8. Novela

8.17 Tomás Rivera (México/USA)- Y no se lo tragó la tierra (Novela corta)

..y no se lo tragó la tierra is Tomás Rivera 1971 novel, most recently translated to English as ...And the Earth Did Not Devour Him. It is made up of fourteen short stories and thirteen vignettes. The novel presents stories that center around a community of South Texan Mexican American migrant farm workers during the late 1940s and early 1950s. The novel begins with the short story "A Lost Year", in which an unnamed male protagonist cannot seem to remember what occurred during the previous year. The stories and vignettes that follow are fragmented, lack chronology and lack consistency in characters. The last short story, "Under the House", ties all of these stories together by presenting them as the memories of the male protagonist, who seems to become empowered by the act of remembering. The novel won the Premio Quinto Sol prize for literature in 1970 and has since been adapted into a movie. THEME= Social change Many of the short stories in Rivera's novel reveal harrwing conditions that Mexican American migrant workers faced, and thus could be seen as a work that calls for social change to provide better working conditions for Mexican American migrant workers.In the short story "The Children Couldn't Wait", for example, a little migrant worker boy is shot to death by the farm boss for taking what the boss thought was too many breaks to drink water.[8] Additionally, in "The Little Burnt Victims", two small children of migrant workers are burned to death in an accidental fire when they are left alone in their house. The parents were discouraged from bringing their children to the fields with them and thus had been forced to leave them at home alone. In this way, problems with working conditions for migrant workers are made clear in many of the stories. Furthermore, in "It's That It Hurts", the difficulty of getting a quality education for migrant farm worker children is stressed. In the story, a boy gets in trouble for hitting another student back, and knows that he will be expelled. The other boys at school call him "Mex" and make fun of him, and the principal justifies expelling him by saying, "...they could care less if I expel him...they need him in the fields".[10] The racism the boy faces at school—both from children and adults—therefore hinders his ability to get a quality education. The stories thus expose dire conditions for Mexican American migrant workers and may be seen as a work that calls for structural changes to occur.

8.4 José María Arguedas (Perú)- Los ríos profundos

According to critics, this novel marked the beginning of the current neo-indigenista movement, which presented, for the first time, a reading of indigenous issues from a closer perspective. Most critics agree that this novel is one of Arguedas' masterpieces. The title of the work ('Uku Mayu' in Quechua) alludes to the depth of the Andean rivers, which rise in the top of the Andes. It also relates to the solid and ancestral roots of Andean culture, which, according to Arguedas, are the true national identity of Peru. The novel describes the maturation process of Ernesto, a 14-year-old who must confront the injustices of the adult world that he becomes a part of, and who is required to take sides. The story begins in Cuzco, where Ernesto and his father Gabriel arrive. Gabriel, an itinerant lawyer, is looking for a rich relative called 'El Viejo' (the old one), in order to ask for work and shelter. But he does not succeed. He then recommences his wanderings through many cities and villages of southern Peru. In Abancay, Ernesto is enrolled as a boarder at a religious school while his father continues his travels in search of work. Ernesto then has to live with the boarding students who are a microcosm of Peruvian society and where cruel and violent behaviour is the norm. Later, outside the boundaries of the school, a group of chicheras mutiny, demanding the distribution of salt, and a mass of Indian peasants enter the city to ask for a mass for the victims of epidemic typhus. This pushes Ernesto into a profound awareness: he must choose the values of liberation rather than economic security. This completes a phase of the learning process. The novel ends when Ernesto leaves Abancay and goes to a ranch owned by "El Viejo", situated in the valley of the Apurimac, awaiting the return of his father. José María Arguedas is one of the few Latin American authors who loved and described his natural surroundings, and he ranks among the greatest writers of any time and place. He saw the beauty of the Peruvian landscape, as well as the grimness of social conditions in the Andes, through the eyes of the Indians who are a part of it. Ernesto, the narrator of Deep Rivers, is a child with origins in two worlds. The son of a wandering country lawyer, he is brought up by Indian servants until he enters a Catholic boarding school at age 14. In this urban Spanish environment he is a misfit and a loner. The conflict of the Indian and the Spanish cultures is acted out within him as it was in the life of Arguedas. For the boy Ernesto, salvation is his world of dreams and memories. While Arguedas' poetry was published in Quechua, he invented a language for his novels in which he used native syntax with Spanish vocabulary. This makes translation into other languages extremely difficult, and Frances Horning Barraclough has done a masterful job, winning the 1978 Translation Center Award from Columbia University for her efforts. Published in 1958, this is the product of his recollection of this conflicted past. He practically invented a language here, using Quechua syntax and words with mostly Spanish vocabulary, making translation into other languages almost impossible. An outstanding example of transcultural literature, using the language of the white man (Spanish) to convey the thoughts and sensibilities of the Quechua/Andean culture narrated with the eyes of a child. The images are breathtakingly magical, its remembered world superstitious and surreal. Often I wondered how passages like this read in its original "Quechua-Spanish":

