University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Juan Bosch: His Literary Works And A Biographical Sketch

(USC Thesis Other)

Juan Bosch: His Literary Works And A Biographical Sketch

PDF

Download a page range

Download transcript

Copy asset link

Request this asset

Transcript (if available)

Content JUAN BOSCH: HIS LITERARY WORKS AND A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH by Deane Thacher Conklin 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) August 1972 INFORMATION TO USERS This dissertation was produced fro m a m icrofilm copy o f the original docum ent. W hile th e most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this docum ent have been used, th e q u ality is heavily dependent upon th e q u ality of the original subm itted. T h e fo llo w in g explanation o f techniques is provided to help you understand m arkings or patterns w hich m ay appear on this reproduction. 1. T he sign o r "ta rg e t" fo r pages apparently lacking from the docum ent photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to o btain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along w ith adjacent pages. This m ay have necessitated cutting th ru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you com plete c o n tin u ity. 2. W hen an image on the film is obliterated w ith a large round black m ark, it is an indication th a t th e photographer suspected th a t th e copy m ay have m oved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image. Y o u w ill fin d a good image of th e page in th e adjacent fram e. 3. W hen a m ap, draw ing or chart, etc., was part o f the m aterial being p h o to g ra p h e d th e photographer fo llo w ed a d e fin ite m ethod in "sectioning" th e m aterial. It is custom ary to begin photoing at the upper le ft hand corner o f a large sheet and to continue photoing from le ft to right in equal sections w ith a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again — beginning below the firs t ro w and continuing on u ntil com plete. 4. T h e m ajo rity o f users indicate th a t the textual co ntent is o f greatest value, however, a som ew hat higher q u ality reproduction could be m ade from "photographs" if essential to the understanding o f the dissertation. Silver prints o f "photographs" m ay be ordered at additional charge by w ritin g th e O rder D epartm ent, giving th e catalog num ber, title , au th o r and specific pages you wish reproduced. University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 A Xerox Education Company I I 73-729 CONKLIN, Deane Thacher, 1929- JUAN BOSCH: HIS LITERARY WORKS AND A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. [Portions of Text in Spanish]. - University of Southern California, Ph.D., 1972 Language and Literature, modem University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan © Copyright by DEANE THACHER CONKLIN 1972 THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED U N IV E R S IT Y O F S O U T H E R N C A L IF O R N IA T H E G R A D U A TE S C H O O L U N IV E R S IT Y PARK LOS A N G E LE S , C A L IF O R N IA 9 0 0 0 7 This thesis, w ritten by .......Deane _.Thacher_ Conklin tinder the direction o f hLs. Thesis Committee, and approved by a ll its members, has been p re sented to and accepted by the Dean of The Graduate School, in p a rtia l fu lfillm e n t o f the requirements fo r the degree of rL€T.yV ) CLP D ate August 1972 THESIS COMMITTEE 1 d u L t n A J Chairman PLEASE NOTE: Some pages may have indistinct print. Filmed as received. University Microfilms, A Xerox Education Company To my wife Barbara and to my family for their patience and encouragement. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I. INTRODUCTION ................................... Statement of Purpose Why the Writings of Juan Bosch Were Chosen as a Dissertation Topic Organization of the Dissertation II. JUAN BOSCH GAVINO, A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH . . . The Impressionable Years The Young Writer Exile and. Expanding Horizons Political Observer and Revolutionary A Ten-Year Odyssey The End of an Odyssey The Presidency Return to Exile III. BOSCH'S BIOGRAPHICAL WORKS ................... Hostos, el sembrador Simon Bolivar, biografia para escolares David, biografia de un rey Summary IV. LA MANOSA, NOVELA DE LAS REVOLUCIONES . . . . El pro y la paz La Manosa, novela de las revoluciones Summary V. CRITERIA FOR THE EVALUATION OF BOSCH'S SHORT STORIES ................................. Precursors of the Hispanic Short Story The Latin American Short Story: Developmental Highlights Page 1 9 57 106 138 Chapter Page Technical Properties of the Short Story A Synopsis of Bosch's Short Story Theory VI. SEVEN VOLUMES OF STORIES: AN OVERVIEW . . . . Camino real "Anarquistas" and "La mula" Dos pesos de aqua Ocho cuentos La muchacha de La Guaira Cuento de Navidad Cuentos escritos en el exilio Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio Summary VII. ANALYSIS OF THE HECHO-TEMA RELATIONSHIP . . . Camino real | Dos pesos de aqua I Ocho cuentos La muchacha de La Guaira Cuentos escritos en el exilio Summary VIII. CONCLUSIONS ................................... BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................... APPENDIXES A. Horacio Quiroga's "Decalogo del perfecto ; cuentista" .................................... | B. The Rectification of an Error ................ i I C. Baptismal Certificate of Leon Bosch Garcia . . j D. A Selected Bibliography of Books by Bosch . . E. A Selected Bibliography of Bosch's Short i Stories ....................................... i | iv 178 294 349 357 368 371 374 376 380 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Statement of Purpose ! The fundamental purpose of this study is to present |an inventory and analysis of the literary works of the Dominican Juan Bosch. This analysis seeks to determine what i jhe has written about, how it relates to Latin American I i literature, what Latin Americans themselves have thought about his literary production, and the literary merit of that core or block of writing upon which his reputation as a writer has been based— the short story. Since this is the first dissertation on Bosch's works, one contribution ;of this study will be the presentation of a biographical j jsketch on Bosch and the establishment of a current biblio graphy, neither of which have been available in a comprehen sive form. Though Juan Bosch has been an eminent partici pant in Caribbean politics, there is no intent here to study the implications of his political involvement as perhaps 1 2 a student of political science might do in examining Bosch's role vis-a-vis contemporary Dominican politics. Why the Writings of Juan Bosch Were Chosen as a Dissertation Topic i ! For many years devotees of the Latin American I ! [political scene, especially of the Caribbean, wondered what itype government would emerge in the Dominican Republic after [its dictator, General Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina, died [or retired. The opportunity for leisurely conjecture on I this subject ended the night of May 30, 1961 when General [Trujillo was ambushed and killed on the outskirts of Santo i Domingo, the capital of the country he had exploited as his private fiefdom since 1930.'*' With the General's assassination, many who had lin- i [gered in the wings of Dominican politics were now pulled center-stage by the vacuum his death had created. The i [Dominican Republic was first governed by the General's son, I "^General historical references, unless otherwise inoted, are based upon information presented by Robert D. jcrassweller, Trujillo: The Life and Times of a Caribbean Dictator (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1966); Hubert Herring, A History of Latin America (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1963); and Selden Rodman, Quisgueya, a History of the Dominican Republic (Seattle: University of Washington [Press, 1964). Rafael Junior or "Ramfis" and Joaquin Balaguer, who was titular president at the time Trujillo was shot. Then in January of 1962 a Council of State, or consejo, was sworn in to superintend the Dominican Republic until elections could be held and a president inaugurated. During the jeight. months between Trujillo's death and the advent of the iCouncil of State, Ramfis Trujillo, Hector and Arismendi i iTrujillo (Ramfis1 uncles), Joaquin Balaguer, and General |Pedro Rodriguez Echavarria struggled and vied for power, i j all finally being exiled for the greater tranquillity of [the nation. During this period the Organization of American j i [States and the United States alternately applied pressure I i and influence in order to avoid a Dominican bloodbath and to encourage a viable government. The Council of State endured— miraculously— to ; supervise the elections of December 20, 1962, the first free [elections in the "Republic" in thirty-eight years. Not withstanding the penchant for plotting coups and vituper- | ation that manifested themselves during the election cam- i jpaign, one man did emerge as the people's choice in an i election considered to be fair, at least by the official observers. The winner, the man destined to step into the "eye of the hurricane, 1 1 was Juan Bosch, a Dominican exile, who was relatively unknown outside the Caribbean countries. Suddenly people wanted to know who Bosch was and what his credentials were. | Shortly it was known thcit Mr. Bosch was a writer; I some were even more specifically aware that he was a writer iof short stories. He had also taught at and directed the j I Institute for Political Education in San Jose, Costa Rica. i ■It soon became evident that here was a man, president of a I |historically famous and strategic Caribbean land, who had i |known, been a friend of, or had an acquaintance with many [presidents of the Western Hemisphere: Romulo Betancourt, Jose Figueres, Carlos Prio Socorras, Romulo Gallegos, Luis Munoz Marin, and who before his inauguration in Santo !Domingo had been received at the White House by President !Kennedy. Still, very little was known of his life's work. What had Bosch written about and was it representa tive of Latin American literature? As anthologies and The Organization of American States supervised the election. See Dan Kurzman, Santo Domingo: Revolt of the Damned (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1965), p. 76. periodicals were searched, his short stories began to turn up, one appearing in The Saturday Evening Post. Angel Flores in Historia y antologia del cuento y la novela en Hispanoamerica comments that "Escasos son los datos sobre este talentoso escritor dominicano, pues Bosch se ha visto i 3 jobligado a vivir fuera de su patria por largos anos." |There were bibliographical errors and Bosch was often re- | jferred to as Juan Domingo or Juan P. Bosch and as Dr. Bosch, iespecially by The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. I |It was discovered that Bosch's stories were attractive and i [professionally structured, when they could be located. i jWhat Latin American scholars knew about Bosch's work was brief and filled with voids. Not even a survey existed and 4 one was needed on the artistic dimensions of this man. This dissertation then addresses itself to these questions. ; 3 ! Angel Flores, Historia y antologia del cuento y !la novela en Hispanoamerica (New York: Las Americas Publish ing Co., 1959), p. 483. j 4 When interviewing Juan Bosch in the Dominican Republic the summer of 1966, the author discovered that Don Schmidt had written his Master's thesis on Bosch's short story production: Don Schmidt, "The Short Stories of Juan Bosch from 1933 to 1964" (unpublished Master's thesis, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, 1966). 6 Organization of the Dissertation The second chapter is one on Bosch's life, of the type generally referred to as a "biographical sketch." It will furnish the principal biographical data of his life, journeys, exile, and accomplishments. It is only a pro- ifile, however, and by no means purports to be complete, .'especially since Juan Bosch has many productive years ahead. j ! The biographical sketch is followed by an examina- jtion of the three works which belong to the biographical jgenre in which Bosch has enjoyed writing. This section |includes Hostos, el seiribrador, 1939; Simon Bolivar, biogra- I jfia para escolares, 1960; and David, biografia de un rey, 1963. If there should be an inner spirit of destiny that sometimes compels a man to action or directs him or speaks | to him from time to time or to whom he appeals on occasion, it is here in this genre of the biography that this specter jmight be detected as Bosch probes the ordeals, problems, and anguish of two Latin American patriots and King David. | In Chapter IV, Bosch's novel, La Manosa, novela de j jlas revoluciones (1936), will receive criticism to include the novel's thesis, point of view, and characterization. It is a narration of rural life in the Cibao, the agricul tural heartland of the Dominican Republic, during a period sometime before the United States occupied the Republic in 1916. Life in the Cibao is seen at first through the eyes i of a child. It is the story of a humble family, their mule j"Manosa" and simple, honest country people haunted by a revolution which at first hangs unseen like an omnipresent | l jblight over their existence until it finally sweeps them I up too. At the end of the novel Don Pepe arrives at the i ; |pessimistic conclusion that one can reform the bad habits of a mule but not of man. La Manosa is Bosch's only pub- jlished novel and as such is the only work discussed in i Chapter IV. He has written another novel, El pro y la paz, as yet unpublished. Chapter V, "Criteria for the Evaluation of Bosch's | Short Stories," pi'esents developmental highlights of the ; Hispanic American short story and an explanation of short ^story techniques. The latter part of the chapter offers a resume of Bosch's own formula and advice for writing a short story. Criteria from this chapter will be used in i the analysis of Bosch's short stories in subsequent chap- ;ters. 8 Chapter VI, "Seven Volumes of Short Stories: an Overview," shows how Bosch's stories relate to Latin Ameri can literary trends and the short story norms presented in Chapter V. Bosch feels that the key to successful short story writing is to be found in the careful selection and develop- i Iment of the theme, an essential part of which is the hecho- i - - - - - Itema concept. Chapter VII, "Analysis of the Hecho-Tema jRelationship," studies the hecho-tema (incident-theme) I jconcept referred to by Bosch and how it influences the i I structure of his cuentos. i | The literary works discussed in Chapters III-VII are only a portion of Bosch's writing. In addition to his literature, he has written numerous articles and books in the essay genre on historical, social, and political themes, ;the majority of them related to the Dominican Republic. |No attempt is made in this study to analyze these works, i jbut titles of all books by Bosch are listed in the Appendix. CHAPTER II JUAN BOSCH GAVINO, A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH The Impressionable Years j | February 27, 1963 could not have been less than a ;memorable day in the lives of Jose Bosch Suvirats and his wife Angela Gavino de Bosch,'*' for it was on this day that !the Bosches had the honor of attending their son's inaugura tion as president of the Dominican Republic, the first 2 freely elected president since 1924. Jose Bosch Suvirats lived in Rio Verde when he first came to the Dominican Republic, but later moved to nearby Concepcion de la Vega. Though a mason by trade, in La Vega i Jose Bosch Suvirats was born in Tortosa, Spain while Angela Gavino de Bosch was from San Lorenzo de la jGuardia, Puerto Rico. From interview with Bosch and his Jsister, Angela Bosch de Ortiz, in Santo Domingo, summer, 1966. 2 Selden Rodman, Quisqueya, a History of the Domini can Republic (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1964), p. 127. 9 10 he engaged in modest business activities. It was in La !Vega, on Progreso Street (now Calle Padre Adolfo Nouel) that Jose Bosch's second son, Juan, was born on July 30, j1909. La Vega languishes in the very rich agricultural region of the Cibao, first seen by Columbus in 1494 on his second trip to the New World. Columbus was so impressed by this luxuriant valley he called it la vega real, "the royal 3 plain," from which Concepcion de la Vega derives its name. It was from the Cibao— probably Puerto Plata— in 1911 that j the Bosch family moved to Haiti for a short stay and where j 4 Angela was born. The Bosches had seven children, though today members of the family mention only five: Jose, Juan, Angela, Josefina, and Ana. i j The Bosch family returned to La Vega and was liv- Iing there in 1916 when United States troops occupied the Dominican Republic and commenced their eight-year 3 Ibid., p. 8. 4 Exactly how long the Jose Bosch family lived in Haiti, and which of his children were born there besides Angela is uncertain. John Bartlow Martin in Overtaken by Events (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Co., 1966), p. 395, quotes Bosch as saying: "Many Haitians want me for their President. I have great sympathy for the Haitian people. My two brothers were born there." 11 5 administration. That same year as a seven year old, Juan Bosch vividly recalls seeing the Dominican flag lowered and the American flag raised in its stead over public build ings. To him the effect was traumatic, and even as a seven year old this affront left him both sad and angry that his country should suffer such an indignity. Bosch makes no [ !attempt to hide his patriotism and deep-rooted nationalistic j (feelings and does not hesitate to mention that they have jroots in his youth, when his young and inquiring mind sought | | [answers to these wrongs. When he was ten he felt ashamed by the lack of patriotism shown by Pedro Santana, who negotiated the return of Santo Domingo to the Spanish crown |in 1861, and by Buenaventura Baez, who attempted to sell the strategic Samana Peninsula to the United States. Also as a child, Bosch dreamt that the Dominican Republic would :some day have a Marti, a Maximo Gomez, or a Pancho Villa |to do for his country what they had done for Cuba and The indignity to Dominican sovereignty continued after United States troops were withdrawn in 1924. United States currency was the sole medium of exchange in the Dominican Republic until 1947 when General Trujillo paid the last of the outstanding foreign indebtedness. Robert D. Crassweller, Trujillo; The Life and Times of a Caribbean Dictator (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1966), p. 206. 12 Mexico. By the age of ten Juan was already recording his pensamientos (thoughts), according to his sister Angela. When twelve or thirteen he attended school in Santo Domingo where he was editor of El Infante and later El Ideal. After two years he returned to La Vega. There is almost i I no information on his "teen" years or how he occupied him- i I |self. Sometime in his youth he belonged to the literary 7 jgroup "La Cueva." Bosch never received his bachillerato |nor did he ever attend a university. He himself states Juan Bosch, Crisis de la democracia de America en la Republica Dominicana (Mexico, D.F.: Centro de Estudios y Documentacion Sociales, A.C., 1965), pp. 156-157. Cer tainly Bosch does not imply here that he sought the wanton barbarism a Pancho Villa was capable of profaning a country with. As a boy in La Vega he had listened to Mexican corridos which told how Pancho Villa stood up to the Ameri can soldiers who entered Mexico, so as a consequence he !longed for a brave patriot to defend his country against foreign intervention. j J | Martin, p. 344. The International Who1s Who I1966-67 (London: Europa Publications, Ltd., 1966), reports 'that Bosch founded the literary group "Las Cuevas." Max jHenrxquez Ureha also reports Bosch's membership in "La Cueva" without verifying that he founded it. "Los con- currentes habituales de La Cueva, aparte de los tres "vie- jos, 1 1 eran: Juan Bosch, Ramon Marrero Aristy, Andres Francisco Requena, todos cuentistas y novelistas." Max Henriquez Ureha, Panorama historico de la literatura domini- cana (2a ed., revisada; Santo Domingo: Coleccion Pensa- miento Dominicano, 1966), p. 449. 13 that he is autodidacto, "self-educated." The Young Writer In 1929-30 Juan and his sister Angela visited Spain and Barcelona, which was celebrating an international ex position. He returned home via Venezuela and Curapao. I It should also be noted here that in 1930 General [Rafael Trujillo became president of the Dominican Republic ] |under some very questionable circumstances. Though he was I i {known in the Republic as a builder, his political style | ! i I i was ruthless and it was not long before he possessed a {stranglehold on the tiny nation. Robert D. Crassweller in j Trujillo; The Life and Times of a Caribbean Dictator, while explaining facets of Trujillo's personality, comments: The existence of anyone in the country possessing ; intelligence or social or economic distinction and ! not yet absorbed into the government or collaborating with it, was an emotional affront to him. This re cruitment was necessary, too, if he were to bring | administrative and technical skills into his govern ment . ® I Apparently into this same category Juan Bosch was i to fall. Since 1929 he had been publishing short stories i | 8 Crassweller, p. 101. 14 in the Dominican newspaper Listin Diario and magazine Bahoruco. A teacher of physics and algebra at night school in 1933, Bosch, now twenty-four, also published his first book, Camino Real, a collection of short stories about the Cibao. One of the stories, "La mujer," was published in a ! 9 jFrench anthology that same year. The publishing honors |labeled him a potential asset for the Trujillo regime and I |the national patrimony— if he did not get out of step. On I jchristmas day, 1933, however, Bosch was picked up and jwhisked away to a Trujillo jail where he was held incom- I jmunicado seven months, ostensibly for anarchistic activi ties.^ Unexplained arrests and incarcerations were common place in the Dominican Republic between 1930 and 1961. The summer Bosch was released from prison there was unrest and agitation in the Cibao, with teachers and youths being Georges Pillement, Les Conteurs Hispano-Americains (Paris: Librairie Delagrave, 1933). 1 10 A Dominican short story writer and Trujillo apolo- jgist, Tomas Hernandez Franco, in an attack on Bosch ack nowledges his incarceration as being "light" and "without consequences," "without consequences" possibly implying that Bosch left prison in one piece and alive. Tomas Hernandez Franco, Juan Bosch, el cuentista del "cuento" (Ciudad Trujillo, R.D.: Editorial La Nacion, 1944), p. 10. 15 11 arrested and jailed. Presumably Trujillo did not think Bosch was connected with this unrest, for he set him free. A year or so later, Bosch married Isabel Garcia, of Santo Domingo, by whom he had two children, Leon and Carolina. Juan and Isabel were later divorced. By 1936 Bosch had evidently reached some sort of jaccommodation with the Trujillo government, for he was now ! 12 iworking in its Department of Statistics. In October of !the following year Trujillo, for unclarified reasons, i I ; ordered the massacre of many thousands of Haitians working in the Dominican Republic. Time magazine reports that this horrendous act disgusted Bosch to the extent that he was 13 motivated to leave the island. This could be quite true, for it was about this date when Bosch employed the strata gem of "ill health" to obtain permission from the Trujillo j ^government to travel to Puerto Rico. The journey which jBosch made from Santo Domingo to San Juan, Puerto Rico in i itself is insignificant, but it was to initiate a refugee j "^Crassweller, p. 98. i 12 Hernandez Franco, p. 10. Also Martin, p. 344. 13 „ 'Taste of Democracy," Time, January 4, 1963, p. 25. 16 pattern for him which would prevail for over thirty years. Exile and Expanding Horizons While in Puerto Rico Bosch published some of his previous work in the periodicals Puerto Rico Ilustrado and i 1 4 j Alma Latina. He did additional study on the famous Puerto jRican educator Eugenio Maria de Hostos and also made !acquaintances among the intellectuals in San Juan. It was !in the thirties that he met Jaime Benitez, of the Univer- i jsity of Puerto Rico, who was to befriend him in later years. jBosch gave lectures and was interviewed by the well-known Various articles by Bosch appeared in the Puerto Rican periodicals Puerto Rico Ilustrado and Alma Latina in 1938 and 1939, several of which were associated with themes from Bosch, Indios, apuntes historicos y leyendas (1935). | They were "La Ciguapa," "Atariba," and "El canibalismo en lAmerica," besides a lecture "Indios de la Espanola," given ibefore the Association of Graduate Women, University of iPuerto Rico. He also gave a lecture "Mujeres en la vida Ide Hostos" to the same group in November of 1938. In addi tion the essays "Hostos y la revolucion cubana: la guerra de diez anos," "Impresion de La Habana," and the short stories, "La mula" and "Anarquistas" were published. It is 'likely that Bosch had more published in Puerto Rico during this period, but additional bibliographical data has not been uncovered. Antonio R. Manzor in Antologia del cuento hispanoamericano (Santiago de Chile: Editora Zig-Zag, 1939) comments that Bosch had published in Carteles of La Habana, :El Tiempo of Bogota, and Repertorio Americano, San Jose, Costa Rica. 17 15 Puerto Rican critic Conchita Melendez — all very desirable exposure for a budding writer. Just how much opportunity there was for an unestablished writer in Puerto Rico is pure conjecture, but he was to move on. In 1939 Bosch traveled to Havana where he not only [wrote, but became active in the Dominican exile movement and proceeded to do something about the political situation in Santo Domingo: he founded the Dominican Revolutionary [Party, PRD (el Partido Revolucionario Dominicano),^ which i [was organized in sections, "una por cada lugar donde hubiera j jafiliados suficientes." This was the same party that would sweep Bosch into office in the Dominican presidential elec tions of 1962. Political activities associated with the goals of the PRD were to occupy much of his time and atten tion while in Cuba. i | If it is true that some authors in exile feel de prived of the artistic inspiration their homeland supplies Concha Melendez, "Escritores dominicanos: Juan [Bosch," Puerto Rico Ilustrado, mayo 21, 1938, pp. 25, 50. Also see Juan Bosch, Mujeres en la vida de Hostos (San Juan, Puerto Rico: Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1938), lecture igiven to the Asociacion de Mujeres Graduadas de la Universi dad de Puerto Rico, November, 1938. 16 Bosch, Crisis, p. 11; also confirmed by Martin, p. 344, and Crassweller, p. 236. 18 them, this was not so with Bosch. In La Hahana he published his prize-winning biography Hostos, el sembrador (1939), a second edition of La Manosa, novela de las revoluciones (1940) and two volumes of short stories, Dos pesos de aqua (1941) and Ocho cuentos (1947). He was also the first place recipient of the following literary prizes: the "Jue- i igos Florales Hispanoamericanos" in the Dominican Republic, |1940, for his cuento "El Socio"; the Hernandez Cata prize jin 1943 for the short story "Luis Pie"; and the Trujillo j j jsponsored Premio Hatuey in 1944. These literary successes, ! !however gratifying to the author, would in no way supply i him with economic security. In Latin America there are i ! pitifully few professional writers who are able to support themselves and their families just on the earnings from their publishings. Bosch supplemented his publishing in come with earnings from the Cuban radio industry, work with 17 |the Havana newspaper Informacion and work as private ) j 'secretary for Cuban president Carlos Prio Socarras. j Gaston Baquero, "Un escritor presidente: Juan jBosch," ABC, diciembre 26, 1962, p. 51. 18 Interview with Bosch. Bosch stated that he did not do a great deal of work for Carlos Prxo Socarras since Cuban politics were "corrupt." 19 Political Observer and Revolutionary In 1944 Ramon Grau San Martin, a liberal, was \ \ ! elected president of Cuba and under him the Dominican exilesj j enjoyed favor and a certain independence. It was precisely j during Grau's presidency (1944-48) that the Dominican J exiles found a political climate friendly for a move against Trujillo. In 1944 the Dominican emigre leaders formed a iCongress of Unity, which represented exile groups estab- i ilished in Puerto Rico, Cuba, the United States, Venezuela, Jand Mexico. Among them was a leading Dominican writer, the ! jliberal Juan Bosch, who "was named to head a publicity cam- I I 19 jpaign against Trujillo throughout Latin America." In 1945 Bosch was accompanied by his new Cuban wife, Carmen Qui- diello de Bosch, to Mexico City where they spent some seven ■ ^ 20 months. 19 Albert C. Hicks, Blood in the Streets: The Life j and Rule of Trujillo (New York: Creative Age Press, Inc., 11946), p. 146. Hicks also makes the interesting comment | that a Committee for Pro-Dominican Democracy in Colombia iwas headed by Colombia's former president, Dr. Eduardo {Santos (1938-42). Also on the executive committee was j German Arciniegas who was Secretary of Education in Alberto j Lleras Camargo's cabinet in the forties. Ibid. ! I 20 I Adolfo Lopez Mateos, Nuevo planteamiento de las j irelaciones entre Mexico y la Republica Dominicana (Mexico: Editorial "La Justicia," 1963), p. 44. 20 In 1945 the anti-Trujillo ambient in the Caribbean was greatly enhanced by "Accion Democratica1s" arrival to power in Venezuela under the leadership of Romulo Betan court. The time for a landing against Trujillo had arrived. The envisioned plan was audacious and called for ithe invasion of the Dominican Republic itself. This plan i i iwas generally referred to as the "Cayo Confites" invasion, ] jand it was Bosch "more than any other individual, who set i Sin motion preparations for the events that were now about to I ! 21 jdominate the public life of the Caribbean." Specifically, l Bosch was one of five junta members who helped plan the in vasion of the island in an effort to oust Trujillo before 22 his proposed inauguration on August 16, 1947. Ground work for the invasion began as early as 1945, and by the summer of 1947 some one thousand recruits had 23 been concentrated in Cuba. These recruits were first jtrained in Holguin and later on Cayo Confites, an islet ! 21 I Crassweller, p. 236. i 22 | Martin, p. 46. ! 23 Crassweller, pp. 236-237. One of the recruits was Fidel Castro. Consult Wyatt MacGaffey and Clifford R. Barnett, Twentieth Century Cuba (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Co., 1956), p. 284. 21 off the northeast coast of Cuba, in the vicinity of the port of Nuevitas. The expedition received wholehearted support from Venezuela and Cuba, the latter going so far as to carry some of the expeditionaries on the payroll of the 24 Ministry of Education. Now finding men to fight for liberty is one thing, ;but training them, transporting them, supplying them, and I | ^keeping their morale up is something else. One of the re- icruits reported that en route to disembarking on the cay I i I I jthose on shipboard were without water for one day and spent i another without eating. Everyday living conditions on the island were terrible, with dysentery rampant. The recruit, 25 J. L. Wangtiemert, stated that everyone wanted to leave. The recruits listened to lectures on the geography and poli tics of Santo Domingo and practiced amphibious landings. 24 ; Crassweller, p. 237. Funds for the expedition- jaries were labeled "Item K" on the Education Ministry's jbooks. As the Cayo Confites affair was further investigated |in Cuba, sizeable amounts of arms were found stored at the (country estate of the Education Minister, Jose Manuel Ale man. Upon hearing this, the Cuban Senate passed a lack of confidence motion, which resulted in Aleman's resignation. President Grau San Martin immediately made Aleman Minister Without Portfolio, in apparent approval of Aleman's actions. (The New York Times, October 2, 1947.) J. L. Wangtiemert y Maiquez, "El Diario de Cayo jConfites, " Carteles, No. 43, octubre 26, 1947, p., 33. 22 These preparations did not go unnoticed and were occa- 26 sionally observed by Cuban and North American aircraft. The proposed invasion was not a well-kept secret and soon international pressure, including a personal cable from Tru jillo to Grau San Martin, was put on the Cuban government J ' 27 jto stop the expeditionaries. The conglomerate of recruits iwas shipped from Cayo Confites on September 22, with orders | |to abandon Cuban waters within twenty-four hours. Some expeditionaries transferred to a cay in the Bahamas, while 300 who had refused to land on Hispaniola stayed on Cayo jGdinchos. The rebel ship El Fantasma, loaded with troops, was spotted by a Cuban frigate and ordered to return to Cuba. The expedition had failed. Bosch, who at one point had been quite optimistic, had even invited a fellow jour nalist to visit him a month hence in the presidential palace 28 where Bosch would be "presidente de la Republica." Though the invasion had failed and had been a great disappointment to the Caribbean democratic left, this same i i 26 Ibid., p. 33. 27 Crassweller, p. 238. 28 i Baquero, p. 51. Baquero declares here that Bosch "fue siempre un aspirante a la presidencia de la Republica iDominicana." 23 democratic left banded together to form the "Caribbean Legion," a group of "liberal and leftist adventurers" whose most successful Caribbean intervention was in Costa Rica 29 in 1948. During the forties Bosch was an occasional man be hind the scenes during the Ramon Grau San Martin presidency iof Cuba (1944-48) and the Carlos Prio Socarras presidency | I |(1948-52). The Madrid ABC correspondent Gaston Baquero jknew Bosch in 1942 when they worked together on the Havana j newspaper Informacion. Regarding Bosch's influence in Cuban government, Baquero, commenting on the era, states: Conozco a Juan Bosch hace veinte anos. ... En Cuba vivio y en cierta forma compartio el poder en tiempos de los presidentes Grau y Prio, y es muy probable que en polxtica tenga una mentalidad "autentica," y los cubanos saben lo que esto quiere decir en materia de nacionalismo y de libertades, de libertades para "todo." Pero bajo el autenticismo— del cual Bosch ha tornado 29 In 1948 Otilio Ulate won the Costa Rican presi- jdential election against Calderon Guardia's candidate, ;but the calderonista dominated legislature annulled the 'elections. "A civil war then broke out between the calde- ronistas and Communists on the one side and the insurgent iforces of Jose Figueres." Daniel Goldrich, Sons of the |Establishment (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1966), p. 30. IFigueres and his followers were aided in their fight by the Caribbean Legion. After defeating the calderonista- Communist coalition, Figueres headed a military junta which turned the government over to Ulate in 1949. Crassweller, p. 239. 24 hasta el norribre de su partido— , Cuba vivio una etapa nacionalista que supo ser rotundamente anticomunista. Al autenticismo debe Cuba la erradicacion del Partido en la Confederacion de Trabajadores, la clausura del organo comunista y la creacion de una conciencia obrera que siendo muy de clase no era anticapitalista ni admitia la menor intromision del comunismo en sus asun- tos. Y en toda esa politica tuvo mucho que ver Juan Bosch, hombre de palacio, colaborador muy cercano del presidente Prio, y de quien muchos pensabamos que era el autor de los discursos presidenciales.^0 : The Dominican exiles, undaunted in their hopes to i 1 ! topple Trujillo, sought another base for their operations I in Guatemala. Bosch helped to plan the expedition of ! Ilegionnaires which in June of 1949 landed an insurgent group at Luperon, on the northern coast of the Dominican Repub- 31 lie. He was not with them, however. In a skirmish with Dominican troops, those who landed were either killed in the fighting or captured. This was, apparently, the last of the expeditions against Trujillo until the Castro- supported attempt in June, 1959. A Ten-Year Odyssey The liberal political climate in Cuba changed in I I 1952 when Prio Socarras' term expired and Fulgencio Batista Baquero, p. 51. 31 Martin, pp. 47, 344. j 25 returned to power at the head of a military coup. Bosch emigrated to Costa Rica where his friend and fellow Legion naire Jose Figueres became president in 1953. Bosch taught 32 at the Institute of Political Education in San Jose. The fifties for Bosch were filled with a great deal jof travel in many countries, both in Europe and Latin 33 ; America. From Costa Rica he traveled to Bolivia, the ! jscene of the short story "El indio Manuel Sicuri," and from iBolivia to the southern coast of Chile where several of the j ;stories which appeared in La muchacha de La Guaira were t ! ■ 34 I written. The odyssey continued. In 1956 he went on a !mission to Europe for the purpose of having Trujillo boy- i l cotted. Afterwards he visited Israel and journeyed back to 35 Cuba in February of 1957 by way of Spain. In 1958 Fulgencio Batista's government, having lost i the confidence of the Cuban people, resorted to terrorism • to maintain control. Bosch was caught up in this web of i I 32Ibid., p. 113. 1 33 Bosch interview. 34 Cover to Juan Bosch, La muchacha de La Guaira (Santiago de Chile: Nascimento, 1955). 35 , . Bosch interview. 26 conflict and jailed for twelve days. Well aware of what might be in store for him if the harassment from Batista continued, he went to Venezuela in April of 1958, leaving 3 6 his family in Cuba. In December of that year Romulo Betancourt, a friend who had lived with Bosch in Costa Rica and who was the godfather of the Bosches' daughter Barbara, j |was elected president of Venezuela. Later Bosch's family |joined Bosch in Venezuela where he wrote "La mancha inde- ileble" ("The Indelible Spot") while vacationing in Betan- I 1 [court's beach home near Los Caracas, Venezuela. In [addition, two editions of Trujillo: causas de una tirania sin ejemplo, a new special edition of Cuento de Navidad, and Simon Bolivar, biografia para escolares were published in Venezuela between 1959 and 1961. The End of an Odyssey [ By 1961 Bosch was back in San Jose, Costa Rica, as [Director of the Inter-American Institute for Political Edu- I ication when news of General Trujillo's assassination reached | him. From that moment the tempo and nature of Bosch's life Juan Bosch, "Las tesis de Regis Debray," Nuevo Mundo, marzo, 1968, p. 41. 27 had to adapt to a new role, for now the failures at Cayo Confites and Luperon could be reversed and the lessons of years of proximity to men in power (Betancourt, Figueres, Prio Socarras, Haya de la Torre) be applied. And, ines capably, the burden of history pointed to him, Juan Bosch, to see if he were an apt pupil. At the time of Trujillo's death Angel Miolan was I jgeneral secretary of PRD and Bosch president of its politi- I leal committee. Within a few days sectional leaders of PRD j jbegan arriving in San Jose for the purpose of determining jthe most propicious manner and moment for returning to the i Dominican Republic and establishing their party. There ! i were delays and conflicts, but the PRD managed to send a j delegation to the Republic in July of 1961 under the guid ance of Miolan, who had been in exile even longer than 37 Bosch. Bosch did not accompany Miolan to Santo Domingo ithat summer, but stayed on the continent soliciting money s for PRD and preparing himself to mobilize public opinion in |case something untoward happened to the PRD delegation t I 28 in Santo Domingo. Finally, in October of 1961, Bosch 37 Crisis, p. 19. OQ Ibid., p. 44. 28 returned to his homeland after an absence of twenty-four years to aid, as president of PRD, in the consolidation of his party's position for the eventual elections, whenever that would be. In October the matter of personal safety was a I serious question politicians had to consider. Ramfis Tru- ijillo, the son, ruled the military and Hector and Arismendi Trujillo, the "wicked uncles," were still vying for power. jThe personal safety of anyone not "in" with the military or i ! I ; police was jeopardous. Bosch in Crisis comments on the jpersonal risks Angel Miolan was taking in returning to the jDominican Republic in July. But not only Miolan. The night before the Bosches returned to the Dominican Republic, hoodlums of the Trujillo family ransacked Bosch's sister's house (Josefina Bosch de Ercini) on Calle Polverin— just i 39 i ‘ where he was going to stay.' That same day a PRD official j ifrom La Vega, Francisco Gomez Estrella, was critically i mauled by similar hoodlums. In November the remaining Trujillos fled Santo I j jDomingo, leaving nominal power in the hands of Joaquin 39 Ibid., p. 29. 29 Balaguer and General Rodriguez Echavarrxa. In January of 1962 the "Consejo" or Council of State caretaker government was sworn in and stayed in office until a new president could be inaugurated in February, 1963. During 1962 and while the Council of State governed, the politicking among the Dominican parties began. As the |campaign progressed, it soon became obvious that it would | !be a contest between the Union Civica Nacional (UCN) and ** j jthe Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD). Whereas one i iparty based its strategy on "anti-Trujilloism," and aimed its pitch at the middle classes, PRD directed its campaign toward the masses and their social and economic rights and needs. Bosch spoke to the masses daily on the radio, using | j simple country talk while trying to educate them politi cally. According to Bosch, he spoke to the peasants of three fundamental things: "... que es y como funciona una | | jdemocracia, cuales son los problemas economicos en un pars i i 'como la Republica Dominicana y como estaba organizada la sociedad dominicana. | The Partido Revolucionario Dominicano, though in ;appearance a slow starter, with much work became the better 40 , . Ibxd., p. 87. 30 organized of the parties. Adherents to PRD by the summer of 1962 were now in the hundreds of thousands. United States Ambassador Martin talking of Bosch said: He was often out of town, traveling the interior quietly, his activities unreported in the press. I knew and liked Angel Miolan, Bosch's stocky, swarthy, Indian-featured party boss. Shlaudeman [the political officer at the U.S. Embassy] and other of our people had been keeping in touch with Bosch. Shlaudeman con- j sidered Bosch a master at political tactics. Alone i among the many parties' ceaseless manifestos, his were j drafted with great skill. Bosch could write, and used \ his talent to cut his chief opponent, the good lumber ing Fiallo to pieces. Alone, really, among the politi- j cians, he knew precisely where he was going and how to ! get there.^ ! In October, PRD began its national convention to I elect a candidate for the December 20th elections. Bosch | was elected the presidential nominee by a vote of 499 to 1. Though that portion had been easy, the period until elec- i ; | tions in December was full of political pitfalls. On one j 41 I Martin, p. 179. John Bartlow Martin, a writer of books of social refdrm and speech writer for President Kennedy, was ambassador to the Dominican Republic from March, 1962 until the fall of the Bosch government in Sep tember, 1963. Overtaken by Events is his intimate and candid account of his ambassadorship and two fact-finding commissions to the Republic. This work will be often quoted in this chapter in the section on Bosch's presidency. If it should appear that excessive reliance has been placed on Martin's book, it is probably because it is the most informational and revealing source on this period. Some may not find the last portion of his book on the 1965 fact finding trip as reliable as the rest of it. 31 occasion the electoral committee was to advise ballots of one color for all political parties— white in this case— in a country where the majority of the voters were illiter ate. Originally, under the different-color ballot system, PRD had been assigned white and then with white ballots being assigned to all political parties, PRD stood a good | ! |chance of having their vote split. Colored ballots were j ! i -eventually reinstated. Then some clerics began accusing j jBosch and PRD of being led by Communists. These same j I j ! : priests also told their parishioners they would be excom- I i . 42 imunicated if they voted for Bosch. Bosch retaliated by S (threatening to withdraw from the elections. According to i I John Bartlow Martin: i I was not sure what he was doing. I suspected he might be bluffing, trying to reverse the issue, trying to develop an underdog position, leading the masses i against the Church, the rich, the white, the powerful, i ! the tu-tum-potes. He had shown himself a plunger and a skillful enough politician to attempt it. Or he i might be doing exactly what he said he was doing: j quitting. He had threatened it several times. And I had often wondered if he really wanted to be President— i if he did not fear power. . . . It was now perfectly clear what he was doing. He knew that by threatening to withdraw he would frighten everybody who wanted elections, and they would all work 42 Ibid. , p. 286. 32 to persuade him not to withdraw. Doing so, they would inevitably moderate all attacks on him. If he played it right, he would soon have everybody, even the UCN, campaigning for him.43 Bosch challenged one of his main attackers, the Spanish Jesuit, Father Lautico Garcia, to a television de bate whether Bosch was a communist or not. With the elec tions prepared for December 20, they had their celebrated TV debate the evening of the eighteenth and it lasted past midnight. Father Garcia retracted his statement that Bosch was a communist and Bosch agreed not to withdraw from the elections. j The elections, supervised by the Organization of ! iAmerican States, were held and Bosch won, garnering 62 per 44 cent of the vote m a handsome win. Immediately after the election, Bosch journeyed to the United States to see his son Patricio, who was attending a prep school in South iBend, Indiana. Ambassador Martin, who saw him off at the ; airport, reported: From Fiallo's we went to the airport to see Bosch off. He was bareheaded, wearing the crepe-soled shoes 43 Ibid., pp. 288, 290. 44 Tad Szulc, Dominican Diary (New York: Delacorte Press, 1965), p. 13. 33 and sport shirt and corduroy pants he had campaigned in, crushed by people. All around stood bodyguards, young men in civilian clothes cradling submachine guns. We managed to get near him and his wife and to give him a paper w^h the names and addresses of people in the States. While in the United States Bosch was received by President Kennedy and Senator Robert Kennedy, members of |the Supreme Court, Secretary Rusk, and State Department i . 45 jofficials, Adlai Stevenson, and Arthur Schlesinger. In !January, Bosch left the United States for Europe to seek i i j Jeconomic aid and support for his country. He visited Italy and it is reported that he also had interviews with General I 47 DeGaulle and Conrad Adenauer. The Presidency The new president of the Dominican Republic was inaugurated on February 27, 1963 amid much international attention. The importance given to his inauguration was |partly because it was the culmination of the first free jelections in the Republic in thirty-eight years, partly I 45 Martin, p. 300. 47 Martin, p. 308, and Peter Nehemkis, Latin America; Myth and Reality (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1964), p. 130. 46 Ibid., p. 308. 34 because Bosch knew many democratic Caribbean leaders, and they tend to stick together, and partly because it was im portant for the Kennedy administration to have a democratic success in Latin America, especially in the Caribbean. Vice President Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey attended from the United States, while past and present Latin Ameri can presidents included Romulo Betancourt of Venezuela, |Luis Munoz Marin of Puerto Rico, Jose Figueres and Fran- jcisco Orlich of Costa Rica, and Ramon Villedas of Hondu- I 48 fas. If anyone was pleased with the ceremony, it was j jprobably Bosch's parents, who for many years must have wondered when their son was going to be assassinated or if 49 he would ever return to the Dominican Republic. Do writers make good presidents? When a man accepts a position in a field other than the one he became famous |in, there is always much more conjecture about his ability to succeed than if he had stayed with his first profession. Latin America is known for its writer-presidents, or per haps president-writers, but most of these great patriots 48 Nehemkis, p. 130. 49 Most tragically, Bosch's parents died that same year. Angela Bosch de Ortiz interview, August, 1966. 35 are from the nineteenth century. The most famous Latin American writer to serve as president of his country in the twentieth century was the Venezuelan novelist Romulo Galle gos. Gallegos was Accion Democratica's candidate and won in the most honest election in Venezuela's history. Galle gos, unable to cope with the military, business, and land- ; owners in Venezuela, was replaced by an army junta ten ' 50 jmonths after taking office. The temptation to compare jBosch's future with Gallegos' past was overwhelming and the ' 51 odds, given the similar circumstances, were against Bosch. I | 1 Hubert Herring, A History of Latin America (New jYork: Alfred A. Knopf, 1963), p. 489. i j 5 ] _ Arturo Uslar Pietri, commenting on the phenomenon of the writer-president, states: "The professional writer is the exception in Latin America. There are very few who can or dare live from their pens. Literature has never |been a career for the Spanish-American, but rather a some- |what heroic vocation, a way of surrendering himself to a .divine mission or passion involving the acceptance of an iarduous, difficult life. . . . None of these [book club dividends, magazine money, screen adaptations] is within his reach. Thus he rarely becomes a professional writer in Ithe U.S. sense, but, on the other hand, through his dedica tion to a kind of priesthood, he acquires a prestige and influence that the professional writer of North America has rarely enjoyed. The prestige of the intellectual and the writer in Latin America is immense: it converts him into a ! kind of spiritual advisor, truth-teller, and trail-blazer, conferring upon him a unique function in the eyes of his ^countrymen, a function that all too often carries him into 36 On September 19, 1963 Bosch returned from a five- day presidential junket to Mexico as the guest of President Lopez Mateos, the trip coinciding with Mexico's independence 52 day celebration. A week later Bosch was held captive in an office in the national palace, a prisoner of the con spiracy led by the Dominican Air Force Colonel Elias Wessin s jy Wessin and with tacit approval of the conservative sectors jof the country. What experienced politicians had predicted came true seven months after Bosch's inauguration. Septem- i ber 28 the Bosches were escorted from the Republic on board jthe Dominican yacht Me11a for a stopover at Guadeloupe, [before proceeding on to San Juan, Puerto Rico. The first of October they arrived in Puerto Rico, while most of the free world condemned the coup, and the United States with drew its ambassador. A general assessment of Bosch's seven months in j i | [politics. This explains the important roles of Sarmiento :in Argentina, Marti in Cuba, Vasconcelos in Mexico, and Gallegos in Venezuela. Not one of them could have con sidered himself a professional writer, but, in a larger sense, in the realization of their human destiny, they were even more than that." Prize Stories from Latin America (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Co., Inc., 1961), p. viii. Lopez Mateos, and Crisis, p. 189. 37 power would be in essence a paraphrasing of the comments of other witnesses and quite lengthy, yet to ignore those seven months would be to ignore the pinnacle of a man's life and achievements. The Bosch government was never really able to get j |into gear due to a multitude of factors: the short time he !was in office, adversities inherent in the Dominican scene, |Bosch's own shortcomings and those of his administrators, |and the United States' slowness in giving Bosch's govern- jment real economic aid. As Martin points out, Bosch was unable to find competent and experienced people to help him administer the government, and he was alienated from the j landowners, the Church, businessmen, and military, pre cisely the sectors which had always had a hand in running the affairs of the Dominican government. But was this not i Ihistory just repeating itself? Have not the liberals in i |Latin America when they come to power always suffered from i jadministrative inexperience? Ambassador Martin, emotionally i ;committed to the success of Bosch's government, assesses i the situation much as other critics, but with more sympathy: But from first to last, Bosch's single greatest handi cap was a lack of experienced and able people to help him run his government. True, Bosch would not delegate | power. But considering the people around him, perhaps 38 it was fortunate he did not. He really was all alone. Most Dominicans with ability and with experience in government were either dead, or in prison, or in exile— Trujillo had ruined them. Many who had escaped those fates had served the Consejo; Bosch, having cam paigned against the Consejo, could not use them. He was a prisoner of his own politics. Moreover, the en lightened young members of the Santiago oligarchy, who had held themselves aloof from the Consejo, now held themselves even more aloof from Bosch. He simply could not draw on the best men in the Republic to help him. Would not at first; could not, ever: They would not ! serve him. i i | Although Bosch's party enjoyed a majority in the !legislature, it was too early almost to expect such improve- I i jments as a comprehensive land reform program or a noticeable rise in the standard of living. But land reform and stan dard of living were not the faults which toppled the Bosch i government. One incident which did not endear Bosch to the mili tary was the Haitian episode. The last of April a conflict !between Haiti and the Dominican Republic ignited when the iHaitian police invaded portions of the Dominican Embassy in | |Port au Prince and threatened the safety of several Haitian j • 54 |citizens who had sought asylum in the embassy. Bosch 53 1 Martin, p. 363. 54 This accounting is based on Martin, pp. 416-447. Also see Bosch, Crisis, p. xvii. 39 threatened to invade Haiti and bomb Duvalier's palace un less Duvalier granted safe conduct to all the asylees and withdrew police from embassy grounds. The OAS sent a com mission to Port au Prince to investigate, but failed to condemn Duvalier to the extent Bosch felt Duvalier should have been. Bosch had ordered the cream of the Dominican lArmed Forces to the Haitian border to back up his threats, { jbut the Dominican high command, after a second look at the condition of their equipment and lack of supplies, backed down, feeling that Bosch had sent them on a suicidal mis sion. This widened the rift between Bosch and the military and lessened their confidence in him. The facts are that Duvalier started the incident, but many feel Bosch became too sensitive and overplayed his hand to engage in brink- 55 manship. Part of Bosch's sensitivity to Duvalier was that the dictator had sent an assassin, an ex-Trujillo thug, to murder Bosch. Martin, p. 417. Bosch's plan was to mass troops at the point of the Haitian border nearest Port au Prince, then have the Dominican air force drop leaflets on Port au Prince which warned that the areas adjacent to ;Duvalier's palace should be evacuated immediately because iin hours Dominican planes would bomb the palace. This would |cause Duvalier to flee. If that did not scare him, then Dominican troops would enter Haitian territory a few kilo meters and if necessary, the air force would drop some bombs iin unpopulated areas. Crisis, pp. 176-177. 40 In addition, the specter of communism had begun to dominate the mind of the conservative Dominican, so emo tionally atuned to rumor. This and the fact that Bosch allowed the few known communists in the Republic to operate in the open became the excuse for the military to arrest Bosch. Yet after the coup, the communist ghost never ma terialized. In Bosch's defense Martin points out that Bosch had been successful in stopping communist inspired strikes at Haina which the consejo government before Bosch i 1 56 ;could not or would not do. And if Dato Pagan was train- |ing communists in a public school, the consejo government, not Bosch's, had given Pagan the license to use the school.57 Democratic governments throughout the world were disheartened by the qolpe de estado in the Dominican Repub lic and the United States government, besides withdrawing Sits ambassador, stopped its economic aid. Many critical j 'articles were written, including one in the Bulletin of the i i 56 Martin, p. 483. i 57 Kurzman, p. 91. Both Kurzman and Martin give : detailed pages to erstwhile "communist charges" against the Bosch government. 41 International Commission of Jurists which chastized Domini can lawyers for shirking their duty: The Bar in the Dominican Republic was basically opposed to the election of Bosch and assumed, after Bosch's victory, a negative role. There was purely destructive criticism of the reforms proposed? and the Bar became an obstacle to the economic and social changes so critically necessary in the Dominican Republic if democracy was to succeed. When the coup occurred, the voice of the Bar as an organized group was not raised j in protest. As political scientists and historians reflect upon j |Bosch's government, it was inevitable to them, probably, j that his government would fail. Even Bosch, in Crisis, indicates that his government was predestined to die in in fancy. The ledger is not entirely negative for these seven months, though, and in many respects Bosch's government would give most governments something to strive for. The 59 1963 constitution, for example, which was promulgated i 5 g ; Bulletin of the International Commission of Jurists, No. 17, December, 1963, p. 18. I 59 Bosch's constitution was felt by some to be 1loosely drawn regarding private property and workers' rights to share in profit. Its "innovations" however included divorce and civil marriage, state instead of church control of education, and Article 66, which provided that no Domini can could be deported without due process. Kurzman, p. 93. Kurzman gives a good accounting of the constructive efforts ;of the Bosch government. 42 by the Bosch government was reinstated with changes by the more recent government of Balaguer. Dominicans who were anti-Bosch in retrospect praised him for allowing them to enjoy liberty and freedom for seven months.^ No one was jailed arbitrarily or killed. Martin sums up his thoughts on the Bosch government in this manner: The case against Bosch is strong. Put at its harshest, it reads that what he brought to his high office . . . was an almost obsessive love of conspiracy learned in twenty-five years of Caribbean exile politics. It reads that during his seven months in office he accom plished nothing, that he made fatal political mistakes, that he had no idea of what "being President" means, that he was a divider, not a builder. . . . Yet such a judgment is far too harsh. . . . Nor can one ignore the obstacles he faced— a people almost gone blind in the Trujillo night, a right and a left deter mined to destroy one another and anyone in between, nobody to help him, history itself. Nor can one ignore the indisputable fact that his brief Administration may well have been the most honest in Dominican history, if not in Latin America. Finally, Juan Bosch gave the 3 1/2 million Dominican people seven months of peace and seven months of freedom, things rare and precious in the tragic Republic. While Bosch was President, the state killed no one. While Bosch was President, almost no one was arbitrarily imprisoned. This, indeed, may be his monument. 60 Pericles A. Franco, Mi protesta contra el golpe militar (Santo Domingo: Editora del Caribe, C. por A., 1964). i 61 Martin, p. 716, 43 Another contribution of his coming to power was the actu ality that hundreds of thousands of peasants had put their own congress and president in power: for a brief moment, they had participated in political decision making and exercised their franchise. The fact that free elections took place in the Dominican Republic in 1962 could not help but to exercise influence on future election tradition. Return to Exile Bosch and his wife arrived in Puerto Rico on Octo ber 1, at first staying in Old San Juan at the "Forta- ,.62 leza. In January of the following year he was named writer-in-residence at the University of Puerto Rico and 6 3 stayed under contract to them during 1964 and 1965. Royalties from books written during this period, as I under stood Dr. Benitez to say, go to the university. The books Bosch finished while writer-in-residence at the university B. Ortiz Otero, "Llega a Puerto Rico Presidente Depuesto," El Mundo, octubre 2, 1963, p. 1. "La Fortaleza" is the governor's residence in Puerto Rico. 63 ; Personal interview with Dr. Jaime Benitez, chan cellor, University of Puerto Rico, August 4, 1966. 44 were: Crisis, Bolivar y la guerra social, and the unpub lished novel El pro y la paz. Besides their residence in "La Fortaleza," the Bosches resided temporarily in Rio Piedras, Caguas, and Luquillo. His stay in Puerto Rico was not restricted to just writing, however. It was in Rio Piedras that the Social Christians i |and the PRD signed the Rio Piedras Pact "to work together i l |to get rid of Reid [head of the government which replaced 64 [Bosch] and restore the 1963 Constitution." The eventual t [outcome of the Rio Piedras Pact and other events m the i [Dominican Republic was the uprising in Santo Domingo on Saturday, April 24, 1965 by military rebels who revolted to challenge the rightist junta forces. The uprising was not a barracks revolt like the one which deposed Bosch, but rather a bloody, months-long civil j !war with house to house fighting in the heart of Santo [Domingo, the Republic's capital. After the first days of i 'the uprising, most foreign and United States newsmen in the [Dominican Republic felt that the rebels or "constitutional ists" were winning the military struggle. The tide started 64 Martin, p. 640. 45 to change, however, with the landing of United States forces on Wednesday, April 28 and changed to favor the oli garchy and military forces under Brigadier General Elias Wessin y Wessin and Brigadier General Antonio Imbert Barre- ras. During this crisis Bosch communicated almost daily ! . 65 I with the constitutionalist forces by telephone, but did j ! not go to the island to assist in the constitutionalist | i [leadership and negotiations for settlement of the crisis, | for which he was severely criticized by his enemies. Bosch i ! stayed on in Puerto Rico as writer-in-residence and in June jhis contract was renewed.^ In September a cease-fire was arranged and a moder ate caretaker government under Hector Garcia-Godoy assumed command until elections could be held. On the twenty-fifth, exactly two years after having been deposed in a coup, Bosch |returned to Santo Domingo. Elections had been declared for | June 1, 1966, and as in 1962, it was toward this end that i he spent much of his time after returning to the Dominican i 65 His "communications" here were not too private. The United States government had tapped his telephone. iDavid Kraslow, "3 Presidents Knew of Embassy Wiretapping," Los Angeles Times, December 3, 1966, Part I, p. 1. ^News bulletin dated November 1, 1965 from Benitez ' interview. 46 Republic. Prior to the elections there had been general harassment and intimidation of the PRD. Political slogans painted on walls in Santo Domingo called for Bosch's assas- 67 sxnation. Many news media indicated that because of fear of assassination, Bosch did not leave his house, but pre- |ferred to electioneer via radio broadcast. He was virtu- 1 ially surrounded by violence. During the middle of January, [ jhis oldest son Leon was shot in a Santo Domingo fracas and 68 ! taken to a downtown hospital, where Bosch visited him, one of the few times during the campaign he was to leave the sanctuary of his heavily guarded home. Then in April a security guard was killed in the patio of Bosch's home on Carretera Sanchez, in an apparent vendetta with another man. The role of a non-conformist politician was obviously dangerous. In the June 1 elections, the main contestants were I Juan Bosch and Joaquin Balaguer, who had served as a 6 7 | George Natanson, "Dominican Victor May Not Live |to Take Office," Los Angeles Times, May 12, 1966, Part I, p. 5. 68 In 1964 a Washington lawyer and member of the OAS observer team for the 1962 Dominican elections published a report that it was not a coincidence that Bosch's first child was named Leon Trotsky Bosch. See Appendix. 47 Trujillo president. Balaguer beat Bosch with 57 per cent 69 of the vote. Political observers felt that one reason Bosch lost was his reluctance to endanger himself and cam paign in the provinces. I visited Bosch two months after the election in the house he rented on Carretera Sanchez. His home was heavily guarded by "frog men" sent by Balaguer, since Bala guer did not want the onus of Bosch's assassination on his t i I conscience. (In spite of obvious political incompatibility, I 70 iBalaguer and Bosch are reported to be friendly.) There was a small command post at the entrance to the driveway of the white, two-story house, where I was stopped while security guards phoned the house for permission to let me enter. After knocking, I had to wait while someone released the many bolts which secured the front door. A lieutenant, neatly attired and smiling, showed me into the living room and said that it would be a few moments before the profesor 69 Juan de Onis, "Dominicans Delay Return of Bosch," |The New York Times, April 16, 1970, p. 9. ! 70 j In Crisis, p. 71, Bosch reports that Balaguer, 'although a "trujillista," did not enrich himself while in Trujillo's service as others did, nor did Balaguer accept positions where he would be required to take repressive measures. 48 71 would be down. In a short time ex-president Bosch en tered with several relatives, most of them in their twen ties. He looked just like his pictures and was soft-spoken and calm, quite unlike the others, who berated me for the presence of 22,000 United States troops on Dominican soil and the affront which the troops' presence implied. That |night we worked on his biography. His wife Carmen, a Ipretty woman, entered and when things quieted down she tried jher English on me, which was quite adequate. Apparently I I l ;the Bosches have many friends and acquaintances in the United States. j The next interview was in the morning, an invita- I tion for breakfast. I was ushered to the patio where the only people present were the help and security guards, who were having breakfast in shifts. Later Mrs. Bosch appeared, j and we had a very amiable conversation. One of the topics jof conversation was the role of the American housewife in I our society. It was evident that she had spent some time j on the subject and seemed to know what she was talking j ! 71 Bosch is now known in the Dominican Republic as "profesor Bosch" or "profesor," a title bestowed him as a result of the patient political education he had given the Republic on half-hour daily radio broadcasts which were Ipart of his 1962 political campaign. 49 about. Mrs. Bosch also mentioned that their daughter Barbara, then fourteen, chose to live with close relatives because emotionally she could not stand the constant threat of danger which surrounded daily living at the house on Carretera Sanchez. A little later Professor Bosch came down and we were alone most of the time for breakfast and our discussion of his short stories. Our morning was in terrupted occasionally by calls and visitors, one a student I |who was going away to school in Puerto Rico and needed a t j recommendation. Although he appeared without an appoint ment, he got his recommendation. It was true: Bosch was most receptive and cordial to callers. In my case, the Bosches had been very attentive and hospitable. Though 1966 was not a big year politically for Bosch, as far as his publishing is concerned it was. In July and August of 1966 he was writing a political and jagricultural manifesto for the PRD, which he entitled "Tesis Sindical." Just previous to this, in May of 1966, lEditorial Jorge Alvarez in Buenos Aires published Bosch's penetrating review of Bolivar's war of liberation in Vene zuela, Bolivar y la querra social, an account of the politi cal alignment of classes in Venezuela during its independ ence struggle. This same year also witnessed the British i 50 edition of Crisis ('The Unfinished Experiment: Democracy in the Dominican Republic) and a French edition, Saint- Domingue, crise de la democratie en Amerique latine. English translations of David, biografia de un rey were printed in New York and London. In Santo Domingo, a third jedition of La Manosa appeared. This same summer an article |appeared in Santo Domingo's El Caribe describing how some I of Bosch's supporters would contribute passage to London if jBosch would go for the publication of David, Bioqraphy of i a King. The projected trip did materialize and in the latter part of the year Bosch resigned his leadership of 72 73 PRD and departed for Spain for an indefinite stay. A curious decision in part since Spain for years has been ruled by Generalisimo Franco, and at the time Bosch was there Franco was harboring at least two American undesir- 74 iables, Juan Peron and Ramfis Trujillo. But then Bosch's i i ------------------------ 72 : "Bosch Quits Leadership of His Dominican Party," The New York Times, November 1, 1966, p. 3. 73 Paul L. Montgomery, "Dominican Scene Gains Sta bility, " The New York Times, November 26, 1966, p. 23. jAlso Espana Semanal, No. 220, diciembre 26, 1966, p. 4. 74 "Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Jr., 40, Son of Dic tator, Dies in Madrid," The New York Times, December 29, i1969. 