Defining the "Colonial Reader": El Periquillo Sarniento

Author(s): Nancy Vogeley

Source: PMLA, Vol. 102, No. 5 (Oct., 1987), pp. 784-800
Published by: Modern Language Association
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/462308
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 NANCY VOGELEY

Defining the "Colonial Reader": El Periquillo Sarniento

E L PERIQUILLO Sarniento, published in
1816 in Nueva Espania by Jose Joaquinearly
nandez de Lizardi, poses important ques-
tions for critics attempting to arrive at broad the- dominated by the metropolis and aware of Euro-
ories of reader response. A construct such as the
"virtual reader" or the "ideal reader" is rendered
useless in the colonial context, where choice of lan- tradition but conscious of the need for linguistic re-
guage was politicized;' whether one wrote using
Peninsular or Mexican Spanish loudly proclaimed
one's political sympathies and automatically
divided one's readership. The "colonial reader," a
term used in the singular for consistency with other
critical expressions, stands for a composite of many
Lv
readers who would have responded variously to this
Fer-effort by Lizardi to create indigenous fic-
tion.2 One category of colonial readers, culturally
pean literary models, would have decried any devi-
ation. Another, also familiar with Continental
form as well as for political change, would have ap-
plauded Lizardi's Mexicanizing innovations. Still
another, literate but less educated according to Eu-
ropean expectations, might have accepted Lizardi's
popular novel in its serial form in the same way they
read the many newspapers published in Nueva Es-
pania in those years.
The various members of this interpretive commu-
nity, however, generally shared an awareness of
print as power.3 Normally only powerful voices
were permitted access to the medium; thus El Peri-
quillo Sarniento, in which characters representative
of the lower classes were made to command the
readers' attention, redefined the reading interlude.
Lizardi's colonial readers, even those who belonged
to the viceregal elite, mostly felt themselves deprived
of real power because of their derivative political
status. Instead of simply regarding their experience
with this book as an encounter with a higher
authority, they would see it as contact with de-
graded compatriots, shunned by most respectable
readers among the literate sectors. Therefore, the as-
similative process of these colonial readers must be
understood as a mixed response to the prestigious
medium and the novel's realistically drawn charac-

?t a/,r,aS.
) f)~ ters. In focusing on the fantasy of the imaginative
moment, the work of psychoanalytic critics study-
ing the affective dimensions of the literary process
has often neglected such sociological aspects of
Sarieno. Coreyo heStoLbar,Clfri reading (Holland).
S L Stm,Z San Fr Lizardi's story of a middle-class youth, irrespon-
sibly fallen into poverty after his parents' death,
* Ut0 vg>eU recorded contemporary realities; the portrayal of
corruption in high places and nastiness among the
lower classes forced Mexican readers to recognize
Frontispiece to the first edition of El Periquillo the book's pertinence to their world. Mexican
Sarniento. Courtesy of the Sutro Library, California readers were accustomed to finding disreputable
State Library System, San Francisco. characters in Spanish picaresque novels, but they

784

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 Nancy Vogeley 785

could dismiss these types in the same way they dis- I

tanced themselves from the imported book and that
foreign land. Now, however, in Lizardi's novel, Mex- Lizardi had available as readers a small group of
icans recognized their own world; they became liter- literate, Spanish-speaking individuals, who were
arily conscious that racial differences, ignorance, greatly outnumbered by the illiterate and semiliter-
and political disunion characterized the colony. The ate Indians, blacks, and persons of mixed caste who
Mexican version of the picaresque story, while re- either had no access to Spanish at all or else spoke
taining some of the slapstick of some European and wrote it imperfectly (Heath, Telling). The
forms, made a comic tradition serious.4 elite-members of the military, ecclesiastical, ad-
As psychoanalytic criticism has usefully empha- ministrative, and commercial classes in Mexico City
sized, one re-creates in the reading process mecha- and in the provincial capitals-largely depended for
nisms that, in general, one uses in coping with the recreational literature on books printed in Spain.
world (Holland); this critical discovery underscores Since a printing monopoly forbade the publishing
not only the potential for varied responses that the of everything except church-related materials and
notion of the colonial reader points to but also the official documents such as edicts, speeches, and a
way such responses reflect political, religious, and gazette, other reading matter had to be imported.5
economic concerns. For example, if Lizardi's Although there are records of private libraries that
readers owed their loyalty to the governing class, had liberal French books and although ecclesiasti-
their response to the fiction and its often broken or cal censors in positions of cultural prominence
plain idiom might have ranged from curious in- knew of works such as Tom Jones (Longhurst), im-
volvement to anxious consideration to hostile dis- portation controls generally limited Mexican
missal; if, however, they sympathized with the readers to the literary production of Spain.6 A
insurgent movement, they might have welcomed the work such as Padre Jose Francisco de Isla's Fray
book's fresh points of view as a weapon in the strug- Gerundio de Campazas (1758) reached Mexico in
gle and found gratification, if not pleasure, in the many editions; there its satire of the pompous lan-
shared perspective. The situation of the colonial guage in sermons would have particularly appealed
reader presents psychoanalytic critics with the prob- to readers. Isla's translation of Gil Blas, which also
lem of explaining how identity may be realized in circulated in Mexico, was probably an important
literature if the language is inherited, if it is regarded model for Lizardi's picaresque novel (Lozano).
as imposed or borrowed. Literary production in eighteenth-century Spain,
Finally, the notion of "literary competence" however, can be shown to be more open and enlight-
(Culler 113-30) is challenged by the historical exam- ened than has been thought. I offer as an example
ple of a society that viewed the book with ambiva- a work selected at random from the library of the
lence. While for many the book had an aura of Mexican Abadiano family, inheritors of the print-
ing press and bookstore of Alejandro Valdes, an
sacredness, an attitude the church and powerful in-
terests encouraged, others associated the book with important figure in Mexico City in the first decades
the hated authority and empty rhetoric of official of the nineteenth century.7 In Origen, progresos y
language. Thus "literary competence" -which sug- estado actual de la literatura (Madrid, 1784), the
gests a high regard at least for a book tradition, if Abate D. Juan Andres argues that literature pos-
not also for a common cultural past, and a sense of sesses universal characteristics such as eloquence.
the shared meaning of the literary work-must have In addition to citing the literatures of Greece and
different value in a colonial society (see Pratt for a Rome, he mentions that of the Arabs. The transla-
discussion of similar theoretical questions). tor comments: " . . . que la literatura moderna re-
The example of Lizardi's work is important to conoce por su madre a la arabiga, no solo en las
students of Spanish American literature, for whom ciencias, sino tambien en las buenas letras" ' .
El Periquillo Sarniento stands as the first Spanish modern literature recognizes as its mother Arab lit-
American novel; however, it should also interest erature, not only in the sciences but also in letters'
those who see in colonial discourse not just the rec- (1: xviii). It is not known when this book entered
ord of a minority group but the struggle implicit in Mexico or in what numbers, but its presence in the
any effort to employ official language and channels Abadiano collection suggests that unorthodoxy
of communication while at the same time challeng- spread to colonial areas.8 The secular literature of
ing their control. this collection reflects the strong Bourbon in-

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786 Defining the "Colonial Reader": El Periquillo Sarniento

fluence, that is, a neoclassical aesthetic of truth and which instruct me so that I may teach my children. Apart