8.7 Adolfo Bioy Casares (Argentina)- La invención de Morel LA SOLEDAD

Adolfo Bioy Casares (Buenos Aires, 1914 - 1999) fue un escritor argentino y uno de los más destacados autores de la literatura fantástica universal. En general, en las novelas y los relatos de Bioy se cuestionan de modo obsesivo y recurrente los estatutos del orden espacial y temporal. Sus personajes se presentan atrapados por fantasmagóricas tramas, obligados a descifrar la compleja estructura de las percepciones, en las que las misteriosas combinaciones entre realidad y apariencia rigen sus existencias cotidianas. Además de un hábil y exquisito manejo del humor y la ironía, la prosa de Bioy Casares suele ser considerada como una de las más depuradas y elegantes que ha dado la literatura latinoamericana. A fugitive hides on a deserted island somewhere in Polynesia. Tourists arrive, and his fear of being discovered becomes a mixed emotion when he falls in love with one of them. He wants to tell her his feelings, but an anomalous phenomenon keeps them apart. Plot summary The fugitive starts a diary after tourists arrive on the desert island where he is hiding. Although he considers their presence a miracle, he is afraid they will turn him in to the authorities. He retreats to the swamps while they take over the museum on top of the hill where he used to live. Through his diary we learn that the fugitive is a writer from Venezuela sentenced to life in prison. He believes he is on the (fictional) island of Villings, a part of the Ellice Islands (now Tuvalu), but is not sure. All he knows is that the island is the focus of a strange disease whose symptoms are similar to radiation poisoning. Among the tourists is a woman who sees the sunset everyday from the cliff on the west side of the island. He spies on her and while doing so falls in love. She and another man, a bearded tennis player called Morel who visits her frequently, speak French among themselves. Morel calls her Faustine. The fugitive decides to approach her, but she does not react to him. He assumes she is ignoring him, but his encounters with the other tourists have the same result. Nobody on the island notices him. He points out that the conversations between Faustine and Morel repeat every week and fears he is going crazy. As suddenly as they appeared, the tourists vanish. The fugitive returns to the museum to investigate and finds no evidence of people being there during his absence. He attributes the experience to a hallucination caused by food poisoning, but the tourists reappear that night. They have come out of nowhere and yet they talk as if they have been there for a while. He watches them closely while still avoiding direct contact and notices more strange things. In the aquarium he encounters identical copies of the dead fish he found on his day of arrival. During a day at the pool, he sees the tourists jump to shake off the cold when the heat is unbearable. The strangest thing he notices is the presence of two suns and two moons in the sky. He comes up with all sort of theories about what is happening on the island, but finds out the truth when Morel tells the tourists he has been recording their actions of the past week with a machine of his invention capable of reproducing reality. He claims the recording will capture their souls, and through looping they will relive that week forever and he will spend eternity with the woman he loves. Although Morel does not mention her by name, the fugitive is sure he is talking about Faustine. After hearing that the people recorded on previous experiments are dead, one of the tourists guesses correctly they will die, too. The meeting ends abruptly as Morel leaves in anger. The fugitive picks up Morel's cue cards and learns the machine keeps running because the wind and tide feed it with an endless supply of kinetic energy. He understands that the phenomena of the two suns and two moons are a consequence of what happens when the recording overlaps reality — one is the real sun and the other one represents the sun's position at recording time. The other strange things that happen on the island have a similar explanation. He imagines all the possible uses for Morel's invention, including the creation of a second model to resurrect people. Despite this he feels repulsion for the "new kind of photographs" that inhabit the island, but as time goes by he accepts their existence as something better than his own. He learns how to operate the machine and inserts himself into the recording so it looks like he and Faustine are in love, even though she might have slept with Alec and Haynes. This bothers him, but he is confident it will not matter in the eternity they will spend together. At least he is sure she is not Morel's lover. On the diary's final entry the fugitive describes how he is waiting for his soul to pass onto the recording while dying. He asks a favor of the man who will invent a machine capable of merging souls based on Morel's invention. He wants the inventor to search for them and let him enter Faustine's conscience as an act of mercy. From my paper: El narrador de La invención de Morel también viva una vida muy sola debido a sus circunstancias de ser fugitivo en una isla deshabitada. Margaret L. Snook insiste en que los diálogos del narrador implica su unión y separación con otra gente (112). Escribe en su diario una descripción de su vida tan sola, "Viví enfermo, dolorido, con fiebre, muchísimo tiempo; ocupadísimo en no morirme de hambre; sin poder escribir" (21). Pasa la mayoría de tu tiempo solo hasta un grupo de gente llega a la isla. Es obvio que el narrador quiere la interacción con este grupo. Su soledad está empezando a cambiarle. Cuando trata de hablar con ellos, nadie puede oírle. Escribe, "fue como si los oídos que tenía no sirvieran para oír, como si los ojos no sirvieran para ver" (28). Él quiere que la gente le escuche. Quiere la unión con otras personas para evitar su soledad, pero no puede obtenerla. Es la existencia sin la interacción con otra gente que causa el narrador a empezar a enfermarse. El narrador en La invención de Morel también sufre de una enfermedad mental- la ansiedad- que toma su vida al final de la novella. Aunque sabe que Faustine es una imagen, él está enamorado con ella. Está lleno de ansiedad. Quiere ponerse en su imagen para que pueda vivir con ella por siempre. Exclama, "La persistente, la ínfima ansiedad por las relaciones de Morel con Faustine me preserva de atender a mi destrucción; es un efecto inesperado y benéfico" (115). Un estudio de Swinburne University of Technology ilustra que la soledad puede causar las enfermedades mentales como la depresión, la ansiedad social, y la paranoia. Es evidente que el estado aislado del narrador causa su ansiedad que progresa a su muerte.

