u s e N acho V e g u i l l a s w a rn s C o lo n e l d e l a G and ara t h a t t h e d i c t a t o r h a s i s s u e d o r d e r s t o a r r e s t h im . The C o l o n e l , h o w e v e r , e s c a p e s th r o u g h t h e w in dow o f " e l p r o s t i b u l o " b u t i n s o d o in g i m p l i c a t e s a y o u n g s t u d e n t w h o, i t t u r n s o u t , i s R osa P i n t a d o ' s s o n . C o lo n e l d e l a G a n d a ra , w it h t h e a i d o f t h e I n d ia n Z a c a r ia s who h a s j o i n e d t h e r e v o l u t i o n t o a v e n g e t h e d e a t h o f h i s w i f e and s o n , e s c a p e s from t h e c i t y an d r e a c h e s t h e h a c ie n d a o f t h e r e v o l u t i o n a r y le a d e r F ilo m e n o C u e v a s . The l a t t e r i s t h e m i l i t a r y le a d e r o f t h e r e v o l t w h i l e R oque C e p e d a , a t r u e i d e a l i s t im p r is o n e d b y t h e d i c t a t o r , s e r v e s a s t h e s p i r i t u a l le a d e r o f t h e r e v o l u t i o n . The r e v o l t s u c c e e d s , b u t o n ly a f t e r V a l l e - l n c l a n h a s a c c o m p lis h e d o n e o f h i s g o a l s , t h a t o f p a i n t i n g u n f a v o r a b le c a r i c a t u r e s o f s u c h i n d i v i d u a l s a s t h e S p a n is h m i n i s t e r , t h e N o r th A m e r ic a n a d v e n t u r e r M r. C ontum , an d r e p r e s e n t a t i v e s o f E n g la n d , F r a n c e , Brazil, and even Japan. i The figure of Santos Banderas is by far the most inter - j i esting. Valle-lnclan1s creation of the dictator, however, differs in many respects from the creation of most Latin American novelists who have also treated the phenomenon of dictatorship. One reason for this is, as Navas Ruiz ex plains, that "Valle-lnclan en relacidn a la dictadura his- panoamericana, no era un escritor comprometido y la vio desde fuera de toda vivencia desde un arte puro" (p. 64). It is true that Valle-lnclan had never really suffered the repressions of dictatorship. Life in Spain under Primo de Rivera could hardly be compared to that under most Latin American dictatorships. Thus, it seems that Navas Ruiz's objections that Valle-lnclan showed little true compassion or understanding may be well founded. j Don Ram6n does present the external elements of the dictatorial state, the network of spies, the prisons, the violence, and the plot to overthrow the tyrant. But even I I here he lacks the true feelings of one who has lived in a constant atmosphere of fear and terror. The prisons he i describes, for example, are almost recreation centers \diere jthe prisoners can exchange ideas freely. And as regards I Jvalie-Inclan*s tyrant, he is almost a sympathetic figure. His tragic end, in fact, almost absolves him of any sin, for; we see him perform a truly noble act when he kills his idiot daughter to keep her from falling into the hands of the revolutionaries. i Valle-lnclan tried to combine in the figure of the dictator the two elements that he considered major compo nents in the evolution of dictatorship in Latin America, the Church and the military. Thus, he names his dictator Santos Banderas, two words that symbolize these institutions. In spite of the intricacy of his creation, Valle-lnclan fails to create a real person. Santos Banderas possesses none of the elements of the "divine" that his name implies, nor does he inspire hate, fear, or passion in those who seek to over-| i throw the temporal image of the man. Indeed, most of Valle- ! Inclan's characters are mere puppets, stereotyped images of j i what Valle-lnclan thought the Latin Americans would be in j i similar situations . "Aun cuando el lector puede apreciar i intelectualmente la experimentacion del novelists, no logra identificarse con los personajes" (Menton, p. 442). The construction of Valle-Inclan's work was indeed in tricate and the inventiveness of his style was truly in genious, but if his intention was to write a political novel, he fell short of his goal. Many critics feel, in r " ” ~ ~ ~ ~ ’ “ ' 327 ! I I f fact, that the political elements were actually secondary to the artistic qualities of the work. The latter conclu- ! sion seems to have determined the place of Tirano Banderas i in Hispanic letters . Host critics will agree that this novel by valle-lnclan, because of its inventiveness and stylistic genius, has had a profound effect on the writing of novels in both Spain and Latin America, and that if the book fails in its description of the Latin American dicta tor, it certainly has inspired many novels of this genre after its appearance in 1926. Muertee^a^^erro by Francisco Ayala Another novel written by a Spaniard that attempts to I portray Latin American dictatorship is Muertes de perro j j (1958) by Francisco Ayala. In contrast to Valle-lnclan, Ayala has spent a great deal of time in Latin America and has been witness to more than one dictatorship. He was born in Granada in 1906 but since the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) he has lived in exile, principally in Argentina, Puerto Rico, and the united States. He is presently teach ing at the University of Chicago. Ayala is well known throughout the Spanish-speaking world not only as a novelist but also as a literary critic ,and a sociologist. Though he published both poetry and j fiction before he left Spain, his major works have been j written since the 1940's. His most celebrated works are: Los usurpadores (1949), La cabeza del cordero (1949), His - toria de macacos (1955), Muertes de perro (1958), E1 fondo del vaso (1962), El As de Bastos (1963), and El rapto (1965). Ayala's works reflect his knowledge of not only Spain and Latin America but the United States as well. His subject matter is basically the human condition and trans cends any chronological or geographical limits. Because of his many years of self-imposed exile, "Ayala and his writ ings have come to be considered almost as much Latin Ameri- 5 can as Peninsular Spanish." In the many years of his writing career, beginning in i 1925 with Traqlcomedia de un hombre sin espiritu. Ayala has j 1 undergone a profound change. He has moved from idealistic estheticism to "un realismo comprometido." All of his works written after the Spanish Civil War demonstrate his change in attitude, an attitude no doubt occasioned by his es trangement from his homeland. The Spanish critic Alfonso I ^Phyllis Zatlin Boring, introduction to El rapto by Francisco Ayala (New York; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1971), p. vii. 329 ! Armas Ayala indicates that sin duda fue la Guerra Civil espanola la frontera que ; separa a las dos tdcnicas novelisticas de Ayala. Como I a tantos escritores la brutal realidad le obligd a cambiar de actitud. Olvido la estetica y escogio la etica.6 | Ayala's novel Muertes de perro is perhaps his most realistic novel thus far and clearly demonstrates his con cern with the sociopolitical environment of the modern man. This novel, written after Ayala's rejection of Generalissimo Franco in Spain and his experience in Argentina during the Peron Era, is a powerful attack on Latin American dictator ship. The work deals with the political life of a small tropical country whose name is never mentioned but which j could be Guatemala, Nicaragua, Cuba, or any small Latin j American republic in the tropics. There are some events in ! the novel, the coup led by the sergeants who take over the country, for example, that could be modeled after Batista's rise to power in Cuba. Most of the work, however, seems to be a composite of what Ayala considers Latin American real ity. This is obvious in his selection of a dictator as a i i 6"Muertes de perro. novela testimonio," in La novela iberoamar icana contemporanea. XII Congreso Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana (Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela, 1968), p. 304. prototype of the Latin American leader. The plot of the novel is simple enough, though the f manner in which Ayala presents it is a bit complicated. The story is told by Luis Pinedo in the form of memoirs he has collected from Tadeo Rogue, the deceased secretary of the dictator Anton Bocanegra. Pinedo relates a tale full of violence and "man's inhumanity to man." Elements of the mystery story are present and heighten the interest Ayala creates throughout. The dictator Bocanegra has sent Colonel Cortina to San Cosme with orders to bring a young man by the name of Tadeo Roque to the palace, immediately the rumor is spread that the young Roque is an illegitimate son of the dictator. When Roque arrives he is named to the post of Private Sec- 1 i l retary to the President. After only a short period of time j has passed Roque is seduced by the dictator's wife, Dona | Concha. Roque, who does not feel any great love for either j Dona Concha or the dictator, allows the former to talk him into a plot to assassinate her husband. Roque accomplishes his mission but is in turn killed by Pancho Cortina, who has j i previously plotted with Dona Concha to do away with her young lover. Concha and Cortina plan to be married after all the killing is over with and rule jointly over the Republic. Their plans fail, however, for Cortina is also killed and j i Dona Concha goes mad before she dies. After most of the major characters have been eliminated, the country ends up in the hands of a group of sergeants led by the infamous Oloriz. The novel ends when the narrator Luis Pinedo, moved by passion, dreams of power, and greed, kills Oloriz, thus eliminating a prospective tyrant at the same time that he destroys any hope of a future based on reason and justice. Ayala's main theme throughout the novel is the immor ality of a society that allows itself to be governed by such reprehensible individuals as Bocanegra and Oloriz. Ayala presents all of the elements that have thus far been seen j ! in the novels dealing with dictatorship— the corrupt bureau - j i crats, the frequent crimes committed by the tyrant's secret agents, the country converted into the private hacienda of the dictator. The author speaks of the "prostitucion de los periodistas, escritores y academicos que confieren a un 7 patan como Bocanegra el grado de doctor honoris causa." 7Arturo Torres-Rioseco, "La dictadura, tema novelis- tico," Revista Iberoaroericana. 24 (1959), 309. Torres - [Rioseco refers to Ayala's indication in the novel that Boca- [negra was named doctor honoris causa by the National Univer sity . lA y a la i s a l s o c r i t i c a l o f t h e U n it e d S t a t e s A m b a ssa d o r , who h a s a s m a l l d o g flo w n i n t o t h e c o u n t r y i n a l a r g e m i l i t a r y t r a n s p o r t a s a g i f t f o r t h e F i r s t L a d y . He a l s o d e s c r i b e s t h e s u p e r s t i t i o n s o f t h e p r o m in e n t l a d i e s o f t h e s o c i e t y and| t h e i r n e e d f o r t h e w ork o f s p i r i t u a l i s t s . The e n t i r e a t m o sp h e re c r e a t e d b y A y a la i s o n e o f c o r r u p t i o n , b e t r a y a l , t e r r o r , v i o l e n c e , an d d e a t h , t y p i c a l e le m e n t s o f a t y p i c a l L a t in A m e rica n d i c t a t o r s h i p * The a u t h o r ' s d e s c r i p t i o n o f t h e d i c t a t o r B o c a n e g r a i s i n t e r e s t i n g b e c a u s e h e m akes t h e d i c t a t o r i n t o a r e f l e c t i o n o f a l l t h a t t h e s o c i e t y t h a t h e d o m in a te s r e a l l y i s . In h i s p o m p o s it y , h i s e m p t i n e s s , h i s ig n o r a n c e , a n d h i s a r r o g a n c e h e r e f l e c t s t h e p e r s o n a l i t y o f t h e n a t i o n . I I . . . N u e s t r o muy i l u s t r e P r e s i d e n t s , g u e y a e r a d o c t o r j h o n o r i s c a u s a , r e c i b e a h o r a l a s p a lm a s a c a d e m ic a s . S i | q u i s i e r a , p o d r ia o s t e n t a r p o r s u t u r n o , o c o m b in a d o s , [ e l b i r r e t e d e d o c t o r , e l e s p a d ln d e a c a d & n ic o , e l b a s t o n d e m a r i s c a l , l a s c h a r r e t e r a s d e a l m ir a n t e y h a s t a , ip o r I qu^ n o ? , e l c a p e l o c a r d e n a l i c i o , com o h a c e n o t r o s m uchos j J e f e s d e E s t a d o . P e r o n o ; iqu ^ v a l N u e s t r o B o c a n e g r a j n o s e p a g a d e b a r a t i j a s . En lu g a r d e e s a s g a l a s , e l \ u n ic o s im b o lo d e s u p o d e r que l e g u s t a e x h i b i r s o n l a s e s p u e l a s d e p l a t a q u e jam as s e l e c a e n d e l o s t a l o n e s , au n q u e jam as s e l e h a y a v i s t o ta m p o co m o n ta d o a c a b a - ft F r a n c i s c o A y a la , M u e r te s d e p e r r o (B u en os A i r e s : E d i t o r i a l S u d a m lr ic a n a , 1958), pp. 67-68. r — - - - 333 I ! | | Bocanegra throughout personifies the lethargic state of his country. "Raramente dice nada, y tiene la desgracia 9 de convertir en ridiculo todo aquello en que interviene." He is unreasonable and intolerant with anyone or anything that is opposed to his political will and he reacts merci lessly in the elimination of any adversary. The critic, Keith Ellis, feels that his patriotism is sarcastically shown in the manner in