utility. Histories, biographies, philosophical trea- from these books I have no other than the great good
book of the universe. . . . I lack even the education that
tises, military studies, science books-as well as the
the company of other people could provide me with; be-
collections of poetry and the women's novels more
cause always isolated on my ranch, I enjoy no other so-
normally thought of as literature-constitute the
ciety than that which the first patriarchs had-their wives,
main part of this colonial repository.
their children, and their servants....
By the first decades of the nineteenth century, A learned foreigner whom I had the pleasure of enter-
however, many Mexicans seem to have become crit- taining one night in my home, speaking to me of agricul-
ical of books. Evidence suggests that books were ture in Holland, told me that there they had found land
suspect because they symbolized church and gov- formerly claimed by the sea, planting green meadows and
ernmental power, which was increasingly regarded gardens in areas previously covered by the salt waters of
as corrupt. Historically, books had been accessible the ocean. Would it not be equally glorious for us to con-
vert into a plain of golden grain the rocky bottom of Lake
only to the privileged few; and as the message of the
Tezcoco . . . ? The thing is so important and glorious
European Enlightenment spread, its emphasis on
that, to accomplish it, it seems to me a small [investment]
practical knowledge and socializing skills con-
to employ all the analyses of chemistry, all the principles
tributed to the development of the newspaper as the
of botany, all the rules of physics, and the constancy of
colony's preferred literary medium. From 1805 to
many years. (24-25 Nov. 1805)9
1812 the Diario de Mexico, though subject to
government censorship, had great currency as a Although
pri- he does not say so, this provincial of ob-
vately owned source of information (for a fuller viousdis- means and respectable education clearly also
cussion of the Diario's role in forming a nascent read the Diario; the newspaper, doctrinal books,
Mexican culture, see Vogeley). Typical of this shift- and scientific literature were the only printed forms
ing view of the printed word is the plea contained he deemed necessary for his country life. It is sig-
in a letter written to this newspaper. nificant that he learned of foreign advances through
personal contact, the spoken word.
No espere V. de mi nada bueno. Soy un pobre labra-
Books, commonly associated with law and medi-
dor, que no entiendo latines, teologias, ni nada de
aquello que hace sabios a los hombres. Leo muy me- cine, were viewed as part of the ostentatious display
dianamente el castellano, y eso en unos quantos libros of learning the members of these professions re-
de doctrina christiana, que me sirven de instruccion, quired to maintain their often fraudulent power and
aciendome capaz de ensefiar a mis hijos. Furera de es- privilege (Diario 12-14 Nov. 1805). Many colonials
tos libros no tengo otro que el gran libro del universo. considered the ancient history told by books irrele-
. Carezco asta de las luces que puede comunicarme vant for purposes of present-day instruction. For
la companiia de las gentes; pues encerrado siempre en el example, an advertiser wrote to the editor of the Di-
recinto de mi rancho, para atender a su cultivo, no gozo
ario complaining that a series on pre-Columbian
de otra sociedad que la que tuvieron los primeros patriar-
Mexico was running too long:
cas, la de mi esposa, de mis hijos, y domesticos.. . .
Un sabio extrangero a quien tuve la satisfaccion de
Esas son unas vejeces, que para nada sirven, sino para
hospedar una noche en mi casa, hablandome de la agri-
conciliar el suefio a unos, y fastidiar a otros; los que
cultura de los Olandeses me dijo que ellos habian usur-
quieran saber esas cosas, tienen libros en donde verlas:
pado al mar sus dominios, plantando verdes praderias
ya es otro mundo, otros tiempos: los hombres de ahora
y jardines hermosisimos sobre el terreno que antes ocu-
no son como los de antafno: ni la guerra, ni la paz se ha-
paban las aguas salobres del oceano. Y L,no seria para no-
cen como se hacian, y todo es diferente.
sotros casi de igual gloria convertir en una llanura de
doradas espigas el fondo tequezquitoso que hemos ido
These are only old stories that don't serve for anything
quitando poco a poco a la laguna de Tezcoco? La cosa
but to put some men to sleep and to irritate others; those
es tan importante y gloriosa que para conseguirla me
who want to know these things have books in which to
parece poco emplear todos los analysis de la quimica, to-
find them. Now it is another world, another time. The
dos los principios de la botanica, las reglas todas de la
men of today are not like those of long ago; neither war
fisica, y la constancia de muchos afios.
nor peace is like it used to be, and everything is different.
Don't expect anything good of me. I am a poor work- (22 Dec. 1809)
er, who does not understand Latin, theology, or anything
of that which makes men wise. I read Castilian at a very The editor's response, which argues that lessons can
average level from a few books of Christian doctrine, be learned by reading accounts of earlier periods,

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 Nancy
reveals much about the difficulties of printing
longer works separately. In pre-independence Mex-
ico, paper was scarce, printers were few, and the
small number of potential buyers did not warrant
the publishing costs. The only local writing in de-
mand was that found in inexpensive newspapers
and in pamphlets with short, entertaining pieces.
In 1809 the Diario printed an allegory, by "Mr.
Klopstock," in which "Arts" and "Letters" argue
to determine which is superior. Although "Letters"
finally take precedence, the exchange sets out ad-
ditional criticism of books:
LAS BELLAS ARTES: el aspecto de un almacen de libros,
books could not; indeed the Diario printed an ex-
L,puede acaso proporcionar al aficionado de lo bello, pla-tended discussion on the "language" of architecture
ceres tan deliciosos? Entre ellos se ven obras cubiertas
de polvo, y que pretendieron los honores de la inmorta-
lidad, ahora tristes movimientos de los . . . esfuerzos
iniuitiles del entendimiento humano. ... no hallarian
compradores, si el grabado no se dignase adornarlos con
las producciones de su buril. Por otra parte, ,que' cosa
mas comun que un libro? Lo poco que cuesta, es causa
de que todo el mundo le tenga, y de que puede servir, a'
no ser para deleytar al ocioso, y para presentar ideas
muchas veces falsas al lector, que con sus propias re-
flexiones, llegaria con mas seguridad a descubrir la
verdad.
LAS BELLAS LETRAS: La ventaja que tenemos de dirigir el
espiritu, y el corazon del hombre . . . de hacerle amar
sus obligaciones, y de dirigirle sin cesar hacia la felicidad
. . . es la unica de que tengamos derecho de ensober-
vecernos.. . . Consentimos con gusto en que las bellas
artes tambien pueden hacer deliciosa la virtud; pero nos
atrevemos a sostener . . . que sus medios son insuficien-
tes para extender su imperio. Por su naturaleza, parece
que es objeto de sus producciones, mas bien la belleza,
que la utilidad . . . y es incapaz de producir aquel enlace
de ideas y sensaciones, que deben excitarse en el corazon
del hombre, para que conozca la virtud.
ARTS: The appearance of a book warehouse, can it per-
chance afford the enthusiast delicious pleasures? There
are to be found works covered with dust, which pretend-
ed to the honor of immortality and are now sad tracings
* . . of the futile efforts at human understanding. .
[T]hey would not find buyers if they were not adorned
with engravings. On the other hand, what is more com-
mon than a book? It costs so little that everyone can buy
it; it entertains the lazy man and presents ideas that are
often false to the reader who, on his own reflection, would
more surely arrive at the truth. ...
LETTERS: The advantage that we have of directing the
spirit and the heart of man . . . of making him fond of
his obligations and of guiding him unceasingly toward
happiness . . . is the only one of which we have the right
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Vogeley 787
to be proud. We grant with pleasure that Arts can also
make virtue attractive; but we dare to assert . . . that its
means are insufficient to extend its dominion. By its very
nature it seems that beauty, rather than utility, is the ob-
ject of its production . . . and it is incapable of produc-
ing that mixture of ideas and sensations that must be
stirred in the heart of man so that he may know virtue.
(1, 3-4 Mar.)
The discussion, born of European neoclassical con-
cern to legitimate secular and pagan art forms, had
special resonance in the colonial world. Amid the
vast numbers of illiterates, the visual arts such as
sculpture and architecture could achieve what
("El Melancolico," 26, 28 Dec. 1805). Sermons were
also a topic of much interest in the newspaper be-
cause they spread their message broadly by means
of the spoken word. 10
It is clear, then, that a new national writer, enter-
ing this linguistic arena for the purpose of creating
imaginative literature, had a difficult task. The chal-
lenge, as Umberto Eco describes Manzoni's, was
not to please an audience but to "create a public
who could not help liking his novel" (50). There-
fore, in producing the first Mexican novel Jose Joa-
quin Fernandez de Lizardi had to overcome several
problems. The book was a much discredited
medium, his market was undefined, and his use of
the written word had to take into account Mexicans'
awareness of competing orality. The letters appear-
ing in the Diario suggest great diversity in the au-
dience's ability to appreciate and understand a
literary text. For example, some wrote that Latin
grammar and usage should still be observed (see "El
Ex. D.P.," 3 Nov. 1805), suggesting political loyalty
to Spain and her empire; others, whose spelling, use
of accents, and punctuation reveal their uncertainty
about rules, argued that Mexican speech should de-
termine writing forms (see "El Escuelero de Tier-
radentro," "Educacion de Queretaro," 3-5 Dec.
1805; also "L. P.," "Pronunciacion," 27 Jan. 1805).
There must have been still other colonials who did
not deign to write in the straightforward style of the
newspaper and to participate in the vulgarizing pro-
cess that the newspaper represented.
II
Evidence that Lizardi was aware of the special
character of the colonial reader survives in the text
of El Periquillo Sarniento and in statements he
788 Defining the "Colonial Reader": El Periquillo Sarniento