8.8 Alejo Carpentier (Cuba) - El reino de este mundo (Novela corta) LO REAL MARAVILLOSO

Alejo Carpentier y Valmont (Lausana, 26 de diciembre de 19042​ - París, 24 de abril de 1980) fue un escritor cubano que influyó notablemente en la literatura latinoamericana durante su período de auge. La crítica lo considera uno de los escritores fundamentales del siglo XX en lengua española, y uno de los artífices de la renovación literaria latinoamericana, en particular a través de un estilo que incorpora varias dimensiones y aspectos de la imaginación para recrear la realidad, elementos que contribuyeron a su formación y uso de lo «Real Maravilloso». Su nacimiento tuvo lugar en Lausana, Suiza.1​ Su padre fue el arquitecto francés Georges Álvarez Carpentier y su madre Lina Valmont, profesora de idiomas de origen ruso. Su infancia estuvo marcada por un profundo «mestizaje cultural».5​6​ La familia se mudó a La Habana porque el padre tenía interés por la cultura hispánica y ansias de habitar en un país joven que le permitiera escapar de la decadencia europea. Así, Carpentier creció en trato cercano con campesinos cubanos blancos y negros, «hombres mal nutridos, cargados de miseria, mujeres envejecidas prematuramente; niños mal alimentados, cubiertos de enfermedades».​ Una realidad que posteriormente plasmaría en sus obras. Carpentier residió en Francia desde 1927 hasta 1939.​ El tiempo que pasó en ese país enriqueció su mundo y lo introdujo a nuevas técnicas literarias y funciones expresivas.​ Su llegada se produjo durante el boom del movimiento surrealista, cuyos miembros lo recibieron con los brazos abiertos. En 1943 viajó a Haití con su esposa Lilia Esteban y con el director teatral Louis Jouvet; fue un viaje de descubrimiento del mundo americano, de lo que llamó "lo real maravilloso". Producto de esta experiencia es la obra El reino de este mundo publicada en México en 1949. El elemento importante en lo real maravilloso de Carpentier es el milagro de la cotidianidad americana visto sin la necesidad de creer en algo más, como no sea la propia maravilla de la creación que a diario se vive en Latinoamérica. Una de las obras maestras del escritor cubano, El reino de este mundo narra, a través de la voz del esclavo negro Ti Noël, el tránsito que sufrió Haití al pasar a convertirse, de colonia francesa gobernada por blancos, en una nación negra regida por el primer monarca coronado del Nuevo Mundo. En una atmósfera lujuriosa y sensual que delata el barroquismo y el realismo mágico de su autor, este relato nos permite conocer las rebeliones de Mackandal, las aventuras de Pauline Bonaparte, así como la tiranía del rey negro Henri Christophe. Ti Noél- Protagonista de la obra no sabe de letras, seguidor de Mackandal y Bouckman, su dueño es Monsieur Lenormand de Mezy. Tras las revueltas en Haití, la casa del amo ha quedado destruida, así que Lenormand viaja con sus esclavos a Cuba en busca de otra suerte; allí el amo se hace jugador de naipes hasta que pierde todo, incluido Ti Noel. Con su nuevo amo, Ti Noel reúne el aguinaldo suficiente para ir en cubierta de vuelta a Haití. Allí vivirá en las ruinas de la antigua casa de Lenormand y participará de manera importante en el derrocamiento del rey negro Christophe, quien se había hecho más tirano que los franceses. Finalmente, durante el gobierno de los mulatos republicanos, éste practicará el ejercicio de la metamorfosis y el dominio de las fuerzas de la naturaleza. Por un lado, representa la creencia en la tradición africana de Haití, el vudú, el teriomorfismo, la magia, etc., y, por otro, es un hombre que ante todo es un amante de la libertad. Mackandal- El rebelde que instiga el alzamiento. En un accidente pierde un brazo y Ti Noel se hace amigo de él. Mackandal le lleva a conocer a una mujer con poderes mágicos. Mackandal huye y Ti Noel recibe una nota suya para un encuentro que tiene lugar en una cueva. Mackandal aprende a usar hongos venenosos y logra envenenar a muchos amos, y familias enteras. Los colonizadores logran capturar a Mackandal. Cuando deciden quemarlo, como lección para los esclavos. Mackandal parece volar sobre los negros esclavos quienes corren despavoridos pensando que el negro huyó, pero no vieron que fue recapturado y lanzado al fuego. Los esclavos pensaron que éste se transformó en mariposa (eventualmente se denominará Mackandal a una especie de mariposas provenientes de Haití) logrando así la libertad. La transformación solo la ven los esclavos y los iniciados de la religión vudú. El poder de cambiar de figura es una característica de las religiones animistas, y aquí es exactamente lo que señala «lo real maravilloso» de Carpentier. Los amos no se dan cuenta de esa transformación. Carpentier revela esos dos puntos de vista, cambiando la perspectiva narrativa. Mackandal es el ídolo de los esclavos en la obra, ya que simboliza la libertad y poderes estrictamente afroamericanos. FROM MY PAPER: Maggie Ann Bowers en su libro Magic(al) Realism comenta en una característica que distingue el realismo maravilloso del realismo mágico, "The distinguishing feature of 'marvellous realism', for instance, is that it's fiction brings together the seemingly opposed perspectives of a pragmatic, practical and tangible approach to reality and an acceptance of magic and superstition into the context of the same novel (3)". A través de la novela El reino de este mundo, la incorporación de la magia/la superstición es evidente con el tema del voodoo (34). El tema del voodoo es central al libro de Carpentier, específicamente con el personaje de Mackandal. Desde el principio del libro la influencia de voodoo es evidente en Mackandal. Carpentier describe su fascinación con la superstición, "Pero ahora Mackandal se interesaba más aún por los hongos... guardándolos en una bolsa de cuero...Mackandal mostraba a la Mamán Loi las hojas, las yerbas, los hongos, los simples que traía en la bolsa...respondiendo a una orden misteriosa, corrió a la cocina, hundiendo los brazos en una olla llena de aceite hirviente" (20-21). La influencia que Mackandal tiene en la vida de Ti Noel es explícito al final del libro, cuando él también utiliza la magia para escapar su horrible realidad. Carpentier termina la novela otra vez con énfasis en el voodoo, "Y desde aquella hora nadie supo más de Ti Noel ni de su casaca verde con puños de encaje salmón, salvo, tal vez, aquel buitre mojado, aprovechador de toda muerte, que esperó el sol con las alas abiertas: cruz de plumas que acabó por plegarse y hundir el vuelo en las espesuras de Bois Caimán" (143-144). Es obvio que la incorporación del voodoo/la superstición es importantísimo a Carpentier y define su estilo del realismo maravilloso. En el artículo "Lo real y lo maravilloso en El reino de este mundo" Emir Rodríguez Monegal explica, "Contra las evidencias de la realidad se sostiene la visión sobrenatural, lo "maravilloso", que se apoya en la fe. No es extraño, por lo tanto, que al final de su carrera, Ti Noel recurra a la magia de Mackandal para escapar de una realidad intolerable" (641). La mezcla de la magia y la realidad es algo que Carpentier hace únicamente.

8.16 Reinaldo Arenas (Cuba)

Arturo, la estrella más brillante (Novela corta)