which he consumes tremendous amounts of liquor produced in the country (p. 209) . This could also be a way of Ayala's showing how the man whom he has named Bocanegra sucks the blood from the veins of the republic. Regardless of the symbolism, Ayala succeeds admirably in his creation of a tyrant and the society which he dominates. He; is able to show the corruption behind the dictatorship and ' the nightmarish world in vfaich the characters move like dogs; at nightfall in search of food or a place to hide until the j I sun comes out again, but it never does for the many who die in Muertes de perro. j Nostromo by Joseph Conrad One of the most interesting novels about Latin American Q Keith Ellis, El arte narrativo de Francisco Avala (Madrid: Editorial Gredos, S. A., 1964), p. 209. : ' ’ " 334 1 I I 1 dictatorship written by a European is Joseph Conrad's Nostromo (1903). This work is of immense significance not only because of its success as a work of fiction, but also because of its interpretation of Latin American politics. And more, it is both regionalistic and universal. One can see in it the panorama of Latin America: the history, the geography, the economics, and the mixture of races, at the same time that one sees the vastness encountered in such works as War and Peace. “Nostromo is Conrad's most ambi tious feat of imagination and is worthy of comparison with the most ambitious of all great novels."10 Conrad, in fact, did rely heavily on his imagination, for all that he created of Latin America— and there was a j | great deal— was based on a few stops along the coast that | he had made in 1875 as a gun-runner in that area. His i I biographer and critic, Richard Curie, has stated: "his i power of visualization was immense. For example, he built up the whole atmosphere of Nostromo vfaich breathes the very Jocelyn Baines, "Nostromo: Politics, Fiction, and the Uneasy Expatriate,” in Conrad. ed. Marvin Mudrich (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Ha11, Inc., 1966), p. 86 . jspirit of South America, from a few days on the coast."*^ Curie considers Nostromo to be Conrad's greatest work, ; i for he not only succeeded in creating reality out of almost nothing— "two flying visits to South American ports"— he also succeeded in creating a world full of all aspects of human existence: idealism, brutality, hope, despair, final ity. But even Conrad, who at one point stated that his idea was to "render the spirit of an epoch in the history of South America" (Baines, p. 89), was too modest in his ap praisal of his work, because the life described in Costaguana transcends a particular epoch or continent and contains an element of the universal. It is thus not too much to claim that Nostromo is an investigation of the motives of human behavior, in which idealism is set against skep ticism, illusion against disillusion, and responsibility against irresponsibility. Every category of human ac- j tivity which Conrad considered important except the arts,— it is significant that religion is only dealt j with in its temporal aspect— is portrayed and analyzed. (Baines, pp. 89-90) j ! If one were to look for the single most significant | i theme in the work, he would more than likely conclude that 1 there were too many, and all significant, to choose from. Ipor example, there is the theme of the corruptive power of ^ Joseph Conrad (Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday, Page and Co., 1914), p. 71. 336 t riches, symbolized in Hr. Gould's mine of San Tome. There is also the theme of revolutionary idealism versus the status quo, as well as the more specific theme of capital istic imperialism versus nationalism. And of particular , interest here is the theme of dictatorship. As we have already mentioned, Conrad's personal exper ience in South America was very limited. However, he did supplement this by following the suggestions of his friend Cunninghame Graham and reading George Frederick Masterman's Seven Eventful Years in Paraguay and Edward B. Estwich's Venezuela (Curie, p. 84). He relied heavily on these works, fashioning his own dictators in the image of Francisco Solano LtSpez and Guzman Blanco. His readings must have also; included works on other areas of Latin America, for his i knowledge of the geography and the history of the region is ! I quite evident. Historically, for example, he gives a pano ramic view of Latin American history including the pre- j 1 C o lu m b ia n p e r i o d , t h e c o n q u e s t an d c o l o n i z a t i o n , t h e W ars j I of Independence, the anarchy that followed vfcich produced ithe regional caudillos. and finally a description of the I absolute dictators who depended heavily on foreign capital to keep themselves in power. And even more than this, "Con rad no se refiere solaments a las condiciones generales de cada periods sino que tambien alude de vez en cuando con i exactitud a acontecimientos o personajes histdricos" (Men ton, p. 414) . His fictitious dictator, Guzman Bento, for example, had no lower teeth, as was the case with the die- ! tator in real life. Some may accuse Conrad of fabrication because of his limited experience in Latin America. But of course this is the task of the artist, to create. None, however, may ever say that he was not versed in the study of the area. When he indicated that "Castaguana is meant for a South American 12 State in general," he supplies the reader with geographi cal description that could place the fictitious country in Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, even Mexico. | I His introduction of Indians, Negroes, Italians, Englishmen, j Spaniards, and Yankees is intended to add to the panoramic view of the Americans that he intended. His use of langu- | I age, even though he writes in English, almost equals Valle- j I Inclan's lexicon of Americanisms. "Taita, los chulos, yucatecas, yerbamate, viejito" are but a sample of the di versity of language and culture that he introduced. For i i i 12 G. Jean Aubry, Joseph Conrad. Life and Letters (Lon don, 1927), p. 338. | 336 1 I i i n s t a n c e , a t o n e p o i n t h e d e s c r i b e s t h e n a t i v e c o stu m e a s j f u c a t e c a n , w h ic h i s M e x ic a n , a n d a n a t i v e d r i n k , y e r b a m a t e , w h ic h i s A r g e n t i n i a n . Seym our M en ton h a s p r o b a b ly o f f e r e d t h e b e s t d e s c r i p t i o n o f C o n r a d 's i n t e n t i o n t h a t c a n b e p h r a s e d in o n e s e n t e n c e : "E l p r o p o s i t o mas fu n d a m e n ta l d e C on rad e n e s t a o b r a p a r e c e s e r no t a n t o l a d e s c r i p c i o n d e v a r i o s p e r s o n a j e s im p o r ta n t e s com o la c r e a c i o n d e un enorm e c u a d r o q u e c a p tu r a l a e s e n c i a d e t o d a H is p a n o a m e r ic a " (p . 414) . P er h a p s b e c a u s e o f t h e v a s t n e s s o f h i s p r o j e c t , C on rad f a i l e d t o d e v e lo p s i g n i f i c a n t l y a n y o f t h e m a jo r c h a r a c t e r s in t h e w o r k . In c o n t r a s t t o L ord J im , t h e man N o stro m o s t a n d s o u t a s o n l y a s i l h o u e t t e o f a c h a r a c t e r . C on rad ! h i m s e l f i n d i c a t e s t h i s w e a k n e s s : ! . . . b u t t r u l y , N o stro m o i s n o t h in g a t a l l — a f i c t i o n , e m b o d ie d v a n i t y o f a s a i l o r k i n d , — a r o m a n tic m o u th p ie c e ( o f " p e o p le " w h ic h ( I m ean " th e p e o p le " ) f r e q u e n t l y e x - i p e r i e n c e t h e v e r y f e e l i n g t o W hich h e g i v e s u t t e r a n c e . j I d o n o t d e fe n d h im a s a c r e a t i o n . * 3 ; P o s s i b l y b e c a u s e t h e r e i s no n a r r a t o r , a s t h e r e w as i n h i s p r e v io u s lo n g n o v e l s , C on rad e n c o u n t e r e d d i f f i c u l t y i n I t h e d e v e lo p m e n t o f c h a r a c t e r . A l s o , t h e b o o k i s w r i t t e n f i 1 13 , J o s e p h C o n ra d , q u o te d i n B a i n e s , p . 8 6. 339 ^nonymously in the third person and this forces the author to depend on the characters themselves to comment on each I i other and to describe events. This technique, however, does have the advantage of making it easier for Conrad to avoid j the philosophical effusions that sometimes mar his work. The many personal stories of his characters have much more meaning than is obvious at first. That is because of the complexity of the vast theme or the many themes that have been poorly understood. Robert Penn Warren, in an introduction to Nostromo. has pointed out just how complex the characters really are: The personal stories are related not only in the con tact of person and person in plot and as carriers of variations of the theme of illusion, but also in ref erence to the social and historical theme. That is, each character is also a carrier of an attitude toward, a point of view about, society; and each is an actor { in a crucial historical moment. This historical moment is presumably intended to embody the main issues of Conrad's time: capitalism, imperialism, revolution, social j u s t i c e . ! The length of the book, Conrad's longest, plus the com plexities of characterization and theme, require very in tricate structure for the novel. In terms of time, events I 1 1 { 14Joseph Conrad, Nostromo (New York: Random House, 119511 > , p- xxvii. ita k e p l a c e i n e i g h t e e n m o n th s . T h er e a r e nu m erous r e f e r e n c e s t o t h e p a s t , h o w e v e r , w h ic h a l l o w C on rad t o d i s c u s s i s u c h p e r io d s a s t h e d i c t a t o r i a l e r a o f Guzman B e n t o . T h r o u g h o u t t h e n o v e l , t h e d e v i c e s o f t im e s h i f t s an d b i o - j g r a p h i c a l f l a s h b a c k s t e n d t o c r e a t e t h e e f f e c t o f a lm o s t a b o l i s h i n g t im e a l t o g e t h e r . I t a p p e a r s t h a t C o n r a d 's i n t e n t i o n w as t o p r e s e n t a l l o f t h e h i s t o r y , a l l o f t h e g e o g r a p h y , a l l o f t h e th e m e s a s o n e w o u ld i n a v a s t m u r a l. I t a p p e a r s t h a t n o t h in g i s e v e r a c h i e v e d i n t h e n o v e l , f o r by t h e t im e t h e b o o k e n d s , t h e r e a d e r i s b a c ’: w h ere h e s t a r t e d i n t h e b e g i n n i n g . T h is c o u ld b e , p e r h a p s , C o n r a d 's way o f s t a t i n g t h e t h e s i s — t h a t in C o s ta g u a n a , t h e f u t u r e w i l l b e v e r y s i m i l a r t o t h e p a s t — an d b y e x t e n s i o n , C on rad I m ig h t b e s a y i n g t h i s o f L a t in A m e rica i n g e n e r a l ( B a in e s , | p. 89)• | i M ost o f t h e a c t i o n i n N o stro m o o c c u r s d u r in g t h e r e v o - j i l u t i o n a g a i n s t t h e b e n e v o l e n t d i c t a t o r V i c e n t e R i b i e r a , who j r e p r e s e n t e d som e m odicum o f h o p e f o r t h e r e p u b l i c . The [ I h i s t o r y o f C o s ta g u a n a s i n c e in d e p e n d e n c e h a d b e e n t h a t o f ! r e v o l u t i o n a r y u p h e a v a ls and c i v i l w a r s t h a t h a d n e v e r a l t - ! I le r e d t h e b a s i c s o c i o p o l i t i c a l d e f i c i e n c i e s o f t h e c o u n t r y . From l i b e r a l p o l i t i c a l i d e a l i s t s t o s t a t u s q u o m i l i t a r y d i c t a t o r s and b a c k a g a in seem ed t o b e t h e d e s t i n y o f t h e 341 : | j Ration. Thus, when the Montero brothers begin their revo- I lution, the setting is right. The traditional reasons for ■ I I the upheavals are actually "rooted in the political imma turity of the people, in the indolence of the upper classes ; and the mental darkness of the lower" (Conrad, p. 431). There were other reasons for the revolution, of course. "Some felt that the Ribiera reforms meant simply the taking away of the land from the people. Some of it was to be given to foreigners who made the railway. The greater part was to go to the padres" (Conrad, p. 216). Here it appears that Conrad is describing the Diaz regime in Mexico, which made an art of insuring economic progress for foreign in vestors who monopolized the virgin industries. | j The major reason for the revolt appears to be the eco- | nomic interests. The wealth of the San Tome silver mine, i ' I located in the Provincia Occidental, "has attracted, at j i i last, the politicians from beyond the mountains and all the 1 ! vilest riff raff of the republic" (Curie, p. 37). In the revolution that ensues to topple the "benevolent" dictator Ribiera, the provincial capital of Sulaco is attacked. What results is the complete disruption of the social structure. I The aristocracy, fearing its displacement on the social ladder, supports the revolutionaries. Only through the I”" ■ - - - - - 342 j I patriotic efforts of the young journalist Decoud and the ; financial backing of Charles Gould are the citizens able to | ! t hold out until General Barrios, "one of the incorruptibles of the Ribiera regime returns with his army and drives off the invaders" (Curie, p. 38). But before victory is won the patriotic Decoud dies while helping Nostromo hide a boatload of silver from the invaders. The treasure is