UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Nature, Nation And
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Nature, Nation and Animality in the Discourse of Literary Indigenismo: Case Studies in Peru, Mexico & the American Southwest, 1920-1974 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Hispanic Languages and Literatures by Carolina Beltran 2021 © Copyright by Carolina Beltran 2021 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Nature, Nation and Animality in the Discourse of Literary Indigenismo: Case Studies in Peru, Mexico & the American Southwest, 1920-1974 by Carolina Beltran Doctor of Philosophy in Hispanic Languages and Literatures University of California, Los Angeles, 2021 Professor Efrain Kristal, Chair This dissertation examines the ways that indigenista writers from Mexico and Peru used animals in their representation of indigenous peoples, particularly in proposing a “new type of being” as the privileged subject for the nation. Literary indigenismo is a genre of narrative fiction produced by non- indigenous writers interested in the place and condition of indigenous peoples in the context of larger concerns regarding nationhood and modernity. This dissertation underscores the role nature and animals can and did play in these literary representations of the "indigenous question," which is to say of integrating indigenous peoples or indigenous world-views into non-indigenous milieus. This dissertation argues that indigenista writers used animals in ways that exemplify a tension between perceptions of indigenous views on the inherent connections between nature and the human, and Western discourses on animality—as the attribution of animal traits—that presuppose the hierarchical superiority of the human over nature. I coin the term "indigenista animality" to propose a reinterpretation of literary indigenismo that pays as much attention to the literary representation of indigenous human-animal cosmologies as it does to Western discourses on race and species. ii Through an animal studies approach—an approach that questions the premise that animals are to be understood as “less than human”—this dissertation studies instructive cases in Peru, Mexico and the Southwest of the United States to explore some of the ways that indigenista literature engaged with animality in the contexts of national, international, and hemispheric tensions, in which discourses on indigenous peoples are central. Chapter 1 analyzes the ways that Peruvian indigenista writers of the 1920s, Enrique López Albújar and José Carlos Mariátegui, used animals in their discussions of modernization and indigenous peoples within the context of Fordism, industrialism shaped by mass production and consumption of automobiles. Mariátegui's historical account of the apogee and retreat of the horse in human life contends with the emergence of a new indigenous type as the proletarian chauffeur. López Albújar's allegory "El fin de un redentor" ironizes debates over indigenous liberation through disagreements between various species of livestock animals as to the revindicatory nature of the automobile. These works contest the “progress” of state-sponsored modernization policies, e.g. mass road expansion, in their concern over the emancipation and labor of indigenous peoples by way of animal representations. Chapter 2 examines Mauricio Magaleno's novel El resplandor and how its approach to nahualismo, as an indigenous world-view, according to which the human and the animal are co- essential, are central to his critique of the postrevolutionary Mexican state. Magdaleno’s literary approach to the indigenous is premised on a peculiar and negative synthesis of indigenous and Spanish lineages, in which his central mestizo character employs the powers of nahualismo (supernatural abilities to "possess" or shape-shift into an animal) against his indigenous brethren as a tool to grab state power. His representation of Otomie peoples as cattle bring into relief salient questions over indigenous political consciousness that echoes the "Enlightenment" semantics of the novel, while also signaling the environmental historical tensions between European livestock and iii indigenous populations in Central Mexico. Chapter 3 focuses on the ways that Carlos Castaneda advances the “man of knowledge” as a “new subject” in his series of books on the Yaqui teacher figure of don Juan. Evasive of his Peruvian origins, Castaneda nonetheless weaves Peruvian indigenista discourses and combines these with aspects of Mexican tropes such as nahualismo, making his exploration of Yaqui indigenous knowledge along the Arizona-Sonora borderlands a noteworthy example for the American Southwest. In his books, animals play an important role in the "inner journey" of Castaneda’s literary alter-ego, where