lors the win {acn-Amercan el wit 3 opr dela fen, notin pth studies. The Chis Teraure as ad other low 2 reasonably posry readers in nish verse co's work by poetics. There is 10 and £4.95, Valeo, Bel ime and to predation ofthe BHS, LXV1 (1989) The New Historical Novel: History and Fantasy in Los recuerdos del porvenir DANIEL BALDERSTON, Tulane University In ts classic form, the historical novel would seem to exclude fantasy. The world evoked, whether through what Amado Alonso called historical or archaeological means, is assumed to have been a real one, and the evocation is realistic at least in the sense of not worrying the reader with the possibility that it is a fundamentally unreal one. The historical novel in Latin America has been characterized by a heightened realism, characterized by the ostentatious use of detail, In his essay ‘La postulacidn dela realidad™ Borges seizes upon a detail from Larreta’s La gloria de don Ramiro which may serve as an example ofthis kind of realism: the soup pots in Larreta's Golden-Age Spain are secured with locks, to defend the soup from the hungry servants.’ The existence of such pots may seem improbable in historical terms, yet the very excess ofthe detail serves as guarantor of « textual reality. Even in a novel like La muerte de Artemio Cruz, in which extraordinary events occur, such events do not serve to make problematic the high seriousness of the novelist’: artempt to portray the modern history of Mexico. More recent historical novels, however, notably Roa’s Yo el Supremo and Piglia’s Respiracién artificial, suggest that the historicity of the events narrated may itself be called into question, and with it the privileged starus of history. These novels are metahistorical in the best sense: they use historical material in a dialogue between fiction and history, a dialogue which centres on the question Joyce asked years ago: how to narrate real events. ‘An interesting historical novel ofa different kind is Elena Garro's 1963 masterpiece, Los recuerdos del porvenir. Garro’s novel, though not metahistorical in the sense that Roa’s and Piglia’s are (through an intellectual discussion of the nature of historical ruth), is strikingly different from the historical novels of the time, in that instead of taking the historical record of the Mexican revolution as given, Garro calls it into question at every ‘turn. To undermine the historicity of her fictional world, Garro uses the fantastic, in a way 1 do nor think it has been used often, atleast not in historical fiction. ‘The narrator of the novel, the vown of Ixtepec, tells us from the stat: ‘Slo mi memoria sabe lo que encierra. La veo y me recuerdo, y como el agua va al agua, asi yo, melancdlico, vengo a encontrarme en su imagen cubierta por el polvo, rodeada por las hierbas, encerrada ‘en si misma y condenada a la memoria y a su variado espejo . . . Yo solo soy memoria y la. memoria que de mi se tenga’ (9).’ The town (masculine noun, the self) sees its memory (a oun) and remembers itself, or better yet, recognizes itself in its memory, as when. it affirms its identity with chat memory at the end of the above quotation. Memory is death (‘su imagen cubierta por el polvo’); itis a thing but also an activity (‘La veo y me recuerdo’), Above all, it is reflection, image, mirror: not a direct approach to reality but the representation of it in another medium.42) BHS, LXVI (1989) DANIEL BALDERSTON ‘Antonio Castro Leal has written that the Mexican sevoluion provided novelists with ‘la visién directa de una realidad tte i yesionante» and thatthe novel ofthe Revoluson wisiencd on impressions which are somehow ‘directs Y ‘penerrantes’." We would say now ig limpresiones directas’ are no more than the fesult of an attempt to so appear cae thin comple process of textual insripsion; in 9n¥ 4g evident purpose of areas of the revolution was to provide impressions ‘of dizect experience. Such is 90 Tonger the case, however, in the works of more reste ‘novelists, whether by their use of {eaSetentaion in Rulfo) or che fantasti (in Gar%0) parody (in Ibargiiengoitia). These in diate character ofiteranure, as Borges would eae zak the seemingly hisroriisc and realsescheme of Dos recuerdos del porvenir. If Ce ras a whole assumes the hiscory of the revoturion» particularly the period of the the nove ip of Plutarco Elias Calles and of the Citsefo. Spee it assumes it as depreoune, noc directly as theme. John Brushwood has written that Los recuerdos del porvenir is the best novel