[ 6 ]

The criollista novel

Carlos J. Alonso

T h e historical depth of the preoccupation w i t h indigenous cultural values

in Spanish A m e r i c a makes it difficult to undertake the determination of
the precise origins of criollista [creole] literary production. D u r i n g the
nation-building stage in the nineteenth century, the leading groups of
w h a t w o u l d eventually constitute the individual countries of Latin
A m e r i c a were busily establishing the discourses and institutions that
w o u l d preserve an a v o w e d national identity that w a s , in fact, being
created in the process. Hence, one can readily find throughout the century
several manifestations of the desire to engender a native literature, from
Andrés Bello (1781-1865) through D o m i n g o F. Sarmiento (1811-1888) to
José M a r t i (1853-1895). Indeed the period presents many instances that
attest to the conviction that linguistic and literary specificity were
regarded as correlatives of the political and cultural distinctiveness that
Spanish A m e r i c a had recently achieved through its struggle for indepen­
dence. O n e can cite in this regard the many published collections of
cubanismos, argentinismos or venezolanismos, the periodic reformist
projects to adjust Spanish orthography to Spanish A m e r i c a n phonetics -
Bello and Sarmiento are well k n o w n exponents of this endeavor — and the
founding of Academias Rationales de la Lengua throughout the
continent.
Furthermore, although there are essential differences that distinguish
the cuadro de costumbres [folkloric sketch] from criollista literary
production, it is no less true that in Spanish A m e r i c a the cuadro exhibits a
desire for cultural affirmation that differentiates it from its European
counterpart and w h i c h determines its unusual longevity in the former
colonies. It could be argued as well that one of the persistent preoccu­
pations of the practitioners of the late nineteenth-century m o v e m e n t
called Modernismo [Modernism], notwithstanding the critical notion
that affirms its cosmopolitan thrust, ultimately turned out to be a concern
for an indigenous literary expression. O n e w o u l d therefore have to agree

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w i t h the D o m i n i c a n critic Pedro Henríquez Ureña w h e n he says that "the

literary history of our last hundred years could be described as the history
of the ebb and flow of aspirations and theories in search of an expression
that is most perfectly o u r s " (Seis ensayos en busca de nuestra expresión,
39). In sum, the " o r i g i n s " of the criollista novel, or novela de la tierra, as it
is c o m m o n l y called, have a diachronic dimension that cannot be reduced
to a concrete point in time.
Nonetheless, the explosive intensity and continent-wide character of
the cultural preoccupation w i t h autochthony that marks the first thirty
years of this century in Latin A m e r i c a is a p h e n o m e n o n w h o s e historical
coordinates cannot be o v e r l o o k e d . Even while a c k n o w l e d g i n g that the
enterprise of w h i c h it is an instance has very extended historical roots, the
distinctive response to the question of the autochthonous articulated by
the novela de la tierra must be examined w i t h a v i e w to establishing its
specific nature and the cultural milieu from w h i c h it arose.
Traditionally, the criollista m o v e m e n t has been regarded as one of
several manifestations of that more comprehensive cultural p h e n o m e n o n
that the critic M a r t i n Stabb has called "the rediscovery of A m e r i c a " (In
Quest of Identity, 58). A c c o r d i n g to this v i e w , the spirited meditation on
cultural essence that characterized the first thirty years of this century in
Latin A m e r i c a w a s a reflection of the N e o - K a n t i a n i s m or Neo-Spiritual-
ism that in Europe had c o m e to be associated w i t h the Vitalism of Henri
Bergson, the contingency of Emile B o u t r o u x , the Nietzschean emphasis
on the W i l l , and the aesthetic influence of Benedetto C r o c e . H o w e v e r , the
uneven diffusion of these ideas throughout Latin A m e r i c a cannot explain
the breadth and depth of the nativist explosion throughout the entire
continent. T h e other conventional explanation for the surfacing of a
literature of autochthony in this period is that it represents a nostalgia for
an agrarian past, in an era of increased immigration and economic
expansion that threatened the h e g e m o n y of the landed aristocracy
throughout the continent. T h i s interpretation is undermined by the
dissimilar economic development of the various countries in Latin
A m e r i c a , by the widely differing class extractions attributable to the
authors involved, and by the conspicuous overtures to modernization
present in some of these w o r k s (Gallegos's Doña Bárbara [Doña Barbara]
immediately comes to mind in this respect.) A l t h o u g h these t w o interpre-
tations certainly address significant issues, it could be argued that the
context from w h i c h the novela de la tierra arose entails a more c o m p l e x
conjunction of political, intellectual, and cultural circumstances than they
allow. T h e most salient are addressed in the section that follows.
T h e broadest of these is the emergence of European M o d e r n i s m in all
its diverse and even contradictory manifestations. European M o d e r n i s m
can be described in very sweeping terms as a composite of t w o fundamen-

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 The criollista novel

tal tendencies - t w o means through w h i c h M o d e r n i s t aesthetics sought to

