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    1 Legras Criollismo and Indigenismo

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    Rafa Ramírez Mendoza
    Legras. Criollismo and Indigenismo

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    cuarms ©) LITERARY CRIOLLISMO AND ‘The crollisia canon (basically composed of works dating between 1900 and 1940) sought to assert Latin-American cul- ture and advertise its difference from both European and a pepe! universal culture. Criollisa strategy has therefore recourse to representing aesthetically an abundance of characters, signs, and social symbols considered characteristic ‘of a country or region (e.g,, the Venezuelan lanera, the Argen- tine geucho, the Chilean Auase, and the Brazilian seriangjd) ‘Faced with the cosmopolitan nature of urban expansion at the toga of th ony, clin jee ach deca eae! eas bg eee eat tego of be canal ail cd enters clon comopedtanunntbotae ie heceen conclusion that criollismo was an anti-modern movernent. On fhe conny i cnt nao e e O aning he ons and ad ae Whee Femi ine coir coposed of sia od Iseogenens Peel hari are iaiae meee Cc ocular neon ome Sane oat oacent frau The very guess aa cela of ke weed sole indicative of the problem of how to discern the differential spe of hati Aaa Wide te Cation et ‘was the name given to the descendants of black slaves born in aus ee eet ere of Scns orn Armas Bay tata as sect eahon va deal cain, epee nent as criollo in simple opposition to the foreigner, In the countries where criollismo was politically dominant, the term underlines locality over origin and sociopolitical position over lineage. There is nothing accidental about the fact that crial- iametagpenrel ar he sous e etenat own play mel of alk er mY ch ra pro ng Nae et ace ttEninareah comayt be ronkes sia pee elevated as the basis for @ utopian future for America in works such as La raza ofsmica (1925; The Casmic Race, 1997] by the ‘Mexican José Vasconcelos (1881-1959). jist sent ces oa? (as a term now ‘the United States) an Semen at wa bole tnscetdee sel ose Tae For this reason castumbrismo (customs and manners}, tellurism, or Noles cane ees Bis traditional understanding of criolima But criallismo was not only « Bevery moves i wat siesta, et ideological device. As such it incarnated what Roland Barthes ed he cnenial Raion of edhe b ee Tn nt letra The hater non at wis ‘sought to naturalize was the modern nation-state and its rep- ontnod copes ae eS ‘ares? ene etal ee Wh cles ed Ses om pat of he die ef te ropusive umes Be ehiiae eee ‘popular groups who had been excluded up until that time INDIGENISM Horacio Legras from consideration as representative types: The gaucho in Atgentina, the Zaner or plainsman of Venezuela, the hua in Chile, and the seiangio of Brazil. Crollta wiiting subse. uenily moved from employing typical social symbols to 9 ‘more denuncialory social mode (Martin 25-64; Arias 757), primarily it became a constituent element of cultural nation ism (Altarirano and Sarlo 72). The eillsta decision to select fiom among the most marginalized sectors the representatives of maton iyncay ale wa to ndancsed che the concept of the nation as the nineteenth century moved into the twentieth. Unlike the exclusionary logic prevalent during the earlier Independence period (1820-1900), now there was an attempt to integrate all the inhabitants ofthe ter ritory into a national body. José Rod (1871-1917) popular ied crilsta conviction when he wrote in the intraixton to El Temeno[1916; Native Soil, a novel by bis fellow county. rman Carlos Reyles (1868-1938): “La misteriosa ‘volunta? {que nos sefiala tierra donde nacer y tiempo en que vivir, tos impone con ello una solidavidad” (xi) (“The mysterious ‘wl that indicates the land where we ae to be born, and where we spend our lifetime, imposes a solidarity on us”) Jooge Luis Borges (1899-1986) can be considered an avant-garde crilita. In 1932 he examined the consequences of fity years of arallita experience in Argentina; he was cit cal of the seductive representational acer of he move ‘ment and he considered it an unjustifiable imposition. In “1 cscrtor argentino y la tradicion® ("The Argentinean Weiter and Tadition’), Borges begins by implying that the ideal reader of crdllita works is European or a Europeanized American and therefore unfamiliar with Latin American peculiarities and idiosyncrasies. For Borges, ciollsta writers ‘were creators of exoticism whose Eurocentric America was an extension oftheir fantasies. In the same work Borges uses his well-known example of the Koran (in which, despite the indubitable Arabic character of the text, there is no mention | of camels in order to refute the representational pretensions of the cross: “Mahoma, como érabe, no tenia por qi saber que Ios eamellos eran especialmente éabes. un falss io, un tris, un nacionalista abe, lo primero que hubies hecho es prodigar camellos...” (1: 270) '"Mubaramed, being ‘Araby didnot ve ay raion to tate that camels were Pa ticularly Arabic... the frst thing an imposter, a touts 2 ‘Arab nationalist, would have done would have been to fe ture camels on a lavish scale”). - Borges’s dismantling of arullimo is, paradoxically, a pr toni hiner aaah to naturalize the social relationships that it proposes. For this reason it constructs language, land, or some idiosynerasy destiny—that “mysterious will” referred to by Rods. Signi cantly, Benedict Anderson underlines the point thatthe hi ‘orically contingent form of the nation-state is considered by its