supposed to have been lost at the bottom of the sea, but in fact Nos tromo has hidden it on an island. During one of his subse quent visits to the island for both love and money he is accidentally shot by the father of his intended bride who has mistaken him for an intruder. When the novel ends Con- ; rad expresses his pessimistic view of the future, for if in this instant the country has been saved by the financial power of the Gould Concession, at another time it will be the cause of the revolution. "Mrs. Gould," Dr. Monygham ! a f firms, J | I I the time approaches when all that the Gould Concession j stands for shall weigh as heavily upon the people as ! the barbarianism, cruelty, and misrule of a few years back . . . It will weigh as heavily and provoke resent- | roent, bloodshed and vengeance because the men have grown different. (Conrad, p. 571) Conrad's canvas, as previously stated, represents a panoramic view of Latin America. Consequently, in terms of 343 the dictator, he does not limit himself to just one. i Briefly, there are three dictators who are mentioned in the work. The first, chronologically, is Guzman Bento, who seems to be a composite of Solano Lopez and Guzman Blanco. Bento, in the novel, is referred to as "the citizen savior of the country" and is the epitome of that type of ruthless caudillo that roamed the llanos like Paez or Rosas of South America in the nineteenth century. Conrad summarizes the reign of Guzman Bento in the following paragraph: Don Jose Avellanos loved his country. He had served it lavishly with his fortune during his diplomatic career, and the later story of his captivity and bar barous ill-usage under Guzman Bento was well known to his listeners. It was a wonder that he had not been a victim of the ferocious and summary executions vhich marked the course of that tyranny; for Guzman had ruled the country with the sombre imbecility of political fanaticism. The power of supreme government had become in his dull mind an object of strange worship, as if it were some sort of cruel deity. It was incarnated in himself, and his adversaries, the Federalists, were the supreme sinners, objects of hate, abhorrence, and fear, as heretics would be to a convinced Inquisitor. For years he had carried about at the tail of the Army of Pacification, all over the country, a captive band of such atrocious animals, who considered themselves most unfortunate at not having been summarily executed. (pp. 151-152) The second dictator is Don Vicente Ribiera, who appears to be Conrad's interpretation of a "positivist" ruler such i las Porfirio Diaz or Juan Vicente g6mez. It was the silver 344 I | | mine of San Tom^ that put Ribiera in power, just as the I capitalist investments at the turn of the century sustained i Diaz in Mexico and Gomez in Venezuela. Ribiera, like his i counterparts, also allowed the foreign interests to build the first railroads in the country and open up the rich isolated regions of the republic. In order to carry out his scheme he created a national guard, as did GtSmez and Diaz. The motto of this "benevolent1 1 dictator was also that of his two historical counterparts: "order, peace, and progress." . . . The second Sulaco regiment, to whom he was pre senting this flag, was going to show its valor in a contest for order, peace, progress; for the establish ment of national self-respect, without vhich— he de clared with energy— "we are a reproach and a by-word among the powers of the world." (p. 151) The last of the dictatorial types presented is a rep- i resentative of those ideological eunuchs such as Trujillo, Somoza, or Batista, who had no lofty goals or even moderate j dreams for the advancement of their nation. Their only ] motives were those of acquiring wealth and wallowing in the glory of their aimless power. The two Montero brothers are jthe obvious representatives of this breed, as Conrad i [plainly implies: Pedrito Montero saw, in the elevation of his brother, the road wide open to his wildest imaginings. This was 34 5"1 w h a t made t h e M o n t e r is t p r o n u n c ia m ie n t o s o u n p r e v e n t - a b l e . The g e n e r a l h i m s e l f p r o b a b ly c o u ld h a v e b e e n b o u g h t o f f , p a c i f i e d w i t h f l a t t e r i e s , d e s p a t c h e d on a d i p l o m a t i c m i s s i o n t o E u r o p e . I t w as h i s b r o t h e r who h a d e g g e d h im o n from f i r s t t o l a s t . He w a n te d t o b ecom e t h e m o st b r i l l i a n t s t a t e s m a n o f S o u th A m er i c a . He d id n o t d e s i r e su p rem e p o w e r . He w o u ld h a v e b e e n a f r a i d o f i t s la b o r an d r i s k , i n f a c t . B e f o r e a l l , P e d r i t o M o n te r o , t a u g h t b y h i s E u ro p ea n e x p e r i e n c e , m ea n t t o a c q u ir e a s e r i o u s f o r t u n e f o r h i m s e l f . W ith t h i s o b j e c t i n v ie w h e o b t a in e d from h i s b r o t h e r , o n t h e v e r y m orrow o f t h e s u c c e s s f u l b a t t l e , t h e p e r m i s s i o n t o p u sh on o v e r t h e m o u n ta in s an d t a k e p o s s e s s i o n o f S u l a c o . S u la c o w as t h e la n d o f f u t u r e p r o s p e r i t y , t h e c h o s e n la n d o f m a t e r i a l p r o g r e s s , t h e o n l y p r o v in c e i n t h e r e p u b l i c o f i n t e r e s t t o E u ro p ea n c a p i t a l i s t s . P e d r i t o M o n te r o , f o l l o w i n g t h e e x a m p le o f t h e Due d e M orny, m ea n t t o h a v e h i s s h a r e o f t h i s p r o s p e r i t y . T h is i s w h a t h e m ea n t l i t e r a l l y . Now h i s b r o t h e r w as m a s te r o f t h e c o u n t r y , w h e th e r a s P r e s i d e n t , D i c t a t o r , o r e v e n a s E m p eror— why n o t a s - a n E m peror? (p p . 431-432) C o n r a d 's m u ra l o f H is p a n o a m e r ic a i s c o m p le t e w it h a j p r e s e n t a t i o n o f t h e d i c t a t o r s who r e p r e s e n t som e o f t h e j i i r e g i o n ' s m o st " i l l u s t r i o u s ” m en , t o s p e a k s a r c a s t i c a l l y . j He h a s s t u d i e d no d e t a i l in d e p t h , th o u g h h e h a s g i v e n a g r e a t d e a l o f m a t e r i a l . The h i s t o r y , t h e g e o g r a p h y , t h e s o c i o l o g y , an d t h e p o l i t i c s o f t h e H is p a n o a m e r ic a n w o r ld I ia r e a d e q u a t e ly p r e s e n t e d . H is w o r k , p e r h a p s , l a c k s c o n v i c - | i t i o n o w in g t o t h e f a c t t h a t h e w as b a r e l y f a m i l i a r w it h t h e i I r e g i o n , b u t n o o n e h a s y e t a c c u s e d him o f b e in g w ron g i n h i s o b s e r v a t i o n s . I f we c a n a c c e p t R o b e r t Penn W a r r e n 's s t a t e m en t t h a t "N oatrom o i s m ore f u l l y t h e f r u i t o f t h e c r e a t i v e ■ 346 I : i jeffort than is any other of his [Conrad's] stories” (p. viii), then we can forgive Conrad his lack of experience in f i ' L a t in A m e r ic a . The__Comedians_ by Graham Greene One of the more recent novels dealing with dictatorship in Latin America is Graham Greene's The Comedians (1966) . Greene, prior to the publication of this novel that has as one of its themes the dictatorship of Frangois Duvalier in H a i t i , w as a l r e a d y f a i r l y w e l l known a s a L a t in A m e r ic a n is t in fiction. The Power and the Glory (1940) is considered by many his most important work to date. It is a novel noted for "the gallery of vividly drawn characters and G r e e n e 's r e m a r k a b le s k i l l i n in v o k in g t h e p h y s i c a l an d m e t a - 15 physical atmosphere of his Mexico." The setting of an- i i other of his books, The Lawless Road (1938), is likewise Mexico. In 1958 he published Our Man in Havana. a burlesque satire of the English Secret Service activities in Latin America. His obvious interest in international affairs is not I limited to Latin America, for in 1955 he published The Quiet ! i l5David Lodge, Graham Greene (New York: Columbia Uni versity Press, 1966), p. 27. 347 A m e r ic a n , a b o o k t h a t i n s p i r e d a g r e a t d e a l o f i n t e r e s t i n t h e U n ite d S t a t e s in v o lv e m e n t i n S o u t h e a s t A s ia n a f f a i r s and, I which was decidedly critical of the United States. Greene, in some of his earlier works such as The power and the Glory] (1940), was labeled a Catholic writer because of his obvious concern with spiritual and theological matters. In more recent times he has abandoned this interest, though not totally, to pursue more terrestrial themes such as that of political intrigue. One o f G r e e n e 's m o st s u c c e s s f u l n o v e l s o f p o l i t i c a l i n t r i g u e i s The c o m e d ia n s . In t o n e i t f a l l s som ew h ere i n b e tw e e n The Q u ie t A m e rica n an d Our Man i n H a v a n a . I t p r e - i s e n t s t h e s i g n i f i c a n t e le m e n t s e n c o u n t e r e d i n e x tr e m e s i n j t h e o t h e r tw o w o r k s , t h e p i t y a n d f e a r o f The Q u ie t A m erican i i I an d t h e hum or t h a t i s e n c o u n t e r e d i n Our Man i n H avana ] i (L o d g e , p . 42). I i i In c o n t r a s t t o J o s e p h C o n ra d , G r e e n e 's e x p e r i e n c e i n L a t in A m e r ic a i s e x t e n s i v e . C on rad r e a d a g r e a t d e a l a b o u t S o u th A m e r ic a t o s u p p le m e n t h i s b r i e f v i s i t s b e f o r e w r i t i n g IN o s tr o m o . G r e e n e , on t h e o t h e r h a n d , h a s l i v e d an d t r a v e l e d j { e x t e n s i v e l y th r o u g h o u t t h e a r e a , e s p e c i a l l y i n t h e C a r ib - i b e a n . H is e x p e r i e n c e i s o b v io u s w hen o n e n o t e s h i s a t t e n t i o n t o d e t a i l s o f g e o g r a p h y , h i s t o r y , an d n a t i v e c u s to m s . I I In r e g a r d t o t h e r e c e n t h i s t o r y o f H a i t i and Papa D o c 's r u le ; o f t e r r o r o v e r t h e i s l a n d , G reen e i s a l s o an e x p e r t . In th e ; I I fo r e w o r d t o a h i s t o r i c a l a c c o u n t o f D u v a l i e r ' s r u l e e n t i t l e d . Papa Doc w r i t t e n b y D i e d e r i c h an d B u r t , G reen e d e m o n s t r a t e s ! h i s p r o fo u n d u n d e r s t a n d in g o f b o th H a i t i and i t s r u l e r . T h e r e i s s o m e th in g p e c u l i a r l y Roman i n t h e a i r o f H a i t i : Roman in i t s c r u e l t y , in i t s c o r r u p t i o n an d i n i t s h e r o is m . You w i l l n o t w a lk f a r i n a n y H a i t i a n tow n w it h o u t s e e i n g t h e nam es o f B r u tu s an d C a to , p e r h a p s o v e r a b a k e r ' s s h o p o r a g a r a g e . The a u g u r i e s a r e s t i l l t o l d i n t h e e n t r a i l s o f b e a s t s , and a S e n a t o r w i l l so m e tim e t a k e h i s l i f e i n h i s h a n d s b y a d e c l a r a t i o n a g a i n s t t y r a n n y , l i k e M oreau who sp o k e up in t h e S e n a t e a g a i n s t t h e s p e c i a l p o w er s dem anded b y D u v a lie r an d p a id t h e e x tr e m e p e n a l t y ( s o f a r a s a n y o n e k n o w s ) . We a r e n e a r e r t o t h e E u rop e o f N ero and T i b e r i u s th a n t o t h e A f r i c a o f N krum ah. T h a t i s why H a i t i i s i r r e l e v a n t i n a n y d i s c u s s i o n o f b l a c k p o w e r . H a i t i i s t h e s c e n e o f a c l a s s i c a l t r a g e d y an d n o t l i k e many e m e r g in g s t a t e s o f a b la c k com edy f a r c e i n t h e c o n te m p o r a r y m a n n er. We f e e l so m e tim e s i t h a t we a r e w i t n e s s i n g a t r a g e d y b y R a c in e p la y e d b y c o lo u r e d a c t o r s — o r a t t h e w o r s t m om ents T i t u s A n d r o n i- c u s . . . T h is i s a v e r y f u l l a c c o u n t o f D u v a l i e r ' s r e i g n w h ic h w i l l b e i n d i s p e n s a b l e t o f u t u r e h i s t o r i a n s . I w o u ld s u g g e s t t h a t t h e b e s t way t o make a t r a c k th r o u g h t h e t h i c k j u n g l e o f s a v a g e r y , in c o m p e t e n c e , g r e e d an d s u p e r - | s t i t i o n i s t o c o n s i d e r D u v a l i e r ' s r e i g n i n s t a g e s . D u r - | in g t h e f i r s t s t a g e i t m ig h t h a v e b e e n p o s s i b l e t o h o p e | t h a t Papa D o c , a s h e c h o s e t o c a l l h i m s e l f , w o u ld n o t p r o v e a much w o r s e r u l e r th a n many o t h e r s i n H a i t i ' s c r u e l h i s t o r y , b u t t h a t h o p e w as e n d e d i n t h e c a r n a g e o f t h e f i r s t b i z a r r e a t t e m p t t o o v e r th r o w h im made b y j tw o s h e r i f f s o f D ade C o u n ty , F l o r i d a , i n 1958. The tw o s h e r i f f s an d s i x m en, o n l y t h r e e o f whom w e r e H a i t i a n , s u c c e e d e d i n s e i z i n g t h e arm y b a r r a c k s j u s t b e h in d t h e N a t i o n a l P a l a c e . N o t o n e s u r v i v e d , b u t t h e y cam e w i t h i n a n a c e o f s u c c e s s . 