51 forefathers were Spanish and he had visited Spain several times before. His European stay included a visit to France. By now Bosch's short story publication had ceased. In the 1960's, except for two biographies and new editions of previous fiction, his major writing has been in the political essay. In 1967 a Madrid edition of David, bio- i grafia de un rey along with the magazine publication of i I |El pentagonismo: substituto del imperialismo (Pentagonism: A Substitute for Imperialism) appeared plus a monograph, i Teoria del cuento: tres ensayos (Theory of the Short Story; i Three Essays). In 1968 two Spanish versions of El penta gonismo were published, one in Mexico and the other in Montevideo; the Grove Press of New York also published an English version. In the late 1960's Bosch's political views began to change and he made some statements which shocked many of |his adherents. In 1968, while he was still in Spain, in a series of letters to his associates in PRD he explained I \ that democracy was a luxury just for developed countries and that it would not work in underdeveloped nations. A ifew months earlier he had already started talk of a "dic tatorship with popular support,” and in another startling 52 comment, he indicated that he was leaving the party and his role as advisor to it.^ In what appears to be the later part of 1969 and early 1970, Professor Bosch, according to newspaper accounts, made a trip to North Korea, Communist China, jNorth Viet Nam, and Cambodia. The New York Times reports | |that in articles published in Santo Domingo, Bosch again jadvocated a revolutionary "dictatorship with popular sup- ! ! jport" to carry out major social reform in the Dominican i ! ir, VI • 76 Republic. For Bosch, who had been the unswerving apostle of democracy, this was an extraordinary contradiction. Theo dore Draper, a staunch defender of Bosch's 1963 government, found this switch in Bosch's politics to be disturbing. Having read of Bosch's trip in a Dominican publication, jDraper wrote: : The account shows that Bosch was so disillusioned | and enraged by the military intervention of the United States in the Dominican Republic in 1965 that he has i ____________ 75 Henry Giniger, "Bosch, in Exile, Tells His Friends Dominican Republic Cannot Afford the Luxury of Democracy," The New York Times, December 1, 1968, p. 29. 7 6 "Bosch Due Back Next Week," The New York Times, April 9, 1970, p. 21. 53 now become an uncritical enthusiast for the Communist states in the Far East. After a lifetime of faith in the ideal of democracy, he now repudiates it. Some time ago, he had already decided to embrace some form of dictatorship. No doubt his change of heart has implications which he and his followers will seek to implement in their own country.77 i Bosch, absent almost three and a half years from Santo Domingo, returned to his homeland in April, 1970, and I I iwas given a "tumultuous welcome by thousands of Domini- j y g jeans." This homecoming was not without its difficulties and tragedies, however. Even though he returned on j | April 16, the previous day the government had turned his plane back, and Bosch had to detour to Curasao. The Repub- | lie, tense over problems of the upcoming presidential elec tion, demonstrated with Bosch's return, the demonstrations I 79 leaving four dead and many wounded. Why would Bosch, who had stated that it was impos- ! jsible to live in the Dominican Republic under Balaguer, and i who was not a presidential candidate, choose this time i Theodore Draper, letter to editor, The New York Times, February 22, 1970, Part IV, p. 13. 7 8 * Juan de Onis, "Three-Year Exile Is Ended by Bosch," The New York Times, April 17, 1970, p. 6. 79 Juan de Onis, "Bosch Consults with Party Aides," ; The New York Times, April 18, 1970, p. 10. 54 to return? Was this stealing center stage again at a cru cial moment, or was his political authority sorely needed in Santo Domingo? In a nationally broadcast speech given April 21, ex-president Bosch announced on a half-hour pro gram called "Democratic Tribune" that he had returned to "help solve the political crisis with the least harm to the | gQ [Dominican people." According to the same report, he was j j"trying to persuade Dominicans that a formal democratic [system based on elections would not solve the problems" of | ;the country. Bosch continued, advocating that i Representative democracy has served to maintain I the privileges of a minority of property and wealth, | and it has not provided the stability, personal safety, health care and education that the majorities want.^ He stated that his goal was a "dictatorship with popular support," but that the present crisis must be solved within ithe system that now exists here of "representative democ- ,.82 racy." It is too early to assess the impact his new politi cal stance will have on Dominican politics and Bosch's image 80 Juan de Onis, "Bosch Says Aim is to End Crisis, The New York Times, April 22, 1970, p. 9. 81Ibid. 82Ibid. 55 as a democratic idealist. It is almost certain that his views will soon be published in book form, just as his i :assessment of his presidency was in Crisis, and his reason ing regarding the 1965 Dominican invasion was in Pentago- nismo. I Juan Bosch is now sixty-three, the most famous I j living litterateur of the Dominican Republic and champion of the democratic-left tradition in his country. To con- I jecture on his future role as a politician and writer would j be tempting. Yet it should suffice to point out that his j role as a Caribbean figure and writer has already been greatly defined. ! Today his achievements include the landmarks of j I I being a short story writer, a political and historical j ! |essayist, exile fighter against tyranny, advocate for the j Dominican masses, and ex-president of his country. His biography also reveals characteristics or "contours" more subtle than the achievements, but just as important in an assessment of his life. Primary among these "personality contours" have been his constant self denial and dislike for ostentatious living, his restlessness and general in clination toward exile living, his formidable political 56 education and experience in Caribbean politics. Though not a gun-slinging politician-soldier in the mold of Bolivia's I |now deceased Rene Barrientos, he is tenacious in his 1 jbeliefs, which has taken courage, especially when we recall !that Bosch has been imprisoned by two of the most ruthless of the Caribbean dictators, Trujillo and Batista, has had a member of his own family tortured by Trujillo, and has j lived in the shadow of assassination most of his adult 1 years. He possesses a keen sense of political timing and I ability to provoke a political crisis, steal center stage j and extract the most out of a situation; e.g., the Father j j Garcia episode, the return to Santo Domingo on the second .anniversary of the 1965 coup, and his return to Santo Domingo the spring of 1970 just when Balaguer was balking at leaving the presidency while campaigning for his own | reelection. For those who have dealt with Bosch politi- ! cally, his personality seemed complex, and he was very j i I sensitive to the question of Dominican sovereignty, all of j which made him appear difficult and controversial in the eyes of others. As a Caribbean caudillo, Bosch is certainly atypical— he shuns the pastimes of the oligarchy and re serves his feelings and sympathy for the downtrodden. CHAPTER III BOSCH'S BIOGRAPHICAL WORKS Chapter III examines Bosch's three books which fall into the genre of biography: Hostos, el sembrador; Simon Bolivar, biografia para escolares; and David, biografia de un rey. For the sake of convenience they will be referred to hereafter as Hostos, Bolivar, and David. Though key episodes in the lives of Hostos, Bolivar, and David are necessary to the development of this chapter, these biogra phies will not receive complete summaries. Instead an attempt to find out what was important to Bosch in these biographies and what he looks for when he writes biogra phies— that is, what appeals to him— will be sought. Hostos, el sembrador The Puerto Rican author and patriot Eugenio Maria de Hostos is known in Latin America as an essayist, an ad herent of the positivist school, and an educator. The 57 58 majority of his writing consists of essays, political com mentary, and propaganda published in newspapers, and a few books, Moral social being his most important effort. Renowned as a crusader against tyranny, Hostos dedicated his entire adult life in advocacy of Antillian freedom and his dream of an Antillian federation composed of Puerto ] Rico, Cuba, and Hispaniola. Today in Puerto Rico there is ja national holiday in his honor. He also founded and ad- |ministered the normal institutes in the Dominican Republic, | I and it was there that he died."** i j Hostos was uncompromising as a reformer and freely [sacrificed himself in order to further his ideals. In his i I quest for Antillian independence, Hostos wandered many of the world's leading cities— Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, New York, Santiago de Chile, Lime, Caracas, and Buenos Aires— Hostos' influence on Dominican life has been note- |worthy. The nineteenth century Dominican despot Ulises [Heureaux worried about "aquel maestro que predicaba a sus [alumnos la obligacion ineludible de defender el derecho y 'de no cruzarse de brazos ante la injusticia." Hostos' [moral influence in the republic was still present thirty years after his death. This time another despot, Rafael Trujillo, gave "instrucciones para que diversos hombres de pluma criticaran severamente la obra de Hostos, estimandola nociva, equivocada y perjudicial." Eugenio Ma de Hostos, Moral social, prologo M. Henriquez U. (S° Domingo: Libreria -Dominicana, 1962), pp. 19-20. 59 raising money for his cause and writing scorching mani festos which exposed Spanish colonial policy in the Carib bean. Though Hostos died before Juan Bosch was born, Bosch has confided that Hostos was Bosch's teacher and had formed his character.^ In 1937 Juan Bosch, feeling the pressures of the j [Trujillo regime, left his homeland for Puerto Rico and it | [was there that he began to write his biography of Hostos. (In November of 1938, in a preview of the biography, Bosch I i jgave a lecture on the women in Hostos1 life to the Associ- i ation of Graduate Women from the University of Puerto Rico. He concluded his lecture with the comment that "de cada acto suyo es origen una mujer; y casi siempre lo que deter- mina esos actos es el miedo a los deberes que impone el 3 amor." The following year, 1939, was the year of the i [Hostos centennial celebration in Puerto Rico, and the year i 2 j Bosch interview, August, 1966. 3 Juan Bosch, Mujeres en la vida de Hostos (San Juan jde Puerto Rico: Asociacion de Mujeres Graduadas, 1939), p. 13. For criticism of this conference see Concha Melen dez, "Juan Bosch ante Hostos," Asomante: Estudios hispano- |americanos (San Juan de Puerto Rico: Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1943), pp. 33-35; and Carlos Garcia-Prada, Estudios : hispanoamericanos (Mexico: El Colegio de Mexico, Imprenta Nuevo Mundo, 1945), p. 311. 60 that the complete biography Hostos, el sembrador (Hostos, the Implanter) was published by Editorial Tropico, in La Habana, Cuba. Bosch's main sources for the Hostos bio- 4 graphy were Hostos' dxary and letters, which were ample. Just in the case of Hostos' beloved wife, Belinda, he left 5 more than a hundred written pages about her. j Hostos itself is an intimate biography of Eugenio i I I iMaria de Hostos' adult life and his very intense, personal [struggle to free Cuba and Puerto Rico from Spanish hegemony. i jFrom the very first pages one feels that he is reading a work of fiction rather than a biography. This is due, in t I jpart, to the fact that Hostos' world is seen from his tor- I i mented soul and not from external sources. The point of view in Hostos is omniscient with the narration generally focusing on Hostos' own thoughts and emotions. A second cause for the "fictional air" which pervades Hostos is the idiction which Bosch has used. In Hostos there is a preva- j ilence of nouns and adjectives which refer to human emotions; [and in passages where nature is present, the diction has a tendency to become more sensory. It would almost appear 4 Muieres en la vida de Hostos, p. 8. 5 Ibid., p. 44. 61 that what we are reading is solely a product of the author's imagination, yet Bosch, foreseeing the reader's reaction, i jhas said, "no es, como pudiera parecer, una vida novelada, jsino una biografia en la que la imaginacion solo interviene, !muy escasas veces, para recrear el ambiente necesario."6 Bosch, possibly aware that a linear development of the episodes in Hostos' life might prove boring or fatal to his project, gave it composition and structure. To achieve j S this he divided Hostos into three parts which correspond to j periods of Hostos' life. At the beginning of the biography j a flashback is also included. In addition to these divi sions, Hostos, just as though he were a protagonist in a i I play, is beset with two very evident problems which surface j : i i j ^periodically during the biography: first, the problem with- j j j in himself, his inner struggle, to follow his conscience j and to do what is right, to identify his frustrations and j i resolve them. The second conflict arises when he discovers that his main problem is his personal incompatibility with the Spanish occupation of Cuba and Puerto Rico. The narra tion, then, of his biography has been arranged to reveal ^Juan Bosch, Hostos, el sembrador (La Habana: Edi torial Tropico, 1939), from a pink insert with the author's initials which preceded the title page. 62 the problems, complication, tension and structure so neces sary to a work of fiction. This may explain why Hostos |reads like a novel. j | In the first division, "La semilla" ("The Seed"), jit quickly becomes apparent that Hostos is a sensitive, idealistic young man, one who is prone to reminisce about i his childhood in Mayagtiez, Puerto Rico, and it is in this portion of the biography that Bosch begins to reveal Hostos'j inclination toward impulsive commitment and fanatic ideal- i ism. As Hostos1 inner thoughts unfold it is seen that his dream is to liberate Cuba and Puerto Rico from Spanish rule. Hostos left Spain for New York where he could ; l actively pursue his dream and vision of the Confederation of the Antilles, "the starting point of the future" for his ! 7 jhomeland. Once in New York, he despaired when he found j out that the Puerto Rican exile group there under Ramon Betances would not accept him into its bosom, as he had assumed, nor was there a Puerto Rican expeditionary force for him to join. It is in moments of great disappointment ilike this that the author takes us into Hostos' inner being: 7 Ibid., p. 15. 63 Un vago sentimiento de nostalgia se va apoderando de todo el; es un sentimiento un tanto confuso, que le entristece. Pasan por su imaginacion nombres de | amigos, ojos de mujeres. Le parece que era otra vida ■ aquella. Evocando se siente, sin que se defina clara- | mente, el temor del porvenir: hasta ahora aquello, lo conocido, lo fijo; de este instante en adelante, el abismo sin fondo, el misterio, la nada todavxa.8 I ] ! Taking advantage of Hostos1 present psychological depression, Bosch transfers his readers via a flashback from New York to Spain and to the death of Hostos1 mother, Doha Hilaria. When Eugenio1s mother died, he became be- j j j wildered and his life lost all direction. He returned to i | Mayagtiez for about a year to live with his father and to regenerate his lagging spirits in the assuring surroundings iof his childhood. There his father suggested that he return to Spain to finish his professional preparation. Eugenio, !frustrated and desperately needing a direction to follow, ! ; I ; finally hit upon a plan: he would go to Spain as his father had suggested, but instead of continuing his formal educa tion, he would make a name for himself by writing. Bosch comments, as if speaking to the reader, that deep down : Eugenio "seguxa siendo un sohador, aunque creyera todo lo jcontrario. 8 Ibxd., p. 26. 9 Ibid., p. 33. 64 Hostos1 moments of depression often were a combina tion of frustrations caused by exterior problems over which I |he had no control and personal weaknesses which he could j |not cope with, all of which made him feel ineffectual. |With each defeat and setback in Hostos1 life, Bosch leads the reader into Hostos1 state of depression, as the time j Hostos experienced severe despondence when his poetic novel La peregrinacion de Bayoan failed to attract the desired attention: | Poco a poco fue entrando en un estado apatico, | mezcla de escepticismo y de incapacidad. Tornaban las j horas de crisis moral, de angustia. Se sucedian las j semanas de atonia. Le avergonzaba pensar que su vida j estaba vacxa de sentido. En ocasiones, como un rama- j lazo inesperado, le llegaban sacudidas de energxas y | se despreciaba a si mismo. Era una cruda sensacion de j vergflenza de su infecundidad lo que le ganaba entonces. j i Incapaz.’ Eso era el; un incapaz, un sonador holgazan, j que solo podxa y sabxa sonar y que se rendxa a la primera lucha. Le dolxa decxrselo y se martirizaba j repitiendose, en la noche de insomnio, con una voz j acre y sorda: — ;Incapaz, incapaz: sonador impotente, impotente, impotente. 1 Bosch, as indicated by his lecture to the graduate women at the University of Puerto Rico, had found what he considered was a key source of influence on Hostos1 life. 10 . Ibxd., p. 50. 65 Throughout the biography he presents us with the contrast of the women in Hostos1 family, in whose presence he had j always felt secure and protected, and the women of Hostos1 iplatonic loves and admirations, who left him flustered and [ !disturbed. When revolutionary activity came to a stand still in New York, Hostos sailed to Cartagena, Colombia, in pursuit of Carolina, of the "dazzling smile, 1 1 a girl he had ! met in New York. Sailing to Cartagena, though, was a precipitate action. Both Hostos and Candorina, as he called] her, were unsure of their decision, and since there was no work in Cartagena for Hostos, he was obliged to journey on j ] to Peru to seek employment. Once in Lima another young lady, Manuela, attracted his attention, and also compromised his life. Torn between duty and his attraction to Manuela, Hostos became confused and finally concluded that it would j be impossible for him to be happy in Manuela1s company be- j cause of his commitment to the Antillian revolution. Esa lucha del amor y del deber le trajo al estado actual. Es lo mismo siempre: lo de Madrid, en su primera juventud; lo de Nueva York con Candorina. El disgusto de si mismo empieza a impedirle vivir plena- mente. ... Quiza proceda de el mismo el malestar: esta irritacion en que le sume sentirse inutilizado por su propia vehemente naturaleza, le agria y le oscurece la vida. ^Ibid. , pp. 147-148. 66 Hostos departed Lima for Santiago de Chile only to be captivated by another woman, Carmen. Again he feared ! !the handicap which love could impose and found himself in janother awkward position: helpless and uncomfortable be- !cause of a woman's affection. Hostos did not respond to Carmen's love in spite of his feeling for her, and prepared to depart from Chile, thus wounding her deeply. When Hos tos realized what he had done, his emotions punished him: i "<?Por que es asi, siempre su peor enemigo, siempre el j 12 mstrumento de su propio martirio?" The influence of women on Hostos is clear and un- ; i imistakeably charted in Bosch's biography. As seen, Hostos' j i reaction to attractive, marriageable women had in a sense j ( i been negative, but this attitude toward them was soon to j : i change. In 1876 Hostos traveled to Venezuela to teach and j it was there that he met the charming Belinda, who soon became his wife. (Hostos was thirty-eight when he married.) Belinda, marriage, and family seemed to mark a turning point at which he is freed from internal conflicts and is able jto devote his energies to a task which would yield greater 1 2 Ibid., p. 160. 67 satisfaction than had his efforts for Antillian indepen- 13 idence. The solace, warmth, and respect which Hostos had Ifound and sought in the women in his family he now finds in i I jthe company of his wife. It is in her companionship that i ihe will make his most positive contributions to Hispanic i i civilization, | An obviously predominant characteristic of Hostos | i i was his inclination toward the support of ideals rather j | than practical considerations. As this characteristic is I developed by Bosch, Hostos1 idealism often manifests itself as intransigence, especially when he feels a principle is being violated. It would appear that part of the nature of ! I this idealism stems from his great sensitivity toward in justice. When Hostos returned to Puerto Rico for a year ; I following his mother's death, the reality of the Spanish j colony was a shock to him: La tiranxa politica, ... la altanera superioridad del peninsular sobre el criollo; la vileza de una j 13 Regarding the conflict in Hostos' life, C. Melen dez comments: "Bosch ve la vida de Hostos como una aspira- cion a la armonia entre el interno conflicto del hombre y el externo del patriota, del 'ciudadano de America' que una vez maduro, no se eclipso nunca." Concha Melendez, "Juan Bosch ante Hostos," Asomante: estudios hispanoamericanos (San Juan: Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1943), p. 34. 68 pseudo aristocracia que se doblegaba a todo con tal de mantener sus privilegios economicos; la esclavitud imposibilitando para la vida civil a toda una raza y una gran parte de la poblacion; la economia desfalle- ; ciente por decretos e imposiciones absurdos, que se fabricaban antojadizamente en Madrid; el criollo i atropellado, despreciadO/ hambreado: esa era la reali dad. I4 It was because of these injustices that Hostos began to write when he returned to Spain. He lent his pen to the service of revolution and the freedom of his islands. He became known in Madrid and because of his vituperative pen, was forced to live in exile. Finally the government of Isabel II that he had opposed began to totter, and he returned to Spain, where the revolution he so fervently 15 ;worked for triumphed in the late 1860's. Although those whom Hostos had favored were in power, they, as the new : i government, had more urgent chores than bestowing inde- j pendence on Cuba and Puerto Rico. Hostos, ever sensitive to acts which violated a principle, refused the opportunity to become a candidate from Puerto Rico for the new consti- l tuent assembly because he felt that the Spanish would 14 Hostos, pp. 29-30. 15 Historical references and events related to the government and times of Isabel II have been verified with Harold Livermore, A History of Spain (New York: Grove Press, 1960). 69 never instigate reforms which would lessen their autonomy . 1 6 ;in Puerto Rico. I I Numerous were the times that it seemed more to j jHostos1 benefit to compromise than to defend obstinately ja principle. Once, after Hostos had visited Argentina, he l was offered a teaching position at the university, and on two different occasions he refused these offers, one time sending a letter to the rector stating that he had come to Latin America "con el fin de trabajar por una idea. Todo lo que de ella me separa, me separa del objeto de mi 17 vida." And this Hostos said when he was unemployed and penniless. Earlier in Peru he had demonstrated his honesty and rectitud when Henry Meiggs offered him 200,000 soles ; for the cause of Cuban independence if Hostos would help Meiggs with his projects in Peru. Hostos recognized, though, that by aiding Meiggs' personal enterprises he would in the long run be working toward Peru's detriment. 18 He refused. Punctilious to the extreme, Hostos took offense at the smallest slight and in so doing became irri tated with himself and he recognized that this irritation 1 r 1 n Hostos, p. 79. Ibid. , p. 171. 18 Ibid., p. 147. 70 rendered him useless and bitter to the extent that it darkened his life.^"^ ] j Now this stubbornness, often self-defeating ideal ism, of Hostos could also accomplish great things. Not (long after he married Belinda, he accepted an invitation by the Dominican government to take charge of creating a school system. Hostos saw as the ultimate educational goal of the j normal school the moral reconstruction of the nation: | "Quiere una escuela que haga hombres para la humanidad, no 20 que ensene a vivir de lo aprendido." The changes which Hostos wished to effect in the Dominican Republic were big ones which did not go unnoticed and left many with ambiva- j lent feelings toward him. j | Los beatos miran con cierto escrupulo a ese hombre extrano, que no va a la iglesia, y que, sin embargo, predica y hace lo bueno. ... ! El Padre Merino, arzobispo, que ha sido elegido I Presidente de la Republica, y que empezo combatiendo j las ideas de Hostos, acaba por sumarse a sus admira- j dores y partidarios, y preside el mismo el acto de la j fundacion de la formal que instala en Santiago de los | Caballeros. ... In general, the people and country respond to Hos tos 1 unwaivering efforts. At the end of four, almost five 19 Ibid., p. 148. 21Ibid., pp. 216-217. 2 0 Ibid., p. 215. 71 years, the first class of six graduates from the Normal 'School. With the graduation of the class of 1886, Hostos i jaffirms that "El hombre no ha sido concebido para ser instrumento del mal, sino para ser obrero concienzudo del 22 ibien. " After the Dominican government under Ulises Heureaux became more hostile toward Hostos1 programs and made his i work difficult for him, Hostos, who had received offers to j go to Chile, finally acceded and moved there with his j family. The honors which had been denied Hostos in his youth were now bestowed upon him plentifully, not only upon his departure from Santo Domingo, but also during his years j of very fruitful participation in Chilean education, which were gratefully appreciated by the Chileans. His life in iChile was much calmer than it had been heretofore, and j there were greater benefits for Belinda. Yet Hostos, in j i spite of the propicious atmosphere, was in many ways the same Hostos of earlier years. "Aunque benevolente y tole- i rante, es irascible. Todavxa, como en sus dxas de Espana ... le eriza cualquier movimiento que vaya contra su dig- 23 nidad." 22 Ibid. , p. 224. 23 Ibid., p. 232. 72 To amplify Hostos' psychological state, Bosch, with very judicious usage, employs nature to bring forth and I complement the protagonist's mood. It is not known whether i i I the use of weather to complement a mood was an established preference from Hostos' diary or was something inserted by Bosch. It is obvious, however, that Bosch recognized the j | advantage of such a recourse and made good use of it in Hostos. | Nature's forces are generally noticed in conjunc- j tion with water, be it the Seine, the sea, or the rain. j One example is the description of Hostos' mood in Paris j ;during the rain; he could not go to the National Library i s i and had to stay in his room, thus becoming more despondent j j -as "la lluvia empezaba a caer sorda e incansable sobre la j i ! ciudad. Paris cobraba un aire triste, como de enfermo, y i 24 la murria le iba ganando las entrahas a Hostos." On one occasion despair is illustrated by metaphorical device in the portion of the book designated "The Dismal Harvest," ! which corresponds to the aftermath of the Spanish American ;war and Hostos' realization that Puerto Rico will not be free. Here Bosch dramatizes Hostos' sinking spirit and 24 Ibid., p. 70. 73 the plight of the Puerto Ricans by alluding to the recent damage by the cyclone San Ciriaco (Saint Cyriacus) which | ... arrebata al misero campesino la esperanza de su cosecha, como el aluvion de los acontecimientos seca | la fe en el corazon del viejo luchador. Vueltos con i los espeques al aire, los bohios destrozados son viva expresion del estado material y moral de Puerto Rico. Agobiado, Hostos puede darse a comparar su vida y la de su tierra.2~ * In the book's last scene Bosch terminates his bio graphy by setting the background for Death's entrance and Hostos' demise with a dramatic and forceful employment of an act of nature. Hostos, so greatly attracted to nature when it rampaged, as a last request wished to view the sea in all its rage: Es el mal viento, de saha implacable; el que malogra la cosecha esperada, el que desarraiga los troncos y vuelca los bohios, el castigo de las islas. Se le siente enfurecer. Busca, colerico, una ventana mal cerrada, una rendija. Logra paso, al fin, y entra de golpe, en danza frenetica. La tenue luz que brilla en el fondo de los grises ojos, tiembla, disminuye, vacila y se apaga.2® Though Hostos is principally a psychological bio graphy in the manner that there are psychological novels, it contains external themes which appear in other works of Bosch's. One theme is of a historical-political nature 25 26 Ibid., p. 267. Ibid., p. 304. 74 in which Hostos' reactions to political events appear as 27 lessons in political acumen and behavior. When Hostos' !friends come to power in Spain, he is wise enough not to jalign or compromise himself with them or the constituent | [assembly in Madrid because he has finally learned that the |Spaniards' peninsular view of the Caribbean colonies will not change whether they are liberal or conservative. Years j t : ! later when he is lobbying for Puerto Rican independence he j comes to realize that the majority of the islanders are j j apolitical. His reaction then is to begin a campaign of j ! weekly conferences to educate the Puerto Ricans as to their rights and responsibilities and what the issues of the ; 28 times are. (This is precisely what Bosch was to do by 1 : I ! I radio over sixty years later in the Dominican Republic.) j j j What then in this biography was important to Bosch? j I J That he was not interested in a straight descriptive bio- j i graphy is apparent. Since Bosch had access to Hostos' j Bosch, who at age thirty was writing Hostos, had also just founded PRD, the party that carried him to the presidency of the Dominican Republic twenty-four years later. This constitutes then a patent manifestation of a second personal interest— politics. 28 Hostos, pp. 266-267. 75 personal correspondence and his diary, he had the oppor tunity to do a very personal biography which could be junusual and still veritable. What resulted was not a I chronology of events, faces, and milieu of Hostos' era, but rather a rendering of Hostos1 inner being, his state of mind, with the result a psychological biography. Bosch does not delve into the intricacies of the nineteenth cen- i J ; i tury Spanish politics of Isabel II and her generals. j Instead he cites Hostos' indecision, his difficulties in \ j resolving a personal course of action, his disillusionment, j i his daydreaming, his ambivalent reaction toward women. j I j Bosch does not hide the fact that Hostos was punctilious, j impetuous, and difficult to deal with, stubborn, irritable, j I ] very idealistic, and occasionally arrogant. The battles he fought were not only against other men or governments, but against loneliness, despair, himself, and frustration. Contrasted with these were Hostos' great attributes: his courage, loyalty, and moral rectitude. Bosch has then, by examining the crises of Hostos' life, revealed its determiners and motives and by so doing has given us an intimate view of Hostos' character, the character of a great man, who defended ideas while others 76 defended self-interest. I Simon Bolivar, biografia para escolares i | Simon Bolivar, biografia para escolares was written 30 during Juan Bosch's Venezuelan residence, 1958-61. Here, as he had done in Puerto Rico some twenty years before, Bosch, the exile, demonstrated his gratitude to his host j i country by composing a biography of a local patriot. It ! covers the Liberator's life, from his birth as a subject of ! | His Majesty Charles III to his death in Santa Marta. In j the introduction to the "joven escolar venezolano," Romulo j Gallegos unveils for us the author's didactic purpose in i i writing Bolivar: j i i Esta escrito en forma sencilla, de familiar con- j versacion contigo, acomodada a tu actual manera de j entender las cosas a fin de que tu inteligencia en ! desarrollo, saque el mejor provecho de su lectura, ! agradablemente; pero ademas de conducirte de la mano, j siguiendo los pasos que compusieron la admirable vida del Libertador, para que sepas quien fue y que hizo, j para que aprendas lo que no debes ignorar, el autor ; 29 Ibid. , p. 188. 30 Bosch fled to Venezuela from Cuba upon learning that Fulgencio Batista was planning to extradite him to the Dominican Republic. D. Kurzman, Santo Domingo: Revolt of the Damned (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1965), p. 69. 77 de este libro ha tenido la intencion educativa de proponerte edificante ejemplo que debes imitar, dentro de las posibilidades con que te haya dotado la natura- leza para cumplimiento de buen destino."^ Commencing with Romulo Gallegos1 presentation of ;the educational intent of Bosch's biography of Bolivar, the ;reader is ever conscious of the didactic orientation pre sented in Bolivar, from the explanation of vocabulary items j 3 2 i such as fisica or mantuano, to the maps and the italicized! -------- j i I commentaries or moral maxims interspersed throughout the j 33 ! text. These commentaries for the benefit of Venezuela's j youth are generally given after the Liberator has suffered :a setback or has made a difficult decision. An example Juan Bosch, Simon Bolivar, biografia para esco- j ilares (Caracas: Distribuidora, S.A., 1960), p. 5. I 32 . I Fisica in the nineteenth century referred to j knowledge of nature. (Bolivar, p. 19.) Members of the ! oligarchy were called mantuanos because their wives wore j luxurious mantos or capes. (Ibid., p. 12.) j 33 1 In Venezuela Bolivar is registered as supple- j mentary reading for the normal schools and secondary educa- I tion. (Bolivar, p. 6.) The Dominican newspaper El Caribe reported that Bolivar "es libro de texto en los Liceos de ensehanza de Venezuela, donde solo pueden ser profesores de historia los venezolanos por nacimiento, lo que indica que no siendo el estadista dominicano venezolano, su libro sobre el Libertador goza de estimacion y privilegio." Alvaro Arvelo hijo, "Instan a Profesor Bosch Realizar Viaje a Londres," El Caribe (St° Domingo), julio 30, 1966, p. 1. 78 of this moralizing appears after Francisco de Miranda's imprisonment. i | In 1812 the Venezuelan patriot Francisco de Miranda | !signed a treaty with the Spanish general Monteverde, which Monteverde promptly broke. Shortly after, a group of young j mantuanos accused Miranda of being a traitor, since, accord ing to Bosch, they needed a scapegoat. Bosch then commented in italics on this controversial episode of Venezuelan history: Siempre ha sucedido que en las horas de la derrota y de la confusion, o en los momentos de crisis, se busca a un culpable sobre quien descargar la colera que producen los grandes fracasos; aderaas, los jovenes, que habitualmente tienen ideas radicales, pretenden echar en los mayores la responsabilidad de los desas- tres. Esto parece ser una condicion de la naturaleza humana.^ The didactic intent of the biography is supported by a careful, often paternal, explanation of the issues of Bolivar's era, wherein Bosch's patient style and untrammeled syntax are evident. Quite befitting a textbook are the maps with Bolivar's battle routes and travels marked on them, portraits of the Liberator and a bibliography of works consulted, in addition to the italicized commentaries 34 Bolivar, p. 35. 79 already mentioned. In Bolivar, Bosch presents a political examination I | for his readers of the War of Independence, which he divides i ! jinto la querra social, la querra a muerte, and la guerra de lindependencia. The querra social was both a civil and !racial war. When Venezuela proclaimed its liberty in 1811, thousands of slaves believed that when los mantuanos took j the reins of government in Venezuela, they would be even J more enslaved, and because of this, they revolted against i 35 the government of the newly founded republic. Not long thereafter, all the ingredients of a civil war were present i when Spanish troops from Puerto Rico landed to be joined by j Venezuelans and slaves. The slaves, mulattos, and zambos j . | took the side of the royalists, and under some royalist j x ^ 1 leaders such as Jose Tomas Boves, a great deal of pillaging ! and killing took place, with no respect shown for the lives j i i of the weak. It was a war of a "personal" rather than a "collective" nature in which many mantuanos died because of 3 6 the color of their skin. It was this querra social or querra de colores that Simon Bolivar had to stop. His 35 36 Ibid., p. 30. Ibid., pp. 56-57. 80 answer, just as drastic as the type of war he wished to check, was the querra a muerte, proclaimed in June of 1813. I jThis "war to death" had been going on for some time, but I I | I had not been made policy by the republicans. According to I Jthis new republican proclamation, all Spaniards who did not fight in favor of the Republic would be executed. If, how- i I ever, they fought for Venezuelan liberty, they would be | treated as brothers. The Venezuelans who were in the royal-! I ist army would be pardoned. | j It was a genuine civil war, brother against brother,! I lone of republicans against royalists, each side containing j ; | 'a combination of Venezuelans and Spaniards. Bolivar felt j j he had to convert the war into a national war of indepen- j dence, one in which Spaniards were fighting Venezuelans. To do this he was obliged to turn each Venezuelan into a 37 patriot, and he chose the querra a muerte as the instru ment of this policy. The Spanish general Boves was the man behind the social war, who inspired and motivated the poor, the llaneros (plainsmen), the Negroes, and the mixed-bloods with booty, advancement in rank, and a desire to do away 37 Ibid., pp. 41-42. 81 with the social and racial inequality which had humiliated 38 them. By the year 1817, though, Boves was dead and the |social war had been extinguished, thereby allowing Bolivar I to proceed with the War of Independence. This distinction I between phases of the War of Independence is expanded upon by Bosch in a later study, Bolivar y la querra social. Related to the chaos and turmoil of Venezuela's War i of Independence is another subject of great concern to j Bosch, and that is the lack of preparedness of many coun- j tries' inhabitants for their role as responsible citizens. | According to Bosch, Venezuela had no citizens in 1811. The ! i great majority of the population did not know how to read ! or write nor had they ever been taught to respect the opinions and rights of others. Bosch, in a message to the youthful reader, goes on to say: i ; i ... porque no es ciudadano el que ignora cuales son sus deberes y cuales sus derechos. Solo el ciudadano sabe cumplir los primeros y reclamar los segundos con se*renidad. El que no tiene esas buenas costumbres ciudadanas, acude a la violencia con cualquier pre- texto, y con un arma en la mano pretende imponerse sobre la sociedad. No puede haber paz donde no hay conciencia civica y no hay conciencia civica donde no hay cultura. Con una gran mayoria de hombres incul- tos, Venezuela estaba expuesta, al nacer, a ser vic- tima de la violencia. 3 8 o q Ibid., p. 68. Ibid., p. 31. 82 This concept appears in Hostos, in Crisis, and was vital in Bosch's campaign for the presidency in 1962. The citizens who were least prepared to cope with | the new liberties the republic offered were perhaps the ’soldiers. When the War of Independence was over in 1826 the people of Venezuela were still saddled with a ruined eco nomy, and learning to live with the responsibilities and j privileges of their newly won freedom did not come easily. : ^ i Bolivar was preoccupied by the role the veteran soldier ! would play in the life of the Republic. He worried that j ! these veterans of years of camp life and battles would not j I adjust to civil life and civil ways. He even foresaw j 40 attempts to create new governments by force and violence. Por otra parte los pueblos— que no sabian usar de j la libertad, y que no podian aprender a usarla de un I dia a otro— caian facilmente en estado de violencia. j No era posible, sin embargo, coartar la libertad, pues ; solo disfrutando de libertad pueden los hombres apren- ! der a vivir con ella.^-*- j j The bulk of the exposition in Bolivar is of histori-i cal and political nature. It contains some historical coincidences or mini-treasures which delight most Latin American devotees and apparently did Bosch, who is fond of ^ Ibid. , p. 156. 41 Ibid., p. 155. 83 puttering in his collection of historical knickknacks. Samples of these minutiae are Bolivar's trek on foot into |Italy with his mentor, Simon Rodriguez; the incredible fact ithat Bolivar did not sign the 1811 Venezuelan Declaration [ | I lof Independence simply because he was not a delegate to ! the congress which drafted it; and that New Granada (pres- i ent day Colombia) did not suffer a "social" war as had j ;Venezuela. Among Caribbeanists there is esoterical knowl- i edge of the activities of men who have lived or served in i ! various countries. In Bolivar appears the anecdote of the i royalist colonel, the Venezuelan Narciso Lopez, who suffered ia sound thrashing at the hands of the lancers of Jose j ; | Antonio Paez. This same colonel later would be the creator j 42 |of the Cuban flag and die fighting for Cuban independence. 1 i These minutiae of Latin American history do not constitute great historical finds, but rather are curiosities which j j lend interest, understanding, and greater dimension to an author's writing, besides linking him by common interest to other Latin American essayists. Are there distinctions between Hostos and Bolivar one might ask since both are biographies of Latin American 42 Ibid., p. 109. 84 patriots. Readily apparent distinctions between these biographies are found in the greater use of literary devices j jin Hostos, whereas they are almost nonexistent in Bolivar. i ^Although biographies by their nature are instructive, the didactic style and content of Bolivar distinguishes it from !Hostos as does the manner of characterization. Hostos was 1 ! | I a view of life seen from Hostos' churning inner self, a - psychological characterization and biography. In Bolivar the characterization concentrates more on external events i and Bolivar 1s reaction to and manipulation of forces than j on internal or psychological problems as in Hostos. In Bolivar the moments of defeat and despondency are identi- j i fied for us, but Bosch does not expand on them as he did in j r I ! Hostos. | ; j Bolivar's character is revealed to us by several i | means: Bosch's exaltation of the Liberator, his deeds, the relationships between him and his generals, the italicized commentary, and Bolivar's role in the difficult, almost j impossible situations he confronted. Bosch, in presenting us with both the troublesome and glorious episodes of Boli var's life, does not hide the unfortunate scenes of the execution of prisoners, his complicity in the plot against 85 Miranda, and the execution of his rebellious general, Manuel Piar. Moreover, it is an opportunity for him to explain to j ithe youth the problems and failures a leader must face to |make them, the students, aware of the idea that patriots, iheroes, and presidents are mortal. ' An illustration of this is the action taken by ! i Bolivar at the beginning of the "terrible year," 1814, whichj corresponded to the querra a muerte phase of the war. Boli-j j [ var had advanced toward Puerto Cabello to tighten the siege i on that port, scene of the successful 1812 prison revolt j i against him. Then in February he received word of several ^ | royalist victories and of Boves ' advance on Valencia. He j i immediately abandoned the siege of Puerto Cabello and ad- j I i vanced to protect Valencia. At the moment, however, La ! i : j IGuaira, the port for Caracas, harbored some 800 Spanish j prisoners. Bolivar, preoccupied by the attacks of Jose I I Tomas Boves and concerned just how a weakened Caracas could defend itself from Boves, pondered the fate of the 800 pris-j oners at La Guaira. Bolivar did not want a repetition of ithe Puerto Cabello prison escape, nor did he want to see the defenseless caraquenos at the mercy of 800 escaped prisoners and Boves1 troops should Caracas fall. Bolivar, 86 forced to make a momentous decision, chose to protect the lives of the caraquenos and ordered the prisoners1 execu- l i . jtion. "La guerra tiene momentos muy crueles, en que hay ! jque tomar decisiones sangrientas. Ese fue uno de ellos. i ^ 43 jBolivar no podia titubear." i | An additional means of revealing Bosch's character j j to us is found in the italicized message, which generally ! | exalts Bolivar's virtues: I I ... cuando llego la hora de sacrificar todo cuanto le | hacia la vida agradable a la gloria de luchar por su ! pueblo, no titubeo un minuto; prefirio la gloria al bienestar. Luego, en la accion, aquellas excelentes j cualidades fueron desarrollandose cada vez mas, hasta j dar de si lo mejor que habia en el. j No hay ningun testimonio que nos permita asegurar | que alguien vio en Bolivar los sintomas del genio antes j de que escribiera el Manifiesto de Cartagena. Las i capacidades geniales se produjeron en el a medida que j iba actuando. Lo que habia sido siempre evidente en j Bolivar habia sido su amcr a la verdad, su apasiona- ; ' • . ^ 44 i i miento por cuanto le mteresaba, su energia de alma. i Bolivar then as a biography presents us with a text ' notably adapted to use in the classroom, heavily laden with a code of conduct for future citizens to profit from. In it separate aspects of Bolivar's policies and decisions are ;weighed as a lesson for Venezuela's youth. In addition ^ Ibid. , p. 60. 44 Ibid., p. 51. 87 to abundant advice, Bosch supplies the reader with interest ing historical data and a penetrating analysis of the War i |of Independence. Though Bosch does include many of the i j !less successful decisions that Bolivar was associated with, i ;his criticism of Bolivar is never severe or exigent. jBosch's writing style is expository, and as Romulo Gallegos ! indicated, plain, accommodated to the adolescent's way of j understanding things. The use of figurative language is | rare. Whereas in Hostos we saw Bosch's novelistic side, in j | Bolivar the historical essayist is clearly evident. j ! i David, biografia de un rey i ; I In early 1963, the publishing of David, biografia j : 1 ! ! de un rey coincided with the inauguration of Juan Bosch as president of the Dominican Republic. Bosch had written David while on a trip to Europe in 1956 in an effort to j 45 I have Trujillo boycotted. Since then David has been trans-j ! i lated and editions— two in English and one in Spanish— have appeared in England, New York, and Madrid. In the introduction to David the author states that no previous biographies of King David had been published, 45 Interview with Bosch, summer, 1966. 88 46 although much had heen written about him. Bosch's only source for his bibliography are the books of Ruth, I and ! 47 !II Samuel, I Kings, I Chronicles, and the Psalms. He |continues, stating that the references to King David in the ;Bible are confusing and contradictory and he feels that :these contradictions may have discouraged other writers from attempting the task of writing a biography of David. In order to decipher the mystery of David's life and dis cover the essence of his being, in Bosch's opinion, ... era necesario, ante todo, ordenar sus hechos; solo conociendo sus hechos podria rehacerse su caracter, y solo conociendo ese caracter se loqraria descubrir el AQ alma del gran rey. ° f ‘ i Bosch's problem as he saw it was to determine which | ;deeds attributed to David were real, which ones were false, I or deeds attributed to reasons which did not cause them. I It was also necessary to determine who were David's friends 49 and allies and who were not. The author then divided his task into: (1) the chronology of events, (2) the clas sification of deeds, and (3) the delineation of David's 46 Juan Bosch, David, biografia de un rey (Santo Domingo: Libreria Dominicana, Editora, 1963), p. 11. 47 48 Ibid., p. 11. Ibid., p. 12. 49 Ibid., p. 14. 89 50 character. In addition he found it necessary to scruti nize patiently the chroniclers' work for some contradiction ;inherent in a careless sentence which might have been mis- j I interpreted, and lastly be on the lookout for the legendary j :Which always surrounds heroes. Bosch optimistically states ithat truth does not corrode, and in the facts the chroni clers have given us about David, "la verdad se ha conser- j ; ] vado incolume a traves de tres mil ahos. No era dificil ! hallarla. ! { David, anointed king by Samuel, father of King Solo-j mon, grandson of Ruth, son-in-law of King Saul, brother-in- j | ! law of Jonathan, husband of Abigail and Bathsheba. This is j | David's story from a childhood shared with seven brothers, j : i the days at Saul's court, desert banishment, his anointment \ as king, unification of the Hebrew tribes, and finally the j i problems of a weakening patriarch. As Bosch probes the conflicts and deeds of David's life he finds a very intel ligent, complicated man, one humbled by respect for his lord Yahweh, a man to whom the slaying of Goliath was at tributed, probably without his ever having had a hand in it. 50^., 51 Ibid., p. 15. Ibid. 90 The contradictions referred to earlier regarding the biography of David are no greater than in the episode I Iof Goliath of Gath, the Philistine giant. In I Samuel 16:19 | jSaul, King of Israel, calls unto Jesse, father of David, i i ifor the services of Jesse's son David, "which is with the 52 sheep." Saul, pleased with David, sent to Jesse a mes sage: "Let David, I pray thee, stand before me, for he hath i 53 | found favor in my sight." Saul sent for David because he i needed a musician who could play the harp well. It is evi- i i dent here that Saul recognized and knew David. It is in | the following chapter that the contradiction occurs. In j I i I Samuel 17 David met Goliath and slew him. After the slay-! i ing of Goliath, Saul said unto Abner, his chief warrior: j ! . . . whose son is this youth? And Abner said, As thy j soul liveth, 0 king, I cannot tell. And the king ; said, Enquire thou whose son the stripling is. And as j David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. And Saul said to “The Holy Bible, King James version (New York: Thomas Nelson and Sons, copyright 1905), I Samuel 16:17-19. This Bible will be the source for reference and translation from Bosch1s David. The National Geographic Magazine map "Holy Land Today," atlas plate 52, December, 1963, was also used. 53 The Holy Bible, I Samuel 16:22. 91 him, Whose son art thou, thou young man? And David answered, I am the son of thy servant Jesse the CA Bethlehemite.3 j !The contradiction consists of Saul's referring to David and jJesse by name when Saul needed a musician, and now after the battle Saul by no means recognizes David. To Bosch this discrepancy infers that a chronicler falsely attributed this deed to David. An additional discrepancy appears when j ; i David severs Goliath's head: "David took the head of the Philistine, and brought it to Jerusalem; but he put his 55 armor in his tent." According to Bosch, Jerusalem was not part of the Hebrew nation nor had David stepped foot in j ’ i this city until approximately 1004 or 1002 B.C., when he I j was thirty-six or thirty-seven. How could the youngest son i , | :of Jesse, just “a youth" as Saul termed it, carry Goliath's j I head to a Jerusalem which was not taken from the enemy un- I til some twenty to twenty-five years later? It is also | indicated that Saul, who stood head and shoulders above the ! j l men of his day, would probably not allow a youth who grew into a man of average stature, moreover being unknown by Saul, to wear his own armor and sword. Also, that Saul, 54 Ibid., I Samuel 17:55-58. 55Ibid., I.Samuel 17:54. 92 who had always been intrepid in other battles, would proba bly not let an unknown, untried youth preempt him and pos- i 56 jsibly shame him in front of his army. | These discrepancies, Bosch says, are the result of Icareless compilers who have squeezed the events of several iyears into a mass to derive from it an extract in which 57 diverse events and times are confused. Bosch does not state categorically that David did not kill Goliath, he just reasons that if David did kill him it was when he was older and a captain in Saul's army, or that one of David's 58 cousins killed Goliath when David was king. 56 i David, pp. 78, 80. ; i : 57 I Ibid., p. 80. I ^Ibid. , p. 77. The fascination with hyperbole in ! the Bible at this point is noteworthy. Goliath at six j cubits one span (9'6") wore mail which weighed 5,000 shekels! (222 lbs.). Samuel 17:4-5. One of the new biblical trans- j lations, the New American Bible gives Goliath's height as j six feet and a half. Don Wharton, "The Latest Word in j Bibles," The Reader's Digest, June, 1971, p. 120. In j II Samuel 21:16-22 the fixation with giants continues. Ishbibenob "was of the sons of giants" and thought he had slain David. In a later battle with the Philistines at Gob, Saph, another who "was of the sons of the giant" was slain. At a rematch at Gob, Elhanan slew the brother of Goliath, while at Gath there was a man of great stature, "also born to the giant" who had twelve fingers and twelve toes. He was killed by David's nephew. "These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants." 93 The time of David was one of political transition, a time which saw ancient Israel develop from a loose tribal i i I federation under the spiritual leader Samuel to a tent- |oriented or nomadic monarchy under Saul to an Israel nation under David with the seat of Yahweh1s ark at Jerusalem. Bosch discovered an interesting development regarding the acceptance of the monarchy as it passed from one leader to ; another. j I Samuel, a priest-judge, was the spiritual leader of ! Israel, a much sought after land, now suffering from the marauding Philistines. The Hebrews went to their spiritual leader, Samuel, and asked him to provide them with a monarch i to protect them from their neighbors. Bosch sees Samuel's j ■ i i I : i idecxsion xn this moment as one of a prudent man. Samuel ; i j could have appointed himself king, but realized that he was j i not the indicated leader to go out and do battle with Israel's enemies. He supported not himself but heeded his j flock and sought a new leader to protect his people from j the surrounding tribes, and thereby anointed Saul, Israel's ! first monarch. Samuel was the link between two eras and two political concepts. Saul's reign, like Samuel's, was also one of transition. Then when David became king, the 94 national will was prepared and ready for the idea of the monarchy. David was, to Bosch's thinking, a more complete ! leader: I No ocurria asx en tiempo de Saul ni estaba Saul pre- parado para fascinar la imaginacion de Israel como lo hizo David, porgue no era, como este, un politico, ; y por tanto no sabxa actuar oportunamente. Perhaps David's single greatest act toward the j amalgamation of his kingdom was the taking of Jerusalem. After the conquest of Jerusalem, a city easy to defend, he ! ordered a palace built and made plans for his son Solomon I to build a temple, a step necessary for consolidating his tribes and giving them a spiritual home which was permanent.] But many of David's accomplishments were built on Samuel's | foundation. S I • • 'Xa’ Tiistoria de esos esfuerzos y de esa ascension j es en gran parte la historia de Samuel y la de David. I Estos dos personajes son una suma historica. Sin David, la entereza, la fe y la constancia de Samuel no tendrxan justificacion; sin la obra de Samuel, David quizas no habrxa pasado de ser jefe de banda o senor de algun villorrio, Samuel fue quien asumio la respon- sabilidad de convertir a Israel en monarquxa, y el molde de la monarquxa permitio a David desenvolver sus grandes dotes de caudillo.^ The concept of the monarchy was planted then under Samuel, but saw fruition under David. Solomon, David's son, 59 60 David, p. 126. Ibid., p. 29. 95 is accorded much credit as being a wise king, but according to Bosch, he administered only what his father had accumu lated. ^ ! | When Samuel chose a monarch, and Saul's people suf- I !fered the ravages of the three-year famine and Bathsheba1s ifirst-born son died, these events occurred in response to j the omnipotent will of Yahweh, God of the Hebrews. Through-) i out David as one of the biblical characters disobeys a com- ! mandment or violates a tabu, the reader has the feeling that sooner or later the trespasser will be punished. Often these transgressions are castigated directly by Yahweh, who • i : casts his sentence through the mouths of the Hebrew pro- j ; i I iphets. It is Nathan, for example, who expresses Yahweh1s j ; | displeasure when he rebukes King David for coveting Uriah's j i i ■ ■ -c i wife. i I La voluntad de Israel tenia un nombre: se llamaba Yave. Yave regia el alma colectiva. Yave habia de- terminado lo que era bueno y lo que era malo. Yave expresaba a ese conglomerado, y nadie en el, ni si- quiera el rey, podia rebelarse ante Yave.^ There appears to be a correlation between the igeneral welfare of Israel and obedience to Yahweh and ^~*~Ibid. , p. 10. 6 2 Ibid., p. 238. 96 monotheism. Samuel and David, who obeyed Yahweh, were con sidered to have had fortunate reigns, but later rulers, i jsuch as Rehoboam and Jeroboam, who indulged in idolatrous i I jpractices only abetted the dismemberment of Israel. Bosch i feels that it was this obedience to Yahweh which gave iIsrael a unity and cohesiveness necessary to becoming a nation. In the introduction to David Bosch divulges that what he has sought to do in David is to reveal David's character and thereby his soul. Bosch, by necessity, how ever, is forced to include other biblical figures besides David. Since the only source for David was the Bible and since often the details given there were conflicting, Bosch had also to know the character of other biblical partici pants such as Samuel, Saul, Joab, etc. Once he knew the nature of the immediate "cast" and its personalities and how they interacted, he was better able to deduce David's character. The secondary figures in David: Samuel, Saul, Jona than, Achish, Abner, Joab, Ish-bosheth, Absalom, and Adoni- jah receive characterization from Bosch that tends, because of the limited time and/or references he has to develop them, to reveal them as simple characters. An example 97 would be Joab, David's nephew, who murdered Abner, and Absalom. ! Joab, pues, era de los que no veia hacia el pasado ni I se confiaba al porvenir, y por tanto mataba al enemigo ; de hoy sin tomar en cuenta si habia sido el amigo de ayer y si podria ser el aliado de manana.63 Each secondary character illustrates a single trait. We are shown Saul's obsessive fear of David; Samuel's prudence and faithfulness to Yahweh; the women Abigail, Michal, Bath- sheba, who are portrayed with political "savvy"; Jonathan's loyalty; and Absalom’s impatience for power. Among this cast moved David, who to Bosch was a complicated man, a ipoet, with more noble goals than Saul, but not as virtuous as Samuel. Si David va a figurar en la historia como un gran jefe de pueblo, no es gracias a su caracter. Por fortuna para el, le salvaran su extraordinaria in- teligencia y su capacidad para actuar.^ Bosch does not concentrate on one particular trait of David, but presents us with a "round" character. At times compassionate, other times mercenary, David, called upon to rectify Saul’s slighting of Yahweh, had Saul's ;remaining male issue eliminated— two sons and five grand sons. But one, Mephibosheth, five at the time of the 63 Ibid., p. 249. 64 Ibid., p. 17. 98 infanticide, escaped and during his flight became crippled. Years later when news came to David that a son of Jonathan i ;lived, i | El recuerdo de Jonatan debio acudir entonces a la memoria de David. Ya era rey? gobernaba desde Jerusa- len y su reino crecia a ojos vistas. Debia andar por los cincuenta anos; sus hijos le rodeaban y el sabxa amarlos, pero Jonatan no pudo amar al suyo. David hizo llevar a Mefibaal a su presencia; lo | alojo en su palacio como a un hijo mas, y siempre lo j tuvo a su mesa, igual que a uno de su sangre. j | Bosch takes note of David's period of moral dete- i rioration when he was safely ensconced in Jerusalem, while ! j his nephews and Joab bore the brunt of the fighting: j i Poco a poco, mientras sus generates y su pueblo comba- j tian lejos, el rey se inclinaba a la molicie, y eso i tendrxa resultados alarmantes para el. Iba a llegar j el dxa en que ni siquiera atenderxa sus deberes de j juez. ... Pues la sensualidad de un rey se paga, si no j con la perdida del poder, con algo que duela tanto j como ello. Y acaso mas. j j An advantageous manner of reflecting character is I i 1 through dialogue, of which there is little in the Bible. j Therefore, David does not give clues to his character in I his speech nor do others have the opportunity to reveal in formation about him. Bosch then had to disclose character in other ways, and chose mainly to rely on his protagonist's ^^Ibid. , p. 184. ^Ibid. , pp. 214-215. 99 reaction to dramatic episode. One instance in which a trait of David's character is glimpsed is after he fled Saul's court to live as a |desert chieftain. It is here in the desert that David had I ^the opportunity to demonstrate his acumen, the fact that he was politically mature and had the confidence to wait until circumstances were more favorable for him. David, forced j to flee for his life, now commanded a band of 600 in the I desert that was attempting to evade Saul and his force of i ^ I 3,000. One night, at the hill of Hachilah, David and a few j friends came across Saul sleeping. The friends thought j Saul should be killed, but David advised against this, j | I stating that never would he place his hands on the anointed 6 7 one of Yahweh. Instead Saul's spear and his cruse j i | ; I (pitcher) of water were taken and David and his friends j stealthily retreated to a distant hill from where David j I called to Abner, chiding him for not being able to guard j ; ! his king properly. When Saul awakened he recognized David's voice. David then asked him why he was being pur sued and what he had done to deserve this. Saul replied r "7 Ibid., p. 131. 100 and apologized for his behavior. Then David informed Saul that he had his spear and explained to Saul that his life j 'had been in David's hands, but that David would not stretch ; gg :forth his "hand against the Lord's anointed." David, as i ! in the episode of the cave of En-gedi, had chosen not to I slay his enemy. It is such episodes which reveal to Bosch the secrets of David's nature: Ahora bien, no caigamos en apreciaciones erroneas. En este caso, como en muchos otros, se trataba de esperar, no de otra cosa. Pues si Saul caia en las manos de David y este no le daba muerte, o le dejaba escapar sin tocarle, actuaria obedeciendo a su don politico, a ese sexto sentido de lo oportuno con que tan ricamente habia sido dotado, no debido a otras razones, y, especialmente, no por bondad. ... Though, as already stated, there is limited dialogue in David, there is still ample occasion for David's charac ter to exhibit itself. Foremost, probably, would be the dramatic episode, followed by the almost continual conflict in David's life, be it with those who vied for power with him or internal conflict, as in his guilt after the death of Bathsheba's first son. An additional means of revealing character is offered by the comparison of personalities 68 The Holy Bible, I Samuel 26:23. 69 David, p. 133. 101 and motives, such as Samuel against Saul, or Joab's loyalty versus Absalom's perfidy. David's personality then is de veloped by means of the conflicts, dramatic episodes, 'personality comparisons, the events attributed to him, and I by Bosch's deductions and comments. I Bosch, in order to write a biography of a biblical king which was logically structured, applied a hard analyti-j cal approach to his material. The result of this approach | was the discovery of contradictory evidence in the biblical j books that deal with David. Then using that material which he could depend upon, through great doses of hypothesis and deduction he wove an intriguing and sometimes suspenseful biography of David. Bosch is very skillful at deducing j i logical action and consequences. His formula was, after j | examining all the information available, to select the most j plausible and logical solution, much as a detective, by j j getting to know a criminal, will predict the criminal's j i i next move. The element of hypothesis plays a major role in the uniqueness of this biography and such is the skill of the narrator one tends to forget that often what appears to be an account of biblical days is really an assumption. Bosch, completely aboveboard with the reader, on many 102 occasions states that what he has written "no pasa de de- |ducciones. Mas es el caso que aqux solo [sic] deducciones ! 70 ipodemos hacer." | In this biography David the man is impressive and i I the reader soon understands why he was an important biblical figure. The previous image of David the giant killer is now overshadowed by the significance of David's other accomplishments. Capable of being a cold-blooded warrior, he is also the intellectual warrior, the resourceful mon arch, poet, patriarch— a man of many abilities: ... la impresion que sacamos es la de que hemos cono- cido a muchos hombres en el cuerpo de un solo. La suma de todos esos David da una figura de valor excep- cional, un perfil nada confuso; un autentico grande hombre que si fue capaz de ordenar la muerte de un servidor para arrebatarle su mujer, era tambien capaz de abatir a un ejercito enemigo, de llorar sobre el cadaver de un hijo y de escribir un poema de inefable ternura. Sabe trazar grandes planes y cuidar los detalles; es rey y se conserva humilde; gobierna y no oprime a su pueblo; es sensual y organiza el Estado; es guerrero y no ama la violencia. Summary The biographies of Hostos, Bolivar, and David bring out both the artist and essayist in Bosch. Though the 70 Ibid., p. 209. 71Ibid. , pp. 17-18. 103 combining of essay and biography may seem incongruous, one ;has to reflect only for a moment on Sarmiento1s Facundo to i [ I |realize they are compatible. With reference to style, in jeach biography Bosch was faced with a different problem, i land consequently solved each with a different writing tech- Inique. Bolivar, because it was directed at a school-age I audience and had abundant bibliographical sources, was i I written with very simple technique while the others required! greater innovation, e.g., the flashback and dependency upon hypothesis. When the three biographies, David, Bolivar, and I Hostos are viewed as a whole, the most distinguishing j I feature they share is that which is common to all biogra- j I phies, the didactic quality, the fact that nothing teaches I 72 ! better than example, and with example there exists the j possibility of moral inference. This didactic purpose is j obvious in Bolivar, but may not have been a primary goal j As a literary form, biography "satisfies three ;inherent promptings of man: the commemorative instinct, the ;d,idactic or moralizing instinct, and perhaps most important of all, the instinct of curiosity. From these three motives biography derives its impetus." William F. Thrall, Addison Hibbard, and C. Hugh Holman, A Handbook to Literature (New York: The Odyssey Press, 1960), p. 54. 104 of the author in Hostos or David/ yet it is present, per haps as an inherent part of the genre. j If it is assumed that the didactic nature of bio graphy is inherent to the genre, then that element of these i Ibiographies which Bosch consciously developed more than any other is characterization. As we have seen in Hostos, j characterization stems from the thoughts and moods of Hos tos, while in David and Bolivar the essential device for " — — — — — — , revealing character is dramatic episode. I In addition to characterization, Bosch's interest in historical-political commentary is apparent and receives greater emphasis in his later writing. David, Bolivar, and j Hostos, because they were patriarchal types, have all been accessory to political or historical events. They knew the bitterness of exile, were deeply involved in their coun-j I tries' politics, and expressed a deep love of fatherland. | As Bosch reenacts moments of crisis involving them, he often hypothesizes tactics and motives, apparently delighting in projecting a logical consequence if none is given. I As one reads these biographies and sees Bosch dis secting the accomplishments of three great men, an impres sion is left that he is exploring in a way the unknown of 105 his own life, that it could be his own biography, and that even though Bosch is examining a scene which took place in I j the last century or in biblical times, he may find himself I in situations or predicaments not unlike those moments of |decision he so deftly probes. As one becomes familiar with I |Bosch's own life, his sacrifices, the difficult decisions, and periods of exile, one cannot help but see parallels j between his own life and the lives of such Latin Americans as Bolivar and Hostos— and these parallels evoke questions, j Had these men experienced something in their lifetimes that Bosch needed to know, motives intrinsic to their behavior, solutions to their conflicts? Is Bosch seeking clues, i answers to his own destiny? j | In summary, if one were to seek a common spiritual j I category for these biographies, he might venture to say j I that they are dedicated to reflecting the deeds and sacri- j | fices of great men necessary "para hacer patria." j CHAPTER IV LA MANOSA, NOVELA DE IAS REVOLUCIONES I El oro y la paz Juan Bosch has written two novels, La Mahosa and El oro y la paz. The latter is an unpublished novel which j was begun in 1957 and finished in 1954 when Bosch was writer-in-residence at the University of Puerto Rico. In 1966 Gaetano Massa, Las Americas Publishing Company, New [York, was the custodian of the original while another copy : i ; was being held at the University of Puerto Rico. It is my impression that the books Bosch wrote while at the Univer sity of Puerto Rico are subject to the conditions of his | I I 2 ^ I contract with the University. El oro y la paz will not be j examined here since a copy was not available and since it was not felt that unpublished materials should be part of jthe dissertation. "^Interview with Dr. Jaime Benitez, President, Uni versity of Puerto Rico, August 4, 1966. 