writen about the period of the Cristero rebellion,” and Harry aoritue Rosser has proposed thae Garro somesimes Bivfs the boundary berween appeat- Enron eslcy to make more palpable the alenasion and “anguish suffered by the people of rae ad edo dating the Calls. dictatorship’ Both cnc, i Seto me, err in an Taoreane and fundamental way when hey declare chat the author's purpose is to write of imppetrarero uprising. This event serves, rather, a5 2. Prove for the presentation of a the fGexive or dual reality, as Garro has defined itin an ineciett swith Joseph Sommers: ‘En cone gana dualdad ..» Son dos culeuras (Los de Ta ciudad) disfrutamos de la Milasa oceldental, y la gente del campo vive en uns realidad magica.” ‘peepee is a theatre of war. Its people consider themselves spectators (121), not actors; oer 8 those who have come from ouside (he army offices, their mistresses, Felipe the actor ato awe come to cepresent for them 2 spectacle ‘which breaks the static or Hiureado), who avs Cou (4). This theatrical aspect is cecognized ‘explicitly by Felipe ‘Reveted ao proposes 0 found a theatre, since according 1p fhim what is lacking in [repec illusion (72)- Inthe whole of the novel here is an ‘ostillation berween reality and farey, am ambivalence which is never resolved. cy. cha the scheme of the novel is seemingly realist and Bisnone ‘The fantastic dexlian the exception, not the rule, although de fat thatthe oF POT ‘of the novel have der eo wach are clearly fantastic fores us 0 search for the textual foundations for these endings, The ais Serie dénouement of the first part of the novel consists of Felipe dese ave fight with the mistress of General Francisco Rosas, "julia Andrade, at the very Hitrent when the general and his soldiers were abour ro ‘apprehend them. Time stops so we jealy depare, reaching daylight atthe edge ofthe ‘own, alchgugh Deeper the lover eed in the magic circle of night. This mod of Tose ‘ime’® is justi remains arenes an de sory in an apparendyy more limited sense: Perches 7 town lost in umerous Srahing happens, where days seem a if petrified, where the Moncada family time rr cuscom of sropping the clock each night, and so ‘on? The fact that the general ae roe capeure julia isa new avarar of theidea that he has nevet been able to touch ber: an Safective tha is often used in reference to her is tat. Indeed, what most astonishes the people of ixrepec is the fact that she remains somehow aloof to everything and innocent Becbite her condisin as the mistres ofthe haved general. General Rosas complains that Jala Lves in another world (77), and this seemingly Innocent ‘phrase justifies her escape tO ‘another world at the end of the first part. er world a hs onto owen ene in che fst par with the ending of “BL milagro secret the Borges story, we noce that in Garro's novel she miracle is presented as if secret, he atanmeds we are in bmepex atthe moment when the soldiers are about 10 a a8 eanceegsas BRABEREsL BALDERSTON novelists with ‘la of the Revolution e would say now npt to $0 appear i purpose of the ence. Such is no r by their use of lengoitia). These .as Borges would f and on it. ork, as these »s del rf he prod ofthe C assumes it as os recuerdos del ion,’ and Harry Derween appear by the people of ) me, err in an ose is to write of ‘esentation of a b Sommers: En strutamos de la 21), not actors; stresses, Felipe ks the static or licidly by Felipe at is lacking in veen reality and x. The fantastic the novel have foundations for nsists of Felipe ide, at the very eee HISTORY AND FANTASY IN LOS RECUERDOS DEL PORVENIR : 8 Capture the lovers; and a moment late find ourselves with the muleteer who observes from ‘itbout the night which covers the town, and who greets Felipe Hurtado and Jule wie {ey emerge from the magic circle: In contrast, in the Borges story the miracles prsered ffom the eves ofthe main character, who i infact, the only one to peresie if Bertes focuses on the mitacle, Garro presents itas one more incident of everyday life strange, yes, and disquieting; bue capable of being viewed as it were. somewhat obliquely, The novelist’s task seems to be that of pormalizing the marvellous or the supemnatural.? However, the aid events are so very odd that they make the textual reality somewhat probloneteci (as ‘Ana Maria Barrenechea has suggested the fantastic tends te do).!? iit feality of ltepecis put into doubt numerous times, above all when General Rosas thinks, with regard to the disappearance ofthe body of the saeristan, thar ‘Nada os emteo aeons siquiera el sactstén que habia muerto sin dejar cuerpo. El pueblo Satcro era de humo y se le escapaba de entre las manos’ (181). Rosas ais tear ne pucble eee iasf0 appear, and clings ‘asus palabras como ala nia realidad en qed Pueblo ireal que habia rerminado por conver a éltambige en un versed (181). This tinrealty’ of the town is not a product ofthe intrusion of dreams into reality asc Borges), but rather of the convergence of different realities," the ordered world of oc soldiers, the the noe eariPs Hurtado, the secretive one of the cristros, the world of superstinen og the Pious women. I the general clings to his words itis because only in hen fen reality exist as he would have i. Other examples ofthis ‘unrealiy’; when Felipe Hurtado arrives a the hotel forthe fst care to lt cigaretes suddenly appear in his empry hand (39). The hotel keeper nae seen conse cn Pats de sorprenderse y el hecho le pareci6 natural’ (99) Similely, Kien Mache otis Matilde's house in the middle ofa storm, dry, a lighted candle & honesty Maat después, cuando ya Hurado no estaba entre nosotros ls invitsdon a Matilde se preguntaron cémo habia atravesado aquellaeempestad con ol est encendido frozen time, this fantastic eventis based on a commonplace phrose eke literally: ‘andar en ta via sin mojarse’” Once again, Hurtado moves in areulisy whet gy ‘somehow natural to him, but the nature of which differs from the reality that surwads him. The others circle of night. Of Isabel we are old in the fourth chapter ofthe frst par that she is not one person but Tena Bratt deambulaba por los patos ylashabicacionesyla ota que wvivewene ctonk {Gans ia en el espacio” (29), thats, one mobile and the other sae cee nie part of fig and life and another who is outside time. Her father observes thar he wf Isabel Fouls convertirse en una estrella fugaz, hur caer en elespaciosis deve cine visibles de gia misma, en este mundo donde slo la groseria de los obieten tare fees 0). This dloubt about the materiality of Isabel will culminate at the ead of he wort art of the novel when she is turned to stone (perhaps the meteorite lefrof the shooting star her father Sawin her, the very stone on which Ixepec is sing atthe beginning af rene re Fiat Similar doubts about julia Andrade. Her lover, General Roses heen that there mas alia whom: be possesses and another who remains somehow inere eteo her coerce del eins that ‘el dia de su encuentro con Julia tavo la impresise dere eirela del cielo dela Sierra’—once again the image ofthe shooting ene oe atravesar sus Stculos luminosos y de alcanzar el cuerpo intacto de Ia joven’ (35 Later, Seen aes, d0l0® itremediable’ was ‘no poder ver lo que vivia adentin de ci (78), that ther Julia who always escapes him and who willin fac escape ies ‘materially at the end of the first part of the novel.44 BHS, LXVI (1989) DANIEL BALDERSTON: “The motif ofthe double exists on various planes: inthe difference between the self who thinks and the other who remembers (duplication in time), between one who is present and ‘nother who is absent (absent-niinded, dead, vanished), between the one everyone knows ‘and some aspect of him or her that escapes them. Once again we observe that the fancastic ‘use of doubles is anticipated by a more mundane or commonplace one: thus, Luchi, when ‘she says that ‘Las putas nacimos sin pareja’ (99), thinks that for her ‘los hombres desnudos se convertian en el mismo hombre’, a man who is no one (99). This Borgesian reflection reduces all men to the other, who is no one. By way of contrast, at other points in the novel the motif of the double is used to differentiate: the Nicolds who is remembered has nothing in common with the Nicolds who awaits his death, the Julia who allows herself to be touched hides the other intact Julia, The most interesting example of this kind of doubling: ‘when Isabel Hurtado leaves with General Rosas (who has already killed her brother Juan land is preparing the execution of her other brother Nicolés), she manages by her very presence to force the collapse ofthe general's neat universe, since her (present) body erases From his memory the (absent) body of Julia Andrade (251). She erases Julia’s images but at the same time exacerbates her absence. The repetition ofthe same body, in slightly different forms, is intolerable: one or another of them, or both, must turn out to be simulacrum. If the reality of Lcepec is oppressive, it can be avoided through memory and illusion: thoughts turn to the