8.18 Rudolfo Anaya (México/USA)

Bendíceme Última/ Bless Me Ultima

8.18 Rudolfo Anaya (México/USA)- Bendíceme Última/ Bless Me Ultima LA LITERATURA CHICANA

Bless Me, Ultima is the story of a young boy's coming-of-age within a cultural tapestry that includes Spanish, Mexican, and Native American influences, and in which many of the major cultural forces conflict with one another. The young boy, Antonio Márez, must navigate a number of conflicts—between farmers and cowboys, Spanish and indigenous peoples, and English-speaking and Spanish-speaking peoples—that collectively structured the cultural life in rural New Mexico during the 1940s. When Antonio Márez is almost seven years old, the old healer Ultima comes to stay with him and his family in their small house in Guadalupe, New Mexico. The family has taken in Ultima out of a respect for her healing powers, her knowledge of plant lore, and her long use of folk magic in service of the community. Though they have great respect for Ultima's spirituality, the family, especially Antonio's mother, is devoutly Catholic. Antonio's father, Gabriel, is a former vaquero, or cowboy, who wandered the llano, the great plains of New Mexico. Antonio's mother, María, is the daughter of farmers. Antonio's parents now argue about their young son's future; Gabriel hopes he will become a vaquero on the llano, and María hopes he will become a priest. When he was born, Ultima served as his midwife and buried his afterbirth. As a result, it is now thought that she alone knows what lies in Antonio's future. THE INFLUENCE OF CULTURE ON IDENTITY Bless Me, Ultima explores the difficulty of reconciling conflicting cultural traditions. In the end, Anaya suggests that a person can draw from several cultural traditions to forge a more complex and adaptable identity. Antonio is so eager to find a single, definitive answer to the questions that haunt him because he has been influenced by many conflicting cultures. The first major conflict involves his parents. His Luna mother wishes for him to become a priest, while his vaquero father wishes for him to ride the llano. Each parent has deeply rooted cultural convictions. Next is the conflict within his town between its Spanish and indigenous cultures. We see evidence of this conflict in the pronounced tension between Ultima's mystical folklore and the Catholic church. Another conflict takes place at Antonio's school between Spanish and English speakers. Anaya uses these conflicts to explore the influence of culture on identity. Many characters in the book are limited by their cultural prejudices and never learn to look beyond their own assumptions. For example, the townspeople condemn Narciso for being a drunk and refuse to acknowledge that his traumatic experience in the war might play a part in his psychological state. Ultima teaches Antonio to avoid the limitations inherent in abiding by one culture, one religion, or one creed. Instead, Ultima encourages Antonio to embrace all of the cultural influences in his life to become a better person. THE IMPORTANCE OF MORAL INDEPENDENCE An emphasis on thinking independently about moral decisions pervades Bless Me, Ultima. Antonio's progress toward moral independence is the main marker of his maturity and development throughout the novel. Antonio's struggle to reconcile the complexities of his experience with his religion leads him to conclude that he must make his own decisions. He becomes increasingly frustrated by the failure of the church to explain the most pressing questions about morality and human experience. Ultima acts as Antonio's guide as he learns the importance of moral independence. Ultima teaches him that the most difficult questions about life can never be answered entirely by a single religion or cultural tradition. Antonio has questions about evil, forgiveness, truth, and the soul, questions he can answer only for himself. Antonio once believed that the Communion ritual would answer all his questions, but Ultima teaches him that he must think for himself and arrive at his own conclusions.

8.11 La muerte de Artemio Cruz- Carlos Fuentes

Carlos Fuentes Macías (Panamá, 11 de noviembre de 1928-Ciudad de México, 15 de mayo de 20122​3​) fue un escritor, intelectual y diplomático mexicano, uno de los autores más destacados de su país y de las letras hispanoamericanas, autor de novelas como La región más transparente, La muerte de Artemio Cruz, Aura, Cambio de piel y Terra Nostra y ensayos como La nueva novela hispanoamericana, Cervantes o la crítica de la lectura, El espejo enterrado, Geografía de la novela y La gran novela latinoamericana, entre otros. A novel written in 1962 by Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes. It is considered to be a milestone in the Latin American Boom. The Latin American Boom: A flourishing of literature, poetry and criticism in Latin America during the 1960s and 1970s, when writers from this region explored new ideas and came to international renown in a way that had not happened previously. Major figures of the boom include Julio Cortázar, Gabriel García Márquez, Carlos Fuentes, and Mario Vargas Llosa. Artemio Cruz, a corrupt soldier, politician, journalist, tycoon, and lover, lies on his deathbed, recalling the shaping events of his life, from the Mexican Revolution through the development of the Institutional Revolutionary Party. His family crowds around, pressing him to reveal the location of his will; a priest provides extreme unction, angling for a deathbed confession and reconciliation with the Church (while Artemio indulges in obscene thoughts about the birth of Jesus); his private secretary has come with audiotapes of various corrupt dealings, many with gringo diplomats and speculators. Punctuating the sordid record of betrayal is Cruz's awareness of his failing body and his keen attachment to sensual life. Finally his thoughts decay into a drawn-out death. The Death of Artemio Cruz is today "widely regarded as a seminal work of modern Spanish American literature".Like many of his works, the novel used rotating narrators, a technique critic Karen Hardy described as demonstrating "the complexities of a human or national personality". The novel is heavily influenced by Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, and attempts literary parallels to Welles' techniques, including close-up, cross-cutting, deep focus, and flashback. Like Kane, the novel begins with the titular protagonist on his deathbed; the story of Cruz's life is then filled in by flashbacks as the novel moves between past and present. Cruz is a former soldier of the Mexican Revolution who has become wealthy and powerful through "violence, blackmail, bribery, and brutal exploitation of the workers". The novel explores the corrupting effects of power and criticizes the distortion of the revolutionaries' original aims through "class domination, Americanization, financial corruption, and failure of land reform". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Artemio_Cruz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_American_Boom

8.13 Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia)

Cien años de soledad

8.8 Alejo Carpentier (Cuba)

El reino de este mundo (Novela corta)

8.9 Juan Rulfo (México) - Pedro Páramo

Gabriel García Márquez has said that he felt blocked as a novelist after writing his first four books and that it was only his life-changing discovery of Pedro Páramo in 1961 that opened his way to the composition of his masterpiece, One Hundred Years of Solitude. Moreover, García Márquez claimed that he "could recite the whole book, forwards and backwards." Jorge Luis Borges considered Pedro Páramo to be one of the greatest texts written in any language. Critics primarily consider Pedro Páramo as either a work of magical realism or a precursor to later works of magical realism. This may be deceptive, however, since magical realism is a term coined to note the juxtaposition of the surreal to the mundane, with each bearing traits of the other. It is a means of adding surreal or supernatural qualities to a written work while maintaining a necessary suspension of disbelief. Pedro Páramo is like other works of this type because the primary narrator states clearly in the second paragraph of the novel that his mind has filled with dreams and that he has given flight to illusion and that a world has formed in his mind around the hopes of finding a man named Pedro Páramo. Likewise, several sections into this narration, Juan Preciado states that his head has filled with noises and voices. He is unable to distinguish living persons from apparitions. Certain qualities of the novel, including the narrative fragmentation, the physical fragmentation of characters, and the auditory and visual hallucinations described by the primary narrator, suggest that this novel's journey and visions may be more readily associated with the sort of breakdown of the senses present in schizophrenia or schizophrenia-like conditions than with magical realism. This book is far more than a ghost story. Like Toni Morrison's Beloved, Pedro Páramo is a social allegory in the form of a ghost story. The novel is filled with symbols and double-meanings. For example, Páramo means wasteland in Spanish (in fact, the Mexican edition of T. S. Eliot's The Wasteland is titled El Páramo). Juan Preciado is on a quest for his legacy. Instead, he finds a hellish wasteland, populated by ghosts. The novel is a social allegory of mid-twentieth century Mexico. From 1910 through the 1940s, Mexican society endured civil unrest, a revolutionary war, the anti-clerical purges of the Porfirio Diaz dictatorship and increased urbanization. An urban Mexican,seeking his roots, finds a bleak legacy of war, rampant poverty, destroyed haciendas and disbanded monasteries. Author Juan Rulfo was born to an upper class Mexican family. By the end of the Mexican Revolution, Rulfo's parents were dead and Rulfo himself was in an orphanage. Rulfo experienced firsthand the losses symbolically portrayed in his only novel, Pedro Páramo.