inhabitants afte and destiny (Anderson 12; see also Bal ‘bar and Wallerstein 86). Such a destiny takes on the form of an ideology, to the extent that it is not thought out by the 222 actors who incarnate and endure it As Carlos Alonso fas pointed out in his commentary on Borges txt, the ev veare that Muhammad, being an Arab, did not represent eaves as part of Arabic culture relies on the presupposition thar camels are an essential element in the definition of Arab tons (7 In the same way, Borges'sdismanilin of a dominant Pijural representation of national character does not deny pat rather affirms the existence ofthe same. ‘oro, Borges presupposes thatthe implied rd of ills trary works sa foreigner, when in fact the publicis SNerwhelmingly a national one. Crillimais aimed at the very heart of the community, offering images for cultural identifi- ition and inviting is readers to see themselves reflected in the cultural imaginary. ‘This dimension of crialita praxis Slows us to differentiate it from nineteenth-century Romanti- Gsm, which was also suffused with an enthusiasm for repre- Sentation. Esteban Echeverria (1805-1851) had announced that the destiny of Americans was to have one eye fixed on their sodetes and the other on Europe. The arallia of the next cen- tury might say that their literature emerged in the moment that bath eyes were turned to the peculiarities of the landscape of their respective countries. This sustained attention tothe local was accompanied by a new definition of the people that was Jnseperable from and complementary to the already men- tioned redefinition of nation, In political terms the nine- teenth-century conception ofthe people actively exchuded the iterate, women, ethnic minorities, and the dispossessed. To represent them to the implied European reader meant to expose the intemal deficiencies that Latin American modern- ization should, in the best of cases, overcome and, inthe wort (eg the indigenous peoples), exterminate. The eugenic rhetoric dominant inthe continent af the end of the nineteenth century ‘onstituied the form in which the elite took charge of a people, defined in advance as alavstc and inedacable (se Stepan) ‘ideology could not constitute a discourse for speaking to the people, ‘ra dscourse capable of describing the social conditions of pro- duction. The twentieth century, on the other hand, transformed this policy of exelusion into an attempt at maximum inchusion. What had changed to bring about such a result? The key to change was found in the incorporation of Latin America into the world capitalist market as a producer of raw materials. This change began to dominate Latin America around 1880, ‘what Tilio Halperin Donghi called the period of neo-Colonial maturity (288— 368). The trilogy of foundational cilisa novelsDoila Bér- bara (1929) by Rémulo Gallegos (1884~1969}, La Vordgine [1924; The Vortex} by José Enstasio Rivera (1888-1928), tnd Dor Send Seb 1025) by Read Giles (885 1927)-clearly fit into the movement and created this ideo- logical horizon. In their respective texts a new Latin Amer- {ca appears at odds with the pas, given the appearance of new forms of production an incipient accumulation of capital, and the eflactive legislative power ofthe nation-state. By proposing a limited bt representative group as characteristic of «national totality, cillimo fulfilled & homogenizing function that was Vital to the success ofthe enterprise of modernization. The relationships between the intellectual and the people ‘would not continue in the form of the nineteenth-century polarity of civilization and barbarism but, rather, as Rod6 Once again exemplified, there was a civic duty to modemn- ize, which meant a close correlation between educators and pupils, wherein the entire nation was transformed into a Sigantic classroom. 17: LITERARY CR/OLLISMO AND INDIGENISM 223 While William Rowe defines crallimo as a “nacionalismo estético” (“aesthetic nationalism”) (1994, 707) following Ricardo Latcham {1903-1968}, one should understand such a statement in the sense thatthe nation-state and one's belong- ing to it are imagined, fundamentally, on an aesthetic bass But who grants writers this point of privileged enunciation in the imaginary construction of the nation? As Carlos Altar ‘mirano and Beatriz Salo have noted, the privileging of litera ture in this process was already written into ciallsa ideology, which made the land into the transcendent principle of nationality. The land was set up as a secret meaning in search of a hermeneutic; the writer was granted the privilege of unraveling that meaning. Borges ironically described both criollmo and its demise in his celebrated definition of| the aesthetic event as that moment at which the pampas are con the point of telling us something, but the revelation of ‘meaning isnot forthcoming, The transformation of the wniter at the tum of the century has been seen as a move from amateur avocation to profes- sionalization (Altamirano and Sarlo; Ramos). Professionaliza tion, though, does not distance the writer from the sphere of influence ofthe State, but rather achieves the opposite, since the nation-state, by recodifying its relationship with the vwriter-as the maker of the imagined community-absotbs them more than ever. While, in the nineteenth century, the authority of the intellectual derived from superior sensibility (Romanticism) or scientific knowledge (Naturalism) or, later, {rom being a purveyor of high calture (madernismd, the authority of the arolista writer