106 107 La Manosa, novela de las revoluciones i In 1936 Bosch published his third book, La Manosa, j — — — — — — — I novela de las revoluciones in Santiago de los Caballeros, lit was followed in 1940 by a revised edition in La Habana, iand a third edition in 1966 from Santo Domingo. In this chapter La Manosa will receive summary or general criticism to include the novel's thesis, point of view, and character ization. 2 The setting for La Manosa is the Cibao, the rich valley and northern population center of the Dominican Republic. Bosch, born and raised in this region in the city of La Vega, situates this novel in the settlement of El Pino, some twelve kilometers southeast of La Vega. Abun- idance of geographical detail in a work of fiction can often ! I be an indication that the work is to a certain degree Cibao from the Taino meaning pedregal or rocky terrain was the Indian designation for the mountainous area around Constanza and Jarabacoa, not for the valley which the Indians called Magua, which meant alluvial bottom land. 'The conquerors initially referred to the valley as la gran j vega before adopting for it the misnomer of Cibao. La Vega later became the name of one of the Cibao1s principal cities. Pedro Henriquez Urena, El espanol en Santo Domingo (Buenos Aires: Biblioteca de Dialectologia Hispanoamericana, 1940), p. 38. 108 autobiographical, which is the case in La Manosa. Actual geographic place names appear continually as part of the jnormal conversation of the characters. Additional auto- I jbiographical references include the use of Bosch family i j ^Christian names for corresponding members of the novel's |family, physical and character resemblances, and parallel ■family history, part of which appears here: Antes habiamos sufrido largo; si no era algo mas que sufrir aquello de vivir en perenne huida, amasando la oscuridad y el lodo de los caminos reales, ya sobre la frontera, ya cruzandola, volviendo y saliendo. Dos veces estuvimos refugiados en las lomas, mientras la tierra se quemaba al cruce de soldados ardidos. Ex- tranjero padre y extranjera madre, ignoraban que en estas tierras mozas de America hay que vivir cavando un hoyo y pregonar a voces que es la propia sepultura. Altivos y trabajadores, el exito los sonreia en toda j empresa. Llegaba la revolucion en triunfos, les pedxa j mas de lo que tenian, se negaban a dar, y los perseguia; ; entraba vencedor el gobierno, y terminaba en lo mismo.^ The family experience with the border is true. Bosch as a boy had crossed la frontera to live in Haiti and 4 it was there that his sister Angela was born. The extran- jero padre and extranjera madre most likely are Bosch's Juan Bosch, La Manosa, novela de las revoluciones (2a ed. revisada; La Habana: La Veronica, 1940), p. 28. 4 Interview with Juan and Angela Bosch de Ortiz, summer, 1966. 109 father and mother who were born in Spain and Puerto Rico, respectively. There is additional reference to the grand father who settled in Rio Verde, near La Vega, which is 5 also factual. The autobiographical content of the novel is verified by the Dominican poet and professor of litera- j jture, Hector Inchaustegui Cabral and confirmed by Bosch i himself.' g La Manosa, from which the novel takes its title, lis a newly acquired mule. Petit and saucy, she is the delight of the family. The novel itself is the story of a Dominican family in the period preceding the American 9 occupation of 1916. It depicts the life of a rural cibaeha family of four whose father earns a modest but respectable I | ^Ibid. ^Hector Inchaustegui Cabral, "La Manosa de Bosch," Listin Diario (Santo Domingo), marzo 28, 1966, p. 6. 7 Bosch interview. 8 According to Hector Inchaustegui Cabral, mules in the Dominican Republic are famous for being clever or sly. Continuing, he states that "entre nosotros mana mucho mas ique habilidad y destreza es mal habito, mala costumbre, Isobre todo la costumbre de no respetar y apoderarse de lo ajeno." Inchaustegui, p. 6. 9 Joaquin Balaguer, Historia de la literatura domini- cana (3a ed.; Santo Domingo: Editorial Libreria Dominicana, 1965), pp. 305, 307. 1 1 0 living for the family as buyer or trader, crisscrossing the 'Cibao on muleback with his merchandise, sometimes even j I ;crossing la linea into Haiti. It is an "eye-witness" |account of the family's life told personally by young Juan, j iwho could not be much over seven. The people of Juan's world are mainly adults, some i occasional hired hands, and members of the family's ter- j tulia, or close acquaintances. The men are very important ! [ j in Juan's life. He identifies with them and clings to I I their every word. If the men are handling chores and Juan j 1 is along side them, attentive, it is because that is the j way one grows up; they are his teachers and one learns by ! : i listening, by "experiencia en cabeza ajena." Besides being j teachers, they are also his companions during the story- j ; i i l telling when moments of suspense and fantasy are shared by ! i all. These men, Juan's grandfather, father, Dimas, Simeon, j Mero, fill his most memorable hours with warmth and love. Juan was an affectionate child who adored his father: Padre parecia mas carinoso, sobre todo cuando vol- via de algun viaje largo. Sabia cientos de juegos, miles de cuentos, y cantaba motivos de su tierra con una voz bella y acariciadora. De manana nos llamaba a su cama y nos hacia relatos maravillosos de los mulos que hablaban, del rxo que se iba volando, de las golon- drinas que le cantaban lo que haciamos Pepito y yo. Todo esto lo sazonaba con cosquillas, con mordiscos Ill Y apretujones que nos hacxan reventar de risa. Nada en casa tan alegre, tan jubiloso como los amaneceres. Yet Juan did not reserve his feelings just for those in ithe family, nor withhold his affection from those who had I [strayed from the flock, such as Jose Veras, the cattle rustler: jEstaba en casa Jose Veras.' Salx corriendo', lleno i de un impulso estupido; tropece con una silla; ox a mama clamar que me harxa dano, y me lance sobre aquel hombre a quien querxa entranablemente. El me recibio en el pecho, me apreto, me tento con sus manos duras y i me sostuvo cargado con un b r a z o . j Juan's life when he was alone with his childhood thoughts was uncontaminated, euphoric in tones of optimism and love: j jOh, la vida aquella, tranquila, fresca y satis- ! fecha como una tinajaj [sic] Todo el campo haciendose | ondulado, ancho y luminoso frente a nosotros; el sus- [ tento traxdo y llevado en aparejos de mulos y serones : claros; la salud en risas, el dxa en trabajos y la noche en cuentos ... . ' Even when Juan's young body was burning with fever, [and the world around his family was semi-paralyzed by the word "revolution," Juan was still able to view life with a child's candor: La Manosa, p. 26. 11 12 Ibid., p. 83. Ibid., p. 28. 1 1 2 En un cuerpo nacido anos antes, empezaba a aposten- tarse la vida de nuevo; todas las cosas aparecian por primera vez ante mis ojos asombrados [sic] El amor I me colmaba el pecho, un amor vasto y tranquilo, para j las piedras y los animales, para las plantas y los hombres, para la tierra y para el agua. ... Un amor, j ... Un amor que no se siente a menudo, que lava el | alma, la purifica, la eleva.^^ Though Juan's role in La Manosa is passive, his affection and trustfulness effectively serve to contrast the evils of i revolution. j The point of view in La Manosa is, for the most j part, first person, which has the advantage of making the ! novel more authentic and personal since it is told by an ■ j eyewitness. This point of view also supports and comple ments the autobiographical nature of La Manosa. From all i | appearances the novel is narrated by Juan, who is young ! ienough to he piehea up on aose Veras' an,.» At tiMes he j is a "naive" narrator and does not comprehend the implica- i l I tions of what he is telling. To counter the effect of i i l I having a complete novel told from a child's view, Bosch has ! the child "retell" adult conversation, which in effect gives l the impression of the third person: ^Ibid. , pp. 173-174. 14 Ibid. , p. 83. 113 Entonces Simeon ... susurro: — Hay malas noticias. Padre pregunto, haciendose el desinteresado: | — <?Uste cree? — iQue si lo creo? Bueno ... Simeon se hacia el importante. Sobre los bigotes | rojos se le destenian los ojos.^^ At times the story is told from the omniscient view, as during the account of the recovery of the family mule Manosa: i j Era aquella una historia que comenzaba atras y en ! Licey. No estaba claro por que quisieron matar un hombre en un baile; pero si estaba claro que Jose Veras j le defendio, machete en mano.^ j j The greater part of news in that period was spread j i :by word of mouth, and people were alert to oral communica tion. Juan, as the narrator, reported tidbits of the j I revolution as he heard them in his home. Sometimes, as in j I : |the case of Lazarillo de Tormes, the thoughts reflected by I the child in an autobiographical novel are more befitting i an adult than a boy: j Jose Veras jamas habia temido; tenia una conciencia sorda, en la que acumulaba odio tras odio o simpatia sobre simpatia. Esa vez huia porque le perseguian y la persecucion era justicia, personal o no, pero era justicia. No temia a los hombres, sino a la justicia que ellos querian hacer en el.^ 15Ibid. , pp. 37-38. 16Ibid. , p. 184. 17Ibid., p. 176. 114 The result of narrating the story ostensibly through the mouth of Juan is effective. Concha Melendez, the Puerto jRican critic, felt that the boy telling a man's story was a successful recourse: En La Manosa, el hombre de hoy hace hablar al nino que fue, confrontandose con el choque de dos puntos de vista. Pero el nino revive con tan extraordinaria autenticidad, que a veces el hombre se anula, se vuelve otra vez nino. El engarce entre ambos en la novela, i hecho de observaciones psicologicas y artisticamente validas, resulta casi invisible.^ i The theme in La Manosa, novela de las revoluciones, | 19 ! as indicated by the title, is revolution, which in the j Dominican Republic had become a tradition. It was not a j Question of "if" there was going to be a revolution, but j rather a question of "when." They were not revolutions j |which modified deep-seated economic and social institutions j i i but were more in the nature of revolts wherein one caudillo I overthrew another by force. The novel shows revolution's I j effect on man's humanity and how people react and treat j Concha Melendez, "Escritores dominicanos, Juan Bosch," Puerto Rico Ilustrado, mayo 21, 1938, p. 50. 19 Bosch's first collection of short stories, Camino real, includes a story "La revolucion," whose theme of in surrection exposes revolution's cruel enigmas, such as father opposing son and friend killing friend. "La revolu cion" is in many respects a miniature of La Manosa. 115 each other in a revolutionary crucible. The insertion of conflict in La Manosa, in this case the revolution, is jgradual, and for many pages it seems that it is just a gentle novel of rural manners. Revolution is not new to |the family, however; Juan's parents had experienced its |presence before, and they were not oblivious to recurring j symptoms. The first hint of revolt in the Cibao is received j from neighbors and passersby in conversational innuendo. j ; l (The family house was located on the main road, the camino | : j 20 ! real, and extremely vulnerable to all news, good or bad, j : i itrue or falsely founded.) The father, Pepe, discreetly j : ignores the opportunities to discuss these rumors with ; i Simeon, the alcalde, and others. Pepe, although forewarned i ! ! jabout the imminent danger, packs his mules and leaves on a i business trip. One day during his absence, the house re- \ ceives numerous visitors who ; i j Dejaban caer palabras espesas e inaudibles; comenta- ban algo entre lentitudes y gestos importantes. Todo In La Manosa the family lives on a main artery, el camino real, a business convenience for Pepe who is a dealer in tobacco and other goods. By definition camino real is a road maintained at state expense which links im portant population centers and according to Pedro Henrxquez Urena are roads from the colonial period. Henrxquez, p. 68. 116 aquello lo veiamos Pepito y yo, pero cada uno se es- forzaba en no oir y en no comentar.^-*- The mother, when questioned directly by Pepito, Juan's i (brother, at last admits that it is the revolution, "pero no 2 2 se puede hablar de ello." From now on the spectre of the :revolution, finally confessed to the boys, subtly but surely begins to affect their lives and those of the tertulianos or family circle. Whether the rebellion was discussed in ' I front of the boys or after they had gone to bed, it always | seemed to linger in the shadows of conversation. j When Pepe returned from his trip he found Juan bed- j i j ridden with fever. There also was Dimas, the old story- j ; I teller, eager for any news Pepe might have of the revolu- j ; i i 'tion. Juan's father had seen plenty, and revealed to the ! family its first eyewitness accounts of the revolution. In ! his entire trip Pepe did not see one man occupied in work. "Por todos los confines del Cibao rodaba un sangriento fan- | i tasma. ... Los hombres iban abandonando los bohios a mujeresj 23 e hijos y se marchaban con la noche." The threat of revolution was paralyzing their lives, La Manosa, p. 52. 22 23 Ibid. Ibid. , p. 70. 117 as people did not know when it would descend upon them or where they would be safe. They were becoming edgy and j rumors had a definite effect on them. In El Pino a youth I I ! passed the word that the revolution was coming and before !long the whole hamlet was in a nervous state of exhaustion. By nighttime, however, they realized it was a false alarm j and things began to calm down. Dimas, whose sons had been | recruited by the government, was especially anxious. The | rumors continued and Juan was beginning to feel the strain of the uncertainty: I j Oyendole hablar, todos fuimos cobrando un miedo j vago a no se sabxa que cosa; temxamos que un suceso j inesperado hiciera cambiar los acontecimientos, o, por j lo menos, que los detuviera alii donde estaban. Ya | hubiera sido bastante amargo eso, porque aunque yo no | entendiera que vivir era cosa difxcil, se lo oxa decir I a los mayores, y la vida, tal como estaba, me llenaba O A \ de sustos. ^ I The stalemate finally broke and the revolution came : into the open. Government troops smothered the revolt | j quickly, sending the insurrectionists fleeing over the j j countryside. This activity was soon noticed at home. One day an anonymous rider dumped a seriously wounded combatant at the family's doorstep, then galloped on. In the night 24 Ibid., p. 118. 118 General Fello Macario himself made an emergency stop at the house to change mounts, since his had been wounded. Pepe, |honored by the General's request, loaned him the best the ! |family had, la Manosa. The fear and confusion of the days before the revo lution's defeat subsided and life appeared to return to normal, including the healing of the wounds of Momon, the i soldier who was left dying on the family's doorstep. Then ! one rainy night a messenger came to pick up the horse the | 1 I general had left. This news was ill-received by Pepe and ! Momon since to them it could mean only one thing: that the | 25 i general was preparing for another offensive. So far I rebellion and its threat had not physically harmed the j ! i I family, but it was always there, ubiquitous, haunting their I : j ! existence. j One Sunday a family migrating on the camino real j | was invited to stop and rest. The man had known General j Fello Macario and proceeded to tell Pepe about the general's! background. The general had been a quiet young man until the day he saw government troops bind his brother and ride off with him as a prisoner. Later Fello found his brother's 25 Ibid., pp. 152, 155. 119 grave, but preferred to wait before avenging him. Then one opportune day when people were voicing grievances and com- i i |plaining, Fello acted, visiting shacks and farms and com promising people for his cause. Soon after, he rode out of I the foothills at the head of a hundred men: Cuando pudieron darse cuenta, habia florecido un nuevo general sobre el estercolero de una injusticia: el j general Fello Macario. Como una llama voraz, su pres- j tigio ... lleno el Cibao. ... Se abrazaba a toda causa | que contara con el favor de los humildes, y aunque no j sabia realizarlas, las hacxa triunfar en el campo de I las armas.^ j According to Hector Inchaustegui Cabral, the purpose of the j introduction of the traveler here is to furnish a new voice J I ! and another point of view as to who the general is and why j 27 ; he is that way. I Not long after the visitor left, the insurrection j 1 against the government, momentarily dormant, burst forth, forcing Pepe and his family to flee in the middle of the j i ! night to a secluded bohio with others from El Pino. With i i ] the first light of dawn the wind wafted the sounds of gal- j loping horses, shots, and bugles across the valley. The 26 Ibid., p. 204. 27 Hector Inchaustegui Cabral, "La Manosa de Bosch," Listin Diario (Santo Domingo), abril 4, 1966, p. 6. 1 2 0 revolution was before them, panoramic, and they saw skir mishers filter through their homestead before the music of |the revolution was finally borne away. By noon the family, :disbelieving and numb, returned to pick up the pieces as j ;sundry types began to clog the camino real: j | j Que hormigueo el que padecio el camino aquel dxa.1 I ;Que de gente estrafalaria, mal vestida y peor armada, la que paso a la zaga de los revolucionariosLos vexamos cruzar en bandadas, apresurados, vociferantes. Sostenxan conversaciones sembradas de risas, y al vernos gritaban, ebrios de un alcohol terrible: ;Vxva el general Fello Macario. i : I Among the nondescripts who straggled by on the icamino real came five prisoners on a rope, guarded by one ! !of Macario1s men who had often taken coffee at Pepe1s house. iwhile the guard was refreshing his thirst, Pepe unexpectedly | !recognized two of the prisoners. They were friends from the city, honest people whom he had befriended one night returning from a trip. After the prisoners had been led ■off, Pepe, thinking over what the guard had said, suddenly came to the realization that his friends, Cun and Mente, were to be shot. He rushed to the pueblo to plead their lease with General Macario, but as he neared the cemetery and saw the crowd and the blood-splattered wall, he knew 28 La Manosa, p. 235. 1 2 1 he had arrived too late. Outraged at what had happened, Pepe blustered into I |the general's headquarters to confront him with this in- jhumane act. The general excused the action replying that j jit was "necessary," and besides he had to make examples out I of them. The general, in a paternal manner, also indicated i that Pepe simply did not understand the politics involved. j 1 : I j As the novel ends, Pepe arrives home to relate to i ithose waiting up for him the tragic failure of his mission, j I He finishes his story, ill-humored and feeling empty as j though his insides have been eaten out. Moments later he j turns, spiritless, to admonish: "A mi mula le pude quitar 29 i lias manas; pero al hombre nadie se las quita." j | Revolution and what happens to people in its pres- j lence is the central theme of La Manosa. Bosch shows revolu-j tion as preying upon Dominican life in several ways. First its psychological effect was debilitating. The fear of revolution haunted the lives of the cibaenos and even in times of revolutionary quiescence appeared to restrict I initiative and capacity for joy. When the insurrection finally crystallized, the news alone caused decent men 29 Ibid., p. 258. 1 2 2 to feel hunted and to abandon their crops. It did not iaffect all the same way, however. Fello Macario, who had |started his revolutionary career avenging his older brother's death, had now strayed from his original purpose. |Perhaps it was something he could not detect, perhaps it iwas an occupational hazard. When at last he and his fol lowers were victorious, their behavior became reprehensible,; and certainly not much different from that of the govern- j ;ment troops they had recently conquered. Was rebellion the j answer to the injustice to the Macario family? For Fello | it seemed right at the time because he was obligated to ! : i avenge his brother's death, but starting an insurrection ! i Iwas no solution. General Macario suffered from self- j [ |deception while Pepe grew silent in the face of desengaho. j j I Insurrection's second effect on the people was eco- j nomic. In this role it devastated the crops and stripped | the poor of their remaining bastion against hunger. In ! addition to the economic aspect of revolution, Bosch points out its punishment of the innocent, who are inadvertently drawn into its vortex. Juan and Manosa are two of its vic tims. At the end of the novel the mule Manosa loom as the symbol of Pepe's pessimism. The mule's bad habits can be 123 corrected, but not man's. The use of symbolism in La Manosa is not extensive; I there are, nevertheless, two appropriate examples. One i !involves Juan. Bosch, by having the young boy break out in ja fever the same time the revolution erupts, calls our i ;attention to the debilitating effect revolution can have even on the unsuspecting innocent, in this case young Juan, I I whose fever parallels the tempo of the revolution. When j .the first phase of the revolution fails and peace is to all | appearances restored, Juan seems to improve slightly. The ! j talk of General Macario ' s return, however, increases, and j 30 i Juan’s vertigo and fever worsen. An additional ill omen | !appears with the return of Manosa, who after her service to j ;the revolution arrives home in a moribund state and virtu- i I j ally unrecognizable, a useless sacrifice, according to 31 i Concha Melendez. Besides being a symbol of needless j sacrifice, Manosa, about whom Pepe said 1 1 le pude quitar las j mafias; pero a los hombres nadie se las quita, " then becomes j the embarrassing countersymbol of man's incorrigibility. 3°Ibid., pp. 169-171. 31 Melendez, p. 50. 124 The opportunity for Bosch to develop characteriza tion was greater in La Manosa than it was in his first book, j i Camino real, a collection of short stories, simply because short stories are not extensive enough to develop round or dynamic characters. In La Manosa Bosch was able to present ihis readers with minor characters who offer a single dimen sion or trait; minor characters who were round; that is, j we saw several facets of their personalities; and finally J :the protagonist who is dynamic, one who is modified by the j I consequences of the rebellion. It might be appropriate to ! ; i i comment at this point that although characterization in j i : i La Manosa is employed with greater depth than it is in the ■ . . 1 ■ short story collections, it does not dominate m La Manosa j j j las it does in the biographies. j I 1 The people in La Manosa are plain, country people I who reflect a rural, agricultural ambient. We know who and j I i i what they are by the conversations which Juan relates to us j and by what he tells us about their behavior: A veces mama se endulzaba y nos entretenia con- | tandonos historias o dibujando malos munecos en papel de estraza. Sucedia esto pocas veces: le placla mas rezar, lo que hacia con sincero fervor.32 La Manosa, p. 26. 125 The members of the tertulia, Carmita, Mero, Dimas, Simeon, Momon, and Jose are all, except for Jose, kind, somewhat passive people, each recognized, generally, by an individual trait. Carmita fusses silently but not un- noticeably. Simeon, the alcalde, has the most recent news jon the revolution which he generally loses no time in in serting into the conversation, attempting to be casual: ! — Quiero recomendarle que ande con cuidado en este I viaje, don Pepe— dijo. ! Padre puso la cara gruesa. — £Cuidado? Entonces Simeon se levanto, se echo el sombrero sobre la nuca, abrazo a papa de lado, estrechamente, y, como quien sabe lo que habla, susurro: — Hay malas noticias. Padre pregunto, haciendose el desinteresado: — £Uste cree? ' 33 j — £Que sx lo creo? Bueno ... i i Several of the characters in La Manosa are complex rather than characters of single dimension; that is, they reflect varied personality characteristics. One is Fello Macario; another, Jose Veras. Even though Jose was a recognized thief and cattle rustler, as a friend he could be loyal: i Nunca trabajaba y robaba a plena luz. Sin embargo, ! la propiedad del amigo no tenia mejor celador que el; ^ Ibid. , pp. 37-38. 126 ni su familia mas abnegado enfermero cuando hacia falta: ni rxo botado ni tiempo de agua ni revoluciones le paraban cuando andaba en diligencias de gente de | su querer.34 j Juan the child creates the world of La Manosa, but i j it is created in the image of the conversation, events, and : adults around him. The person who dominates the action and Juan's view of life is his father Pepe, the father who on mornings before the family gets up will play with the boys I and tell them stories. He is the same father who is capable’ of being gruff with them, the same man who scorns danger to i cross the revolution's lines with his mule team. Juan's ' j father is charitable, sage and decent, a man capable of j ; I suffering right along with a creature who might have to be ; -shot: Todo cuanto pensaba lo veia; y nunca buceaba en un hecho, sino que se dirigia de este a las consecuencias. j Si le decian: "tal mulo se quebro una pata," veia el animal renqueando; sufria enormemente, mas, de seguro, j que la propia bestia.^5 j The protagonist of La Manosa is not Juan nor the j Manosa but Juan's father. From the beginning of the novel Ibid., p. 84. This is the second time that Jose Veras has appeared in Bosch's works. The first time was in the story "Lucero" from Camino real in which Jose Veras is a country-type from the Cibao, but no thief. 35 Ibid., p. 24. 127 one notices that he is circumspect and unexcitable when it comes to rumors and does his best not to give credence to i I unfounded talk. During the first conversations about i | jrevolution, he stayed somewhat aloof from the talk. When j ;the gossip monger Simeon told about Monsito Pena rounding up men, Pepe1s reaction was to disarm the comment: "Oigame, 36 compadre, no es bueno llevarse de las apariencias." i Later General Fello Macario began operating in i Pepe1s "backyard." Pepe, who knew the general, was honored ; i by Macario's visit to his home, and agreed to help out one j of the general's nearby detachments when he could. The j j general was a strongly built, brave man, one who had the j ‘ bearing of a person accustomed to giving orders. The general's ability to command a revolutionary army was based j ion personalismo. Pepe had merely succumbed to the general's! influence and charisma. Finally, it seemed, he was in favor of the insurrection: "Sus simpatias estaban con los alzados, i quiza porque era amigo del general Fello Macario, quiza por-j 37 que el gobierno habia reclutado a los hijos de Dimas." Once the revolution had begun, Pepe participated in 3 6 3 7 Ibid., p. 38. Ibid., p. 87. 128 speculative conversation, even entering into a conversation with Jose Veras and the Negro detachment chief on just how jhe would take the pueblo: i — Yo ... — explicaba — corto por Pedregal o por | los Mameyes, hago que algunas guerrillas tiroteen el pueblo por la entrada de Ponton y cuando me estan esperando les salgo en la misma via ferrea, cortandoles ! las comunicaciones. ! I Later when things were not going well for the insurrection- ! ists, Pepe began to ponder what would happen if those he j had come to sympathize with were defeated: j La expresion triste de mi padre no se debxa tan solo a la posible derrota de los que habian ganado su | simpatia, sino al temor de las represalias, al miedo j de que, triunfante el gobierno, se viera obligado, ■ como antes, a buscar su seguridad en la huxda perenne, ' en el escondite, en la fuga.^9 This unpleasant, sobering thought was followed not ; ilong after by revolution's aftermath, in this case the | abandonment of an unknown dying revolutionary on the ; family's doorstep, and a certain doubt about having loaned 40 Manosa to the general. Pepe's attitude toward the revolu-! I tion had gradually changed as revolution's destruction be- j came more apparent to him. One Sunday, when discussing this 38 Ibid., p. 116. 40 Ibxd., p. 144. 39 Ibxd., p. 124. 129 with a visitor he commented: "Esta seria una gran tierra, 41 smo [sic] fuera por esas condenadas revoluciones. " It was not long after the Sunday visit that General I jMacario was convincingly victorious over government troops, jSoon the highway in front of the family's house was filled both with wounded stragglers and new drunken adherents to j the general's cause. And included in this spectacle came j 1 the group of five political prisoners. Pepe's progressively! critical attitude toward the revolution became more notice- I able and eventually reached uncompromising tones at the end I l of the novel when in a rage he protested to the general the j senseless deaths of two comrades: ] i |No se trata ahora de political ;Se trata de que \ antes eran hombres como uste y yo, con hijos a quienes j querer, y con mujeres; se trata de que antes eran 1 | hombres y ahora no son nada, porque uste ordeno que ! los volvieran nada, nada . . . I \ * ’ * * * ’ * ’ ! jMe dan asco uste y su politica. 2 i I The circumstances of the plot cause Pepe ' s charac- i ter to go through two changes. In the beginning he was reluctant to exchange opinions having to do with the revolt, preferring to "cool" idle talk rather than to lend it 41Ibid., p. 201. 42Ibid., p. 257. 130 credence. This feeling was modified, however, when General Fello Macario visited Pepe1s house and Pepe, flattered by such attention, willingly helped the revolutionary cause in small ways. When the revolt's backlash, e.g., the neigh bors' missing sons, the dead, the wounded, the threat to ;his family, became a part of his everyday life, Pepe became j uncharitable in his views toward the revolt and finally | objected to its inhumanity. What Bosch has shown us in j Pepe is dynamic character, a character in the novel who ! i changes, one who in this novel "grows" as a result of the j actions of the plot or story. j I In David, we found out a lot about the protagonist j from his reactions to situations; in La Manosa we know Pepe ; 'best from what he thinks of other people, and how he treats I 'them, be it an unknown soldier, Momon, or the general. j La Manosa describes an era when the art of speaking i and listening was perhaps more vital to social intercourse j than it is today. The benefits of radio, television, and to some extent the newspaper, were not available to rural folk for news or entertainment. The tertulia as a source of entertainment took their place. The family house was on the camino real by necessity, for it was an advantageous place for a man engaged in commerce to be. Pepe1s house 131 was where travelers and packtrains came through, so it was |a natural place to exchange news items. Here Juan and jPepito practiced listening and the passersby practiced itelling. The first scene of the novel offers an example of narrative style as Dimas tells the family a story about a wounded snake that followed him one night. Many of the tertulianos: Pepe, Dimas, Momon, and Jose, will eventu ally take turns telling the boys or the family a story. These stories told within the novel are often about ani mals or people who possess exaggerated prowess or size. Jose Veras tells the story about a bogeyman from Haiti, j "Pata e Cajon, 1 1 who kidnapped boys and stuck them in a bag as big as a house. Although he was rarely seen, he left 43 huge square footprints. These stories do not relate directly to the novel's theme or enhance plot development, yet they do serve to entertain the reader at the same time lending variety to the novel's composition. From a criti cal point of view they are excellent examples of the strong narrative tradition of the Dominican Republic inherited 43 Ibid., pp. 97-100. 132 by Bosch. In this instance the storytelling is a reflection |of costumbrismo, "a tendency prominent in the sketches of i ithe romantic authors . . . [which] refers to an intent I fascination with picturesque local manners, types, and i ' I 45 i jhabits of speech." The costumbrismo in La Manosa is evi- | dent not only in the storytelling, but also in the descrip- j tion of the types, of the colorful folk attending a rural | - i 46 , . , , , dance, and m the author's depiction of rustic speech. i The distinguishing feature of language in La Manosa j j is the presentation in dialogue form of the rustic speech j of the Cibao. Pedro Henriquez Urena, who has made a study ; i :of the Spanish of Santo Domingo, verifies the deviations j Concha Melendez states that storytelling was tra- i ditional on both sides of Bosch's family: "Su abuelo maternoj enriquecio la vida del nino con la madeja sin fin de rela- j tos acerca del marino aventurero. La madre puertorriqueha | le contaba cosas de su tierra, que parecian cuentos. Su j padre sabia tambien 'miles de cuentos.'" Melendez, p. 50. j According to Dr. Francisco Henriquez y Carvajal, the Domini-i cans' interest in storytelling rivaled that of the Arabs. Henriquez, p. 117. 45 ' John E. Englekirk et al., An Outline History of Spanish American Literature (3rd ed. rev.; New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1965), p. 91. 46 La Manosa, pp. 89-90. 133 from standard Spanish which appear in La Manosa (archaisms, phonological variation). In fact, he was so satisfied with the authenticity of Bosch's observations he used Camino real (1933), Indios, apuntes historicos y leyendas (1935), and La Manosa, novela de las revoluciones (1936) as sources 47 | for his study. ; Henriquez Urena in El espanol en Santo Domingo sus- ! |tains that Spanish in the Republic is characterized by "su 48 jaire antiguo que en ocasiones llega al arcaismo." Com menting on the Cibao, he maintains that in addition to !strong archaic characteristics there are also special ones jof dialectal nature. Outstanding is the vocalization of x_ | and 1_ into i_ (comer> comei, Isabel> Isabei, porque > poique, and papel> papei) . Often the r_ is not pronounced as in 49 muje, poque, decile. Included here is a passage from La Manosa which :illustrates some dialectal variations, archaism, and pro- i thesis. The excerpt below is part of a story that Momon, the wounded soldier who was abandoned at the family house, i iis telling. He is reliving a hunting experience above ! i 47 Henriquez, p. 24. 48 49 Ibid. Ibid. , pp. 148-149. 134 the Bonao: j Ese era un raonteo muy serio, don Pepe. No mas hizo la noche dentrar [entrar] y ya estaba negrecita como fondo de paila. A Blanquito le dije yo: "Mire a ver, compadre, si colgamos las hamacas en buen palo." Pero j el dizque [dice que] ni se veia las palmas de las I manos. Me costo a mi dir [ir] tentando los troncos; entonces se le ocurrio a el prender candela. Saco del seno una cuabita que teniamos, la quemo con un fosforo y recogio unos palos. jCristianoJ ,£Quien lo mandaria a hacer eso? Taba [estaba] la candela lo mas alegre y nosotros contentisimos, cuando en eso oigo un pitido. | "Compadre Blanquito— le dije, — prepare su carabina, j que pa [para] mi ya andan las reses por ahi."^ j Bosch in copying the speech of the Cibao merely conforms to ] i the practices of other Latin American writers' interest in j j describing the native peculiarities of their countries. | His prose harmonizes with the milieu of the Cibao, and as Hector Inchaustegui Cabral mentions "esta descrita 51 ; con acierto, econoraia de recursos, con hermoso vigor." ; Inchaustegui acknowledges the frequent poetic passages of j the novel when he says, "Toda la novela la recorre un sos- i tenido aire poetico que no vuelve a encontrarse, por lo i i menos en esta mantenida pureza, en el resto de la obra 50 La Manosa, pp. 146-147. 51 Hector Inchaustegui Cabral, "La Manosa de Bosch," Listin Diario (Santo Domingo), marzo 30, 1966, p. 6. 135 52 de Bosch." That the language reflected the pastoral Cibao is seen in this simile at the beginning of the novel: I i"Eran mancas como vacas viejas aquellas noches estrelladas t ' 53 ,del Pino." This is an example of what Concha Melendez |was citing when she recognized in La Manosa "el buen gusto _ ^54 de la creacion de metaforas vegetales y zoologicas. " Melendez, surprisingly, thought Bosch would have greater 55 success as a writer with the novel than the short story. Summary | Bosch's purpose in writing La Manosa was not ar- j tistic but social. The theme of La Manosa shows revolu- | tion's effect on man's humanity and how people react and treat each other in a revolutionary crucible. More spe- j j cifically, the novel's thesis proclaims to us that to start ! i a revolution because of an injustice is not justifiable nor I is it a solution. The protagonist's pessimistic conclusion | was that man could not be cured of his bad habits. | 52 ^ Hector Inchaustegui Cabral, "La Manosa de Bosch," Listin Diario (Santo Domingo), marzo 28, 1966, p. 6. 53 La Manosa, p. 10. 54 55 Melendez, p. 50. Ibid. 136 Characterization, so vital to the development of Bosch's biographies, is also an important part of the jnovelistic technique in La Manosa. A distinction exists j |nevertheless between the development of these two genres in I that Bosch had the opportunity to create fictitious charac- ;ters in La Manosa whereas in the biographies his protago- | nists, of course, had been actual men. Additional characteristics of the novel worth noting are its autobiographical nature, the reflection of narrative^ I tradition, regionalism, and the costumbrista element (local I --------------------------------------------- j color and types, regional speech), all of which contribute | to La Manosa1s genuineness as a novel of the life of the ! !Cibao. Two Dominicans, Pedro Henriquez Urena and Hector i |Inchaustegui Cabral, confirm the linguistic and historical j |aspects of La Manosa. Henriquez Urena relies upon Bosch's ; novel for his study El espahol en Santo Domingo, while j Inchaustegui, in an article which appeared in Santo Domingo j in 1966 in reference to the historical authenticity of La j Manosa, explains that ... por todo lo que he oido y por todo lo que he ; podido leer, ... la novela de Bosch es un espejo fiel de cuanto ocurrio en el campo dominicano cuando lo pasearon de arriba abajo las revoluciones. Es una historia que puede repetirse, una y otra vez, identica, 137 solo en el tiempo, durante el largo perxodo que vivio el paxs, de revuelta en revuelta, en guerra, entre pronunciamientos y asona- i j ; j i ; diferente amargo en de guerra das.56 55 Inchaustegui, "La Manosa de Bosch," Listxn Diario (Santo Domingo), marzo 30, 1966, p. 6. CHAPTER V j CRITERIA FOR THE EVALUATION OF BOSCH'S SHORT STORIES Chapter V presents developmental highlights of the Hispanic American short story and an explanation of short story techniques. This information will in turn serve as criteria for the classification of Bosch's cuentos within the field of Latin American literature, and for the analysi of his stories. The last part of the chapter contains the detailed resume of Bosch's own formula and advice for writing a short story, from which standards for analyzing 1 his own short stories in Chapters VI and VII are derived. The term short story and its Spanish equivalent cuento have by usage become imprecise terms, so for the purpose of this analysis it is essential that they be de fined. The word cuento when used in literature can refer |to myths, fairy tales, fables, historical anecdotes, sketches, the modern short story, literally any type of 139 brief narrative form. In this dissertation both cuento and short story mean the short story genre after Poe, including the refinements exhibited in his short stories; that is, | jone which is both original and fictitious; a story whose development is restricted, without digression, to the re pealing of a single effect or emotion at a time of crisis. ' Characteristics of the cuento by this definition will in- ■ elude a formal development (beginning, middle, end), unity, ! intensity, a degree of objectivity by which the writer does ; , I not allow the intrusion of his own personality into the j ; ! story, and the concealment from the reader of the true | [ ! nature of the situation until the end. Precursors of the Hispanic Short Story I ! Spain entered the baroque period of her Golden Age j I enjoying well-developed narrative forms, including the j picaresque novel and Cervantes1 Novelas ejemplares. The j narrative tradition in Spain at that time reflected a strong oriental heritage, influenced by such books as the De- i cameron, the Conde Lucanor, the Libro de Calila e Dimna, the Disciplina Clericalis, and the Panchatantra, whose stories were based on Christian, Arabic, Persian, and Indian 140 attitudes, morals, etiquette, and storytelling technique. These collections of stories were the precursors of later Hispanic didactic literature and the influence of their | fables of talking animals with human characteristics can I even be seen in this century in the works of Horacio j |Quiroga and his animal stories. j . I Technique and form have always played a major role ; j in literature's acceptance and this was no different in the ; Middle Ages. Ramon Menendez Pidal points to the role form ■ played in the dissemination of the Disciplina Clericalis j ' (1106). This collection of stories spread rapidly through- j out Europe and obtained greater reknown than the Sendebar or Calila e Dimna which followed. Menendez Pidal feels I that the Disciplina Clericalis1 greater popularity was due j I ! j to its adherence to the telling of a central theme and j leanness of style: El merito de el, ... no esta en una esmerada redaccion, : desarrollada en pormenores auxiliares, adornada con ! digresiones descriptivas, segun se ve en las Mil y una noches. La Disciplina Clericalis adopta una narracion esquematica, atenta solo a la ingeniosa trabazon de sus incidentes, sin la menor dilacion expositiva; le pre- ocupa unicamente la estructura en su mas breve y logica esencialidad; todo lo que no hace falta, sobra. Ramon Menendez Pidal, Mis paginas preferidas (Madrid: Editorial Gredos, 1957), p. 200. 141 Enrique Anderson Imbert recalls the early Spanish tales wherein the moral lesson was the paramount feature of j |the tale; it was not until the Renaissance period that I 'development of character would give greater dimension to ;the story form: j I ; Las colecciones de ejemplos y apologos de la Edad Media ! son, ante todo, manuales de etica. El arte de narrar j se subordina a los intereses morales y, por lo tanto, se reduce a esquemas esenciales. No hay libre desa- ! rrollo artistico de personajes, acciones y situaciones, i sino que todo el cuento queda como un esqueleto de sxmbolos. ... Habra que esperar hasta el Renacimiento para que aparezcan recursos narrativos que analicen j los personajes, amplifiquen la accion y hagan que el ' esqueleto se redondee con las formas de la literatura. j j Anderson Imbert gives credit to Cervantes and his ; Novelas ejemplares for the biggest improvement in the struc-l ! i ; I |ture of the story during the Golden Age, even though Cer- j ; 3 S !vantes called his stories novelas rather than cuentos. | i . Harriet De Onxs affirms that through "the Exemplary Novels i . . . of Miguel de Cervantes the truly original Spanish 4 i short story came into being." During the baroque period Enrique Anderson Imbert, El cuento espanol (Buenos lAires: Editorial Columba, 1959), p. 10. 3 Ibid., pp. 12-14. 4 Harriet De Onxs, Spanish Stories and Tales (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1954), pp. vi-vii. 142 many stories of this nature were written by Lope de Vega, v 5 Tirso de Molina, Maria de Zayas, and others. It was dur ing this time that interest in local manners, costumbrismo, manifested itself.6 The peninsular story and sketch as summarized here constitute the literary background colonial Latin America had available to it by the year 1650. The Latin American Short Story: Developmental Highlights Colonial Latin American storytelling had available to it four sources for themes and narrative technique: one, the indigenous sources of pre-Columbian myths or legends (the oral tradition, from which came the Popol Vuh, Libros de Chilam Balam, Comentarios reales de los Incas), the already mentioned peninsular literature, African sources, and that of the colonial ambient, which was a syn thesis of the other three. The post-discovery period in Latin America was rich in narrative source material and many writers and critics J 5 I Ibid. Also see this period in Jose Garcia Lopez, Historia de la literatura espanola, and Angel Valbuena Prat, Historia de la literatura espanola. ^Anderson Imbert, p. 14. 143 such as Enrique Anderson Imbert, Lawrence Kiddle, Concha Melendez, Alejandro Arratia, Carlos Hamilton, and Ermilo i i jAbreu Gomez refer to antecedents of the cuento to be found |in the writings of Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Motolinia, j ;Juan Rodriguez Freile, Juan del Valle Caviedes, Carlos de I SSigtienza y Gongora, and Carlos Bustamante Inca. Their chronicles, legends, and traditions would not meet the ; modern requirements for a short story since, among other ! i things, they were not original nor were they exclusively fiction. ; | The prevalence of fascinating narrations and anec- j dotes during the first two colonial centuries was not as I ievident in the eighteenth century, yet an institution so j i 'necessary to the later development of the sketch and the I 7 I cuento was being established: the newspaper. Luis Leal cites the advocacy by the Courts of Cadiz in 1812 of free- j dom of the press as an important aid or step toward the j expansion of the newspaper in Latin America. The direct literary consequence of such a development was the prolifer- jation of the cuadro de costumbres as a social and political | 7 Luis Leal, Historia del cuento hispanoamericano (Mexico: Ediciones Andrea, 1966), pp. 7-9. 144 instrument.^ The growth of the cuadro de costumbres or sketch continued after the wars of independence and during the romantic period. The authors of these sketches were greatly influenced by the Spanish writers of sketches— Larra, Meso- 9 nero Romanos, and Estebanez Calderon. During this period, the middle years of the nineteenth century, the sketch i j jfrequently developed into a short story, and it became Idifficult to distinguish between the two.^^ An example iwould be Esteban Echeverria's posthumous story "El matadero" which exhibits great intensity of climax, but because of other structural weaknesses still cannot be considered a short story. Additional contributors to this mid-century genre were Jose Maria Roa Barcena (Mexico), who, according to Luis Leal, was the first Latin American to write modern 11 !short stories, and Jose V. Lastarria (Chile). i With the exception of Roa Barcena, these writers 8 9 Ibid. Ibid., p. 11. "^See Ricardo Latcham, Antologia del cuento hispano- america.no (Santiago de Chile: Empresa Editora Zig-Zag, S.A., 1958), p. 12, and Leal, p. 11. ■^Leal, pp. 21, 24. 145 were not cognizant of modern short story technique. Rely- |ing upon local color, they wrote charming and interesting I stories, but generally failed to meet short story standards because of an excessive reliance on historical fact or llegend to the exclusion of fiction, or failed to restrict | their composition to the development of a single effect or action. I i By 187 2 a giant of a storyteller, Ricardo Palma, • : i had perfected a brief narrative form entitled the tradicion. I John A. Crow states that the short story began with Palma j and Luis Leal refers to him as a cuentista without differ- I ) entiating him from the more formal cuentistas to follow. I |Yet Anderson Imbert and Eugenio Florit in their anthology j j Literatura hispanoamericana prefer to qualify Palma's excep-i ! i tional talents when they comment: ! La estructura de las Tradiciones es tambien compleja. ! La combinacion de documento historico y accion narra- j tiva es desordenada, cambiante, libre. A veces ni I siquiera hay estructura, pues suele ocurrir que se j desmoronan los hechos y sofocan el relato. 0, en una tradicion, hay muchas otras tradiciones menores encajadas unas dentro de otras. ... No hay una sola I virtud de cuentista que Palma no tuviera. ... Pero ! no hay una sola "tradicion" que sea, realmente, un cuento. Su fruicion de anticuario lo lleva a 146 coleccionar hechos, y para darles sitio interrumpe,^^ desvia y altera constantemente el curso del cuento. ! During the time of Palma's greatest productivity I three short story schools were developing in contrast to !the romantic movement: they were the schools of realism, ;naturalism, and modernism, all highly influenced by Euro- . pean models. These three movements simultaneously prac ticed their most representative art and witnessed their | greatest production around the years 1880-1910. It is j during this period that the Hispanic cuento acquires the j essentials of the modern short story, which Concha Melendez j j identifies with the advent of modernism: j El cuento hispanoamericano comienza su historia j como objeto de arte, en el momento que en nuestra ! literatura llamamos Modernismo. Cabe entonces a Ruben i Dario mucha mas importancia que la que se le atribuye, | segun puede comprobarse en la edicion hecha en Mexico j por Fondo de Cultura Economica de sus Cuentos Com- I *1 O -------- ----------— , 1 pletos. I Enrique Anderson Imbert and Eugenio Florit, Literatura hispanoamericana (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1960), pp. 333-334. "^Concha Melendez, Cuentos hispanoamericanos (Mexico: Editorial Orion, 1953), p. xv. This is corrobo rated by Arturo Uslar Pietri, Breve historia de la novela hispanoamericana (Caracas-Madrid: Ediciones "Edime," 1954), p. 81, besides Alejandro Arratia and Carlos D. Hamilton, Diez cuentos hispanoamericanos (New York: Oxford University Press, 1958), p. x. 147 Modernism's contributions to the short story were the further perfection of form, a broader thematic interest, i land revitalized stylistics. Style was perhaps modernism's | | Iprincipal gift to the short story, supplying the striking |imagery and poetic language that not only lit up the path I for subsequent writers to follow, but also challenged them j I to search deeper for greater originality of expression. Accused by many for their torre de marfil attitude, the imodernists eventually returned from their exotic Oriental, j I European, and Scandinavian pastures to the lands of their j birth. Criollismo and the other schools which followed j i 1 ; i were indebted to modernism on several accounts: I El cuento hispanoamericano con los modernistas, por lo j ; tanto, gana nuevas dimensiones: la forma artistica, | el estilo poetico, el ambiente exotico, el personaje I refinado. Elios son los que le dan universalidad y lo i incorporan a la cuentistica occidental.^ j Anderson Imbert and Kiddle suggest that there was | a technical conflict between the artistic goals of the j modernists and the vanguardists who came after World War I j and the narrative demands of the short story: The glittering modernist style, however, found itself in difficulties when it sought to tell a story because Leal, p. 58. 148 of the essential conflict between the carefully turned phrase and the necessity of presenting the realistic development of an action. The balance between the two is not easy to maintain, and if a writer devotes his efforts to one he generally neglects the other. . . . [After World War I] As was to be expected, the dis- j ruptive action of cubism, futurism, creationism, sur- j realism, and other "isms" set words free, enriched j metaphorical invention, and discovered obscure zones | of the subconscious, but all this was accomplished at | the cost of narrative requirements of the true short story.15 One of the first manifestations of realism in Latin i I | | America appeared in 1862 with the publication of Alberto j : i IBlest Gana1s Martin Rivas, a combination of romanticism and j j realism. Realism in Latin America was in part a reaction ! i ;to the excesses of romanticism and a reflection of indus- ! itrialization, expansion of trade, capitalism, mass immigra- j ! I 1 I jtion from Europe, the decline of the open range, and the lappearance of the frigorifico. With realism new subject jareas came under the writers' scrutiny: the city, the im portance of money, the middle class, the arribista, and the j j ;heretofore minor characters (the zambos, Indians, and j mulattos) became main elements in stories. The writers strove for objectivity in their descriptions and instead Enrique Anderson Imbert and Lawrence B. Kiddle, Veinte cuentos hispanoamericanos (New York: Appleton- Century-Crofts, Inc., 1956), pp. 6, 9. 149 of exalting the individual as the romantics had done, they drew closer to their people to depict human suffering and social injustice. Latin American realism by no means evolved into an orthodox literary school. It differed from its European l I cousins in its dependency upon romantic elements, indulging in them to the extent that the movement has been referred ’to as "realismo romantico" by Fernando Alegria and "realismo jsentimental" by Joaquin Casalduero. Other distinguishing | 161 characteristics were its lack of psychological development \ i jas compared with other countries (Henry James), its con trasting the wholesomeness of the countryside with the j j jdecadence of the city, and a tendency toward the develop- 17 ment of characters in caricatures. I | The tenets of the third school, naturalism, were i ■never pursued in their purest form by Latin American writers. Buenos Aires, perhaps because it was the largest ! metropolitan area in Latin America, became its center and writers such as Eugenio Cambaceres practiced in a diluted | 16 Anderson Imbert and Kiddle, p. 10, and Seymour Menton, El cuento hispanoamericano (Mexico: Fondo de Cul- tura Economica, 1965), I, 57. 17 Menton, I, 57-58. 150 style the biological and socioeconomic determinism of Euro pean models. Interest in anarchism, unionism, the flagrant j |abuses in mines, factories, the struggling sharecropper, j i (prostitutes, and slum dwellers visibly expanded the thematic i ! ! panorama of the short story. In technique, compared to the Icostumbrismo, Luis Leal found that "el cuento tiene ahora una estructura precisa, personajes bien caracterizados y j :descripciones del ambiente con una funcion bien definida en j 18 ^ ila trama." The authors, however, interested in proving their theories, found more room in the novel for deter- | iministic theories than they did in the comparatively com- 19 i pact short story. ( ; Whatever the short story lacked in technique, ; I I 'stylistics and subject matter, after the impact of modern- j ! ! [ i |ism, realism and naturalism, short story writing possessed 1 the basic materials, experience, and technology to fulfill its grandest aspirations: j En resumen, durante esta generacion de 1880-1909, j se gana mucho: del Modernismo, libertad artistica, flexibilidad, musicalidad, claroscuro, amplitud tema- tica, variedad, chispa imaginativa, cierta disciplina estetica; del Realismo, mas objetividad, mayor "^Leal, pp. 48-49. "^Menton, p. 116. 151 penetracion psicologica, mayor verosimilitud en el dialogo; del Naturalismo, descubrimiento de los de abajo/ de los tristes arrabales, de las minas y los tetricos pueblos mineros, conciencia social (todo lo | opuesto del Modernismo con su "arte por el arte"), I fe en el pueblo y amor por las masas populares (todo lo contrario del aristocratismo, "arielismo" y super- ! hombrismo de los modernistas). From this period of 1880-1910 several character- j i | istics of the cuento may be inferred. A sensitivity to and j reliance on European literary movements is found, matched | by an equal response on the part of the authors to socio economic circumstances such as capitalism and the late ; nineteenth century immigration to America. Apparent also j is a tendency toward eclecticism in writing, that is, a j :random combining of techniques from the different schools, ■ | 'Which renders classification of works and authors difficult.j ' j iAs for the popularity of the short story, two critics sug- j gest that the realistic and naturalistic writers did not 21 ' practice the short story as much as they did the novel. j ! From the turn-of-the-century confluence of literary j schools evolved criollismo, an interest in native subjects, Angel Flores, Historia y antologia del cuento y la novela en Hispanoamerica (New York: Las Americas Publish ing Co., 1959), p. 151. 2 1 Latcham, p. 14, and Menton, p. 118. 152 from the meaning of criollo which refers to a thing or 22 custom typical of American countries. Criollismo was in part a reaction to modernism's torre de marfil indifference I itoward the problems of America and the American scene. The I Scriollistas, fortunately, were able to cultivate the Ameri can scenes without discarding the modernist innovations. Para dar expresion a lo americano los criollistas j hacen uso del paisaje, de las costumbres, de los per- j sonajes y del lenguaje nativos, pero sin caer, como ; los costumbristas, en el folklore, ni hacer la pintura de lo americano el fin primordial de la narracion. ... El proposito de estos cuentistas es revelar todas las | facetas, dentro de la obra de arte, de la vida ameri- I cana; la protesta social, sin embargo, nunca llega a J formar el centro de estos cuentos. Si la hay, es | siempre indirecta, nunca en forma de tesis o propa- i ganda.23 iMany of those nurtured on modernism— Horacio Quiroga, Manuel! I Diaz Rodriguez, Luis Manuel Urbaneja Achelpohl, and Rufino j J I Blanco Fombona— "chose to put their art at the service of 24 ' themes typical of criollismo. 1 1 ' The first criollistas, sometimes called regional- ists, started publishing their stories around the turn of | Samuel Gili Gaya, ed., Vox, diccionario general ilustrado de la lenqua espahola (Barcelona: Publicaciones y Ediciones Spes, S.A., 1953), p. 499. 23 Leal, p. 69. 24 Anderson Imbert and Kiddle, p. 7. 153 the century, so a fourth trend or blend can be added to the jthree other reigning schools. As modernism and naturalism I |began to decline around 1910, criollismo, which flourished iuntil about 1945, was beginning to focus on the topics | |which would sustain it in later decades. Generally speaking, with the appearance of crio- j | llismo and the waning of the previously mentioned trium- I ' i virate, two basic literary currents developed: one, the j criollista group (often recognized by realistic elements in ; [ its stories), which continued to refine its techniques j j while maintaining an interest in the American ambient. The | second group was composed of the minority writers, the ex- j :perimentalists in fantasy and science fiction, those who I : i delved in the "isms," and those whose interest centered in J !giving expression to their personal world, often experi- ! i ; j menting in impressionism and surrealism. Their stories j ! -were never social or political, but rather personal, poetic,] and psychological.2^ j The work of the principal group of writers, the ;criollistas, spanned many years (1900-1945), a period of prodigious growth which produced an overwhelming number 25 . Leal, p. 78. 154 of writers. The spectrum of international upheavals which jthese writers experienced, including the Mexican Revolution, j jWorld War I, the economic crash of 1929, communism, fascism, j j |the Spanish Civil War, and World War II, was awesome and |affected the variety of literature which was produced. ;Short story types included within the term criollismo would : i ibe the Mexican revolutionary genre, the indigenist, the j : i iproletariat, the anti-imperialistic, and a continuation of 26 ^ the costumbrismo found in Central America. As can be " ! iseen, "Para el criollista la literatura sirve para inter- I | ; pretar las condiciones politicas, economicas y sociales de ! 27 isu propio pais." The criollistas chose as the subject of j i | ;their writing the countryside, the slum dwellers, the dis- j jpossessed farmer, the non-integrated Indian, the evils of ■dictatorship, in essence the gamut of what the artists felt ! were problems. 2 6 Menton, II, 8. A list of criollistas would in clude such diverse writers as Mariano Latorre, Rafael iMaluenda, Carlos Loveira, Mariano Azuela, Enrique Amorim, IDemetrio Aguilera Malta, Romulo Gallegos, Marta Brunet, !Jorge Ferretis, Juan Bosch, Gregorio Lopez y Fuentes, Roberto Arlt, Manuel Rojas, Jose Mancisidor, Miguel Angel Asturias, Horacio Quiroga, Salarrue, and Carlos Luis Fallas. ^ Ibid. , p. 113. 155 During the thirties the experimentalists or minority writers began producing existential and psychological stories. They were followed in a few years by writers of detective and magical realist stories. Not all of them jwere really original. Amado Nervo and Leopoldo Lugones, jamong others, had written fantastic and science fiction i before. Horacio Quiroga had produced psychological stories,! i : I i and Clemente Palma, son of Don Ricardo, had employed the i 28 * "dreamed character" technique (Cuentos malevolos, 1904) ! i before Jorge Luis Borges was in kindergarten. The popu- j larity of the magical realist and existential stories j ; spread; they became literary schools and it was not long before these cosmopolitan stories, as the new literary j ;direction was called, with their greater emphasis on the iproblems of individuals, urban life, and fantasy, displaced 29 ! the cuento criollista. Compared to the criollista writer,j "el autor cosmopolita se preocupa mucho mas por la estetica, la psicologia y la filosofia, aun cuando trata de temas i 28 Leal, p. 65. 29 Menton, II, 113. Also John E. Englekirk et al., An Outline History of Spanish American Literature (3rd ed.; New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1965), p. 136. 156 criollos. Though cosmopolitan stories are still being written, a new school has followed whose young writers have not accepted the neurotic self-examination and escapist produc tion of recent years. Without discarding the old and newly I jacquired narrative techniques, the new generation has shown ; | a reawakening to social themes. Because of this and an j objective technique, their school has been labeled neo- j rrealismo. ! Para su tematica, los neorrealistas rehuyen tanto de la fantasia de algunos de los cosmopolitas como del ruralismo de los criollistas. Sus personajes son casi exclusivamente los pobres— a menudo ninos o adolescen- j tes— que viven en los barrios inmundos de las grandes j | ciudades. No hay protesta ni contra la naturaleza ni j contra los explotadores humanos. Dandose cuenta de la ; mayor complejidad de los problemas, no ofrecen solu- ; ciones faciles. Influidos por Hemingway, sus cuentos tienen un solo piano, el presente. ... El estilo es | escueto, sin las descripciones epicas de los criollis tas ni el experimentalismo de los cosmopolitas.^ ! i I Since neorrealismo there have been new developments, i 32 some of them in the vein of unreal or absurd stories. | They will not be discussed in this chapter primarily because 30 Menton, II, 113. ^Ibid. , pp. 293-294. 32 Leal, p. 145. 157 Bosch has not published any new cuentos since his cosmo politan period. Technical Properties of the Short Story Discussed here will be the standard criteria most cited when critics of Latin American literature define the jshort story. These criteria will include the short story's |length and the elements of form: theme and the single |effect, formal development, intensity, and objectivity. |Even though these criteria are given as part of the defini tion of the cuento at the beginning of this chapter, they are repeated because unless they are explained and illus trated, their effectiveness as tools of analysis would be diminished. Defining a literary genre can be a risky under taking. As late as the nineteenth century "se subtitula ;como cuento una obra en seis volumenes, y como novela una i I 33 historia de seis paginas." Some critics as part of the definition of a short story define it by word length. By ithis method a short cuento could be from 100 to 2,000 words I i jand an average one 2,000 to 30,000 words, anything beyond 33 Anderson Imbert, El cuento espanol, p. 8. 158 34 30,000 words constituting a short novel. Seymour Menton as part of his definition of a cuento defines it as a nar- i 35 |ration which can be read in less than an hour, and Ander- ! I son Imbert and Kiddle as a "story short enough to be read i 3 6 iat a single sitting." Most authors, nevertheless, seem :inclined to define the cuento in terms of form. i The single most repeated criterion of this form is : I that the short story be restricted to the development of a single effect or theme. Echeverria's "El matadero" is an ; illustration of a failure to do this. It holds the reader's| interest and offers an intense climax, but it falls short ; of being a cuento because of what Concha Melendez says is the author's development of two dramatic events (the bull's j escape and the assassination of the young Unitarian) instead 34 Ibid., p. 7. Although insistence upon length might appear to be too restrictive, Horacio Quiroga and the | other contributors to Caras y caretas were actually re quired by the editor to submit stories of exactly 1,250 words. Quiroga objected, referring to such a requirement j as the "brevisima carcel de hierro," admitting later that it served as a valuable apprenticeship for the young writers. Quiroga himself felt that 3,500 words was ample length to develop a story. Pedrc G. Orgambide, Horacio Quiroga; el hombre y su obra (Buenos Aires: Editorial Stilcograf, 1954), p. 127. 35 Menton, I, 8. 3 6 Anderson Imbert and Kiddle, p. 2. 159 37 of one. In "El matadero" Echeverria interjects what he j jthought were timely political comments. These interjec- i jtions, from the critics' point of view, are actually intru- I jsions by the author and violate one of the tenets of the i jobjectivity requirement in a story. When a writer composes a short story he is, whether he realizes it or not, strivingi to create an illusion of reality, of which objectivity is a principal part: It was in defense of the reader's right to illusion that Chekhov and Maupassant, and, in our time, Somerset Maugham, have stressed the importance of objectivity, j the impersonal approach, the avoidance, at all cost, ; of whatever factors may destroy this delicate illusion ; of reality.3® | : i I In order to protect the objectivity in a story j i i i jBatchelor advised the writer not to allow the intrusion of I j J his own personality into the story. He will avoid then i comments such as "our hero" or "you may remember." Truisms ("how fleeting is human happiness") and philosophical i 39 digressions are to be avoided. If one were to apply Melendez, p. xiv. 38 Courtenay Malcolm Batchelor, Cuentos de aca y de alia (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1953), p. xiv. 39 Ibid. , p. xv. 160 this maxim to characterization, instead of saying "it was |obvious that Caroline was unhappy" there would be less in- i I ;trusion if an outward manifestation of Caroline's emotions j |were described, such as "biting her lip" or the "tears i :sliding down her cheeks." (This last example is mine, not Batchelor's.) Anderson Imbert acknowledges the importance of objectivity in the short story when he states, "Puesto :que su funcion normal es articular el pensamiento, la prosa exige, mucho mas que la poesxa, que entre el escritor y la 40 realidad objetiva haya una relacion directa." When Horacio Quiroga, complaining about adornment land superfluous exposition in the short story, exclaimed 41 "Al grano, al grano ..." he was defending the short ! |story's intensity, that is, the writer's presenting only i :that action which serves to elaborate the theme. He cam paigned loudly against any unnecessary description or Anderson Imbert, El cuento espanol, p. 22. The importance of objectivity is also confirmed by Melendez, p. xiii. 41 Horacio Quiroga, Los persequidos y otros cuentos, introduccion, J. A. Crow (Montevideo: Claudio Garcia & Cia., 1937), VII, 121. 161 42 digression of action in the cuento. A good example of digression may be seen in Ricardo Palma's tradicion "Amor 43 de madre," the poignant story of a mother who sacrificed I |her reputation so her children would not be known as the I children of the ajusticiado (the executed or hanged man). The tradicion is divided into three parts. The second ! part, unfortunately, distracts the reader with a short 'biography of a one-armed viceroy and a one-paragraph tale of a human freak which have absolutely nothing to do with I the fate of the two main characters, Evangelina and Fer nando. This interruption by irrelevant material completely j ibreaks the story's unity, impairing its value as art. Commenting on the difference between a cuento and ;a novel, Quiroga states that "El cuento es intensidad, la j 44 ! novela extension." Arratia and Hamilton allude essen tially to the same phenomenon when they cite the "synthesis"j Horacio Quiroga wrote a short story writer's creed, "El decalogo del perfecto cuentista," in which he iproclaims the imperativeness of only essential action and idescription in the short story. His decalogo appears in iAppendix A. 43 Anderson Imbert and Florit, pp. 334-336. 44 . Quiroga, p. 35. 162 45 of the short story. Intensity and synthesis are the result of a type of condensation in the short story's ex- i position. They are achieved by not allowing the action to digress in description of preterite scenes. The series of |small happenings or episodes which constitute action or j ] iplot should in a way be sequential, one leading to the j other, meanwhile retaining a little suspense, impelling | i the reader on to the end of the story. Regarding action, ; Batchelor wrote: i Action in the short story should be direct and ! immediate. The reader does not care about what has ! i already happened. The story must unfold before his j eyes. j ! Even the portrayal of such immediate action is meaningless if it fails to capture the imagination, by j suggesting further events and intensifying reality.; : j i i It is the storyteller's obligation to maintain the j 'tempo of his writing in the short story. One of the tools I available to him for this is synthesis, which can be ! achieved by having characters and deeds symbolize greater meaning. Batchelor suggests an effective technique for additional synthesis during characterization: Implication and suggestion can be advantageously used to delineate character. Limited space alone 45 Arratia and Hamilton, p. ix. 46 Batchelor, p. xvi. 163 prohibits detailed description of a character's appear ance. The gradual development of personality is equally impossible. The writer must, therefore, select some graphic detail or feature, preferably one that reveals character, and depend upon his reader to do | the rest.