8.13 Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia)- Cien años de soledad EL REALISMO MÁGICO LA SOLEDADhttp://rupkatha.com/V2/n3/MagicRealisminMarquez.pdf

Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (Aracataca, 6 de marzo de 1927nota 1​ - Ciudad de México, 17 de abril de 2014​) fue un escritor, guionista, editor y periodista colombiano. En 1982 recibió el Premio Nobel de Literatura. Está relacionado de manera inherente con el realismo mágico y su obra más conocida, la novela Cien años de soledad, es considerada una de las más representativas de este movimiento literario e incluso se considera que por el éxito de la novela es que tal término se aplica a la literatura surgida a partir de los años 1960 en América Latina. Como autor de ficción, García Márquez es siempre asociado con el realismo mágico. De hecho, es considerado, junto al guatemalteco Miguel Ángel Asturias, figura central de este género. El realismo mágico se usa para describir elementos que tienen, como es el caso en los trabajos de este autor, la yuxtaposición de la fantasía y el mito con las actividades diarias y ordinarias. Cien años de soledad es una novela del escritor colombiano Gabriel García Márquez, ganador del Premio Nobel de Literatura en 1982. Es considerada una obra maestra de la literatura hispanoamericana y universal, así como una de las obras más traducidas y leídas en español. El libro narra la historia de la familia Buendía a lo largo de siete generaciones en el pueblo ficticio de Macondo. Temas: 1. La soledad- Durante la novela, todos sus personajes parecen que están predestinados a padecer de la soledad, como una característica innata de la familia Buendía.16​17​ El pueblo mismo vive aislado de la modernidad, siempre a la espera de la llegada de los gitanos para traer los nuevos inventos; y el olvido, frecuente en los acontecimientos trágicos recurrentes en la historia de la cultura que presenta la obra. 2. THE BIBLE One Hundred Years of Solitude draws on many of the basic narratives of the Bible, and its characters can be seen as allegorical of some major biblical figures. The novel recounts the creation of Macondo and its earliest Edenic days of innocence, and continues until its apocalyptic end, with a cleansing flood in between. We can see José Arcadio Buendía's downfall—his loss of sanity—as a result of his quest for knowledge. He and his wife, Ursula Iguarán, represent the biblical Adam and Eve, who were exiled from Eden after eating from the Tree of Knowledge. The entire novel functions as a metaphor for human history and an extended commentary on human nature. On the one hand, their story, taken literally as applying to the fictional Buendías, evokes immense pathos. But as representatives of the human race, the Buendías personify solitude and inevitable tragedy, together with the elusive possibility of happiness, as chronicled by the Bible. 3. THE GYPSIES Gypsies are present in One Hundred Years of Solitude primarily to act as links. They function to offer transitions from contrasting or unrelated events and characters. Every few years, especially in the early days of Macondo, a pack of wandering gypsies arrives, turning the town into something like a carnival and displaying the wares that they have brought with them. Before Macondo has a road to civilization, they are the town's only contact with the outside world. They bring both technology—inventions that Melquíades displays—and magic—magic carpets and other wonders. Gypsies, then, serve as versatile literary devices that also blur the line between fantasy and reality, especially when they connect Macondo and the outside world, magic and science, and even the past and present. 4. The struggle between old and new ways of life; tradition and modernity Even those elements in One Hundred Years of Solitude that seem "magical" or fantastic are representations of García Márquez's reality. García Márquez's novel describes the unique reality of a Latin America caught between modernity and pre-industrialism, torn by civil war, and ravaged by imperialism. In this environment, what might otherwise seem incredible begins to seem commonplace both to the novelist and to his readers. His is also a novel that grants myth—both biblical and indigenous Latin American—the same level of credibility as fact. It is sensitive to the magic that superstition and religion infuse into the world. One Hundred Years of Solitude, then, is a realistic novel in the sense that it asserts a unity between the surreal and the real: it asserts that magic is as real—as relevant, as present and as powerful—as what we normally take to be reality. They are practically the last people remaining in Macondo, a town whose history has run its course and one that is destroyed in the final lines of the book by the wind of the apocalypse. One might get the sense that it is not only Macondo but the entire world that has been destroyed in that final Apocalyptic fury, and one would not be entirely wrong. In this novel, Macondo has become a world closed in upon itself: self-referential and encompassing the full scope of human emotion and human experience. Time has run out for the Buendía family, which, in some sense, has come to represent all of humanity, with the Adam and Eve figures of José Arcadio Buendía and Ursula Iguarán as its source. The suggestion is that humans, too, will have time run out on them when their endless cycles of repeating generations finally draw to a close. CHARACTERS One of the themes of One Hundred Years of Solitude is the way history repeats itself in cycles. In this novel, each generation is condemned to repeat the mistakes—and to celebrate the triumphs—of the previous generation. To dramatize this point, García Márquez has given his protagonists, the Buendía family members, a very limited selection of names. One Hundred Years of Solitude spans six generations, and in each generation, the men of the Buendía line are named José Arcadio or Aureliano and the women are named Úrsula, Amaranta, or Remedios. 1. José Arcadio Buendía- The founder and patriarch of Macondo, José Arcadio Buendía represents both great leadership and the innocence of the ancient world. He is a natural explorer, setting off into the wilderness first to found Macondo and then to find a route between Macondo and the outside world. In this tale of creation he is the Adam figure, whose quest for knowledge, mirrored in the intellectual pursuits of his descendants, eventually results in his family's loss of innocence. José Arcadio Buendía pushes his family forward into modernity, preferring the confines of his laboratory to the sight of a real flying carpet that the gypsies have brought. By turning his back on this ancient magic in favor of his more modern scientific ideas, he hastens the end of Macondo's Eden-like state. For José Arcadio Buendía, however, madness comes sooner than disillusionment. Immediately after he thinks he has discovered a means to create perpetual motion—a physical impossibility—he goes insane, convinced that the same day is repeating itself over and over again. In a sense, his purported discovery of perpetual motion achieves a kind of total knowledge that may be too deep for the human mind to withstand. Perpetual motion could only exist in a world without time, which, for José Arcadio Buendía, is what the world becomes and, in a sense, is what time throughout the novel becomes: past, present and future often overlap. This overlapping of time allows José Arcadio Buendía to appear to his descendants in the form of a ghost, so that his presence will always be felt in Macondo. 2. Colonel Aureliano Buendía- He is One Hundred Years of Solitude's greatest soldier figure, leading the Liberal army throughout the civil war. At the same time, however, he is the novel's greatest artist figure: a poet, an accomplished silversmith, and the creator of hundreds of finely crafted golden fishes. Aureliano's (I) inability to experience deep emotion contributes to his great battle poise and artistic focus, yet Márquez's depiction of the Colonel melting away his hard work and starting all over again signals that this poise and focus is not worth its price. Aureliano (I) is never truly touched by anything or anyone. His child bride, Remedios Moscote, seems at first to have a real effect on him. When she dies, however, he discovers that his sorrow is not as profound as he had expected. During the war, he becomes even more hardened to emotion, and, eventually, his memory and all his feelings are worn away. He has all of his poems burned, and, by the end of his life, he has stopped making new golden fish. Instead, he makes twenty-five and then melts them down, using the metal for the next batch. In this way, he lives solely in the present, acknowledging that time moves in cycles and that the present is all that exists for a man like him, with no memories. Colonel Aureliano Buendía's attempted suicide shows us how deep his despair is when he realizes that civil war is futile and that pride is the only thing that keeps the two sides fighting. His disillusionment is a moving commentary on the despair that arises from futility but, also, on the futility that arises from despair. 3. Úrsula Iguarán Of all the characters in the novel, Úrsula Iguarán lives the longest and sees the most new generations born. She outlives all three of her children. Unlike most of her relatives, Úrsula is untroubled by great spiritual anxiety; in this sense, she is probably the strongest person ever to live in Macondo. She takes in Rebeca, the child of strangers, and raises her as her own daughter; she welcomes dozens of passing strangers to her table; she tries to keep the house from falling apart. Úrsula's task is not easy, since all of her descendants become embroiled in wars and scandals that would cause any weaker family to dissolve. With Úrsula as their mainstay, however, the Buendías are irrevocably linked, for better or for worse. To keep the family together, Úrsula sometimes is quite harsh; for example, she kicks José Arcadio and Rebeca out of the house when they elope. This decision is partly a result of her unyielding fear of incest. Even though Rebeca and José Arcadio are not technically related, Úrsula is terrified that even a remotely incestuous action or relation will result in someone in the family having a baby with the tail of a pig. Her own marriage to José Arcadio Buendía is incestuous because they are cousins, and she constantly examines her children's behavior for flaws, frequently saying, "[i]t's worse than if he had been born with the tail of a pig." Because of her fear of incest, Úrsula is a contradictory character: she binds the family together, but is terrified that incest, the extreme of family bonding, will bring disaster to the Buendía house. 4. Aureliano (II) Aureliano (II) is the purest example in One Hundred Years of Solitude of the solitary, destructive Buendía thirst for knowledge. He is utterly isolated by his grandmother, Fernanda del Carpio, because she is ashamed that he was born out of wedlock. He never even leaves the house until he is fully grown. As he lives in solitude, however, he acquires a store of knowledge almost magical in scope. He knows far more than he could have read in his family's books and seems to have miraculously accessed an enormous store of universal knowledge. After having an incestuous relationship with his aunt, Amaranta Úrsula, Aureliano (II) watches the last of the Buendía line (their son, born with the tail of a pig) being eaten by ants. He finally translates the prophecies of the old gypsy, Melquíades, which foretell both the act of translation and the destruction of Macondo that occurs as he reads. Aureliano (II) is therefore Macondo's prophet of doom, destroying the town with an act of reading and translation that is similar to our reading of One Hundred Years of Solitude.