issued from the very notion ofthe nation- slate itself The Mexican Martin Lis Guzman (1887-1977) in his administrative position in the post Revolutionary goverment, ‘made Pancho Villain one of his novels say “vamos a a lucha, ‘como revolucionarios concientes, como hombres que saben que se batirén por el bien del pueblo y de los pobres, contra los ricos y poderasos, y que por ser ignorantes, pues nacie los ha ensefiado, necesita que los que mis saben los manden ¥ los guien” (27) (“let us enter the struggle as conscious revolt tionaries, as men knowing that they are fighting fr the good of the people and the poor, agains the ich and powerful, and ‘who, Being ignorant, since no one has instructed them, need those with greater knowledge to give them orders and guide them’). The notion that Guzman pats in Pancho Villa's ‘mouth reveals the transition that 1s an insttational literary project wished to incarnate: From revolutionary strug: gle to education, from confrontation to persuasion, or (to sum. up) from dornination to hegemony. A similar view was held bby Buclides da Cana (1866-1909) in Os sertées [19025 Rebl- lion in the Backlands, 1944: When reflecting on the destruction. of the city of Canudos by the federal army, he reflected on the idea that the schoolteacher is a more effective weapon than the army to achieve national unification. ‘This adaplation of intellectuals to the demands of the pop- ular nation-state did not entail only their fancton as educators of the masses but also the re-education of the writers them: selves. Rode’s Arie, to be discussed at length below, was aimed atthe educated elite rather than atthe general popula- tion, Euclides da Canha (in Qs serée}, Santos Luzardo (in ova Barbara), or Arturo Cova (in La Vendging ae all intellec- tuals who began a voyage of discovery of a profound reality, intimate but unknown, that ended up by also transforming them, But this does not mean thatthe writers were fally sc cessful in removing the eugenic prejudice or intellectual ‘dependence on Europe that had characterized their education 224 HORACIO LEGRAS to the beginning of the century. It seems indicative that Fernando Oz (1861-1969), responsible for te concept of tanscultuaton, began his nellectal cee wi text Gat argued the impossibility of incorporating a good part of black population into the Chan society. (Lu. Neges bryos (1906; "The Black Sorcerers) and that the Peruvian Francisco Garcia Calderén (1883-1953) decided to write Les demoraties latines de PAmerique|1912; The Latin Democracies of Americal in French and publish i in Paris, assuming that his intended readers, if not actually in France, would be educated in French. IF there were no biological determinants for this nascent cillioa if the determining program was cultural and education oriented, and if in many cases different eugenic ddonbis remained (a lack of confidence in the possible const- tution ofthe people), then cialis must be understood as re- interpreted nineteenth-century ideology (i.e. Positivism or Social Darwinism). In the places where racial determinist dis- course disappeared in favor of a cultural approach, what was actually taking place was the re ‘of one intellectual elite by another. While Justo Sierra (1848-1912) himself com pleted the traleclory from ideologue and politcal partisan of ceugenic Positivism in Mexico to defender of the mest within Mexican society (312), the triumph of the arollda paradigm ‘occurred through the replacement of its leadership by mem- bers of the Ateneo de la Juventud, such as José Vasconcelos. In the River Plate region, where, as Martin Stabb has pointed out (14), racial determinism and atavism were never domi- nant in the ideology of the emergent middle class, the replacement of paradigms reflect inthis case a replacement of the very make-up of the intellectual camp, One significant element in the evolution of rialimo was continentalization, the concept of « Lain American cule In this sense it is not an exaggeration to state that Ariel (1900), by the Uruguayan writer José Rod6, established cralismo as possible Latin American ideology. Ariel was published two ‘years alter the Spanish-American War (1898), an event that ‘made manifest the now sustained penetration of United States ‘capital into the Americas and the military domination over ‘what was now Latin America. Ths historical context deter- ‘mined the interpretation of the book more than any other ele- ‘ment, Arid was thus read as an indictment of US. capitalism, which Rod6 opposed by reassering a Latin American iden. tity, with spirituality as its distinctive feature. In his exhaustive introduction to Rod's text, Gordon Brotherston has shown that the context in which the work was produced was rather Aifferent from that in which it was received (5) ven though Ariel proposed to characetize Latin Ameri- can culture as one confronted by US. expansionism, it was obvious that Rodo’s proposal posed enormous problems for intellectuals, Ariel stresed a reClaiming of the Hlopanie trad tion on a continent where the indigenous, maiz, or black presence refuted the possibility of such aa allembracing rep- fesenntion. On the other hand, as. Roberto, Femandes Retamar (b, 1930) would note in his Calin (1971) (a text that complements and inverts Rod6's teleology), Ariel did not rec- ognize the need for incorporating the people as a whole into the democratic process. The laxge population of the suburbs ‘ofthe time was a distant from (and contrary to) Rod6's view” point as the materialist