transcend the impasse, brought about by the critique of nineteenth-
century assumptions about representation in art, that sprang up during
the fin de siecle and the first twenty years of the twentieth century. Both of
these arose from the desire to m o v e a w a y from a conception of art as
mimesis, and from the attempt to breathe n e w life into aesthetic canons
that were n o w regarded as contaminated by bourgeois complacence and
mediocrity. T h e first tendency encompassed the desire to put art in
contact w i t h w h a t w a s thought to be a primeval, and therefore more
authentic, vital force or essence. T h i s w a s the origin of the several versions
of Primitivism that were engendered by M o d e r n i s m , and of w h i c h Bela
B a r t o k ' s explorations of folk music and the Pablo Picasso of Les
Demoiselles d'Avignon arc clear exponents. T h e other trend represents
the enterprise of experimenting within the formal bounds of a given
artistic medium in order to arrive at some determination of first principles
of composition or expression for that medium. O n e can think in this
regard about A r n o l d Schoenberg's experiments first w i t h atonal and later
w i t h dodecaphonic (twelve-tone) music, or Le Corbusier's attempts to
arrive at foundational geometric and functional principles in architecture.
T h e s e t w o trends are, to be sure, not entirely unrelated; they are presented
here as disconnected in order to m a k e more visible their specific relevance
to contemporaneous cultural production in Latin A m e r i c a .
O f these tendencies, the first - the primitivist - w a s the predominant
one in Latin A m e r i c a at the time, and can be readily detected in the three
most important cultural developments in the continent during the 1920s
and 1930s: Afro-Antillean literature, the Indigenismo movement (Indi-
genism), and criollista literary production. A l l of these cultural projects
aspired to put art in general and literature in particular in touch with an
a v o w e d l y primeval essence w h o s e p o w e r derived precisely from its
primordial status, and w h i c h w a s construed along various ethnic lines -
the Black, the Indian, and whatever figure w a s deemed to be representa­
tive of national identity: the Argentinian g a u c h o , the Venezuelan llanero,
the Puerto R i c a n jibaro, etc. A l t h o u g h the Primitivist intention behind
each movement w a s identical, there were significant differences in the
specific rhetoric that the three deployed. T h e Afro-Antillean and the
indigenista movements b o r r o w e d from anthropology a ready-made dis­
course about the Other, in order to speak about the Others represented by
the Black and the Indian. In contrast - and since it w a s supposedly
addressing w h a t w a s most intrinsic - the criollista narrative invoked the
formula for defining cultural identity that formed the core of philology,
the discipline that studied cultural monuments in order to unveil the
collective spirit that they supposedly embodied. T h i s connection will be
the subject of a lengthier discussion b e l o w .

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Y e t another factor that accounts for the emergence of the criollista

m o v e m e n t w a s the Latin A m e r i c a n reaction against the doctrine of Pan-
A m e r i c a n i s m , an initiative sponsored by the United States that had as its
g o a l the definition of a bond c o m m o n to the A m e r i c a s . Pan-Americanism,
the belief in a geographic, economic, and historical order that w o u l d
encompass both N o r t h and South A m e r i c a , became the historico-political
myth through w h i c h the United States conceived of its relations w i t h Latin
A m e r i c a at the close of the nineteenth century and beyond. It represented
the resolute advancing by the imperial nation of a powerful myth, a vision
regarding the future trajectory of the hemisphere as a totality that w a s
resoundingly heralded throughout the A m e r i c a s by the United States. T h e
genesis of this formula can be traced to the year 1889, w h e n then Secretary
of State James G . Blaine coined the term " P a n - A m e r i c a n C o n f e r e n c e , "
and c o n v o k e d the first of a series of such meetings of representatives of
A m e r i c a n nations, a conclave that w a s held in W a s h i n g t o n , D . C . , late in
that year.
T o some extent, Pan-Americanism attempted a revival of the anti-
European rhetoric of the M o n r o e Doctrine that understood the N e w
W o r l d strictly as the scenario for the development of the nations in it.
H o w e v e r , in Pan-Americanism, the emphasis w a s rather on the formula­
tion o f a project for the achievement of a hemispheric order that w o u l d
only encompass the A m e r i c a s . A review of the future agenda that w a s
presented to the participants of the first conference in 1889 makes it
possible to determine the comprehensive intent of the proposal: adoption
of a c o m m o n currency, provisions for cultural exchange, a uniform
system of weights and measures, a continent-wide set of customs regula­
tions, the creation of a Pan-American B a n k , the construction of an
intercontinental railway, and a number of other similar undertakings.
T h i s summary should also leave no d o u b t that the emergence of the Pan-
A m e r i c a n ideal must be understood as a decidedly ideological stratagem
on the part of the United States meant to facilitate its hegemony over the
continent. Nevertheless, w h a t must be underscored is the sense of crisis
that the doctrine elicited in Latin A m e r i c a n intellectual circles and the
cultural strategy through w h i c h they attempted to transcend the perceived
threat.
T h e clearest s y m p t o m of the crisis represented by the United States'
initiative w a s the ensuing continent-wide controversy surrounding the
legitimacy of the very concept of Pan-Americanism as an instrument for
envisioning the future of Latin A m e r i c a n nations. T h e enthusiastic
espousal and fostering o f the Pan-American proposal by the United
States did not find a strong echo a m o n g countries w h i c h perceived the
Spanish A m e r i c a n W a r as an abusive conflict deliberately p r o v o k e d by
the United States, and w h i c h had witnessed with increasing alarm a

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 The criollista novel

series of successive interventions by the northern p o w e r in Latin

A m e r i c a . Nevertheless, the threatening historical myth of Pan-Ameri
canism had to be neutralized w i t h a parallel creation, another cultural
narrative that w o u l d articulate a particular mytho-poetic reality exclusi­
vely for Latin A m e r i c a . T h i s necessity w a s the wellspring for the
affirmation of a continental cultural order that w o u l d encompass all
Latin A m e r i c a n nations, a belief that subsequently circulated under the
various labels of pan-latinismo, pan-iberismo, pan-hispanismo or his­
panoamericanismo.
T h e aspirations represented by pan-latinismo were not entirely n e w in
Latin A m e r i c a n circles: there had been some feeble and largely unsuccess­
ful attempts to form some sort of union between Latin A m e r i c a n nations
during the nineteenth century. H o w e v e r , the force and unanimity with
w h i c h the ideal dominated Latin A m e r i c a n intellectual concerns during
the first thirty years of the twentieth century attest to its nature as a
continent-wide cultural myth, as a collective response to a threat and a
challenge issuing from an outside source. T h i s desire to postulate the
existence of a cultural order and a historical project specific to Latin
A m e r i c a resulted in an enterprise that produced b o o k s of major import­
ance such as Ariel (1900) [Ariel] by José E. R o d ó ; M a n u e l Ugarte's Las
nuevas tendencias literarias (1908), El porvenir de la América Latina
(1910), and El destino de un continente (1923); La evolución política y
social de Hispanoamérica (1911) by Rufino Blanco F o m b o n a ; and
Francisco G a r c í a C a l d e r ó n ' s Les democracies latines de V Amérique
(1912) and La creación de un continente (1912).
T h e formulation of a pan-Latin cultural order soon had the oppor­
tunity to appropriate for its purposes a historical circumstance that
provided an ideal context for its deployment, and w h i c h further helps to
understand the rise of criollista literature: the one-hundredth anniversary
of the beginning of the Independence movement in Latin A m e r i c a , in
1910. T h e r e is little doubt that the c o m m e m o r a t i o n of the Centenario, as
it w a s called, became the most significant cultural event in the decade
between 1910 and 1920 in Latin A m e r i c a . T h e elaborate celebrations of
the event that t o o k place in all countries and at various times during the
period throughout Latin A m e r i c a attest to that fact. In the context of the
desire to affirm a spiritual essence shared by all Latin A m e r i c a n nations in
order to oppose Pan-Americanism, it w a s inevitable that the Centenario
w o u l d be interpreted in terms of the possibilities it afforded for that
affirmation. In a masterful stroke of historical imagination, Latin A m e r i ­
can authors and intellectuals claimed to see in 1910 a repetition of the
circumstances and possibilities that in their view had characterized the
corresponding moment one hundred years previously, in 1810. In other
w o r d s , the idea of a unity of continental proportions that had surfaced in