8.19 Julia Álvarez (República Domincana)

How the García Girls Lost Their Accent

8.19 Julia Álvarez (República Domincana) - How the García Girls Lost Their Accent

Julia Alvarez (born March 27, 1950) is a Dominican-American poet, novelist, and essayist. She rose to prominence with the novels How the García Girls Lost Their Accents (1991), In the Time of the Butterflies (1994), and Yo! (1997). Her publications as a poet include Homecoming (1984) and The Woman I Kept to Myself (2004), and as an essayist the autobiographical compilation Something to Declare (1998). Many literary critics regard her to be one of the most significant Latina writers and she has achieved critical and commercial success on an international scale. Born in New York, she spent the first ten years of her childhood in the Dominican Republic, until her father's involvement in a political rebellion forced her family to flee the country. Many of Alvarez's works are influenced by her experiences as a Dominican in the United States, and focus heavily on issues of assimilation and identity. Her cultural upbringing as both a Dominican and an American is evident in the combination of personal and political tone in her writing. She is known for works that examine cultural expectations of women both in the Dominican Republic and the United States, and for rigorous investigations of cultural stereotypes. In recent years, Alvarez has expanded her subject matter with works such as In the Name of Salomé (2000), a novel with Cuban rather than solely Dominican characters and fictionalized versions of historical figures. HOW THE GARCIA GIRLS LOST THEIR ACCENTS: The four Garcia sisters, Carla, Sandra, Yolanda and Sofia, enjoyed a fairly sheltered and luxurious childhood in the Dominican Republic. When their father, Carlos, got in trouble with the secret police for agitating against the military dictatorship, the family enlisted the help of a CIA operative, Vic, to get them out of the country. They fled to New York City, where they had trouble adjusting culturally and materially to the new situation. As the girls mature, they grow increasingly distant from one another, their parents, and their relatives on the Island. Their integration into American culture tears them further apart from their family roots and leaves them badly prepared to deal with their parents' more traditional perspectives. Yolanda returned to the Dominican Republic, possibly for good, to embrace her extended family and cultural roots. Her family thought she was crazy for driving into the countryside by herself, but she ignored them. She got lost looking for fresh guavas, and then got a flat tire. When approached by two men, she panicked and pretended not to speak any Spanish. Yolanda felt more comfortable in her English speaking American identity than with the Dominican side of her personality. THEME: THE MEANING OF LANGUAGE Language has different cultural and literary meanings for each of the members of the Garcia family. Laura uses adopted idioms carelessly, yet always effectively communicates her meaning even if she mixes up the particular images. Yolanda would never be so careless, since she considers herself a poet with a highly discerning literary perspective. Her husband John's monolingual limitations frustrate her and lead to the end of their relationship, when they lose the ability to communicate effectively. The deterioration of her ability to make sense of language also signals her imminent mental breakdown. Sandra's breakdown is also preceded by her fear that she'll lose the ability to read and reason with language, indicating that humanity for her is symbolized by language itself. Carla's difficulties fitting into American society and communicating with the authorities, such as teachers and the police, stem from her limited English ability. For her, language has the power to exclude and isolate, in addition to the power to connect and facilitate interactions.