349 ! I 1 I | | The s e c o n d s t a g e , p e r h a p s a c c e l e r a t e d b y f e a r and i n s e c u r i t y , saw t h e f i n a l e s t a b l i s h m e n t o f t h e p o l i c e s t a t e , w hen D u v a l i e r , u n a b le a n y lo n g e r t o t r u s t t h e arm y, b u i l t up t h e m i l i t i a , t h e p a l a c e g u a r d a n d t h e i T o n to n M a co u te s a t t h e i r e x p e n s e . T hen b e g a n h i s lo n g an d c l e v e r b la c k m a il o f t h e u n i t e d S t a t e s . in t h e O.A.S. an d t h e U n ite d N a t io n s H a i t i h a d a v o t e w h ic h t h e U n ite d S t a t e s n e e d e d , e q u a l i n im p o r ta n c e t o a n y o t h e r p o w e r , a n d D u v a lie r sa w t o i t t h a t t h e y p a id c a s h an d c r e d i t f o r t h a t v o t e . In t h e a b s u r d w o r ld o r g a n i z a t i o n w it h w h ic h we h a v e b e e n s a d d le d s i n c e t h e H i t l e r w a r , t h e u n s c r u p u lo u s r u l e r o f e v e n s o t i n y a s t a t e a s H a i t i c a n e x a c t p r o t e c t i o n m oney l i k e a C h ic a g o g a n g s t e r from t h e r i c h . T h is s e c o n d s t a g e e n d e d w it h t h e s h o o t in g o f h i s o l d h a t c h e t man C le m e n te B a r b o t . B a r b o t , who h a d b e e n in to u c h w it h t h e A m e r ic a n m i l i t a r y m i s s i o n , h a d a t te m p te d t o k id n a p D u v a l i e r ' s c h i l d r e n . I f D u v a lie r w as t o b e o v e r th r o w n h e se em s t o h a v e b e e n t h e A m e r ic a n c h o i c e a s D u v a l i e r ' s s u c c e s s o r , th o u g h i t i s d o u b t f u l w h e th e r H a i t i w o u ld h a v e b e n e f i t e d much from t h e c h a n g e o f t y r a n t . A f t e r t h e a t t e m p t o n D u v a l i e r ' s c h i l d r e n f o l lo w e d t h e t h i r d s t a g e , t h e s t a g e o f t e r r o r u n l im i t e d an d o f i n e f f e c t i v e g u e r r i l l a r i s i n g s w h ic h h a v e c o n t in u e d t i l l t o d a y , when h a l f t h e r e v e n u e o f t h e c o u n t r y w as s p e n t on t h e p e r s o n a l s e c u r i t y o f t h e p r e s i d e n t , w hen A m e r ic a n ' a i d w as s t o p p e d and t h e A m erica n A m b assad or w ith d r a w n , w hen D o m in ic a n t r o o p s w e re p o i s e d o n t h e f r o n t i e r and D u v a lie r t h r e a t e n e d a b lo o d - b a t h in P o r t - a u - P r i n c e and o n l y a r i c h man w o u ld h a v e b e t a H a i t i a n g o u r d e o n h i s s u r v i v a l . B ut t h e g u e r r i l l a s f a i l e d , P r e s i d e n t B o sc h on S a n to D om ingo w as o v e r th r o w n , an d P r e s i d e n t J o h n so n g a v e in t o b l a c k m a i l, s e n d in g b a c k t o H a i t i an A m bas s a d o r a s tim o r o u s a s h i s nam e, B e n so n Timmons I I I , whom D u v a lie r k e p t w a i t i n g f i v e w e e k s f o r an a u d ie n c e and th e n l e c t u r e d o n how an A m b assad or s h o u ld b e h a v e , a l e c t u r e w h ic h h e to o k t o h e a r t . Now we h a v e r e a c h e d t h e f i n a l s t a g e o f t y r a n n y (o r s o o n e d a r e s t o h o p e ) , t h e s t a g e o f m eg a lo m a n ia m ark ed i p o l i t i c a l l y b y Papa D o c 's " e l e c t i o n " a s P r e s i d e n t f o r L i f e . Now D u v a lie r h a s b e g u n t o s p e a k o f h i m s e l f a s a g r e a t w r i t e r , h e a n n o u n c e s ( i n J o u r s d e F r a n c e ) t h e p u b - | l i c a t i o n o f h i s c o l l e c t e d w o r k s , h e co m p a re s h i m s e l f j w i t h T r o t s k y , w it h Mao T se Tung an d w i t h G e n e r a l d e G a u lle , and in o n e r e m a r k a b le p a s s a g e i n Le C a te c h is m e de la Revolution with one higher even than these. Papa Doc, of course, died several months ago but iron ically he died the quiet death of a supposedly peaceful man/ i with his family at his bedside. One of his last gestures before his death was to ensure that his family would remain in power by having the puppet Congress recognize his twenty-* year-old son as the next President of the republic, so that even in death the spirit of the man looms over the future of the unfortunate island nation. In The Comedians. Graham Greene has not actually writ ten a political novel attacking the dictatorship of Frangois Duvalier. Instead the work is an adventure story with | i political overtones that has the small nation of Haiti as a i I setting. Since all life on that island seems to respond to ' i the rhythm of Papa Doc's heartbeat, it is inevitable that ^ i he looms as the master puppeteer determining the actions j i of all the citizens of the tiny republic. The story begins aboard a freighter bound for Haiti sometime in the early 1960's. The story is narrated by a jMr. Brown, a rootless cosmopolitan hotel owner who is ^Graham Greene, Foreword to Papa Doc by Bernard Die- derich and Al Burt (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1969), pp. vii-lx. ____________________________ ________ [returning to Haiti after a three-month absence. The other | significant passengers aboard ship are "Major" Jones, who claims to have been a war hero, and Mr. Smith, who once ran for the presidency of the United States on a vegetarian ticket. "The absurd convergence of these three overworked names establishes the note of a story in which the charac ters are mostly denied the luxury of dignity as they contend with the vicissitudes of life" (Lodge, pp. 42-43). These vicissitudes, of course, are plentiful in Haiti, where most of the action takes place. As the ship sails into the har bor of Port-au-Prince, Mr. Brown interjects the tone of pessimism that prevails in the novel. "I was returning 17 without much hope to a country of fear and frustration." i Further along he reflects on the dreams he had had when he first arrived on the island to take possession of his dead mother's property. j I j I remember thinking 1*111 going to make this the most ! popular tourist hotel in the Caribbean and perhaps 1 might have succeeded if a mad doctor had not come to power and filled our nights with the discords of vio lence instead of jazz. (p. 59) 1 1 As the novel develops one is made aware of the change i *7Graham Greene, The Comedians (New York: The viking Press, 1966), p. 40. 352 j ; that has come over the island since Papa Doc has assumed power after the departure of the American Marines. What i used to be an island of sunshine and laughter has become the haven of terror and fear. The dictator controls his sub jects with his very loyal and well-paid militia popularly referred to as the Tontons Macoute. "The president's boogie men— they wear dark glasses and they call on their victims after dark" (p. 10). Into this setting the trio of Brown, Jones, and Smith arrives, Brown to pick up the pieces of a rather tepid love affair with Martha, the wife of a South American ambassador and daughter of a Nazi war criminal, while the idealist Smith and his wife intend to establish a center for the ! vegetarian cult in Haiti, an act which is both ironic and I i tragic since, as Mr. Brown affirms, "ninety-five percent of the people can't afford meat or fish or eggs" {p. 17). "Major" Jones' reason for coming to Haiti is more obscure than that of either Brown or Smith. Ultimately, it is die- i covered that he is involved in a financial scheme that had to do with a swindle of the government. Brown, who is strictly apolitical, is drawn into a very dangerous politi cal situation because of his association with Smith and Jones, who are guests at his hotel, and because the body of 353 1 : | the Secretary of Social Welfare who had committed suicide i to avoid arrest is discovered in the hotel swimming pool. i I For personal motives rather than ideological ones, Brown becomes involved with a group of revolutionaries that are j destined to fail, as all the guerrillas failed during Papa Doc's lifetime. At the end of the novel, Brown narrowly escapes death and flees into Santo Domingo where he takes up the profession of undertaker, an obvious indication by Greene that death will continue to reign on the island. Throughout the novel, the image of Papa Doc hangs in the atmosphere like a giant portrait. Above his head hung the portrait of Papa Doc— the por trait of Baron Samedi. Clothed in the heavy black I tail-suit of graveyards, he peered out at us through | the thick lenses of his spectacles with myopic and | expressionless eyes. He was rumoured sometimes to watch personally the slow death of a Tonton victim. | The eyes would not change. Presumably his interest in the death was medical. (p. 113) The dictator is sustained by the rhythm of voodoo drums I and the chants of a semi-Christian spiritualist as much as he is by the submachine guns of the Tontons. Greene also i iindicates that though the United States has stopped supply- i I iing the mad doctor with weapons, they are ultimately re sponsible for keeping him in power. The American ideology prefers dictatorship to communism, Greene implies. At one point, a young revolutionary indicates the little faith of ; i the guerrilla forces in the United States. . . . There was a resistance group here who were in touch with a sympathizer in the American embassy: they were promised all kinds of moral support, but the in formation went straight back to the C.I.A. and from the C.I.A. by a very direct route to Papa Doc. You can imagine what happened to the group. The State Depart ment didn't want any disturbance in the Caribbean. (p. 249) Greene's description of Duvalier and the Haitian re public is indeed interesting and for the most part accurate. It is not based on any one historical fact; rather, it is based on an atmosphere created by the reign of terror and bloodshed. All of the ingredients of dictatorship are pres ent in the novel— the police state, authorized torture by j i secret policemen, spies, bureaucratic thievery, and the ! i inevitable pessimism that accompanies the reign of such i i durable madmen. The novel, written in 1966, did not specifically fore tell that Duvalier would die the quiet death he did not i deserve, but one could read between the lines and sense that! |the power of Papa Doc was considered more than human. In ireal life too, Papa Doc suffered from the delusion that he l was in contact with voodoo gods and that he could cross into their world (Diederich and Burt, p. 355). He surrounded himself with houqngons and bocors and was himself con sidered a type of super-bocor. and though one may doubt the authenticity of any supernatural powers he is said to have possessed, Brown and Smith and Jones discovered in The Comedians that his temporal power was very real and very bloody. The Latin American Political Setting There have been other significant writers who have written novels dealing with Latin American topics. Some have not emphasized the political aspects but have hardly been able to avoid them either. 0. Henry, for example, recounts in Cabbages and Kings (1904) his experience in Honduras in 1896 after he had fled to that country to avoid prosecution for embezzlement in the United States. The book is a loosely-knit collection of stories that almost resem bles a novel. The work has been called "an amusingly artic- i I ulated light mystery story of embezzlers and absconders in i 19 and out of the 'banana' republic of Anchuria." i I "^Voodoo priests and sorcerers. i 19Eugene Current-Garcia, O . Henry (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1965), p. 91. r . . j | The book contains elements of just about everything in j Central American life— -customs, superstitions, politics, and folklore. He describes such figures as "Miraflores, the 20 brilliant yet unstable ruler of Anchuria," the fictitious Central American republic. Also present are the American ex-patriots who find themselves in the region for a diver sity of reasons— escape from authorities in the United States, entrepreneurial adventures, and “just plain" mis chief . In assessing 0. Henry's stories on Latin America one must keep in mind that they are more fiction than fact. His experience in that region left him with a romantic image much like Joseph Conrad's after his short visits to South I America. 