idiosyncrasies of U'S. investors. Even though it was esteemed by Latin American intellectuals, ‘Rodo's text ought to have engaged in dislogue with different local realities; it was ab the local level that it suffered ether drastic adaptations or was practically ignored, and this was especially true in those regions of greatest economic dyna ism. Even its most enthusiastic admirer, Pedro Henriques Urea (1884-1946), fel the need to note Aves deficiencies in terms of the modemizing process and did so in the intodue. tion that he wrote for the Mexican edition of Ari! published in 1907 Despite all of this, the Latin American novel did not lose its sense of cultural kinship and, in turn, fostered the con- tinental phenomenon of what literary criticism for along time called, ironically, the regionalist novel Griollista Maturity In 1929 two basic texts representative of Latin American cat liana and the modem Venemlan novel were published, Momorias de Mamé Blanca (Mama Blanc’s Souvenirs, 1959| by ‘Teresa dela Parra (1889-1036) and Remo Gallegos’s Dona Barbara. Both novels were writen in the context of the mod. ‘emizing process experienced by contemporary Venezuelan society, despite the fact that they were set in more remote his torical periods. Manorias de Mam Blanca represents the ten sion between an aristocratic rural world that was disappearing and the new commercial world and its relationships, made painfully clear with the relocation ofthe protagonist’ family to Caracas. Teresa de la Para is explicitly sympathetic toward the old methods of production (the sugar mall with its omi- nous echo of slavery) in contrast with moder industriel forms of production. Details of this kind have been offered to sup- port the somewhat prevalent conviction regarding the reae- onary characte of Monoras Docs Sommer (314) ke ber contemporary literary critic, has righily disputed such a fediaive dutaceriztion. Economie and socal mademize tion, as Doia Barbara would make all to clear, did not con- sider the inclusion of women within the national economic ‘community. Syivia Molloy also points out that the politically reactionary narrative focus of Memorias can be read asa 2230 tion tothe limitations of a cynical modernization. On the other hand, Memorias also indicated a terrible con- demnation of Venezuelan landed aristocracy through the character of Cousin Juancho who isthe prototype ofthe vain individual, as implied by his useless peripheral knowledge: “Tal era primo Juncho: un Larousse desencuademado y des encadenado con todas las hojas suetas... incapaz, de ong nizar ni crear nada que no fuese el caos” (1983, 75) (“That was Cousin Juancho-an unbound Larousse, with all the pages loose, and upside down... incapable of organizing or ees ‘ng anything but chaos” (i959, 50)). Cousin Juancho inca nates the Tatin American figure of the wealthy modem aristocrat. He travels to Burope and brings back customs th ae absurd and out of place (eg, a London parasol for four o’dock tea in the midst of the powerful summer sun of the ‘Venezuelan prairies). This negative characterization rapidly ives way to an elegy to futility. In the best style of Avieh Ter ‘esa de a Parra counterpoints the useless trappings of moder nity with the true value of Cousin Juancho as the symbol of el alma idealista de la raza” (1983, 86) (“he idealistic soul of ‘my race” [1959, 58). The Conservative nucleus of Memariss, echoing Ari, is precisely the identification of crollsmo with the landed aristocracy of Hispanic heritage, the traditional values of Hispanism and the Spanish language, which it ses to a dangerous rush toward modemization, Pine counterpart o Cousin unncho Vicente Cachoch & mix of Indian and black, described by the nacrator wilh almost religions fervor. Cochocho isthe last peon of the ac: tend; he is loyal to the old ways of life onthe prairies ard the rural Spanish of Venezuela, both traits that are oy ised by the narrator, “Vicente deca, como en el isi XV, eninge gr do as ede cg pal una pelts erm el Si de Oe tig, 107-08) (*Vicente’s Spanish (ansina instead of a trae raj) was that of the Golden Age” [1959, 73]). The mss problem with such a strategy is tht it identifies as its oe dt he xe tent lend up decline see Contrary to what fas so frequently been pointed out, His sm did not constitute an integral part of the crillsta project, i pst alays figured san idolofal weapon ted by the ol oligarchs to slow down the advance of the middle te She eat ofthe bangeoring polar. Is inp {lon also derives, paradoxically from José Rodo's seminal text. ‘in contrast to Parra, who delighted in the use of the word parbaro (*barbazous"}, Rémulo Gallegos aimed to construct a dialectic between civilization as the principal guide, and bar parism as the truth and primordial force of the prairies. The pie land, now fallen into barbarism ancl lawlessness, was re ypc ts run was the real of a fatricidal on fe butwpen José Luzardo and bin son Fes, provoked by the Spanish-American War of 1898, José, “fel a su sangre” (Crue to his race”), sympathized with Spain, while his son a ftom de os empes que yaemperaban corre, se centusiasmaba por los yanquis” (1990, 74) (‘a symbol of the ‘hew times, took the part of the “Yankees” (1948, 20)). This ation beoveen Stace” and “modernity” wher, terms of terete panto view expressed by Al competed wil ek Fars pestle a the textual pat of Do Birra San- tos Luzardo arrives on the prairies to find himself reduced to the il ofthe dominant Dota Bibara, In contrast to La serine, wich the ferocity of