8.6 María Luisa Bombal (Chile)

La amortajada

8.20 Sandra Cisneros (México/USA)

La casa en Mango Street (Novela corta)

8.7 Adolfo Bioy Casares (Argentina)

La invención de Morel

8.11 Carlos Fuentes (México)

La muerte de Artemio Cruz

8.1 Arqueles Vela (México)

La señorita Etcétera (Novela corta)

8.3 Martín Luis Guzmán (México)

La sombra del Caudillo

8.5 José Eustasio Rivera (Colombia)

La vorágine

8.10 Juan Carlos Onetti (Uruguay)

Los adioses

8.14 Mario Vargas Llosa (Perú)

Los cachorros (novela corta)

8.2 Mariano Azuela (México)

Los de Abajo

8.15 Maria Vargas Llosa (Perú)

Los recuerdos del porvenir

8.4 José María Arguedas (Perú)

Los ríos profundos

8.6 María Luisa Bombal (Chile) - La amortajada LA SOLEDAD

María Luisa Bombal Anthes (Viña del Mar, 8 de junio de 1910 - Santiago, 6 de mayo de 1980), fue una escritora chilena. Su obra, relativamente breve en extensión, se centra en personajes femeninos y su mundo interno con el cual escapan de la realidad. Sus obras más conocidas son las novelas La última niebla y La amortajada, y el cuento El árbol. LA AMORTAJADA Este libro se trata de una mujer llamada Ana Maria y muere por un infarto, y mientras esta en el ataúd y todos sus familiares están alrededor de ella va recordando cosas que le van pasando en la vida con cada una de las personas que se acercan a ella. Protagonista: El personaje principal es la Amortajada y se llamaba Ana María; su esposo era Antonio y tenía 3 hijos, Alberto, Fred y Anita. Era una mujer de buen corazón pero tenia muchos problemas sobre su esposo ya que la engañaba con otra mujer y por esa razón sentía un odio hacia el. Ella tuvo muchos problemas desde niña por la ausencia de su mamá y también con su papá porque el era muy frío con ella, y cuando se casa se da cuenta que ella no podía estar sola y que dependía de Zoila que era como su madre, un ejemplo de ello es que Ana María no se podía ni peinar sola. Físicamente parecía ser una mujer bonita con pestañas largas con manos delicadas. Su pelo era espeso y bonito pero con la enfermedad se fue volviendo más húmedo y más pesado. Ella tenía una situación económica buena y era un poco caprichosa vivía en el campo en su fundo. Antagonista: Creo que el antagonista es el sentimiento del amor, ya que por el amor Ana María sufre mucho, porque de joven queda embarazada de Ricardo y al no tener una relación formal con el se esconde de su familia y especialmente de su papá por la reacción que podría tener al saberlo. Aunque perdió el hijo. Y luego sufre con Antonio ya que al principio ella no lo amaba y el si, y por esa razón ella se va de la casa pero después se da cuenta que de verdad si lo amaba pero Antonio se pone frío con ella y la engaña. Ana María en La amortajada refleja sobre su vida sólo después de la muerte. Es evidente que ella sufre mucho aislamiento a causa de su matrimonio infeliz con Antonio. Bombal escribe, "Nunca, nunca [Antonio] supo hasta que punto lo odiaba todas las noches...Nunca supo que noche tras noche, la enloquecida niña que estrechaba en sus brazos, apretando los dientes con ira intentaba conjurar el urgente escalofrío" (143). A Ana María no le interesa la vida de una esposa. Está harta de cuidar la casa y tener Antonio al centro de su vida (153). La soledad para Ana María viene de la vida repetitiva, con un marido con quien no le ama. Es claro que Ana María sufre de una enfermedad mental-depresión-durante su vida, a causa de su matrimonio infeliz. Su estado solitaria causa una ansiedad en ella que provoca un infarto que la mata joven. Bombal escribe, "Un ataque repentino... te fallaba el corazón... hasta se temía no recobraras ya el conocimiento" (174). Aquí vemos la vida sola y infeliz de Ana María que termina con un ataque de la corazón que la mata. Un estudio de Valtorta et. al sobre la soledad y los riesgos por la enfermedad cardiovascular sugiere que "deficiencies in social relationships are associated with an increased risk of developing CHD and stroke...Adults who have few social contacts (ie, who are socially isolated) or feel unhappy about their social relationships (ie, who are lonely) are at increased risk of premature mortality" (1009). Explican que con estas enfermedades pueden morir temprano, exactamente la situación de Ana María. Por lo tanto, se puede ver que la enfermedad cardiovascular es un resultado fatal de la vida solitaria.

8.9 Juan Rulfo (México)

Pedro Páramo

8.12 Julio Cortázar (Argentina)

Rayuela

8.21 Oscar Zeta Acosta (México/USA)

The Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo

8.22 Junot Diaz (República Dominicana)

The Brief And Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

8.22 The Brief And Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) is a novel written by Dominican American author Junot Díaz. Although a work of fiction, the novel is set in New Jersey in the United States, where Díaz was raised and deals with the Dominican Republic experience under dictator Rafael Trujillo.[1] The book chronicles both the life of Oscar De León, an overweight Dominican boy growing up in Paterson, New Jersey, who is obsessed with science fiction and fantasy novels and with falling in love, as well as the curse that has plagued his family for generations. Narrated by multiple characters, the novel incorporates a significant amount of Spanglish and neologisms, as well as references to fantasy and science fiction films and books. Through its overarching theme of the fukú curse, it additionally contains elements of magic realism. It received highly positive reviews from critics, who praised Díaz's writing style and the multi-generational story. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao went on to win numerous awards in 2008, such as the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