0. Henry was fleeing the law in the United States , j Logically, he was grateful for refuge in Honduras. "He j spoke of Honduras as Mecca where he had found freedom . . . infinite peace” (Current-Garcia, p. 174) . Consequently, he does not present a very critical interpretation of the politics of the area. The virtue of his work is found in I his ability to convey with realism and external details the i 2 0 *w0. Henry, Cabbages and Kinga. in The Complete Works of 0. Henrv. Vol. I. (Garden City, N. Y-: Doubleday and CO., Inc., 1953), p. 553. ' 357 ^ l a tm o sp h e r e o f t h e s e t t i n g and t h e s p e e c h and a c t i o n s o f h i s | c h a r a c t e r s . He h a s , i n e s s e n c e , c r e a t e d r e a l men i n a dreamj w o r ld o f " e t e r n a l a f t e r n o o n ." Possibly one of the most recent novels to appear with the theme of Latin American politics is Harold Robbins 1 book The Adventurers (1966). This work, however, is typical of Robbins' novels in that the sensationalism, sex, and scan dalous behavior that appear in the book seem to be aimed at having the work accepted as a future glamorous Hollywood production. As well as telling the story of the interna tional jet set and its involvement in the "fashion game," he also describes the various twentieth-century revolutions o f t h e f i c t i t i o u s L a t in A m e rica n c o u n t r y o f C o r t e g u a y . ; 6 F i r s t t h e g u e r r i l l a le a d e r E l R o jo s u c c e e d s i n t o p p l i n g t h e j E dictator, and after he himself has become a tyrant, the new [ j d i c t a t o r i s o v e r th r o w n i n a n o t h e r r e v o l u t i o n l e d b y t h e i idealistic young El Lobe. One is left with the feeling that; El Lobo's victory will, in the future, result in a new dic tatorship and his subsequent downfall. Robbins has, in other words, summarized Latin American political behavior |as a series of revolutions that replace one dictator with another. This, of course, is obvious to most Latin American scholars and Robbins fails to present any valid, original I interpretation in his work. His book, then, is nothing moret than a simplistic and sex-sationalistic interpretation of f 1 i Latin American politics. He is not truly concerned with ; analyzing the sociopolitical environment of Latin America; rather, he seems to be preoccupied with the sale of sensa tional stories that describe purely fictional human beings destined to achieve their only glory in the cinema. Of the various novels briefly mentioned above that deal with Latin American politics, Muertes de perro by Francisco Ayala appears to be the most accurate in its analysis of dictatorship. Valle-Inclan's work, though it has gained great praise for its avant-garde style and its impact on Latin American letters, is deficient in its penetration of | I 1 the political situation. The American environment that j Valle-Inclan approximates in the work lacks the true feeling of a native writer. It lacks the passion of America that is so much a part of the continent. As Navas Ruiz has con cluded: "Si Valle-Inclan hubiera estudiado a America o con mas amor o con mas dolar, Tirano Banderas o no hubieae iexistido o no hubiese sido escrito corao lo fue” (p. 69). i i The same must be said of the other novels mentioned above. Neither Conrad's Noatromo nor Graham Greene's The Comedians nor the other two works by 0. Henry and Harold R o b b in s p o s s e s s a n y r e a l m e a n in g o r u n d e r s t a n d in g o f t h e p o l i t i c a l e n v ir o n m e n t o f L a t in A m e r ic a . C o n r a d 's w ork i s t o o b r o a d i n s c o p e an d d e p e n d s t o o h e a v i l y on i n t e r p r e t a t i o n ! o f L a t in A m e r ic a n c h a r a c t e r , an i n t e r p r e t a t i o n w h ic h i s n o t ! | always accurate. Greene, on the other hand, limits himself to the description of an adventurous situation relying heavj.*/ on the techniques encountered in the more successful mystery stories. 0. Henry's work is too loosely put to gether to have meaning as an interpretation of Latin Amer ica's sociopolitical environment, and Harold Robbins' novel, of course, is pure sensationalism. M u e r te s d e p e r r o e m e r g e s , a t l e a s t i n t h i s w r i t e r ' s e s t i m a t i o n , a s t h e m o st a c c u r a t e a n a l y s i s o f L a t in A m e r ic a n [ I political environment by a foreign author. This perhaps is ! r d u e t o t h e f a c t t h a t t h e r e g i o n h a s b e e n A y a l a ' s hom e s i n c e | i the Spanish Civil war in 1939. Of course, both he and j Valle-Inclan, it would be assumed, would have more in common with the Latin American people than any of the other writers studied in this chapter. Nevertheless, Ayala's work is Isuccessful because of its penetration of the political jsituation which possibly results from the writer's back- i ground as a sociologist. Ayala is both an artist and a scientist. He is as famous for his scientific studies of Latin American societies as he is for his creative works. < i 1 It stands to reason that Ayala should have great success in | 'a genre that combines both science and art. The political i i i I jnovel that Ayala has created in Muertes de perro has per- i formed what Joseph Blotner calls "the ancient function of art" (p. 1). He has described and interpreted human ex perience and given his interpretation both order and form in the framework of the political novel. r ' i I I i CONCLUSION ' i Martin F. Needier has indicated in more than one of his works on Latin America that political instability is endemic to this part of the world. He states that with the exception of a period of stability based on a favorable configuration of economic and ideological conditions prevailing around the beginning of the twentieth century, independent Latin America has gen erally been permanently unstable.^ In the earlier chapters of this work we have attempted to demonstrate how the Latin American dictator is frequently a part of this instability, for he generally either assumes j power by the use of force or is removed from power by the | I use of force. Since the political situation in Latin Amer- ica has often been characterized by chaos and violence, it ] \ is no wonder that the artist has frequently chosen the ' political realities of the region as a theme for his works. j ^Political Development in Latin America: Instability. I Violence. and Evolutionary Change (New York: Random House, (1968), p. 157. i i ! 361 S u ch i s t h e c a s e w i t h t h e s i x n o v e l s b y L a t in A m e rica n , w r i t e r s t h a t h a v e b e e n s t u d i e d i n t h i s w o r k . E ach o f t h e i I s i x a u t h o r s — G uzm an, G a l l e g o s , A s t u r i a s , S p o t a , C a s a c c ia , i i land La fo u r c a d e — h a s c h o s e n t h e th em e o f d i c t a t o r s h i p f o r h is j i ; w o r k . The a u t h o r s ' t r e a t m e n t s o f t h i s p o l i t i c a l phenom enon a r e v a r i e d , y e t t h e r e seem t o e x i s t nu m erous e le m e n t s t h a t t h e i r w o rk s h a v e i n com m on. I t i s t h e s e e le m e n t s o f com m o n a lit y t h a t w i l l b e s t u d i e d h e r e . The im age o f t h e d i c t a t o r i s , o f c o u r s e , t h e c e n t r a l e le m e n t in e a c h o f t h e n o v e l s s t u d i e d . A l l s i x o f t h e w o rk s w e r e c h o s e n b e c a u s e t h e y d e p i c t t w e n t i e t h - c e n t u r y c a u d i l l o s an d b e c a u s e e a c h o f t h e w o rk s s t r e s s e s t h e p o l i t i c a l t h e s i s a s much a s t h e a r t i s t i c fo r m . F ou r o f t h e s i x n o v e l s a r e j b a s e d o n t h e l i v e s o f r e a l m en, r e a l d i c t a t o r s who g o v e r n e d in L a t in A m e r ic a d u r in g t h i s c e n t u r y . G uzm an's La som b ra d e l c a u d i l l o i s b a s e d on t h e im age o f a man who a p p e a r s t o b e a c o m b in a tio n o f A lv a r o O bregon an d P lu t a r c o E l i a s C a l l e s . G er a rd o G a l l e g o s ' n o v e l E l puno d e l amo i s b a s e d j o n t h e l i f e o f J u a n V i c e n t e Gomez an d i s t h e o n l y w ork t h a t ^ s e s t h e a c t u a l name o f t h e t y r a n t . A s t u r i a s ' w o r k , E l ! is e n o r p r e s i d e n t s , i s f a s h io n e d a f t e r t h e im a g e o f M anuel E s tr a d a C a b r e r a o f G u a te m a la , an d E n r iq u e L a f o u r c a d e 's b o o k h a s a s a c e n t r a l f i g u r e t h e D o m in ic a n d i c t a t o r R a f a e l 36 3 I : I L e o n id a s T r u j i l l o . The o t h e r tw o w o r k s , La l l a q a b y G a b r ie l C a s a c c ia an d E l tie m p o d e l a i r a b y L u is S p o t a , a r e n o t . i s p e c i f i c a l l y draw n from h i s t o r i c a l f i g u r e s , a lt h o u g h t h e P a ra g u a y a n C a s a c c ia h a s l i v e d i n e x i l e d u r in g t h e p r e s e n t d i c t a t o r s h i p o f A lf r e d o S t r o e s s n e r an d c o u ld h a v e b e e n r e s p o n d in g t o t h i s i n t h e n o v e l . L i k e w is e , L u is S p o ta h a s b e e n g r e a t l y i n f l u e n c e d b y t h e M ex ica n R e v o lu t io n an d h i s d i c t a t o r , C e sa r D a r io , c o u ld v e r y e a s i l y b e a c o m p o s it e o f v a r io u s c a u d i l l o s o f t h a t e r a . In a l l s i x o f t h e w o r k s , o n e t h i n g i s c e r t a i n , t h e d i c t a t o r d e s c r i b e d b y e a c h o f t h e a u t h o r s i s n o t a f ig m e n t o f t h e w r i t e r ' s i m a g i n a t i o n . He i s t h e p r o d u c t o f t h e w r i t e r ' s e x p e r i e n c e u n d er t y r a n n y . T h is i s t h e p r i n c i p a l d i f f e r e n c e b e tw e e n t h e w o rk s o f t h e s i x ■ 1 i L a t in A m e rica n n o v e l i s t s and t h e f o r e i g n a u t h o r s s t u d i e d in ! I t h e p r e v io u s c h a p t e r . In t h e c a s e o f C o n ra d , V a l l e - I n c l a n , j i i and t h e o t h e r s , t h e i r e x p e r i e n c e w i t h d i c t a t o r s h i p w as i n - » d e e d l i m i t e d , w h i l e a l l o f t h e L a t in A m e rica n a u t h o r s h a v e j h a d som e e x p e r i e n c e w it h d i c t a t o r i a l r e g i m e s . Three of the Latin American writers depended quite |heavily on specific historical data. Guzman describes in ! ls sombra del caudlllo the delahuertista revolt and the jserrano massacre in Mexico in the 1920‘s. Gerardo Gallegos analyzes in detail the murder of Juancho G<Smez and the student uprisings of 1928 in Venezuela in his work about j Juan Vicente Gdtnez. Enrique Lafourcade describes the l I Galindez case in detail in his work on the Trujillo dicta torship. Spota in El tiempo de la ira and Casaccia in La llaqa rely heavily on history too, but they do not commit themselves to the description of any specific events. In three of the works, Guzman's La sombra del caudillo. Gallegos' El puno del amo. and La llaqa by Casaccia, the country or "personal estate" of the dictator is mentioned: Mexico, Venezuela, and Paraguay respectively. In the other three works no country is given nor is a specific time ex pressed except in vague terms. The principal characters in the novels, especially the figure of the dictator, as has j already been mentioned, are generally based on real figures.! I Juan Vicente Gdmez, however, is the only real name used. Inj two novels no name., at all are given for the tyrants . Guz- ! I man refers to his dictator as the Caudillo, while Asturias uses only el senor presidente to refer to his. One reason f o r this might be the fact that both writers were living in iexile at the time the historical events that they described I lin the novels were occurring in their homelands. In the other three novels fictitious names are given to the ty rants . Casaccia calls his dictator Raimundo Alsina, while ’ b o t h S p o ta an d L a fo u r c a d e u s e "C ^sar" a s t h e name f o r t h e i r ' i t y r a n t s . j 1 I t i s i n t e r e s t i n g t o n o t e t h a t in m o st i n s t a n c e s t h e d i c t a t o r s d e s c r i b e d b y t h e s i x n o v e l i s t s f i t w e l l i n t o t h e j m old p r e s e n t e d in C h a p te r I I o f t h i s w ork f o r t h e L a t in A m e r ic a n d i c t a t o r . The t y r a n t ' s c h a r a c t e r , h i s p e r s o n a l i t y , h i s c o n c e p t o f s e l f , an d h i s r e l a t i o n s h i p t o t h e s o c i e t y a r o u n d h im a r e w h a t m ake h im t y p i c a l l y L a t in A m e r ic a n i n h i s b e h a v i o r . The m i l i t a r y b a c k g r o u n d o f f i v e o f t h e s i x d i c t a t o r s , f o r e x a m p le , i s o n e s i g n i f i c a n t a r e a o f t h e i r c o m m o n a lity . A s t u r i a s ' d i c t a t o r i n E l s e n o r p r e s i d e n t s a p p e a r s t o b e t h e o n ly t y r a n t who h a s n o t b e e n a g e n e r a l | b e f o r e a s s u m in g p o w e r . The o t h e r f i v e c h a r a c t e r s h a v e p a r - j ! t i c i p a t e d i n r e b e l l i o n s , i n t e r n a t i o n a l w a r s , o r c i v i l w a rs b e f o r e a s s u m in g t h e p r e s i d e n c y o f t h e i r r e s p e c t i v e c o u n t r i e s . T h is a s p e c t i s q u i t e i n k e e p in g w it h t h e d i s c u s s i o n j i o f L a t in A m e r ic a n m i l i t a r i s m an d i t s c o n n e c t i o n w i t h d i c t a t o r s h i p t h a t w as a l s o p r e s e n t e d in C h a p te r I I o f t h i s w o r k . O n ly e l s e n o r p r e s i d e n t s w e a r s c i v i l i a n c l o t h e s , t h e b l a c k ; I s u i t o f d e a t h t h a t s y m b o liz e s h i s r e i g n o f t e r r o r . The i jo th e r f i v e d i c t a t o r s seem t o e n j o y t h e g o l d b r a i d an d s h i n y I d e c o r a t i o n s o f t h e i r m i l i t a r y u n i f o r m s . In t h i s w ay t h e y a r e a b l e t o s a t i s f y t h e i r n e e d f o r pomp an d c e r e m o n y t h a t !has been so typical of the Latin American dictator. This attention to dress and to titles, pomp, and cir- I i cumstance is a reflection of the megalomania suffered by most of the tyrants described in the novels and character istic of many of Latin America's dictators. As has pre viously been stated in this work, "the psychology of conceit is in full evidence among the Latin American