^ I ! A discussion of formal development in the short | |story would include plot with a beginning, middle, and end, or in more formal terms, complication, crisis, and denoue- j 48 „ i ment. Of these the last, the denouement or unraveling, | has seemed to be of greater technical importance to critics | than the first two. The "authorities" say that in a cuento ! the author should conceal from the reader the true nature ! I |of the story until the end. Quiroga, speaking to the prob- j ;lem of adequate concealment felt "que es bastante mas difi- ; 49 ! cil meter un final que el lector ha adivinado ya." I I i i IQuiroga's concern for the concealment in the story is i j ! ;shared by Anderson Imbert and Kiddle who recognize that 47 Ibid., pp. xvi-xvii. 48 Two Latin American literary critics who look for formal development in the cuento are Concha Melendez, ip. xiii; and "Alone," Hernan Diaz Arrieta, "Los cuentos de Juan Bosch y otros cuentos," El Mercurio (Santiago de Chile), agosto 21, 1955, p. 7. 49 Horacio Quiroga, Cuentos, seleccion y prologo de ■E. Martinez Estrada (La Habana: Casa de las Americas, 1964), p. viii. 164 "The skillful development of the successive steps in an action plus the ability to conceal the denouement serve to i . 50 hold the reader's attention until the end of the story." i | The cuento with a beginning, middle, and end, is i :similar in this respect to a play. Batchelor, commenting on this similarity, sees dialogue as an important element common to both the play and short story: The short story form comes very close to that of the drama. Chekhov, for example, remarked that in his opinion the play and the short story have much in common, particularly as restricted media which must strive to produce an impression of reality. With that in mind, it may be said that a short story ought to have as much dialog as the author can logically put into it without spoiling the structure of his story. Dialog is, certainly, one of the most effective methods of setting up a natural atmosphere. That it ! is a magnificent means of suggesting character, is ! obvious. There is a drawback, however. Dialog has to ' duplicate human speech appropriate to the circumstances ' and person: that is why dialog is the bugbear of short story writers.^ The popularity of the short story, a relatively new genre, is much greater now than it was ninety years ago. It owes much of its success to a mixture of three ingre dients: readability, suitability, and the newspaper and 50 Anderson Imbert and Kiddle, p. 1. 51 Batchelor, p. xv. 165 magazine industry. Before the commencement of the growth of the newspaper in the early nineteenth century, the tale !was at a low ebb. A change was noted in the early nine teenth century with the use of the sketch for social criticism. As the cities grew and swelled with immigra tion, the newspapers multiplied and expanded and so did the need for a suitable genre which would entertain the news papers' clientele. ' Among the newspapers1 requirements were an atten tion gathering and versatile genre which they could publish ' in a minimum number of installments. One might say then that the short story's golden opportunity had arrived. The literary movements of modernism, romanticism, and natural- j iism were producing a variety of interesting stories and the ! I i 1 I 'means for their distribution also had come of age. Two critics, Angel Flores and Enrique Anderson Imbert, feel the ; short story's growth was due to the public's desire for ; ! ! amusement; this desire then became an invitation for writers; ! to produce and create. Here are Angel Flores' views: i As a result of Romanticism and later of Realism, the nineteenth century witnessed a re-awakening of interest in storytelling. Readability was also stressed, since now there existed an extremely 166 large and constantly expanding group of newspaper readers who wanted to be amused.^ As it turned out the newspaper and magazine in dustry and the cuento were exceedingly compatible. Practi cally all, if not all, the cuentistas since before the turn i I of the century have published in newspapers and served j ! 23 their apprenticeship with them too. An additional and indispensable ingredient to this success was the growing \ rate of literacy in these countries, especially in the 1 twentieth century. j If the cuento was not interesting, the public and | the newspaper editors would not buy it, and if the genre within its basic structure did not have the commercial qualities required by the newspaper and magazine industries,: ! j lit was not suitable. Two conditions then of the genre, | readability and suitability, have governed the development ; of the cuento since the nineteenth century. j S I What is the future of the cuento? The prognosis j j 52 Angel Flores, Cuentos espanoles (New York: Bantam iBooks, Inc., 1960), p. ix. Also see Anderson Imbert, El cuento espanol, p. 15. 5 3 Although I have never seen it discussed, it would not surprise me to find out that the exigencies of news paper publishing had as much to do with the evolution of short story technique as did any of the literary movements. 167 is excellent. The contest that Life en espanol held in 1960 for the best unpublished cuento inspired 3,149 con testants from all over Latin America to send in their 54 stories. Concha Melendez commenting on the short story's suitability for this day and age says: | Por ser el genero mas adecuado a la prisa y al I tumulto de nuestro tiempo, porque se presta a la com- : prension de diferentes clases de lectores, el arte del | cuento es el de mas posibilidades de difusion y de desarrollo en la literatura de nuestro siglo.^5 | | A Synopsis of Bosch's Short Story Theory i i Juan Bosch has published several essays on the theory of the cuento. In 1944 a lecture which he gave on i characteristics of the short story and the work of Lino Novas Calvo was published in the Mirador Literario, La Habana. In 1958 he published "El tema en el cuento" which :was followed by "Apuntes sobre el arte de escribir cuentos" iin 1960 and "La forma en el cuento" in 1961, all appearing ;in Caracas journals. "Apuntes sobre el arte de escribir cuentos" and "La forma en el cuento" were included later Prize Stories from Latin America (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Co., Inc., 1963), p. vi. ^Melendez, p. xvi. 168 as part of the collection Cuentos escritos en el exilio (1962). Then in 1967 in Merida, Venezuela, the 1958, 1960, and 1961 essays were published jointly under the title Teoria del cuento; tres ensayos. In this section Bosch's ideas regarding the theory ! I [of the cuento will be summarized and when appropriate com parisons will be made with the criteria previously estab- j lished in this chapter. The source for this summary with lone exception will be Teoria del cuento: tres ensayos. For Bosch the most important part of a short story [is the theme. In fact, he defines the short story as "el ! 57 irelato de un hecho que tiene indudable importancia." It jis a genre without adornment, one in which there is room for the elaboration of only one theme. In the selection of this theme or event, several things should be kept in mind. Juan Bosch, Teoria del cuento: tres ensayos | (Merida, Venezuela: Universidad de los Andes, 1967). [Following are the four essays and their complete biblio graphical data: "Caracteristicas del Cuento," Mirador Literario (La Habana), julio, 1944, pp. 6-9; "El tema en el cuento," El Nacional (Caracas), noviembre 27, 1958, pp. 1, :6; "Apuntes sobre el arte de escribir cuentos," Revista Shell (Caracas), No. 37, diciembre, 1960, pp. 44-49; and "La forma en el cuento," Revista Nacional de Cultura (Caracas), Aho XXII, No. 144, enero-febrero, 1961, pp. 40- 48. 57 Ibid., p. 15. 169 The theme that is chosen should not be too unusual or a I novelty because this might lead to a deformity in the story; j to the contrary, the theme should be convincing for the i i 58 {majority of the readers. i ] The inclusion of universality in this theme is im- ;portant: Puede ser muy local en su apariencia, pero debe ser universal en su valor intrinseco: el sufrimiento, el amor, el sacrificio, ... son valores universales, positivos o negativos, aunque se presenten en hombres i y mujeres cuya vida no traspasan las lindes de lo local; son universales en el habitante de las grandes ciudades, en el de la jungla americana o en el de los iglus [sic] esquimales.^9 |He did not feel that themes chosen only for their pic turesqueness would be appropriate. The event which fur- |nishes the theme need not be a heroic feat, a simple human I emotion would suffice, but it should somehow reflect man: ... en cuanto al hecho que da el tema <?c6mo conviene que sea? Humano, o por lo menos humanizado. Lo que pretende el cuentista es herir la sensibilidad o estimular las ideas del lector; luego, hay que diri- girse a el a traves de sus sentimientos o de su pensa- miento. En las fabulas de Esopo como en los cuentos de Rudyard Kipling, en los relatos infantiles de Andersen como en las parabolas de Oscar Wilde, ani- males, elementos y objetos tienen alma humana. ... Nada interesa al hombre mas que el hombre mismo. 59 Ibid., p. 12. 170 El mejor tema para un cuento sera siempre un hecho humano, o por lo menos relatado en terminos esencial- mente humanos.^O I ! The point of addressing oneself to the reader's sentiment, which has just been cited, would be a key to the ;success of short story writing. Directing himself to this t ! .point, Bosch states that "el lector y el tema tienen un j .mismo corazon. Se dispara a uno para herir a [sic] otro.,,61j When the theme and the event or deed which reveal ! the theme have been selected, the artist will write toward the denouement. He should be careful to distinguish ! between the deed and minor happenings, "sin darles caracte- j jres de hechos a los sucesos que marcan el camino hacia el i hecho; todos esos sucesos estan subordinados al hecho hacia | , - , . 6 2 el cual va el cuentista." In explaining short story technique, Bosch says j that the cuentista should "aprender a distinguir con preci- 6 3 i sion cual hecho puede ser tema de un cuento." This sen- | tence would imply that hecho (incident) and tema (theme) have distinct meanings. If we proceed on this assumption and take as an example Quiroga1s short story "El hombre 60 Ibid., p. 11 61 Ibid., p. 14 62 Ibid., p. 10 63 Ibid., p. 9 171 muerto," the hecho would be the campesino's inadvertent impalement on his own machete while the theme would be | |Quiroga1s development of man's astonishment and psycho- i |logical reaction to an unexpected and trivial death. Bosch feels the author should hide the hecho from the reader's attention without revealing it, but if he is not able to and everything else in the story goes well, he has produced a good story: Cuando el cuentista esconde el hecho a la atencion del lector, lo va sustrayendo frase a frase de la vision de quien lo lee, pero lo mantiene presente en el fondo de la narracion y no lo muestra sino sorpre- sivamente en las cinco o seis palabras finales del i cuento, ha construido el cuento segun la mejor tradi- cion del genero. Pero los casos en que puede hacer esto sin deformar el curso natural del relato no abun- dan. ... Si el hecho se halla antes de llegar al final, j es decir, si su presencia no coincide con la ultima escena del cuento, pero la manera de llegar a el fue recta y la marcha se mantuvo en ritmo apropiado, se ha producido un buen cuento.^ Regarding the necessity of concealing the truth until the end of the story, Bosch is not as dogmatic as other critics and indicates that it is not necessary to have a surprise ending. ("El final sorprendente no es una i . 65 ;condicion imprescindible en el buen cuento." ) Quiroga's ^ Ibid. , p. 10. ^ Ibid. , p. 17. 172 "El hombre muerto" is a good example of where deed and |theme are revealed early in the story. i | One of the most common methods critics use to de- jfine the cuento is to contrast it with the novel. Bosch !takes advantage of this comparison to bring characteriza- i ition, intensity, and hecho into focus. The development of the characters in a short story is a much different process j : i from what it is in a novel according to Bosch. The differ- j ence lies in the rigid control the cuentista must exercise ! over his characters: Asx como en la novela la accion esta determinada ; por los caracteres de sus protagonistas, en el cuento el tema da la accion. La diferencia mas drastica entre j el novelista y el cuentista se halla en que aquel [sic] j sigue a sus personajes mientras que este tiene que j | gobernarlos. ! i | ! El novelista crea caracteres y a menudo sucede que j esos caracteres se le rebelan al autor y actuan con- forme a sus propias naturalezas, de manera que con frecuencia una novela no termina como el novelista lo j habia planeado, sino como los personajes de la obra lo j determinan con sus hechos. En el cuento, la situacion j es diferente; el cuento tiene que ser obra exclusiva : Juan Bosch, "Apuntes sobre el arte de escribir cuentos," Cuentos escritos en el exilio (S° Domingo: Libre- ria Dominicana, 1962), p. 21. Sources have been changed in this instance because of what is believed to be a typo graphical error serious enough to change the meaning of the quoted material and the author's intent. 173 del cuentista. El es el padre y el dictador de sus criaturas: no puede dejarlas libres ni tolerarles rebeliones. ! This strict control over every facet of the story lends to the cuento1s intensity. Quiroga said that the novel was extension and the cuento, intensidad. The same I j ; I i observation is repeated by Bosch who states that the novel j 68 is extensa and the cuento, intenso. Part of this differ- ; I I ;ence between intensity and extension derives from the j handling of the hechos in short stories and novels: [ Observese que el novelista si da caracteres de hechos j a los sucesos que marcan el camino hacia el hecho j central que sirve de tema a su relato; y es la des- i cripcion de esos sucesos— a los que podemos calificar de secundarios— -y su entrelazamiento con el suceso principal, lo que hace de la novela un genero de dimen- ; ; siones mayores, de ambiente mas variado, personajes mas j j numerosos y tiempo mas largo que el cuento. ^ j I : The universally accepted manner for beginning a j story has been "once upon a time," which lends an element ; of incantation to the story and generally was all that was j ineeded to awaken the listeners1 interest in the story. 1 Even today, according to Bosch, this is an approved way of I starting a story. The cuento should begin by suddenly Teoria del cuento, p. 17. ^Ibid. ^Ibid. , p. 24. 174 arousing the reader's interest in the first line: Saber comenzar un cuento es tan importante como saber terminarlo. El cuentista serio estudia y prac- tica sin descanso la entrada del cuento. Es en la primera frase donde esta el hechizo de un buen cuento; ella determina el ritmo y la tension de la pieza. Un cuento que comienza bien, casi siempre termina bien.^® It is important that the beginning of the story show the protagonist in action, whether it is physical or psychological action. Bosch's suggestion to the neophyte writer is that he study the first paragraphs, one by one, of the great masters, Maupassant, Kipling, Sherwood Ander son, and Quiroga, if he wishes to master the technique of beginning a story. In Bosch's third essay on the theory of the short j story, "La forma en el cuento," he compares the short story I with other art forms (painting, sculpture, poetry), point ing out that in some the form is given greater value than 72 the theme, especially in recent times. In music, how ever, theme and form have equal importance in any epoch, one being mutually dependent upon the other. "Esta ade- icuacion de tema y forma se explica debido a que la musica 70 71 Ibid. , p. 18. Ibid. 72 Ibid. , p. 22. 175 73 debe ser mterpretada por terceros. " He continues to explain that in the novel and short story, which do not i have interpreters as does music, "el tema es mas importante que la forma, y desde luego mucho mas importante que el j I 74 i estilo con que el autor se expresa." Bosch points out j ; j I j ithat the other arts— having abandoned the theme— have in- j fluenced the concept of the American short story. A conse- I i quence of this influence would be the abstract short story, : which could be a new literary genre, "pero que no es ni 75 ! sera cuento." : One of the great attractions the short story holds j for the writer as a genre is its potential for epic develop ment. By virtue of describing unadorned action, a short ! i i ! ; ;story writer can elevate to epic proportions the telling of j | i Ideeds of people who are not heroes. The key to the epic possibilities of a cuento is in the execution of heroic j [ faction: j ... el heroe— es un artista de la accion; asi, si mediante la virtud de describir la accion pura, un I cuentista lleva a categoria epica el relato de un hecho realizado por hombres y mujeres que no son ^Ibid. , p. 23. 75 Ibid., p. 26. 74 Ibid. 176 heroes en el sentido convencional de la palabra, el cuentista tiene el don de crear la atmosfera de la epopeya sin verse obligado a recurrir a los grandes j actores del drama historico y a los episodios en que | figuraron.7^ i I | There are two main points in Bosch's discussion of j | ithe short story theory. One is theme which has been dis- j |cussed, and the other form, which relates essentially to I action. For Bosch form has two laws: one, the law of con- ; tinual flow (la fluencia constante) and two, the law of ; using only the necessary or indispensable words to express the action. In the first, the action should never be de tained, but should be allowed to run freely without j : ;obstacles and meandering. The substance of the cuento is ; in the action: i | : La accion puede ser objetiva o subjetiva, externa o interna, fisica o psicologica; puede incluso ocultar el hecho que sirve de tema si el cuentista desea ! sorprendernos con un final inesperado. Pero no puede detenerse. Es en la accion donde esta la sustancia del cuento. j ... Por tanto, la accion debe producirse sin estorbos, ! sin que el cuentista se entrometa en su discurrir bus- cando impresionar al lector con palabras ajenas al hecho para convencerlo de que el autor ha captado bien j la atmosfera del suceso.77 ;The "word" is used to disclose the action, but it cannot i replace it. "Miles de frases son incapaces de decir tanto 76 Ibid., p. 25. 77 Ibid., p. 27. 177 78 como una accion." If unessential words are used, they only detract from the dynamic quality of the story. Bosch, like Quiroga and others, has a keenly de veloped sense of responsibility toward the short story. ;For him, "El que nace con la vocacion de cuentista trae al jmundo un don que esta en la obligacion de poner al servicio 79 i de la sociedad." By his essays Bosch has given us greater understand-; :ing of theme, action, the introduction and ending of a i cuento than we had heretofore. His precepts as executed in : Bosch’s own stories are analyzed in Chapters VI and VII. 78 Ibid., p. 28. 79 Ibid., p. 20. CHAPTER VI SEVEN VOLUMES OF STORIES: AN OVERVIEW I As mentioned, Chapters VI and VII deal with the genre upon which Bosch's reputation was built, the short story. Chapter VI gives an overview of all his short ;stories that were available, while Chapter VII deals with j |only prescribed technical aspects of a limited number of short stories. j Chapter VI surveys all of Bosch's short stories ipublished in book form and two published only in magazines. ! I During the research trip to the Dominican Republic in 1966, Professor Bosch dictated a list of short stories published ! in Dominican periodicals before 1933 which were not included in Camino real or later collections. They had been col lected and saved for him by a friend. Unfortunately, there was no way they could be copied at that time. Their titles land dates of publication, however, are included in the i jAppendix. Sixty-eight published stories were indexed. From these it has been possible to gather fifty-four for ________ ____________ 178 179 examination in this study. As an essential part of this dissertation, the sixty-eight titles with their various publications and translations are included in the Appendix. The Bibliography's completeness cannot be guaranteed, since iBosch himself has commented that several of his stories 'have been published without his permission. Bosch began his writing early and published in the Dominican periodicals Bahoruco and Listin Diario during his apprentice years; two of his stories, "El profugo" and "La vuelta" appeared before he had even turned twenty. His seven books of stories are Camino real (1933), Dos pesos de aqua (1941), Ocho cuentos (1947), La muchacha de La Guaira ! (1955), Cuento de Navidad (1956), Cuentos escritos en el | i exilio (1962), and Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio (1964). |The last two volumes, Cuentos escritos en el exilio and Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio are, except for the stories "El hombre que lloro" and "La mancha indeleble," compilations of earlier works. The purpose of this chapter is to ascertain how jBosch's stories relate to Latin American literary trends and short story norms presented in Chapter V. For the pur pose of comparing his stories with the norms presented 180 in Chapter V, both weak and exemplary examples of Bosch's stories will be provided. If this analysis should deter mine that there are noticeable differences in technique or thematic interests between one volume and another, these I developments will also be reported. i | ' The end result of this process of defining his j stories will be a profile or description of the Bosch story,j |its characteristic traits, in essence, what his stories | I "are all about." Camino real Juan Bosch was twenty-four when his first book and [Collection of short stories, Camino real (La Vega, Dominican! |Republic: Ramos, 1933), appeared. In 1937 a second edition jwas printed in Santiago de los Caballeros, Editorial El ’ Diario, the edition upon which this study is based.'*' In Contrary to what one might think, books written by Bosch are difficult to find in the Dominican Republic un less they were printed after 1961. The reason is that :during the Trujillo regime it was potentially dangerous for .anyone to have in his possession books written by an exile. I In 1966 an ad offering to buy books by Bosch was placed in the Listln Diario. A widow, Mrs. Carias, whose husband had owned a bookstore, answered the ad. In an unused room where books were stored were half a dozen copies of the second edition of Camino real, all with the spine of the book turned toward the wall. According to Mrs. Carias, they 181 this second edition Bosch made some minor changes in the prose, as in pronouns (le dijo> la dijo) where there appar ently was some confusion and in the dialogue where pro vincial speech (desvergonza desvergonzadar ma> mas) is 2 Jrestated with standard orthography. [ The title of Bosch's first collection is also the j title of its last story, "Camino real." As explained in ‘ Chapter IV, the caminos reales are main roads from the icolonial period. They are the arteries of the Cibao's life ‘ ;and for Bosch became the paths of adventure into humble peasant shacks, and scenes of dishonor, grief, and unex- j Ipected death. In Camino real there is a homogeneity of story ele- j ments, a tendency for grouping. The stories involve the j had not been touched since her husband died and had been I placed on the shelf this way since Trujillo days to avoid j notice by the "wrong" people. Mrs. Carias pulled two wit- j |nesses of the days of terror from the shelf. One is being j used for this dissertation, the other is now in the Library i of Congress. ! 2 The basis for this statement was the comparison of |"La mujer" as printed in Courtney Batchelor, Cuentos de aca y de alia (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1953), and Seymour Menton, El cuento hispanoamericano, Tomo II (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Economica, 1966), both presumed to be from the first edition, and "La mujer" as it appears in the 1937 edition. 182 same strata of people, identical regional milieu and thematic groups of death, revolution, and father-son rela- | •tionships. The stories tell of events in the lives of i !simple campesinos of the Cibao. None of the scenes takes j i |place in a town or city. Only two of the protagonists, j j | I Juan Gavino ("El abuelo") and Nilico ("La sangre") appear | to enjoy conditions or status above the laboring man. Arturo Uslar Pietri in Breve historia de la novela hispano- ; americana points out that more than love, violent and sudden 3 death have dominated Latin American literature. This is certainly true of Camino real. Of seventeen stories, eight j end in the death of men, another in the death of a woman. ! Several of the stories have brief moments of levity, but j j ! ionly one, "San Andres," the one story in Camino real which :enters the realm of the unreal, could be classified as j humorous. An unmistakable current of protest pervades the book's stories. Sometimes this protest is open and ex pressed in anguished tones of indignation, reminiscent of the romantic period ("Camino real"); in another the sense- j less banishment and brutal death of a mother ("La mujer") 3 Arturo Uslar Pietri, Breve historia de la novela hispanoamericana (Caracas-Madrid: Ediciones "Edime," 1954), p. 166. 183 expose the debasing conditions people struggle to exist under, but not without changing them into animals. Gener- i jally, the protest is subtle. i | Bosch nunca deja que la protesta predomine sobre los I elementos artxsticos. En verdad, en este primer libro | la protesta es indirecta: contra el ejercito que mata I sin piedad a los alzados, como vemos en "La revolucion," | "Sombras" y "El alzado"; contra la miseria que con- vierte al hombre en bestia, como le acontece a Quico en "La mujer"; contra el trabajo obligatorio en "Forza- dos." Todos estos cuentos giran en torno a problemas de la tierra y los personajes son campesinos deshere- dados; a veces los conflictos, mas que sociales, son personales: marido contra mujer, padre contra hijo, amigo contra amigo.^ The political wars or as the Dominicans then said, revolucion, are reflected in five stories. Almost all the stories in this volume depict how the cibaenos are influ enced by a code of expected cultural behavior and man's I foremost priority for defending himself from shame, in dignity, or dishonor. This need to defend oneself is at the root of practically all the conflicts in Camino real. Four of the stories are told in the first person, which contributes to the autobiographical flavor of Camino real. In one story the kind but stern, anti-clerical Luis Leal, Historia del cuento hispanoamericano (Mexico: Ediciones Andrea, 1966), pp. 101, 102. 184 protagonist is Bosch's maternal grandfather, Juan Gaviho. Throughout the other three stories actual place names from |the Cibao are used, and in "Camino real" the narrator is | from La Vega, Bosch's birthplace; his companion, Floro, !from Tavera. Technically there is nothing wrong with relating stories in the first person, but if it is an author's first book and what is being told relies on autobiographical imaterial, there exists the possibility of the author's in truding into the story, thereby contaminating the story's objectivity and illusion of reality. This happens in i"Camino real" and "Lucero." As Bosch in "Camino real" dis- jcusses the hardships, danger, and loneliness of country i ;life, he repeatedly lashes out at the city slicker: "Eres jtu, hombrecillo de ciudad, guien habla despectivamente del i „ 5 campesino y le llama entre otras cosas, haragan?" Again in "Lucero" during a description which eulogizes the beauty of a horse the author's presence is felt for a moment: Su cola ondulaba como rio, sin salir de cauce, y era elegante aun llevandola amarrada en trenzas con una Juan Bosch, Camino real (Santiago, Republica Domi- nicana: Editorial El Diario, 1937), p. 165. 185 cinta azul. Su pescuezo brillante estaba siempre arqueado. Su piel ... Lucero: :Como brillaba tu piel al sol.'k | jThese intrusions are absent from Bosch’s later stories. | It is evident in Camino real that Bosch was aware !of the effectiveness of writing toward an emotional situ ation the reader could identify with, in this case, the mutual love, trust, and respect inherent in the father-son relationship. He counted on the reader's identity with the father's emotional reaction to his son's predicament in a moment of crisis. In Camino real seven stories are influ enced by the father-son theme: "El abuelo," "El algarrobo," : "El alzado," "Guaraguaos," "La revolucion," "La sangre," land "La negacion." An excellent example of the use of this i |theme is "La sangre." ! In "La sangre," old Nelico was awakened one night to be informed that a neighborhood man has just died from a knife-wound. Nelico dressed quickly and walked over to the bohio where the victim had been taken. No one knew for t sure who had done the knifing, but Balbino, who found the jbody, became the first suspect, and Nelico sent for him. I Nelico moved up beside the corpse to participate with the g Ibid., p. 123. 186 neighbors in the wake, at the same time hoping to trap the murderer. He knew the fatal wound under the dead man's arm | |would reopen and start to bleed in the murderer's presence. j j While he waited for Balbino's arrival, he heard I !someone approach the hut and enter, just as fresh blood jfrom the wound remoistened the victim's shirt. The new arrival came up behind Nelico and softly spoke: "Taita" ("Dad"). It was Nelico's son Tato, who urgently needed to speak in private with his father. Father and son walked outside the shack where Nelico gripped his son's hand and spoke: — £Y fuiste tu, Tato? | Se sentia asombrado. El entrecejo estaba como si : dos dedos negros y finos le atravesaran la frente; le brillaban los ojos y la manana comenzaba a poner sus i dos puntitos blancos en ellos. | — Si, fui yo; pero como hombre ... ! — Ah. ' — comento. ^ A wave of humiliating guilt saturated the old man when he remembered that it was just the day before that he had reminded Tato not to look for trouble, but if Tato were challenged, it would be better that the cross rest over another instead of him. Then as an afterthought Nelico 7 Ibid., p. 121. 187 informed Tato that he did not want any son of his being known as a coward. Nelico asked himself if this was what | caused Tato to become involved in the stabbing. Ahora se le volvia todo confuso. Habxa hablado ayer tarde con Tato; recuerda algo. ; Que vaguedad.1 | Pero tal vez Tato estuviera en este momento en su j j casa, sobre el catre, apunalado. Y seria sangre i suya, su sangre.® ; He, Nelico, was to blame for this death. When he thought that just as easily it could have been his own blood, his j own son lying in the bohxo on the cot, he felt numb. The son, "como hombre," had only sought the old man's approval. It was growing light now and some of the mourners were ;standing on the steps of the shack, watching them; Nelico lhad to act quickly. He made the only decision he could, | jtelling Tato to leave. His mother was to give him the bay jhorse, Nelico's saddle, some money, and the revolver. In many of the stories the older, experienced man, i sometimes the father, sometimes another man, is knowl- j edgeable in all there is to know about farm work, hunting i or surviving in the mountains. These older men were virtual ! ; almanacs of masculine deportment, country etiquette and lore, models of what a man should be when he grew up. Some 8Ibid. 188 of the men in the father-son cuentos are people of this type as is Valerio of "Guaraguaos." These authority figures continued to appear in Bosch's fiction, cast in the mold of !the father in La Mahosa. I . . — . . i ■ — . . i i | The first story of Camino real is "La mujer," the imost anthologized of all Bosch's stories. It appeared in a French anthology the same year the collection came out, j ; i besides being published in Puerto Rico Ilustrado and five other anthologies. Critics were struck by its allegorical, j poetic tone. j "La mujer" is divided into three scenes in which the chronology of the first two scenes is reversed, the ; i first scene being a result of the action of the following j |scene. The first is milieu description with no action or j j j ; dialogue: j La carretera esta muerta. Nadie ni nada la resu- citara. Larga, infinitamente larga, ni en la piel gris se le ve vida. El sol la mat6; el sol de acero, de tan candente al rojo, un rojo que se hizo bianco. Tornose luego transparente el acero bianco, y sigue j ahi, sobre el lomo de la carretera.^ The description of the highway continues. The high way, which had been dead many centuries, is dug up by men 9 Ibid., p. 11. 189 who come from afar. The bushes around it are thorny, the plains beyond bare. "Y los cactos estan alia, mas lejos, i 10 jembutidos en el acero bianco." i | As Quico advanced along the highway he saw a stone i Iup ahead; later it took on the appearance of a calf hit by ja car. In the distance the plains, the savanna, a distant hill with stands of grass. The riverbed which had had |water a thousand years before, dry. "Y los cactos, los cactos coronados de aves rapaces. " Closer now, Quico saw that it was a person and distinctly heard the cry of a j child. j I The scene changes, and in what normally would have j |been the first scene, the husband is seen beating his wife: I ! — Hija de mala madrei Hija de mala madrej Te | voy a matar como a una perra, desvergonzada! | — Pero si nadie paso, Chepe: nadie paso— querla ! explicar ella. — <iQue no? Ahora veras.1 Y volvio a golpearla.^ The woman, bleeding profusely, had angered her hus band by not selling the goat's milk, which she had told him ihad soured. Instead, she had given the milk to her hungry ~^Ibid. , p. 12. ~^Ibid. , p. 13. 1 2 Ibid. 190 child. Chepe, the husband, warned his wife, who did not hear, that he would kill her if she returned to the house. Then he dragged her to the highway. I I I | In the last scene Quico reaches the prostrate woman | Ion the highway and refreshes her with water. Then, not |realizing what the situation is at the woman's shack, he helps her back to the shack where the husband, seemingly ignorant of the stranger's presence, again threatens his ;wife. The stranger intercedes and both men engage in mortal struggle. As Quico chokes the husband, the wife recovers : enough strength to pick up a lava rock and hit Quico on the I jhead. Quico releases Chepe and falls to the floor uncon- jscious. The woman, distraught, runs to the highway. i | ; ! Pero sobre la gran carretera muerta, totalmente muerta, j solo estaba el sol que la mato. Alla, al final de la j ! planicie, la colina de arenas que amontonaron los vien- ! tos. Y cactos, embutidos en el acero. In "La mujer" Bosch wrote a criollista cuento with poetic, modernist technique, using words descriptive of | heat, light, and metal (acero, bianco, rojo, candente, hoguera, el sol, bianco, bronce, dorada, caliente, horno, I j brillar) to combine them in vivid and different images, 13 Ibid., p. 16. 191 generally dominated by steel: el sol de acero, cactos ... embutidos en el acero bianco, pesado acero transparente. "La mujer" is told in a detached manner, with verbless, almost elliptical sentences. Menton saw surrealistic in- 14 fluences in it. The harsh, naked countryside, so differ- i jent from the lush groves of Bosch's other stories, has no water. It is sterile in the hot steel of the sun and the jwoman, anonymous, has no name. The sentence transition is jabrupt. Because of the short, staccato-like sentences, the lack of dialogue and transition, and total absence of inner thought, the story maintains a certain detachment and the reader is kept at a distance. The story is like a panto- jmime, a vanguard play. ; "La mujer" at first is a puzzle, enigmatic. After |a second reading it becomes apparent that the story is justified not by the narration, which is secondary, but by its overpowering style and abstractions. How does one interpret the highway, the incandescent sun, the cactus, Quico, Chepe, and the woman? What do they signify? ;Courtenay Batchelor cites the allegorical possibilities Seymour Menton, El cuento hispanoamericano (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Economica, 1966), II, 100. 192 of "La mujer," viewing the carretera muerta as the symbol of "la lucha contra las fuerzas imponentes de la naturaleza, jsimbolo amargo en este caso de una derrota ironica de la i 15 ibondad y del heroismo," while Luis Leal sees the highway |as "simbolica de los espiritus muertos de los personajes. i | In order to understand "La mujer" an attempt should 1 be made to interpret it. The highway appears to represent jsome form of hope or salvation. The narration implies that : there was opportunity for everyone many centuries ago, yet ^it had died and was buried. Later people from other lands :came to uncover this road of opportunity, but "Nadie ni 'nada la resucitara." Then along came someone from the out- iside, along the road. He shared his water (life, hope) i with the woman and revived her. But once back in the hut a man conditioned by implacable forces, "Aquel acero bianco,: „ 17 transparente, le habia vuelto fiera," again attacked her. The woman, defenseless and deranged, completely unaware of i the fact that the good Samaritan was trying to aid her and I i conditioned by the hostile elements around her, hit the I |stranger with a rock, killing the one person who could have I X5 X6 Batchelor, p. 24. Leal, p. 102. 17 Camino real, pp. 14-15. 193 helped her. Yet the woman, afraid of staying in the shack (where there was no help, returned to the dead highway to i I nurse a sterile hope. It was there that the blazing and jrelentless sun (man's exploitation of his brother, his i jinhumanity, often unrecognizable, transparente) killed her. !Was this then Bosch's pessimistic opinion of Dominican civilization? It would seem that the survivors at the end of the story, the sun, Chepe, the cactus, in some way represent negative, evil properties. The dead ones, the woman, the child, Quico, and the highway, are the weak, the innocent, (the exploited. Various interpretations of the symbols are possible. The highway could have religious or political |significance or it could stand for the potential economic i (wealth of the Dominican Republic, or even the Republic it self. "La mujer" is a very abstract piece of literature, which makes the fundamental elements of the story (the in hospitable terrain, the barbaric condition of the people, ■ the striking images) difficult to interpret. That Bosch has written a seething protest is unmistakable. Exactly what it is he is protesting is not clear and rests with 194 the reader's imagination. Nonetheless, "La mujer" is one of Bosch's most original stories. Understandably, not all the stories in Bosch's Camino real, his first book, are consistent structure-wise with his short story theory. Some evident weaknesses are i I J I the failure to select a suitable theme, a beginning which 1 in the first line "hooks" the reader's interest, and an I uninterrupted flow of action. In "Lo mejor" two men ride through the countryside at night. One of them, Tilo, never asks where they are going, nor is there a "catch" question to interest the jreader in their destination. At last they arrive at a j bohio where they have been expected. The talk turns to i !politics and the overthrow of the government, but Tilo is i |too consumed by exhaustion to be interested in the conversa tion, and retires. While he is asleep, his anonymous com panion leaves. There are shots in the distance, then his ,companion returns: Ahora, ya en la habitacion, las espuelas sonaban con I desparpajo. El tenia la mano agarrotada sobre la i culata del revolver. La voz le jamaquio: 1 — Que duerma con Dios, compadre. Sintio los nervios flojar. Lo ultimo fue el crujir del catre bajo el cuerpo enjuto y trigueno. 195 Tilo comprendio entonces, y tuvo ganas de rezar por el alma de Nano, que a esa hora debia estar muy lejos.18 The implication is that the local political leader has been s jmurdered. The theme, a cold-blooded assassination, is not ! t I j i jenough to make a story. It needs a quirk, an extra associ- i j I !ation to make it special. The reader never knew the poli- itician. Perhaps this lack of association with the victim is the missing element. Bosch addresses this problem in Teoria del cuento when he gives the example of a thief who 19 has been caught red-handed. Just the capture of a thief does not make a proper theme— but if the thief is caught by his brother, who is a detective, then the psychological ipotential of the situation is more than enough for a short i |story. In "Lo mejor" there was nothing special about the i ; 'assassination to qualify it as a good short story. In "La pajara," the story of a roundup in the moun- ! tains, the beginning does not pose any questions or present anything which must be resolved, leaving the reader without a feeling of tension. It begins with: 18 Camxno real, pp. 141-142. 19 Juan Bosch, Teoria del cuento: tres ensayos (Merida, Venezuela: Universidad de los Andes, 1967), p. 12. 196 La lluvia nos envolvio de golpe. Estabamos subiendo el tercer repecho de El Montazo y la noche se nos venia encima. Los pinos empezaron a ahogarse en una especie de humo claro; los menos cercanos al camino acabaron por desaparecer en la bocaza gris de la lluvia. Detras de nosotros la tierra liana se habia per- dido bajo el humo. Detuve un momento el caballo y j trate de hundir los ojos en esa masa blanda; quise | j despues ver el camino levantado, alzado? pero tuve | I nada mas la vision de agua sucia escapandose por las orillas.^O The description is very effective but the protagonist is not in action, be it physical or psychological, as Bosch 'prescribes in "Apuntes sobre el arte de escribir cuentos." The denouement, when a rider and mount careen into a chasm, i is cleverly coordinated with lightning in the form of a :snake (superstition), yet because the rider was one of the I story's anonymous characters, who had no special personality; !trait the reader could relate to, the ending was weak and ! inconclusive. "Camino real" is an autobiographical story which i lacks the compactness and intensity of the usual Bosch story. Three weaknesses which tend to detract from its j i :effectiveness are intrusion, lack of unity of action, and *an anticlimactic denouement. "Camino real" is the tale of Camino real, p. 51. 197 an eighteen-year-old (Juan) and a friend (Floro) who hire on as hands on a ranch in the Cibao, where all help works hard from sunup to sundown. There are passages exalting jnature and others which speak out against the arduous and !little compensated life of the campesino. At the end of i |the story it is discovered that Floro, Juan's friend, has stolen a horse in order to make life easier for Juan, re- Igardless of the consequences to Floro. Floro1s sacrifice and generosity become a very appropriate theme for a short story, yet in "Camino real" their effectiveness as a theme is destroyed by the digressions into long descriptions and intrusions ("Has pensado tu, mariquita de ciudad, lo que ;significa tomar, friolento y cansado, bajo la lluvia fina i 21 |de la madrugada, ... el camino del potrero?" ) which have j !the effect of dispersing the reader's concentration. If some of the stories in Camino real have minor flaws, there are a great many whose smooth-flowing narra tions leave the reader with an appreciation of their unity of action and dramatic effect. These would include "La isangre," "Guaraguaos," and "Revolucion." 21 Ibid., p. 166. 198 The phrasing of Bosch's prose in these stories is expressive, and not dissimilar to the poetic gauchesque prose of Don Sequndo Sombra. Some of the poetic tone of "La mujer" is present even in the stories of weaker con- i | I Istruction. Bosch's figurative diction expresses itself in ' i ! j , i jwhat Concha Melendez calls "metaforas vegetales y zoologi- cas." Examples of his imagery are found in "El cuchillo": :"El camino parecia una soga larga enredada en las patas del cahallo"; "Lo mejor" when during a dark night "Le parecia estar metido en un horno oscuro o en un vientre inmenso"; ;and "La negacion" when Jose Dolores was described as a man "cargado de conformidad" and "Sus ojos parecen devolver ipaisajes." The effective use of light that was seen in "La j l i : mujer" is repeated in other stories through the light of matches, lanterns, eyes, gun shots, the use of sunlight, moonlight, and shadows. The elements of rain, sun, cold, wind, heat, are the constant companions of Bosch's cibaenos. So are they j of the city-dweller, but the cibaeno is almost continually |exposed to the weather. The cracks in his rude bohio are targets for the cold and since food is rarely in excess, drought or flood can quickly put him and his family on 199 starvation's doorstep. This is why he is sensitive to weather and it is so necessary for him to he able to read nature's acts, since the penalty for misjudgment is severe. The elements are in every story, and almost every page reflects nature in some manner. It is not surprising I I i ! |then that rain alone forms part of the milieu and action j ;in seven stories. Leal felt that the fusion of nature and ■man was characteristic of Bosch's style: ; Caracterxstico del estilo de Bosch es la habilidad con que sabe captar y fundir hombre y paisaje: "Afuera se come la luz el paisaje; aqux dentro esta el hombre y la soledad le come en el pecho.1,22 ! In summation, the regional setting and dialogue of !Camino real, and the underlying political, social, and economic protest of Bosch's stories place Camino real di rectly in the criollista movement. Within the general realistic pattern of his writing there are exceptions, such ; as "La mujer," recognized for its stark symbolism and I poetry, and "San Andres," a venture into the realm of fan tasy. Noticeable characteristics of this first work are j iits use of autobiographical material, the inexorable pres- i ence of the Cibao which pervades almost every page, and the 22 Leal, p. 22. 200 necessity of defending one's dignity and the corresponding preponderance of violence. Bosch's technical weaknesses i according to his own precepts reveal an occasional incon sistency in the beginning of his stories, the fault here i being that he delays placing the protagonist in physical or j jmental action. There is also intrusion and excessive I description. I ! "Anarguistas" and "La mula" | During the years 1938-1940, a great number of Bosch's stories which were later included in collections were published in Puerto Rican periodicals, especially |Puerto Rico Ilustrado. Two which did not receive subse quent publication in book form were "Anarquistas" and "La i |mula." j "Anarquistas" takes us to a cell meeting of a group j |of anarchists in Spain, possibly Catalonia. One of the j group is an arrogant, cocky youth with a messianic per- ; j ;sonality who has an obvious need to vent his opinions. His I overwhelming concern is man's abuse of animals' natural i rights and even the rights of the vegetable kingdom: Algun dia expondre tambien la sistematica destruccion que ejerce el hombre en el reino vegetal, violando 201 todas las disposiciones naturales y haciendose una moral para su uso que le permite quedar en paz con su conciencia, si no glorificado cuando ejecuta uno de esos actos monstruosos de destruccion.^3 The theme of "Anarquistas" is the irony of this young revo lutionary's concern for animals when that same afternoon he had been able to shoot a man in cold blood without feeling j the slightest remorse. Bosch's theme in this instance is suitable for a ■ short story, but he ran into difficulties with the technical; development of it. In the opening scene, a small, dimly ; i lit room, there is an interchange of conversation between ;several anonymous people who are identified only by physi cal characteristics: el barbudo, la voz meliflua, la voz i i j dulce. Shortly five or six companions enter the room and |since many are talking and only one, the leader Felipe, has I ;a name, it is very confusing for the reader to match the voices, thoughts, and physical characteristics of those who ; I are speaking. The story begins as follows, with the intro- duction of four different people: j El camarada Felipe golpeaba la mesa con los dedos, j se levantaba, entre ratos, y se acercaba a la puerta. Juan Bosch, "Anarquistas," Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No. 1544, octubre 21, 1939, p. 57. 202 Era bajito y oscuro aguel cuchitril. La bonibilla apenas alumbraba los rincones. A las once y veinte, cansado de esperar, hablo: — Es hora de que empecemos. Un hombre palido, de mirada encendida, comento con voz dulce: — Deberiamos esperar al Chiquet. Habia alia uno grueso, rubio y de muy pocos pelos, j que tenia rostro de cura. Nadie lo hubiera notado, j | porque no se movia. ; | — jOh, el Chiquet, el Chiquet.1— dijo con voz meliflua. Y como chasqueara la lengua, un tipo alto y ancho, | de cerrada barba y pelo chorreoso, increpo: | — jA ver que dices tu del Chiquet.1 jA ver.'^ i i Until the reader becomes familiar with the charac ters of a plot, it is difficult for him to follow a con versation among four, especially if they are nameless. i :This is perhaps one of the problems one falls into with jdialogue. Normally Bosch has avoided this trap, with the possible exception of "La pajara." During this introduc tion to "Anarquistas" the reader's curiosity, properly I [ [prepared, is directed toward what appears to be a contro versial person in the form of Chiquet. Soon after, however, i | our attention is drawn to the entrance of the young orator, j ;Our attention is then divided, and the reader does not know ! | whether to focus fully on the orator, or prepare himself for what he eventually thinks he will find out about 24 "Anarquistas," p. 5. 203 Chiquet. Chiquet never appears, so the reader is left in doubt as to the turning point of the story. The theme which Bosch chose for "Anarquistas" meets his own theme criteria and could have been a very acceptable and plausible i I story with changes in technique and structure. It is one | i i of Bosch’s few stories which takes place outside Latin j America. i ; "La mula" is a first person anecdote from the Cibao ' i !about Higinio, a warm entertaining person, the product of ;a country society that has ceased to exist. Higinio, j ! i |corpulent and jocular, is renowned for his capacity for | i ; |food, drink, and storytelling. One day Higinio bought a mule, much like "la Manosa," that he was very proud of. j Each time Higinio is asked about the mule, volumes of praise! |flow from his lips: — ;Mxrele esas orejas, compadre.1 jVeala agora, que la voy a clavar.1 jAguaite como repecha esa loma, j compadreJ j Ni mas ni menos que un enamorado. Enternecxa ver el orgullo en aquel rostro mofletudo.^ ’ j On one occasion the narrator, accompanied by a i jfriend from the university, noticed that the usually Juan Bosch, "La mula," Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No. 1509, febrero 18, 1939, p. 65. 204 ebullient Higinio was quite subdued. The reason for his unhappiness was that on that very day Higinio was deliver- i ing the apple of his eye, the mulita, to the President's brother, the major. It seems that the major also had an I |eye for pretty mules and had offered to buy Higinio1s gem. i I When the major made his original offer, Higinio replied I 1 that there was not that kind of money around to buy her. ;The major's offer then went from 500 to 700 pesos. ; Higinio's listeners, including the fellow from the univer sity, were astounded by the high bidding. Higinio's answer was still no. The President's brother then pulled out ;1,000 pesos in 100-peso notes. Higinio, seeing the hand- jwriting on the wall and fully aware of the implications of i jnot acquiescing to the President's brother, felt it was I | : t : jmore honorable to make a gift of the mule than to sell her. i The university student told Higinio that he certainly had i idone the wrong thing. Why with 1,000 pesos you could buy j ten good mules.' With this remark Higinio began to boil at the lack of understanding shown by compadre's friend: ; ; i i Higinio no pudo sufrir mas. — Perdone, amigo— dijo, y se puso en pie. — Per- done. Yo no sabia que habia gente como uste. — Pero una mula ... — Mire amigo— Higinio le puso la mano en el hom- bro, — lo que se quiere no se cambia por cuartos. Los 205 cuartos solo sirven pa gastarse, don. Pa mi es como si se me hubiera muerto; pero yo no podia cambiar mi mulita por dinero. Yo soy del campo, amigo, y palla somos brutos. — Pues no se la hubiera dado. — Era el Mayor, el hermano del Presidente— dije yo. — jAh.1 Verdad. — Me dolia menos regalarla que perderla— explico Higinio. — Que perderla ...— agregue. — Si, pero mil pesos. Higinio hablo lentamente: — Jata escrupulo me da que uste se ajunte con gente asina, compadre.26 Higinio said goodnight, and the compadre could not even muster up a goodbye, he was so disgusted with the uni- : iversity friend's failure to appreciate the ethics which governed Higinio1s behavior in this transaction. I "La mula" more closely resembles a cuadro de cos- I I . ; |tumbres than a cuento because of the emphasis on country i life. Yet it maintains, except for one episode, a good sense of unity. In one spot there is a humorous story about! I : I a man who is hit with a tree limb on the back of the neck in order to dislodge a piece of chicken caught in his ithroat. He coughed the chicken out, but the blow almost left him demented. The chicken story helps develop the 2 6 Ibid., p. 72. 206 exhibition of country manners, but does not add to the turning point in the story, the loss of the mule. "La mula" is humorous and entertaining like a Palma story, but |like many others, falls short of meeting the cuento1s strict! ! requirements. i Dos pesos de aqua Dos pesos de aqua was published in La Habana, by 27 A . Rios in 1941. Like Camino real, it is a collection of seventeen stories and was Bosch's first collection of short stories as an exile. Most of the stories in Dos pesos de ; aqua can by place names be identified as being in the Cibao I or the Dominican Republic. Before they were assembled for Dos pesos de aqua a preponderance of them had already ap peared in Puerto Rico Ilustrado or Alma Latina (Puerto Rico). The theme profile in Dos pesos de aqua is similar ! 27 This study of the stories in Dos pesos de agua is j jbased on the following sources: from Dos pesos de aqua: : "Dos pesos de agua," "La verdad," "Chucho," "El cobarde," :"El resguardo," "Piloncito," and "La pulperia"; from Cuentos escritos en el exilio: "Los amos," "El funeral," "En un bohio," and "La desgracia"; from Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio: "Todo un hombre," "Un hombre virtuoso," "Un nino," "Rosa," "Dos amigos," and "Los ultimos monstruos." 207 to that of Camino real in that nature, regional milieu and death (seven stories) continue to dominate Bosch's cuentos. One takes place in a Dominican prison ("Piloncito"), another in an urban area ("Un hombre virtuoso") and in two the pro- i tagonists are animals ("El funeral" and "Dos amigos"). The j i ; jtheme of friendship which appeared in "Camino real" is the 1 central theme of two stories ("Dos amigos" and "El res- ; guardo"). Bosch has relied heavily on death as an ingredient for his plots in both Camino real and Dos pesos de aqua, one probable reason being that it is a theme all readers lean identify with, the ultimate penalty, one whose symbolic 'weight is emotionally very powerful. In Dos pesos de aqua |Bosch adds an additional dimension to the portrayal of ^pathos and misery, this time in the form of sickness. Three of the stories present sick children and in a total of six stories sickness is prominent in the plots. Humor, so agreeably present in "La mula," and irony appear only ; l briefly in "Dos pesos de agua," "Dos amigos," and "Todo un I i ' I ; hombre." ! In the majority of these stories Bosch follows his precepts for beginning a story. In the first sentence 208 or two the reader is made aware by implication that a prob lem or question exists, which, if the reader's curiosity is to be satisfied, must be resolved. Five stories do not adhere to this formula and might be considered weak, at I I I I least as far as catching the reader's interest in the first !few lines. A case in point would be the first paragraph iof "Un nino": A poco mas de media hora, cuando se deja la ciudad, la carretera empieza a jadear por unos cerros pardos, de vegetacibn raquitica, que aparecen llenos de piedras filosas. En las hondonadas hay manchas de arbustos y al fondo del paisaje se diluyen las cumbres azules de la Cordillera. Es triste el ambiente. Se ve arder el aire y solo de hora en hora pasa algun ser vivo, una res descarnada, una mujer o un viejo. As a first paragraph it complements the story's setting and |foreshadows the depressing denouement which follows; there jare, however, no leading questions or statements to be re solved. This passage could be contrasted with the tech nically strong beginning of "Todo un hombre." Yeyo va a explicar su caso. Tiene gestos parcos y voz sin importancia. La gente se asombra de verle tan humilde. Es de cuerpo mediano, de manos gruesas y cortas, de ojos dulces. La verdad es que parece avergonzado de la importancia que le da el publico. El juez le mira con fijeza y la gente se agolpa y Juan Bosch, Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio (S° Domingo: Libreria Dominicana, 1964), p. 37. 209 se pone de pie. Yeyo esta contando su caso con una tranquilidad desconcertante. I Here in the first line the protagonist is in action. The reader's curiosity is aroused hy Yeyo's "case," why the I j i Ipeople are astonished and what there is about Yeyo's atti- j 'tude that is disconcerting. Two of the cuentos in Dos pesos de agua ("Rosa," ; "Los ultimos monstros") seem to lack the Bosch "stamp" or feeling one begins to look for when reading his stories. An inquiry into their structure shows they contain many required properties of the short story, but they either allow for digression, or intrusion, or are deficient in I theme requirements. • "Rosa," a long story, is much like "Camino real" of ; jBosch 1 s earlier collection. It is told in the first person by Juan, the protagonist, and there are place names (Penda, Yaque, Yuna) which identify the setting as the Cibao. ! As the story begins, the Cibao is in the process of ; recovering from nine months of drought. The drought has !made life hard for Juan and he has had to go from one job ito another. Things were beginning to improve, however. 29 Ibid., p. 5. 210 The October rains had started and Juan was headed for the Amezquita family in Penda, where the old man treated him like a son, and the daughter, "que era una hija vistosa, saludable y despreocupada," had always favored Juan. Juan j ! had spent some time with them before and had finally become i i ' |restless and bored and decided to leave. Since then he had been through rough times and now his thoughts returned to the Amezquita land and Rosa. Juan was warmly welcomed at the ranch, and old Amezquita, who had high regard for Juan, wanted to know i what his plans were: — c Y a donde vas agora? ! — l Y o ? Tengo idea de quedarme aqux. ; — Jum ... Pa dirte cuando nos estemos acostumbrando j a ti. | — No, don; ahora no estoy por andar mas mundo. Me | he cansado de bregar con la gente. ; — Bueno, pues aqui te quedas, Trabajo no falta. Juan wanted to work some land on a partnership basis, for which the old man was delighted. Things were i going well for Juan and Rosa's interest in him had not abated. In fact, her preference for him over Inocencio and ( i i I the other suitors had become a topic of conversation at the general store. People were saying that Juan was interested 3°Ibid., pp. 254-255. 211 in Rosa because of her father's wealth, which offended Juan. It was not long after that that Juan sliced his foot I jopen and had to remain in the house. In the house Juan was | [more or less at the mercy of Rosa's affection, which caused j i i # ■ ;him to ponder his situation even more: 1 j : > En las horas lentas de la enfermedad, comence a j dudar. Aquello comenzo por una ligera inconformidad conmigo mismo. Nunca, cuando sone que Rosa fuera mi mujer, me acorde de que el padre tenia dinero; pero debi haber previsto que otros pensarian en eso. ... A ser sincero, yo no me preocupaba por lo que la gente dijera; lo que me preocupaba era mi conciencia. <iQue era, en realidad, lo que habia ido a buscar a la casa de Amezquita? <?Habia sido a Rosa o algo dife- rente? Amezquita era bondadoso como un padre. <?Estaba yo buscando la bondad de Amezquita, sin saberlo? Si j Rosa era necesaria para mi, <?por que no la enamoraba?3^ |The more Juan missed his old life of freedom, the more doubt I |about his staying there began to enter his thinking. The |old man wanted Juan to stay, but sensed somehow that he would become restless and leave as he had done before. Rosa wanted him to stay and Juan himself was unsure, per plexed. His presence at the ranch was enigmatic, to him above all others. I | Old Amezquita, who had not been too strong of late, became sick and began to weaken by the day, so that people 31 Ibid., pp. 263-264. 212 feared he would soon die. He called Juan to his side to confide to him that "me hubiera gustao verlo junto con jRosa. 1 1 Juan, who did not want in any way to hurt a dying i i man, felt the weight of a reply he must give. Three more times Amezquita called his name and Juan could not find the | |courage to answer. Juan was able to get out of this awk ward spot only by going to the general store for medicine. During those trying days Rosa took advantage of every oppor tunity to be near Juan, which pleased neither Juan nor the suitors. With Amezquita1s relapse, Juan again made a trip to the general store. There, one of Rosa's suitors, Ino cencio, armed with a knife, challenged Juan, who hacked ;Inocencio into submission with a borrowed machete. Think- ling he had possibly killed Inocencio, Juan fled to an \ i |isolated bohio of an old acquaintance, Nisio Santos, who ! gave him protection. Later Nisio went into the store for news and found out that Inocencio was actually very much alive, but that Amezquita had died. Although Juan had half- i way expected the news, when he heard it it still shocked jhim and left him in a quandary. That night he wandered 1 j about the countryside and vacillated over his fate. The falling rain reminded him of the hard times he had known, 213 of the loneliness of the road with no one to care for him if he fell sick. At the end of the story Juan returns to Rosa's house, confused, fighting himself, wanting to knock on the I |door and be taken in, yet not having the courage; then in j I an anguished moment he decides: Levanto la mano. Fugazmente, la imagen de Amezquita pasa por algun lugar de mi cerebro. Lucho. Tengo la mano levantada, pero lucho. Su catre de Rosa estara caliente. <?Y mi libertad, mi libertad? No puedo mas, i jno puedo mas con mi duda' La lluvia torna a arreciar. Es un golpe de agua y viento el que se acerca. El camino estara parido de charcas y lodazales, y aqui hay ; cama, casa, afecto. Creo que voy ahogarme. La voz se me aprieta sin haber salido; me ahoga como piedra metida en la gar- ganta. Decididamente, no puedo mas, jno puedo mas.' ; Y me lanzo al camino, por cuyos desniveles corre I raudamente el agua sucia. "Rosa" is a somewhat lengthy psychological cuento, I I :with a greater amount of interior characterization than most of Bosch's stories. Much of the interior monologue Ideals with the protagonist's indecision, but some, such as the following passage, is more in the vein of protest from the author himself: j Los domingos no me aparecxa por alii porque aunque i los gallos me entusiasmaban, los galleros borrachos 32 Ibid. , pp. 284-285. 214 me daban asco. Armaban una bulla infernal y a veces, si se acaloraban en una discusion, acababan echando mano a los cuchillos y clavandoselos en el vientre. I Desde luego, comprendxa que ellos habxan nacido, cre- | cxan y morian en un ambiente que no les proporcionaba | facilidades para que cambiaran su manera de ser; ... | No era culpa del campo ser arena de tragedias ni semi- i j Hero de hombres que se desconocian a si mismos. Esa | era culpa de otros, de los que sacaban de nuestro sudor ; la parte que usaban en rodearse de comodidades o simple-! mente en envilecerse, y ni siquiera nos devolvian en escuelas lo que nos quitaban todos los dias. Rodando por el mundo conoci a muchos de esos culpables y me percate de que gran parte de ellos ignoraba que vivxan a costa nuestra. A los que me decxan que con lo que yo sabxa podia hacerme rico en la capital o en alguna ciudad, les respondia que yo sabxa que era un explotado, pero que preferia eso a ser un explotador.^3 i In this case the cockfights and personal reflectionsj ion the campesino's plight are not essential to plot develop-: ! jment, and thus become digressions. j There is something about the theme of the story i ; jthat does not ring true. In the beginning Juan had suf- ;fered through an unpleasant period and had gone from one job to another. The day arrived when he regretted having worked for others: "La soledad me parecia dura e injustifi- : icable." After reviewing the hardships of his life as a j migrant worker, Juan, of his own free will, selected a more icomfortable life at Penda. Once back at Penda he grew ^ Ibid. , pp. 259-260. 215 indecisive. Should he marry Rosa, the most eligible girl in Penda, a girl he is attracted to, whom he respects, and i !enjoy the acknowledged perquisites of a life without want, i ! jor should he depart and assert his independence. Juan | t | jpassed review on all the factors in favor of staying at j i i jPenda or for returning to the life of a migrant hand. ! ; i After a lot of torment and personal indecision, he chose the latter. Many readers are not going to sympathize with Juan's problems, mainly because there were not any good reasons given for returning to the life of a bachelor migrant worker. He had already numerated a few: that he would be I ilonely, that no one could take care of him if he became I jsick, and that he would be working for others, which he had j ; I |decided not to do. His dilemma is superficial compared to ! the pathos and drama presented by many of the protagonists of Bosch's stories. Juan, who is given something he asked i for which in turn he rejects, comes across as a fickle and immature person and as such is not a satisfactory protago- j ' j ;nist for a convincing theme. The insertion of digression [ into "Rosa" and the unconvincing theme have detracted suf- i ficiently from the unity and cohesiveness required in 216 a cuento to make "Rosa" a weak story. "Los ultimos monstruos" takes place over 100,000 Jyears ago as the only earthly survivors of a cataclysm struggle up a hill for eventual sanctuary in a cave above j a swamp. Only a man, woman, and three children finally ! i 1 i j reach safety. Below in the swamp two dinosaurs battle and die in view of the cave. The cataclysm of tidal waves and I earthquake has subsided, and as the story ends, the ape like male grunts the equivalent of: Han muerto los ultimos monstruos que nos amenazaban;! se han acabado luchando entre si. Ahora nos queda la eternidad por delante para poblar el globo con nuestra descendencia e iniciar una gran epoca en la que los hombres sean felices.^4 The remoteness in time of this account and the anonymous nature of the primitive family— we do not know | | |their thoughts or their emotions— leave the reader little to identify with emotionally. If the story's message was other than what the ape man was able to grunt, above, it was lost because of obscure symbolism. If "Rosa" and "Los ultimos monstruos" are deficient. ;technically, the remaining stories in Dos pesos de agua i reflect greater adherence to the short story's maxims, in 34 Ibid., p. 227. 217 that absence of intrusion and digression markedly strength ens their unity. A cuento which meets the standards of a short story is "La verdad," replete with Cibao setting and people, and a beginning which immediately plants a question in the j ^reader's mind: ! Nadie se explica por que el matador de Quique Blanco ha rechazado las proposiciones que se le han hecho; por que se niega a que lo retraten. Un perio- dista dijo que era muy humilde, y se cuenta que se avergonzo cuando quisieron hacerle un regalo digno de su hazana. Ayer 01 contar otra vez la historia. Re- fiere que el muchacho— un jipato de las vueltas de Moca— aprovecho un corto sueno de Quique, le arrebato el revolver y le destrozo la cabeza. Hay quien asegura i I que entre las victimas de Quique figuro el padre de su matador, que este solo quiso vengarse y que por eso rechaza la notoriedad que le ha dado el suceso.3^ ;Here Bosch employed the technique of beginning the story jwith the ending. The mystery of the boy's refusing a rewardj and publicity is further compounded by the statement at the beginning of the story in which the narrator vehemently states that he is the only one who knows the truth and he challenges anyone to deny it. I The beginning is followed by a change to an earlier j iscene. The narrator, an engineer or surveyor, had met Juan Bosch, Dos pesos de aqua (La Habana: A. Rios, 1941), p. 54. 218 a wealthy rancher in a bar, Don Aspasio Guzman, whose land, some of which had to be surveyed, was near Moca. The next | |day the narrator searched all the capital's hotels for j jDon Aspasio, but could not find him. Not wanting to lose i I . i ja good client, he decided to travel to Moca, to call upon | i jDon Aspasio at his ranch. ! The surveyor had been directed to head for Villa Trina to find Don Aspasio1s land. It was peaceful riding down the road and as night began to fall, the only sound that could be heard was a faint rustle from the forest. \ Unexpectedly, a man from out of nowhere grabbed hold of the ! horse's bit to bring the mount to a halt. The intruder | fixed his eyes on the rider and asked for a light: i Conteniendo mis nervios estudie velozmente al in- | truso; despues meti mano en el bolsillo y vi como sus i ! ojos siguieron el movimiento de esa mano. Parecia receloso. Era negro y tenia aspecto miserable. Vestia 1 camisa de color indefinible, hecha trizas, sin botones. : Llevaba un macuto grande bajo el brazo. Cuando le tendi los fosforos se destaco y saco del fondo de la gorra el cachimbo. Al encender le vi una escasa barba— j muy pocos pelos cortos— y una cicatriz en la mejilia i derecha. Era feo e impresionante. Sin soltar el freno j miro a todos lados, como persona perseguida. ^6 i j The scene and the sudden appearance of the tense, I : I suspicious man of the forest left the narrator spellbound. 