8.20 Sandra Cisneros (México/USA)- La casa en Mango Street (Novela corta) LA LITERATURA CHICANA LA LITERATURA FEMININA

The House on Mango Street is a 1984 coming-of-age novel by Mexican-American writer Sandra Cisneros. It deals with Esperanza Cordero, a young Latina girl, and her life growing up in Chicago with Chicanos and Puerto Ricans. Esperanza is determined to "say goodbye" to her impoverished Latino neighborhood by turning to a life on the streets. Major themes include her quest for a better life and the importance of her promise to come back for "the ones [she] left behind". THE POWER OF LANGUAGE Throughout The House on Mango Street, particularly in "No Speak English," those who are not able to communicate effectively (or at all) are relegated to the bottom levels of society. Mamacita moves to the country to be with her husband, and she becomes a prisoner of her apartment because she does not speak English. She misses home and listens to the Spanish radio station, and she is distraught when her baby begins learning English words. His new language excludes her. Similarly, Esperanza's father could not even choose what he ate when he first moved to the country, because he did not know the words for any of the foods but ham and eggs. Esperanza's mother may be a native English speaker, but her letter to the nuns at Esperanza's school is unconvincing to them in part because it is poorly written. Esperanza observes the people around her and realizes that if not knowing or not mastering the language creates powerlessness, then having the ability to manipulate language will give her power. She wants to change her name so that she can have power over her own destiny. Her Aunt Lupe tells her to keep writing because it will keep her free, and Esperanza eventually understands what her aunt means. Writing keeps Esperanza spiritually free, because putting her experiences into words gives her power over them. If she can use beautiful language to write about a terrible experience, then the experience seems less awful. Esperanza's spiritual freedom may eventually give her the power to be literally free as well. THE STRUGGLE FOR SELF-DEFINITION The struggle for self-definition is a common theme in a coming-of-age novel, or bildungsroman, and in The House on Mango Street, Esperanza's struggle to define herself underscores her every action and encounter. Esperanza must define herself both as a woman and as an artist, and her perception of her identity changes over the course of the novel. In the beginning of the novel Esperanza wants to change her name so that she can define herself on her own terms, instead of accepting a name that expresses her family heritage. She wants to separate herself from her parents and her younger sister in order to create her own life, and changing her name seems to her an important step in that direction. Later, after she becomes more sexually aware, Esperanza would like to be "beautiful and cruel" so men will like her but not hurt her, and she pursues that goal by becoming friends with Sally. After she is assaulted, she doesn't want to define herself as "beautiful and cruel" anymore, and she is, once again, unsure of who she is. Eventually, Esperanza decides she does not need to set herself apart from the others in her neighborhood or her family heritage by changing her name, and she stops forcing herself to develop sexually, which she isn't fully ready for. She accepts her place in her community and decides that the most important way she can define herself is as a writer. As a writer, she observes and interacts with the world in a way that sets her apart from non-writers, giving her the legitimate new identity she's been searching for. Writing promises to help her leave Mango Street emotionally, and possibly physically as well.

8.3 Martín Luis Guzmán (México)- La sombra del Caudillo

The Leaders Shadow Summary: General Ignacio Aguirre rebels against the decision of the leader in power to impose his minister of the interior as the candidate for the presidency. The story takes on a violent aspect: the rebel general decides to enter the electoral race and, in order to prevent a rebellion, Aguirre and his followers are betrayed and assassinated at a roadside. The sole survivor is the deputy Axkana, witness to the events. Reason for the choice: This book, one of the most celebrated works of the school known as "revolutionary novels", launched the political novel in Mexico. Martín Luis Guzmán has been described as one of the best prose writers in Mexico. The archetypes of General Ignacio Aguirre, the interior minister Hilario Jiménez and Axkana González foreshadow the dictators in later novels (El otoño del patriarco, Yo, El supremo, El Señor Presidente, El recurso del método, etc.). He is also famous for his novel La sombra del caudillo (1929; "The Shadow of the Leader"), in which he depicted the political corruption of the 1920s in Mexico. Caudillismo: The related caudillismo as a cultural phenomenon first appeared during the early 19th century in revolutionary Spanish America, as a type of militia leader with a charismatic personality and enough of a populist program of generic future reforms to gain broad sympathy, at least at the outset, among the common people. Effective caudillismo depends on a personality cult. Caudillos were very influential in the history of Hispanic America and have a legacy that has influenced political movements in the modern day. Muchos caudillos eran demagogos y manipulaban a la población; detrás de la promesa de asegurar el bienestar común, de defender los intereses de toda la región, se escondían las propias ambiciones, la sed de poder. En ciertos casos, el caudillismo derivó en dictaduras con una dura represión a los opositores. En otros, en cambio, el caudillismo se adaptó a los regímenes democráticos y federales que se establecieron en los países latinoamericanos. http://definicion.de/caudillismo/

8.2 Mariano Azuela (México)- Los de Abajo

The Underdogs (Spanish: Los de abajo) is a novelistic treatment of the Mexican Revolution by Mariano Azuela, based in part on its author's experiences as a medical officer during the conflict. In the view of its translator, Sergio Waisman, the book is quite simply "the most important novel of the Mexican revolution."[1] It was originally published in serial form in the newspaper El Paso del Norte in 1915. The book tells us the story of peasant Demetrio Macías, who becomes the enemy of a local cacique (leader, or important person) in his town, and so has to abandon his family when the government soldiers (Federales) come looking for him. He escapes to the mountains, and forms a group of rebels who support the Mexican Revolution. Some of them are prototypes of the sort of people that would be attracted by a revolution, like Luis Cervantes, who is an educated man mistreated by the Federales and therefore turning on them, or Güero Margarito, a cruel man who finds justification for his deeds in the tumultuousness of the times. Also Camila, a young peasant who is in love with Cervantes, who cheats her into becoming Macías' lover, and whose kind and stoic nature gives her a tragic uniqueness among the rest. With a concise, unsympathetic tone, Azuela takes us along with this band of outcasts as they move along the hills of the country, seemingly struggling for a cause whose leader changes from day to night. The rebels, not very certain of what or whom they are fighting for, practice themselves the abuse and injustice they used to suffer in the hands of the old leaders. So the Mexican people, as the title of the book hints, are always the "ones below", no matter who runs the country. In the end, Macías has lost his lover and most of his men, and reunites with his family with no real desire or hope for redemption or peace. He has forebodings of his destiny, and the last scene of the book leaves him firing his rifle with deathly accuracy, alone and extremely outnumbered by his enemies.

8.17 Tomás Rivera (México/USA)

Y no se lo tragó la tierra (Novela corta)