encounters with animals aid him in becoming a "warrior." Castaneda reconfigures nahualismo in a way that erases the animal-human links of its Mesoamerican origins while infusing it with Eastern and Western philosophical traditions in his proposal of a new universality as a response to countercultural trends and U.S. military interventions. This dissertation concludes with the suggestion that literary indigenismo is ripe for a more comprehensive reassessment based on the animal studies approach to literature, which offers us new ways of interpreting animals and animality that deepen our understanding of discourses that seek to "naturalize" the contours of the nation, revealing race and species tensions in regional and nationalist imaginaries. iv This dissertation of Carolina Beltran is approved. Lauren Derby Patricia Arroyo Calderon Maarten H. van Delden Efrain Kristal, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2021 Para Mónica y Fidela, las dos me inspiraron al estudio, la poesía, y la lucha. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1 26 Tempestad automovilista en los andes: Animals, Automobility and the “Nuevo indio” in works by José Carlos Mariátegui and Enrique López Albújar (1924-1927) CHAPTER 2 92 El estado nahual y la manada india: Animality and Nahualismo in Mauricio Magdaleno’s El resplandor (1937) CHAPTER 3 153 New Hu(man)ity on the Borders: New Age Nagualismo, Animality, and Indigenous Warriorhood in Carlos Castaneda's Shamanovels (1968-1974) CONCLUSION 218 APPENDIX 222 BIBLIOGRAPHY 226 vii Acknowledgments First, I want to thank my advisor, Efraín Kristal, whose patience and guidance in this process have helped me stay with this project when unexpected life events prolonged my writing. All the members of my committee had helped shaped his project, the traces of intellectual insights and new lines of inquiry were made possible in part by conversations, coursework, and greatly appreciated feedback. Patricia Arroyo Calderón offered me the opportunity to speak to her classroom about my project and also "saved the day" when she joined my committee on short notice, but to great effect in her enormous helpful comments and suggests on this dissertation. From Maarten van Delden's course on the Latin American essay, where I first engaged with Mariátegui "La civilización y el caballo" to discussions about taxidermy, livestock, and transatlantic animals with Lauren (Robin) Derby that locked in my "animal radar," I appreciate all the work and inspiration I have taken from them and other professors at UCLA. One professor, no longer at UCLA but who was key to "planting the bombs" for my obsession with José María Arguedas was Michelle Clayton and it is thanks to her that I sought to examine the early twentieth century as a way of reorienting my understanding of Latin American culture. Walking through the corridors of the Spanish and Portuguese Department, my beloved mashi and Kichwa yachachik, Luz María de la Torre, was a model of activist indigenous feminism in practice. It is thanks to her teachings in language, cosmovisión, and her "consejos de madre a madre," that I learned about how "corazonar" makes possible the resilience necessary for not only "carrying on" but the grounding needed to understand the world and work transform it. Likewise, Juliet Falce- Robinson offered me important tips for navigating academic, teaching, and life as a single parent. Gloria Tóvar deserves all the roses in the world for her support of graduates like myself that really appreciate 'reminder emails,' and also for her kindness and understanding when I dropped in unexpected into her office. viii I also want to thank the UCLA Latin American Institute for their financial support in language training (Portuguese and Quechua), thanks to their funding I spent an amazing summer in Cuzco, Peru, where I fell in love with the simplicity of papas rellenas, leafed through old journal at the Centro Bartolomé de Las Casas, and, of course, followed the lives of its charismatic street dogs. The hours were long throughout this journey but spent in the lovely and fun company of my colleagues-amigas, CompLit co-conspirators, and my comrades at large. I grew as a scholar through my friendships with the women in my cohort and their support and encouragement. Mil gracias a Lourdes Árevalo, Isabel Gómez, Wendy Kurtz, Amber Bryant Williams, Audrey Harris, and Eileen Powell. Likewise, I am grateful to Rafael Ramírez, who encouraged me to publish for the first time, and whose humor always helped lighten the mood in our department. Also, a huge 'oralé' to Román Luján for being so "a toda madre" and being the first poet I ever met and shared a beer with. Over the years, I made beautiful friendships with people from the Comparative Literature. Thanks to Zen Dochterman,