made about the novel. Significantly, he pluralizes illustration and one from its explanation.'3 Per-
his reader at all times; his readers are his "children," haps Mariano Azuela perceived something similar
whom he addresses in a fatherly way through the when he wrote, "Como obra de arte equiparo El
voice of his narrator, Pedro Sarmiento, a reformed Periquillo a esos retablos que suelen encontrarse en
pi'caro. In his dedication to the novel, Lizardi in his las sacristias y en los camerinos de nuestros san-
own voice enumerates his readers' identities and tuarios ma's famosos por sus milagros, pintados
emphasizes their diversity: con mano torpe e ingenua, pero pujantes de verdad
y vida" 'I compare El Periquillo as a work of art
Muy bien se que descendeis de un ingrato, y que teneis to those altars that are commonly to be found in the
relaciones de parentesco con los Caines fratricidas, con
sacristies and chambers of our sanctuaries most fa-
los id6latras Nabucos, con las prostitutas Dalilas, con los
mous for their miracles-painted with an awkward
sacrilegos Baltasares, con los malditos Canes, con los
and ingenuous hand but charged with truth and
traidores Judas, con los perfidos Sinones, con los Cacos
life' (587). Azuela probably compared Lizardi's art
ladrones, con los herejes Arrios, y con una multitud de
picaros y picaras que han vivido y aun viven en el mis- with folk crafts because he thought Lizardi's origi-
mo mundo que nosotros. nal reader "de inteligencia rudimentaria, ignoran-
Se que acaso sereis, algunos, plebeyos, indios, mula- cia supina e ingenuidad infantil, no ma's aventajado
tos, negros, viciosos, tontos y majaderos. seguramente que el que aplaudia los autos y colo-
quios en tiempos de la Colonia" 'of rudimentary
I know very well that you are descended from an in- intelligence, supine ignorance, and infantile ingen-
grate, that you are related to fratricidal Cains, idolatrous uousness-surely no more advantaged than he who
Nebuchadnezzars, prostituting Delilahs, sacrilegious
applauded the autos and coloquios in colonial
Balthazars, cursed Canes, traitorous Judases, perfidious
times' (583). Azuela's criticism of Lizardi's tech-
Sinons, thieving Cacuses, heretical Ariuses, and a mul-
nique largely rests on his objections to the "pam-
titude of pfcaros and pfcaras who have lived and who still
phleteering" passages; Azuela shows he is judging
inhabit the same world as we.
I know that perhaps you are, some of you, common the novel by latter-day realist standards when he
men, Indians, mulattoes, blacks, addicted to vice, fool- writes that because of these passsages "se ve la ma-
ish and a nuisance. (3-4)11 no que mueve los hilos, se oye la voz monotona y
cansada del que impulsa a los mufiecos" 'the hand
His insulting tone comically parodies the recogni- that controls the strings is revealed, the monoto-
tion former novelists accorded their patrons; how- nous and tired voice of the one who moves the pup-
ever, the language of sinfulness also disguises the pets is heard' (582).
sense of shame and self-hatred afflicting many If it is true, as Azuela proclaims, that the colonial
colonials. Inferior in the eyes of Peninsular reader did not have the refined taste of Azuela's
Spaniards, American Spaniards, as they were model reader in the twentieth century-and even
called, were now criminals as a result of their rebel-
Lizardi acknowledged his reader's "ignorance" -it
lion against God and king. becomes critical to ask just what this "ignorance"
Plebeian and fratricidal, Lizardi's readers were was and whether something in the colonial ex-
also, by his account, "ignorant."'2 The novelist felt perience fostered it. Azuela's comment that
they needed an explicit restatement of the moral Lizardi's reader was like the faithful viewer of a
hidden in the story. Thus the fatherly Pedro con- church play, uncritically accepting its dogmatic
stantly interjects preaching asides into the story of statement, associates naive acceptance with illiter-
delinquency the youthful Periquillo is telling, and acy and the colonial past. Lizardi's readers, though
Lizardi himself intervenes in the narrative with necessarily literate, were in Azuela's view un-
lengthy moral and erudite digressions on law, his- discriminating in their blind approval of Lizardi's
tory, ethics, theology, philosophy, and the emerg- obvious preaching.
ing natural sciences. In this mixture of drama and Lizardi's concern for the reading process-his in-
didactic commentary, Lizardi's novel is like those sistence on how his book was to be read and his
Mexican votive paintings that depict a miracle and thoughtful analysis of his reader's special require-
then also spell out the alleged facts through the ments-makes central the question of the textual
written word. Although the visual dimension re- interpretation and acceptance of his novel. 14 Writ-
mains intact in both parts of the painting, the liter- ing at a moment when press censorship limited
ate viewer understands two messages, one from the direct statement, Lizardi saw in the novel an imag-

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 Nancy
inative form that allowed him to disguise his criti-
cism while continuing his writing career. In fact,
censors did prohibit the publication of the last part
of the Periquillo during Lizardi's lifetime; in these
chapters (vols. 4 and 5 of the projected book),
Lizardi arranged a dialogue in which the premises
underlying colonialism and slavery were explicitly
examined and debated.'5
Lizardi's novel, however, is much more than a
potboiler produced when his primary interest in
journalism was frustrated. It is also an experiment
in adapting a European literary form to indigenous
needs, an effort to incorporate into a work pretend-
ing to be serious literature the colony's many lin-
guistic forms-oral and written, upper-class and
vulgar. Scrutinized, therefore, are not only the pres-
tigious literary traditions and near-sacred utterances
of the upper classes but also the reviled speech of
the lower classes that Lizardi recorded as part of
this Mexican world. At the end of the novel he
somewhat apologetically describes the plain style
with which he corrects these language varieties in
the framing story and in the authorial passages and
brings these two worlds together: "Escribio su vi-
da en un estilo ni rastrero ni finchado; huye de ha-
cer del sabio, usa un estilo casero y familiar, que
es el que usamos todos comuinmente y con el que
nos entendemos y damos a entender con mas faci-
lidad" 'He wrote his life in a style neither base nor
high-flown; he avoided sounding learned; he used
a homely, common style, that which we use every
day and with which we understand each other most
easily' (463). In this way, the literary work and its
example of a common language-made up of
Lizardi's plain style as well as the bits and pieces of
snobbish usage, garbled speech, argot, and jargon
of the Periquillo's characters-symbolically recon-
cile the colony's warring elements. In this histori-
cal novel documenting contemporary events,
Lizardi describes Mexico in 1813:
. la guerra es el mayor de todos los males para cual-
quiera naci6n o reino; pero incomparablemente son mas
cation heaven delights, earth humbles itself, and hell
perjudiciales las conmociones sangrientas dentro de un
mismo pais, pues la ira, la venganza y la crueldad .
se ceban en los mismos ciudadanos que se arman para
destruirse mutuamente.
. war is the greatest of all evils of any nation or king-
dom; but incomparably more harmful is bloody unrest
within the country itself, for anger, vengeance, and cru-
elty . . . rage unchecked in the citizens who arm to de-
stroy one another. (452)
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Vogeley 789
In presenting his reader with a kind of linguistic
union in the body of the text, Lizardi offers psy-
chosocial solace in the suggestion that political har-
mony may also be possible.
The deathbed speech that Periquillo Sarniento,
now the rehabilitated pfcaro Pedro Sarmiento,
delivers toward the novel's end is a good example of
Lizardi's use of several voices to indicate Mexico's
diverse population. Pedro is speaking to a priest
friend whose experience as a picaro in his youth
ratifies the friend as wise and honest.
No te apartes de mi hasta que expire, no sea que entre
aqui alguin devoto o devota que con el Ramillete u otro
formulario semejante me empiece a jesusear, machacan-
dome el alma con su frialdad y sonsonete, y quebrando-
me la cabeza con sus gritos desaforados. No quiero decir
que no me digan Jesus, ni Dios permita que yo hablara
tal idioma. Se muy bien que este dulce nombre es sobre
todo nombre; que a su invocacion el cielo se goza, la
tierra se humilla y el infierno tiembla; pero lo que no
quiero es que se me plante a la cabecera algiin buen hom-
bre con un librito de los que te digo; que tal vez empiece
a deletrear, y no pudiendo, tome la ordinaria cantinela
de Jesus te ayude, Jesus te ampare, Jesus tefavorezca,
no saliendo de eso para nada, y que conociendo 6l mis-
mo su frialdad quiera inspirarme fervor a fuerza de gri-
tos.. . . Tiu sabes que en estos momentos lo que importa
es mover al enfermo a contricion y confianza en la divi-
na misericordia; hacerlo que repita en su coraz6n los ac-
tos de fe, esperanza y caridad; ensancharle el espiritu con
la memoria de la bondad divina, acordandole que Je-
suscristo derram6 por 6l su sangre y es su medianero, y
por fin ejercitandolo en actos de amor de Dios y avivan-
dole los deseos de ver a Su Majestad en la gloria. .
Tambien te ruego que no consientas que las sefioras
viejas me acaben de despachar con buena intencion
echandome en la boca, y en estado agonizante, caldo de
sustancia ni agua de la palata.
Don't leave me until I die, lest some devout man or wom-
an with the Flowery Prayer or some other such rigamarole
begin to be-Jesus me, crushing my soul with cold sing-
song, breaking my head with wild crying. I know very well
that this sweet name is above all names; that at its invo-
trembles; but what I don't want is some good soul to stand
at the head of my bed with one of those foolish books
such as I described; then when he starts to try to read it
and finds he's not able to, he sets up the chant he does
know of "May Jesus aid you, may Jesus solace you, may
Jesus bless you," sticking with this forever and, in recog-
nizing its coldness, trying to inspire fervor by shouting.
. . . You know that in these moments what matters is
moving a sick man to contrition and confidence in divine
mercy; to make him repeat in his heart the articles of faith,
790 Defining the "Colonial Reader": El Periquillo Sarniento

hope, and charity; to open up his spirit with the memo-
ry of divine goodness, reminding him that Jesus shed his
blood for him and is his intercessor and, finally, exercis-
ing him in acts of love of God and kindling in him the de-
sire to see his Lord in glory....
I also beg you not to allow the old women to finish me
off with their good intentions, choking me with thick
soup or water out of a dipper when I am agonizing.
(457-58)
ability to perceive differences-to maintain a criti-
cal perspective on the use of language so as
constantly to alter one's relations to the text-
becomes important in identifying the colonial
reader.
This failure, if indeed it was that, may have been
due to several factors. Colonial readers often were
poorly educated. As Lizardi shows, many coloni-
als were unfamiliar with the written language be-