36 Ibxd., p. 56. r 219 The stranger interrogated him, and wanted to know where he was from, where he was going. Then he told him how he j |could find Don Aspasio's. The whole situation struck the I |rider as being spooky: "Estaba pensando que me ayudaba el j I jdestino, que aquel hombre habia sido puesto alii para que j ' 3 7 i jme dijera eso, nada mas." There were more questions about! people the surveyor had seen along the highway, then the intruder let his hostage go. — Bueno amigo ... — empezo — yo me voy; tengo mucho que andar. £Uste no tendra algo pal camino? — Como no; por aqui debe aparecer algo. Un momento.! En el fondo del bolsillo se me habia pescado dos mone- das de a diez, cuando 01 el hombre rogar, con un tono I j distinto al que habia usado: — Hagame un bien, amigo: si lo pechan y le pregun- ! tan que si vido un hombre asina, como yo, diga que no. j Es un bien que uste va hacer. Diga que no y uste vera que no le pesa. | Me miraba con ojos amargos mientras yo ponia las j | monedas en su mano. Me dio tristeza. ! — Dire que no; jurelo— asegure. El quiso sonreir; pero no pudo. Dijo simplemente: — Vea, Dios le ha de pagar eso. Y casi sin terminar la frase se sumergio en el monte, fundiendose con la negrura de la noche, que avanzaba lentamente.88 In the next scene the surveyor is in the village, jwhere the people seem to be all talking about various sight- jings of a man going into a coconut grove, his wound, where 37 Ibid., p. 57. 220 he was last night, etc. Finally someone explains to the surveyor that they are talking about Quique Blanco. The narrator is surprised, for he thought that Quique Blanco i !had crossed the border months back; yet it is eight years |that he has had the Cibao in an uproar. He would appear I i isuddenly in Santiago, then the next day shoot a soldier in ’ :Salcedo, twenty-five miles away. "Se dijo que era brujo; ;que cuando lo queria se hacia invisible. Se le temia como 39 ia un dios implacable." That night the narrator listens to someone talk for more than an hour about Quique Blanco's exploits, but sleep finally wears him down and he goes to ! jbed, thinking about his business with Aspasio Guzman. ! Three days later the surveyor left Moca at sundown, ; i ! i ; 'pleased with his dealings with Don Aspasio. The surveyor [ j |was reminiscing about the trip as he rode and remembered ;that while touring the vast stands of banana trees he had I ;been saddened by the sight of an impoverished family on Don Aspasio's land, which did not seem to bother Don Aspasio | at all. Then an unexpected whistle was heard, which broke jhis thoughts and the peacefulness of dusk, causing a feel- ! ling of isolation and being watched to flash over him. He 39 Ibid., p. 58. 221 heard it a second time: Habia decidido asustar al caballo y lanzarlo a toda | carrera sobre sus pasos. Es dificil de explicar. El ; sitio, humedo y sombreado; la soledad; el silbido j aquel, que tenia una modulacion lugubre; quiza el temor I subconsciente de que anduviera por alii Quique Blanco, j aunque en verdad no lo recordaba en ese instante: todo j ; contribuia a llenar el momento de cierto prestigio i | barbaro, imponente. Ademas, el campo cibaeno es siem- j pre impresionante. Le parece a uno, ahogado como esta I por la selva nutrida, que brujos poderes lo acechan y i lo cercan, que lo vigilan mil ojos misteriosos. Siem- : pre me impuso el monte cibaeno; pero jamas como aquella tarde.^O As he was ready to gallop off, a voice, identifying itself by "It's me" spoke, asking him to dismount. It was 1 then that the narrator recognized the voice. He dismounted j |and followed the man into the forest where the surveyor was ; iasked to sit down because the phantom stranger was tired. I Once the surveyor had been asked for a match, the two began 1 jto talk: i i Tenia cierta tristeza en la sonrisa y era muy feo. Esa vez lo veia mejor. Le brillaba la piel y sus ojos mostraban una dureza impresionante. Le tendi la caja. Encendio calmosamente. Despues dijo, mirandose los ! pies descalzos: — Amigo, yo nunca fallo. Me dio el corazon que j uste era buena gente, y como tenia tanta necesida de conversar ... Van pa 7 anos que no converso al paso, j ; amigo ... I 40 Ibid. , p. 60. 222 Ahi me asalto la sospecha. Fue una intuicion j precisa y segura como un tiro certero. i — Pero entonces uste es ... j No me dejo acabar. ^ ; — Si, amigo. Yo creia que ya uste lo sabia. ! The narrator listened as Quique Blanco began to j | itell how his life as a fugitive started. He became friends i S iwith an older fellow who knew the ropes. Then they both became interested in the same girl, and thus commenced the dissolution of their friendship. The friend began to taunt ■ ,Quique. Quique defended himself and then one night when the friend was on MP duty he tried to work Quique over a bit; Quique reacted violently and — Ahi fue la desgracia. Yo ni an tenia la idea de matar a un cristiano. ]Que vai Y sali juyendo porque yo conocia la carcel y se lo que sufre un | hombre metio ahi.^ Quique continued to describe his life as a fugitive.I i : 1 :He could not comprehend why he was being chased. He did not kill, steal, or bother anyone. He simply did not want to have to go to jail. One day he had to take a stand j against his pursuers and after that his outlaw pattern was j La voz de aquel hombre no desentonaba en la placi- ! dez del sitio. Acusaba a la sociedad de su desgracia, 41 42 Ibid., p. 62. Ibid. , p. 64. 223 y lo hacia tranquilamente, sin enfasis, poniendole cara a la maldicion. De golpe se volvio a mi: — Yo lo queria ver hoy, amigo. Dende aquella j tarde me dio el corazon que uste era buena gente, y | tengo dos dxas por aqui velandole el paso. | <?Me enterneci o me acobarde? No lo recuerdo con exactitud. Si que le dije: | — Mande, Quique. Quiza yo pueda serle util sin | faltarle a mi conciencia. | — No, amigo, no tiene que faltarle; solo lo queria | pa conversar con uste. Me parece que no voy a durar mucho, y como de mi se habia tanto no queria morirme sin que siquiera un hombre supiera que de no acosarme como un perro con rabia, esto se hubiera evitao.4^ Quique's listener was disturbed by the story he had just heard, and thought that if Quique had just stayed in ;the countryside, working, getting married, everything would be all right. Instead he joined the army and became con ditioned to uncivilized behavior. He asked Quique why he i !thought he was going to die: ! — Es que tengo que morirme, amigo. Uste no sabe | lo que tengo por dentro. He pasao muchos anos ponien dole el frente al diablo y llevandole en claro a muchos vagabundos; pero hace unos quince dias que me ^ paso una cosa muy mala, y dende entonces ni an duermo. ; One day a group of soldiers surrounded Quique in a populated area. In the ensuing battle a girl crossed the |line of fire and one of his bullets hit her. — Dende ese dia ando como loco, amigo. Cierro los ojos y la veo cayendo. Era una pobre criaturita. 43 , . , 44 . Ibid. Ibid., p. 65. 224 No me lo perdono, amigo, y quisiera tener el poder de Dios pa devolversela a su mama. Mi propia voz me sorprendio. Yo no queria hablar; pero tampoco queria que el siguiera. Dolia oirle. Yo no sabia que decir. £Como darle consuelo a el, hombre de corazon duro, y culpable, ademas? — <?Uste tiene hijos, Quique?— pregunte. j — No, amigo. Si hubiera tenio uno ... ! j Adivine el resto. En su logica primitiva dar su j j hijo en pago de la muerta era una solucion. jY eso lo | pensaba el, que no sabia como se quiere a un hijo.' Sin duda la sociedad malogro en Quique Blanco un es- piritu delicado.^ Trembling with grief and emotion, Quique turned his ; iface to the heavens, in an effort not to let any tears out. The surveyor took hold of Quique's hand and felt guilty for Quique's tragedy. He told Quique that he himself knew that j ihe was not bad and that was enough. Quique's face con- j jtorted; he put his hands over his eyes and wept, j They sat quietly side by side until Quique1s se renity returned. He asked his listener to leave; he would stay because he had to take some medicine to a friend on the morrow. The surveyor looked in his pockets and gave Quique what he had: — No, amigo. Uste me ha dao mas de la cuenta, por- j que me ha dao consuelo y atencion. No. Yo si deberia ! | darle algo; pero no se que. | — No se apure— dije. — Me basta con la voluntad y con el recuerdo de esta tarde.^ 45 Ibid., p. 66. 46 Ibxd., p. 67. 225 Quique reached into his basket and pulled out a shiny pistol, his most prized possession, and handed it to i |the surveyor, who refused it. I — Vea— aseguro lentamente: — no sabe lo que le agradezco esa delicadeza, amigo. Este lo tenia yo pa ! ml. j De golpe se puso en pie, volvio a meter el arma I en el macuto y me tendio la mano. | — <?Uste no se siente en darle la mano a un crimi nal?— casi suplico. Y cuanto se la estreche me miro con franqueza, limpiamente. Sonreia y parecla feliz. De subito dio la espalda y a saltos largos y silenciosos se metio en el tupido monte. La noche habia caido del todo cuando yo deje el sitio.^ Two days later | capital, he discovered prised Quique sleeping jQuique Blanco's corpse I |people would know that :afraid of his phantom. knew the truth, ... la unica verdad de esa vida empujada al crimen; la unica verdad de esa muerte realizada con heroica frialdad. Es esa que he dicho. Desaflo al mas osado a que me contradiga.^8 There are many devices of the storyteller's art present in "La verdad," from presenting the end of the story when the narrator was back in the that a young man from Moca had sur- and had killed him with his own gun. was paraded around the Cibao so he was really dead and no longer be Quique's companion of that night 47 48 Ibid. Ibid., p. 68. 226 at the beginning to challenging the reader to deduce the truth. I j | | In "La verdad" the author defies the reader to find ! out why the young man who killed Quique Blanco would not | !accept a reward or any type of publicity for such a feat. ‘ j | iIf army patrols could not kill Quique, how is it that this boy was able to? Had the boy really killed Quique? What was the reason for not accepting the fame and reward that |accompanied such a deed? Could the reason have been that the boy had found the body of a suicide and had told the authorities a lie and later, because of shame, had refused all attention? - In the story Bosch gave us clues to Quique1s I ;suicide. When they were talking, Quique told the surveyor |he did not have long to live: "Es que tengo que morirme, ' 49 amigo. Uste no sabe lo que tengo por dentro." Then as they were parting, Quique gave his pistol to the surveyor, i who refused it. Quique, who had been contemplating suicide ! had given away his easiest means of accomplishing it. When I i ! ithe surveyor returned the gun to him, Quique replied: "no j i ! sabe lo que le agradezco esa delicadeza, amigo. Esto lo 49 Ibid., p. 65. 227 tenia yo pa mi." The truth of "La verdad" was not only that Quique had committed suicide, but that he had a fragile soul. Behind Quique1s legend was the tragedy of a life wasted, |tormented, a lonely human being, one whose will to survive j iwas shattered by the same bullet that killed the girl. Quique's overwhelming need was to be able to express his emotions, to confess, and to communicate as one human being with another, something he had been deprived of for years. He was hurt by the image he had in the Cibao, so part of his need to confess before he died was to correct this misunderstanding, and also to ease his conscience. | The prominent features of "La verdad" are its nar rative appeal and theme. There is one scene during the [narrator's visit to the Guzman ranch which some critics might feel could detract from the action and the story's unity. This is the description of the poverty-stricken family whose young children were abandoned during the day while the parents worked: | Era un encanto el sitio. Lo que me desagrado fue ver | un bohio pobrisimo en medio del maizal. Guarecia a la familia de un peon. Estaban flacos y demacrados los niftos, y aunque el mayor, de cinco que eran, no tendria arriba de siete ahos, se pasaban el dia solos, como huerfanitos, sin comer otra cosa que mazorcas 228 tiernas, hasta que llegara el padre a salcocharles platanos. ... Le dije a don Aspasio que solucionara el problema de esa familia abandonada, y me contesto que en el campo los muchachos se crxan como los cerdos, comiendo tierra. Estuve sobre un cuarto de hora sin hablar. ; Creo que soy cobarde, porque de otro modo hubiera | reaccionado inmediatamente contra aquella asesina tran- j : quilidad. ! Part of the narrative appeal of "La verdad" is the reader's delight at being made party to a secret and an unusual meeting with an illusive and legendary outlaw. The other attraction, of course, is the reader's surprise when he discovers that the fugitive is not sanguinary and cruel, but grief-stricken and lonely, a man who is holding on to life by a thread. The theme, Quique's overwhelming need to |communicate with another person and confess his unbearable ! I jburden, plays upon the reader's sentiment. | In Bosch's volumes Camino real and Dos pesos de aqua there are three stories dealing with friendship: i"Camino real, " "El resguardo," and "Dos amigos." In both "Camino real" and "El resguardo" the aspects within friend- j ship that are highlighted are sacrifice and generosity. In j ;"Dos amigos," however, the aspect of friendship which is developed is the need for friendship and how difficult 50 Ibid., pp. 59-60. 229 it is to open up one's protective sheel and become friends. "Dos amigos" is a beast fable about two dogs: Duck, who is protected and spoiled by the family he lives with, and a recalcitrant mongrel dog that Duck has met on vaca tion. Duck, young and naive, meets an aloof, older neigh borhood dog. During the customary canine greetings, the older dog makes a degrading remark about the scene of iDuck's fur, exclaiming: "cJabon de olor mientras miles de Ihermanos tuyos pasan hambre?" The larger dog did not ; really have anything nice to say to Duck, even after Duck told him he wanted to be his friend. The big one finally agreed, however, to try Duck out as a friend the following I day. Very early the next morning the older dog, still rather aloof, took Duck around the neighborhood, where Duck was nauseated by the sight of his friend eating from gar bage cans. In this same area were some dilapidated shacks: Duck hallo que casi todas las que debian ser viviendas tenian aspecto miserable; eran pequenas, de madera, sucias y viejas. En las puertas se veian mujeres mal vestidas y ninos desnudos. — dTambien esas son casas?— pregunto Duck sin dejar ! su rapido andar. — Si— aseguro el otro. — <?No lo sabes? Son casas y por desdicha abundan mas que las que tu conoces. 230 --i,Y como viven adentro?— pregunto Duck. — <?Vivir? No viven, hijo mio: padecen la vida. i The satire in the rest of the fable is not as ob vious or as strong as it is here. The plot does continue to point out the difference between Duck and his friend, j | |their different backgrounds, ages, and the lives they have i 1 jled. Toward dusk after a long day of sightseeing, the ;mongrel told Duck that he wanted to show him something. As they neared the town, Duck noted a change in the older dog's 'behavior. His face took on the look of a puppy and he began to sniff the air. They were now near a large house with a porch. — Alii, alii— dijo su amigo. ! Duck quiso ver, pero no lo consiguio. Senalando | con la cabeza, su amigo insistxa: ■ — Alii, mxrala. Ahora se levanta, fxjate. | Una perrita no mas grande que Duck, blanca y lanuda, | se asomo al portal y estuvo inmovil algunos segundos. Parecxa pensar en algo distante, sonar acaso. — iElla?— pregunto Duck. — Si, ella— respondio su amigo sentandose. — Ella ... j Que simple decirlo.' La conocx recien nacida, hace menos de un ano? ahora su presencia re- nueva mi vida y mi viejo corazon tiembla a su solo recuerdo. ] ... Noto que por el lado opuesto de la calle se asomaban otros perros, tres, acaso cuatro. Venxan alegres. Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio, p. 30. 231 — Ella prefiere a esos— oyo Duck decir. — Son jovenes. No hay que culparla. 2 ? 2 The two started back and could soon see Duck's <house. Without a warning the mongrel stopped in his tracks, i i |looked Duck up and down and when Duck asked what was wrong, |the mongrel snapped back at him: — £Es usted capaz de creer lo que le he dicho de aquella jovencita? Se trata de una comedia jde una comedia<?0 tuvo usted la ilusion de que yo le abriera j mi intimidad a un ser despreciable como usted, que huele a sehorita y que se llama Duck? <?La tuvo? jDiga si la tuvo.'53 Then the mongrel threw himself at Duck. Duck sidestepped the assault and dashed up the steps to his house. The mongrel turned and slowly walked away talking to himself: I — Ahora— dijo — estoy tranquilo. El no perdera j su bienestar porque tendra un mal recuerdo de su pri- | mera aventura y yo no corro el peligro de encarinarme I con el. Porque es lo cierto que iba tomandole afecto. Pero nadie oyo esas palabras, porque aunque las dijo en voz alta, solo un hombre pasaba cerca cuando las decia, y los hombres son incapaces de entender el noble lenguaje de los perros.3^ : i j "Dos amigos" is an exercise in the difficult and demanding task of being a friend. For a moment Duck's es- ] jcort in the resort town had let his guard down, se habia 52 Ibid., p. 36. 53 Ibid. 54 Ibid. 232 55 rajado, to reveal his inner feelings toward the fluffy white dog. Later he realized that he had shared an inner, intimate emotion with his younger companion, and possibly jfearing that he could be hurt by being so intimate, he I ' i ! repented, and pretended to Duck that it had all been a | I charade. ! i The reader may on first impulse feel sorry for Duck, ’ i ;an innocent youngster who was rebuffed in his effort to make a friend. If Duck was not permanently burned by this rejection of friendship, he would recover. The real tragedy was the old mongrel, apparently somewhat a loner, who re- : fused the opportunity of a slightly intimate ("Y yo no i jcorro el peligro de encarinarme con el") friendship, afraid | |that he would be hurt. Also evident in the story is not i i jonly the "fear" of friendship, but the difficulty of main taining a friendship when the parties to this friendship come from two distinct social classes and find that their 55 Octavio Paz in explanation of the Mexican mystiquei comments that being a man is never to expose one's intimate j I feelings, or rajarse, and those who open up are cowards. j |Octavio Paz, El laberinto de la soledad (Mexico: Fondo de iCultura Economica, 1964), p. 25. It would seem that this same attitude on the part of the mongrel dog in "Dos amigos" reflects human behavior which is not necessarily restricted to Mexico, or even Santo Domingo. 233 disparate backgrounds, values, interests, and ways of deal ing with contemporaries are so divergent it makes the j relationship awkward and often impossible. Aside from the two stories in Dos pesos de aqua i ("Rosa," "Los ultimos monstruos") which are not as balanced ; i jor as lean as the usual Bosch story, the collection as a iwhole shows technical progress in "hooking" the reader in I : the initial paragraph, some improvement over unity of .action, smoother paragraph and scene transition, and well -defined and unequivocal endings. The interior characteriza tion which we saw in the biography of Hostos is prominent i : 'in "Rosa"; otherwise there is no extensive psychological jdevelopment in these stories. Other differences noted j jbetween these two collections are that in Camino real Bosch | ; |was more prone to be poetic. His language was more spon taneous and figurative, and in the use of dialogue he drew more directly from rural speech than in Dos pesos de aqua. Bosch is surer of himself regarding orthography and accentu-: j ation. One tends to see less of things like "ageno," "no," | I and "pies" than there were in Camino real. Bosch has stated on several occasions that he was self-educated, which could j easily account for the peccadilloes in orthography and 234 accentuation early in his writing career. Besides display ing a surer narrative style, in Dos pesos de agua Bosch begins to branch out toward more cosmopolitan horizons and does not rely as completely on criollismo and the Cibao. This new tendency to diversify is seen in "Un hombre vir tuoso" (an urban story), "Dos pesos de agua" (a criollo i |story with a streak of fantasy), and "Dos amigos" (a beast | I fable) . Ocho cuentos Many of the stories of Ocho cuentos were published ! 56 in magazines before they were collected in Ocho cuentos. iTwo of them, "Luis Pie" and "El socio" won prizes; "Luis Pie" was the recipient of the international prize "Hernandez Cata" in 1943, while "El socio" won the short story prize I of the Juegos Florales Hispanoamericanos, celebrated in the j Because of the difficulty encountered in acquir ing out-of-print editions, in this case Ocho cuentos, |several of the Ocho cuentos stories were analyzed from Preprints in other editions. "Luis Pie" and "Capitan" are from Ocho cuentos while "El socio," "Fragata," "Poppy," "El rio y su enemigo," "Maravilla," and "El difunto estaba vivo" were studied from Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio. 235 Dominican Republic in 1940. The pattern of storytelling that developed in Camino real and Dos cuentos de aqua does not change radi cally in Ocho cuentos. The death of the protagonist, either a man or an animal, prevails in six of the stories, i jwhile the stories' geographical setting is generally rural |(five stories). I In Ocho cuentos there has been greater consistency |in the way Bosch begins his stories, in the offering of essential action and a more clearly defined denouement than I in his previous short story collections. In the very first !sentence of each of these eight stories a question to be jresolved is presented for the reader's curiosity. A prime example of Bosch's technique would be the beginning of "El By 1940 Bosch had become a persona non grata in the Dominican Republic. With reference to "El socio," he explains that at the time the Juegos Florales Hispano- americanos took place in Santo Domingo, the only time his |name was allowed to appear in print was for the purpose of defaming it. Almost as a game then, Bosch disguised his style and with great delight plucked the prize right out of : the imposter's own beard. He was able to do this because j I the conditions of the contest forbade knowledge of the |author's name before the final public announcement. "El |socio" was not to be published in the Republic, and an issue of Carteles (La Habana) which included "El socio" was not allowed to be sold until Juan Bosch's name was deleted. Juan Bosch, Ocho cuentos (La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1947), ;P. 3. 236 socio." "Justamente a una misma hora, tres hombres que 58 estaban a distancia pensaban igual cosa." The reader is interested in knowing what could be so important that three men in different places could be thinking the same thing. j | I The key to this type of beginning seems to be to present | |some type of incomplete information to the reader. In ' i"Fragata" for example, there are several unknowns submitted to the reader's curiosity in the first sentence: "La reso- I lucion de Fragata fue tan sorprendente que hasta dona Ana 59 I se sintio conmovida." There are several elements in this i : sentence which might appeal to a reader's curiosity: (1) the! i ; ! confirmation of the reader's conclusion that Fragata (frig- j late) is a large person; (2) the discovery of who Fragata is, ! since the author in no way qualifies this character as being man or woman, friend or enemy; and (3) the nature of the surprising situation that so moved Doha Ana. This type 1 iof beginning represents a technical improvement over writing! i j ! which fails to arouse the reader's curiosity. The element of intrusion or unnecessary action is i | absent in Ocho cuentos except for two minor intrusions in 58 Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio, p. 150. 59 Ibid., p. 15. 237 "El difunto estaba vivo" and "Maravilla." The denouements also appear to be better defined in the stories of Ocho cuentos than they were in Bosch's first volume. As we have seen, many of Bosch's previous stories j included animals, sometimes as protagonists ("El funeral," ! i |and "Dos amigos") and sometimes as secondary characters accessory to the plot ("Lucero," "San Andres," "La mula"). |In Ocho cuentos there are three stories in which the animal-; [protagonist is personified. The animal, be it a dog, i I rooster, or bull, often dies in a Bosch story. In Ocho ; ; cuentos this pattern does not change as the animal-protago- j jnists die of rabies, suicide, and by falling from a preci pice. i One of these stories, "Capitan," is the story of a \ dog who one day saw an apparition of Death come into his | ; yard. Capitan, who was tied to a rope, began to bark in an j !effort to scare the vision away, since "it" was headed ■ i : toward his master’s house: Y entonces ocurrio lo terrible, lo que todo perro teme j I que le pase algun dia, por mucho que no haya uno entre | ellos que pueda escapar mas tarde o mas temprano a la I terrible prueba. Moviendose lentamente, con evidente disgusto, "ella" volvio el frente y planto en Capitan sus poderosos ojos vacios. El perro sintio que le habian partido el espinazo de un golpe seco; se abrio de patas, pego el vientre a la tierra y un frxo de 238 muerte fue helando poco a poco todo su cuerpo y eri- zando los pelos de su espina dorsal. ... Convencido de que era inutil luchar sintio lastima de si mismo; se echo por completo al suelo, alzo el hocico en direccion de las escasas estrellas que nacian a esa hora, y siguio lanzando su penoso y lugubre aullido, que se j esparcia por todo el lugar llenando de pavor a los | ninos y a los viejos s u p e r s t i c i o s o s . j Capitan's master stepped out of the house to see j I | ;what was causing both his dog and the neighbor's dog to j jhowl. The howling had its desired effect. Death gathered iits mantle and withdrew as Don Gaspar approached. The next j i ; jday a neighbor came by, the Negro Ines, to comment on the previous night's episode: | — Buenos dias, vale Gaspar— canto Ines. j — Buenos dias ... Aqui dandole una limpiadita a esto— explico el amo. , --Anoche— empezo Ines con mucha seriedad — anduvo su perro llorando, y eso es cosa mala, Gaspar ... Anuncia desgracia ... — Elio ... Pa mi lo que le paso a Capitan es que sintio miedo. ^ j — Porque algo vido, amigo; algo vido. ' 1 ' While Ines and Gaspar were in the yard talking, "it"j j I had returned and was sneaking across the yard in another ' attempt to gain entrance to the house. With a lunge, Capi- | j tan broke the rope that was holding him and raced to the Ocho cuentos, pp. 46-47. 61 Ibid., p. 49. 239 house to protect it. Death turned its vacant stare on Capitan to freeze him in his tracks and then spoke: "Vas a pagar caro tu atrevimiento, animalucho indecente." Capitan again began his forlorn howling, which caused Capitan's enemy next door, Tiburon, to reprimand Capitan for all the inoise he was making. Capitan1s erratic behavior caused ;Ines to remark again to Gaspar that something was really iirritating his dog. Ines thought he should take him to the !river to bathe him, since rabies came from the heat which made dogs' molars ache. ; The following day Don Gaspar and Capitan went for a walk to the river. Their walk, however, was suddenly !interrupted when a ball of black fur hurtled out at them j !from the vicinity of a shack. It was Tiburon who was i ;attacking them. Capitan defended Don Gaspar ably and bravely against Tiburon. Tiburon's owner, who could no longer control his dog, approached the fighting animals. Convinced that his dog had become an incorrigible fighter, he fetched a machete from the nearby shack and killed him. |The owner explained that after Tiburon's unreasonable attack two weeks ago on a small furry dog, drastic means were necessary. The little dog had tried to defend itself 240 and had even managed to bite Tiburon1s ear, but in the end, Tiburon had killed it. Capitan had come out of the fight unhurt, other than a few teeth marks inside his thigh. Several weeks went by without an incident. Then iduring what seemed to be an unusually hot day, Capitan I {became fidgety and warm all over, and where Tiburon had bit him a couple of weeks earlier there was a burning sensation. lLater that day when old Gaspar was crossing the yard he stumbled over a hoop and fell on some glass, cutting his hand. Capitan barked and old Gaspar went over to calm him down, letting Capitan lick the wound. The following day Capitan became very annoyed by i |some flies. When he snapped at them, however, they just j |disappeared; A great thirst descended upon him and his |only thought was somehow to get in Don Gaspar's house to i ; the water dish. Capitan, in an effort to quench his thirst ] land soothe his throat, began eating anything: corn cobs, I ■ pieces of rotten wood. He began to feel pains; it hurt him : to sit down and his thigh pained him more and more. He jcould hardly breathe and felt asphyxiated when he began to grow cold and an unknown fear overcame him. Then he fell to the ground, helpless, his muscles twitching, to take 241 his last breath, no longer able to maintain his vigil at his master's door. With Capitan dead, Death was able to enter the house unobserved and commence its vigil over Don Gaspar. The next morning Ines came in with some news which t |corroborated his theory about the death of the neighbor's idog, Tiburon: the small furry dog which Tiburon had killed jalready had rabies.' They both dashed outside to the patio to see Capitan: — j Ta muerto, muerto de la rabia.'— grito Ines, con los ojos despavoridos. — jNo.'— gimio roncamente, endurecido, con el pes- I cuezo rigido y las manos abiertas el viejo don Gaspar. j — Pero, pero . . . <?Pero que le pasa, amigo?— i pregunto asustado Ines. ! Entonces vio la mano herida? la vio y comprendio. j — Me lambio la corta ayer.'— grito don Gaspar. | Y se quedo tieso, como un muneco de madera plantado en ! mitad del patio, con la quijada paralizada. I Lleno de terror, aullando de miedo, Ines huyo por el callejon, y a lo lejos se oia su voz empavorecida: | — ; Tiene la rabia ... . ' jDon Gaspar tiene la rabia.' "Ella" lo miraba todo, con sus ojos vacios, desde I la puerta del bohio. No se movio mas de alii hasta dos meses despues, cuando sacaron al viejo en un tosco ataud. Pero Capitan no supo que "ella" habia logrado su proposito, porque ya el estaba bien podrido, una vara | bajo tierra, en la misma esquina del patio donde vivio amarrado mas de cuatro anos.^ 62 Ibid., pp. 62-63. 242 In "Capitan," one of Bosch's several stories about animals, he enters the twilight zone between experienced reality and fantasy (the thoughts of a dog, Death's appari- jtion) to create a story based on the cibaeno belief that !animals recognize death and communicate its presence. Ines Jrecognized it in Capitan's howling. This is not the first !time Bosch has referred to this particular folk supersti- ;tion. In the story "La desgracia" (Dos pesos de agua) iMagina brought to old Nicasio's attention his impending dis grace when she asked if he had not heard a dog crying that I night. In "Guaraguaos" (Camino real) it was not a dog but ;chickens crowing in the middle of the night that forecast i |tragedy, while in "El alzado" (Camino real) a bull's bellow ! (announces the approaching death of someone. The tale | j"Capitan" is representative of two elements which Bosch introduces in greater quantity in Ocho cuentos than in his ;previous volumes: superstition (a manifestation of folk- | lore) and fantasy. "Capitan" is also an example of a nar rator ' s ability to weave an intricate pattern of circum- |stances so that when we least suspect it, destiny, or the author, springs a cruel and unsuspecting trap. In this case it would be the biting by one rabid dog of another, j 243 until the loyal pet, Capitan, licks the cut on his master's hand, thereby infecting him with the fatal disease. The |story's outcome (the deaths of Capitan and his master i | [Don Gaspar) thus verifies the folk superstition that Death I | [heralds its next call. ! 1 | The element of fantasy which we saw in "Capitan" j(the animal's ability to see death and the reader's oppor tunity to know an animal's thoughts) reappears in three additional stories of Ocho cuentos; "El socio," "Poppy," 0 3 and "El difunto estaba vivo." "El socio" is about an abusive landowner who through the use of craft and dis- jhonesty expands his land holdings at the expense of his [weaker and defenseless neighbors, who are also required on | [occasion to surrender their prettiest daughters. It was i |rumored and believed by all the country folk that Don An- iselmo's prosperity was due to the fact that he had a very special partner. They referred to Don Anselmo's partner as "el socio." The partner was never seen but came to Don Anselmo's rescue just when it seemed that his luck would | | i ; i - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 6 3 In 1928 the Chilean writer Jenaro Prieto published a novel, El socio, which was a humorous satire about a man who invented a fictitious business partner. There is no similarity between Bosch's "El socio" and Jenaro's. 244 run out. Now Don Anselmo had acquired a new mistress, the granddaughter of old Matias. This greatly disturbed old I | IMatias who knew that if he tried to avenge this dishonor by I himself, the partner would protect .Anselmo. So Matias |decided he would bargain with the partner himself. Through !the daughter of a sorceress he was able to procure the 'formula for contacting Anselmo's partner. Matias entered iinto a pact with the partner whereby for his aid Matias would have to forfeit his soul. Once the agreement was ireached, Matias started off for Anselmo's estate. i j He entered the mansion unopposed to climb to the i i |second floor where he found two men having breakfast, one i !of whom was Anselmo. Through the partner's help Matias i j Jmortally wounded Don Anselmo and then made his escape. As ^Matias was fleeing on horseback he heard a strange, rumbling :sound which caused him to look up. There crossing the heavens was the "socio" with Anselmo's soul in a bag. .Afraid that Don Anselmo somehow might still escape, Matias jcautioned the partner to be careful: jAsujetelo bien, ese es capaz de dirsele todaviaj — ;No tenga miedo, que yo soy como uste: a mi no hay quien me juegue sucio.' 245 ... y pensaba, complacido, que aunque el mundo habia cambiado mucho, todavxa quedaba alguien capaz de | cumplir sus compromises. Y como estaba seguro de que | los hijos de don Anselmo le darxan muerte ese mismo j dxa, el, Adan Matias, cristiano viejo, no se alarmaba j al pensar que tardaria muy poco en entregarle su alma al Diablo. | Trato es trato, y el Diablo se habia portado leal- ! mente. "Como un hombre serio," se decia Adan Matias ; al tiempo de entregarse.^^ ! "El socio" is a humorous, well-written story that :reflects the Caribbean affinity for the supernatural (An- iselmo's and Matias' pacts with the devil) and elements of accepted social behavior (vengeance and keeping one's word). :It is also a protest against class privilege. Although on I |the surface "El socio" does not appear to fall into the icategory of satire, it does in its characterization of the degenerate Don Anselmo parody the life style of General jRafael Trujillo. "El socio" won the Juegos Florales iHispanoamericanos celebrated in the Dominican Republic in '1940. Was General Trujillo so respected then that people failed to notice the resemblance? In "El socio" fantasy is presented in the form of |the supernatural. In "Poppy" it appears in the form of an animal whose thoughts are told to us, while in "El difunto 64 . . Mas cuentos escritos en el exxlxo, p. 174. 246 estaba vivo" there is a blending of reality and imagination, much in the pattern of magic realism. The magical realist scene from "El difunto estaba vivo" takes place at the site of new road construction and a country cemetery. An old peasant has come to plead with jthe engineers to change the road's trajectory so as not to disturb the gravesite of his former employer and master, ; Don Pablo. The latter, a stern, domineering man when he :was alive, was so addicted to being on horseback that he observed his daughter-in-law's funeral without getting out of the saddle. i It was a hot day about eleven in the morning when I |the workers uncovered Don Pablo's remains. Felicio, one of jDon Pablo's loyal hands, was there, as was a curious by- ! |stander on a black horse who had come to see what had been discovered. Also approaching the grave were the engineer and Sergeant Felipe. The workers asked old Felicio to identify Don Pablo's corpse. As Felicio viewed the big skeleton with the arm torn off a chill came over him, and I |he thought that Don Pablo was going to rise out of the tomb j and chastise him for allowing the workers to desecrate his resting place. Felicio felt light-headed; as he looked 247 around his eyes caught sight of the bystander's black horse. It reminded him of Don Pablo's black horse, causing him to cry out: " [ Su caballo, el caballo de don Pablo.'" Felicio ran to the grave and shouted: "Ahi ta su caballo, don Pablo.'" i ; ! Y entonces el vio a don Pablo, que apoyaba una mano en el fondo del hoyo; la derecha, porque no tenia mano izquierda; lo vio levantarse y sujetarse a la pared del hoyo. — jDame la mano.'— ordeno el muerto con la misma voz autoritaria de otros tiempos. | Todo sucedio tan de prisa que Felicio no comprendia por que los demas no hacian algo para evitar lo que estaba sucediendo. El no podia hacer nada; el estaba paralizado por el miedo, con los ojos vidriados, su- dando frio en la frente. ; — ;Acompaname y toma esto.' jHay que matar, Feli- j cio.' jMonta conmigo.'— dijo la voz, fria y precisa.^ j Felicio seized the bone of the missing arm, noting I ithat it was moist from all the years it had been buried. |He was shaking and wanted to cry. He noticed that Don Pablo Ilooked a lot older than when he had died. Don Pablo strode I to the horse, mounted, and ordered Felicio to get on be- i ; hind. Felicio remembers the animal galloping and hearing shouting. He spoke with the dead man who then gave him a | I command, just like the old days when they would work the ' ! ! cattle: 65 Ibid., p. 118. 248 — ;Ahora, Felicio.' Felicio se ladeo y vio ante el caballo al sargento Felipe, que enarbolaba un revolver. El ingeniero corria hacia un matorral vecino. — £Ta loco, viejo condenao?— grito el sargento a todo pulmon. ! Se le vela que estaba asustado; se habia puesto [ palido y resultaba grotesco, pegando saltos con sus j piernas torcidas. I | — |Ahora, Felicio, duro.'— ordeno el difunto con j voz estentorea. ! El caballo pasaba velozmente junto al sargento. Felicio alzo el brazo y descargo el golpe. El no podia pensar que aquel hueso sucio, descarnado y humedo, pudiera ser tan fuerte. Oyo el chasquido del golpe y vio al sargento caer haciendo un circulo y manando I sangre por la cabeza. Entonces sono un disparo.^6 I Don Pablo, according to Felicio, had been wounded in the stomach, and it seemed strange to Felicio that the i 'hand that was feeling the warm and thick blood was his and jnot Don Pablo's. The horse stopped, then the hills com- j jmenced to spin and slide, one behind another. Felicio fell onto the saddle and then to the ground. People began to irun, some to Felicio, some to Sergeant Felipe. Back at the inquest, the engineer stood up to tes tify on Felicio's behalf. He admitted that at first he really did not understand what he saw, as many others who i ! I were there did not. But after hearing about the biography j I ! of Don Pablo and his former influence and domination of ! 66Ibid., p. 119. 249 the valley, he had changed his mind: "el que le dio a Felicio la orden de raatar fue el difunto, pues aunque nadie quiera creerlo, el difunto estaba vivo. Solo ahora lo com- 6 7 prendo." Old Felicio, who just nodded as the engineer gave his testimony, finally stood up to talk: j — Si, si, si— comenzo a decir, casi babeando. — El difunto taba vivo y seguira vivo mientras yo no me muero, porque naiden se muere de a verda si queda en el mundo quien repete su memorial® i "El difunto estaba vivo" is a story within a story, ;the very lengthy trial testimony about the life of Don Pablo, his rugged, unbending character, and his influence ion the isolated valley he ruled during his lifetime and his j ; subsequent influence on a hired hand many years after his Ideath. The element of fantasy manifests itself during the i jtraumatic and emotional moment of the opening of Don Pablo's I itorrib, a moment when Felicio becomes terrified at the thought iof opening the grave because such an act violates the tabus |of the back country. During this moment the memory of Don Pablo possesses Felicio1s imagination and his mind, and I the vision which consequently developed became real to | |Felicio, more real than the reality which surrounded him 6 7 Ibid., p. 120. 250 at that moment. During the 1966 interview with Bosch, the Professor j was asked if there was a key or single motivating force i behind his literature. His reply was that he sought to reveal or depict the misery that so many people live with, i |If misery then is a motivating force in his art, it trans- i ilates itself in many stories as protest. Several of the stories in Ocho cuentos are stories iof protest which depict misery and suffering. Two, "Luis Pie" and "El socio," are stories with multiple themes, iwhose protest is directed against the oppression and abuses !of the favored classes. In two animal stories the protest J !diverts from the depiction of degrading human conditions to (protesting the inhuman treatment of animals ("Poppy" and I j "Maravilla"). The protest in these stories is obvious yet tasteful, as in "El socio" where the occasional light humor |and supernatural element succeed in cloaking dissent, which by some authors can be overdone. As Luis Leal states re garding Bosch, "nunca deja que la protesta predomine sobre |los elementos artisticos. i 69 Leal, p. 101. 251 There is also in Ocho cuentos a second group of stories in which hunger, pride, superstition, and just dailyj i j problems of human behavior are presented. Among this group | are "Fragata," which touches on hypocrisy, "Capitan," and I "El difunto estaba vivo," which point up the influence and ! power that customs and superstition have over the people. ! Often the destiny which befalls Bosch's protagonists is not man made but a combination of fate and nature, as in i "El rio y su enemigo." The plot centers around the charac ter of an angry young man, Balbino, who had worked hard to ;purchase a piece of bottom land. One night during a flood I j ithe river changed its course to run right through his |fields. Balbino, who possessed the special talent of pre dicting the river's flood stages, hated the river with a vengeance. He swore he was going to "kill" it. After a Iheavy day of rain, the Yuna began to rise, as Balbino had jpredicted. That night as flood stage was being reached, I the narrator and Don Justo saw a figure dart by in the moon- ilight. They raced in the direction of the fleeing figure ! I and found Balbino knee deep in water, wading out in the i river, his machete slashing the water. They called, but he j would not turn back. Finally a huge tree trunk passed j 252 between the men on shore and Balbino. Once it had gone by, Balbino was nowhere in sight, swept away by the same river that had ruined his land. Cinco dias despues, cuando bajo la crecida, se vio i que el cauce del rio habia cambiado y las quince tareas | de Balbino Coronado habian quedado libres de agua y listas para levantar un buen conuco. Sin embargo, hasta donde me informaron, se quedarian sin dar fruto | porque Balbino Coronado no tenia quien lo heredara.^0 jFate and the unpredictable forces of nature had tricked Balbino Coronado, and ultimately destroyed him. i ; The poetic descriptions of nature in "El rio y su lenemigo" are reminiscent of Bosch's stories in Camino real. |Sensitive to the uses of light, Bosch evokes the beauty of ! jmoonlight on the flowing river, as all of nature on that I I particular moonlit night joined in harmonious dance: Una poderosa masa de arboles cubria del todo el agua y aquel sitio tenia un olor penetrante y suave a la vez. No hablabamos. Acaso Justo me llamaba la atencion sobre alguna piedra o alguna rama que podia hacerme dano, pero yo apenas le oia. Me habia entre- gado a disfrutar de la noche. La fuerza del mundo se ; sentia alii. Cantaba alegre y dulcemente el rxo, chillaban algunos insectos y las incontables hojas de los arboles resonaban con acento apagado. De pronto por entre las ramas enlazadas aparecio una luz verde, ! palida, delicada luz de hechiceria, y vimos las ondas del rio tomar relieve, agitarse, moverse como vivas. Todo el sitio empezo a cobrar un prestigio de mundo Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio, p. 57. 253 irreal. Los juegos de luz y sombra animaban a los troncos y a los guijarros y parecia que se iniciaba una imperceptible pero armonica danza, como si al son de la brisa hubieran empezado a bailar dulcemente el agua, los arboles y las piedras.71 Though other stories in Ocho cuentos took place in the tropical countryside of the Cibao or similar regions, the ! [ ; jimagery in them is not as brilliant as in "El rio y su ene- | |migo." i : Ocho cuentos, when contrasted with Bosch's previous istories, reflects a subtle change of direction in themes iand technique. Four stories take place in the Dominican jRepublic, and as already indicated, death continues to be ! | |a prominent adjunct of Bosch's narrations. Protest, some- I I times social ("Luis Pie," "El socio"), sometimes directed against man's personal problems ("Fragata"), now expands to | plead the case of animals ("Poppy" and "Maravilla"). In i ■his treatment of his themes, even the new ones, Bosch has * utilized with greater frequency elements of fantasy and the supernatural, as seen in "El socio," "Poppy," "El difunto estaba vivo," and "Capitan." In terms of the structure in I i j jBosch's stories, it continues to improve, especially in 71 , . Ibid., p. 46. 254 terms of the story's beginning, while superfluous action becomes less evident as he continues to write. La muchacha de La Guaira La muchacha de La Guaira, a collection of eight stories, was Bosch's last volume of cuentos which was not ia reprint of previous publications. Published in 1955 in !Chile by Editorial Nascimento, it reflects to a much lesser (degree the cibaena reqionalism so prominent heretofore in | ;Bosch's fiction. The stories of La Guaira take place in |various locations: the Cibao, Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, j |unidentified coastal terrain, and the anonymous house of a jdying rich man. When the collection is judged in its en tirety, the elements which were prominent in his other col- . lections: the autobiographical, themes of honor, social I ! I : protest, friendship, sickness, and father-son related plots,; are present in only one and occasionally two of the stories !in La Guaira— while revolution does not appear at all. The I overall theme mix and profile then of La Guaira is generally; of heterogeneous nature, except for the theme of death, j which in one form or another appears in all of the eight j ; i 1 stories. 255 The notable feature then of La muchacha de La Guaira, is the omnipresence of death, at times the demise of a minor character, sometimes the protagonist, or simply the lingering memory of a mortal crime committed many years before. Bosch's technical use of death varies in each story, from the death of the protagonist in "La Nochebuena de Encarnacion Mendoza" to its use as a means for satirizing ’ Society in "La bella alma de Don Damian." i The influence that an act of death may or may not jhave on a person’s behavior, his conscience, and his psy- l ! chological state is shown in La Guaira in several ways. The fugitive Encarnacion Mendoza ("La Nochebuena de Encarna cion Mendoza") had killed a soldier in defense of his self- respect, and his conscience did not appear to bother him; nor did the conscience of Manuel Sicuri ("El indio Manuel Sicuri") who avenged the rape of his wife. In the case of Juan de la Paz ("Rumbo al puerto de origen"), who had killed and sexually molested a young member of his family many years previous, Juan had broken a tabu and the memory of the victim came back to haunt him. In one case homicide is condoned when society approves the circumstances which ^accompany it; in another case with another set of circum stances, homicide is severely censured. 256 The severeness or finality of death requires some type of behavioral reaction from the family or society which survives the deceased— because death as an act cannot be ignored. This behavior can often be psychologically reveal ing as in "La bella alma de don Damian" when deathbed etiquette and behavior are focused upon. "La muerte no se equivoca dos veces" illustrates a superstitious view of death, the belief that when death japproaches it resembles its victim. The old fisherman Pan- i jtaleon Gonzalez speaks: — Ahora si estoy seguro del color de la muerte— dijo al tiempo que saltaba a la arena. — <?La muerte?— pregun to el ingeniero, mas asustado cada vez, sintiendo que se le enfriaban las entranas. — Rubia, rubia— dijo Pantaleon con la cabeza baja. Y al rato repitio y explico: — Rubia como la hija de Manuel Sierra. Se parece a la hija de Manuel Sierra. Igualita a la hija de Manuel Sierra. Entonces el ingeniero se alivio. La gente afirma que algunas veces, en el momento de morir, muchas per sonas se desdoblan, hacen acto de presencia a larga distancia.^2 t "La muerte no se equivoca dos veces" illustrates two related supernatural beliefs: one, that death takes on the appearance of the person it is going to strike; and two, the belief that sometimes in the moment of dying many Juan Bosch, La muchacha de La Guaira (Santiago de Chile: Nascimento, 1955), p. 113. 257 people se desdoblan or "split," to appear both at the scene of physical death and also some distance away. In "La muerte no se equivoca dos veces" Manuel Sierra's daughter lay dying at the sugar plantation "Hershey." It was in Jibacoa twelve kilometers away, however, that the engineer heard footsteps and the superstitious old fisherman Panta leon saw a blonde apparition in the form of Manuel Sierra1s daughter. A moment later Pantaleon and the engineer were lhailed by a very distressed foreigner, whose wife was ill. jWhen they arrived at the man's cottage they found his wife i on the floor dead, and looking just like Manuel Sierra's daughter. It was later that Pantaleon came to the conclu sion that death in all its hurried activity had erred and mistaken the foreigner's bride for Manuel Sierra's daughter. During the inquest into the young lady's death the :engineer fell ill with a severe flu and began to run a |fever. A local physician prescribed sulfa for the engineer, i who took the medicine religiously up to the very morning he felt well enough to ride over to Santa Cruz del Norte and I have breakfast with his friend Angel Pascual. The same imorning that the engineer was going to Santa Cruz, Panta- ileon was working on the engineer's sailboat at the small 258 marina in front of Angel Pascual1s hotel. Suddenly he saw the transparent form of the engineer come walking across the water in great haste. Era transparente y caminaba de prisa. Instantaneamente [Pantaleon] comprendio; comprendio mejor cuando el in geniero quiso mirarle con unos ojos cristalinos, sin superficie y sin profundidad.7^ Pantaleon jumped out of the boat onto the dock and began to run toward the hotel. — j Ingeniero, cuidao.' ;Ahora viene por uste.' j Cuidese. ' Pero el ingeniero estaba bebiendo ya; de manera que tuvo que esperar que el primer trago le cruzara el gaznate para preguntar: — cQuien, Pantaleon? — jElla, la Muerte.' jAhora tiene su figura.' — £La mia?— el ingeniero palidecio; mas en seguida se repuso y argumento: — No le hagas caso, Pantaleon. Seguro que va a equivocarse tambien, como anteayer. — ;No.'— respondio Pantaleon. — ;No, ingeniero; la Muerte no se equivoca dos veces.' El ingeniero sonrio a Angel Pascual. — Este Pantaleon ... — Comenzo a decir. Y no termino porque cayo de bruces, volcando el vaso y la botella, sobre la mesita a que se hallaba sentado. El propio medico que le habia recetado la sulfa comento despues, cuando lo llamaron para certificar la defuncion: — Pero que locura. Se habia tornado las dos ultimas pastillas de sulfa a las ocho y a las nueve estaba bebiendo ron.7^ In "La muerte no se equivoca dos veces" Bosch has 73 Ibid., p. 128. 74 Ibid., p. 129. 259 again taken advantage of a folk belief to illustrate another Caribbean superstition regarding death. If the theme of death has the tendency to elicit supernatural beliefs from people, on occasion it can also cause them to behave in a hypocritical fashion. In "La jbella alma de don Damian, 1 1 a humorous satire on the his trionics and conniving which surface during the death of a family's patriarch (Don Damian), the soul of the dying man jwithdrew its tenacles from Don Damian's members to pull it- iself out of his mouth and seek refuge on a chandelier. From this vantage point the soul, invisible to those par- j jticipating in the wake, heard the discussions which took place. The young wife of Don Damian was told by her mother when to weep so that people would remember her grief. It seemed that the only person who had any genuine affection ifor Don Damian was the housekeeper. The soul jumped from jhis perch on the chandelier to the next room, where he Iviewed himself for the first time in front of a mirror. Startled by his amorphous shape, he realized that he could not go into the street that way; he had become too accus tomed to Don Damian's body. The soul, afraid that he would ■be seen, quickly returned to Don Damian's mouth, just as 260 the doctor was entering the house. As the soul wiggled back into Don Damian's extremities, the doctor, sensing that Don Damian was not dead, prepared to give him a shot. The possibility of Don Damian's recovering complicated the politics of death. The young wife, who had seen herself as being rid of an old husband and the recipient of a fortune, now saw herself remarried and disinherited. The priest and |the doctor would both claim credit for saving Don Damian's jlife. It was important for one rather than the other to i receive credit for the miracle, since Don Damian was going |to make a heavy contribution either to a new hospital or a l j jnew church, but not both. | ... el medico metio la aguja en la vena del brazo, solto el ligamento de encima del codo y comenzo a em- pujar el embolo de la jeringuilla. Poco a poco, en diminutas oleadas, el calor de la vida fue ascendiendo a la piel de Don Damian. — jMilagro, Senor, milagro.'— barboto el cura. Subitamente, presenciando aquella resurreccion, el sacerdote palidecio y dio rienda suelta a su imagina- | cion. La contribucion para el templo estaba segura, j pues como podria Don Damian negarle su ayuda una vez que el le refiriera, en los dias de convalecencia, como le habia visto volver a la vida segundos despues de | haber rogado pidiendo por ese milagro? "El Senor aten- dio a mis ruegos y lo saco de la tumba, Don Damian," diria el. | Subitamente tambien la esposa sintio que su cerebro quedaba en bianco. Miraba con ansiedad el rostro de su marido y se volvia hacia la madre. Una y otra se hallaban desconcertadas, mudas, casi aterradas. 261 Pero el medico sonreia. Se hallaba muy satisfecho, aunque trataba de no dejarlo ver. — jAy, si se ha salvado, gracias a Dios y a lasted.' — I grito de pronto la criada, cargada de lagrimas de emo- cion, tomando las manos del medico. — ;Se ha salvado, | esta resucitando.' |Ay, Don Damian no va a tener con ! que pagarle, senor.'— aseguraba. Y cabalmente, en eso estaba pensando el medico, en ! que Don Damian tenia de sobra con que pagarle. Pero I dijo otra cosa. Dijo: — Aunque no tuviera con que pagarme lo hubiera hecho, porque era mi deber salvar para la sociedad un j alma tan bella como la suya.^^ j : i J Existentialist philosophy and two essential ingre- j dients of that philosophy, death and existence, occupy a j ! central place in "La muchacha de La Guaira," a story which depicts the personality changes which develop in a young prostitute who suddenly awakens to the reality of her way ; I of living, at the same time recognizing the hopeless nature | i of life. Hans Sandhurst, a Norwegian merchant marine officer, found himself with an attractive young bar girl in the port of La Guaira. There was really nothing new or different about the cabaret scene until the waiter asked if two cus- I tomers could share Hans' table since the bar was quite crowded. A most unusual conversation, almost unnatural for a cabaret, ensued during which the topic of man's purpose ^Ibid. , p. 163. 262 here on earth came up. In the beginning the girl, who seemed to like Hans, seemed bored by the conversation until Hans commented that "Probablemente ninguno de los que esta- mos sentados a esta mesa volveremos a vernos pasada esta 7 6 noche." When she heard this comment, the girl clutched |Hans' arm tightly. The talk regarding man's destiny con- itinued as Hans stated that man's purpose on earth was to be i !happy, "ser feliz? la humanidad busca inconscientemente la i jfelicidad." Up until now, the girl had not paid much attention to the conversation, but the comment regarding happiness seemed to have made an impression upon her, be- J I cause from this moment on her interest in the conversation t jincreased. As the girl pondered the theme of happiness her eyes sparkled. Hans felt that here was an essentially loving person who, without knowing why, had felt there was i I !a philosophy which justified her existence. Of the two men 'who had joined Hans and the girl at the table, the older, 'unpleasant one began to belittle Hans' philosophy of hap piness, while the girl listened attentively. The older man continued, stating in very convincing tones that humanity's ipurpose is not to seek happiness, but rather to satisfy 7 6 | Ibid., p. 178. 263 its vital instincts: La funcion de la humanidad, senorita, es simplemente vivir, dar satisfaccion a su instinto vital. Nacemos, nos desarrollamos y morimos, y nada mas, bella joven. ... Buscando el placer de vivir escribimos y oimos musica, pintamos y admiramos cuadros. No hay en abso- luto nada mas que eso. Luego nos toca morir y desa- parecemos completamente. Nosotros, los seres humanos, nos perdemos todos en la muerte, en la nada. Eso es j t o d o . ^ The older man's conversation had a demoralizing I !effect on the girl and she became obsessed by his proclama- jtion that human beings finally lose themselves in death, in I j "nothing." It distressed her to think that her only beauti- jful memory— probably the memory of Hans who treated her i I |decently— was also going to vanish when she died. Shortly thereafter she and Hans left the two men at their table and went to another bar. At dawn, when Hans started back to the ship, the -girl from La Guaira threw herself to the ground and began |to sob hysterically, blurting out, "el hombre tenia razon; el era el que tenia razon," in reference to the talk of the | older man. Man, according to him, lived by instinct, not by a desire for happiness. The girl now grew silent. As she and Hans walked toward the bay, an unusual incident ^ Ibid. , pp. 186-187. 264 occurred, which soon became a most significant omen: a pigeon, which had touched a bare electrical wire, fell I |heavily to the ground in front of them, electrocuted. The |girl picked the pigeon up and cried: "Hans, Hans, aqui, Iesta; mirala, Hans, muerta, muerta como me morire yo, muerta como decia el hombre.' 1 1 Standing up with a crazy, i frightened look on her face, she clutched the pigeon, then ran headlong onto the pier from which she hurled herself ; into the water, as though she were obeying the night's prophecy. ] When Hans returned to the ship and explained to the j i 1 icaptain what had happened, he was told that the Latin Ameri-I | cans were not as sensitive to ideas as they (those on the j ; Norwegian ship) were, so he should not think that what the ! I I ! unpleasant man who sat at their table had told the girl had j anything to do with her death. (The evening's events, how- j ever, indicated the contrary.) I Apparently the girl's fragile self-confidence had | been destroyed by the philosophical conversation. Also, the discouraging idea that she would lose her one precious bit of happiness, her company with Hans, had snapped her will to live, and suicide and death thus beckoned her. 265 The role "ideas" play in "La Guaira" is dominant, especially in the development of the girl's behavior. For a brief moment ideas evoke a change in the girl's behavior. When during the evening's conversation it was stated by Hans that man's purpose here on earth was the pursuit of jhappiness, the girl's spirits were buoyed considerably. ;She was capable of having an interest in ideas, especially j |when she found that they were relevant to her existence: j No es una muchacha comun; se trata de una alma amorosa, j que de pronto, sin saber por que, ha sentido que hay una filosofia que justifica su vida, su natural sensua- | lidad, sus aciertos y sus errores.78 It was also an idea, the idea that man's only pur- ! I pose here on earth was to serve his instinct that threw her into a mental abyss and a state of nonresistance. Death, then, came as a solution and answer to the anxiety and loneliness of the girl from La Guaira who lived without any :apparent purpose or faith in a meaningless and illogical |world. ! The beginning and the denouement of "La muchacha de La Guaira" are well constructed and measure up to the cri teria of Bosch's short story precepts. The episode in i 7 8 Ibid., p. 182. 266 the story that seemed a little incongruous and slow was the seating of the two strangers at Hans' table and the subse quent philosophical conversation, which for a cabaret scene almost appeared contrived. For much of the story the action was "intellectual," which made it difficult at times to determine if the action was progressing or not. The existentialist cuento "La muchacha de La Guaira" (is structured around a conflict of philosophical ideas that {constitutes a departure from Bosch's earlier cuentos of revolution, fugitives, and father-son relationships. As i ifar removed as this story may seem from his earlier writing, Sand even though it probes another facet of existence which i Bosch has not touched before, it remains an exercise in illuminating man's daily struggle for survival, much as the (other stories did. | ! In La muchacha de La Guaira, which contains only two stories directly associated with the Cibao, Bosch has i stepped out of the Cibao and criollismo directly into I cosmopolitismo, as seen by the stories "La muerte no se | ( (equivoca dos veces" (fantasy), "La bella alma de don Damian" j i(fantasy, humor, and satire), and "La muchacha de La Guaira" I (existentialism). The animal stories of Ocho cuentos are jabsent in this volume while nature and death, especially, 267 are still prominent. As indicated previously, the collec tion does not have the theme grouping found in his other volumes and is more diversified. Technically Bosch's short story writing, as judged by his guidelines for writing a cuento, has improved progressively with each new volume. jAll the stories have beginnings which capture the reader's i |attention in the first few lines. Except for minor viola- jtions in two stories, digression and intrusion are virtu- jally nonexistent, as are the ineffectual denouements we saw :in "Camino real" and "Rosa." The consistency of La muchacha i de La Guaira would seem to indicate that Bosch has now |arrived at a technical formula for writing short stories i which satisfies him and gives his stories that leanness and tension which are the trademark of the modern short story. The Chilean critic Hernan Diaz Arrieta, "Alone," commented on these same characteristics in La muchacha de La Guaira; i i "Encarnacion Mendoza," el primero y el mejor de I los cuentos, muy superior a otros, muestra la mayoria ! de las cualidades que caracterizan a Juan Bosch. Desde luego, la tension. El estilo de Juan Bosch posee una carga electrica especial. Su cuerda no se halla nunca floja. Donde uno la toque, emite sonidos vibrantes. Jamas se deja distraer por metaforas inutiles o admite adornos superfluos; eso la debilitaria. Tambi^n se ve I que no le importa sino una cosa: el fin. El objeto lo tiraniza. ... Juan Bosch nos parece uno de los temperamentos ; mejor dotados de fluido. 268 Aun sus cuentos menos felices, incluso los que al final, en la piedra de toque, decepcionan, todos ^ poseen electricidad y, en algun momento, estremecen. j Cuento de Navidad I i j During the Christmas season of 1955, Juan Bosch made a stopover in Rio de Janeiro while returning to La j Habana from a stay in Chile. On Christmas Eve he outlined j to a group of exiles the structure of his next book, Cuento ! 80 1 de Navidad. The book was finished not long after and | in 1956 was published in Santiago de Chile by Editorial j I Ercilla. This publishing was followed by a deluxe edition j in 1958 from Venezuela and a later publishing as part of j I ! the short story volume Cuentos escritos en el exilio, Santo j Domingo. Although Cuento de Navidad is being examined in 'that portion of the dissertation which deals with short stories, it does not fall into the classification of what we would call a modern short story principally because its | narrative elements are not original, more than one incident ! 79 Hernan Diaz Arrieta, "Alone," "Los cuentos de Juan Bosch y otros cuentos," El Mercurio (Santiago de Chile), agosto 21, 1955, p. 7. 80 Stefan Baciu, Juan Bosch: del exilio a la presi- dencia (Buenos Aires: BASES Editorial, 1963), p. 3. 269 is presented, and because it lacks the intensity so charac teristic of the cuento. In Cuento de Navidad Bosch has written a Christmas fantasy for children centered around the occasion of the birth of God's son and the subsequent traditions of the ! Three Wise Men and Santa Claus. The principal character in jBosch's reworking of the Christmas story is God, el Sehor i IDios. The very human and earthly characterization of God, |the Wise Men and Santa Claus is perhaps the principal ireason for the story's appeal and charm. The God Bosch presents to us is anthropomorphic. He lives in a sky above the one we know, and when he is irritated he paces from one end of heaven to another in fifty-mile strides. Now this God is quite human and prone to catnapping. When he wants to see what is happening on earth he lies down on his !stomach on the floor of clouds and with his huge hands digs ;a peephole in the clouds to see the earth. He can be very | |strict when it is required of him and he expects his angels to be prompt and quick in their work. He is also sensitive to the needs of people on earth, especially the needs of 1 children. * From the very beginning of the Christmas tale the |reader is made aware that God is disturbed. In this sense I 270 Bosch continues to follow his formula for storytelling, that is to seed the problem in the first paragraphs. God has been disturbed by mankind's wars, invasions, and atroci ties. When He could no longer suffer man's unthinking ways, He unleashed a horrible flood and looked to Noah and his joffspring to lead man down a new path. But He was mistaken |and man proved to be incorrigible. Desperately searching i |for a remedy, God decided to look for a great teacher and ! after much reasoning decided that the best teacher for the I people on earth would be His own son. He considered taking a wife, a Senora Diosa, but even this posed problems. ' jUn hi jo del Sehor Dios.' Bueno, eso sera facil | de decir pero muy dificil de lograr. <?Pues que mujer podia ser la madre del Hijo de Dios? Solo una Senora Diosa como El; y resulta que no la habia ni podia haberla. El era solo, el gran solitario; y sin duda si hubiera estado casado nunca habria podido hacer los i mundos, y todo lo que hay en ellos, en la forma en que los hizo, porque la mujer del Senor Dios, cualquiera que hubiera sido— aun la mas dulce e inteligente— i habria intervenido alguna que otra vez en su trabajo, | y debido a su intervencion las cosas habrian sido dis- : tintas; por ejemplo, la mujer hubiera dicho: "Pero por ! que le pones esa trompa tan fea al pobrecito elefante. I [sic] cuando le quedaria mejor un ramo de flores?" ... El no tenia necesidades como la gente, ni sentia la falta de alguien con quien cambiar ideas, no se dio cuenta de que debia casarse. No se caso, y solo en aquel momento, cuando comprendio que debia tener un hijo, penso en su eterna solteria. — Caramba, deberia casarme— dijo. 271 Pero a seguidas se rio de sus palabras. £Con quien podia contraer matrimonio? Ademas, aunque hubiera con quien, El estaba hecho a sus manias, que no iba a dejar I facilmente? entre otras debilidades le gustaba dormir | de un tiron montones de siglos, y a las mujeres no les | agradan los maridos dormilones. j At last, God selected a humble couple from Nazareth Ito bear His son. In order to inform them of the event and the fact that theirs would be the son of God, He created the archangel Gabriel in one puff and sent him as a messen- | ger to Joseph and Mary. Gabriel, in his youthful innocence, found it difficult to believe that God would want His son i to be born into a humble family: Viendo las ciudades de la Tierra, los ricos pala- j cios en lo alto de las colinas y a orillas de los j mares; admirando el esplendor con que vivian los reyes j y sus favoritos, los grandes mercaderes y los jefes de tropas, San Gabriel se pregunto por que el Sehor Dios habia resuelto tener un hijo con una mujer pobre, que moraba en choza de barro y arreaba asnos cargados de agua por caminos polvorientos. £No era el Sehor Dios ! el verdadero rey de los mundos, el dueno del universo, j el padre de todo lo creado? <?No debia ser Su Hijo, | pues, otro rey? Si tenia que nacer de mujer, £por que El no habia escogido para madre suya a una reina, a la hija de un emperador. [sic] a la heredera de un prin- j cipe poderoso?®2 i God could have announced the birth of His son by sending a flock of angels to earth or by ushering in the 81 Juan Bosch, Cuento de Navidad (Santiago de Chile: Ediciones Ercilla, 1956), pp. 12-13. 82 Ibid., p. 25. 