dictators" (see above, p. 61). C^sar Dario in Spota's work has a huge statue erected to himself. Lafourcade's tyrant names the capital city after himself, Ciudad Carrillo. Guzman's cau dillo lives in the sombras. but still pulls all the strings like the master puppeteer. Juan Vicente Gomez banishes his grandson from his home because the child dares to ask him a j f forbidden question. General Alsina in La llaqa and el. j ! i Presidents in Asturias' work demonstrate their megalomania j by their extreme use of power, as do all of the dictators under discussion. | One way the dictators attempted to justify their ex- i t treme actions was by attributing their right to rule to some {supernatural power. Like the Roman Caesars and the "Divine i {Right" monarchs, many Latin American dictators have at- ! tempted to govern as though they were almost supernatural entities. Asturias uses the myth of the Indian god Tohil jto demonstrate e1 Presidente *s dependence on supernatural ism. Likewise! Spota gives his tyrant, c£sar Dario, the ; i image of the pre-Columbian god Laikipu to emulate. Guzman's' i dictator is the sombra del caudillo which hangs over the environment like a supernatural force. Alsina, Casaccia*s tyrant, is referred to as "el gato de siete vidas," implying his immortality. c£sar Alejandro Carrillo Acab in Lafour- cade's work depends on dreams and witchcraft to sustain him self, and his very names of Caesar, Alexander, and Ahab connote a connection with spirits of the past. And finally, Juan Vicente Gomez is considered a brulo by a large number of his subjects. These elements, plus the continual refer ence to the tyrants as "el depensador," "el Salvador," "el j benefactor," and "el mesias" is an indication that the I i ! authors seek to demonstrate how the process of deification I of the dictators is taking place in the countries described. The power of these men was not merely a mystical or "supernatural" power. As was typical of most Latin American dictators, they were also endowed with great vitality and jdrive. They both destroyed and created with a frenzy of I madmen. This was in evidence in the extreme sexuality of | several of the dictators. Carrillo Acab participates in orgies with several dozen women; Gomez has sired over 100 r 368 jC h ild r e n . None o f t h e d i c t a t o r s , h o w e v e r , a p p e a r t o p l a c e j much v a l u e on t h e a c t u a l l o v e o f a wom an. C e s a r D a r io i n | I S p o t a ' s w ork h a s a b r i e f a f f a i r , b u t c o n c lu d e s t h a t h i s o n ly 1 j lo v e m u st b e t h e n a t i o n . C a r r i l l o A cab d e s p i s e s h i s w i f e ; Gomez n e v e r m a r r i e s . G e n e r a l A l s i n a , e l C a u d i l l o . a n d e l P r e s i d e n t e a l l seem t o l i v e a lo n e o r a t l e a s t sh o w n o i n t e r e s t in fe m a le c o m p a n io n s h ip . T h u s, o n e may c o n c lu d e t h a t t h e e le m e n t o f l o v e i s a lm o s t t o t a l l y a b s e n t i n t h e l i v e s o f t h e s e d i c t a t o r s and t h a t t h e p r im a r y f o r c e m o t i v a t i n g t h e s e i n d i v i d u a l s se em s t o b e o n e o f p ow er o r " th e w i l l t o pow er" in N i e t z s c h e a n t e r m s . The a b s e n c e o f l o v e p e r h a p s r e s u l t s i n t h e e m e r g e n c e o f t h e th em e o f b e t r a y a l t h a t i s i n e v id e n c e i n a l l o f t h e i s i x n o v e l s . In E l tie m p o d e l a i r a . f o r e x a m p le , C ^ sar i D a r io o r d e r s t h e e x e c u t i o n o f R om ulo R e a l , h i s t r u s t e d i f r i e n d and a l l y f o r many y e a r s . In E l s e n o r p r e s i d e n t e j A s t u r i a s d e s c r i b e s t h e m anner i n w h ic h e l P r e s i d e n t e t u r n s h i s a n g r y venom o n h i s fo r m e r f r i e n d an d s e c r e t a r y , M ig u e l C ara d e A n g e l. J u a n V i c e n t e G&nez in E l puno d e l amo j a llo w s t h e m urder o f h i s b r o t h e r t o t a k e p l a c e b e c a u s e o f I (th e t h r e a t t h e l a t t e r p o s e d . In La l l a q a . A t i l i o , t h e n e u r o t i c s o n o f Dona C o n s t a n c ia , in fo r m s t h e p o l i c e a s t o t h e v d ie r e a b o u ts o f t h e r e v o l u t i o n a r y l e a d e r C o lo n e l 369 B a lb u e n a . T h is a c t a l s o l e a d s t o t h e a r r e s t o f G i l b e r t o T o r r e s , h i s m o t h e r 's l o v e r . In L a f o u r c a d e 's w o r k , C a r r i l l o A cab m akes i t a p r a c t i c e t o o r d e r h i s p r i v a t e hangm an t o e l i m i n a t e t h e m em bers o f t h e p r e s i d e n t i a l s t a f f w h e n e v e r h e d e c i d e s t h a t t h e y know t o o m u ch . In G uzm an's w ork t h e C au d i l l o o r d e r s t h e a s s a s s i n a t i o n o f t h e p r e s i d e n t i a l c a n d i d a t e , A g u ir r e , an a c t vtfiich b e s t su m m a rize s t h e t r e a c h e r y o f m o st o f t h e d i c t a t o r i a l r e g i m e s . M om ents b e f o r e h i s d e a t h A g u ir r e r e f l e c t s o n h i s b e t r a y a l : Muchas monstrosidades habia visto, hecho y ayudado a hacer en la Revolucion, pero todas ellas, los robos, los saqueos, los raptos, los estrupos, los asesinatos, los fusilamientos en masa, las negras traiciones, no val£an juntas, lo que esta sola. (Guzman, p. 235) A C l a s s i f i c a t i o n o f T y r a n ts l How d o e s o n e c l a s s i f y t h e s i x d i c t a t o r s d i s c u s s e d i n t h e p r e v io u s c h a p t e r s ? W ere t h e y " c a u d i l l o s b i r b a r o s ," t r a n s i t i o n a l c a u d i l l o s . o r t h e m odern t o t a l i t a r i a n t y p e w h ic h w e r e a l l d i s c u s s e d i n t h e e a r l y c h a p t e r s o f t h i s w ork? O b v io u s ly , b e c a u s e o f t h e i r t w e n t i e t h - c e n t u r y v i n t a g e , t h e y c a n n o t b e c l a s s i f i e d a s " c a u d i l l o s b a r b a r o s " i n t h e t r u e s e n s e o f t h e w o r d , f o r t h a t g r o u p o f l e a d e r s e m e r g e d a f t e r In d e p e n d e n c e i n t h e n i n e t e e n t h c e n t u r y an d w e r e c h a r a c t e r i z e d b y t h e i r " m ach ete y p i s t o l a z o " a c q u i s i t i o n o f p e r s o n a l 370 | i ! i 'power. All six of the dictators studied here ruled in the twentieth century, but this is not to say that they did not I possess some of the qualities of their barbarous predeces sors . i Three of the tyrants are, in fact, representatives of the transitional caudillo type, men such as Porfirio Diaz, Guzman Blanco, and Juan Vicente Gomez, who represented a system of rule more like that of absolute monarchy than the "machete y pistolazo" variety that preceded them. These men, by means of militarily defeating the regional caudillos and buying off their enemies, established themselves as absolute rulers. In order to maintain themselves in power, ; they had to establish a professional army, an army which j was paid for by encouraging foreign investors to enter the j country. Guzman's Caudillo. el Presidents of Asturias' ' work, and obviously Juan Vicente Gomez in El puno del amo | j represent the transitional caudillo. These were men who no longer depended on their horsemanship or physical prowess to reach the presidential chair (see above, p. 89) . By a combination of limited force and political maneu- i Ivering, these three men were able to assume absolute domi nation of their respective countries. We see the Caudillo in Guzmrfn's work maneuvering his chosen successor into a 371 i i favorable position during the presidential campaign. Hie dictator avoids all-out war by the limited use of violence. ( i ; I Quite simply, he has the twelve leaders of the opposition ' party assassinated before they can rebel. Asturias' tyrant ' in El senor presidente eliminates his opposition by having G e n e r a l C a n a le s f a l s e l y a c c u s e d o f a c r im e an d f o r c i n g him to flee from the capital. Hie dictator's control is assured because of the complexity of the political system he has created which includes a network of spies, secret police, and a well-paid, loyal army. Juan Vicente G<Smez, of course, has served as a prototype of this transitional caudillo who in both fiction and fact relied heavily on the money he was paid for allowing the foreign oil interest to begin the j i exploitation of Venezuela's oil fields. In each of these j I three novels the writers have succeeded in painting a real- | istic picture of the type of dictator who made of his coun try his private estate over which he ruled like a feudal lord with little interference from the masses. 1 The other three novels, La 1laqa. La fiesta del rev I i Acab. and El tlempo de la ira. depict the third type of [dictator, which has loosely been termed the modern twentieth-century variety. This third type of despot, as has been pointed out in Chapter II, can no longer rely on 372 ! i t h e s m a l l pow er b a s e o f f r i e n d s , c o m p a d r e s . and r e l a t i v e s . He h a s t o a ssu m e t h e r o l e o f a s o c i a l an d p o l i t i c a l dem a g o g u e who m a in t a in s h i m s e l f i n pow er b y t h e s u b t l e u s e o f ; ^ i ith e m i l i t a r y an d t h e s u p p o r t o f t h e m a s s e s . P e r o n , V a r g a s , | an d O d r ia w e r e h i s t o r i c a l r e p r e s e n t a t i v e s o f t h i s g r o u p , w h il e i n f i c t i o n , C e s a r D a r io , R aim undo A l s i n a , an d C a r r i l l o A cab r e p r e s e n t t h i s m odern d i c t a t o r . I*hese t h r e e t y r a n t s h a d d e v e lo p e d a v e r y s o p h i s t i c a t e d s y s t e m o f c o n t r o l t h a t d e p e n d e d h e a v i l y on t h e u s e o f a p o l i t i c a l l i e u t e n a n t who f u n c t i o n e d a s p o lic e m a n , j u d g e , and e x e c u t i o n e r . In La l l a q a . G e n e r a l A l s i n a * s l i e u t e n a n t , o r s e c o n d i n com m and, i s t h e J e f e d e I n v e a t i q a c i o n , R om u ald o i C a s e r e s ; i n La f i e s t a d e l r e v A c a b . C a r r i l l o ' s r ig h t - h a n d j man i s t h e e x - N a z i o f f i c e r , K u rt v o n K e l s e n . I t i s i n t e r - I 1 i l a s t i n g t o n o t e t h a t i n S p o t a ' s w ork a s w e l l , a f o r e i g n e r , j J o e F ly n n , i s a l s o i n c h a r g e o f t h e a d m i n i s t r a t i o n o f t h e t y r a n t ' s " j u s t i c e , " w h ic h m ig h t i n d i c a t e t h e a u t h o r s ' r e a c t i o n t o t h e i n f l u e n c e o f f o r e i g n p o w e r s on t h e L a t in A m e r i c a n r e p u b l i c s . In a l l t h r e e o f t h e n o v e l s t h e r e a d e r i s j l e f t w it h t h e im p r e s s io n t h a t n o a c t , no t h o u g h t , no m o v e m en t g o e s u n n o t ic e d i n t h e r e p u b l i c , t h a t t h e d i c t a t o r a s " B ig B r o t h e r ” h a s c o m p le t e c o n t r o l o v e r t h e t o t a l i t a r i a n s t a t e t h a t h e h a s c r e a t e d . - - - ■ - - - 3 7 3 j J J The s i x C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s o f D i c t a t o r s h i p i E ven th o u g h t h e s i x d i c t a t o r s d e s c r i b e d in t h i s w ork j r e p r e s e n t tw o d i f f e r e n t p e r i o d s o f L a t in A m e rica n d i c t a t o r - < ; i ! i s h i p , t h e y h a v e many e le m e n t s i n com m on. T h e se a r e a s o f c o m m o n a lity a r e w h a t make th em u n i q u e l y L a t in A m e r ic a n . The s i x a u t h o r s make i t a p o i n t t o sh o w t h e a s p e c t s o f m a c h ism o , p e r s o n a lis m o , an d m i l i t a r i s m o o f t h e d i c t a t o r s h i p s u n d e r a n a l y s i s i n t h e i r n o v e l s . The s i x d i c t a t o r s h i p s a l s o p o s s e s s c e r t a i n c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s t h a t r e l a t e th em t o u n i v e r s a l d i c t a t o r s h i p i n t h e t w e n t i e t h c e n t u r y . The s i x p r i n c i p l e s o f t o t a l i t a r i a n g o v e r n m e n ts q u o te d from F r i e d r i c h an d B r z e z i n s k i ' s w ork i n C h a p te r I an d a p p l i e d t o L a t in A m e r ic a n d i c t a t o r s h i p in C h a p te r I I o f t h i s w ork a r e q u i t e i n e v i d e n c e in t h e d i c t a t o r s h i p s c r e a t e d b y t h e a u t h o r s u n d er ! j d i s c u s s i o n h e r e . The a p p l i c a t i o n o f t h e s i x p r i n c i p l e s o f i j d i c t a t o r s h i p t o t h e n o v e l s d e m o n s t r a t e s how a c c u r a t e l y t h e L a t in A m e r ic a n n o v e l i s t s w e r e a b l e t o d e p i c t d i c t a t o r s h i p i n t h e i r w o r k s o f f i c t i o n . The t r u e t e s t o f t h e i r p o l i t i c a l i I n o v e l s r e a l l y r e s t s i n how a c c u r a t e t h e y w e r e i n t h e i r d e s c r i p t i o n o f t h e p o l i t i c a l phen om en on o f d i c t a t o r s h i p . Some o f t h e w r i t e r s , o f c o u r s e , w e r e m ore s u c c e s s f u l t h a n o t h e r s i n t h i s e n d e a v o r . | The first point essential to totalitarian dictatorship , I is the creation by the dictator of a national