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the first decade of the twentieth century seemed to them to harken back to
that historical moment that could be characterized as the very origin of
Latin A m e r i c a ; that initial m o m e n t of a v o w e d continental and cultural
unity that preceded the fall into a history of fragmentation and fratricidal
dissension k n o w n only t o o well; a moment that had returned - so to
speak - in the apotheosis of its centennial celebration. T h e c o m m e m o r ­
ation of this historical moment - a m o m e n t that w a s reconstructed and
refashioned as much as it w a s celebrated in 1910 - posited also the return
of the possibilities that the event had supposedly afforded w h e n seen as the
beginning of cultural time. T h i s explains the millennial rhetoric that is
typical of the period, and w h i c h found expression in formulas such as
mundonovismo: a. concept proposed by the Chilean critic Francisco
Contreras to describe the felicitous turn t o w a r d indigenous values jn the
Latin A m e r i c a n literature of the times. T h i s rhetoric is also present in the
many Utopian texts of the period, such as La raza cosmica and Indologia
by the M e x i c a n writer Jose Vasconcelos. Furthermore, it w a s decidedly
not lost on Latin A m e r i c a n intellectuals that, at the precise time w h e n
Latin A m e r i c a w a s celebrating this feast of new beginnings, Europe
appeared to be signaling its historical exhaustion in the First W o r l d W a r ,
the apocalyptic " W a r to end all W a r s . "
Finally, one w o u l d have to mention, as another factor contributing to
the appearance of criollista concerns, the continental impact of the
M e x i c a n R e v o l u t i o n (1910-1920). T h e cultural enterprise engaged in by
the post-revolutionary M e x i c a n intelligentsia (mural art, pedagogical
reform, foundational theories about mestizaje, etc.) provided a model for
the institutionalization of nativist ideology for the rest of the continent.
T h e M e x i c a n R e v o l u t i o n , in conjunction with the events of O c t o b e r 1 9 1 7
in Russia, w a s also responsible for inaugurating the rhetoric of social
denunciation and reform that henceforth became c o m m o n p l a c e in Latin
A m e r i c a n literary circles, and w h i c h is distinctly visible in many of the
novelas de la tierra as well.
Culling all of the a b o v e , and sacrificing nuance for the convenience of
dates, the chronological limits of the novela de la tierra could be
designated as the years of 1910 and 1945. T h e earlier year reflects the
emergence (or reawakening) of a desire to affirm the existence of a
national or continent-wide identity through the vehicle of a literary
creation; the outer limit reflects the ascendance of existentialist philos­
ophy in Latin A m e r i c a , a development that changed the terms in w h i c h
both identity and literature were conceived in such a w a y as to render
inoperative the presuppositions on w h i c h the criollista movement w a s
predicated. F r o m that m o m e n t on, the organic relationship between M a n
and L a n d posited by the indigenous formula w a s displaced by a concep-

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tion of M a n based on an inescapable state of rootlessness, and on the

belief in his permanent alienation from the w o r l d and from himself.
T h e need to affirm the specificity of a particular Latin A m e r i c a n identity
created by the historical events and cultural trends discussed above
imposed certain demands on literature: to provide a founding myth for the
collectivity, and to produce a transcendent text in w h i c h the national or
continental soul could see reflected both itself and a prophetic vision of its
future. Herein lies the stimulus for the project of c o m p o s i n g indigenous
texts that characterized literary production in Latin A m e r i c a during the
first forty years of the twentieth century.
Nevertheless, the problematic nature of that project in Latin A m e r i c a
soon made itself evident. T h i s difficulty resided in Latin A m e r i c a ' s myth
of cultural foundation, that is, in its consummate identification with
modernity since the beginning of its historical emergence. T h e resulting
affirmation of an absolute break with tradition and the past had the effect
of abolishing the history from w h i c h the endeavor to produce an
indigenous text should supposedly derive its legitimacy and vigor. T h a t
creation, that cultural M a s t e r T e x t , could not be compiled and assembled
from a presumably ageless reservoir of traditional myths or compositions:
if this autochthonous T e x t were to be at all, it w o u l d have to be
constructed, produced, made (remembering the e t y m o l o g y of the w o r d
" p o e t r y " in the G r e e k poieiri), rather than be recovered or reconstituted
from cultural fragments l o o m i n g out of an immemorial past.
Hence, if this T e x t w a s g o i n g to have any claims to authenticity it
w o u l d have to incorporate within it a discourse that v o u c h e d for that
legitimacy; in other w o r d s , the composition of that literary T e x t had to
take place within the confines of another discourse that could authenticate
the T e x t ' s claim to being an indigenous literary w o r k ; a discourse w h o s e
precepts w o u l d be integrated into the text to certify the latter's preten­
sions to being truly an indigenous literary creation. T h i s w a s the role that
came to be played by the discipline of philology in criollista literary
discourse.
T h e concept of culture that has nurtured Latin A m e r i c a ' s preoccu­
pation with an autochthonous cultural expression is a synthesis of a
number of beliefs that had their first formulation during the last years of
the eighteenth century and the first decades of the nineteenth. T h e y
include principally the idea of a culture as a closed and sui generis entity,
w h o s e existence w a s the deployment in history of an intrinsic and organic
plan. Spoken language w a s the chief vehicle through w h i c h this collective
spirit w a s expressed, but by no means the only one; traditions, legends,
myths, popular art forms, and c o m m o n l a w were other realms where this
will manifested itself. Herder, for instance, characterized folk poems as