272 birth of Jesus with a show of might, such as a cataclysm, but He chose not to. He preferred that just a few mortals with pure souls know of this event, since if the entire populace were to know, Bethlehem and those in the manger would be exposed to the danger of unruly mobs. After several moments of deep thought, God chose to announce the 1 jbirth of His son by placing a lucero or specially bright I | star in the sky. ■ It is at the scene of Christ's birth that Bosch :reveals the theme of ecumenism and also where he makes his 1 greatest departure from the biblical account of the Christ mas story. Four people saw the star and were attracted by it. Of those who guessed the significance of the star, three were the Wise Men and the fourth was a chubby and jolly man called "Nicolas," "Colas," "Claus" or "papa 83 iNoel." Saint Nicholas lived in the north, which was a |long distance from Bethlehem. God saw a problem and I Iplucked a hair from his eyebrow and commanded: | j — jConviertete en reno ahora mismo, y ademas en trineo, y vete a buscar a don Nicolas, un viejo que esta alia, en medio de esa llanura blanca que se ve por el norte.' Te vas sin perder tiempo y le dices 83 ; Ibid.i p. 42. 273 que suba en el trineo, que tu lo vas a llevar donde se halla el lucero. Fijate bien en lo que oyes, por- que ustedes los renos son muy dados a estar pensando solo en el pasto de las primaveras y no ponen la debida atencion en lo que se les dice. Recoges al viejo don Nicolas y lo llevas hasta donde esta el lucero, y ahi lo dejas, a la puerta del establo de Belen, y esperas que el saiga para que lo trasportes otra vez a su tierra. j "El Sehor Dios" was pleased with the tribute paid !to His son by the four men of pure heart. It did not mat- ! | ter to Him that Saint Nicholas brought only toys instead of ! jewels to His son: ... [don Nicolas] Ha ofrendado a Mi Hijo sus juguetes, le ha dado el cariho de su corazon. De acuerdo con su caracter y sus medios, ha estado a la altura de los tres reyes.®^ ! God decided from then on that the four would become immortal and would go from house to house distributing gifts among children. The Three Wise Men would be assigned the warmer areas of the world while St. Nicholas would take the jnortherly climates. By having established routes, the four ! icould avoid unnecessary delays in the delivery of Christmas jpresents and escape the risk of sickness by not having to I journey between hot and cold climates. | j Throughout Cuento de Navidad appear occasional moral 84 Ibid., p. 43. QC Ibid., p. 72. 274 maxims or philosophical observations of the author. Some times Bosch's comments appear as impersonal commentary i I I regarding the action of the characters: "Las mejores ideas Ison malas si no se convierten en hechos, y el Sehor Dios jsabia que es preferible equivocarse haciendo algo a que- i 0g idarse sin hacer nada por miedo a cometer errores"; other times as part of the story's dialogue, as when God is irri- j ! tated with the archangel Gabriel for not listening to i i instructions: | — ;Eso si que no.1— trono el Sehor Dios. — Estas lleno de miedo, y nadie que lo tenga puede hacer obra de importancia. Tampoco hay que tener mas valor de la cuenta, como les ocurre a algunos de esos locos que pueblan la tierra y creen que el valor les ha sido ! concedido para hacer el mal y abusar de los debiles. J Pero te advierto, hijo mio, que la serenidad y la con- j fianza en si mismo son indispensables para vivir con- ! migo; no quiero ni a los timidos, porque todo lo echan a perder por falta de dominio, ni a los agresivos, que van por ahi causando averias, sino a los que son sere- | nos porque la serenidad es un aspecto de la bondad, y j la bondad es una parte de mi mismo. £Entiendes?87 j The sum total of these moral and philosophical commentaries by Bosch is to lend to Cuento de Navidad a didactic flavor or purpose. Bosch's moralejas or moral maxims are gener ally unobtrusive and in keeping with the narrative. 86 Ibid. , p. 17. 87 Ibid., pp. 20-21. 275 It is not uncommon in children's stories to explain natural phenomena in terms of the child's world. Bosch invents fantastic but plausible explanations and circum stances throughout the story, as experienced narrators do to lend a certain tone of realism to their tales. One such |invention would be the justification of God's catnaps and i jthe creation of the universe: Pues sucede que antes, millares de siglos antes, el Sehor Dios estuvo millones de ahos sin dormir un ; segundo, trabajando dia y noche. Fue cuando hizo los | mundos. Hay millones de mundos, y El los hizo uno a uno. El soplaba y decia: "Tu, soplo, hazte un mundo." I Y ya estaba. Primero hacia un sol, despues varios I mundos para que rodaran alrededor de ese sol. Creo millones de soles y miles de millones de mundos. Cada vez que hacia uno de estos lo lanzaba bien lejos, y le | decia: "Tu giraras en esa direccion y de ahi no te saldras nunca. Ten cuidado, porque ustedes los mundos son dados a no atender cuando se les habia y despues se ponen a hacer disparates, y si tu haces alguno te convierto en cometa para que viajes sin cesar de un extremo al otro del firmamento o te hago reventar." Y de sus manos salieron soles y soles, mundos y mundos, todas esas estrellas que se ven de noche e infinito j numero que no pueden verse. Jamas descansaba. Cada ! uno de ellos le consumia por lo menos un dia y una noche de trabajo, de manera que el Sehor Dios estuvo millares de millones de dias y de noches sin descansar y sin dormir, lo cual explica que despues sintiera sueno constantemente. Era, pues, una gran tonteria de algunos hombres echarle en cara que fuera dormi- lon.88 88 Ibid., pp. 72-73. 276 After a long nap God awoke to find the world at war, with cities heing destroyed by airplanes and the ocean floors covered with sunken ships. Then after many years of destruction came a gigantic explosion— man had learned to explode the atom. That same year when the world was pre- i paring to celebrate Christmas, God heard crying. It was |the wailing of a child which rose from earth and made it- 1 jself heard in a heart-rending cry: '"Ese nino sufre, 1 penso i ) el Sehor Dios lleno de amargura. Recordo el dia en que Su |Hijo moria en la cruz, sintio que el corazon se le llenaba I ! 89 jde dolor." God was greatly disturbed and spoke with Saint Nicholas to see if a solution could be arrived at to help this Mexican child who lived near the United States: — jNicolas, por ahi hay un nino que llora a causa de que no tiene juguetes esta noche.'— grito El con su gran vozarron. Don Nicolas, a quien la gente llamaba Santa Claus o papa Noel, oyo al Sehor Dios y junto las manos sobre ' la boca para responder lo mas alto que pudo: ! — |Lo se, Sehor, pero no esta en mis tierras, sino j en las de los reyes.' I — iY a mi que me importa que este en tierras de los l reyes? jYo no fije fronteras como han hecho los hom- bres, y ese nino esta cerca de donde tu te hallas.' jPonle remedio a eso antes de que me enoje.' ^0 Nicholas, who was quite anxious to appease his God, 89 Ibid., p. 85. 90 Ibid., p. 86. 277 informed Baltasar of the situation on a short wave radio. Baltazar explained that this particular child had been left i |off the list because the Three Wise Men had to ration toys because of the recent war. God, who had been listening to i |the conversation, lost His temper and interrupted their conversation: "jNo quiero explicaciones, quiero solucionesj ;Si ese nino sigue llorando, voy a hacer un escarmiento j ejemplar con todos ustedes, con los reyes y con Don Nicolas.' 91 ! jYa lo saben.'— trono." i i I The trip to the isolated border town where the boy j ' I lived was difficult. Santa's reindeer— he had only one— | I ! I injured itself and Santa had to go the last miles on foot. ;The Three Kings, meanwhile, had abandoned their camels to ! 'travel by plane to the crying child. j ! At last for the first time in almost 2,000 years ! the four immortals— the Wise Men and Santa Claus— were j united and in both cases it had been to honor, at God's pleasure, a child of humble origin. Baltasar, exuding a j hearty ecumenical spirit, greeted Saint Nicholas: "jVenga jun abrazo, companero, porque a pesar de que hemos estado 91 Ibid., p. 88. 278 cerca de dos mil anos sin vernos, usted es nuestro compa- 92 nero.1 " Thus the Christian faith which had split after its early years is, in the brotherhood shown by Baltasar and Saint Nicholas, again joined in spirit. Desde arriba, el Senor Dios los contemplaba. Los veia irse juntos, apoyandose entre si, buscando orien- tacion en medio de la oscuridad. — Voy a mandar un Q Q lucero que les senale el camino— dijo. i God closed His eyes for a moment and when He opened |them again, He saw Baltasar and Melchior pulling the broken- jdown sleigh, and Santa Claus and Gaspar pushing it, all four in joint effort: — Vaya, vaya, de manera que ahi tenemos juntos a los reyes y a don Nicolas. Se reunieron para hacer feliz a un nino indio y ahora van sudando para aliviar a un reno cojo. No esta mal el ejemplo. Ojala los hombres aprendan la leccion y se unan para cosas pare- cidas.^ God was pleased with what He saw and miraculous things began to happen. He began to whistle and the tune He whistled filtered down to earth as music, and the wood- carver who donated a toy to the Mexican child saw a pair of ! 1 I his toy oxen change into real oxen. Simultaneously the whole world burst forth with music to accompany the rising 92 Ibid., pp. 106-107. 94 Ibid., pp. 108-109. 93 Ibid., p. 107. 279 sun of a new Christmas day. Cuento de Navidad represents a departure from Bosch's accustomed fictional expression in that he abandoned the somber criollo themes of misery and death. Cuento de Navidad does reflect, however, Bosch's inclination for a genre which is conducive to didactic observations, charac terization, and his own narrative style. He departs from his previous style in the audience toward which he has written, his participation in fantasy, as well as his re wording of an already well-known tale. Besides "La bella alma de don Damian," Cuento de Navidad is the only other work of which it can be said that humor is an essential element of the work. Some of this humor is satirical, an example being when Santa tells God that he cannot deliver a present to the Mexican child 95 because the child is not in Santa's territory. Humor appears as an adjunct to characterization. Bosch has jcharacterized God, the Magi, and Saint Nicholas with human failings. Gaspar, who is a miser, is shamed by Baltasar and Melchior into leaving his jewels and gold with the Christ child as a gift. Unbeknown to them, however, Gaspar 95 Ibid., p. 86. 280 has hidden two coins in his garments and manages to keep from spending them for almost 2,000 years. Then during the unexpected trip to visit the Mexican boy, the Wise Men are forced to hire a cab and have nothing to pay for it with. As they are trying to solve their dilemma, a booming voice is heard from the heavens disclosing that Gaspar will be able to pay the fare: "jCon las dos monedas de oro que te guardaste la noche en que nacio Mi Hijo, rey Gaspar, avaro 96 del demonio.1 " Even "el Sehor Dios, " who is prone to be absentminded, is able to recognize His own shortcomings, as for example, the time when He was hunting far and wide for a woman to be the mother of His child. When He finally found Mary, God chided Himself: "Debo ser tonto, ipues por que he estado buscando mujeres en las grandes ciudades y 97 en los palacios, si yo sabia que Maria estaba en Nazaret?" If there is a manifestation of ecumenism in Cuento Ide Navidad, it is probably a consequence of the appealing rationale of universal brotherhood and love plus the great lessons of Jesus1 life rather than a purposeful contradic tion of the Bible. The message that one might infer from Cuento de Navidad is that the nations which man has created i i - __ _ _ ^ Ibid. , p. 102. ^ Ibid. , p. 16. 281 are not only barriers against mankind's progress but also barriers against the happiness and salvation that could be found in a love which is less myopic and more universal in nature. Cuentos escritos en el exilio ! With the death of General Trujillo in 1961, the i (Dominican Republic started on the slow climb out of the pit i jof isolation toward the goals of a democratic society. I [Uncommon restraints had been placed on many sectors of I I Dominican life by the Trujillo regime, one of these sectors ! (being literature. As a writer who treasured freedom, Bosch i I was obliged to gain experience and maturity in exile, since he could not abide the local tyranny. With the death of Trujillo he had the opportunity to be published and read again in his home country. Consequently, in 1962 Libreria iDominicana published a collection of Bosch stories which | ;had been previously published outside the Dominican Repub- !lic. This volume included "Apuntes sobre el arte de escri- bir cuentos," four stories from Dos pesos de aqua (1941), one from Ocho cuentos (1947), four from La muchacha de La !Guaira (1955), Cuento de Navidad (1956), and two cuentos 282 which were making their first appearance in a Bosch short story volume, "El hombre que lloro" and "La mancha inde- leble." "El hombre que lloro" describes seven suspense- packed hours in the life of a resistance fighter in Vene- i Jzuela during the Perez Jimenez regime of 1957. Regulo iLlamozas is part of the hard and dangerous world of an 'underground organization and has adapted his personality to I that reality. Yet as he slips from one hideout to another, j |he comes in contact with a world more worthwhile and enjoy- 'able than his own. On occasion he can permit himself the luxury of being sentimental about the quality of life that he as a resistance fighter hopes to obtain for his mother land. Bosch exploits the conflict of this fighter caught between two worlds to reveal a moment of emotional crisis pitilessly invoked by fate. In 1963 the Saturday Evening Post published Bosch's I i |"The Indelible Spot." The literary agent who sold the Post the story was also the agent for John Bartlow Martin, a Kennedy-appointed ambassador to the Dominican Republic. The translation was by Harry Shlaudeman, the political officer at the Santo Domingo embassy. Martin, in his book 283 Overtaken by Events, explains that he was trying to "build 98 bridges to Bosch." That is, the publishing of this short story was part of Martin's plan to extend Bosch's contacts in the United States and to broaden his horizons in order to overcome the deficit created by twenty-four years of exile living. i j In the introduction to the I ^publication, Bosch explains how he jdeleble" to his wife in 1960 while staying at President j iRomulo Betancourt's beach house at Los Caracas, Venezuela, iln addition he comments: t I That Venezuelan setting plays no part in this story. In reality the city that provides its background is Rome, and the place where the character takes his coffee is doubtless the one in the Italian capital at which, some years ago, I used to drink a cup of espresso each night. What does indeed play a role in the story is my fear of regimentation— of the absence of freedom to ! think, to create, to believe. But I shall say no more, ; lest I give away the secret of the story. If I have | succeeded in expressing what I wanted to express that | warm and starry Venezuelan night, then the reader will | understand what I have refrained from saying.^ John Bartlow Martin, Overtaken by Events (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Co., 1966), p. 389. 99 Juan Bosch, "The Indelible Spot," Saturday Evening Post, November 16, 1963, p. 78. Saturday Evening Post dictated "La mancha in- 284 The story begins in the first person with the anony mous protagonist alone in a room where all who had entered before him had given up their heads, which were placed in display cases against the opposite wall. Pero era el caso que aun incapacitado para pensar y para actuar, yo estaba alii: habia pasado el umbral y tenia que entregar mi cabeza. Nadie podria evi- tarme esa macabra experiencia. La situacion era en verdad aterradora. Parecia que no habia distancia entre la vida que habia dejado atras, del otro lado de la puerta, y la que iba a iniciar en ese momento. Fisicamente, la distancia seria de tres metros, tal vez de cuatro. Sin embargo lo que veia indicaba que la separacion entre lo que fui y lo que seria no podia medirse en terminos humanos. — Entregue su cabeza— dijo una voz suave. — cLa mia?— pregunte, con tanto miedo que a duras penas me oia a mi mismo. 100 — Claro . . . <?Cual va a ser? The protagonist was standing in a salon decorated in stark neoclassic decor with black and white marble floors and enormous glass chandeliers. Confused and fright ened, he stalled for time: — £No ha oido o no ha comprendido?-- dijo la voz. Ya dije que la voz no era autoritaria sino suave. Tal vez por eso me parecia tan terrible. Resulta aterrador oir la orden de quitarse la cabeza dicha con tono normal, mas bien tranquilo. Estaba seguro de que Juan Bosch, "La mancha indeleble," Cuentos escri- tos en el exilio (Santo Domingo: Libreria Dominicana, 1962), p. 131. 285 el dueno de esa voz habia repetido la orden tantas veces, que ya no le daba la raenor importancia a lo que decia. Al fin logre hablar. — Si, he oido y he comprendido— dije. — Pero no puedo despojarme de mi cabeza asi como asi. Deme algun tiempo para pensarlo. Comprenda que ella esta llena de mis ideas, de mis recuerdos. Es el resumen de mi propia vida. Ademas, si me quedo sin ella, icon que voy a pensar? La parrafada no me salio de golpe. Me ahogaba. Dos veces tuve que parar para tomar aire. Calle, y me | parecio que la voz emitia un ligero gruhido, como de j risa burIona. j — Aqui no tiene que pensar. Pensaremos por usted. • En cuanto a sus recuerdos, no va a necesitarlos mas: j va a empezar una vida nueva. j — dVida sin relacion conmigo mismo, sin mis ideas, sin emociones propias?— pregunte. i The stranger in the salon had the distinct impres- i sion that the voice which came to him out of the walls was i i not human. He knew that there was no time to waste, since ianother would soon be coming in the door behind him. He turned in time to see the door open: I ... una mano sujetaba el borde de la gran hoja de madera brillante y la empujaba hacia adentro, y un pie se posaba en el umbral. Por la abertura de la puerta se advertia que afuera habia poca luz. Sin duda era ! la hora indecisa entre el dia que muere y la noche que j todavia no ha cerrado. As the protagonist stood just inside the door to the salon he suddenly began to realize the unearthly fate ^ ^ Ibid. , pp. 132-133. 1 0 2 Ibid., p. 134. 286 that awaited him and it seemed that he was in a twilight zone between two worlds. In front of him were rows of heads without bodies that did not think or have memories. Yet behind him on the other side of the door was a world where the bodies and heads were attached and the heads could think and have their own emotions. Outside was the j |world he knew and ahead of him a nightmare. There was j !nothing about the room which reflected human beings or I |humanity. The heads along the wall seemed lifeless as though blood was not circulating through them. There was |no mixing of the two worlds— the dichotomy was startling i and here he was in no man's land. "Sin duda era la hora indecisa entre el dia que muere y la noche que todavia no 103 ha cerrado." Inchaustegui Cabral, commenting on "La mancha indeleble," views this moment not only as a denial of existence in either world, but also as a negation of |time and light: i I De nuevo la negacion del tiempo, y la negacion de ! la luz que al determinar el contorno de las cosas, sus relieves, sus colores, las hace existir. A esa hora, que ni es hora de la tarde porque el dia ha muerto, ni hora de la noche, porque la noche no se ha cerrado todavia, el cazador no acierta en el bianco y se multi- plican los accidentes de transito, en forma tal que | 287 hacen pensar que la percepcion y los sistemas de medir las distancias se han echado a perder y el hombre, entre dos luces, una muerta y la otra sin nacer toda via, se desorienta en un mundo que ha dejado de ser suyo, aunque solo sea por unos minutos.104 The protagonist, in one impulsive move, pushed past the entering person and bolted into the street, to run, I fear-stricken. He did not leave his house for a week, so i Ihaunted was he by the voice and the hundreds of heads in the display cases. Finally on the eighth day he dared to i go to the dingy corner cafe for coffee. He sat at one of i I I j I two unoccupied tables. Soon two men sat down at the table | inext to him. The one with sullen eyes stared at him in- i tensely, then spoke to his companion: — Ese fue el que huyo despues que ya estaba ... Yo tomaba en ese momento una taza de cafe. Me temblaron las raanos con tanta violencia, que un poco de la bebida se me derramo en la camisa. Ahora estoy en casa, tratando de lavar la camisa. He usado jabon, cepillo y un producto quimico especial ' para el caso que halle en el bano. La mancha no se va. Esta ahi, indeleble. Al contrario, me parece que I a cada esfuerzo por borrarla, se destaca mas.^0^ | His plight was that he had no other shirt nor means iof getting another. While he tried to get rid of the spot, 104 Hector Inchaustegui Cabral, "La mancha de cafe," Listin Diario (Santo Domingo), marzo 3, 1966, p. 6. 105 Cuentos escritos en el exilio, pp. 134-135. 288 he kept hearing the words of the man in the cafe: "— Des pues que ya estaba inscrito ..." He could not shake the fear which he felt in the presence of strangers. In fact, he did not know whether the two men at the table were mem bers of the Party or not. After a few paragraphs it is apparent to the reader i I that "La mancha indeleble" is an allegorical fantasy in j ! which the protagonist, the voice, the cold hall, the shirt, land the coffee spot are abstractions. The interpreting of I ;symbols or abstractions cannot always be done with cer- itainty, but in this particular case the author has given us some help. In the introduction he states that his "fear of regimentation— of the absence of freedom to think, to create, to believe"— is essential to the story. The rela tionship then between the author's ideals and those of the protagonist become evident, while the contrast between the [protagonist and the anonymous voice identifies the voice as representing something authoritative, in complete opposi- | |tion to the protagonist. During the interview of 1966, Bosch confided that i the protagonist in the story was an acquaintance who in -earlier years had been a member of the communist party be- i | fore deserting it. This friend's reputation (the shirt) 289 had been soiled forever, for there would always be people who would never forget his earlier membership. Bosch identified himself somewhat with the protagonist since he also had been accused of being a communist. Even though this accusation was unwarranted, he felt that he would jnever live it down. The voice and the salon, which could i jvery easily be any totalitarian state or even automation, jhere symbolize the communist party, with the coffee spot | |expressing the stigma of having once associated with the I i : party. "La mancha indeleble," which is only four pages I long, is an excellent example of how the use of symbols in a story can provide synthesis and thereby accelerate the j story's action. The appearance of Cuentos escritos en el exilio gave Bosch the opportunity to combine older stories of the Cibao with stories from his travels to Cuba, Venezuela, or jBolivia. Of the two new stories, "El hombre que lloro" reflects more the characteristics of realism while "La i Imancha indeleble" is definitely representative of the cosmo politan school. The latter story is actually a cuento of thesis or protest cloaked in fantasy. The stories that : appear in this collection apparently do not represent any 290 special classification, but are a heterogeneous selection. Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio Bosch's first post-exile collection apparently met with enough success that Libreria Dominicana felt justified in printing another collection of stories two years later. |Thus in 1964 while Bosch was in exile a second collection | jof stories was published. Six are from Dos pesos de aqua |(1941), seven from Ocho cuentos (1947), and four from La ■ muchacha de La Guaira (1955). There were no new stories in |this volume, and as with the previous collection Cuentos i j escritos en el exilio, the stories fall into no special i i grouping. The collection of stories is again heterogeneous, which very well may have been the author's intention. i Summary The prose of the Latin American literary world at | ithe time Juan Bosch first published was for the most part i I criollista oriented and it is to this esthetic world that he first responded with Camino real, an autobiographical volume which vividly reflects a youth saturated with the 'world of the Cibao, its beauty, and its problems. From 291 Camino real and subsequent collections flowed pages of poverty, revolution, violence and death, superstition, father-son relationships, nature, and social protest. The people that filled Bosch's pages were weak and exploited, fugitives from shame, indignity, and dishonor. They were jhumble and plain people, nearly always placed in rural Isettings with country— never middle class— problems. [Though their problems may have appeared to be individual jand personal at the time, in general they reflected broader i i [thematic categories such as class privilege, cruelty to ] janimals, superstition. On occasion they were sketches in Jhuman nature ("Fragata" and "Victoriano Segura"). i I Nature, so grandiose and prominent in the writings of Latin American authors, is also eulogized in Bosch's stories and fills his most imaginative metaphors. As he did in Hostos, Bosch will often complement a character's mood with an act of nature, especially rain. As Bosch ‘continued to write, some of the themes of revolution, | ! father-son relationships and fugitives were gradually re- j placed by themes of friendship, animals, and sickness. The ingredients, however, of his writing which to some degree !remained permanent throughout all his volumes were protest, 292 superstition, nature, and death. His earlier writing was characterized by fresh and spontaneous imagery and a gift for storytelling. It did contain, however, structural weaknesses which as he grew more skilled in technique he was able to correct. While j I his technique improved, though, the amount of poetic prose j ; i j declined, which in a way corroborates Enrique Anderson j ilmbert's and Lawrence B. Kiddle's inference that there is J :a conflict between poetic prose and the "narrative demands of the short story.1 1 There is also a decline in his use j j of dialectal speech as he continued to write. 1 In Bosch's first stories there were technical weak- ; 1 |nesses in beginnings which did not show the protagonist in !physical or mental action. There were also several cases !of intrusion and some inefficacious denouements. That he became aware of how to improve these weaknesses is evidenced by his essay "Apuntes sobre el arte de escribir cuentos" and by the fact that his last volumes contain stories that are technically sound in these areas. Although Bosch's stories generally reflect a rural 106 Enrique Anderson Imbert and Lawrence B. Kiddle, Veinte cuentos hispanoamericanos (New York: Appleton- Century-Crofts, Inc., 1956), pp. 6, 9. 293 milieu and criollo style, commencing with his first collec tion he was experimenting with abstract allegories ("La mujer") and fantasy ("San Andres"). Fantasy combined with superstition and animal themes occupied more of each succes sive volume to place many of his stories in the cosmopolitan movement, an indication, perhaps, of his willingness to grow as an artist. CHAPTER VII ANALYSIS OF THE HECHO-TEMA RELATIONSHIP In his essays on the technical aspects of writing short stories, Bosch identifies proper treatment of theme I las the key to success. A strong advocate of universality, jBosch believes that a writer should choose a theme which I reflects man's nature, and he warns against selecting a theme which is too unusual. An important critical concept in Bosch's writing is that of the hecho-tema (incident- theme) relationship. A graphic illustration of the incident-theme concept is provided in Horacio Quiroga's story "El hombre muerto." The theme or tema is the campe- sino1s astonishment and psychological reaction to an un expected and unheroic manner of dying; the incident or hecho is his inadvertent impalement on his own machete. In "El tema en el cuento," Bosch says of the hecho-tema concept: La primera tarea que el cuentista debe imponerse j es la de aprender a distinguir con precision cual hecho | ! 294 295 puede ser tema de un cuento. Habiendo dado con un hecho, debe saber aislarlo, limpiarlo de apariencias hasta dejarlo libre de todo cuanto no sea expresion legxtima de su sustancia; estudiarlo con minuciosidad y responsabilidad. Pues cuando el cuentista tiene ante sx un hecho en su ser mas autentico, se halla frente a un verdadero tema. El hecho es el tema, y *1 u en el cuento no hay lugar sino para un tema. Throughout Teorxa del cuento: tres ensayos Bosch refers to j hecho and tema as if they shared a common meaning, e.g., 2 "El hecho es el tema"; "todos esos sucesos estan subordi- jnados al hecho hacia el cual va el cuentista; el es el I ' 3 « 4 jtema"; "de la seleccion del hecho-tema"; and "el cuento es el relato de un hecho, uno solo, y ese hecho— que es el 5 tema." The constant pairing of these terms in Bosch's critical writings indicates his view that the hecho is essential to the development of the tema. The purpose of Chapter VII is to study the hecho- tema relationship in a selected core of Bosch's stories in an effort to determine the influence of this relationship in his stories, where Bosch locates the hecho-tema, and Juan Bosch, Teorxa del cuento; tres ensayos (Merida, Venezuela: Universidad de los Andes, 1967), p. 9. ^Ibid. ^Ibid., p. 10. 4 5 Ibid., p. 11. Ibid., p. 23. 296 how effective the hecho is in revealing the tema. Given Bosch's premise that the theme is the key to the success of the short story, the incident-theme concept merits analy sis. Much of the analysis in this chapter is based upon the assumption that a short story employs the structural elements of drama: introduction, complication, crisis, climax, and denouement. Not all these elements appear in a single story: some of the stories to be examined contain several of these elements; others contain only one or two. These terms will be employed in accordance with their defi nitions and use in Thrall, Hibbard, and Holman's A Handbook to Literature.^ Thirty-one cuentos constitute the core which is to be examined. The single criterion for the selection of the stories is that each has been published in book form a minimum of two times, either in anthologies or in Bosch's own short story volumes. The only exception is "La mancha indeleble," which appeared once in Cuentos escritos en el exilio and in the Saturday Evening Post. This particular j ^William F. Thrall, Addison Hibbard, and C. Hugh jHolman, A Handbook to Literature (New York: The Odyssey Press, 1960). 297 manner of selection bears the imprint of what Bosch thought was good in his short story production; his judgment, nevertheless, is also balanced by that of those editors and critics in whose anthologies Bosch's stories appeared. The examination and study of these stories is divided by short story volumes. Camino real contributes three stories; Dos pesos de aqua, eleven; Ocho cuentos, eight; La muchacha de La Guaira, eight; and Cuentos escri- tos en el exilio, one. Plot synopses provide examples with which to illustrate the study. Camino real The three stories of Camino real (19 33) considered in this analysis are "La mujer," "Revolucion," and "El al- zado." In "La mujer" (also see Chapter VI, pp. 188-194), the most anthologized of Bosch's short stories, and one of the most symbol-laden, it is relatively easy to identify the hecho-tema scene. "La mujer" is the episode of a well- meaning stranger who, traveling down a road surrounded by hot, barren countryside, comes upon two inert figures, a woman and a child, whom he takes to a nearby shelter. 298 While the woman is being helped into the shack by the stranger, her husband, who has become enraged and provoked by excessive exposure to hardship and the sun ("Aquel acero bianco, le habia vuelto fiera"), attacks her. When the good Samaritan sees the husband physically abuse his wife, he intercedes to defend her, and the two men engage in mor tal struggle. The wife, now slightly revived but still dazed from hunger and her husband's beatings, lifts a rock and strikes the good Samaritan a mortal blow, thus elimi nating her last opportunity for help. The tale of desper ation ends thus: Ella no supo que sucedio, pero cerca, junto a la puerta, estaba la piedra; una piedra como lava, rugosa, casi negra, pesada. Sintio que le nacia una fuerza brutal. La alzo. Sono seco el golpe. Quico solto el pescuezo del otro, luego doblo las rodillas, despues abrio los brazos con amplitud y cayo de espaldas, sin quejarse, sin hacer un esfuerzo. La tierra del piso absorbxa aquella sangre tan roja, tan abundante. Chepe vela la luz brillar en ella. La mujer tenia las manos crispadas sobre la cara, todo el pelo suelto y los ojos pugnando por saltar. Corrio. Sentia flojedad en las coyunturas. Queria ver si alguien venia. Pero sobre la gran carretera muerta, totalmente muerta, solo estaba el sol que la mato. Alla, al final de la planicie, la colina de arenas que amontonaron los vientos. Y cactos, embutidos en el acero. ' Juan Bosch, Camino real (Santiago, Republica Domi- nicana: Editorial El Diario, 1937), pp. 15-16. 299 Until the scene of the climactic struggle (the hecho-tema) is reached, the narration tends to wander. The hecho-tema, however, unifies it, ties it together. The struggle between Quico and Chepe and the woman provides the outlet for the woman's nihilistic action which symbolizes man's senseless, self-destructive behavior and seeming inability to save or help himself. It also is the moment when the theme of "La Mujer" is most clearly expressed. The incident and theme not only coincide at this juncture, but they also coincide with the struggle, the story's climax. The incident through which the theme is expressed is the violent struggle, the probable death of the good Samaritan coupled with the fatal trek by the deranged wife back to the sterile road of hope. In "Revolucion," two men, apparently friends, aban don their families to join a group of insurgents in the mountains. The day after their arrival the leader Deogracia orders the two, Tono and Cholo, part way down the mountain's flank to guard the approach to the hideout. It is fortu nate that they have been sent, for that very morning Tono has spotted an approaching government patrol proceeding up the mountain path. As Cholo starts up the mountain to warn 300 his leader of the danger, he suddenly stops and unexpectedly throws his Mauser rifle aside to race down the slope toward the patrol, which is now very close. Tono, who has re mained concealed on the mountain, hears Cholo shout "Pirin, Pirin," the name of his son who has recently left home. Tono by now also spots Pirin in the patrol's ranks: — j Pirin.1 ; Pirin.1 Tono midio la desgracia. Vio muchos soldados vol- verse hacia el companero llamado con tanta vehemencia. Y lo calculo: solo una cosa podia salvar a Deogracia: tiroteo. Pero quiso aprovechar su primer tiro. Cholo, corriendo como loco, estaba ya a diez pasos de las fuerzas. Tono puso toda su alma en apuntar bien. El tiro retumbo entre los arboles como alarido siniestro. Cholo dio media vuelta, sintio sabor a cobre subirle a la garganta y crispo las manos. A traves del humo, Tono le vio caer. Oyo las or- denes. Inmediatamente despues, un tiroteo cerrado, como si hubieran querido talar los arboles a balazos.8 Cholo, Tono's reliable companion, has suddenly been faced with an unsuspected circumstance: the presence of his son in the ranks of the enemy. He bolts, possibly to save his son or maybe to warn the soldiers of Deogracia1s pres ence. Tono, who has no way of knowing what Cholo1s inten tions are, realizes he has to act to save Deogracia and in so doing he deliberately shoots his companion. In "Revolu- cion," father and son are in opposite bands, one friend 0 Ibid., pp. 25-26. 301 shoots another, and each person's action is justified according to his own reasoning and circumstances. This cuento calls attention to a coincidence which reveals revo lution's cruel and enigmatic character. The incident (the insurgents' contact with the patrol) in "Revolucion" was i ieasily identified and coincided with both the theme and the story's climax. This combining of the incident, theme, and Iclimax creates a scene of considerable emotional impact for ithe reader. The hecho or incident in "Revolucion" is cleverly suited for revealing the paradoxes of civil war. The structural pattern of "La mujer" and "Revolu- t cion" is repeated in "El alzado," the tale of a fugitive Iwho steals home one night to see his father. The story i I 'consists of four brief scenes: the approach to the bohio i j land the reception, and two scenes on the following day, the awakening, and the father's response to the soldiers. Before sunrise the next day, the fugitive son is awakened by barking dogs. In the dim light he is able to distinguish a cordon of soldiers around the house. There I is no escape for Juan Antonio, who in this critical situ ation (el hecho) is required to act and thereby reveal something of his character. Surprisingly, Juan Antonio 302 asks his father to step out of the shack and tell the troops that his son will surrender. (Is Juan Antonio doing this to keep his father from getting shot in the skirmish that is bound to follow?) The father, much disgusted by his son's behavior, replies: — Eso era lo ultimo que yo esperaba de ti. Juan Antonio no quiso entender el significado de esas palabras. <?Acaso el padre lo crexa cobarde? Y apreto mas el revolver, como queriendo deshacerlo a fuerza de dedos. Lentamente, como si nada sucediera, el viejecito todo huesos comenzo a vestirse. Despues, con paso seguro, atraveso su cuarto y llego a la puerta que daba al camino. Resuelto, sin titubeos, la abrio; y antes de que el sargento diera orden de disparar, deshizo la distancia que les separaba y asombro a la soldadesca con su voz aplomada: — Mi hijo esta ahi y se rinde si le aseguran que van a fusilarnos juntos. Dijo, cruzo los brazos y se dio a ver como el sol comenzaba a poner oro en los cogollos de los pinos.^ From the father's comment it is not clear what he expects to achieve by his bravery, unless it is that he cannot bear the shame of his son's cowardice and prefers to die with him. If Bosch is illustrating a misunderstanding which will cost the father his life, the presence of two other possible solutions obfuscates the intended conclusion and leaves the reader uncertain as to what the author's 9 Ibxd. , p. 49. 303 theme is. The result is an ineffectual hecho-tema climax. Judging the plot structures presented by the stories from Camino real, Bosch is justified in lending attention to the hecho-tema relationship. In all three stories the incident and theme appear together in the same scene to form what Bosch calls the hecho-tema. Another character istic of the structure of these stories is that the hecho- tema relationship coincides with the climaxes of the stories, "the point at which the reader makes his greatest emotional response. 1,10 The joining of the incident, theme, and climax produces a very efficacious scene and may account for the emotional impact or jolt so often found in short stories. In two stories the deed employed to reveal the theme is death, while in "El alzado" it is the confronta tion between the family and the soldiers, in which imminent death has a part. The structure of the stories in Camino real shows a predictable pattern regarding the placement of the hecho-tema toward the end of the stories and its coin cidence with the climaxes of the stories. 10Ihrall, p. 91. 304 Dos pesos de aqua The stories of Dos pesos de aqua (1941) discussed in this chapter are "Los amos," "La desgracia," "Dos ami gos, " "Dos pesos de agua," "En un bohio," "El funeral," "Un hombre virtuoso," "Un nino," "Rosa," "Todo un hombre," and "Los ultimos monstruos." The pattern that the hecho- tema union seems to follow in Camino real is not consistent iin Dos pesos de aqua, although eight of the eleven stories i ! jsurveyed show hecho-tema unions in which the author's mes- i I sage reveals itself. i j "Los amos," one of Bosch's shorter stories, takes I ! place in the Cibao. When old Cristino is too old to milk the cows any longer, his employer, Don Pio, calls Cristino over to make him a gift of fifty cents before sending him on his way. "Le voy a dar medio peso para el camino. Uste jesta muy mal y no puede seguir trabajando. Si se mejora, i 11 vuelva." Because old Cristino has a fever, Don Pro indi cates to him that he can spend the night at the ranch. As Cristino turns to leave, he calls Don Pio's attention to a cow which has just calved in a distant pasture. Don Pio ' * ’'*'Juan Bosch, Cuentos escritos en el exilio (Santo Domingo: Libreria Dominicana, 1962), p. 35. 305 asks Cristino to take a little walk and drive the animal toward the house, to which Cristino replies that he would if it were not for the fact that he is feeling quite badly. — Eso no hace. Ya uste esta acostumbrado, Cristino. Vaya y traigamela. Cristino se sujetaba el pecho con los dos brazos descarnados. Sentia que el frio iba dominandolo. Levantaba la frente. Todo aquel sol, el becerrito ... ! — £Va a buscarmela, Cristino? Tenia que responder, pero la lengua le pesaba. Se apretaba mas los brazos sobre el pecho. Vestia una camisa de listado sucia y de tela tan delgada que no le abrigaba. Resonaron pisadas arriba y Cristino penso que don Pio iba a bajar. Eso asusto a Cristino. — Elio si, don— dijo — voy a dir. Deje que se me pase el frio. — Con el sol se le quita. Hagame el favor, Cris tino. Mire que esa vaca se me va y puedo perder el becerro. Cristino seguia terriblando, pero comenzo a ponerse de pie. — Si; ya voy, don— dijo. With his arms crossed on his chest to keep him warm, Cristino starts out across the pasture. After he has left, a woman comes over to Don Pio and greets him: — jQue dia tan bonito, Pio— comento con voz can- tarina. El hombre no contesto. Senalo hacia Cristino, que se alejaba con paso torpe, como si fuera tropezando. — No queria ir a buscarme la vaca pinta, que pario anoche. Y ahorita mismo le di medio peso para el camino. 1 2 Ibid. , p. 38. 306 Callo medio minuto y miro a la mujer, que parecia demandar una explicacion. — Malagradecidos que son, Herminia— dijo. — De nada vale tratarlos bien. Ella asintio con la mirada. — Te lo he dicho mil veces, Pio— comento. Y ambos se quedaron mirando a Cristino, que ya era apenas una mancha sobre el verde de la sabana.^-3 The story "Los amos," includes only two scenes: the firing of Cristino and the conversation between Don Pio and the woman. The deed or happening which Bosch uses to re veal the theme and nature of the landlords is the incident in which Don Pio dismisses Cristino, which occurs during the first scene of the story. After Cristino's dismissal, all the action is "falling action" which serves further to define the theme. In the last conversation between the landlords, Bosch in an ironic manner confirms and labels the theme by having the landlords refer to Cristino as an ingrate when in reality this is exactly what the landlord is. In "Los amos," the hecho-tema coincides with the turn ing point and not with the climax, which is virtually non- | existent. "La desgracia," as "Los amos," is a story based on life in Bosch's Cibao. One morning a neighbor woman asks 1 3T-K-a Ibid. 307 the widower Nicasio if he heard a dog crying in the night, because such howling is a sign of impending disaster. He replies that he did not hear the dog. That day Nicasio jclimbs the hillside to cut beans in his garden. Before he j I lean finish his work the rain begins to fall heavily, forcing jhim to seek shelter at his daughter's house nearby. It is after mealtime and when Nicasio crosses Ines' ■patio the rain forces him to walk under the eave. As he passes the bedroom he hears low talking, which causes him ; j to wonder. After a moment Nicasio proceeds to the kitchen i to find the door open and his two grandchildren inside. He i lasks his grandson where his mother is: j : ! — £Y tu mama? £No ta aqui mama? i Se habxa doblado sobre el niho y esperaba ansiosamente | la respuesta. Deseaba que dijera que no. Le ardxa el pecho, le temblaban las manos; los ojos quemaban. No se atrevxa a seguir pensando en lo que temxa. Afuera ! caxa la lluvia a chorros. Con un dedito en la boca, j la nina miraba atentamente al abuelo. j — Mama sx ta— dijo la nina con voz fina y alegre. j — Ella ta mala y Ezeguiel vino a curarla--.explico Liquito.^4 Nicasio is beside himself. He strides across the ipatio, and goes straight to the door of the bedroom. As he orders them to open it, he thinks he hears a window opening. 14 Ibxd., p. 93. 308 Afraid that Ezequiel will get away, Nicasio breaks into the room and runs to the window to block his escape. Nicasio is burning with anger; both his daughter's face and that of her paramour are pale, their eyes downcast: Nicasio se dirigio a Ines, y al hablar le parecia que estaba comiendose sus propios dientes. — jPerra.'— dijo. — jEn el catre de tu mario, perra. ' — jNo llore, sinvergtienzaI — grito el viejo. — j Si la veo llorar, la mato. La vela y veia a la difunta. Su mayor dolor era que una hija de la difunta hiciera tal cosa. Le ten- taba el deseo de levantar el machete y abrirle la cabeza. Sacudio el machete, casi al borde de usarlo. La hija se recogio hacia un rincon, con los ojos llenos de pavor. — jVayase antes que la mate.1 No quiero verla otra ve. No vuelva a ponerse ante me vista. jVayase.' — decia Nicasio.^ But when Ines starts out the door toward the kitchen, Nicasio orders her to leave by the other door. It is inconceivable to him that his daughter should look upon her children, especially after what has happened. Ines asks his pardon, but Nicasio pushes her out the door and damns her: "Que ni en la muerte tenga reposo tu alma1 1 Then he calls his grandchildren together, packs them on the donkey, and starts down the mountainside in the pouring 15 Ibid., p. 94. 16 Ibid., p. 95. 309 rain. The next day when the neighbor woman comments that nothing bad has occurred, Nicasio reveals that there has been a misfortune in the family: — Si paso— explico mientras echaba maiz a las gallinas. — Se murio Ines ayer. — £,Como?— pregunto Magina llena de asombro. — i y los muchachos? <?Y Manuel? — Los muchachos vinieron conmigo anoche. Manuel ta pal pueblo en el entierro. La vieja parecia aturdida. Se cogia la cabeza con ambas manos. — £Pero de que murio? <?Uste ha visto que desgra- cia? Entonces Nicasio levanto la cara. — Vea Magina— dijo, mientras miraba fijamente a la vieja, — morirse no es desgracia. Hay cosas peores que morirse. Y alejo la mirada hacia las nubes que salian por detras de las lomas, aquellas malditas nubes por las cuales habia el llegado a la casa de Ines. — <£Peor que morirse?— pregunto Magina. — Que yo sepa, ninguna. — Si— respondio lentamente Nicasio. — Saber es peor.17 In "La desgracia" the tension of the rising action (accompanied by the howling of the dog, the pounding of the rain, and the murmuring of voices in the bedroom) reaches its climax at the point of Nicasio's discovery of his daughter's adultery. During the falling action, Bosch con tinues the further development of the theme of the effect 17 Ibid., p. 96. 310 of dishonor upon Nicasio, allowing the effect to shape both the man and the action. At the end of the story, Bosch reaffirms the theme by having Nicasio comment to the neigh bor woman: "Saber es peor." We have seen then in "La des gracia" the coincidence of the hecho-tema with the climax of the story. An easily identified incident-theme-climax is pres ent not only in "La desgracia" and "Los amos," but also in "Dos amigos," "Dos pesos de agua," "En un bohio," "El funeral," "Un nino," "Todo un hombre," and "Los ultimos monstruos." Its placement, however, varies: in "Los amos" the hecho-tema scene appears at the very beginning; in "La desgracia" and "El funeral" it appears half-way through the story, thus allowing the author the rest of the story to expand the theme; and in "Dos amigos," "En un bohio," "Un nino," "Todo un hombre," and "Los ultimos monstruos," the hecho-tema scene appears near the end of the story. Two of the cuentos of Dos pesos de agua do not fit the hecho-tema pattern seen so far. In one of these, "Rosa," there is not even a climactic episode. "Rosa" is the story of a young man who has wandered the Cibao occu pied in seasonal work. Because of the difficulty he has 311 had finding work during a drought, his thoughts return to the Amezquita ranch, where he has worked before, the bountiful life there, and the pleasant company of Amez quita ' s attractive daughter. Juan, the protagonist, no sooner arrives at the ranch than he begins to feel ill at ease and resent the warm invitations to stay for as long as he wants. Finally Rosa's constant attention makes Juan uncomfortable and when her sick father tells Juan how much he has wanted him for a son-in-law, Juan feels trapped. A young man who is a genuine contender for Rosa's hand pro vokes Juan into a fight at the general store. Juan defeats him and wins the right to Rosa, but he still cannot decide whether he should stay or leave and continues to fret at the prospect of becoming tied down. At the end of the story Juan roves most of the night trying to decide what to do. On one occasion he even returns to Rosa's house, but lacks the resolve to announce his presence. After hours of ambivalent struggle, Juan wanders off into the night to resume the life of an itinerant worker. The hecho-tema union as seen in Bosch's other stories is not present as such in "Rosa." The theme of the story, Juan's feeling of indecision and hesitancy about 312 settling down, does not come to the reader as a surprise. It is present in the story from the beginning and asserts itself on every page. The closest thing to an emotional climax in the story is Juan's sudden encounter with Rosa's jealous suitor. Though this altercation is emotional, it does not reveal anything new about the theme or really even address itself to the theme. In "Rosa" there is no climac tic episode or the tension of the usual Bosch story. Part of this flatness may be because the reader is never really surprised and also because the author has not developed a definite hecho-tema juncture. Subsequently the reader is disappointed when he receives no emotional surprise, espe cially when he has been conditioned to expect one. Dos pesos de aqua has shown us that the hecho-tema union can be placed at the beginning, middle, or end of a story without detracting from the story's effectiveness. When the hecho-tema is placed at the beginning or middle of a story and it coincides with the climax, the falling action is most generally devoted to further development of the theme. It has also been observed that in the greater part of the stories the hecho-tema union coincides with the climax. When, as in "Rosa," there is no obvious hecho-tema 313 union, the story may lack definition or the impact we have become accustomed to finding in a cuento. In "Los amos" the incident, the dismissal of a sick man, is a negative act; and in all eleven stories the par ticular action which Bosch uses to reveal his theme is negative in regard to life and to the ennoblement of the human spirit. This negativeness may be a symptom of pro test, however. In four of the stories the incident is the death of men or animals; in two, it is an adulterous act; in two others, it is the parting of a friend or loved one; and in another, the deed is the dramatic discovery that a feverish child is maimed. Ocho cuentos All the stories of Ocho cuentos (1947) are eligible for analysis in this chapter since each has been published two or more times in short story volumes or anthologies. The stories are "Luis Pie," "El socio," "Fragata," "Capi- tan," "Poppy," "El rio y su enemigo," "Maravi11a," and "El difunto estaba vivo." The hecho-tema union in Ocho cuentos, which is treated in much the same way as in Dos pesos de agua, is 314 18 easily identified in seven of the eight stories. In most of the stories, the incident through which the theme is revealed is of a morbid or sensational nature, calculated to shock, or as Bosch has stated, herir the reader. In seven of the eight, the hecho-tema coincides with the climax of the story. In "Luis Pie," which in 1943 won the prestigious "Hernandez Cata" international prize for short stories, the protagonist is a Haitian immigrant worker who has come to the Dominican Republic with his children to cut cane, as Haitians have done for decades. Luis has difficulty com municating with the Dominicans, since he knows little Spanish. This handicap is compounded by his misinterpreta tion of the life and events around him, which he generally interprets in light of his belief in the spiritual world and gods of the Haitian culture. Having injured his foot in the cane fields remote from the settlement, Luis is crippled by the resulting infection. He lights a match to inspect his foot, suspecting that his pain is the work of a secret foe. "Queria estar seguro de que el mal le habia entrado The hecho-tema union is evident in all the stories except "Capitan." 315 por la herida y no gue se debia a obra de algun desconocido 19 que deseaba hacerle dano." Luis knows that somehow he has to reach a road where he can be picked up and taken back to the settlement. He worries that his children, alone back in the shack, will go without supper. He feels like crying, but he is afraid to give in to weakness. While he is dragging himself along unable to walk, he hears something like the sound of a car behind him. It is Valentin Quintero, owner of the planta tion "La Gloria," who is driving by on the road which bor ders the next cane section. While lighting a cigarette, Valentin has thoughtlessly tossed a match out of the car into the cane. Luis first notices the glow in the sky, then shortly afterward he hears the popping and crackling of burning cane and sees flames light up the sky: ... los tallos disparaban sin cesar y por momentos el fuego se producia en explosiones y ascendia a golpes hasta perderse en la altura. El haitiano temio que iba a quedar cercado. Quiso huir. Se levanto y pretendio correr a saltos sobre una sola pierna. Pero le parecio que nada podria salvarle. — jBonye, BonyeJ— empezo a aullar, fuera de si; y luego, mas alto aun: ... — jBonyeeeee.1 Grito de tal manera y llego a tanto su terror, que por un instante perdio la voz y el conocimiento. Sin Cuentos escritos en el exilio, p. 45. 316 embargo siguio moviendose, tratando de escapar, pero sin saber en verdad que hacxa. Quienquiera que fuera, el enemigo que le habxa echado el mal se valio de j fuerzas poderosas. Luis Pie lo reconocio asx y se | preparo a lo peor. While pleading with Bonye, the god of the unlucky i |ones, to help him, Luis Pie hears horses and shouts. Bonye |has answered his plea.' The Dominicans on horseback are not coming to rescue Luis Pie, however. They are searching for i whoever has set fire to the cane. As Luis Pie, overjoyed |at his luck, tries to run to his "rescuers," he is quickly surrounded by angry men armed with machetes, who want to ;kill him on the spot. They search their captive and find j jLuis' matches, which, in their minds, proves his guilt. I | cQue habia ocurrido? Luis Pie no lo comprendia. i Su poderoso enemigo acabarxa con el; le habxa echado | encima a todos los terribles dioses de Haiti, y Luis Pie, que temxa a esas fuerzas ocultas, no iba a luchar j contra ellas porque sabxa que era inutil. ' After an hour's march, during which the Dominicans ‘ push and prod Luis into the edge of the settlement, they come upon the shack in which Luis' three naked children ;huddle. Bleeding from the beating he has received and i junable to stand on his infected leg, Luis stops and speaks to his children. The scene is extremely moving: 20 Ibxd., p. 48. 21 Ibxd., p. 50. 317 Aunque la luz era escasa todo el mundo vio a Luis Pie cuando su rostro paso de aquella impresion de vencido a la de atencion? todo el mundo vio el resplan- dor del interes en sus ojos. Era tal el momento que nadie hablo. Y de pronto la voz de Luis Pie, una voz llena de angustia y de ternura, se alzo en medio del silencio, diciendo: — jPiti Mishe, mon piti Mishe.1 <£Tu no ta enferme, mon piti? £Tu ta bien? Luis Pie, asombrado de que sus hijos no se hallaran bajo el poder de las tenebrosas fuerzas que le perse- guian, no pudo contener sus palabras. — jOh Bonye, tu se granj— clamo volviendo al cielo una honda mirada de gratitud.^ Luis tilts his head downward so that he will not be seen weeping. One of the soldiers becomes irate with him for spending so much time talking with his family and iraises his fist to hit the Haitian: ; Pero el chasquido del golpe no llego a sonar. Pues j aunque deseaba pegar, el soldado se contuvo. Tenia la mano demasiado adolorida por el uso que le habia dado esa noche, y, ademas, comprendio que, por duro que le | pegara, Luis Pie no se daria cuenta de ello.23 In "Luis Pie" the themes of class privilege (Valen tin Quintero) and the Dominicans1 abuse of the migrant worker (Luis Pie) are prominent. Yet it is the buoyant and childlike nature of Luis Pie and his steadfast belief in j-Haitian gods (Bonye) which are best revealed in the moment 22 Ibid., p. 51. ^Ibid. , p. 52. 318 he is escorted past his family on the way to the settle ment. Bosch has prepared the reader to accept the Haitian's | Isuperstition, but Luis Pie's steadfast belief is not con- i I | firmed until the hecho-tema scene at the end of the story. i I In "Luis Pie," the theme is fully illuminated at |the moment when Luis Pie, through speaking with his chil dren, is assured that they are well and safe from the ter rible enemy that has plagued him. This scene lends a more optimistic note to Bosch's writing than many of the macabre ones he has produced. In the story "Fragata" one day the residents of Calle Ponton see a young woman, outlandish in her appear- 24 jance, accompanying a cart along the street. Much to their ! ! astonishment, she orders the cartman to stop. Fragata, as |she becomes known, takes out a key and unlocks the bungalow that has been vacant for some time. During an interview with Bosch in the summer of 1966, I indicated that I would like to visit Bosch's birth place in La Vega. Professor Bosch made a sketch of the neighborhood he used to live in and labeled some of the houses in it, including his own. Two of the places marked had been residences of people about whom Bosch wrote stories: Fragata and Victoriano Segura. The street was called Avenida Ponton when Bosch lived there (now Calle Padre Adolfo Nouel) and although his neighborhood was not in an elegant section of town, it was quite respectable. 319 Desde el dxa de su llegada empezaron a visitarla los tipos mas raros y a la segunda noche hubo escandolo en su casa. La pequena calle dormxa ya cuando se oyeron gritos, maldiciones y carreras. A la manana siguiente, acompanada de un policxa al que hacxa rexr con lo que le iba diciendo, Fragata aparecio en la esquina con la cabeza vendada. A un hombre que pasaba se le ocurrio hacer un chiste a costa de ella, y sin respetar la presencia del policxa, Fragata empezo a insultarlo a grito pelado. ^ Several of the neighbors, headed by Dona Ana, cam- I |paign against Fragata's presence on the street, claiming ithat she exerts a bad influence on the children. Curiously ;enough, Fragata loves the children on Calle Ponton, and as jhuge as she is, plays catch with them in the street and !calls them funny names. The games generally occur in the | jafternoon when the neighborhood is quiet. The commotion j that is made can be heard up and down the street. At night men from other parts of town come to visit Fragata, bringing rum with them from the neighborhood store. On these nights Fragata, her inhibitions lowered by exces sive drinking, often steps into the street and screams obscenities: | Ocurrio muchas veces que estando en un cambio de pala- I brotas, la muchacha saliera corriendo despues de haber Juan Bosch, Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio (Santo Domingo: Editorial Librerxa Dominicana, 1964), pp. 15-16. 320 cambiado subitamente su cara feroz en un rostro lleno de alegria. Era que Fragata habia visto a un nino y se habia olvidado de todo. Entonces parecia dife- rente; sus ojos brillaban con una luz resplandeciente y se le advertia una especie de ausencia por todo lo que no fuera el nino. A veces recorria la callecita^g jugando como si no hubiera tenido mas de siete ahos. Fragata is very moody and at times spends hours pacing the street without greeting people. On occasions i I she will go into her bungalow, throw herself on the bed and | | sob. Don Pedrito tells the story of a friend who had been jwith Fragata. During the night she got up and began to hit i |and insult him, frightening her customer. Then in the next I moment the insults became tears, and she dragged herself across the floor, j ... para agarrarse a sus piernas, gimiendo desconso- ladamente, quejandose de que ni el ni nadie pudiera darle un hijo. El hombre se vistio y huyo mientras Fragata, en medio de la habitacion, hablaba amarga- mente con sus imagenes litografiadas. The following Sunday Fragata entertains more people than ever. From her house comes a commotion that sounds i Hike several people fighting, and above this clamor Fra- Igata's voice is heard. Evidently someone has insulted I Fragata who replies with threats of murder. The tumult is ■such that Don Pepe finally has to step out of his house and 26 Ibid., p. 17. ^ Ibid. , p. 18. 321 ask the revelers to be quiet. The neighbors, who have had enough of Fragata, decide to remedy the situation. On Monday they meet regarding their course of action. Once they notice that Fragata is up, the neighbor hood men cross the street and, after knocking solemnly, enter her house. The wives wait patiently in their homes I fully expecting Fragata to start screaming at the men, but inothing happens. When Doha Ana finally notices the men j I returning, she runs to meet them: | — <£Los insulto? <?Que dijo?— inquirio. El que hablo fue don Ojito. — No senora. Nos oyo y se echo a llorar. — £A llorar? — Si, y dijo que si ella hubiera sabido que les | estaba dando malos ejemplos a los ninos de por aqui, j se hubiera mudado hacia tiempo. Pregunto por que no se lo habiamos dicho antes. — Ella dijo que queria irse hoy mismo, ahora mismo— explico don Pedrito.2® j It is not half an hour before Fragata's things are I placed on a cart and she is walking along beside it. For ;a few seconds she takes her last look at Calle Ponton, then ; turns and starts down the street. All this while Doha Ana i has been observing Fragata's departure: Mujer al fin, dona Ana penso un momento en aquella mujer que se iba asx, sola, nadie sabia adonde. Le 28 Ibid. , p. 20. 322 parecio que la vida era dura con Fragata. Pero reacciono de pronto. — Se lo merece, por sinvergdenza— dijo en alta j v o z . | Y antes de entrar contemplo la callecita, que vol- i veria a ser apacible a partir de ese momento. j — Por vivir en este barrio miserable— aseguro ! como si hablara con alguien. ^ ! Y cerro la puerta con un golpe rotundo. I Bosch's sketch of Calle Ponton's scarlet woman i reaches a crisis when the three neighborhood men speak with ! Fragata regarding her undesirable presence in the neighbor hood. Fragata's reaction to this confrontation (el hecho) reveals the theme. j ! i As previously indicated, hecho-tema unions were j 'recognized in seven of the eight stories in Ocho cuentos. |The story in which a hecho-tema union is not identifiable I j jis "Capitan" (see Chapter VI, pp. 237-243), the narrative ]which verifies the folk superstition that animals can recog- ■ i nize the approach of death and communicate its presence. j In "Capitan" the reader comes in contact with the theme several times before reaching the resolution. It is the reader's familiarity with the theme, perhaps, which detracts from the scene Bosch has intended for the hecho-tema union. 29 Ibxd. , p. 21. 323 The incidents that Bosch has used in Ocho cuentos to reveal the themes of his stories have been society's rejection of a nonconformist ("Fragata"), the death of animals or people or both ("Capitan," "El difunto estaba [vivo," "Maravilla," "Poppy," "El rio y su enemigo," and "El jsocio"), and the safety of children feared to be harmed !("Luis Pie"). Several of the stories do not end right at | the juncture of the incident-theme or incident-theme-climax, but include a closing thought or philosophy which has the ^effect of further defining or developing the theme ("Fra- I jgata," "El socio," "Luis Pie"), i La muchacha de La Guaira I I All the stories of La muchacha de La Guaira will be included in the conclusions arrived at in this section. iThey are "La nochebuena de Encarnacion Mendoza," "El indio Manuel Sicuri," "Rumbo al puerto de origen," "Victoriano |Segura," "La muerte no se equivoca dos veces," "Mai tiempo," "La bella alma de Don Damian," and "La muchacha de La ! Guaira." The structural features of these stories are basi cally those already established in Ocho cuentos and all have readily identifiable hecho-tema unions except for "Rumbo 324 al puerto de origen." The incident-theme and climax coin cide in five stories ("La nochebuena de Encarnacion Men doza, " "Victoriano Segura," "La bella alma de Don Damian," "La muchacha de La Guaira," and "La muerte no se equivoca dos veces"). During the Dominican interview in 1965, Professor i ;Bosch commented that of the cuentos he had written, "El 30 ;indio Manuel Sicuri" was his favorite. It is the tale, .slightly costumbrista, of a young Aymara couple that lives ;in an isolated area of the Bolivian plateau. Their hut has ino windows and consists of a single room in which all the ! ifamily sleep and store their belongings, which include an i old chest, the sheep skins from their flock, and a hatchet. Manuel's father had once defended his home from an attack ing puma with this same hatchet. On occasions Manuel acts ! |out his father's killing of the puma to the delight of his ! orphaned brother and sisters. Their isolation is interrupted the July afternoon jthe dogs began to bark viciously at the approach of a stranger, who is the first person to come by their hut in j a long time. Manuel notices that he is not of their race Professor Bosch indicated that Sicuri means bai- larin or "dancer." 325 and is reluctant to receive him: ... Manuel hubiera corrido a darle encuentro y tal vez a ayudarle. Pero era un extrano y nadie sabxa que fsic] le llevaba a tan desolado sitio a tal hora. Lo mejor seria esperar. Cuando estuvo a cincuenta pasos, el hornbre saludo en aimara, si bien se notaba que no era su lengua. Manuel se le acerco poco a poco. Maria espanto a los perros con pedruscos y pudo oir a los j dos hombres hablar; hablaban a distancia, casi a gri- | tos. El forastero explico que se habia perdido y que se sentia muy enfermo; dijo que tenia sed y hambre y j que queria dormir.^l ! iMaria does not want the stranger to stay, but Manuel cannot |deny shelter to one who asks for it; God would be offended. I That night Jacinto Muniz, a fugitive from justice in two countries, sleeps under the family sheep skins. The next day this stranger explains that he has fled Peru be cause his government wants to kill him. He claims that a local politician took away his wife and land, which he protested; it is because of his protest that they want to kill him. When Jacinto Muniz asks to stay a second night, Manuel, still afraid of offending God, does not refuse. i The following morning as Manuel spreads potatoes on !the ground to dehydrate, he sees another man approaching, one of his own race. When Jacinto Muniz realizes that Juan Bosch, La muchacha de La Guaira (Santiago, Chile: Editorial Nascimento, 1955), p. 29. 326 another man is nearing the isolated hut, he pleads with Manuel to hide him. Manuel, unsure of what action to take, pulls the chest and skins out from the wall and conceals the fugitive behind them. Resulto que el hombre era un chasquis, esto es, un correo enviado a recorrer las distantes y perdidas viviendas de esa zona para informar que se buscaba a un cholo peruano con una cicatriz en la frente; a juicio del mallcu, es decir, del jefe indigena que lo j habia mandado a ese recorrido, el profugo buscaba cru- zar hacia Chile, pero en vez de dirigirse hacia el suroeste desde el ultimo sitio en que se le vio, cami- naba en derechura al sur, lo que indicaba que debia pasar por alii. — No, no ha pasado por aqui— explico Manuel. — £Por que buscan a ese peruano?— pregunto. j — Robo una iglesia alia en su tierra— dijo el ; chasquis; — robo la corona de la Virgen y el caliz y I el manto de tatica Jesus Nazareno, que tenia oro y I piedras finas. Manuel estuvo a punto de venderse. Vio a su mujer mirarle con una fijeza de loca y el mismo sintio que la cabeza le daba vuelta. Tuvo que apoyarse en tierra con una mano. ;De manera que el cholo Jacinto Muniz habia robado a mamita la VirgenJ Pero ya el habia dicho que ; no habia pasado por ahi, y decir lo contrario era pro- ! bablemente buscarse un lio con las autoridades.^2 I j Manuel is beside himself. If he tells the chasquis i t .that Jacinto Muniz is hidden, they will put him in jail, |but if he continues to hide the foreigner, God will know and certainly punish him. Manuel decides to accompany the ?runner part way to his next destination to find out if 32 Ibid., pp. 35-36. 327 the runner suspects anything. Perhaps the runner had seen a footprint or some movement in the hut when he and Manuel were having coca. Once Manuel and the runner have departed, Jacinto feels safe and his eyes and thoughts turn to young Maria Sisa, Manuel's wife: | Era una india aimara como tantas otras, como millares j de indias aimaras, bajita y robusta, pero tenia la piel j limpia en los brazos y las piernas sanas y era joven; ! estaba embarazada, <?pero que le importaba eso a el, un | hombre acosado, un hombre en peligro que estaba huyendo | hacia casi un mes?^ When Manuel returns two hours later and steps into I the hut, he immediately sees the wound on Maria Sisa's | forehead. He listens to Maria without saying a word as she tearfully recounts the morning's episode. Manuel's eyes fall on the hatchet. j De un salto Manuel Sicuri corrio al rincon y cogio el hacha. ' — <?Por donde se fue, por donde se fue?— preguntaba ' el indio, angustiado, ansioso como un perro de caza | que olfatea en el aire la presencia de la pieza. | Entonces el mayor de los yokallas senalo con su bracito y dijo que hacia alia, hacia la Cordillera Occidental. Manuel se echo el hacha al hombro y corrio; | dio la vuelta a la vivienda, paso tras el corral, se j detuvo un momento para reconocer las huellas y empren- ! dio de nuevo el trote. Ya no perderia las huellas ni 33 Ibid., p. 40. 