capitalist exploitation is a thereon Santos Lizard finds the work of primitive cap fa sccumuaton alteady monopolized by the Ider Santon Luardo ends up becoming arcade ofthe laws of the teiton. His movderszation limited to demarcating reopen His, pting justice into action, and existing cpt Tet crealaton Done Barbara doesnot invest her money ‘she buries it-perhaps an unconscious elliptical reference By Gallegos t the future scenano of Veneman economic ‘demi: the exploitation of poem. "The colic in Data Brbarestfaces when sin almost all criallista works, the novel describes the work of the people. Fee a-womta, Mariela, represents the people: She is the Gaigiten abandoned alms ar birth by Dona Barbara, whom LLuzardo will take into his charge as a means of demonstrating the efficacy of his modern educational theories, This equiva- ence between Marisela and the people will to be prob- lematic in a novel that is packed with nearly all of the clichés of patriarchalism. Gallegos fails to rid himself of the millstone of the eugenic tradition or to avercome a reductive paternalis- tic attitude that is reflected in the stereotyped character of ‘Santos Luzardo. The narrator draws our attention to the fact that Dofia Barbara is mestiza and has Indian blood. The sor- cerer, the most dangerous male character, in the novel repre- sens “alga sols tte eal en América” (1000, 60 Sotin of Tartar blood mysterionsly introduced into South America” [1948, 4]}. This obliges the narrative voice to ‘present both Dofia Bérbara and the sorcerer as foreign to the Pit, Once again itis the ation of ousiers that brings run {othe rl seene, wich would have maintained ise in a state of idyllic harmony had there not been extemal forces (the war between the United States and Spain, the migrations 17: LITERARY CRIOLLISHO AND INDIGENISM 225 in Venezuela). The ambiguity about and the lack of conf dence thatthe narrator has in the people also affects Marisela, sho is the unviting recipient of the civlizing attention of Santos Livardo. From the transformation of the young ‘woman and her subsequent union with her civilizing father husband, Luzardo will bring about the reunification of the prairies. In a first instance Marisela is a representative “del alma de la raza, abierta como el paisaje @ toda accién ‘mejoradora” (1990, 213) (‘ofthe soul of the Plainsman, open maga (68 26) oli cu fe Fa 185), But when Luzardo mus seriously consider the possibi ity of marrying her, eugenic arguments dominate the scene: “Marisela, ato de tna unién inmoral y acaso heredera de las fanestas condiciones patemas y matemas, no podia ser 1a jr ex qu pues ar un bo sea (1990, 293) (‘Maisela, offspring of an illegitimate union and possi bly inheritor of the regrettable qualities of both father and mother, could not be the woman in whom a judicious man ‘would center is love” [1048, 282). Thus, even though Dea ‘Bérbara appears to be a more decided gamible on the side of ‘modernization than Memoria, the novel sill maintains latent hostility to the possibility of new social groups invading the poli fd 1040 Romnlo Gallegos was leced pretent Of Venezuela; it is undoubtedly anecdotal but indicative that the same doubis regarding the populism that plagued his novel also came tothe surface during his short term as president. Argentinean Criollismo rial emerged in Argentina prior to other arollita maxi- {estations on the continent. The reason for this is patly the early entrance of the River Plate region into the world mas- kets and the modernizing vigor of the zone. By 1880 the ‘model, but not caronic, text ofthe genre made its appearance with Juan Moreira by Eduardo Gutiérrez. (1851-1880). Curi- ‘ously, literary criticism has generally preferred to ignore this first example of popular crallimmo and has postulated Don ‘Segundo Sombra by Ricardo Giiraldes as the seminal text of ‘Argentinean criollima But the latter is fundamentally an expression of an attempt to make cralimo aristocratic, bora fut of a closed circle of urban letters and preceded by a long history of popular aiolista production. William Rowe and Vivian Schelling relatvize the canonic story of ciallsmo by ‘counterpointing it with others’ works: “Aunque las historias de la literatura enfatizan el rol de Don Segundo Sombra, macho mis lide en ese momen fueron ley novelas opulares producidas por escritores como Eduardo Gutiérrez Free un eecente public urbano y mesivo" (46) (Although Fistories of terature emphasize Don Seeindo Sombra, poplar novels produced by waiters such as Eduardo Gutiésre, for ‘what was becoming a mass urban public, were far more ‘widely read at the time’). The reference to “ese momento” (“at the time”) contrasts Juan Moreira of 1880 with Don Segundo Sombra of 1926, a period of forty-six years. What happened dhg these years This the tne ook for at entre rationalism, motivated by the olga, to appropiate the reductive smbolic apparatus of popular rials The serial story by Eduardo Gutiérrez. was the fctionalize tion of the adventures of a bad gaucho, Juan Moreira, whose life had been followed in some detail by the newspapers of the period, Gutiérrez’ character is not a bandit; nor is be someone incapable of adapting himself to the new conditions imposed by modernization. On the contrary, Moreira is a prosperous merchant who is forced into banditry because of 226 HORACIO LecRAS the lack of institutional guarantees. For Gutiérez, Moreira is not the rural or semi-urban subject presented as antismodern, bot the Argentinean state itself that is antimodern (the