Collective Bodies and Collective Change: Blindness, Pilgrimage, Motherhood and Miracles in Twentieth Century Mexican Literature by Rebecca Claire Suzanne Janzen A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Spanish and Portuguese University of Toronto © Copyright by Rebecca Claire Suzanne Janzen 2013 Collective Bodies and Collective Change: Blindness, Pilgrimage, Motherhood and Miracles in Twentieth Century Mexican Literature Rebecca Claire Suzanne Janzen Doctor of Philosophy Department of Spanish and Portuguese University of Toronto 2013 Abstract “Collective Bodies and Collective Change: Blindness, Pilgrimage, Motherhood and Miracles in Twentieth Century Mexican Literature” examines Mexican literature from 1940 to 1980. It analyzes representations of collective bodies and suggests that these bodies illustrate oppression and resistance in their historical context, which coincides with the beginning of a period of massive modernization in Mexico. I aim to develop a reading that interprets this imagery of collectives, unusual bodies, and blindness as more than symbols of oppression. By examining this imagery alongside representations of pilgrimage, alternative modes of motherhood, and experiences such as miracles that figuratively connect bodies, I propose that these images challenge their historical context, and can be read as a gesture towards resistance. Novels and short stories by José Revueltas, Juan Rulfo, Rosario Castellanos and Vicente Leñero present collectives, blindness and unusual bodies. My reading of their works connects these textual bodies to oppression within their historical context, in particular, by the government, intellectuals, the medical system, the Catholic Church, family structure, the landholding system, and the land’s heat, wind and drought. These representations de- individualize characters, and, as such, destroy the ideal of the modern subject who would effect ii change through individual agency. Thus, when I argue that these same bodies act as a metaphorical collective subject whose actions, such as mass murder, and participation in religious revival and radical political movements, can point out social change, they challenge the ideal of an individual subject. By reflecting on the connection between literature that represents unusual bodies, a historical situation of oppression, and the potential for resistance, this analysis of literary texts provides a lens through which we can examine the stories’ historical context and ideas of individual and collective agency. iii Acknowledgments First, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Susan Antebi, for her guidance throughout the writing process. My committee members, Dr. Sanda Munjic, who supervised my comprehensive examinations, and Dr. Néstor Rodríguez, were also instrumental to my project. Dr. Berenice Villagómez provided helpful comments and encouraged me to share my work through conference participation. Dr. Manuel Ramírez, an additional reader for the defense, also supported the project. I owe a special thanks to my external reader, Dr. Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado, for his invaluable suggestions. I have been fortunate to share my graduate experience with many colleagues in Toronto and in Mexico City. My research trips to Mexico meant that Mexico City became my classroom for several months in 2011 and 2012. The Casa de los Amigos, Raquel Garcia and Pamela Fuentes deserve special mention, because without their friendship and hospitality, I would have been exposed to far fewer cultural and academic spaces. In Toronto, my working group offered encouragement and GCF taught me about rest and work. This project owes so much to the support of family and friends. I would like to thank my parents, Bill Janzen and Marlene Toews Janzen, and Brian Ladd and Ghenette Houston, for their prayers, Anna Casas Aguilar for her ongoing feedback and Adleen Crapo and Paula Karger for their friendship. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the Mexican Government’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for its support for my doctoral project. “Esta tesis corresponde a las investigaciones realizadas con una beca otorgada por el Gobierno de México, a través de la Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores.” iv Table of Contents Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................. v Introduction Collective Bodies: Corporeal Modes of Oppression and Resistance in 20th Century Mexican Literature ..................................................................................................... 1 Theories of Power in Relation to Revueltas, Rulfo, Castellanos and Leñero ............................... 8 Situating Literary Texts in Mexican Modernity .................................................................................. 10 Collective Bodies in Literary Texts: Reflecting a Historical Context of Oppression .............. 14 Collective Bodies in Literary Texts: The Potential for a Collective Response ......................... 17 1 A Blind Response to Power: José Revueltas’ Short Stories ........................................... 27 1.1 Understanding Power in Dios en la tierra and Dormir en tierra ........................................ 30 1.1.1 Revueltas’ Stories in Relation to the Institutionalizing Mexican State .................................. 32 1.1.2 Intellectual Structures in Mexico and Revueltas’ Critique .......................................................... 36 1.1.3 The Catholic Church in Revueltas’ Stories .......................................................................................... 46 1.1.4 Family Structure: Institutionalizing Motherhood ........................................................................... 51 1.1.5 Myopic Medicine in “El hijo tonto” ........................................................................................................ 55 1.2 Connected Bodies as a Mode of Corporeal Resistance in Dios en la tierra and Dormir en tierra ........................................................................................................................................................... 59 2 Motherhood, Pilgrimage and Collective Bodies in El llano en llamas ....................... 70 2.1 Overpowering Rulfo’s Historical Context .................................................................................. 74 2.1.1 The Government Adopts a Cosmopolitan Vision ............................................................................. 76 2.1.2 Land Reform and Education Reinforce the State’s Power ........................................................... 80 2.1.3 Consolidating Power in Presidential and Narrative Offices ....................................................... 84 2.1.4 The Indomitable Madre Patria ................................................................................................................ 88 2.1.5 The Catholic Church and the Way of the Virgin ............................................................................... 95 2.1.6 Family Structure and the Way of Virginity ..................................................................................... 100 2.2 A Path of Resistance in Rulfo’s Stories ..................................................................................... 105 3 Oppression, Supplementary Motherhood and Indigenous Resistance in Rosario Castellanos’ Oficio de tinieblas .................................................................................................... 114 3.1 Powerful Entities in the Novel ..................................................................................................... 117 3.1.1 The Landownership System .................................................................................................................. 119 v 3.1.2 Land Reform: “No por primera vez” .................................................................................................. 126 3.1.3 Complicit and Conflicted Intellectuals .............................................................................................. 130 3.1.4 Narrative Strategies Reflect a State Repressing Chaos .............................................................. 135 3.1.5 The Subordinate Church ......................................................................................................................... 139 3.2 Framing Resistance in Oficio ........................................................................................................ 142 3.2.1 Indigenous Religious Practice .............................................................................................................. 143 3.2.2 Supplementary Maternal Relationships ........................................................................................... 145 3.2.3 Domingo’s Crucifixion .............................................................................................................................. 153 4 Leñero, Liberation Theology and Luke’s Gospel in Mexico: El evangelio de Lucas Gavilán ................................................................................................................................................. 158 4.1 El evangelio Critiques its Historical and Political Context ................................................. 160 4.1.1 Representing