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"archives of a nationality," "imprints of the soul of a n a t i o n , " and as "the

living voice of the nationalities." A l l cultural and political practices and
institutions were assumed to be generated organically from a spiritual
kernel that manifested itself in history following the dictates of an internal
necessity. T h i s development marked all the creations of the c o m m u n i t y in
question, imparting to them a specificity that made it impossible and even
undesirable to m a k e cross-cultural comparisons. Expressions such as
"national s o u l , " "spirit of the p e o p l e , " and " p o p u l a r g e n i u s " w e r e used
to refer to this spiritual m o n a d that unveiled itself throughout the history
of a g r o u p in an almost impersonal fashion - not unlike a plant - perhaps
w i t h o u t ever rising to the consciousness of the individuals that formed the
collectivity. Consequently, the creative act, the deed responsible for
cultural creations, w a s conceptualized as a n o n y m o u s , unreflecting, and
collective.
T h e many botanical and biological metaphors that were used to
characterize cultural life and its evolution attest to the organicity that
physical and spiritual processes w e r e assumed to have in c o m m o n ; but
they are also expressive of the relationship that w a s presumed to exist
between a culture and the physical environment in w h i c h it obtained. T h e
spirit of a people manifested itself also in the w a y s it manipulated and
transformed its surroundings - yet the conditions of possibility for that
manifestation w e r e determined to an important degree by the physical
environment the people inhabited. A s a result, the spiritual dimension of a
culture reflected and w a s shaped by the daily contact of the collectivity
with the various elements that constituted its environment. Culture and
history, then, w e r e to some extent influenced by geography, since the
latter invariably left its characteristic imprint on the spiritual make-up of
a people that lived within its boundaries. T h i s organic relationship
opened the w a y for a correlative spiritualization of the environment, that
is, a conception of the physical milieu as a telluric A g e n t secretly
informing all the creations of the collective being. G e o g r a p h y thus became
a Force, a powerful and mysterious spiritual presence that modified the
deployment in time of a people's "national s o u l . " T h e metaphor that
described a culture's development as basically similar to that of a plant
reflected this " n o u r i s h m e n t " that a h u m a n collective spirit w a s deemed to
derive from its sustained contact w i t h the national territory.
T h i s conception of cultural identity brought implicit w i t h it the
necessity of a comprehensive hermeneutical enterprise: by its very nature,
the spirit that w a s intrinsic to each culture could not be apprehended
directly, but rather had to be decoded, reconstructed through the study of
that culture's diverse tangible manifestations, particularly those of the
culture's remote past, since they w e r e considered to be more spontaneous

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and less contaminated by contact w i t h other communities. T h i s recon­

struction became the project that defined the discourse of philology. F r o m
its beginnings in the very late eighteenth century philology underwent a
series of internal transformations: from an " i n t u i t i v e " stage in the
R o m a n t i c period to R e n a n ' s confident definition o f it as a ^science exacte
des choses de Vesprit") ["exact science of spiritual p h e n o m e n a " ] , to the
stylistic method that is associated w i t h the more recent names of Karl
Vossler and L e o Spitzer. Y e t throughout this development the essential
objective of philology remained unaltered: to arrive at a determination of
the organic spiritual dimension that manifested itself in a culture's
creations.
Understanding the foundations of philological discourse is a prerequi­
site to discerning in turn the various manifestations of the project to write
an indigenous literary text that dominated Latin A m e r i c a n literature
during the early part of this century. O n e begins to realize then that
textualizing a collective spiritual essence is a project that acquires its full
intelligibility within the conceptual horizon delimited by the discipline o f
philology. It could be suggested, in fact, that the Latin A m e r i c a n
" a u t o c h t h o n o u s " oeuvre w o u l d like to fashion itself after the ideal text
envisioned by philological interpretive practice: a w o r k that evinces a
transparent, unmediated relationship between cultural being (in this
instance, Latin American) and writing. Some of the features of the
literature produced in Latin A m e r i c a during the period of criollista
production express this connection quite directly. T o begin w i t h , there
w a s an o b v i o u s predilection for e m p l o y i n g those literary forms that
philology had designated as inherently " p o p u l a r , " that is, compositions
that had been spontaneously and a n o n y m o u s l y produced by the collecti­
vity: the romance, the ballad, the epic p o e m , the legend, etc. A number of
the major poets of the period s h o w e d their understanding of the possibili­
ties offered by this poetic conception, sometimes effecting as a result
radical transformations in their poetic practice and personae. T h i s
relationship can also be identified in w o r k s such as El payador, by
L e o p o l d o L u g o n e s (1874—1938), where there is an attempt to superimpose
on Latin A m e r i c a n literary history European schemes regarding the
formation of a national literary tradition that are derived from philologi­
cal formulations. Such is in fact the driving force behind the following
passage from Lugones's introduction to his treatise, where he e x p o u n d s in
this connection in no uncertain terms:

I have chosen as the title of this work the name of those wandering
minstrels that used to traverse our countryside reciting romances and
endechas, because they were the most important characters in the
founding of our race. Just as it happened in all other Greco-Roman

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 CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF L A T I N A M E R I C A N LITERATURE

groups, here also that moment coincided with the creation of a work of
art. Poetry laid the differential foundation of the Motherland by
creating a new language for the expression of the new spiritual entity
constituted by the soul of a race as it came into being. (p. 14)