Pedro's lengthy description of what language and cause in many schools "las escritura [es] . . .

behavior are proper conveys the narrator's faith in como mera curiosidad" 'writing [is] . . . a mere

an appropriate language to console a dying man. curiosity' (20). Encouraged to speak well, they had
He rejects as unsatisfactory the mechanical litany little knowledge of such concerns as punctuation

of the ignorant priest and the pieties of books. The and spelling. Lizardi editorializes:

old ladies are present, though they say nothing;

their misguided actions provoke the dying Pedro . es una lIstime ver que este defecto de ortografia se
extiende a muchas personas de fina educacion . . . de
into giving a learned-sounding lecture on anatomy
manera que no es muy raro oir un bello discurso a un ora-
and the dangers of suffocating. What seem to be
dor, y notar en este mismo discurso escrito por su mano
several voices are here a single voice that dramati-
sesenta mil defectos ortograficos....
cally operates at several levels of discourse; an ig-
norant priest never, in fact, speaks, but instead . it is a shame to see how common this ignorance of
Pedro parodies such speech in his own. Not only has spelling is among many persons of fine education .
Lizardi written a picaresque tale that contrasts folly it is not rare to hear an orator deliver a beautiful speech
and wisdom, but within his story he makes the same and then to find in the same speech, written by his own
point by ironic shifts of language. As Bakhtin notes, hand, sixty thousand errors in spelling.... (20)
style is to be found in the very combination of styles
(262-63). Nuns and priests, representatives of a Latin cultural
Early in the novel Pedro, in recounting his life to tradition, were frequently mentioned in the litera-
his children, stresses the importance of knowing ture of the period as corrupters of this tradition be-
how to read. 16 This advice, drawn from childhood cause their aural knowledge of Latin often caused
experience, is more necessary to Lizardi's text than them to mouth sounds without understanding
critics have thought. In addition to indicting the meanings (see "El Observatorio," "Criticadores de
educational system of the day (Spell, "Educa- Sermones," also accompanying note, Diario, 10
tional"), the passage instructs Lizardi's readers, May 1806). Although Lizardi generally does not
most of whom were probably adult, in the skills re- mock the ignorance of these religious, his novel ex-
quired for understanding the work at hand: "el queposes the knowledge of many other representatives
lee debe saber distinguir los estilos en que se escri- of the colonial order, such as doctors and lawyers,
be.. . . " 'he who reads ought to know how to dis- as the mere flaunting of jargon.'7
tinguish the various styles in which the book is Lizardi's mouthpiece, Periquillo, describes how
written . . . ' (19). Although the story at this point in his philosophy class he memorized words and
centers on the classroom and specifically on the phrases in the same way a child learns the parts of
singsong way in which Periquillo's teacher read a catechism lesson, orally and by rote: "se oia dis-
aloud to the students, Lizardi is emphasizing to his cutir sobre el ente de razon, las cualidades ocultas
own readers that to understand the meaning of y la materia prima, y esta misma se definia con la
words one must recognize their context. If, as explicacion de la nada, nec est quid, etc." 'one
Lizardi believed, his colonial readers needed explicit heard argument over a "rational being," "occult
advice to look for high and low styles ("No se han qualities," and "primary matter," and this last was
de leer las oraciones de Ciceron como los anales de defined with the explanation of nothingness, nec est
Tacito, ni el panegirico de Plinio como las come- quid, etc.' (38). In his transcription of this oral ma-
dias de Moreto" 'The orations of Cicero are not to terial Lizardi humorously shows how Periquillo and
be read like the annals of Tacitus, nor the panegyric his fellow students played with this language, which
of Pliny like the comedies of Moreto' [19]), this in- had no meaning for them:

