Marc Villanueva

Professor Olaya-Garcia

SPAN 260-01- Take Home Exam #2

6 March 2011

Question 2

In Horacio Quiroga’s “ The Decapitated Chicken & Other Stories,” he exposes the ways that

European colonialism impacted the lives of people within Latin America through the usage of the

Eurocentric casta system which has forever changed Latino civilization.“A Slap in the Face”, from a third

person point of view, epitomizes with different examples of racial treatment and Eurocentric diction &

perceptions the ways that colonialism induced this Eurocentric casta system that has led to economic,

political and social inequalities throughout Latin America.

Within “A Slap in the Face,” Quiroga exposes the unjust hierarchal social order within Latin

America through examples of differed racial treatment. Quiroga develops the basis of a social order

within “A Slap in the Face” through applying the three general classes of the casta system (in

progressive order): the Indian (no European blood), the mestizo (partly European, and the European (full

blooded). With relation to these classifications, the captain Korner is the European, the steward Acosta

is the Mestizo and the contracted worker mensu is the Indian but correctly known as Indigenous person.

According the casta system, Quiroga employs the different degrees of racial superiority through Acosta

and Korner’s interactions with the mensu since they are innately superior because of their European

blood. Demonstrating a lesser degree of racial superiority, Acosta, a mestizo, is below the captain as a

steward but is in charge of supervising the mensu; however, Acosta gets in trouble for being easy on the

mensu instead of being rigidly prudent as he gets yelled at, “you spoil the peons and cause this row!”

(Quiroga 66). On the other hand showing a greater degree of racial superiority, Korner shows no

sympathy to the mensu as he, “blind with rage, struck him [mensu] in the face…” (Quiroga 66). Within
these examples, Quiroga implies a difference in racial superiority between the Mestizo and European by

demonstrating the difference in social order between Acosta and Korner in their interactions. Yelling at

Acosta thus indicating his higher racial class, Korner says, “Shut up! You should be ashamed! I’m going to

report this trickery…” (Quiroga 66). However, in demonstration of a higher racial identification to the

mensu, Acosta, the mestizo, is able to respond back, “…complain to anyone you want. In my office, I do

whatever I want.” (Quiroga 66).

Furthermore, Quiroga also exposes Eurocentric diction & perceptions in the ways that he refers

to the Indigenous people as Indians, recognizes them as lazy, and does not deem them worthy of having

a capitalized name: mensu… Recognizing the mensu as, “the dark little Indian with the cold eyes and

pointed mustache a peon…” is completely a Eurocentric subordination (Quiroga 66). By referring to the

mensu as “a peon,” he is classifying them along the lines of serfs within Feudalism or people forced to

work without pay against their own will or an unskilled laborer. On the other hand, calling him an

“Indian” is politically incorrect and insulting since the Indigenous people have an actual name such as

Nahua or Mapuche. In addition, Quiroga holds a very hypocritical Eurocentric perception of the

Indiginous People saying the mensu was “overcome by his native laziness” since Indigenous people were

not the lazy capitalists, but the laborers (Quiroga 67). Lastly, neither does Quiroga deem the Indigenous

people worthy of a politically correct name but of having a capitalized name: mensu. Naming them this

way Quiroga is demonstrating disrespect and inferiority to the Indigenous People as of though they

aren’t worthy of having a capitalized name like someone with European blood.

Concluding, Horacio Quiroga demonstrates through his Eurocentric diction/perceptions and

different examples of racial treatment, the way the casta system worked in the Colonial Latin American

period and in many ways implicitly still is in effect today. Through demonstrating this social order he

allows us to recognize the economic, political and social inequalities that racial classification brings in

Latin America.
Question 3

In writing “Juan Darien”, Horacio Quiroga is able to assert the overall message that civilizations

of different races, cultures, species, or any another quality are capable of the same actions whether it be

positive or negative. However, it is very interesting the way Horacio Quiroga asserts this message from a

first person point of view, and also, using Juan Darien he formulated a character that matches the

definition of the Greek Tragic Hero. Using these guidelines allows this story to be increasingly a tragedy

as Juan Darien follows the definitions of a Tragic Hero: 1) the hero is neither totally good nor totally bad

but better than most of us 2) the hero has a flaw 3) the hero’s flaw leads to a bad judgment 4) The bad

judgment leads to the hero having an unjust punishment 5) the hero’s actions lead to an increase in

knowledge and awareness. It’s key that Juan Darien was formulated along the definitions of a tragic

hero because Greeks used tragic heroes to teach morals, values and principles.

Within a culturally evolving period of Latin America, Horacio Quiroga’s intentions were to prove

that any civilization whether it be mestizos, indiginas or Europeans were capable of the same actions;

thus they were all equal. Using the tragic hero, Quiroga was able to effectively prove a moral within this

story through Juan Darien. Quiroga made Juan a character that was better than most of us (definition 1)

as, “He never lied” and was innocent (Quiroga 89). Following definition two, Juan had a flaw since he

was a tiger living in a man’s body that didn’t completely understand society. Juan’s flaw of never lying

was that he told the inspector he felt the mud, “On my whiskers,” (Quiroga 92). Thus, Juan’s flaw led to

a bad judgment that revealed he was actually a tiger (Definition 3). After revealing this, Juan was given

an unjust punishment, “Strip away his man-form and we’ll kill him!” (Quiroga 93) (Definition 4).

Furthermore, Juan comes to the realization that men similarly are just as capable of “hunting, killing and

slaughtering”. (Quiroga 99)(Definition 5). Quiroga within “Juan Darien” is able to match all the

definitions of the Greek Tragic Hero which allows the story to recognize “Juan Darien” as a noble and

unordinary character, and as a result, allows Quiroga to effectively assert his overall message.
 Creating this story was also Quiroga’s way of figuratively recognizing the mistreatment by the

Europeans to Latin America’s native people and animals. Quiroga was very creative in the way he set up

the story where it would prove a moral message and recognize a social inequality. He did this by

reversing Juan Darien as an animal living incognito within human society witnessing the cruelty and

destructiveness of humans instead of him being a human, who perceives animals as violent, and living

within nature. As a result, this method proved effective, as it recognized that both civilizations were the

same: hostile and violent. Through creating this character reversal in its man vs. nature conflict, creating

the tragic hero and showing the hostility of humans to animals, Quiroga was able to assert the overall

message that every civilization is capable of the same actions regardless of their qualities. In my opinion,

Quiroga made this story as a lesson to show that all races were equal within Latin America due to the

racist effects brought on by the casta system in the Colonial Latin American period.