Latin American exemplar of a successful modernization around 1880). The serial novel, emerging as a critique against an oli- garchy resistant to broadening the democratic base, was also transformed into a cultural expression of campesino migrant and European immigrant groups who maintained a hostile relationship with the group in power. Given this political aiticulation, it would be erroneous to interpret Moreira’s rebellion as @ negation of modernization; rather, it deals with the incorporation of that modemization through eonfronta- tion, The novel, moreover, thematizes precisely this transition to new forms of daily life regulated by abstract entities such as the State and the marketplace. Thus toward the end, Moreira, who is dressed in a manner “que no es de ciudad ni de campo” (126) (‘that is neither from the city nor the country”), will install himself at a crossroads to Keep vigil over the ral road that connects the countryside and the city. This liminal position gives a special dimension to his death. Killed by a police sergeant, Moreira becomes a sacrificial her, transforming his liminaity into transitional movement. Readers understood this; adding to the immense popularity of the serial story, Mor- tint tgs was comaanly reread in arial geen, In his notable study of Argentinean oroliima, Adolfo Pi «eto observed that, around 1910, Rubén Dario (1867-1916) had the opportunity to record the proliferation of Moreia’s inl Chronid ofth Caria bn Banos Ae. or the end ofthe nineteenth century, the street and the Carnival hhad been transformed into the constituent environments of Argentina's ral citizenry. Social resentment and political protest became embodied in the Moreira disguise. That kind Of spectacle soon reached the stage. The year that the Podesta brothers fist presented Juan Moreira (1886) marked the birth of Argentinean theater-before the homified gaze of an elite that had tried for decades to create a national theater. A com- ‘mentator of the period wamed the cultural producers of the elite that “este pueblo... al par de otros, tine derecho a. clegir sus espectculos,iré a Juan Moreira hasta que ustedes, sefiores, no lo reemplacen con otto” (Schiafino 36) (“these people. like others, have the right to choose their spectacles, they will attend Juan Moreira until you, sis, replace it with another work”) Later Argentinean culture echoed the call ofthis ommenta- tor, Intellectuals ofthe oligarchy and the burgeoning middle dls immediatly se themselves the task of replacing he por nicious spectacle of juan Moreira with more edilying work. “urgency was not just aesthetic. The politcal opposition entitled theie newspaper Juan Moen the anarchists were writing texts, pretending to be orolxa and calling on the popularity of the canpesino hero. Meanwhile, those attending the performances ‘were leaving the auditorium eager to shout verbal challenges to the first police anthorities who came to hand. In Argentina the roll erkerprise thereby falilled its mediating and shaping role in the broadest manner possible, but did so using a means that the elite had not been able to predict. On the other hand, the dramatic success of Juan Moreira signified the elevation of the theater to the space of social experimentation, where it offset the long-standing sense of the opel wih moda ty, and antago Ten ear ater Gutiérrer’s work, Mastiniano Leguizamén (1858-1935) beyan the project of replacing Juan Moreira. His drama. Calan- hia, castumbres campestres (1896; Calandra, A Drama of Gaucko Lift, 1982] was greeted with fervor by the entire Liberal tall Gomera ec Noone grt of ek that the piece responded to cralsla notions that were bas cally rooted in the antiMoreira camp. Calandvia was pre, sented as a man pursued by injustice un infels gaucho tue no tenia quien diera la cara por (él) (25) ‘an unhappy gay cho shunned by al’). While Moreira did not ak for anyones mediation, particularly that of an intellectual, Calandra from the very fist scene appears as iin need of State tutelage and oligarchic paternalism. It is a secondary issue to. deb wer the wort fle fe deo dectves Mee the point i the fact that, from Calandria onward, it was ev dent that crolisma had to be refuted in its own camp-that ot svallo and popalae expression. ‘With the star ofthe twentith century Argentinean ciligny _ would follow fundamentally two routes. On the one han it ‘would act to guarantee the emergent middle-class or bert jan ideas of European derivation, Alberto Ghiraldo (1871. 1046, for example, published Alina Geach [1907; Gana Soul] 2s a means of difusing anarchist ideology, while the ‘Unuguayan Florencio Sénchez (1875-1910) tackled the need for an alliance between the immigrant colonizer and the ‘worker el gainst the oligarch elt in work such as Le ‘rnga. This is evident from the setting ofthe play in the Pam as on small parcels of land worked by immigrants and notin {aijndita (state) Buenos Ares, migrant groups simi neously found a vehicle of expression in ville as well a an entry into a new society. Such was the case of Alberto Gee cthunoft (1883-1950), who published Las goucasucis [The Je ish Gauchos ofthe Pampas] around 1910. The second aia ‘wave was identified with a cultural nationalism that alterated progressive postures-Ricardo Rojas (1882-1957)-with more conservative and pro-oligarchic themes-Leopoldo Lagones. ‘The criollismo promoted: by Lugones (1874-1938) through, among other things, his reinterpretation of Martin Fer 1872) as a national her, aimed atthe depoltczation of eatin, ven