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 Nancy
. en el estudio de la gramatica aprendi varios equivo-
quillos impertinentes . . . como Caracoles comes; pas-
torcito come adobes; non est peccatum mortale occidere
patrem suum y otras simplezas . . . asi tambien, en el
estudio de las sumulas, aprendi luego luego mil sofismos
ridiculos, de los que hacia mucho alarde con los condis-
cipulos mas candidos, como por ejemplo: besar la tierra
es acto de humildad: la mujer es tierra, luego....
cuidado, que echaba yo un ergo con mas garbo que el me-
jor doctor de la Academia de Paris.. . .
. in my grammar studies, I learned nothing but im-
pertinent puns . . . such as Caracoles comes; pastorci-
to come adobes; non est peccatum mortale occidere
patrem suum; and other nonsense . . . and in my study
of logic, also, I learned immediately a thousand ridicu-
lous sophisms, which I bawled in chorus with my simple
fellow students. For example: To kiss the earth is an act
of humility; woman is earth; therefore, etc.. . . Rest as-
sured I threw in my ergo with more knack than the best
doctor of the Paris Academy. . . (38)
In what follows, the colloquial phrase "I didn't un-
derstand a word of that" registers a growing Mexi-
can disillusionment with such language:
. . . mi buen preceptor nos ensefo algunos principios
de geometria, de calculo y de fisica moderna; . . . pe-
ro . . . yo no entendi palabra de esto; y, sin embargo,
decia al concluir este curso, que erafisico, y no era mas
que un ignorante patarato; pues despues que sustente un
actillo de fisica, de memoria, y despues que hablaba de
esta enorme ciencia con tanta satisfacci6n en cualquiera
concurrencia, temo que me mochen si hubiera sabido
explicar en que consiste que el chocolate de espuma, me-
diante el movimiento del molinillo . . . ni otras cosillas
de estas que traemos todos los dias entre manos.
* . . my good preceptor taught us some principles of ge-against the writing of these authors, many of whom
ometry, calculus, and modern physics; . . . but . . . I
didn't understand a word of it; nevertheless, when the
course was finished, I said I was a physicist, although I
was really a humbug. I devoured a simple little physics ex-
periment by memory and then I spoke of this enormous
science with great satisfaction in any gathering. Howev-
er, I'm afraid you may lop off my head if I knew how to
explain why chocolate foams when the beater is whirled
. . . or any of the other simple little things that we do
every day. (39-40)
Periquillo's educational experience is representative
of the colonial's. Indeed, the title of the novel, El
Periquillo Sarniento (The Itching Parrot)-a
derogatory play on the name Pedro Sarmiento,
which his schoolmates provided-suggests that his
linguistic parroting is a key to the colonial's identity. nos unos becerros....
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Vogeley 791
For Lizardi mastery of the written language
meant overcoming an aspect of colonial inferiority;
it meant acquiring the body of knowledge behind
the erudite terms; and it also meant using language
to help rather than harm one's fellows. The critical
skills that allow a reader to judge style, to perceive
falsity in language, were especially important in a
society where a literate minority bore the responsi-
bility, as the Enlightenment taught, for opening up
the lessons of a book culture to many uncivilized
illiterates.
III
Homi Bhabha ("Of Mimicry," "Signs"), who has
written on colonials' fetishistic regard for the book,
shows ambivalence to be typical of colonial dis-
course. In the colonial writer's repetition of domi-
nant strategies to achieve authority, Bhabha finds
a mimicry that makes the text ironic ("Of Mimicry"
126). Although Bhabha chiefly grounds his analy-
sis in the example of nineteenth-century English
writers writing either in or about India and focuses
his conclusions on the way the colonial subject is
denied identity by this failure of representation, his
observations are valuable in helping us understand
how Lizardi, an indigenous writer, attacks a book
tradition so as to reconstitute it in Mexico.
Lizardi begins by distancing himself from earlier
writers, the titles of whose works, as he describes
in the prospectus for the Periquillo, promised "pun-
tos menos que la ciencia general, y la llave de los
arcanos de Dios y la Naturaleza" 'no less than to-
tal knowledge and the key to the secrets of God and
Nature' (Obras 8: 3). In setting his own work
pretended to new secular truths, Lizardi paradoxi-
cally links his novel to an established tradition, thus
borrowing some of the earlier writers' respectabil-
ity. In criticizing the pompous language of many
books' titles, he challenges their claims to authority
and then humorously compares these books to a
Mexican phenomenon:
Ni faltan entre nosotros, quiero decir, en nuestro tiem-
po, semejantes libros que lievan al frente estos titulos al-
tos, sonoros y significativos; . . . estas obras suelen ser
como unos animalitos que hay en algunos lugares de es-
te reino, que liaman Punches, los cuales son del tamafio
de un sapo mediano, y cuando estan en sus charcos se
inflan, y empujan el aire con tal fuerza, que el que no los
conoce . . . al oirlos gritar le parece que son, por lo me-
792 Defining the "Colonial Reader": El Periquillo Sarniento
Asi, pues, suelen ser estos libros de que hablamos: ti-
tulos pomposos en la caratula, y en el centro aire y mas
aire.
There's not lacking among us, I mean in our time, simi-
lar books that carry on their exterior these exalted, sono-
rous, significant titles; . . . these works are usually like
those little critters that are to be found in some places in
this land. They are called Punches and are about the size
of an average toad. When they are in their ponds, they
blow themselves up and then expel the air with such force
that the person who isn't familiar with them . . . upon
hearing them thinks that they are the cries of two-year-
old calves....
The books we talked about are the same: pompous ti-
tles on the title page and inside air and more air. (4)
Here Lizardi's metaphor, drawn from the nonbook
context of animal life in "this land," deflates the
puffed promise of the earlier books. Lizardi's title
for his own work is simple: Vida de Periquillo Sar-
niento, escrita por elpara sus hijos, y publicada pa-
ra los que la quieran leer, por D. J. F. de L. autor
delperiodico titulado El Pensador mexicano 'Life
of Periquillo Sarniento, written by him for his chil-
dren, and published for those who wish to read it,
by D. J. F. de L., author of the periodical titled The
Mexican Thinker.'
By making himself and his readers part of the
book's title, Lizardi emphasizes the new relation-
ship he would establish. He identifies himself as one
who has already written for a newspaper, a genre
colonial readers had learned to trust; and he loosely
collects his potential readers into the category
"those who wish to read [Sarniento's life]." In us-
ing "life" rather than either "novel" or "history"
to characterize his book, Lizardi establishes the im-
mediate value of this story. The following passage
from the Periquillo contrasts a "life" with a
''novel":
Ninguno diga quien es, que sus obras lo dirdn. Este
proloquio es tan antiguo como cierto; todo el mundo esta
convencido de su infalibilidad; y asi ,que tengo yo que
ponderar mis malos procederes cuando con referirlos se
ponderan? Lo que apeteciera, hijos mios, seria que no
leyerais mi vida como quien lee una novela, sino que
pararais la consideraci6n mas alla de la cascara de los
hechos, advirtiendo los tristes resultados de la hol-
gazaneria . . .; haciendo analisis de los extraviados
sucesos de mi vida, indagando sus causas, temiendo sus
consecuencias y desechando los errores vulgares que veis
adoptados por mi y por otros, empapandoos en las sol-
idas maximas de la sana y crisitiana moral que os presen-
tan a la vista mis reflexiones, . . . desearia que
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penetrarais en todas sus partes la sustancia de la obra;
que os divirtierais con lo ridiculo, que conocierais el er-
ror y el abuso para no imitar el uno ni abrazar el otro,
y que donde hallarais algun hecho virtuoso os enamo-
rarais de su dulce fuerze y procurarais imitarlo. Esto es
deciros . . . que deseara que de la lectura de mi vida
sacarais tres frutos, dos principales y uno accesorio. Amor
a la virtud, aborrecimiento al vicio y diversion... .
Let no one say who he is, for his works will say it for
him. This maxim is as ancient as it is certain. Everyone
is convinced of its infallibility; thus, why do I need to pon-
der my bad actions when, in telling them, the pondering
is accomplished? What I should like, my children, is not
that you read my life as one reads a novel but that you stop
your consideration beyond the shell of the deeds, notic-
ing the sad results of shiftlessness . . . analyzing the
wayward events of my life . . . soaking up the solid max-
ims of healthy, Christian morality that my reflections
show you. . . I should like you to penetrate to the sub-
stance of the work . . . enjoy the ridiculous, become fa-
miliar with error and abuse so as not to imitate the one
or embrace the other, and . . . wherever you find some
virtuous act, you become enamored of its sweet force and
strive to imitate it. . . I should wish that from the read-
ing of my life you extract three fruits, two principal and
one secondary. Love of virtue, abhorrence of vice, and en-
tertainment. . (235)
Lizardi's explicit instruc
reading of my life") sug
er has in hand a genre not seen before.
A narrative as a "life" was not new in Nueva
Espafia. Saints' lives served as a model for storytell-
ing; thus in this Catholic society a "life" did not as-
sume the comic character an individual's perhaps
eccentric history might have had elsewhere. In ad-
dition, the Life of Diego de Torres y Villarroel with
its manifestly autobiographical story was widely
known in the colony; Lizardi recalls Torres by us-
ing a quotation from another of Torres's works to
introduce the Periquillo. Lizardi's use of the term
life, however, carries with it a greater sense of the
person whose experiences give rise to the recount-
ing; in constantly admonishing his readers that his
"life" shows, rather than tells about, a person,
Lizardi exhibits an American effort to rethink the
relation between life and art. The emphasis on the
novel as deeds, rather than as words about deeds,
suggests that Lizardi expected his work to elicit
something akin to a visual response in the reader,
a fresh reaction to a flesh-and-blood individual,
which is not linguistically mediated for purposes of
indoctrination.'8 In the last chapter Lizardi in-
 Nancy Vogeley 793

troduces himself as the editor of Pedro Sarmiento's
notebooks; in summing up Pedro's story he con-
trasts it with those openly moralistic works whose
sermons often bored the reader:
Los libros morales es cierto que ensefian, pero s6lo por
los oidos, y por eso se olvidan sus lecciones facilmente.
Estos [la vida de Pedro Sarmiento] instruyen por los
oidos y por los ojos. Pintan al hombre como 6l es, y
pintan los estragos del vicio y los premios de la virtud en
acaecimientos que todos los dias suceden. Cuando
leemos estos hechos nos parece que los estamos miran-
do, los retenemos en la memoria; . . . nos acordamos
de este o del otro individuo de la historia luego que
vemos a otro que se le parece, y de consiguiente no
podemos aprovechar de la instrucci6n que nos ministr6
la anecdota....
It is true that moral books teach but only through one's
ears; that's why their lessons are easily forgotten. These
[books such as the life of Pedro Sarmiento] instruct
through the ears and through the eyes. They paint man
as he is, and they paint the ravages of vice and the rewards
of virtue in events that happen every day. When we read
these happenings it seems to us that we are looking at
them, we hold them in our memories; . . . we remem-
ber one individual or another from the story when we see
someone who resembles him, and then we can benefit
from the instruction that the anecdote provided us. .
(463-64)
Although Lizardi in using the metaphor of paint-
ing is talking about the power of anecdote in the
novel, his language reflects his awareness of both
the visual and the auditory, the written and the spo-
ken, in the reading process. Yet in another episode,
when Pedro is speaking to his children, Lizardi af-
firms the superior value of print over oral exchanges shed light on Lizardi's complex style. Although
between persons that his concept of "life" has
implied:
El buen ejemplo mueve mas que los consejos, las insi-
nuaciones, los sermones y los libros. Todo esto es bueno,
cal structure (Heath, "Protean"), the colonial world
pero, por fin, son palabras, que casi siempre se las lieva
el viento. La doctrina que entra por los ojos se imprime
mejor que la que entra por los oidos.
cause they are denied the chance to participate in
The good example moves [us] more than advice, hints,
print production and recognizing that their speech
sermons, and books. All these are good, but finally they
are only works that the wind usually blows away. Doc-
trine that enters through the eyes is impressed [on us] bet-dependent communication system. Seeing that
ter than that which enters through our ears. (113)
Here Lizardi shows how the written word not only
prolongs the life of the spoken word but also allows
for extended contemplation and thought.
Thus Lizardi's sense of orality in the making of
his text can be seen to be as important as previous
criticism has shown, although somewhat richer and
qualitatively different. Although critics have com-
pared Lizardi's technique to the mechanical facili-
ties of recording machines such as the camera and
the tape recorder (Valenzuela Rodarte 244)-and
the critics' continued use of the nineteenth-century
term cuadros de costumbre 'genre scenes' (Gonza'-
lez Pefia 75) hints at the incorporation of visual
data into the literary medium-academic readers of
the Periquillo have generally failed to recognize the
unique way in which Lizardi combines verbal and
visual elements so as to reach the colonial reader.
They have noted his use of peculiarly Mexican lex-
ical items and remarked on the way his dialogue or-
thographically imitates low-class speech (Davis).
They have also studied his use of proverbs (O'Kane).
But critics have usually passed lightly over the
professional mumbo jumbo (Sanchez). And they
have generally ignored the earnest plainness of
Lizardi's style in the long passages in which the au-
thor preaches or restates the wisdom of the ancients
or the discoveries of modern science and contem-
porary ideas. Most have wished these passages away
as extraneous to the picaresque tale.19
Lizardi's heavy reliance on the language of
speech in the making of his literary language results
not only from his consciousness that peculiar Mex-
ican speech patterns underscore the Americanness
of his picaresque tale but also from his desire to en-
hance the visual experience of reading with more fa-
miliar auditory resonances. Recent theories of
orality and literacy by critics such as Walter Ong
many of these theories on orality derive from
studies of primitive societies, they are useful for
viewing an artifact produced in the semiliterate con-
text of colonial Mexico. Like many in the theoreti-
represents both orality and literacy. Readers in such
a situation-generally estranged from books-are
caught between feeling their colonial inferiority be-
has already empowered them to produce an in-
books often intimidated or bored colonial readers,
Lizardi responded by infusing his own book with
as much untraditional, nonbook material as
possible-both linguistic and narrative.