328 durante un minuto. ... Por la alta planicie, a esa hora iluminada en toda su extension por el sol del invierno, se perdio Manuel Sicuri tras la huella de - . 'ZA Jacinto Muniz. The rest of the day Manuel follows the trail of Jacinto Muniz, finally sighting him before sunset. There is a time j jwhen Manuel cannot see the fugitive, but an hour after sun down the light of a full moon floods the plain from horizon I | to horizon to reveal his adversary dead ahead. j ; i Manuel Sicuri no tenia por que apresurarse; esto j es, no se sentia preocupado. Era una actitud muy j aimara la suya, aunque no sea facil de comprender. El j indio Manuel Sicuri iba a hacer justicia, estaba seguro de que no tardaria en hacerla; no habia, pues, razon para que se excitara. Ese hombre que corria no podria salvarse; huiria cuanto quisiera, tal vez horas y i | horas, pero ellos dos estaban solos en la solitaria j puna y el, Manuel Sicuri, no se cansaria, no trope- zaria con los khulas de la pampa, no caeria.35 | When Manuel is just a few steps from the Peruvian, I the latter suddenly stops, spins in a half circle and draws his knife. Manuel Sicuri, bailarin, is prepared for such a move, and avoids the attack by jumping aside. Using his ! father's hatchet, Manuel disarms and mortally wounds the fugitive, who is now crouched on the ground in front of him. Manuel does not deal the moribund figure a coup de grace, but in typical Aymara fashion stoops down beside the dying 34 35 Ibid. , pp. 46-47. Ibid., pp. 54-55. 329 man to chew coca and wait for him to expire. Manuel arrives home early in the morning to find the runner of the day before waiting for him. Because the chasquis sees the bloody hatchet, Manuel has to tell him everything. Manuel tells the chasquis that he has re covered the crown and wants to return it to the Virgin: — Hay que llevarsela a Mamita— dijo. — Quiero llevarsela yo mismo, yo y Maria. Pero no pudo llevarsela, porque asi como el no podia enganar al chasquis, el chasquis no podia enganar a su mallcu ni su mallcu a los carabineros ni estos al juez. El juez, a causa de que la ley lo ordenaba, dijo que Manuel Sicuri debia ir a la carcel. En la carcel de La Paz, un dia, Manuel Sicuri con- taba a sus companeros como su padre habia muerto un puma a hachazos. El mismo hacia el papel del puma, y despues el de su padre, y los indios presos reian a carcajadas, como sus hermanitos. Y viendoles reir Manuel Sicuri se puso de pronto serio. Ocurrio que en su cabeza estallo de pronto una pregunta, una pregunta para la cual el no hallaba respuesta. Pues sucedia que su padre habia muerto un puma a hachazos y nadie le habia dicho nada y todo el mundo hallo muy bien que lo hubiera hecho y no lo separaron a causa de ello de su yokalla, de el, Manuel Sicuri, que entonces estaba recien nacido. Con la misma hacha el habia dado muerte a una fiera peor que aquel puma, y he aqui que el juez lo habia hallado mal y lo habia separado de su yokalla, tan pequehito y tan desvalido. iPor que, tatica Dios, por que sucedia eso? Pero Manuel Sicuri no hizo la pregunta en voz alta. Se habia quedado subitamente mudo; se encamino a una ventana, se sento alii, junto a las rejas, extrajo de su bolsillo coca y legia y se puso a preparar su acu- lico. Sobre los techos de La Paz comenzaba en tal momento a caer una lluvia fina.^6 36 Ibid., pp. 60-61. 330 In "El indio Manuel Sicuri" there are four scenes essential to the conflict and its unraveling: the arrival of the thief and the Indian runner, the scene of Maria Sisa's dishonor, the chase and subsequent vengeance, and the jailing of Manuel Sicuri. The climax, which is sepa rate from the hecho-tema, is the scene in which Manuel iavenges his family's dishonor by killing Jacinto Muniz. I ! jEven though Manuel has been caught in a web of circum- |stances, he has fulfilled his obligations to his society's i jcode of behavior as well as any man. His incarceration at jthe end of the cuento is not only the unraveling of the ! conflict, but also the scene in which the theme of injus tice is exposed. Whereas Bosch has often chosen a moribund incident to reveal his theme, in the autobiographical story "Victo- riano Segura" the theme surfaces through a heroic action. !0ne night without anyone knowing it, a tall, laconic man |and his wife move into a house which has been vacant for several months. Very shortly the people on the street begin to think poorly of the newcomer Victoriano, probably ’ because of the visits the police have made there and the fact that he never returns anyone's greeting or has any 331 association with his neighbors. Next to the house that Victoriano rents live two old women who are reputed to have some money. One night screams are heard from the old ladies' house, and people assume that Victoriano is robbing them. A neighbor, Don Tancredo, investigates and discovers that the screams have come from Victoriano Segura1s house linstead. His presence on the street causes an uneasiness j iin everyone, which is why his behavior the night of the jmisfortune surprises so many people. I It is the night of San Silvestre that cries of help are heard from the house of Jose Abud, the nicest house on jcalle Ponton. Jose lives with his wife, his three beauti- I iful children, and his mother, who is paralyzed. When the cries are first heard many think that the old woman has died, but after the neighbors notice an eerie, reddish glow in the night, they realize that Jose's house is on fire. — ]Fuego; es fuego en la casa de Jose Abud! Atro- l pelladamente, vestidos a medias, hombres, mujeres y muchachos comenzaron a corretear por la calleja. Subitas y violentas llamaradas salian, con pasmosa y siniestra agilidad, por debajo del balcon de la gran casa; se oxa el chasquido del fuego y el trepidar de las puertas. Agudos lamentos de mujeres y voces de hombres xbanle dando al terrible espectaculo el pavo- roso tono que merecxa. Alla arriba, corriendo por el bolcon \sic] de un extremo al otro, como enloquecidos, : se vexan a Jose, con dos de los hijos bajo los brazos, ; y a la mujer con otro en alto. 332 — jQue bajen por la escalera antes de que se queme; que bajen por la escalera.' jBaja, Jose; bajen.1 — gritaban desde la calle.37 Jose lives above his store. The fire apparently has started in the back of the store and is now consuming the back of the house too. Several men break open the door to the stairway and rush upstairs to lead Jose and his |family out of the house. Among the large crowd that has I igathered to watch the fire stands Victoriano Segura, his jarms crossed in an attitude of aloofness. Alii, los brazos cruzados sobre el pecho, atento al siniestro, callado, podia versele enrojeciendo y brillando, como un alto y flaco e inmovil muneco de | cobre que resultara a ratos iluminado por el aleteo de I las llamas. Al parecer no atendia a nada mas que al j subito e incesante crecer y decrecer de las llamaradas, cuando se oyo a Jose Abud exclamar, con voz que parecia llegar de otro mundo: — jMama, mama esta arriba.' ;Mama se quema.' Entonces, braceando como si nadara, Victoriano Segura avanzo. La gente sintio su presencia. Aquella extraha mirada se convirtio de subito en la de una fiera; un brillo imponente le alumbro los ojos; y su voz de piedra, esa voz que aterrorizaba al vecindario, ; baja, fuerte, dura, se impuso al tumulto, a los gritos | y a las quejas. ! — <£Donde esta la vieja? jDiganme donde esta la ; viejaj— demando mas que pregunto.38 The crowd immediately assumes that Victoriano Segura wants to enter the house to steal. Jose Abud tries to stop 37 Ibid., p. 84. 38 Ibid., p. 86. 333 him from entering, but he is too late. Victoriano has already gone leaping up the stairs like a giant cat to the cries of: ";Si, se va a matar, se va a asfixiar.' j Saiga 39 de ahi, Victoriano.'" The large crowd has seen Victoriano enter the jflaming building and wonders if he and the old woman are !still alive. The selflessness he has shown by entering the i I house to save the woman causes them to be concerned about Ihis safety: Habia llegado ya el momento en que la gente lanzaba maldiciones por la lentitud del hombre en salir, lo ; cual indicaba que su probable muerte— la horrible ! muerte por el fuego— comenzaba a ganarle simpatias. | Aunque no habia dudas de que todos pensaban en la vieja | paralitica, podia advertirse que sobre ese pensamiento 1 iba superponiendose, con rasgos cada vez mas fuertes, la imagen de Victoriano Segura. Aquel hombre que tan sombrio prestigio tenia en la calleja parecia llamado a promover en torno suyo una atmosfera dramatica.^O Finally Victoriano is seen stepping onto the flaming balcony with Mrs. Abud in his arms. He sits down, takes jhold of the old woman and begins to lower her. The mass of i ipeople below urges him to drop her so he can get off the fiery balcony. Ahora bien, era evidente que a aquel hombre no le importaban gran cosa los demas. Las opiniones pueden 39 Ibid., p. 88. 40 Ibid., p. 90. 334 cambiar en un minuto, y con ellas los sentimientos a que han dado origen; mas la naturaleza humana no varia tan de prisa. Ese Victoriano Segura que estaba jugan- dose la vida en el balcon era el mismo que dejaba sin contestar los saludos de sus vecinos, sin tomar en cuenta lo que pensaran. Estaba tan aislado alia arriba como se mantenia en su casa.^^ Victoriano finally swings the old woman free to let jher fall into a group of men waiting below. Seconds later jhe himself drops from the balcony just before it crashes. | |The onlookers, distracted by the collapsing balcony, fail i jto notice Victoriano's quick retreat back to his house. j ,The next day, Jose Abud and others from the neighborhood I go to the Segura house to pay a visit, but Victoriano's wife, visibly nervous, tells them that he is not home. She asks them to leave, then closes the door. Two months later the mystery surrounding the Seguras intensifies when the neighbors see Victoriano and his wife loading a wooden ;coffin on the family wagon. Once the coffin is loaded, |Victoriano and his wife drive up Calle Ponton never to re- j ;turn. The narrator of the story— it is told in the first i person— and Victoriano Segura meet years later in a distant ijail. Victoriano is in a large cell with many others; when 41 Ibid., pp. 94-95. 335 he gets up to return to his cot, the others silently open a path for him as the narrator steps forward to meet him: — Uste es Victoriano Segura— le dije atravesandome en su camino. — Si, <ipor que?— contesto. Era su misma voz dura de otros tiempos, era su misma mirada metalica, impresionante y reservada. Tenia algunas canas y algunas arrugas, y nada mas, — Yo lo conoci a uste— dije. — Viviamos casi en- frente. Fue cuando se quemo la casa de Jose Abud. A mi me parecio que algo velo entonces, por un segundo, el brillo de su mirada. Tal vez fue ilusion mia. Victoriano Segura no contesto palabra. Se fue a su camastro, y alii estuvo largas horas labrando su pedazo de madera. Retorno a la soledad, a esa aspera soledad en que viviera siempre.4^ About a week later the narrator dares to ask Victo riano about his wife. Victoriano does not answer right away, but spends several moments staring at his hands, turning them over, feeling one with the other: Al fin dijo estas tres palabras: — En el lazareto. A poco recomendo: — Que no lo sepa nadie. Entonces yo tuve un vislumbre, asi, relampagueante, de que su antigua soledad se habia debido ... — Ahora me explico— empece a decir, mientras el me clavaba su imperiosa mirada ... — Aquel ataud era ... — Su mama— dijo; — la mama de mi mujer, que murio lazara. Al parecer hallo que habia hablado demasiado, por- que se puso en pie y se fue a un rincon. Se sento alii y se dedico a contemplar el patio, donde algunos 42 Ibid., p. 102. -------------------------------- 336 reclusos charlaban y se movxan sin cesar. Ya no volvx a dirigirle la palabra sino cuando un mes despues se me aviso que recogiera mis pertenencias porque iban a dejarme en libertad ese mismo dxa. Me le acerque para preguntarle si querxa que visitara a su mujer en el lazareto. Y he aqux lo que me dijo entonces Victoriano Segura, mirandome a los ojos: — No vaya. Su mama perdio la nariz y tal vez ella la pierda tambien. Uste la conocio cuando era bonita. Si uste la ve ahora con mi consentimiento, es como si la viera yo. Y me dio la espalda, sin importarle para nada la | ola de admiracion en que me habia dejado envuelto.^3 ! There are two principal scenes in "Victoriano iSegura": the rescue of Jose Abud1s mother and the chance j ^meeting of the narrator and Victoriano Segura in jail. t j 'Victoriano's rescue of the paralyzed woman is the climactic scene and the one in which his actions reveal the theme. i i i This hecho-tema climax is unusually interesting in that during the fire the crowd's opinion of Victoriano changes from distrust to one of concern and admiration. The sup- i jporting scenes which follow the rescue: Victoriano's cora- iplete absence from the neighborhood street, the loading of I I | ‘the coffin, the departure of the Seguras, are elements of i !the falling action which lead to a legitimate denouement, the mystery's unraveling in the jail cell. 43 Ibid., pp. 102-103. 337 The Seguras' reticent behavior is a product of their abnegation. Knowing that society would ostracize them if it knew about the leprous mother-in-law, Victoriano and his wife accept their fate uncomplainingly, preferring to live in isolation. One does what one must. Later when Victoriano performs the heroic rescue, he merely is doing Iwhat a man should, which is his stoical way of reacting to ;a situation which he cannot change. I There are two stories in La muchacha de La Guaira whose hecho-temas in the opinion of the writer are not con vincing: "Mai tiempo" and "Rumbo al puerto de origen." j ! Bosch points out that "La importancia del hecho es desde I | jluego relativa, mas debe ser indudable, convincente para la 44 generalidad de los lectores"; these stories fail to meet this criterion. I The psychological narrative "Rumbo al puerto de origen" is structured around three scenes: the introduction ito the problem when the sailor Juan de la Paz falls over- i .board, his arrival on a remote cay, and his subsequent rescue by boat. ' It is about six in the evening when Juan de la Paz, Teoria del cuento: tres ensayos, p. 15. 338 sailing alone, spots a crippled dove floating on the water. He brings the boat about to steer alongside the dove, hoping to make a present of it to his daughter Emilia. As he releases the tiller to lean out of the hull to rescue the bird, the breeze moves the boat a foot or two away from j |the bird. Then as Juan stretches to grab the dove, an I unexpected gust of air fills the sails, causing the boat i |to accelerate abruptly and drop Juan into the sea. When he jcomes up he is stunned to find that the sailboat is gliding t I away under the force of the breeze, almost as if it were ! steered by the devil. This unbelievable act of fate and I the realization that his terrible predicament means imminent death causes him to lose all presence of mind. Fear asphyxiates Juan when he has visions of being attacked by sharks and barracuda. His delirium continues and when night comes he imagines seeing a ship's lights jand begins to call out, hoping that he can be heard. At : times he remembers the dove, abandoned now and dead. For tunately for Juan, his derangement is temporary, and by I swimming steadily he eventually overcomes his panic and is iable to head for the distant morass of Cayo Azul. i Juan reaches the cay's shallows at about three in |the morning. For many hours he struggles over endless 339 mangrove shoots and tidelands before reaching a sandbank where he collapses to lie the entire day, semiconscious, in the baking sun. That evening while exploring for drinking water he finds some timbers, which he plans to use; but exhaustion overcomes him, and it is after midnight before he awakens, this time in a feverish state. In this deso- ilate spot Juan realizes more and more the stiff punishment | jGod has reserved for him, in spite of his already having I served man's punishment and imprisonment. i Del fondo de su ser empezo a crecer lentamente un vivo sentimiento de lastima consigo mismo, y a medida que j tal estado de animo se definia metiendose como una | despaciosa invasion de agua por todos los antros de j su cuerpo, en alguna oscura parte de su conciencia iba | tomando cuerpo la figura de la paloma, derivando | corriente abajo, muerta pero no sumergida, y el rostro de Emilia, tan palido y, sin embargo, tan sonreido. De subito Juan de la Paz se derrumbo; cayo de rodillas en la arena, elevo los ojos y las manos al cielo y pidio perdon. — ;Perdoname, Virgen de la Caridad, tu que todo ! lo puedesj— exclamo. ! Y a seguidas se echo a llorar, con amargo llanto | de infante desvalido, mientras iba doblandose sobre si j mismo hasta quedar con los codos clavados en la arena, como un musulman en oracion. Desnudo, solo bajo la ! oscurecida luna, rodeado por un mar cuyas olas poco a I poco se levantaban mas y mas, Juan de la Paz era la imagen dolorosa y ridicula, a la vez, del desamparo. Temblando de fiebre y de frio, aguijoneado por los in- sectos, adolorida la llagada piel, el naufrago solo I acertaba a ver en su imaginacion a la paloma y a la nina; y de subito, llenandole de espanto, comprendio que de las redondas lineas que formaban la carita de 340 Emilia surgia la de Rosalia, mustia y sin embargo espantada. The sudden memory of Rosalia triggers something in him. Screaming and wildly gesticulating, Juan plunges into the surf, casting himself adrift on two of the salvaged tim bers, more interesting now in fleeing than in saving him- jself. | Juan is unconscious when he is picked up by a boat I !the following day. After several hours of rest, he awakens i I to ask for water and it is not long before he can be fed a little soup. He is suffering from severe exposure and is quite mixed up. He keeps trying to remember his daughter, i [ [but her name will not come to him. i En cambio ahi estaban, como si se hallaran presentes, la paloma y Rosalia. La paloma y Rosalia habian muerto, muerto las dos. Y, sin embargo, no se iban, aunque nada tenian que ver con lo que estaba pasando. Nada le recordaban, nada le decian. Entonces oyo la voz del patron: — cY como te caiste, Juan de la Paz? Si le oian o no, eso no importaba. El caso es que el contesto: - 46 — Por coger una paloma. i I All the crew recognize Juan, including the skipper, i ! land they know of his past, of his crime, and his commitment 45 La muchacha de La Guaira, pp. 74-75. 46 Ibid., p. 77. 341 to the Isle of Pines for twenty years. Because of this the skipper wants to know more about the dove episode and how Juan became marooned: — £Por coger una paloma? l Y pa que querias tu esa paloma, Juan de la Paz? Juan de la Paz parecia dormitar, acaso a resultas del bien que le produjo la sopa de pescado. Sin em- | bargo se le oyo contestar, con despaciosa y clara voz: — Pa llevarsela de regalo a Rosalia. ! Un silencio total siguio a estas palabras. El patron miro a los circumstantes, uno por uno, con impresionante lentitud; despues se puso en pie y tomo i la escalerilla para salir a cubierta. Sin hablar, los j demas le siguieron. Afuera soplaba el norte, cada vez j con mas vigor. — <?0i mal o dijo Rosalia, Gallego?— pregunto el patron a uno de sus hombres. — Si, dijo Rosalia, y bien claro— aseguro el interpelado. — Eso quiere decir que Juan de la Paz esta vol- viendo al puerto de origen— explico el patron. Y nadie mas hablo. Pues todos ellos conocian bien la historia de Juan de la Paz. Todos ellos sabian que habia cumplido veinte anos, de una condena de treinta, por haber asesinado, para violarla, a una niha de nueve anos llamada Rosalia. Mas exactamente, Rosalia de la Paz.^ From the beginning of "Rumbo al puerto de origen," jthe crippled dove becomes a familiar motif, possibly a sym- s bol for Juan's conscience. At first the dove appears in 1 |association with his daughter Emilia and his moments of | Idelirium. 47 Ibid., p. 78. 342 Y era curioso que ... en medio de brincos impo- sibles, de gritos que se perdian en la tremenda soledad liquida, ... surgiera de pronto, una vez y otra vez y otra mas, la imagen de la paloma.^® Juan's unlikely survival on the deserted and inhospitable cay is the deed through which the theme is expressed. Help less and despondent, he interprets his predicament as one iof God’s punishment and begs His pardon. During this I jmoment when his spirits are at a low ebb, the vision of iRosalxa wells up from his subconscious to haunt Juan, ! thereby signaling to the reader that something is bothering jhis conscience. It is not until the resolution, the last jscene with the boat's crew, that the reader discovers why i i jRosalia weighs so heavily upon Juan's conscience. "Rumbo al puerto de origen" has technical attributes on a par with Bosch's best stories. He has built the nar rative around a technically acceptable hecho-tema union (Juan's mental depression on the cay and his subsequent jvision of Rosalia) while concealing the resolution until jthe last line of the story. He artfully weaves a symbol of iJuan's conscience, the dove, into the story by having it coincide with the protagonist's hallucinations. Yet "Rumbo 48 Ibid., p. 68. 343 al puerto de origen" is not as convincing as Bosch's other stories. There is no verisimilitude in the association of Juan's sudden repentance and his crime. The suggestion that Juan de la Paz has forgotten the rape and murder of a nine-year-old member of his family after twenty years of iprison and is just now asking God's forgiveness is unlikely. !The hecho-tema, the moment on the cay when Juan sees the j jface of Rosalia, appears to the reader to be just another lof Juan's series of deliriums, and as such does not comply with Bosch's advice that the supporting scenes or incidents . 49 ;m a short story should be subordinated to the hecho. i iThe hecho-tema in "Rumbo al puerto de origen" is not as strongly delineated as Bosch's better hecho-temas, so by the time the reader reaches the denouement, he has never jfelt the impact of the hecho-tema and has therefore finished i | the narration fully understanding the plot but never ex- jperiencing any catharsis. The incidents used by Bosch in La muchacha de La j Guaira to expose the theme or reveal an emotion have in a i ! general sense followed the macabre inclination of his other volumes. They include a fire, the repentance of a criminal 49 ! Teoria del cuento: tres ensayos, p. 10. 344 castaway, an incarceration, and five scenes of death. In only two stories ("Mai tiempo" and "Rumbo al puerto de origen") is it difficult to identify the hecho-tema. Five of the stories of La muchacha de La Guaira pre sent an incident-theme climax. This volume also has more ibona fide denouements ("La nochebuena de Encarnacion Men- : i doza," "El indio Manuel Sicuri," "Rumbo al puerto de ■origen," "Victoriano Segura," and "La muchacha de La IGuaira") than his other volumes. In two cases the denoue ments coincide with the hecho-tema ("La nochebuena de En carnacion Mendoza," and "El indio Manuel Sicuri"). Though j ! Bosch depends upon the hecho-tema concept as a structural i |foundation for his stories, its placement in them varies I 1 |and follows no definite pattern. In four of the stories |("El indio Manuel Sicuri," "Rumbo al puerto de origen," "Victoriano Segura," and "La muchacha de La Guaira"), the hecho-tema union is placed toward the middle of the story i or in the next to last scene while four stories ("La noche buena de Encarnacion Mendoza," "La muerte no se equivoca jdos veces," "Mai tiempo," and "La bella alma de don Damian") have the hecho-tema union located at the end. The hecho clearly reveals themes except in "Mai tiempo" and "Rumbo al puerto de origen." 345 Cuentos escritos en el exilio The last story of this study is "La mancha inde- leble," the political and allegorical fantasy Bosch wrote while in Venezuela. It is quite short, which limits the jnumber of scenes and facilitates the identification of the i Ihecho-tema. (Also see Chapter VI, pp. 282-289.) The story I begins with the anonymous protagonist alone in a large room ! ! facing a wall which is lined with a glass case of human | ; heads. A voice instructs him to take his head off. The tension increases as the protagonist stalls to keep from |losing his head. Just at the moment that he can no longer I ! j j jdelay and must lift his head off as he has been instructed, jhe bolts from the room to freedom (the climax). Terrorized !by this experience, the protagonist hides in his room for j ;several days. When he finally finds the courage to go out 1 to a cafe for a cup of coffee, he thinks he hears two jstrangers at the next table talking about him, and spills coffee on his shirt. The spotting of the shirt (his repu- itation) is the hecho-tema. j j "La mancha indeleble" ends with a concluding state ment which further explains the theme. In it the protago nist relates that his fear is that he has no other shirt 346 nor any way of acquiring another. "Y yo se que no podre librarme de este miedo; que lo sentire ante cualquier des- conocido. Pues en verdad ignoro si los dos hombres eran 50 jmiembros o eran enemigos del Partido." He has been in i I I the Party's inner sanctum and is vulnerable to attack from ieither the left or right. The hecho-tema in "La mancha indeleble" is somewhat obscured by the story's symbolism. j Once the symbolism is understood, however, the hecho-tema ! is easily identified. I Summary Several conclusions have become evident from this ! t ; |analysis of the hecho-tema. Primary among them is that the j ; l i ihecho-tema union does exist, that there is an intrinsic [ ----------- I 1 !relationship between the incident and the theme. In twenty- six of the thirty-one stories studied, the scene which hosted the hecho-tema was readily identified. The presence of prominent hecho-temas in the majority of Bosch's stories is an indication that he relies heavily on this structural idevice in his writing. Bosch, Cuentos escritos en el exilio, p. 135. 347 The placement of the hecho-tema in Bosch's stories varies. In one story, "Los amos, 1 1 the hecho-tema appears in the story's first scene, while in others it comes in the middle of the story or at the end. When the hecho-tema appears in the middle of the story, e.g., "La desgracia," I Bosch takes advantage of the falling action to develop the i i itheme further. | ; In two thirds of Bosch's cuentos the hecho-tema Icoincides with the climaxes of the stories, thereby pro- I Iducing a scene capable of greater suspense and emotion than i jwhen these elements of structure are spread out through a plot. This telescoping of structural entities is, more than anything else, what gives the Bosch cuento its compact ness and intensity, in essence its emotional impact. An additional characteristic of the hecho-tema union is its jability to pull or tie a story together, as seen in "La jmujer. " | If it is true that a prominent hecho-tema strengthens jBosch's stories, it is also true, and has been seen in the ! |stories "Rosa" and "Rumbo al puerto de origen," that the | presence of a mediocre or faultily constructed hecho-tema will not only weaken a story's impact but can also hinder 348 the reader's understanding of the author's message. The incidents Bosch uses in his stories manifest a preference for morbid and spectacular incidents. Predomi nant among these incidents are those involving death. In addition, Bosch has used as incidents the dismissal from work of a sick hand, an incarceration, adultery, society's |rejection of a prostitute, the safety of children feared i i !harmed, and the repentance of a criminal castaway. When |these incidents are considered collectively, they are in a i jgeneral sense negative acts which reflect a type of pro- | test, be it hypocrisy ("Fragata") or injustice ("El indio Manuel Sicuri"). I The study of these stories reveals that in the ma jority of his cuentos Bosch adheres to the axioms he has stated in Teoria del cuento; tres ensayos. In addition, ithe salient characteristic of his writing style is his I reliance upon structure. The proof of his interest in i I ■ building his stories on structure is the prevalence of ele- iraents of dramatic structure in his stories. A very practi- ! i cal consequence of this study is the discovery that the locating of the hecho-tema union becomes an excellent tool !for the analysis of a short story and a short cut for i . . [identifying the author's message. CHAPTER VIII CONCLUSIONS | The genres which Juan Bosch has chosen for his I I artistic expression are the biography, the novel, and the |short story. Of these, the genre which has brought him his I igreatest prestige and renown is the short story. His first .writing recreated the ambient of the Cibao region of the IDominican Republic and eventually spiralled outward to in- ! I elude Cuba and countries which border the Caribbean. Even though Bosch was in exile over twenty years and has traveled broadly, his writing belongs to and is included within the literature of the Dominican Republic. Three critics, nevertheless, also include Bosch in Cuban literature or I credit him with being influential in the development of the | |Cuban short story. Since the early sixties, Bosch has 1 Enrique Anderson Imbert m Historia de la litera- tura hispanoamericana (Mexico, D.F.: Fondo de Cultura Economica, 1957), p. 349, alludes to Bosch the writer as "Cubano en parte," while Salvador Bueno in Antologia del 349 350 not published any short stories, novels, or biographies, but has devoted his writing talent to sociopolitical and historical essays. The biographies of King David, Simon Bolivar, and Eugenio Maria de Hostos reveal both the artist and essayist in Bosch. In each of these biographies Bosch was faced iwith a different problem which he solved by employing vary ing writing techniques. Bolivar, because it is directed at la school-age audience, is written using a very simple tech- i i nique, while the others require greater innovation, e.g., flashback and dependency upon hypothesis. When Bosch's biographies are viewed as a whole, three common features become prominent: characterization, didacticism, and political-historical commentary. Of these three, the feature which Bosch consciously develops more than any other is characterization. The characterization in Hostos jis psychological? that is, it stems from the thoughts and cuento en Cuba (La Habana: Ediciones Mirador, 1953), p. 13, states regarding the Cuban short story: "Se intenta una vision mas directa, libre de anecdotas pintorescas, de tesis apriorxsticas. Hemos de senalar durante este perxodo la influencia indudable ejercida por el cuentista domini- cano Juan Bosch que en sus relatos describe una realidad antillana donde cabe la nuestra." Also see Ricardo A. Latcham, Antologxa del cuento hispanoamericano contempo- Iraneo (2a ed.? Santiago de Chile: Editorial Zig-Zag, 1962), ip. 29. 351 moods of the protagonist, while in David and Bolivar the essential device for revealing character is dramatic epi sode. Bosch's one published novel, La Manosa, novela de las revoluciones, shows the harmful effect a revolution can have on a family. The novel's message proclaims that to :start a revolution because of an injustice is not justi- j |fiable nor is it a solution. The protagonist of the novel, | Don Pepe, pessimistically concludes that a mule can be I I i cured of its bad habits, yet man cannot. Noteworthy charac teristics of La Manosa are: characterization, abundant i I autobiographical detail, regionalism, and the costumbrista | element (local color and types, regional speech), all of which contribute to La Manosa1s genuineness as a novel of the Cibao and place it directly in the criollista movement. The short stories of Bosch's first collection, I i Camino real (1933), were characterized by their autobio graphical detail ("El abuelo," "Camino real"), regional settings, and the omnipresence of nature, which is displayed in the rural descriptions, metaphors, and dialogs of Bosch's characters. In Camino real one sees a homogeneity of story 'elements, a tendency for grouping. The stories involve 352 the same stratum of people, identical regional milieu and thematic groups of death, revolution, and father-son rela tionships. None of the scenes takes place in a town or city, and only two characters appear to enjoy a standard of living above that of a laboring man. Among these predomi nantly realistic cuentos there is one allegorical story, j"La mujer," and one which contains an element of fantasy, i"San Andres." Even though some stories were written with jinefficacious beginnings, endings, and theme development, or intrusion, as a group they are structurally sound. i i In Bosch's second volume of stories, Dos pesos de i I aqua (1941), nature, regional milieu, and violence continue to dominate the stories. The collection as a whole when compared with Camino real shows technically improved begin nings and unity of action, smoother scene transition, and well-defined endings. The language, however, is less spon taneous and figurative than in Camino real, and relies less 'on rural speech. Contrasted with the realistic stories of i Dos pesos de aqua are three which present elements of fan tasy: "Un hombre virtuoso," "Dos pesos de agua," and "Dos amigos." In Ocho cuentos (1947) there is greater consistency 353 in the way Bosch begins his stories, in the offering of essential action, and in more clearly defined denouements than in his previous short story volumes. Ocho cuentos reflects a subtle change of direction in themes and tech nique when contrasted with Camino real or Dos pesos de aqua. Protest, sometimes social, sometimes directed against man's j ^personal problems, is broadened to plead the case of ani- ! ;mals. In his treatment of themes, Bosch utilizes elements Jof fantasy and the supernatural with greater frequency, as i |can be seen in "El socio," "Poppy," "El difunto estaba ! vivo," and "Capitan." La muchacha de La Guaira, Bosch's last short story lcollection which was not a recombination of previously pub lished stories, manifests to a much lesser degree the cibaena regionalism so prominent heretofore in Bosch's fic- i Ition. The characteristics which were noteworthy in his iother collections— the autobiographical, themes of honor, social protest, friendship, sickness, and father-son related •plots— are present in only one and occasionally two of the stories in La Guaira, while revolution does not appear at all. The overall theme mix and profile, then, of La Guaira is heterogeneous, except for the theme of death, which in 354 one form or another appears in all eight stories. Bosch's technical use of death varies in each story: in one, death may take the life of a minor character, while in another it is the protagonist who dies. In one cuento homicide claims a victim and in another it is sickness. This omnipresence of death is the most notable feature of La Guaira. In ha Guaira Bosch has stepped out of the Cibao and I Icriollismo directly into cosmopolitismo, as is evidenced by "La muerte no se equivoca dos veces" (fantasy), "La bella I ialma de don Damian" (fantasy, humor, and satire), and "La imuchacha de La Guaira" (existentialism). The animal stories Iseen in Ocho cuentos are absent from La Guaira, while nature |and death, as mentioned, are conspicuous. Technically, Bosch's short story writing, as judged by his guidelines for writing a cuento, has improved progressively with each | mew volume. All the stories in La Guaira have beginnings jwhich capture the reader's attention in the first few lines. ( Except for minor violations in two stories, digression and ^intrusion are virtually nonexistent, as are the ineffectual denouements seen in "Camino real" and "Rosa.” The struc tural consistency of the stories of La muchacha de La Guaira iwould indicate that Bosch has arrived at a technical formula 355 for writing short stories which satisfies him and imparts to his stories that leanness and tension which are the 1 jtrademark of the modern short story. j In Cuento de Navidad Bosch departs from his accus tomed criollo themes of misery and death to write a warm ;and optimistic Christmas story. Cuento de Navidad reflects his inclination toward a genre which is conducive to didac- j i tic observation, characterization, and spontaneous narra- ! tion. In it he departs from previous practices by adopting j an already well-known tale and by directing his art toward children. Cuento de Navidad and "La bella alma de don Damian" are the only Bosch stories in which humor is a j ifundamental part of the work. | Commencing with Camino real, it became evident that iBosch used to great advantage devices of dramatic structure such as complication, climax, falling action, and denoue ment, and continued to depend on these devices throughout his short story production. In Teoria del cuento; tres ensayos Bosch refers to an important critical concept, the j hecho-tema (incident-theme) relationship. As his stories were read it became apparent that he relied on the hecho- tema as the keystone to the structure of his cuentos. 356 The hecho-tema scene was generally conspicuous and could be located at the beginning, middle, or end of his stories. i jBosch was using the hecho-tema union as far back as Camino real, combining it with the climax to create powerful scenes. i ' Where the hecho-tema union coincides with the climax, a scene is produced which has greater potential for j j ■ suspense and emotion than when these elements of structure j ;are dispersed throughout a plot. This condensing of struc- j | | tural entities is, more than anything else, what gives the 1 Bosch story its compactness and intensity, in essence its I i [emotional impact. An additional attribute of the hecho- i i itema is its ability to pull or tie a story together, as |seen in "La mujer," thereby enhancing the reader's under standing of the author's message. To the contrary, where the hecho-tema union is mediocre or faultily constructed, it not only weakens the story's impact, but also hinders the reader's understanding of the theme. A practical con sequence of this study is the discovery that the locating lof the hecho-tema union becomes an excellent tool for the analysis of a short story and a shortcut for identifying the theme. BIBLIOGRAPHY 357 BIBLIOGRAPHY Books Anderson Imbert, Enrique. El cuento espanol. Buenos Aires: Editorial Columba, 1959. j Anderson Imbert, Enrique, and Florit, Eugenio. Literatura j hispanoamericana. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston,! Inc., 1960. i Anderson Imbert, Enrique, and Kiddle, Lawrence B. Veinte j cuentos hispanoamericanos. New York: Appleton-Century- j Crofts, Inc., 1956. | i Arratia, Alejandro, and Hamilton, Carlos D. Diez cuentos I hispanoamericanos. New York: Oxford University Press, | 1958. " | Baciu, Stefan. Juan Bosch: del exilio a la presidencia. j Buenos Aires: BASES Editorial, 1963. j Balaguer, Joaquin. Historia de la literatura dominicana. | 3a ed. Santo Domingo: Editorial Libreria Dominicana, 1965. Batchelor, Courtenay Malcolm. Cuentos de aca y de alia. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1953. Bosch, Juan. Camino real. Santiago, Republica Dominicana: Editorial El Diario, 1937. _________. Crisis de la democracia de America en la Repu blica Dominicana. Mexico, D.F.: Centro de Estudios y Documentacion Sociales, A.C., 1965. 358 359 Bosch, Juan. Cuento de Navidad. Santiago de Chile: Edi- ciones Ercilla, 1956. , ________. Cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Libreria Dominicana, 1962. ________ . David, biografia de un rey. Santo Domingo: Libreria Dominicana, Editora, 1953. ________ . Dos pesos de agua. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1941. j ________ . Hostos, el sembrador. La Habana: Editorial j Tropico, 1939. | I ________ . La Manosa, novela de las revoluciones. 2a ed. | rev. La Habana: La Veronica, 1940. [ ________ . La muchacha de La Guaira. Santiago de Chile: i Nascimento, 1955. j I j ________ . Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Libreria Dominicana, 1964. ________ . Mujeres en la vida de Hostos. 2a ed. San Juan, j Puerto Rico: Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1939. ________ . Ocho cuentos. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1947. ________ . Simon Bolivar, biografia para escolares. Caracas: Distribuidora, S.A., 1960. ________ . Teoria del cuento: tres ensayos. Merida, Vene zuela: Universidad de los Andes, 1967. Bueno, Salvador. Antologia del cuento en Cuba. La Habana: Ediciones Mirador, 1953. Crassweller, Robert D. Trujillo: The Life and Times of a Caribbean Dictator. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1966. Englekirk, John E., et al. An Outline History of Spanish American Literature. 3rd ed. rev. New York: Appleton- Century-Crofts, 1965. 360 Flores, Angel. Cuentos espanoles. New York: Bantam Books, Inc., 1960. _________. Historia y antologxa del cuento y la novela en Hispanoamerica. New York: Las Americas Publishing Co., 1959. ‘Franco, Pericles A. Mi protesta contra el golpe militar. Santo Domingo: Editora del Caribe, C. por A., 1964. Garcia Lopez, Jose. Historia de la literatura espanola. 9a ed. Barcelona: Editorial Vicens— Vives, 1965. Garcxa-Prada, Carlos. Estudios hispanoamericanos. Mexico, j D.F.: El Colegio de Mexico, Imprenta Nuevo Mundo, 1945. | Gili Gaya, Samuel, ed. Vox, diccionario general ilustrado 1 de la lengua espanola. Barcelona: Publicaciones y j Ediciones Spes, S.A., 1953. i i Goldrxch, Daniel. Sons of the Establishment. Chicago: i Rand McNally, 1966. ! * > • ' Henrxquez Urena, Max. Panorama hxstorxco de la literatura dominicana. 2a ed. rev. Santo Domingo: Coleccion Pensamiento Dominicano, 1966. Henrxquez Urena, Pedro. El espanol en Santo Domingo. Buenos Aires: Biblioteca de Dialectologxa Hispano- americana, 1940. j Hernandez Franco, Tomas. Juan Bosch, el cuentista del j "cuento." Ciudad Trujillo, R.D.: Editorial La Nacion, j 1944. ' i Herring, Hubert. A History of Latin America. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1963. Hicks, Albert C. Blood in the Streets: The Life and Rule of Trujillo. New York: Creative Age Press, Inc., 1946. The Holy Bible. King James version. New York: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1905. 361 Hostos, Eugenio Maria de. Moral social. Prologue by Max Henriguez Urena. Santo Domingo: Libreria Dominicana, 1 1962. The International Who's Who 1966-67. London: Europa Publications Ltd., 1966. ;Kurzman, Dan. Santo Domingo: Revolt of the Damned. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1965. Latcham, Ricardo A. Antologxa. del cuento hispanoamericano. Santiago de Chile: Empresa Editora Zig-Zag, S.A., i 1958. ! Leal, Luis. Historia del cuento hispanoamericano. Mexico: ! Ediciones Andrea, 1966. Livermore, Harold. A History of Spain. New York: Grove | Press, 1960. ; j Lopez Mateos, Adolfo. Nuevo planteamiento de las relacio- j nes entre Mexico y la Republica Dominicana. Mexico: ; Editorial "La Justicia, " 1963. MacGaffey, Wyatt, and Barnett, Clifford R. Twentieth Cen tury Cuba. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Co., 1956. ! I I 1 Manzor, Antonio R. Antologia del cuento hispanoamericano. j Santiago de Chile: Editora Zig-Zag, 1939. Martin, John Bartlow. Overtaken by Events. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Co., 1966. Melendez, Concha. Cuentos hispanoamericanos. Mexico: j Editorial Orion, 1953. ________ . "Juan Bosch Ante Hostos," Asomante: Estudios hispanoamericanos. San Juan de Puerto Rico: Universi dad de Puerto Rico, 1943. Menendez Pidal, Ramon. Mis paginas preferidas. Madrid: Editorial Gredos, 1957. 362 Menton, Seymour. El cuento hispanoamericano. 2 vols. Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Economica, 1965. iNehemkis, Peter. Latin America: Myth and Reality. New | York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1964. iOnis, Harriet De. Spanish Stories and Tales. New York: ; Alfred A. Knopf, 1954. Orgambide, Pedro G. Horacio Quiroga: el hombre y su obra. Buenos Aires: Editorial Stilcograf, 1954. j Paz, Octavio. El laberinto de la soledad. Mexico: Fondo I de Cultura Economica, 1964. j Pillement, Georges. Les Conteurs Hispano-Americains. | Paris: Librairie Delagrave, 1933. i I ! Prieto, Jenaro. El socio. 2a ed. La Habana: Casa de Las Americas, 1964. | Prize Stories from Latin America. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Co., Inc., 1961. ! Quiroga, Horacio. Cuentos. Seleccion y prologo de Ezequiel; Martinez Estrada. La Habana: Casa de las Americas, I 1964. ; i I I ________ . Los perseguidos y otros cuentos. Introduccion I por John A. Crow. Vol. VII. Montevideo: Claudio I Garcia & Cia., 1937. Rodman, Selden. Quisgueya, a History of the Dominican Republic. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1964. Szulc, Tad. Dominican Diary. New York: Delacorte Press, 1965. Thrall, William F.; Hibbard, Addison; and Holman, C. Hugh. A Handbook to Literature. New York: The Odyssey Press, 1960. 353 Uslar Pietri, Arturo. Breve historia de la novela hispano- americana. Caracas-Madrid: Ediciones "Edime," 1954. Valbuena Prat, Angel. Historia de la literatura espanola. 5a ed., Vol. II. Barcelona: Editorial Gustavo Gili, S.A., 1957. Magazines and Journals Bosch, Juan. "Anarquistas," Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No. 1544, octubre 21, 1939, p. 57. ________ . "Apuntes sobre el arte de escribir cuentos," Revista Shell (Caracas), No. 37, diciembre, I960, pp. 44-49. ________ . "Caracteristicas del cuento," Mirador Literario (La Habana), julio, 1944, pp. 6-9. ________ . "La forma en el cuento, 1 1 Revista Nacional de Cultura (Caracas), Ano XXII, No. 144, enero-febrero, 1951, pp. 40-48. ________ . "The Indelible Spot," Translated by Harry Shlaudeman, Saturday Evening Post, November 16, 1963, p. 78. ________ . "La mula, 1 1 Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No. 1509, febrero 18, 1939, p. 65. ________ . "El tema en el cuento," El Nacional (Caracas), noviembre 27, 1958, pp. 1, 6. ________ . "Las tesis de Regis Debray," Nuevo Mundo, marzo, 1968, p. 41. Bulletin of the International Commission of Jurists (Geneva, Switzerland), No. 17, December, 1963. Draper, Theodore. "The New Dominican Crisis," The New Leader, January 31, 1966, p. 7. 364 Espana Semanal, No. 220, diciembre 26, 1966, p. 4. ;"Holy Land Today," The National Geographic Magazine, Atlas plate 52, December, 1963. : Melendez, Concha. "Escritores dominicanos: Juan Bosch, 1 1 Puerto Rico Ilustrado, mayo 21, 1938, pp. 25, 50. "Taste of Democracy, 1 1 Time, January 4, 1963, p. 25. j ] Wangtiemert y Maiquez, J. L. "El Diario de Cayo Confites," j Carteles, No. 43, octubre 26, 1947, p. 33. j Newspapers Arvelo, Alvaro. "Instan a Profesor Bosch Realizar Viaje a j Londres," El Caribe (Santo Domingo), julio 30, 1966, I p. 1. i i "Attempt to Overthrow Dominican Regime Ends in Cuba," The ! New York Times, October 2, 1947. j i Baquero, Gaston. "Un escritor presidente: Juan Bosch," ABC (Madrid), diciembre 26, 1962, p. 51. i "Bosch Due Back Next Week," The New York Times, April 9, j 1970, p. 21. | "Bosch Quits Leadership of His Party," The New York Times, ! November 1, 1966, p. 3. Diaz Arrieta, Hernan ("Alone"). "Los cuentos de Juan Bosch y otros cuentos," El Mercurio (Santiago de Chile), j agosto 21, 1957, p. 7. Draper, Theodore. Letter to editor. The New York Times, February 22, 1970, Part IV, p. 13. Giniger, Henry. "Bosch, in Exile, Tells His Friends Dominican Republic Cannot Afford the Luxury of Democ racy, " The New York Times, December 1, 1968, p. 29. 365 Inchaustegui Cabral, Hector. "La mancha de cafe, 1 1 Listin Diario (Santo Domingo), marzo 3, 1966, p. 6. "La Manosa de Bosch," Listin Diario (Santo Domingo), marzo 28, 1966, p. 6. "La Manosa de Bosch," Listin Diario (Santo Domingo), marzo 30, 1966, p. 6. "La Manosa de Bosch," Listin Diario (Santo Domingo), abril 4, 1966, p. 6. Kraslow, David. "3 Presidents Knew of Embassy Wire- j tapping," Los Angeles Times, December 3, 1966, Part I, j p. 1. ! Montgomery, Paul L. "Dominican Scene Gains Stability," j The New York Times, November 26, 1966, p. 23. j i Natanson, George. "Dominican Victor May Not Live to Take j Office," Los Angeles Times, May 12, 1966, Part I, p. 5. j ! Oms, Juan de. "Bosch Consults with Party Aides, " The New York Times, April 18, 1970, p. 10. i ________ . "Bosch Says Aim is to End Crisis," The New York i Times, April 22, 1970, p. 9. ! | ________ . "Dominicans Delay Return of Bosch," The New York | Times, April 16, 1970, p. 9. j I ________ . "Three-Year Exile is Ended by Bosch," The New York Times, April 17, 1970, p. 6. Ortiz Otero, B. "Llega a Puerto Rico Presidente Depuesto," j El Mundo, octubre 2, 1963, p. 1. "Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Jr., 40, Son of Dictator, Dies in Madrid," The New York Times, December 29, 1969, p. 29. 366 Interviews Benitez, Jaime. San Juan, Puerto Rico, summer, 1966, and news bulletin dated November 1, 1965 regarding Bosch's contract as writer in residence at the University of Puerto Rico. iBosch, Juan. Santo Domingo, summer, 1966. | Ortiz, Angela Bosch de. Santo Domingo, summer, 1966. Unpublished Materials Schmidt, Don. "The Short Stories of Juan Bosch from 1933 to 1964." Unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Kansas, 1966. APPENDIXES 367 APPENDIX A HORACIO QUIROGA'S "DECALOGO DEL PERFECTO CUENTISTA" 368 APPENDIX A HORACIO QUIROGA'S "DECALOGO DEL PERFECTO CUENTISTA" Appearing below as a supplement to Chapter V (see footnote 42, page 161) is Horacio Quiroga1s "Decalogo del perfecto cuentista" from Quiroga1s Los perseguidos y otros cuentos, with an introduction by J. A. Crow (Montevideo: Claudio Garcia & Cia., 1937), VII, 117-118. "Decalogo del perfecto cuentista" I. Cree en el maestro— Poe, Maupassant, Kipling, Chejov— como en Dios mismo. II. Cree que tu arte es una cima inaccesible. No suenes en dominarla. Cuando puedas hacerlo lo conseguiras, sin saberlo tu mismo. III. Resiste cuanto puedas a la imitacion, pero imita si el influjo es demasiado fuerte. Mas que cualquiera otra cosa, el desarrollo de la personalidad es una larga paciencia. IV. Ten fe ciega no en tu capacidad para el triunfo, sino en el ardor con que lo deseas. Ama a tu arte como a tu novia, dandole todo tu corazon. 369 370 V. No empieces a escribir sin saber desde la primera palabra adonde vas. En un cuento bien logrado las tres primeras lineas tienen casi la misma importan- ! cia que las tres ultimas. VI. Si quieres expresar con exactitud esta circunstan- cia: "desde el rio soplaba un viento frio, " no hay en lengua humana mas palabras que las apuntadas para expresarla. Una vez dueno de las palabras no te preocupes de observar si son consonantes o aso- nantes. VII. No adjetives sin necesidad. Inutiles seran cuantas colas adhieras a un sustantivo debil. Si hallas el que es preciso, el, solo, tendra un color incom parable. Pero hay que hallarlo. VIII. Toma los personajes de la mano y llevalos firmemente hasta el final, sin ver otra cosa que el camino que les trazaste. No te distraigas viendo tu lo que ellos no pueden o no les importa ver. No abuses del lector. Un cuento es una novela depurada de ripios. Ten esto por una verdad absoluta aunque no lo sea. IX. No escribas bajo el imperio de la emocion. Dejala morir y evocala luego. Si eres capaz entonces de revivirla tal cual fue, has llegado en arte a la mitad del camino. X. No pienses en los amigos al escribir, ni en la im- presion que hara tu historia. Cuenta como si el relato no tuviera interes mas que para el pequeno ambiente de tus personajes, de los que pudiste haber sido uno. No de otro modo se obtiene la vida en el cuento. APPENDIX B THE RECTIFICATION OF AN ERROR 371 APPENDIX B THE RECTIFICATION OF AN ERROR In 1964 in the book Latin America: Myth and Reality, a Washington, D.C. lawyer and businessman, Peter Nehemkis, j claimed that Juan Bosch had named his son after Leon ! I Trotsky. Nehemkis, a Latin American devotee and official ; I ] observer at the 1962 Dominican presidential elections, had written: Bosch began his term as President with the enthusiastic support of virtually the entire conservative sector of i the Dominican Republic. But he was incapable of col laborating with this group because at heart he is a romantic revolutionary to whom capitalists are anathema. It is not a coincidence that Bosch's first child was named Leon Trotsky Bosch.^ i It appears that Mr. Nehemkis, who was friendly with the j I 2 conseio government which followed Bosch, was trying to Peter Nehemkis, Latin America: Myth and Reality (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1964), pp. 123-124. 2 In 1964 Nehemkis was a registered foreign agent for the conseio government. See Theodore Draper, "The New Dominican Crisis," The New Leader, January 31, 1966, p. 7. 372 373 discredit the former president and was relying upon un isubstantiated information to do so. In 1966 the Bosch family suggested that before |leaving Santo Domingo I ascertain exactly what did appear on the baptismal record in the parish of San Carlos Borro- meo and for their son's sake make these findings known. j I visited the parish and found a young Capuchin priest from Granada, Spain, who very accommodatingly searched for the baptismal record since he too had heard that Bosch named a ! J son after Leon Trotsky. We found a statement in entry 647, j i page 324, of Book XXXVI to the effect that the Reverend j Father Presbyter Antonio Berras Rojas had baptized Leon | Bosch, legitimate son of Juan Bosch Gavino and Isabel Ofilia| ! Garcia de Bosch, on February 26, 1937. The priest then issued me a certificate of baptism, a copy of which appears in Appendix C. The name "Trotsky" appears nowhere on the I certificate. APPENDIX C BAPTISMAL CERTIFICATE OF LEON BOSCH GARCIA 374 CEETIFICADO DE BAOT1SMO Farroquia de_______ - ''''____■ ____ v ,' , ' Y ' ' <v~: - ■ ^ ■/ • '// - ' * ^ ' / /" En el lihro de tautismos No.- 7 / _____ Folios— — Numero .-i...--;. Se encuentra la partida de 'bautisrac de ' ' / - -v / Eacidd el dla ’ . ~ de ^ ] 9 _ ftn .. .Eautizad el dla . / ; > de. de 1 9 S / / > ^ . r — . • ' i — Man re : y . / ’ , " t ^ . v..' / - , / . . . . . . f , , ■ Padrinos ■ ■ ' 1 . - • \ / ' v , X h - 7 S . s / > Ministro del Sacramento ' /r-/ ■ ■ ' ' Notas rr.arginales . ________________________________________________ ' > __________ Bn~CcA-iA.u ' . A > . - r r v. l.,_Repdbli ca Dominicana a_J de. _P- Pr-,^ U> ne 3 9.b ^ . . r (7 / ! )- K N - I 1 ^ / 'j / t C . - l / l X ) " V l ^ Encargado del A rchive Parrcuuial*' APPENDIX D A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BOOKS BY BOSCH 376 APPENDIX D A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BOOKS BY BOSCH The following bibliography includes a complete list of Bosch's works of which there is a record of publication. Bosch, Juan. Apuntes para una interpretacion de la his- I toria costarricense. San Jose de Costa Rica: Editorial | Eloy Morua Carrillo, 1963. S I . Bolivar y la querra social. Buenos Aires: Edi torial Jorge C. Alvarez, 1955. i . Simon Bolivar, biografia para escolares. Cara- j cas: Distribuidora Escolar, S.A., 1960. . Camino real. La Vega, Republica Dominicana: Ramos, 1933. 2a ed. corr. Santiago, R.D.: Editorial el Diario, 1937. . Composicion social dominicana: historia e inter pretacion. Santo Domingo: Coleccion Pensamiento y Cultura, 1970. . Crisis de la Democracia de America en la Republica Dominicana. Mexico: Centro de Estudios y Documentacion Sociales, A.C., 1964; 2a ed., 1965; 3a ed. , 1965; The Unfinished Experiment: Democracy in the Dominican Republic. Translated by Carol Zapata. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, Publishers, 1965; ibid., London: Pall Mall Publishers, 1966; Saint- Domingue, crise de la democratie en Amerique latine. 377 378 Traduit de l'espagnol par Josephine Roques. Paris: Editions Cujas, 1966. . Cuba, la isla fascinante. Santiago de Chile: Editorial Universitaria, S.A., 1955. . Cuento de Navidad. Santiago de Chile: Ediciones Ercilla, 1956; ibid., Ilustraciones de Tamara Marrosu. Caracas: Editorial Cordillera, 1958; ibid., incluido en Cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Libreria Dominicana, 1962. . Cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Libreria Dominicana, 1962. . David, biografia de un rey. Santo Domingo: Libreria Dominicana, Editora, 1963; ibid., 2a ed. Santo Domingo: Editorial Libreria Dominicana, 1964; David, the Biography of a King. Translated by John Marks. New York: Hawthorn Books, 1966; ibid. London: Chatto & Windus, 1966; David, biografia de un rey. Madrid: Ediciones Cid, 1967. . De Cristobal Colon a Fidel Castro; el Caribe, frontera imperial. Madrid: Alfaguara, 1970. . Dos pesos de aqua. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1941. . Hostos, el sembrador. La Habana: Editorial Tropico, 19 39. . Indios, apuntes historicos y leyendas. Santo Domingo: Editorial "La Nacion," 1935. . Judas Iscariote, el calumniado. Santiago de Chile: Editorial Prensa Latinoamericana, 1955. . La Manosa, novela de,las revoluciones. Santiago, R.D.: Editorial El Diario, 1936; 2a ed. rev. La Habana: La Veronica, 1940; 3a ed. Santo Domingo: Coleccion Pensamiento Dominicano, 1966. . La muchacha de La Guaira. Santiago de Chile: Editorial Nascimento, 1955. 379 . Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Editorial Libreria Dominicana, 1964. . Mujeres en la vida de Hostos. Conferencia dada para la Asociacion de Mujeres Graduadas. San Juan de Puerto Rico: La Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1938; 2a ed., 1939. . Ocho cuentos. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1947. . El pentagonismo: substituto del imperialismo. Santo Domingo: Publicaciones ;AhoraJ, C. por A., 1957; ibid. Mexico: Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 1968; Monte video: El Siglo Ilustrado, 1968; Pentaqonism, a Substi tute for Imperialism. Translated by Helen R. Lane. New York: Grove Press, 1968; El pentagonismo: substi tuto del imperialismo. Madrid: Guadiana de Publicacio nes, 1968; Per Pentaqonismus Oder die Abldsung des Imperialismus? Aus dem Spanischen Ubertragen von Fritz Rudolf Fries. Reinbek b. Hamburg: Tauchenbuch Verlag, 1969. . Teoria del cuento: tres ensayos. Merida, Vene zuela: Universidad de los Andes, 1967. . Trujillo; causas de una tirania sin ejemplo. Caracas: Libreria "Las Novedades," 1959; 2a ed. Caracas; 3a ed. Santo Domingo: Impresora Arte y Cine, 1962; 4a ed. Lima: Populibros Peruanos, 1955. APPENDIX E A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BOSCH'S SHORT STORIES 380 APPENDIX E A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BOSCH'S SHORT STORIES j Following is a list of sixty-eight of Bosch's short ;stories, published in Spanish or in translation. The list i :is incomplete owing to the difficulty encountered in ob taining bibliographical information from Cuba and other countries. iBosch, Juan. "El abuelo," Camino real. | Ramos, 1933; Puerto Rico Ilustrado, bre 10, 1933, pp. 2, 69. I ; . "El algarrobo," Camino real. ! Ramos, 1933. I : . "El alzado," Camino real. La Vega, R.D.: Ramos, 1933; Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No. 1501, diciembre 24, 1938, pp. 4, 71; Walsh, Gertrude M. Cuentos criollos. ! Boston: D. C. Heath and Co., 1941; Flores, Angel. Historia y antologia del cuento y la novela en His- panoamerica. New York: Las Americas Publishing Co., 1959. | _________. "Los amos, " Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No. 15 26, j junio 17, 1939, pp. 2, 73; Dos pesos de aqua. La Haba- i na: Agustin Rios, 1942; Cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Libreria Dominicana, 1952. Cartagena, Aida. Narradores dominicanos. Caracas: Monte Avila, Editores, 1969. La Vega, R.D.: No. 1499, diciem- La Vega, R.D.: 381 382 . "Anarquistas," Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No. 1544, octubre 21, 1939, pp. 5, 57-58. . "La bella alma de don Damian," La muchacha de La Guaira. Santiago de Chile: Editorial Nascimento, 1955; Anderson Imbert, Enrique, and Florit, Eugenio. Literatura hispanoamericana. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1960; Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Editorial Libreria Dominicana, 1964; Howes, Barbara. From the Green Antilles; Writings of the Caribbean. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1966. Translated by Harriet de Onis. . "Bobie," Bahoruco (Santo Domingo), diciembre 5, 1931. . "Bumbo," Bahoruco (Santo Domingo), abril 30, 1932. . "Camino real," Camino real. La Vega, R.D.: Ramos, 1933. . "Capitan," Ocho cuentos. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1947; Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Editorial Libreria Dominicana, 1964. . "El cobarde," Bahoruco (Santo Domingo), sep- tiembre 21, 1935; Alma Latina (Puerto Rico), No. 124, 2a quincena, marzo, 1938, pp. 12, 16; Dos pesos de aqua. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1941. . "El cuchillo," Camino real. La Vega, D.R.: Ramos, 1933; Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No. 1468, abril 30, 1938, pp. 4, 69. . "Cundito," Camino real. La Vega, R.D.: Ramos, 1933; Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No. 1500, diciembre 7, 1938, pp. 9, 71. . "Chencho," Bahoruco (Santo Domingo), octubre 3, 1931. 383 . "Chucho," Alma Latina (Puerto Rico), No. 123, la quincena, marzo, 1938, pp. 13, 16-17; Dos pesos de aqua. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1941. . "La desgracia," Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No. 1577, junio 8, 1940, pp. 4, 65-66; Dos pesos de aqua. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1941; Cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Libreria Dominicana, 1962. . "El difunto estaba vivo," Ocho cuentos. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1947; Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Editorial Libreria Dominicana, 1964. . "Dos amigos," Dos pesos de aqua. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1941; Concha Melendez. Cuentos hispano- americanos. Mexico: Editorial Orion, 1953; Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Editorial Libreria Dominicana, 1964. . "Dos pesos de agua," Alma Latina (Puerto Rico), No. 127, mayo 7, 1938, pp. 6, 19-21; Dos pesos de aqua. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1941; In English translation, "Two Dollars Worth of Water." Onis, Harriet de. The Golden Land. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1948; Rodriguez, Mario B. Cuentistas de hoy. Cambridge, Mass.: The Riverside Press, 1952; Latcham, Ricardo A. Antologia del cuento hispanoamericano contemporaneo. Santiago de Chile: Editora Zig-Zag, 1958; Honduras Literaria (Tegucigalpa), enero-febrero, 1963. . "En un bohio," Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No. 1571, abril 27, 1940, p. 7; Dos pesos de aqua. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1941; Cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Libreria Dominicana, 1962. . "Los encadenados," Bahoruco (Santo Domingo), mayo 21, 1932. . "Forzados," Camino real. La Vega, R.D.: Ramos, 1933. 384 . "Fragata," Ocho cuentos. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1947; Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Editorial Libreria Dominicana, 1954. . "El funeral, " Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No.. 1572, mayo 4, 1940, pp. 12, 81-82; Dos pesos de aqua. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1941; Cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Libreria Dominicana, 1952. . "Guaraguaos," Camino real. La Vega, R.D.: Ramos, 1933; Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No. 1494, octu bre 29, 1938, pp. 2-3, 72-73. . "Un hombre," Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No. 1554, diciembre 30, 1939, pp. 11, 53. . "El hombre que lloro," Cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Libreria Dominicana, 1952. . "Un hombre virtuoso," Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No. 1573, mayo 11, 1940, pp. 5, 54-65; Dos pesos de aqua. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1941; Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Editorial Libre ria Dominicana, 1954. . "El indio Manuel Sicuri," La muchacha de La Guaira. Santiago de Chile: Editorial Nascimento, 1955; Liscano Velutini, Juan, Les vingt meilleures nouvelles de l'Amerique latine. Paris: Pierre Seghers, editeur, 1958; Cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Libreria Dominicana, 1962. . "Jibijoa," Bahoruco (Santo Domingo), febrero 27, 1932. . "Lo mejor," Camino real. La Vega, R.D.: Ramos, 1933. . "Lucero," Camino real. La Vega, R.D.: Ramos, 1933; Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No. 1497, noviembre 26, 1938, pp. 2, 69, 70. . "Luis Pie," Ocho cuentos. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1947; Cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Libreria Dominicana, 1962. 385 _____. "Mai tiempo," La muchacha de La Guaira. San tiago de Chile: Editorial Nascimento, 1955; Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Editorial Libre ria Dominicana, 1964. . "La mancha indeleble," Cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Libreria Dominicana, 1962; "The Indelible Spot." Translated by Harry Schlaudeman. Saturday Evening Post, No. 40, November 16, 1963, pp. 78-79. . "Maravilla," Ocho cuentos. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1947; Nazoa, Aquiles. Cuentos contemporaneos hispanoamericanos. La Paz, Bolivia: Editorial Buri- ball, 1957; Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Editorial Libreria Dominicana, 1964. . "La muchacha de La Guaira," La muchacha de La Guaira. Santiago de Chile: Editorial Nascimento, 1955; Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Editorial Libreria Dominicana, 1964. . "La muerte no se eguivoca dos veces," La mu chacha de La Guaira. Santiago de Chile: Editorial Nascimento, 1955; Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Editorial Libreria Dominicana, 1964. . "La mujer," Camino real. La Vega, R.D.: Ramos, 1933; Pillement, Georges. Les conteurs hispano- americains. Paris: Librairie Delagrave, 1933; Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No. 1493, octubre 22, 1938, p. 5; Manzor, Antonio R. Antologia del cuento hispano- americano. Santiago de Chile: Editora Zig-Zag, 1939; Rojas Gonzalez, Francisco. Antologia del cuento ameri- cano contemporaneo. Mexico: Secretaria de Educacion Publica, 1952; Batchelor, Courtenay Malcolm. Cuentos de aca y de alia. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1953; Menton, Seymour. El cuento hispanoamericano. Vol. II. Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Economica, 1964; Cartagena, Aida. Narradores dominicanos. Caracas: Monte Avila, Editores, 1969. . "La mula," Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No. 1509, febrero 18, 1939, pp. 4, 65, 72. 386 . "La negacion," Listin Diario (Santo Domingo), agosto 4, 1929? Camino real. La Vega, R.D.: Ramos, 1933; Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No. 1491, octubre 8, 1938, p. 12. . "Un nino," Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No. 1568, abril 6, 1940, pp. 5, 63-64; Dos pesos de agua. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1941; Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Editorial Libreria Dominicana, 1964. . "Nochebuena," Bahoruco (Santo Domingo), diciem bre ~19, 1931. . "La Nochebuena de Encarnacion Mendoza," La mu chacha de La Guaira. Santiago de Chile: Editorial Nascimento, 1955; Cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Libreria Dominicana, 1962; Alvarez, Jorge (ed.). Cronicas de la violencia. Buenos Aires: Jorge Alvarez, 1965. . "Orgullo, 1 1 Listin Diario (Santo Domingo), agosto 11, 1929. . "La pajara," Camino real. La Vega, R.D.: Ramos, 1933; Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No. 1465, abril 9, 1938, pp. 5, 60-61. . "Piloncito," Dos pesos de aqua. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1941. . "Poppy," Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No. 1515, junio 15, 1940, pp. 3, 64-67; Ocho cuentos. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1947; Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Editorial Libreria Dominicana, 1964. . "El profugo," Listin Diario (Santo Domingo), enero 27, 1929. . "La pulperia," Alma Latina (Puerto Rico), 2a quincena, abril, 1938, pp. 11, 17-19; Dos pesos de aqua. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1941. . "Un raro caso de fidelidad," Bahoruco (Santo Domingo), noviembre 21, 1931. 387 . "El resguardo," Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No. 1512, marzo 11, 1939, pp. 7, 63; Dos pesos de aqua. La Habana; Agustin Rios, 1941. . "Revolucion," Camino real. La Vega, R.D.; Ramos, 1933; Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No. 1492, octubre 15, 1938, pp. 4-5, 68; Vasquez, Alberto. Cuentos de la America espanola. New York: Longmans, Green and Co., Inc., 1952. . "El rio y su enemigo," Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No. 1582, julio 13, 1940, pp. 2-3, 58-59, 63-64; Ocho cuentos. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1947; Mas cuen tos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Editorial Libreria Dominicana, 1964. . "Rosa," Dos pesos de aqua. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1941; Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Editorial Libreria Dominicana, 1964. . "Rumbo al puerto de origen," La muchacha de La Guaira. Santiago de Chile: Editorial Nascimento, 1955; Cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Libreria Dominicana, 1962. j . "Los sacrificados," Bahoruco (Santo Domingo), febrero 6, 1932. . "San Andres," Camino real. La Vega, R.D.: Ramos, 1933. . "La sangre," Camino real. La Vega, R.D.: Ramos, 1933. . "El socio," Ocho cuentos. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1947; Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Editorial Libreria Dominicana, 1964. . "Sombras," Camino real. La Vega, R.D.: Ramos, 1933; Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No. 1498, diciembre 3, 1938, pp. 16, 70. 388 . "Todo un hombre," Dos pesos de aqua. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1941; Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Editorial Libreria Dominicana, 1964. . "Los ultimos monstruos," Dos pesos de aqua. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1941; Mas cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Editorial Libreria Domini cana, 1964. . "Los vencidos," Bahoruco (Santo Domingo), enero 30, 1932. . "Los vengadores," Bahoruco (Santo Domingo), abril 9, 1932. . "La verdad," Puerto Rico Ilustrado, No. 1502, diciembre 31, 1938, pp. 4, 60-61, 67; Dos pesos de aqua. La Habana: Agustin Rios, 1941. . "Victoriano Segura," La muchacha de La Guaira. Santiago de Chile: Editorial Nascimento, 1955; Cuentos escritos en el exilio. Santo Domingo: Libreria Domini cana, 1962. . "La vuelta," Listin Diario (Santo Domingo), mayo 31, 1929.