ideology. | Only in Spota's work, El tiempo de la ira. is this aspect well defined. Cesar Dario proclaims nacionalismo by declarH ing that the oil industry will be nationalized and that the foreign fruit companies must be expelled from the republic. As a demagogue he gives an ideology to the masses. General Alsina, in La 1laga. also presents an ideology for his gov ernment, but it is never quite defined. The same can be said of the Caudillo in Guzman's work, who proclaims the ideology of the Revolution but never quite spells it out. The other three tyrants, Carrillo Acab, Juan Vicente Gomez, I and el senor Presidents, represent pure power of the per sonal is tic type and have little or no interest in any lofty goals for their respective countries. This area of a na- | l tional ideology is probably the weakest of the six charac teristics of totalitarian dictatorship presented in the noveIs. In the second area of consideration, that of the crea tion of a single-party system, the Latin American despots jare not extremely sophisticated. cAsar Dario in Spota's work and el Caudillo in Guzman's do depend on a political party, which in essence means the government party. It is 375 i [o b v io u s t h a t t h e s e tw o w o r k s , b o t h w r i t t e n b y M e x ic a n s , d e s c r i b e t h e f o r m a t iv e s t a g e s o f t h e P a r t id o R e v o l u c io n a r i o : i ! I n s t i t u c i o n a l w h ic h i s t o d a y , i n M e x ic o , t h e a l l - p o w e r f u l [ n a t io n a l p a r t y . A p o l i t i c a l p a r t y i s a l s o m e n tio n e d i n La 1 l a g a . w h ic h l e a d s o n e t o c o n c lu d e t h a t t h e f i r s t tw o e l e m e n ts o f t o t a l i t a r i a n d i c t a t o r s h i p , t h e c r e a t i o n o f n a t i o n a l i d e o l o g y an d t h e d e v e lo p m e n t o f a o n e - p a r t y s y s t e m , a r e i n - ; s e p a r a b l e c o m b in a t io n s s i n c e t h e y b o th a p p e a r in t h e t h r e e n o v e l s m e n tio n e d a b o v e . T h er e a p p e a r s t o b e no e l e c t o r a l p r o c e s s , n o t e v e n n o m in a lly , in t h e o t h e r t h r e e n o v e l s t h a t d e p i c t t h e a b s o l u t e r u l e o f C a r r i l l o A c a b , G om ez, a n d e l is e n o r P r e s i d e n t e . The third characteristic, that of the communications j ! m o n o p o ly , i s p r e s e n t in a l l o f t h e w o r k s . The e x tr e m e r e - I : I I p r e s s io n o f t h e p r e s s a p p e a r s i n t h e s i x n o v e l s , i t h a s | a l r e a d y b e e n p o i n t e d o u t t h a t Guzm an, A s t u r i a s , a n d C a s a c c ia l I I w r o te t h e i r n o v e l s \ d i i l e l i v i n g in e x i l e d u r in g d i c t a t o r i a l ! r e g im e s in t h e i r home c o u n t r i e s . L a fo u r c a d e an d G a lle g o s i b o t h w r o t e a b o u t d i c t a t o r s i n c o u n t r i e s o t h e r th a n t h e i r lown. O n ly S p o ta w r o te a b o u t a s i t u a t i o n t h a t c o u l d h a v e i [o c c u r r e d i n t h e c o u n t r y i n w h ic h h e w as th e n r e s i d i n g . How e v e r , h e r e p e a t e d l y r e f e r s t o M e x ic o i n t h e n o v e l a s a i i [ f o r e ig n c o u n t r y , t h a t i s , t h e c h a r a c t e r s d o n o t s p e a k o f _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ...... .... - — — ! i ! Mexico as the country in which the action occurs. The fact that most of the novelists studied here have i experienced some type of censorship or repression has pos sibly resulted in their emphasis in the novels on the sup pression of freedom of the press. Lafourcade almost mor bidly describes the torture and imprisonment of one of the country's leading newspapermen. Spota points out that Cesar Dario determined what items of propaganda should appear in the newspapers and over the radio. El senor Presidente uses the newspapers to announce the false seduction of Cara de Angel's wife. Guzman's Caudillo insures that the nation's newspapers endorse only his candidate in the upcoming elec- , tions. Gome: never allows the newspapers to print the true j I story of his brother's murder. And in La llaga, the story ! i of the attempted revolution is completely distorted to : i glorify the image General Alsina. In each of the works, j the authors make it quite clear that the suppression of freedom of expression is one of the most dastardly crimes perpetrated by Latin American dictators. | The fourth point, that of the weapons monopoly, is also i ja universal characteristic of the six dictatorial regimes. I In all the works, with the exception of Guzmrfn's, which has the earliest date of publication (1928), the threat of ! - - - - 377 j ^communism p l a y s a s i g n i f i c a n t r o l e . Guzman in h i s w o r k , o f | c o u r s e , w as r e f e r r i n g t o t h e p e r io d d u r in g t h e M e x ic a n R e v o l u t i o n b e f o r e comm unism p o s e d a t h r e a t t o s u p p o s e d ly d em o- j i c r a t i c r e g i m e s . The o t h e r f i v e n o v e l i s t s make i t q u i t e c l e a r t h a t t h e d i c t a t o r s h a v e b e e n a b l e t o o b t a i n arm s and s u p p l i e s from t h e w e s t e r n p o w e r s , e s p e c i a l l y t h e U n ite d S t a t e s , b y t h e m ere m e n tio n o f t h e i r a n ti-c o m m u n is m . T h is i s a p o i n t t r e a t e d in C h a p te r I I I o f t h i s w o rk , in w h ic h i t w as p o i n t e d o u t t h a t t h e U n it e d S t a t e s p o l i c y i n L a t in A m e rica h a s b e e n s o m o t iv a t e d b y t h e f e a r o f comm unism t h a t l i t t l e d i s t i n c t i o n h a s b e e n made b e tw e e n d i c t a t o r i a l and d e m o c r a t ic g o v e r n m e n t s . T h u s, t h e U n ite d S t a t e s s u p p l i e s t h e arm s t o m o st o f t h e L a t in A m erica n d i c t a t o r s an d in s u r e s } t h e p e r p e t u a t i o n o f t h e i r r e g im e s an d t h e f a i l u r e o f i n s u r - I r e c t i o n i s t f o r c e s . In s e v e r a l o f t h e n o v e l s t h e w r i t e r s j d e s c r i b e in d e t a i l t h e m i l i t a r y p a r a d e s in w h ic h U n ite d S t a t e s a r m s, h a n d e d o v e r t o t h e d i c t a t o r s , p a s s i n r e v i e w . The c r e a t i o n o f a s e c r e t p o l i c e f o r c e i s a l s o a c h a r a c t e r i s t i c o f t o t a l i t a r i a n r e g im e s an d i s d e s c r i b e d i n a l l j o f t h e s i x n o v e l s . In La som b ra d e l c a u d i l l o . i t i s a c t u - i a l l y a s p e c i a l u n i t o f m i l i t a r y men who c a r r y or. . t h e m ass i m urder o f t h e C a u d i l l o 's o p p o n e n t s . In E l tie m p o d e l a i r a an d La f i e s t a d e l r e v A c a b . i t h a s a lr e a d y b e e n p o i n t e d o u t * 3781 j I that the secret police are under the direction of an Ameri- j can gangster and an ex-Nazi officer. In La llaga. the ; j sadistic ex-prizefighter Romualdo Caseres spreads wide his web to foil the revolutionary plot, in El puno del amo it j is Colonel Cayama, "Jefe de la Sagrada," the dictator's special terrorist unit, who beats the false confession out of Capitan Leon and seduces his wife. In Asturias' work it is the sadistic Auditor de Guerra who has charge of admin istering "justice" in the republic. In every case an atmos phere of terror, fear, and violence is created by the novel ist in an obvious attempt to present a very graphic de scription of a total police state. This is perhaps the most gruesome aspect of the six works: the use of torture, imprisonments, authorized mur- ! I I ders, and the complete absence of any judicial process are I fully detailed by the writers. The three infamous prisons j i of Venezuela and their unfortunate inmates are described in j E1 puno de1 amo. The rotting bodies, the stench, the ex crement in which the political prisoners barely survive ; constitute one of the underlying symbols of the work. In i i La fiesta del rev Acab the dictator personally pushes the Basque into the furnace of the freighter ship. In La sonibra del caudillo. twelve politicians with their hands tied 379 , behind their backs with piano wire are murdered on the high^ way M^xico-Toluca. In La lla^a. Casaccia describes in de- i I tail the cruel beating received by the young artist Gilberto Torres. Likewise, Asturias devotes a large portion of his book to the description of el senor Presidente's prison. Spota, in El tiemoo de la ira. describes the sadistic be havior of the gangster-police chief who does the dirty work for c£sar Dario. All of the details of torture and violence in the six works are too numerous to describe here. The piercing of testicles with hot needles, the castrations, the hangings by the breasts inflicted on women, the beatings, the murders in the name of "justice," all demonstrate with a great deal of passion just how the novelists felt about the reigns of terror that they describe. The six books all I I have this theme in common. The writers all seem to show by ! ^ i their description of violence and inhumanity that there can ; be no justice in a country ruled by a dictator. ! i The final aspect of a totalitarian regime is that of a I centralized economy. It has already been pointed out that this economic centralization exists in Latin America regard- I less of the type of government that controls the country. Many of the republics are monocultures, producing only a single product or crop on which the economic stability of : the nation rests . In the six novels studied here, the con cept of a centralized economy is not as significant as the | role played by the United States in the economic control of some of these republics. Casaccia's novel La llaqa is the only one in which the United States does not play a signifi cant role. Casaccia's intention is to show how the stagna tion and feudal mentality of the Paraguayans is the fertile soil in which dictators are born. For this end, it is not necessary for him to implicate the United States. In the other five novels, but to a lesser degree in La sombra del caudillo. the role played by the United States business interests is highlighted. The authors seem to be attacking Yankee economic imperialism as much as they are | attacking dictatorship. In Guzman's work it is obvious that the Revolution has been fought for the purpose of wresting I control of the economy from the foreign investors, princi- j pally the United States. In El puno del amo Gallegos makes j I it a point to emphasize the dictator's dependence on the j i foreign oil interests in Venezuela for his survival. With jthe aid of Yankee capital guaranteed by his avowed anti- i jcommunism, the dictator is able to maintain law and order. To the North Americans in the country, law and order are essential for good business. It is irrelevant to them that |this law and order are maintained at the expense of human j rights. , | ! i In El senor presidente Asturias * tyrant declares, "Washington me retira su confianza" (p. 258). Washington is considering ending its support of the dictator because there have been numerous complaints from the United States - owned fruit companies that the unstable conditions in the country are hindering business. In El tiempo de la ira. C^sar Dario, in order to maintain the support of the masses, turns against the United States oil interests that had initially supplied the funds for the revolution that brought him to power. Dario begins thinking in terms of nationalize ing not only the oil industry but the fruit companies as ! well. He is not afraid of being falsely labeled a Coramu- I I nist, for his only ideology is personal power. In La fiesta del rev Acab. Lafourcade describes in de tail the role of the United States in the history of the j t small island nation. At one point the country had been { I occupied by the United States Marines. Presently there is a large United States military base on the island that is there obviously to protect American business interests. The American Ambassador, Cecil T. Raven, minces no words in explaining this fact: " ... La United Fruit, la American " " ' 3821 i | Railway Co., la Flota Blanca, la Andes Oil Inc., la Creole Co., la Shell, la Standard Oil, etc. ... Elios merecen i i atencion preferente" (Lafourcade, p. 135). In these last two novels by Spota and Lafourcade, the United States in- j volvement in Latin American affairs probably receives its severest criticism. This could very well be because these two books were also the most recently published novels out of the six, indicating an anti-Yankee sentiment that is more prevalent now than it was in the early part of this century. All of the six elements of dictatorial regimes that are indicated by Friedrich and Brzezinski seemed to be fairly well presented in the Latin American novels studied in this work, with the exception of the element of a national ideol-j ogy. One reason for this might be that a unique character- j I istic of Latin American dictatorship has always been the | personalismo of most regimes. In other words, the man, the ! i dictator, the caudillo is the ideology. There has seldom i been a true national ideology fostered by