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794 Defining the "Colonial Reader": El Periquillo Sarniento
IV
Clearly, Lizardi means to shatter his readers' ex-
pectations that a literary work should follow Euro-
pean models and have an elevated style removed
from quotidian concerns. Depicting Mexico's ugly
realities in the social satire of his story could be
justified on the rhetorical grounds of the need for
a believable setting; recording the life of a sinner
could be rationalized by the moral argument that
exemplary punishment was more effective than ex-
hortation to virtue. While it is true that verisimili-
tude was a concern of many eighteenth-century
European writers and that Lizardi was considerably
affected by the imported aesthetic doctrine that art
be utilitarian, his concern for readers' acceptance
of his innovative text exceeded that of most Euro-
pean writers. In addition to legitimizing a new genre
that writers in the eighteenth century preferred to
call "letters," "history," "biography," "life," or
"confessions" rather than the "novel," Lizardi as
a colonial writer needed to carve out a space for his
literature in order to win a readership. The pica-
resque form he borrowed had respectable antece-
dents in the Spanish Golden Age, but he deviated
from these in abandoning the intellectual wordplay
with which the baroque authors often told their sto-
ries. Therefore, as the writer of the first Latin
American novel, Lizardi had not only to convince
colonial readers of the novel's worth but also to per-
suade them that verisimilitude, translated into Mex-
ican terms, called for a different language.
The plain style Lizardi claimed for himself-
language that was inclusive in revealing its mean-
ing to many, rather than exclusive in addressing the
few-was obviously patterned after colonial news-
paper usage. Out of a desire to communicate to
large numbers of readers, newspaper editors and
contributors had adopted a serviceable style, one
that abandoned preciousness and elitest display. Al-
though a plain style is sometimes thought to be a
manipulative tool whereby a state exercises social
control, in Lizardi's hands it was subversive.20 It
was the linguistic equivalent of egalitarianism, an
indictment of colonial rank and privilege. A style
that authorized Mexican speech habits in a non-
comic way and linked levels of society in a common
discourse was a cry for American independence
from the tyranny of imposed structures. The idea
of informality, of equals addressing equals, implicit
in the concept of plainness, would have had special
appeal among those lesser colonials, the criollos
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customarily passed over for high position.2'
Plainness results from the impression of several
language styles brought together and subjected to
colonial standards of utility and morality. For ex-
ample, the reformed piearo contrasts two vocabu-
laries as Lizardi criticizes imported urbanity:
Estos amigos picaros que me perdieron y que pierden a
tantos en el mundo, saben el arte maldito de disfrazar los
vicios con nombres de virtudes. A la disipaci6n liaman
liberalidad; al juego diversi6n honesta, por mas que por
modo de diversi6n se pierdan los caudales; a la lubrici-
dad, cortesania; a la embriaguez, placer; a la soberbia,
autoridad; a la vanidad, circunspecci6n....
These devilish friends who led me astray and who lead
so many astray in this world are expert in the cursed art
of cloaking vices with the names of virtues. They call dis-
sipation liberality; gambling honest entertainment, no
matter how many savings are lost; lewdness, courtliness;
drunkenness, pleasure; arrogance, authority; shallowness,
dignity. . (423)
By such juxtapositions readers are recurrently made
aware of language as a tool whereby powerful, im-
moral interests misrepresented reality and errone-
ously persuaded colonials of the truth of the
language code. The Indian population in Mexico,
often set off from the Spanish-speaking sector be-
cause of a perceived language deficiency, is charac-
terized in Lizardi's text as truly worthy if one looks
at the work of their hands. A wise friend lectures
Periquillo:
* . esa dureza e idiotismo que adviertes en los indios,
mulatos y demas castas, no es por defecto de su enten-
dimiento, sino por su ninguna cultura y educaci6n. Ya
habras visto que muchos de esos mismos que no saben
hablar, hacen mil curiosidades con las manos.. . . Es-
to prueba bien que tienen mas talento del que tu les con-
cedes. *
. . . that coarseness and ignorance that you notice in the
Indians, mulattoes, and the other castes are not on ac-
count of some defect in their intellect but rather the re-
sult of no training or education. You must have noticed
that many of those who don't know how to talk perform
thousands of intricate tasks with their hands.. . . This
proves conclusively that they are smarter than you have
granted. .. . (196)
At another point, when he has Periquillo comment
on the unlearned way in which a lower-class friend
expresses himself, Lizardi shows his readers how
 Nancy
skill at speaking is often an invalid index for mea-
suring a person's real wisdom: "Tu' hablas mal .
pero dices bien" 'You talk badly . . . but you speak
truly' (226).
However, it is in the change of discourse
represented by the moral and erudite digressions
that Lizardi most frequently advises his readers that
the text requires an attitudinal shift. More than or-
dinary transitions the markers introducing a digres-
sion ("Tal vez no os digustara saberlas [demostra-
ciones hechas en Grecia y en Roma por sus muer-
tos]" 'Perhaps it wouldn't displease you to learn
about them [ceremonies conducted in Greece and
Rome for their dead]' [97]) or signaling a return to
the story line ("Volviendo a mis adelantamientos
en la escuela" 'Returning to my progress in school'
[22]) call attention to Lizardi's voice directing the
reader. Wolfgang Iser's studies of gaps in the text,
particularly in serialized eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century literary works, show these mo-
ments of discontinuity to be opportunities for read-
ers to participate in creating the text.22 In the
feared being judged inferior by civilized people
colonial text it is clear that these gaps or textual dis-
continuities mark the readers' identity; readers are
defined in that space between the traditional, codi-
fied knowledge of the ancients and the rational ab-
stractions of the European Enlightenment. Theirs
is the story of Periquillo, the representative of em-
pirical thought, whose tale of suffering while he
learns through trial and error duplicates the coloni-
al experience. The readers' task, then, is to try to
join those segments in which they recognize a por-
trayal of their own world to those passages in which
they perceive a civilization from which they feel cul-
turally and linguistically estranged.23 In bridging
these gaps the readers would seem to be guided by
the narrative voice, the surviving picaro, whose
morality is the result of tested virtue. Early
nineteenth-century colonial readers, however, had
not yet learned to base their acceptance of the text
on uninterrupted illusion as later realist practice
taught. It is more likely that to reconcile the nov-
el's parts and to think through the relation ideated
between the work of literature and its host world,
colonial readers relied on their own judgment.
These readers were probably as skeptical of a
writer's authority as they were of other claims to
authority, and the degree to which they accepted
this indigenous text would more logically seem to
have been determined by political commitments.24
The "ignorance" Lizardi saw as characterizing
his colonial readers was arguably a blindness to
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Vogeley 795
changing political realities and a stubborn resis-
tance to allowing an indigenous literature that in
any way departed from prestigious European
models. Trained to a baroque taste, colonial readers
were conditioned to expect literary artifice; they
were simply unaccustomed to Lizardi's plain style.
Indeed, the evidence of contemporary journalism
proves that colonial readers were considerably
sophisticated in understanding indirect political
statement;25 where they seem unskilled was in find-
ing their own, honest level of expression among the
range of discourses available to them. That such an
endeavor may have been practically impossible is
suggested by Roberto Fernandez Retamar's descrip-
tion of the American as Caliban. Brutalized by the
conquest and stripped of languages, the colonials
were forced into mental slavery by the imposition
of another tongue. Lacking educational institu-
tions, libraries, and books that might have transmit-
ted to them whole the European culture of the
powerful classes, colonials had become expert in
imitating that culture's external signs. Because they
throughout the world, many of them preferred the
half-understood language of the colonizer. A sali-
ent characteristic of the American character,
Lizardi had written in an earlier essay, is its capac-
ity for imitating foreign modes (Obras 3: 253-75).
El Periquillo Sarnien to, which was meant to be
read as a primer of how to read, may have failed in
its design to teach criticism, to show literature
against itself, so as to subvert established norms.
From surviving documents pertaining to the novel's
initial reception, the literary historian learns that
Lizardi's book offended many academic critics,
probably among the colony's elite.26 While a num-
ber seem to have read the first installments and
some recognized the novel's merit when compared
with European models of the picaresque, these
upper-class readers distanced themselves from the
work by labeling it "popular" (Reyes summarizes
early reactions to the Periquillo).27 They fastened
on its low-life scenes and vulgar language and said
that Lizardi was the first to write novels in the style
of the canalla 'rabble.' That these readers did not
seem sure whether he was writing in one style or
three obviously concerned Lizardi, for later in the
apologia for the novel, which he composed to re-
spond especially to the criticism of a Sr. Teran, he
amusingly pointed out this reader's contradictory
charges that the book lacked "una variedad de
locucion" 'a variety of locution' while at the same
 796 Defining the "Colonial Reader": El Periquillo Sarniento