past (before the coming of the soldiers) or to the furure (when itis hoped they will have gone). Bur given the non-linear time of the novel, tis not surprising that there should be memories ofthe future, or fantasies directed toward the historical past. ‘The Moncada brothers play a game they call Rome against Carthage (11), making that emote war present in their games. The ‘recuerdos del porvenir’ of the tile turn out ro be in ‘many instances memories of one’s own death: so itis in the cases of Martin Moncada, of his on Nicolés, and even of Lxtepec itself. In much the same manner as in Silvina Ocampo’s ‘tory ‘La autobiografia de Irene’, in which the character loses all memories of the past and is filled with precise images of the future, Isabel tells General Rosas: ‘Francisco, tenemos dos memorias .. . Yo antes vivia en las dos y ahora s6lo vivo en la que me recuerda lo que va a suceder’ (253). Her father also lives between two memories: that of a past he never lived, which seems unreal to him, and that of the acts and images of the furure (19). ‘Gn the most commonplace level, the ‘recuerdos del porvenir’ are simply the ‘qué dirén de nosotros’ of those who will come after us, as General Rosas observes (78). Or, for the narrator, the ‘recuerdos del porvenir’ ofthe title are negative: they are the oblivion that will ‘come when the town has disappeared (250). As previously with the motif of the frozen time, Garro works with the multiple levels of language, exploring not only the extra~ ordinary connotations of the commonplace (as we saw in the case of the frozen time) but also the perecy ordinary comocstions ‘of an odd phrase (here, the memories of the tare). "All of the connotations of the phrase inthe title come together in the last sentence of the novel, the sentence which is written on the ‘aparente piedra’ which once was Isabel Moneada.'* “Aqui estaré a solas con mi amor como recuerdo del porvenir por los siglos de i los siglos’ (295). The ‘aparente piedra’ will in the furure recall Isabel, but the phrase of her epitaph also gives us an impression of what she was thinking at the moment she turned.to ‘Stone. She realizes that she is the cause of her parents’ misfortunes and the deaths of her brothers, knowing at the same time that she loves the author of these misforrunes: ‘Cuando venia a pedirlea la Virgen que me curara del amor que tengo por el general Francisco Rosas que mat a mis hermanos, me arrepenti y preferi el amor del hombre que me perdid y. perdié a mi familia’ (295). The words writen on the ‘aparente piedra’ are, as the narrator say, ‘cohetes apagados’ (295), one more variant of the image ofthe shooting starlike the | meteorite, they are light converted to stone. The past is equivalent to what is to come, the ‘siglos de los siglos” are already present in this eternal moment.ind of doubling: 3 broer Juan by her very ent) body erases s images but at slightly different be simulacrum. ory and illusion: ature (when it is is not surprising historical past. 11), making that squm out to be in i Moncada, of his ilvina Ocampo’s es of the past and ancisco, tenemos e recuerda lo que if a past he never + furure (19). ply the ‘qué dirén (78). Or, for the oblivion that will wtf of the frozen xt only the extra- e frozen time) but memories of the ast sentence of the 1 once aliede ir por los si the phrase of her ment she cured to 1 the deaths of her formnes: ‘Cuando al Francisco Rosas e que me perdi6 ¥ are, as the narrator doting star: like the tbat is to come, the HISTORY AND FANTASY IN LOS RECUERDOS DEL PORVENIR In Los recuerdos del porvenir the fantastic touches the central concepts of time, the body, memory, history. All of these are rendered problematic in the course of the novel. {near tne stops, the body specified memory tums from the pat toward the impossible furure, history is coloured with the impossible and the improbable. The ‘aparente piedra’ proclaims: “Aqui estaré con mi amor a solas como recuerdo del porvenir por los siglos de {os siglos’ (295). ‘Con mi amor a solas’, ‘recuerdo del porvenit’: the paradoxes make plain the deceptive nature of appearances i the world of the novel. Garo discovers fr us 2 world firmly anchored in the reality of her fiction, a world comparable in its fascinating complexity to Garcfa Marquez’s Macondo, Onetti’s Santa Maria, and Rulfo’s Comala. Her ixtepec is recognizably Mexican and Latin American, yet simultaneously the stuff of ‘dreams. The curious conjunction of the fantastic and the historic makes this one of the most ‘original and powerful of historical novels in Latin America. NOTES 1 Borges, Obras compete (Buenos Aes: Emect 1974), 220. 