so, such a work was placed al the service of a growing xenophobic nationalist discourse that was shot throug with ‘what Nestor Garcia Canclini calls a “reactionary ontology” (18). The identification of erialtsmo and nationalism (nor-exs {ent inthe primitive popular version) served the landowning oligarchy a8 an ideological weapon against growing labor ag tation and organizations whose most outstanding leaders ‘were, without exception, European-born. ‘Early popular czolmo had achieved an extraordinary sep sentational power that transformed it into an indispensible cu tural device for the site's nationalist discourse inspite of the fe that it had initially despised state power. Crilmo seemed to offer the nationalists, and not only Argentineans (even though the illsion was more intense in Argentina), the possibly o imagining total representation. Nationalism, anchored almost always in traitionaism, had to consructa system of exclusions Internally, one could add, the empbasis of these same clit novels on patriarchy gave the lie tothe pretension to nivel representation. Proof” is plentiful: the desubjectivizaton “Marisela atthe hands of Santos Luzardo, the forgetting of Juan ‘Manuel (by no means accidentally asirridated into a sae Bolivar) by his litle girls in Mmorias de Mand Blanc, the cide of “the negress” in I ingls de los giesos [1924; The Engl Bone Collector] by Benito Lynch (1880-1951), or Moses vil, begging on ber tes “ata, ni fun, maitame” ‘me, my fin, kil me”) in Gutiéeer’s novel (72). Inthe end, allio was never anything other than politics among brothers vr indigenism: The Unrepresented Remainder sm arose ike cralioma, asa cultural response to: Inman ctl pe oe ire. This ‘occurred in the Andean region (Peru, inador, and Bolivia) from the second decade of the twenti Eth centuxy (see Cueva; Cornejo Polar 1989; Ceravedo Mali ike Uniguay or Argentina, whose po tae ed a high degre of European snifeation the cl Eoin the Andon counties wee onto ihr Sos indigenous population: To recall the words of José Carlos natr (1804 1990, they could “nt eliminasa i absorb dala” (1976, 169) (foot) eliminate it, or absorb it” (1971, 164), ‘Kntonio Comejo Polar (1936-1907), the most luid analyst of sm, insists that this is not the reference that primarily arechsively defines the Indigent nove, The clei tee that deal with indigenous episodes are not Indigenist, nor is the idealizing of the indigenous, which, orientating itself to the past, forgets the contemporary exploitation of these groups This basically nineteenth-century literature is catego Fed under the label of “Indianism” and inchudes novel sich 4s Baiguille (1882) by Manuel Galvin (1834-1911) and ‘Cumanda (1879) by Juan Le6n Mera (1832-1894). In other ‘words, the Indigenist problem arises only in relation to the ynoder State and its representational vocation. “Literature as an insitution sought to understand itself as the incarnation of a universal reason, the cross cultural appa: ratus of the nation-state, which represented national space as being beyond all strong cultural determination, The word that Cornejo Polar uses to combat this pretension is heterogeneity Literatur, the expression of European values in terms of uni verslized particulars, cannot represent indigenous otherness witout vicnting it The fct that many indigenous novels begin with a white intrusion into the balance ofan indigenous community is not a thematic coincidence for Comejo Polar “The indigenous world is revealed through an act of ages sion: “En su coherencia o en sus conllctosinteriores, ese universo resulta ajeno al indigenismo” (Cornejo Polar 1982, 98) (“In ts coherence or its interior conflicts, that universe is distant from Indigenism’) ‘The need to take into account cultures in an elaboration of a national Peruvian modernity barks back to the work of José Carlos Maristegui. Maristegui systematized mote general of inconsistent pro‘ndigenous currents, ike that of Manuel Gonzalez Prada (1848-1918), who had pub- lished “Nuestros indios” ["Our Indians] some months priar to the formers return from Europe, or Luis Valeéeel (1891— 1987), whom Martegui supported but debated in his pro- logue to Tenpetad ens dnd 1927; Tempest in the Ande) In Sit oad itrtain de rad evan 1028; ‘Sven Interpretative Essays on Peruvian Reality, 1971] Maxiategu for the fist time introduced a series of precise areas in which Indigenism would no longer be overlooked. Fist, he denied ‘hat Peruvian literature was an onganic whole, since Pera as a nation was not a whole. Secondly, Maritegoi differentiated between Indigenist literature produced by mss and Indig: enous literature produced and consumed by indigenous peo- le themselves-a project that, in his view, still lay in the ture. Comejo Polar has criticized the resticted use of the word "tterature” in Mariategui’s work; nevertheless, such a seston helps to unite the cultural Wester storia specificity of che literary institution. As a Marxist, Maristegui ddd not hesitate to encourage the incorporation of indigenous s20ups (identified in Peru as the workers) into the terrain of 17: LITERARY CRIOLLISHO AND INDIGENISM 227 hegemony. He had written that only the individual who spoke the Indian language could gain the confidence ofthe indige- nous people. It is with tragic irony, perhaps, that in Hzar “ista (1910) José Maria Arguedas’ (1911-1960) includes scene in which the srranos (mountain people), having arzived at the coas, swear together before a portrait of Marlategui to defend thei Indian brothers, only to