Similarly, the indigenous Latin A m e r i c a n landscape became a privi­

leged literary category, since it w a s through its constant contact w i t h it
that the spiritual essence of the continent's people had been shaped. Here
lies the justification for the myriad w o r k s produced during this period that
aspired to capture the specific geography of a region or country in a cycle
of p o e m s , or in a novel or essay. Perhaps the most succinct rendition of
this concept is the justly famous essay " V i s i o n de A n a h u a c " (1915) by
A l f o n s o Reyes (1889-1959), the source for the following passage:
Regardless of the historical doctrine one may profess . . . we are in
unison with the race of yesteryear not only through our blood, but more
importantly through the common effort to dominate the coarse and
unyielding nature that surrounds us; such an effort is the foundation of
history. W e also share with them the profound emotional unanimity
that arises from the daily encounter with a similar natural object. T h e
confrontation between human sensibility and a common world carves
and engenders a common soul. (2: 34)

It w o u l d be impossible to summarize the total extent and the multi­

farious forms that this literary endeavor assumed throughout Latin
A m e r i c a . W h a t is of particular concern to this essay is the reflection in the
novelistic genre of this desire to create an indigenous literary text, a
dynamic that produced that large collection of w o r k s that have c o m e to be
k n o w n as the novela de la tierra.
T h e discourse of the autochthonous in these novels represents a
rhetorical condensation of the paradigm of cultural interpretation just
discussed; that is to say, the discourse of philology provides the essential
concepts and relationships that legitimize the writing of these w o r k s . T h i s
explains w h y , at the most superficial level, the novela de la tierra appears
to be an indiscriminate and uncomplicated collection of philological
c o m m o n p l a c e s : speech as a privileged instance of language; geography as
a sempiternal telluric presence; the detailed depiction of a human activity
that has arisen in perfect consonance w i t h the environment. Nevertheless,
although the basic postulates of philological discourse seem to account for
the fundamental characteristics of these texts, that relationship is not as
uncomplicated as it w o u l d seem at first glance; for the seemingly
subordinate relationship between the novela de la tierra and philology
conceals, nonetheless, a precise inversion of philological operations of
interpretation. T h e philologist's overriding purpose w a s the revelation of
the ultimate spiritual structure that w a s assumed to be the underlying
bedrock or foundation for the text under scrutiny. A s a result of this

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interpretive stance, the w o r k w a s considered nothing but a more or less

transparent screen or veil, w i t h the text's final truth to be arrived at by the
critic only beyond it.
H o w e v e r , while philology endeavored to collate and interpret texts in
order to arrive at a the collective ontological spirit underlying them, the
writers of the novela de la tierra take as their point of departure this
supposed essence and then proceed to write the text that will ostensibly
e m b o d y it. Therefore, in the novela de la tierra there is a reversal of the
interpretive trajectory that philology proposed - that is, these novels
envision the process of their c o m i n g into being as a displacement from
spiritual essence to text.
O n account of this reversal of hermeneutic paths, one can detect in the
novelas de la tierra a heightened awareness of their o w n textuality, of the
process that resulted in their writing, that defies all traditional readings of
them. T h i s k n o w l e d g e s h o w s itself in the text as a critical commentary
that seeks to guarantee the propriety of the relationship between text and
essence that philology simply posited as a given. Hence, the novela de la
tierra purports to be a literary text that incorporates the autochthonous
essence, but it also has alongside it a parallel critical discourse that
comments on the legitimacy and validity of the formulation of autoch-
thony that it advances. In this fashion, the autochthonous w o r k is engaged
in the ceaseless validation of that w h i c h it also assumes to be a given. T h i s
situation implies that the autochthonous writer is both author and
commentator of his or her o w n w o r k , a circumstance that belies the
customary claims of simplicity and transparency advanced w i t h great
consistency by the authors of these w o r k s and their critics. T h e novela de
la tierra is an attempt to create a genuinely autochthonous w o r k that
simultaneously undermines the concept of a spontaneous indigenous text
by exposing its discursive nature, its k n o w l e d g e of itself as a textual effect.
T h i s critical intention surfaces in these w o r k s , for instance, as specific
moments w h e n the novel lapses into a commentary that tries to elucidate
explicitly the relationships that undergird the w o r l d it is depicting. O n e
can clearly detect this intention in the following fragment from G a l l e g o s ' s
Doha Barbara:

T h e return from work brought the patio in front of the cabins to life. A s
darkness came on, the cowboys came back in noisy groups, began to
banter, and ended by singing their thoughts in ballad form, since for
everything that must be said the man of the Plain already has a ballad
which says it, and says it better than speech. For life in the Plain is simple
and devoid of novelty, and the spirit of the people is prone to the use of
picturesque and imaginative forms.