2 Refuenees ne ter eto the second eddon of Las recuerdos del porveir (Mexico City: Josquin Mors 1977) |am gral to Manvel Cacha for conversions sbost is aove. "S Caro Leal prtaeto Le novela dela Revolucion mescana (Mexico Cay: Agar, 1967 1,25, 4 Geese Lea, 27. 5 Obras comple, 217. & Rober Andou as sready observed the presence of ‘elmo mégico'in Garo's stories: eis aicle “La coetten magico realita de lena Cattorin Soca (ofthe Profe Northwest Counc on Foros Languages, Coral, Oregon, (1982), 117-21 Walter Langhorsysin his book The Mesican Novel Comes of ge (Norse Date! Univ of Nore Dare Pres, 1971) that Los recuerdos del porveni ‘combine elisa with (lacy (or "rapid ealea", but characte: this area the leat consene clement inthe work = somewhar disci follow and acepe (18 "erica i ts Noel (Aus Univ. of Texas Press, 1966), 53. Rosen rte Cars an oon he Cine ok ihre Fran Cnr Garro's Los recuerdos dl poroent, Revita Caadiose de Exudoe Hispicon I (1978), 282-95: Basing he ttovel on the perodat socal rcv in Mexico known athe Crstero Warn which ragedin the 1920s (allowing he frat armed phate ofthe Revolution, Gatro makers materi evocadon ofthe pra and payebologal anguish ‘experienced by many people when the rei of Putareo Blas Calle eared ro 2 ef voiaee as Stampa fo curb the power of the Roman Catholic Church. On occasion ake blurs the disincion berween Sppearane and realtyin order to dramatize a ene of human allenanon (284 Ia his more recent book Cont id Transtion ix Rural Mexico: The Fiction of Social Realm (Waltham, Massachsens: Croaroads Pres, 1580), he hfs is emphasis ote univer ane of Garo's ove, but ll ince dat iis exenally a reaist, novel of Mexico: “Los recuerdos del porveni s+ pesmi pote aueprated iro an arse portrayal of provincial Mexico inthe 1920s The rica trust of Lena Garr goes beyond that sagen the Meera historia proces however, Whe se cls aention tthe into ofthe aly decade ofthe Revolution, ber novel has Teplice meaning for conemporary Merico ss wel Beyond the context ofthe Cero Warm, Los recuerdos el porvenr has a unreal peoeon (41, This nteview i indaded in Beth Miler and Alonso Gonales, 26 autores del México actual (Mexico iy: Cost Amie Bato, 1978), 201-19. "10 The tne of the nove hasbeen studied by Frank Dauser in his aie ‘lena Garo y sus reuerds del pocveit, Journal of Spavah Sods, Vl (1980), $765, and by Robert Anderson in sacle La realidad {Emporal'ch Loe recuerdos del porn, Expiactin de Textos Literais, (1980), 25-29. 71 Foran atte anaes othe ase of te commonplace in Rilo ee Maria Lata Bass’ ari, ‘CUichés gues acd eb Prono et hewmen, XLV (198), Now 12-8, 318 Each eves subject ahighyididualned inception of realy buts presented as though there wecesbioluely nothing extraordinary abou i (287) 13 Bare, Te operons Cana Mont i 197 89 aoa Madea Rodenes hs sorn afar cod berweca diverge cones of ic so her "Tempo Sentinel pry Ge Bets Cs ema brome 1 (38) os 15 Roa Baste uses hig phrase wien a Sigurative seein the short story collecon Morinca(Barelons: Plaza y Jan, 1988), 62 30091 ee ‘46 BHS, LXVI (1989) DANIEL BALDERSTON 16 Beudhwood has lady observed “The “apparensoe” i explained a ihe cd of the noe whee gS acd’ rmrged hs eed dl prvi ts Nowe 52), Méndee Rodenss ns Oe Ce i dl Pore wen trae of 3 bari he sl jg sown Caren’ os PHO pevdidos, published in 1953, some ten years before the Garro cove. PHILOSOPHICAL FORUM ‘The latese number of Philosophical Forum Vol. XX, Nos. 1-2 (Fall-Winter 1986- Bo) ar 2 double issue devoted entirely ro ‘Latin American Philosophy ‘Today’. This soil issue, guest edited by Professor fore J-E. Gracia of the Sere University of See ez Buffalo, scheduled wo appear m December 1988; includes these articles: Identity: A Latin American Philosophical Problem Leopoldo Zea ‘Actual Situation and Perspectives of Latin "American Philosophy for Liberation Horacio Cerutti-Guldberg Philosophy and Feminism in Latin America: Perspectives on Gender Identity andCalmre Ofelia Schurte Phenomenology and Existentialism m Latin ‘America David Sobrevilla, Marxism in Latin America ‘Adolfo Sanchez Vazquez “The Impact of Philosophical Analysis = Latin ‘America Jorge J. E. Gracia “The Sources of Latin American Philosphy Ivan Jaksié der your copy from: John P Piunan, Managing Editor, c/o Baruch Covege of the Cary University of New York, Box 259, 17 Lexington Avenue, New ‘York, New ‘York 10010, U.S.A.