|
Deep Rivers
Deep Rivers (Spanish: Los ríos profundos) is the third novel by Peruvian writer José María Arguedas. It was published by Losada in Buenos Aires in 1958, received the Peruvian National Culture Award (Premio Nacional de Cultura) in 1959, and was a finalist in the William Faulkner Foundation Ibo-American award (1963). Since then, critical interest in the work of Arguedas has grown, and the book has been translated into several languages.[1] According to critics, this novel marked the beginning of the current neo-indigenista movement, which presented, for the first time, a reading of indigenous issues from a closer perspective. Most critics agree that this novel is one of Arguedas' masterpieces.[citation needed] The title of the work ('Uku Mayu' in Quechua) alludes to the depth of the Andean rivers, which rise in the top of the Andes. It also relates to the solid and ancestral roots of Andean culture, which, according to Arguedas, are the true national identity of Peru. ContextThe last years of the 1950s were very fertile for Arguedas' literary production. The book appeared when Indigenismo was in full swing in Peru. Education Minister at the time, Luis E. Valcárcel, organized the Culture Museum, an institution that contributed decisively to indigenous studies. Moreover, with the publication of Deep Rivers, the growing reception to Arguedas' work began, both in Peru and throughout the continent.[2] CompositionThe genesis of the novel was the story 'Warma kuyay" (part of the collection of short stories entitled 'Water', published in 1935), one of whose characters is the child Ernesto. This Ernesto is unmistakably the same as the Deep Rivers character. A text of Arguedas which was published in 1948 in the form of autobiography (Las Moradas, vol. II, No. 4, Lima, April 1948, pp. 53–59), took shape as the second chapter of the novel under the title 'Los Viajes'. In 1950 Arguedas wrote the essay 'The novel and the problem of literary expression in Peru' (La novela y el problema de la expression literaria en el Peru), in which he announced the existence of the novel project. The push to complete the novel emerged years later in 1956, while conducting ethnographic fieldwork in the Mantaro Valley. He then worked hard to its completion. Some texts of ethnographic study were attached to the story, such as the etymological explanation of 'zumbayllu' or magical spinning top. Plot The novel describes the maturation process of Ernesto, a 14-year-old who must confront the injustices of the adult world that he becomes a part of, and who is required to take sides. The story begins in Cuzco, where Ernesto and his father Gabriel arrive. Gabriel, an itinerant lawyer, is looking for a rich relative called 'El Viejo' (the old one), in order to ask for work and shelter. But he does not succeed. He then recommences his wanderings through many cities and villages of southern Peru. In Abancay, Ernesto is enrolled as a boarder at a religious school while his father continues his travels in search of work.  Ernesto then has to live with the boarding students who are a microcosm of Peruvian society and where cruel and violent behaviour is the norm. Later, outside the boundaries of the school, a group of chicheras mutiny, demanding the distribution of salt, and a mass of Indian peasants enter the city to ask for a mass for the victims of epidemic typhus. This pushes Ernesto into a profound awareness: he must choose the values of liberation rather than economic security. This completes a phase of the learning process. The novel ends when Ernesto leaves Abancay and goes to a ranch owned by "El Viejo", situated in the valley of the Apurimac, awaiting the return of his father. Analysis
Style and Narrative TechniqueMario Vargas Llosa, who along with Carlos Eduardo Zavaleta was the first to develop the "modern novel" in Peru, recognizes that Arguedas, although not developing modern techniques in his narratives, is nevertheless much more modern than other writers who respond to the characteristic nineteenth century classical model, that of the "traditional novel", as in the case of Ciro Alegría. Vargas Llosa says of it:
Vargas Llosa recognizes the emotional impact reading Deep Rivers left him, which unambiguously qualifies it as a masterpiece. Vargas Llosa also highlights Arguedas mastery of the Spanish language in this novel to reach a style of great artistic effectiveness. It is a functional and flexible Spanish, which brings to light the different shades of a plurality of issues, people and peculiarities of the world exposed in the work. Arguedas, a bilingual writer, succeeds in "quechuization" of Spanish: what some characters say in Quechua is translated to Spanish, sometimes including those speeches in italics in the original language. This does not happen often, but as often as needed to make the reader see that these are two cultures with two different languages.[5] The zumbayllu The zumbayllu or spinning top is the quintessential magical element of the novel.
These holes produce the typical buzzing sound when spun, which give the object its name. There is also a more powerful type of zumbayllu made from a deformed object but without being round (winku) and with the quality of sorcery (layka). For Ernesto, the zumbayllu is the ideal instrument for capturing the interplay between objects. As such, its functions are varied, but it is first used to send messages to distant places. Ernesto believes that his voice can reach the ears of his absent father by chanting the zumbayllu. It is also a pacifying object, a symbol of restoring order, as in the episode where Ernesto gives his zumbayllu to Anauco. But it is also a purifying element of negative spaces, and it is under that belief that Ernesto buries his zumbayllu in the backyard of the toilets, in the same place where older inmates sexually abused a mentally disabled woman. The zumbayllu purifies the land and flowers start to sprout, which Ernesto then decides to place in the woman's tomb. NotesReferences
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