And between mouthfuls a discussion of the events of the day's work,

barbs and boasts, a friendly joke and the quick sharp retort, a story

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arising from the picturesque life of the cowboy and guide, the man of
hard toil always with a ballad on the tip of his tongue.
And while the watchers by the corrals took turns going around . . . in
the cabins, another more boisterous watch was taking place: the guitar
and the maracas, the corrido and the decima. T h e birth of poetry.
(pp. 675-6)
In passages such as this one, the text can be seen to engage in w h a t could
be referred to as an explication of its o w n discursive assumptions. In them,
the novels articulate explicitly, and c o m m e n t on, those relationships that
also a l l o w them to conceive the w o r l d they recreate as an organic w h o l e in
the first place. T h e critical, explanatory purpose of this particular
fragment can be distinguished, for instance, in the causal structure of the
first paragraph; but it is also evinced by the manifest exegetical intention
of the entire passage. T h r o u g h it, the text explicates the spontaneous birth
of popular poetry (speech) from the interaction between M a n ' s activity
and his geographic milieu. T h i s is, of course, a relationship that is
presumed by the indigenous text to be an immanent aspect of the universe
it portrays. Y e t the organic nature of the link that the fragment affirms is
compromised by the fragment's very presence in the text, since in order to
comment critically on its o w n procedures the text must have abandoned
that organicity in the first place. Hence, the passage points to the
problematic rhetorical nature of " a u t o c h t h o n o u s " discourse, that is, to
the w a y in w h i c h its rhetoric undermines the legitimacy of that w h i c h it
affirms.
Sometimes this commentary assumes a less conspicuous form that
nonetheless cannot conceal entirely its interpretive objective. A t certain
moments the narrative acquires an essentially definitory tone: there is a
sudden break in the narrative that allows for the insertion of a detailed
commentary on a specific element of the indigenous universe. A n o t h e r
expression of it is the v o y a g e or excursion throughout the privileged
landscape that customarily precedes the writing of these novels: an
expedition w h e r e the author's roaming throughout the land acquires all
the trappings of the philologist's field research on language and milieu.
Other textual features, such as the glossaries that are appended to the
majority of these w o r k s and the singling out of particular w o r d s or
expressions in the text through the use of quotation marks or italics,
constitute further signs of the existence of this critical dimension within
the text of the novela de la tierra.
Therefore, far from simply having a referential or ontological reality,
the term " a u t o c h t h o n o u s " could be used to describe a rhetorical figure
encompassing three elements: spoken language, geographical location,
and a given human activity. T h e p o w e r of the figure that organizes these
categories derives from the fact that any one of the three elements can be
subsumed under the remaining t w o . T h e three categories are thoroughly
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 The criollista novel

intertwined in a c o m p l e x synecdochical fashion: the land is the scene

where the h u m a n activity takes place, but it is also the milieu from w h i c h
the peculiarities of spoken language are supposed to have emerged.
L a n g u a g e , in turn, is not only tied to the geography, but is also the lexicon,
the argot that is itself an integral c o m p o n e n t of the h u m a n activity
depicted. In the novela de la tierra then, "the a u t o c h t h o n o u s " is a
discursive m o d e generated by a c o m p l e x rhetorical figure that organizes a
synecdochical interaction between the three semantic fields described
above. T h e relationships that the figure establishes between the three
categories are meant to project discursively the organicity that presum­
ably binds together and relates to the environment every one of a culture's
manifestations. T h e relative importance of each element in the figure can
vary from text to text, but a given configuration of it underwrites and
sustains the discourse of the autochthonous in each w o r k .
M o r e o v e r , the three categories are capable of encompassing a large
number of distinct manifestations, a fact that e n d o w s the rhetorical figure
that contains them w i t h a seemingly inexhaustible generative capacity.
O r a l language, for instance, can be incorporated in a number of different
w a y s , such as the retelling of legends and tales or the performance of
popular poetry and song; it also explains certain textual features, such as
the phonetic writing that is so prevalent in the texts, the glossaries that are
almost a fixture as addenda to these texts, and the typographical
highlighting of certain w o r d s by using boldface, italicizing, or enclosing
them inside quotation marks. Similarly, the land can subsume the myriad
manifestations of non-urban geography, while also sustaining both the
detailed descriptions of topographic features and the marked emphasis on
spatial organization in the novels. By the same token, the intricate
accounts of a given metier and the use of a specialized v o c a b u l a r y to
accomplish this description are some of the textual attributes that arise
from the third category, one that can include the many facets and
operations of the human activity portrayed. T h i s understanding of the
indigenous as a rhetorical figure opens the w a y for rethinking the nativist
literary text as a productivity, that is, as an activity that produces a highly
specific discursive performance. T h e o u t c o m e of this performance is "the
a u t o c h t h o n o u s , " a discursive construct that is sustained by the figure
described a b o v e , and not by the w o r l d l y , referential status of the essence
to w h i c h it purportedly alludes.
T h e rhetorical figure described thus far is the form w i t h w h i c h these
novels convey textually the wholeness and consonance that are assumed
to obtain in the indigenous universe. T h e overarching assumption at w o r k
here is that a balance exists between environment and M a n in their mutual
interaction and influence.
Nonetheless, once that consonance is assumed, a number of narrative
permutations become possible. First, the organic circumstance can be
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portrayed as a present state of affairs; second, it can be depicted as under

threat by some external force or event; or lastly, it can be represented as
having been categorically lost. It is probably not a coincidence that the
three novels that have been traditionally considered paradigms of the
novela de la tierra each represents one of these narrative possibilities.
These are: Don Segundo Sombra [Don Segundo Sombra: Shadows
in the Pampas], Doña Bárbara [Doña Bárbara], and La vorágine [The
Vortex].
Don Segundo Sombra by the Argentinian writer R i c a r d o Güiraldes is a
consummate example of the first of these variants. T h e novel is generally
constructed as a Bildungsroman, a. novel of apprenticeship, in w h i c h the
y o u n g protagonist is tutored in the w a y s of the g a u c h o by the larger-than-
life man named in the novel's title. T h e b o y , presented in the beginning as
a w a y w a r d orphan precariously leaning t o w a r d s an inconsequential
adolescence of petty misconduct and b o r e d o m , is lifted from this aimless
context by his fortuitous encounter w i t h D o n Segundo. H e joins the latter
in his wanderings throughout the p a m p a s in a seemingly carefree search
for yet another horse to tame or a n e w herd of cattle to drive. Patiently he
gains from his mentor the k n o w l e d g e of the metier and the ethos of the
g a u c h o w a y of life. O n e day, near the close of the novel, the boy discovers
that he is not truly an orphan, but rather the illegitimate offspring of a
l a n d o w n i n g grandee w h o has recognized him as sole heir in his will. His
apprenticeship is finished at this point, and w i t h great sadness and
apprehension he abandons his life as a g a u c h o to assume his new status as
landowner and master. A s part of his n e w identity he acquires a more
traditional education that a l l o w s him to write the autobiographical
account that comprises the text óf the novel.
Hence, Don Segundo Sombra is a w o r k written from a perspective that
infuses the narration w i t h a melancholy sensation of nostalgia and a
foreboding sense of loss. Y e t this narrative situation is, nonetheless, the
perfect vantage point from w h i c h to depict the organic, interconnected
w o r l d that the universe of the g a u c h o is claimed to be. In this fashion, the
g a u c h o ' s w o r l d is considered from the outside, but as a rounded totality -
the w a y one holds at some distance a translucent sphere for examination.
T h e r e is a continuum of transcendence that envelops the protagonist in his
experiencing of that w o r l d , from the activities of taming a horse or
butchering a c o w , to the language that he speaks while in the p a m p a s .
Here lies, h o w e v e r , the principal difficulty inherent in this modality of the
criollista novel: the conflict between the metaphysical stasis of the w o r l d
portrayed by the text and the change and movement demanded by
narrative plot. Indeed, very little actually happens in Don Segundo
Sombra, since the novel is a celebration of the immutable and seamless
spirit of the g a u c h o . T h i s explains w h y the b o y ' s discovery of his real