time "Desde una sencillez muy mediana pasa su es-
tilo a la bajeza y con harta frecuencia a la groseria
del de la taberna" 'Its style passes from a very aver-
age simplicity to lowness and with excessive fre-
quency to the grossness of the tavern' (Obras 8: 21).
Less amused, he answered Teran's criticism that
there was no portrayal of ranking officials to re-
deem the book (i.e., " [el retrato] de un embajador,
de un principe, de un cardenal, de un soberano"
'[the portrait] of an ambassador, a prince, a cardi-
nal, a sovereign'): ",Como habia de ser eso si en
este Reino no hay esta clase de sefiores?" 'How
could there be if in this land this class of person
doesn't exist?' (Obras 8: 23). Terann's inability to
recognize colonial powerlessness and deprivation in
Lizardi's choice of style and subject matter was
typical of many colonial readers who, for one rea-
son or another, resisted Lizardi's message.
It has remained for twentieth-century writers
such as Carlos Fuentes, Julio Cortaizar, and
Guillermo Cabrera Infante to create the "new Span-
ish American novel" based on the recognition that
a new literary language must accompany other ef-
forts at self-conceptualization and self-determina-
tion.28 Like Lizardi earlier, these novelists have
attacked the pomposity and pretense of inherited
literary taste and relied heavily on overlooked in-
digenous speech styles to create a hybrid product.
The colonial reader, whether a historical entity be-
longing to the days of the world's great empires or
a present-day consciousness trapped in the prevail-
ing linguistic systems and dominant artistic styles,
finds it difficult to reach beyond these boundaries
of control to embrace fresh texts. Critics using
reader-response theories can only help in this task
if they examine more closely the politics of a book's
reception, if they acknowledge the varying degrees
of text acceptance that the notion of the "colonial
reader" represents.29
University of San Francisco
San Francisco, California

Notes

I See Prince for a discussion of these terms, as well as the "picaroon," "rogue," or "trickster" may convey the comic
"real reader" and the "narratee"-concepts derived from for- character of an eighteenth-century English work such as Tom
malist criticism that are usually a function of the text. Jones, but they misrepresent an important aspect of the Span-
2 Leenhardt's report of a survey of a French book read in ish tradition. It is true that by the eighteenth century the French
France and Hungary and a Hungarian book read in both places and Spanish models of the picaresque Lizardi most likely fol-
confirms the thesis that an indigenous work produces ideolog- lowed described a somewhat educated picaro, who moved at
ically diverse readings (215). He concludes: higher levels in society and whose situation therefore was not as
profoundly tragic as that of the prototypical hungry orphan; yet
When speaking of the public, one frequently sees it as a whole; their characters were not as a rule overdrawn for comic effect.
in actual fact, we only met readers, who form publics accord- 5 These books entered the colony legally and illegally. Some
ing to their sociodemographical characteristics. This particular foreign writers also had an impact on colonial thought through
notion of publics signifies consequently a grouping of ideolog- the work of Christian intermediaries who restated potentially
ical tendencies, evident in the approach to a literary text. The offensive ideas without acknowledging their source (see, e.g.,
public, conceived as an undifferentiated whole in which multi- Spell on Rousseau).
ple practices are combined, can no longer be considered as a valid On 3-5 April 1807 the Diario published an Inquisition edict
notion where the process of reading is concerned. (214) that in listing fifty-two dangerous books really advertised them.
The threat they posed is evident in this description: "un texido
3 Fish's invention of the phrase "interpretive community" has
de proposiciones falsas, hereticas, escandalosas, piarium aurium
helped efforts to identify a body of readers; his discussion of ofensivas, injuriosas a nuestra Santa Religion, al Romano Pon-
whether the text or its reader determines reading and his empha- tifice, a los Soberanos, a los Institutos Sagrados, sediciosas, e
sis on interpretation as a larger act, subsuming both (17), have inductivas a la Rebelion, e independencia, y perjudiciales a la
been particularly useful in my focus on the colonial reader in re- tranquilidad publica" 'a tissue of false, heretical, scandalous
lation to a text conceived especially for this reader. Fish seems propositions-offensivepiarium aurium, injurious to the Holy
to posit that interpretation is based on a certain familiarity with Religion, to the Roman Pontiff, to the Sovereigns, to the Holy
linguistic norms and literary conventions that makes it possible Institutes, seditious and inciteful of Revolt, and independence,
for a consensus to establish a relatively "true" meaning. How- and prejudicial to public tranquility.' (Except where otherwise
ever, I would enjoin that, in the colonial context, this interpre- indicated, translations throughout this paper are mine. I have
tive process represents a critical act and, because of faithfully reproduced the erratic accent patterns and spelling of
overwhelming political tensions, often yields great diversity.
the original Spanish as additional evidence of the colonial's typi-
4 As Maravall and others have shown, the Spanish picaresque
cally uncertain use of the written language and sometimes ram-
of the Golden Age expressed a fundamentally serious message bling, speechlike syntax.)
of a society in crisis. Attempts to render picaro into English as 6 One of the private libraries belonged to a customs admin-

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 Nancy Vogeley 797

istrator in Guanajuato;siempre
of es his 394
un cortisimo numerotitles only
en proporcion de los que 15%
related subjects (Bernstein). podrian aprovecharse de su lectura. Su impresion tendria tam-
7 Iguiniz (39) describes the importance of the Valdes family bien la utilidad de perfeccionar a los oradores. En lo que se oye
in the printing industry in the eighteenth and nineteenth centu- rapidamente se escapan muchas preciosidades, y no pocos des-
ries. Alejandro Valdes was the publisher of volumes 1-3 of the cuidos; y lo que se escribe se lee, dice un refran: y quando se lee
first edition of El Periquillo Sarniento; volumes 1-2 of Ratos se advierte y se nota todo.
entretenidos, which included Noches tristesy dia alegre; volume
2 of La Quijotita y su prima; and the first edition posthumous- I think it's such a pity, when I hear a good sermon, that it's such
ly of Don Catrfn de la Fachenda; as well as several of Lizardi's an ephemeral thing! . . . Although those who hear them extract
many political pamphlets. benefits, their number is always small in comparison with those
The Abadiano collection, more aptly labeled a warehouse who could benefit by reading them. Their printing would also
gathering because of the numbers of multiple-copy works it help pos-to improve the orators. Many excellent qualities are lost
sessed, forms the backbone of the Mexican materials in the Sutro when one listens quickly, and not a few lapses; what is written
Library (San Francisco) of the California state system. The Sutro is read, according to the proverb; and when one reads something,
collection contains many of the books that Spell finds evidence one observes and one notices everything. (20 Nov. 1805)
of in the Periquillo ("Intellectual"); this does not prove that
Lizardi necessarily had access to the collection, but it does sug- 11 I quote here and elsewhere from the Porruia edition of the
gest that the ideas contained in many of these works were com- Periquillo, readily accessible in the Sepan Cuantos series. To
monly known among educated colonials. some extent my translations rely on Pressly's.
8 1 do not wish, however, to attribute Mexico's growing criti-12 Lizardi writes in his apologia for the Periquillo:
cal spirit solely to the spread of European ideas. Navarro's ex-
cellent study of Mexican culture in the eighteenth century, in Suelo prescindir de aquellas reglas que me parecen embarazo-
concentrating almost totally on the activity of the Jesuits and sas para llegar al fin que me propongo, que es la instrucci6n de
domestic scholars such as Gamarra and Alzate, generally ignores los ignorantes* (*Para estos escribo y no para los sabios . . . ).
foreign influences. Por ejemplo: se que una de las reglas es que la moralidad y la
9 This letter, by Salvador Cangas, is typical. Another, by satira vayan envueltas en la acci6n y no muy explicadas en la
Alexandro Araimon Brosel, interesting because its mixed syn- prosa; y yo falto a esta regla con frecuencia, porque estoy per-
tax suggests a correspondent unfamiliar with writing, also ex- suadido de que los lectores para quienes escribo necesitan or-
presses colonial consciousness: dinariamente que se les den las moralidades mascadas.. . . Aun
hoy necesitan muchas gentes un comentario para entender el
Quijote el Gil Bias y otras muchas obras como estas, en que s6lo
En espana se conocen las mejores doctrinas politicas, y en la mis-
encuentran diversi6n.
ma corte del Soberano y a presencia de sus principales ministros
se anuncian al puilico con una libertad de que la ignorancia,
la envidia, y la preocupacion de nuestros mayores havian des- I usually ignore those rules that seem to me to be an impediment
pojado a los escritores. ,Porque pues en la america, trozo tan to gaining the goal I propose for myself, which is the instruction
precioso de la monarquia espaniola, se ha de carecer de ellas, of the ignorant* (*I am writing for them and not for the wise
principalmente quando en estas remotas regiones se carece de . .). For example, I know that one of the rules is that morali-
catedras: en que pudieran ensefiarse, como se hace en la sabia ty and satire should be disguised in the action and should not
europa, y quando el Soberano Augusto, baxo cuyo govierno fe- be greatly explicated in the prose; and I deviate from this rule
liz vivimos, asi como en todas sus ocaciones se propone la mayor frequently because I am persuaded that the readers for whom
felicidad de sus vasallos, asi tambien oye con gusto quanto se I am writing require, ordinarily, that the moral of the story be
escribe relativo a los medios de aumentarla y hacerla estable? presented to them all chewed up.. . . Today many people even
need a commentary to understand the Quijote, Gil Blas, and
In Spain the best political doctrines are known, and in the same many other works such as these, in which they only find enter-
court as the Sovereign and in the presence of his principal tainment. (Obras 8: 24-25)
ministers they are announced to the public with a freedom from
the ignorance, the envy, and the bias of our superiors who have Although his attitude seems to flat
silenced our writers. Why then in America, such a precious por- they are among the "wise," Lizardi
tion of the Spanish monarchy, is there such a lack of them for all classes of colonial society. H
[writers], principally when in these remote regions university to show how society often disguise
chairs are lacking-in which they could be taught, like in learned wealthy: "Cuando el rico se emborr
Europe, and when our August Sovereign, under whose happy pafiia; / la del pobre es borrachera, / La del rico es alegria"
government we live, and in all of whose actions the greatest hap- 'When the rich man gets drunk / And the poor man is in his com-
piness of his vassals is intended, as well as who also listens with pany / The poor man gets stinking drunk / And the rich man
pleasure to whatever is written relative to the means of increas- gets happy' (Obras 8: 22).
ing it and making it stable? (18 Oct. 1805) 13 The first edition of the Periquillo (1816) was illustrated with
thirty-seven engravings; the second (1825) with twelve. In both
10 "El nuevo arbitrista" shows the desirability of having
editions ser- was captioned with a long, complete sen-
each engraving
mons written: tence from the text. Franco analyzes a picture of Periquillo (the
UNAM edition's frontispiece) in which Periquillo is shown with
Que lastima me da quando oigo un buen sermon, que sea una objects suggestive of the book's episodes-a syringe, for exam-
cosa tan efimera! . . . Aunque los que los oyen saquen fruto, ple, to recall his service with a doctor. In his hand he holds a skull