any of Latin America*s dictators. Ideology has generally been a matter ;of the dictator's personal beliefs. A common slogan of (Latin American tyrants has been "yo soy el estado." The Castro revolution in Cuba may be an exception to this, though it is hard to tell at this point how much of Cuba's [ r e v o l u t i o n a r y i d e o l o g y e m e r g e s d i r e c t l y fro m " F i d e l ." T he P r o g n o s is And w h a t o f t h e a r t i s t s ' i d e o l o g y ? How d o t h e s i x n o v e l i s t s v i e w L a t i n A m e r ic a n p o l i t i c s ? W hat i s t h e i r p r o g n o s i s f o r t h e f u t u r e ? A f t e r an i n t e n s i v e s t u d y o f b o t h a u t h o r s a n d t h e i r w o r k s , i t w o u ld b e s a f e t o s a y t h a t a l l s i x w r i t e r s a p p e a r t o h o l d a v e r y p e s s i m i s t i c v i e w o f L a t i n A m e r ic a n p o l i t i c s . To b e g i n w i t h , t h e t e r r o r , t h e f e a r , t h e v i o l e n c e t h a t f i l l t h e a tm o s p h e r e o f t h e s i x w o r k s i s a n o b v io u s i n d ic t m e n t o f d i c t a t o r s h i p . T h e d i s h o n e s t y o f b u r e a u c r a t s , t h e p o l i t i c a l p a y - o f f s , t h e b r i b e s , t h e g o v e r n m e n t s w i n d l e s d e s c r i b e d i n t h e n o v e l s l e a v e t h e r e a d e r i i w i t h t h e i m p r e s s i o n t h a t t h e a u t h o r s in t e n d e d t o d e m o n s tr a te : ! t h a t L a t i n A m e r ic a i s p o l i t i c a l l y b a n k r u p t . The f a c t t h a t ! t h r e e o f t h e w o r k s u s e d f i c t i t i o u s c o u n t r i e s a s s e t t i n g s I w o u ld i n d i c a t e t h a t t h e w r i t e r s o f t h e s e w o rk s i n t e n d e d t o c r i t i c i s e L a t i n A m e r ic a n p o l i t i c s i n g e n e r a l r a t h e r th a n a n y s p e c i f i c c o u n t r y . ' In e a c h o f t h e w o r k s , t h e d i c t a t o r i s k e p t i n p o w er b y ' h i s a b u s e o f g o v e r n m e n t. He i s s u p p o r t e d i n m o s t c a s e s b y a g r o u p o f p o l i t i c i a n s a n d t e c h n o c r a t s \rtio se o n l y f u n c t i o n a p p e a r s t o b e t h a t o f i n c r e a s i n g t h e i r p e r s o n a l f o r t u n e s . r ' 384 1 I 1 The d i c t a t o r s , o n t h e o t h e r h a n d , seem t o b e m o t iv a t e d a s j much by their need for power as they are by a desire for j \ ' I riches. Their power, of course, derives from the amount of money they can hand out to their henchmen. Martin Luis j Guzman's caudillo succinctly phrases one of the themes en countered in the six novels when he states, " ... no hay diputados o senadores que resisten a las caricias del Tesoro General" (p. 79). Not one of the six authors makes a posi tive statement about the governmental system that he ana lyzes . One indication as to the pessimistic view held by the six writers is visible in the conclusion of each novel. F iv e o f t h e s i x w ork s e n d w i t h t h e d e a t h o f a p r i n c i p a l c h a r a c t e r . In E l puno d e l amo no o n e d i e s a t t h e c o n c l u - j I sion; they have been dying throughout the novel. There is, ! i however, even a symbolic death at the end of this work. | When the formerly idealistic students are released from ’ prison after three years of confinement, Gallegos indicates that "Juan Vicente Gomez habia asesinado al alma de una generacicSn" (p. 247). In t h e o t h e r f i v e w o rk s t h e r e i s an a c t u a l d e a t h a t t h e i c o n c l u s i o n o f e a c h n o v e l . In tw o o f th e m , La f i e s t a d e l r e v A cab an d E l tie m p o d e l a i r a . t h e d i c t a t o r s a r e iassassinated. Both of these tyrants are named C^sar and both of them die violent deaths like their namesake, in El tiempo de la ira Cesar Dario is shot at the height of his apolitical power by his young friend Victor Who, like Brutus in the Shakespearean drama, kills Caesar to save the Empire. In La fiesta del rev Acab. Cosme Santa Maria has created a complicated plan for the assassination of Carrillo Acab. A bomb is placed in the bouquet of flowers handed to the dic tator by a lovely young lady. Possibly this symbolizes the beauty of the island nation and the violent nature of its political system. The death of these two tyrants, however, does not in- I sure that things will be better in the future. In fact, it i i is quite clear that Spota and Lafourcade are very pessimis- ! tic as to the outcome of these acts of violence. In Spota 'sj f I work it is obvious that young Victor will also lose his lifej ! as a result of his act of murder, thus eliminating the pos- ; i sibility of the emergence of a new and more humane ideology, :for in the Latin American tradition violence breeds only |violence. In Lafourcade's work an anti-revolutionary plot !begins even before the revolutionary plot is under way. There is no indication of a better political future in either of these works. j La sombra del caudillo ends with the assassination of Ignacio Aguirre, the presidential candidate, and eleven of his principal supporters. They are taken from government automobiles with their hands tied behind their backs and murdered. Guzman's pessimism is obvious, for on this act depends the outcome of the election. The only candidate left and the man who will rule the republic in the future is the Caudillo1 a chosen candidate, Hilario Jimenez. La llaga and El senor presidente end with the death of two principal characters other than the dictator. In Casac cia's work, Atilio, who has informed the government of the whereabouts of the revolutionary leader, takes his own life just as his father had done several years before. Casaccia j seems to be indicating with this act that now two genera- | tions of Paraguayans have been lost to the country. The revolutionary leader, Colonel Balbuena, is forced to flee into exile, indicating little hope for the overthrow of the dictator in the immediate future. In El senor presidente it is Miguel Cara de Angel who lloses his life at the end of the novel. The dictator has I I iimprisoned Miguel, his former friend and secretary, and in the sadistic hands of his jailers, Miguel succumbs. In these two works it is obvious that the authors intend to present a pessimistic view of the political situation in i their respective countries. No hope is held for a more i humane future. In one instance, the revolutionary leader Balbuena is forced to flee into exile While in the other, Miguelito, Cara de Angel's small son, is taken into exile by his mother. Thus, the two republics are left in the hands of despots. In addition to the deaths that occur at the conclusion of each of the novels, one other element stands out that indicates the authors' pessimistic view of the political future of Latin America. Each of the novelists seems to place a great deal of blame for the emergence of tyranny on the citizens of the country he describes. Since three of the countries described are given fictitious names, one 1 might surmise that Lafourcade, Spota, and Asturias are in ■ I essence condemning the entire citizenry of Latin America fori i allowing despots to emerge. | The revolutionary leader Cosine Santa Maria in Lafour- cade's work wonders if he will be able to motivate that i"raza sonrfmbula" that inhabits the island nation. He also :refers to the population as "esa inanimada y ciega potencia" i (p. 91). He blames the citizens of the country for allowing themselves to be ruled by the tyrant, Carrillo Acab, for more than a quarter of a century. In El tiempo de la ira I Spota demonstrates this same critical view of the inhabi- ; I tants of his fictitious republic. The intellectual, don Hector Gama, refers to the populace as a rebano. a flock of sheep that follow, almost without will, the wishes of the caudillo. He asks the dictator, "iAcaso nuestros pueblos prefieren la dictadura a la mano amiga del hombre de buena voluntad?" (p. 397). In Spota's opinion they apparently do, for Gama is overthrown as president of the republic and Carrillo is reinstated. In E l s e n o r p r e s i d e n t e A s t u r i a s a l s o d e m o n s t r a t e s h i s dim v ie w o f t h e c i t i z e n s o f t h e r e p u b l i c . M ig u e l Cara d e A n g e l, a f t e r h e h a s b e e n i n s u l t e d b y e l s e n o r P r e s i d e n t e . r e s p o n d s in a manner t o w h ic h h e h a s becom e a c c u sto m e d : I "Seguia siendo el perro educado, intelectual, contento de | su racion de mugre, del instinto que la conservaba la vida" ' (p. 222). Also significant in the novel is the fact that the only positive gesture, in fact the act that begins all I of the action in the novel, is committed by the idiot Pelele when he kills the dictator's Police Chief, Parrales Sonri- 1 jente. Ironically, it is the other citizens of the republic vAio are the actual peleles that dangle from the dictator's hands. In the other three novels, which describe dictatorshipsi i i n M e x ic o , V e n e z u e la , and P a ra g u a y , t h e a u t h o r s a r e j u s t a s , i critical of the role played by the populace. Guzman, for example, puts into the words of the politician Axkana Gon zalez his criticism of the Mexican citizens. "Lea falta a tal punto el sentido de la ciudadania, que ni siquiera des- cubren que es culpa suya no nuestra, lo que hace que la polftica mexicana sea lo que es' 1 (p. 6 8). Gallegos is a bit more sympathetic in his view of the Venezuelans when he states, "No saben hacer otra cosa que callar y obedecer. Nadie todavia les ha ensenado pensar" (p. 2 34) . Neverthe less, his intention is basically the same, that of demon strating the citizens' guilt in allowing the emergence of dictatorship. i Gabriel Casaccia, perhaps, dwells on this theme more ! ; i than the other five writers. The abulia of Paraguayan so ciety is, in fact, one of the basic themes of La llaca. Paraguay as a nation has probably had the purest tradition i of dictatorship of any of the Latin American nations. In ;chapter VIII of this work it was pointed out that Paraguay's lamentable position in Latin American literature was prob ably due to its history of dictatorship from Doctor Francia to Stroessner and the suppression of freedom of expression |that usually accompanies tyranny. Casaccia, in fact, wrote j his book attacking Paraguayan dictatorship from exile. One j I i o f h i s i n t e n t i o n s in t h e book was t o show how t h e P a ra g u a y a n I citizenry is itself to blame for the country's corrupt po- j litical system. La llaga is the cancerous sore that pro duces a national neurosis and results in the continuation of a totalitarian state. It is in the figure of young Atilio that Casaccia epitomizes the inaction of the nation, for throughout the novel Atilio is preoccupied with thoughts of his own death. "Es cuestion de aguantar y esperar,’ ' he tells his mother (p. 26), esperar until he can take his own life and end for another generation any hope of throwing off the yoke of tyranny. J All six novels are tinged with the coloring of pessi- ! 1 y m ism . None o f t h e a u t h o r s e n v i s i o n a v e r y b r i g h t f u t u r e . I Death is the climax of all of the works and when new life i d o e s o c c u r , a s i n t h e b i r t h o f M i g u e l i t o in E l s e n o r p r e s i - ; ! d e n t e . i t m ust b e ta k e n i n t o e x i l e im m e d ia te ly t o s u r v i v e . In none of the novels do the artists present possible solu tions for the elimination of dictatorship in Latin America. i They are cognizant of the historical and sociological rea sons for the emergence of despots in this part of the world, but they do not entertain any real hopes that the attitudes and basic value system of the society will change suffi- i ciently in the near future to allow more representative and humane governments to emerge. B IBLIOGRAPHY 392 BIBLIOGRAPHY Primary Sources Arevalo Martinez, Jose. Ecce Pericles. Guatemala: Tipo- grafia Nacional, 1945. Asturias, Miguel Angel. El senor presidente. 10th ed. Buenos Aires: Editorial Losada, 1969. Ayala, Francisco. Muertes de perro. Buenos Aires: Edi torial Sudam^ricana, 1958. Blanco Fombona, Rufino. La mitra en la mano. Madrid: Editorial America, 1927. C a r p e n t i e r , A l e j o . El a c a s o . B uenos A i r e s : L o sa d a , 1956 C a s a c c ia , G a b r i e l . La l l a q a . 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Creator Gonzales, Raymond Joseph (author)

Core Title The Latin American Dictator In The Novel

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Latin American Studies

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), Curtis, Robert E. (committee member), Myerhoff, Barbara G. (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c18-564905

Unique identifier UC11361969

Identifier 7211925.pdf (filename),usctheses-c18-564905 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 7211925.pdf

Dmrecord 564905

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Gonzales, Raymond Joseph

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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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