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identity is not portrayed as a loss of that transcendence, but rather as a

raising of it to a different, perhaps even higher plane. For the novel
strongly suggests that the e x - o r p h a n / e x - g a u c h o will become an enlight-
ened landowner, one w h o will administer his property w i t h , and from
within, the k n o w l e d g e that he has painstakingly accumulated as a g a u c h o .
O n e can envision readily the ideological implications of this argument,
particularly w h e n the novel is considered in the Argentinian context from
w h i c h it arose. T h e introduction of an ethical dimension to l a n d o w n i n g
can be regarded as a call to action by one of its members to an absentee
elite w h i c h had neglected its patrimony and squandered its resources, and
w h i c h w a s rapidly being overtaken by a commercial and industrial urban
bourgeoisie. O n e can also take into consideration the massive influx of
immigrants into the country that had peaked t o w a r d s the turn of the
century, and that could be regarded as a threat to the concept of
Argentinian identity that had held s w a y until that time: a concept that,
because it had been formulated by that propertied class, predictably
revolved around it. T h e s e are the particular Argentinian circumstances
that may have inflected on the more comprehensive affirmation of
autochthonous values that swept the Latin A m e r i c a n continent during the
period under consideration.
R ó m u l o G a l l e g o s ' s Doña Bárbara is an instance of the second narrative
possibility delineated earlier. Here the balance and symmetry of the
autochthonous w o r l d is assumed to exist just as clearly as in the first
modality, but there is a circumstance or event that threatens with the loss
of that equilibrium. Hence, the quintessential situation described by this
case is that of crisis. T h e predominant tone is one of urgency, since the
narrative wishes to call attention to an element understood to be
deleterious to the presumed ontological permanence of the indigenous
w o r l d . T h e understanding of the present moment as a critical juncture
determines the particularities of this narrative modality, especially the
M a n i c h a e a n vision advanced by the story. In fact, given both its desire to
denounce the status quo and the attendant prescriptive intention, it is easy
for this kind of w o r k to acquire the fundamental attributes of allegorical
narration. T h e accusation of being simple (and simpleminded) allegories
is the charge that is most c o m m o n l y leveled against novels such as Doña
Bárbara, an assessment that is difficult to disallow - at least on the most
superficial plane of analysis.
T h e setting for Doña Bárbara is the plains or llanos of the A p u r e river in
Venezuela. T h e novel begins w i t h Santos L u z a r d o , the last heir of a
l a n d o w n i n g family w h o s e origins g o back to the Spanish C o n q u e s t ,
travelling from the city to the plain to sell his property, a vast expanse of
land called A l t a m i r a . T h e r e he discovers that his patrimony is being
slowly taken over by a mysterious and ruthless w o m a n by the name of

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D o n a Barbara, w h o has had an illegitimate daughter (Marisela) by

Santos's uncle (Lorenzo), and has reduced him to a drunken s h a d o w of his
former self. Santos is captivated again by the indomitable p o w e r and
potentiality of the land, and decides not to sell his property and to struggle
against D o n a Barbara instead. In the remainder of the novel L u z a r d o is
s h o w n w e a k e n i n g D o n a Barbara's domination over the llano in a number
of encounters w i t h her henchmen or w i t h other symbols of her p o w e r .
Finally, it is intimated that D o n a Barbara commits suicide (in any event
she is never heard from again), and L u z a r d o manages to reconstitute the
original family property of A l t a m i r a through marriage to D o n a Barbara's
sole heiress, Marisela. T h e w o r k ends hopefully, on a note of resolute
affirmation of the country's future triumph over its present ills.
A l t h o u g h the novel's thesis is fairly transparent - modernization will
redress the present circumstance of barbarism - the particular attributes
of D o n a Barbara m a k e her a contradictory character w i t h regard to the
novel's ideological intention of addressing a presumably critical situation.
O n e w o u l d expect that the organicity of the autochthonous universe
w o u l d be endangered by an alien, external force, one w h o s e disruptive
presence w o u l d serve to p r o v o k e the crisis that the novel wishes to
underscore. Nonetheless, in G a l l e g o s ' s w o r k , D o n a Barbara is ambi­
guously identified both as an agent of chaos and as having arisen from the
land itself. T h i s ambiguity can also be seen at w o r k in the articulation of
L u z a r d o ' s reformist project for the plains: he is depicted both as a
relentless supporter of progress and change, yet also as thoroughly
susceptible to the enchantment of the primordial and violent p o w e r of the
land. T h i s is w h y , for all its explicit optimism, the novel's conclusion is
paradoxical: it proposes simultaneously an openness to a future of
progress and the re-enactment of a preterit state of affairs in the
reconstitution of L u z a r d o ' s ancestral patrimony. O n e could interpret in
this problematic ending the ambivalent juxtaposition of a desire for
modernity, on the one hand, and the w i s h to protect traditional values
from the encroachment of the modern, on the other. Such a discordance
w o u l d appear to stem from an ambivalence t o w a r d modernity that is
characteristic of societies that regard themselves as eccentric to the
metropolitan foci of modern experience. In them modernity is wished for,
since it holds the promise of full participation in the w o r l d , yet it is also
seen w i t h apprehension for the potential it has to render worthless the
marginal experience of those societies.
T h e third narrative modality enacted by the criollista novel is repre­
sented paradigmatically by Jose Eustasio Rivera's w o r k La vordgine. Here
the transcendence of the indigenous universe has been definitively lost on
account of some circumstance or event. In this rendering the immanent
design of that w o r l d acquires n o w a contrary sign; in other w o r d s , there is

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as much correspondence and continuity between environment and man as

before, but this time the o u t c o m e is w h a t could be described as a negative
transcendence, a state of permanent damnation. T h e loss of meaning and
the b r e a k d o w n of order is so complete in this case that the w o r l d
portrayed possesses a p a r a d o x i c a l dystopian wholeness all its o w n . T h i s is
w h y R i v e r a ' s novel has been traditionally accused of a m b i g u o u s inten-
tionality, of lack of structure, and of general purposelessness: the loss of
significance that the novel assumes in the universe it depicts extends to the
text's inner w o r k i n g s as a purveyor of meaning as well.
A r t u r o C o v a , a hypersensitive and melodramatic poet, is the p r o t a g o ­
nist and narrator of La vordgine. H a v i n g seduced his mistress (Alicia), he
flees w i t h her from an unnamed city to the C o l o m b i a n plains in order to
avoid facing the consequences of his actions. Subsequently Alicia is either
kidnapped or willingly charmed by a ruthless rubber entrepreneur
(Barrera), w h o s e area of operations is the latex-producing jungle region of
the P u t u m a y o . W i t h hurt pride and in a heightened emotional state, C o v a
travels deep into the thicket, ostensibly to recover his lost mistress and to
punish the affront to his honor. But every step into the jungle brings only
despair, illness, disaster, and death. T h e terrible exploitation associated
with the A m a z o n i a n rubber industry is denounced in a number of scenes
or events in w h i c h the enormous human toll of the trade is deplored. Y e t
N a t u r e itself is also an agent of destruction in La vordgine: hordes of
carnivorous ants, disease, treacherous rapids, etc., conspire against the
advance of C o v a and the g r o u p of men that has accompanied him. T h e
feeling of helplessness and lack of sense is conveyed by the ease w i t h w h i c h
the party loses its w a y in the uncharted and unmarked expanses of the
jungle. Finally, C o v a manages to find his rival; a struggle ensues and
Barrera is killed, his b o d y eaten by piranha fish. T h e r e is a postscript to the
novel by a supposed friend of the poet, w h o informs the reader that he has
received a c o m m u n i q u e from the C o l o m b i a n consulate in M a n a u s (Brazil)
regarding the fate of the party: not a trace of them is to be found. T h e
justly famous last w o r d s of the novel leave no doubt concerning the
pessimism and darkness of the w o r k ' s thrust: " T h e jungle devoured
them!"
Perhaps the greatest difficulty in interpreting La vordgine lies in the
impossibility of isolating any one argument or purpose as p a r a m o u n t in
the text's rhetorical or ideological organization. T h i s quality m a y stem, as
implied earlier, from the novel's attempt to project a negative totality; but
the troublesome recalcitrance to exegesis still remains. A t times the w o r k
appears to be a manifesto against the A m a z o n i a n rubber trade, and Rivera
often argued for such an intention after the novel's publication. Y e t the
depiction of N a t u r e as an intrinsically harmful force argues against, or in
any event w e a k e n s , the corruptive characterization of the rubber industry

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that the novel w o u l d advance: does man invade and pervert N a t u r e , or is

N a t u r e itself bent on destruction in the first place? T h e same can be said,
for instance, regarding the novel's ambiguous characterization of the poet
A r t u r o C o v a . H e is capable of going from intense experiences of lucidity
and self-demystification to equally extreme episodes of blindness, melo­
drama, and self-deceit. T h i s aspect has larger consequences, though, given
the first-person narrative perspective e m p l o y e d universally in the novel:
the expression "unreliable n a r r a t o r " cannot begin to d o justice to the
destabilizing effect that C o v a ' s performance as narrator has on most
readers of Rivera's text.
F r o m a more comprehensive perspective, though, the contradictory
qualities evinced by La vordgine may be illustrative of the quandary that
"the a u t o c h t h o n o u s , " as conceived by the novela de la tierra, ultimately
entailed for Latin A m e r i c a n writers and intellectuals of the period under
consideration. For these writers the assumption w a s that national or even
continental identity w a s to be founded on a cultural belief in the
correspondence between geography and man. T h i s belief necessarily had
to o v e r l o o k or suppress the fact that, prior to that moment, the distinctive­
ness of Latin A m e r i c a had been predicated on asserting the existence of an
untamed, savage N a t u r e that lent its p o w e r and specificity to all N e w
W o r l d creations. A l r e a d y in Sarmiento's Facundo (1945) one finds a signal
e x a m p l e of this maneuver:
If any form of national literature shall appear in these new American
societies, it must result from the description of the mighty scenes of
nature, and still more from the illustration of the struggle between
European civilization and native barbarism, between mind and matter
- a struggle of imposing magnitudes in South America, and which
suggests scenes so peculiar, so characteristic, and so far outside the
circle of ideas in which the European mind has been educated, that their
dramatic relations would be unrecognized machinations except in the
countries in which they are found. (p. 24)

Hence, transforming the Latin A m e r i c a n cultural myth of N a t u r e as a

violent and wild presence to one in w h i c h the latter w a s perceived as
benign and organic could not be an uncomplicated, effortless affair. In
point of fact, this internal contradiction is one that the nativist literary
discourse never managed to resolve satisfactorily. T h i s is w h y one finds
within the genre a spectrum of w o r k s that goes from the transcendent
bonding w i t h N a t u r e represented by Don Segundo Sombra to the man-
eating v o r t e x of Rivera's w o r k . Both conceptions of N a t u r e can be used as
foundations for claims of distinctiveness and identity; and indeed, both
were - regardless of the resulting and irremediable contradictions -
mobilized simultaneously by the novela de la tierra.

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https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521340700.008 Published online by Cambridge University Press