end up, once returned to the mountains, involuntarily allied to the source af power and. the landowners against the customs of their own people ‘The basic tensions of the Indigenist project had emerged by the end of the nineteenth century with the on of, ‘ssn nid 1889; Taft Net 1998) by Clorinda Matt de Tuer (1852-1909), which is considered io be the ist text ‘writen in the genre. Cornejo Polar has objected that what lt tle ofthe indigenous universe is saved in the novel i achieved through is total transference tothe white world that threatens to destroy it (1994b, xxiv. This criticism does not put in question the progressive character of Matto de Tumer's work, especialy if one takes into account that Anes sin mio was pub: lished in an intellectual envionment dominated by Postvist and racist ideas that allegations of the natura inferiority of the indigenous people: Continnte exer {1899; Sick Cont nent) by César Zumeta (1860-1955) in Venezuela; Nuestra América (1903; Our America) by the Argentinean Carlos Bunge (1875-1918); and the ferocious Pueblo enfermo (1909; Sick Nation] by the Bolivian Aleides Arguedas (1872-1946). ‘These racist positions, whose predominant format was the essay, were answered from the perspective of an equally Post tivstfervor-for education-by other contemporary essayist Franz Tamayo (1879-1056), one of the intellectuals influenced by Nieteschean vitaism, proclaimed the superiority of the indigenous in La cwaciin de la edagoga nacional (1910; The Creation of National Pedagogy}, an effort similar to that of Guillermo Francovich (1901-1880) in Packamama (1942) and Fernando Diez de Medina (1908-1990) in Thunupe (1947) andl “Sarin” (1954). Remarkably, many of these texts are both Indigenist and anti-Avelst, rejecting the function that the intellectual elites granted themselves in the Latin. American ‘modernizing process. ‘The Modern Indigenist Novel igo (1984), by the Ecuadorian Jorge Icaza (1906 1978), articulated the Indigenist tension in a tragic resolution that would be a constant in later Indigenist work. Huaspungo describes the land where an indigenous community lives, le they work in aust dave eoreliens forthe lanownet In the first chapters the interior monologues ofthe whites are ‘opposed to the laconic expression of the indigenous people, ‘who aze brutalized by their poor living conditions. The sol- tude of the indigenous community, who, driven by hunger and wor out by unremunerative toil, decide to attack the hnacienda ofthe landowner, is here complete. The Church, the ‘Quito press, the army, the landowners, and US. capital (in the figure of Mr. Chapy}, all come together against the fua- Sunguems, The novel culminates, s do the majority of In ‘genist texts, in a massacre that i apocalyptic intone. ‘The responsibility for the defeat of the Indians in this novel lies to a great extent in their incapacity, during their struggle, to transcend the limits of the hacienda and their ancestral practices, Even in the midst ofthe revolt, Icaza does not allow his heroes any expression other than the duplice tion of the voice of the master. The indigenous personalities in the novel are represented as existing inthe most absolute 228 HORACIO LecrAs ion Jean Franco would find fault with Teaza on this point. How could the narrative elicit a sense of solidarity for these wretched beings if it presents them almost on the edge of atavism? Jean Franco points oat a key problem here in Indi- genist portrayal: the dominance of wretchedaess inthe itellec tual code (see Yidice). Agustin Cueva would insist, even 50, that the Imowledge of indigenous othemess is attained only through the rejection ofthe familar categories of the intellec- tual. The literary conscience, wrote Cueva, comes from the “polo social hegeménico” (‘Social hegemonic pole”) and for ts reson fl inthe “plamacn de aquella rater pina, ue, naturalmente, posee su propio expesor, vale decir, su propia fom” (1) depiion of hat ry material that at rally possesses its own density, in other words, its own form") ‘The problem of Huasipungo finds an echo in what is consid- ered to be the first modem novel of the Peruvian Indigenist cycle: BL mundo ah y jn 1940; Brad and othe ld, 1941] by Ciro Alegria (1909-1967). As in Htaripungo, the conflict begins with the inexorable expropriation of com: rmunal lands by prosperous landowners. ‘The community interprets these events, clearly inked to the incorporation of Peru into the dynamic of international capitalism, through ancestral schema, such as the and augur. The novel concludes with Benito Castro, who has lived among the whites, directing the revolt against the landowners, Neverthe- Jess, isolation returns to play the determining role in the defeat of the community. From Clorinda Matto to Teaza to Ciro Alegria, the tension is perpetuated between defending the communal life that ought to be defended and the cost of entering into struggies that imply rules and alliances totally alien to the indigenous world, This world extracts from its dif ference the negativity that allows it to confront the burgeon- ing capitalist organization. The paradox shat it can contont this organization only by renouncing that diflerence and liqui- dating its negativity. From Testimony to Téstimonio: José Maria Arguedas and Rigoberta Menchii José Maria Arguedas's work marks the culmination of the ten- ‘sions of Indigenism. Bilingual in Quechua and Spanish, Arguedas seemed, from his early shor stories, tobe the writer

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