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 798 Defining the "Colonial Reader': El Periquillo Sarniento

in a way that Franco takes to be reminiscent of a baroque 21 Morse studies the plebeianizing process that characterized
memento mori. She reads these objects as "instrumentos de su the colonization of Latin America and brought about a "cultural
perdici6n" 'instruments of his perdition' and thus sees the pi- democratization" in American language usage (523).
caresque story as disciplinarv in its message of eventual death 22 See Iser, "Indeterminacy," and particularly the historical
(24). observations in Implied Reader (chs. 1-3). Tompkins's essay in
However, the UNAM depiction of Periquillo, taken from the her collection is particularly valuable in showing how a decline
first edition, has cropped the heading of the picture-"Periquillo in the patronage system in the eighteenth century affects read-
con los trofeos de sus aventuras." "Trofeos" 'trophies' suggests er response.
victory, an impression that is reinforced by Periquillo's pose. He
23 Meyer, who calls the literary quotation "a bit of preformed
holds a musket on whose bayonet tip is poised a nobleman's linguistic property shaped by another author" (6), signals the
peruke. The placement would seem to be more than a propitious
importance of drawing on established national writers in the Ger-
arrangement of objects; colonial experience has triumphed over man bourgeois culture that was forming in the eighteenth and
European symbols of power. nineteenth centuries (18).
14 A concern about how to read, expressed by "Aquel" in the 24 Perhaps for this reason Lizardi often justified his work as
Diario (26 July 1809), appears to have been widespread in the a writer by comparing himself to any artisan (a shoemaker, etc.)
colony. This concern is evidenced in word lists, or "dictionaries," whose production would be judged on the basis of its utility
that newspapers of the period printed to redefine misused words (Obras 3: 42-45).
such as patria (Diario 31 July 1809); it also motivates Lizardi to 25 The Napoleonic invasion of the Peninsula was seen to rep-
propose public reading rooms where printed materials might be resent a threat to Spain and her colonies; the contemporary event
available (Obras 10: 225-27). was expressed in terms of ancient history ("poor austere Sparta
15 Moore describes a 7,500-word manuscript copy of the last
and strife-torn Athens") in a series appearing in the Diario in
volume of the Periquillo and hypothesizes that Lizardi avoided late July 1809.
censorship and placated his subscribers by circulating clandes- 26 Memmi's preference for the term the colonized emphasizes
tine handwritten summaries of the forbidden material. that these governed peoples could only think of themselves in
16 The text of Martin Fierro similarly reflects an author's de- a secondary, derivative way; in his portrait of "the colonizer"
sire to teach reading habits in Argentina. Jose Hernandez Memmi shows how, particularly at the upper levels of the class
describes his book as "Un libro destinado a despertar la inteli- structure among the domestic elite, enslavement was even more
gencia y el amor a la lectura en una poblacion casi primitiva" thorough (19-76).
'A book destined to awaken the intelligence and love for read- 27 Reyes Palacios in the UNAM edition of the Periquillo es-
ing in an almost primitive population' (64). timates that the first edition numbered five hundred copies (8: xl).
17 Many members of the lower clergy were leaders of the in- Beristain de Souza, censor in Nueva Espafia, established
surgency movement, and ridicule of their language would most Lizardi's connection with the Peninsular picaresque when he
likely have been read as an attack on them and their work on be- wrote in 1816 of Lizardi: "tiene entre los dedos la Vida de Peri-
half of their parishioners. quito Sarniento, [sic] que segun lo que he visto de ella, tiene se-
18 Explaining at the end of the truncated second edition why mejanza con la del Guzmdn de Alfarache" 'he has in progress
he chose to substitute the portrait of Mexico's first president, the Vida de Periquito Sarniento, which, according to what I have
Guadalupe Victoria, for his own, Lizardi writes: "Muchos se- seen of it, bears resemblance to that of Guzmdn de Alfarache'
fiores estraniaran mi retrato. Lo he sustituido con el de nuestro (2: 191).
digno Presidente, sin que falte el mio. En la obra consta: bus- 28 Fuentes has written tellingly of his own education in read-
quelo bien el que quiera, y lo hallara." 'Many persons will find ing: "It is very hard for a Mexican macho to admit that he was
strange the absence of my portrait. I have substituted for it that led into the knowledge of literature and society by two women"
of our worthy President, without mine being missing. It is con- (86). In referring to Jane Austen and Emily Bronte, he explains
tained in the work: let him who wishes look for it carefully and how he came to an understanding of Western culture as his own
he will find it.' and alien (91).
19 Probably influenced by Spell, critics in the English- 29 Two important exceptions are the works by Dorfman and
speaking world have generally disregarded the digressions. He Rama. Dorfman writes: "Desarrollar al lector, participarlo, ac-
writes: "The didactic portion-strongly suggestive of his pamph- tivar sus cromosomas, es la mejor contribuci6n que un escritor
lets in both style and content-is too extensive, too unskillfully puede hacer a la democratizacion de la vida cotidiana . . . '
introduced, and too loosely and inartistically connected with the 'To develop the reader, to make him participate, to activate his
incidents of the main story to permit the whole to approach the chromosomes, is the greatest contribution that a writer can make
proportion, the smoothness, or the finish of a work of art" to the democratization of daily life . . . ' (xvi).
("Life" 81). That his attitude is borne out in the Spanish-
speaking world is shown by an edition of the Periquillo (Mexico: Portions of this article had earlier lives as papers for the 1985
Style, 1942) in which the digressions are printed in italics so meetings
that of the Southeast Conference on Foreign Languages
the hasty reader can skip them. (Winter Park, FL) and the Latin American Studies Association
20 Franco has concluded from the plain style of the Periquillo (Albuquerque, NM). In part, the study grew out of discussion
that Lizardi was an ideologue serving the emerging bureaucratic- at a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar
administrative class. She sees an effort at social control in the held in 1983 at Cornell University under the direction of John
prescriptive norms a plain style often implies (17). Kronik. I wish to thank Kronik and the other seminar par-
Terdiman provides a helpful discussion of dominant discourse ticipants for their comments on my ideas at that time. Thanks
and its opposing forms (25-81), noting particularly the difficul- also go to Hugh Dawson, Andrew Debicki, my anonymous
ties of identifying such dominance in a period of great conflict reviewer, and members of the Editorial Board for their sug-
(63). gestions.

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 Nancy
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