Linked assets

University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Conceptually similar

PDF

Social And Political Aspects Of The Mexican Revolution As Seen Through The Writings Of Mariano Azuela

PDF

The Sentiment Of Nature In The Prose Works Of Pedro Prado

PDF

Miguel Angel Asturias: Escritor Comprometido. (Spanish Text)

PDF

Manufacturing Under Porfirio Diaz

PDF

Reglamento Teatral En Mexico Hasta 1917. (Spanish Text)

PDF

Nicolas Guillen: Poet In Search Of 'Cubanidad'

PDF

The Indian In The Works Of Gregorio Lopez Y Fuentes

PDF

Arturo Uslar Pietri: Renovador De La Conciencia Nacional. (Spanish Text)

PDF

Accion Nacional: Mexico'S Opposition Party

PDF

Political Alienation In The Novels Of Mariano Azuela

PDF

The Latin American Dictator In The Novel

PDF

La Felicidad Vista Atraves Del Amor, La Soledad, Y La Muerte En La Obra Literaria De Maria Luisa Bombal (Spanish Text) (Chile)

PDF

La Desilusion De La Revolucion Mexicana De 1910, Vista En La Obra De Carlos Fuentes (Spanish Text)

PDF

A History Of The Uranium Industry On The Colorado Plateau

PDF

Magical Realism In Contemporary Argentine Fiction

PDF

The Nonhistorical Works Of Rafael Altamira

PDF

The Revolt Of Gonzalo Pizarro: Peru, 1544-1548

PDF

Mexican "Machismo" In Novels By Lawrence, Sender, And Fuentes

PDF

Carlos Solorzano En El Teatro Mexicano (Spanish Text)

PDF

Existentialism In The Theater Of Alfonso Sastre

Asset Metadata

Creator Conklin, Deane Thacher (author)

Core Title Juan Bosch: His Literary Works And A Biographical Sketch

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), Servin, Manuel P. (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c18-764017

Unique identifier UC11363499

Identifier 7300729.pdf (filename),usctheses-c18-764017 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 7300729

Dmrecord 764017

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Conklin, Deane Thacher

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

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...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA