MARTIN LUIS GUZMAN - Shodhgangashodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/20744/10/10_chapter...
Transcript of MARTIN LUIS GUZMAN - Shodhgangashodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/20744/10/10_chapter...
MARTIN LUIS GUZMAN
Before Revolution ·
Walter M. Langford expressed about Guzman's talent:
"Few people came to know Pancho Villa better than Martin
Luis Guzman. Honoured now as the grand old man of Mexican
letters and always respected as one of the finest minds to
espouse the revolutionary cause, Guzman also was endowed
with more writing talent than many other novelist·s of the
Revolution. 111 Guzman had wanted the Mexican life with
untinted flavour in its original colours and expressed it
through his historic literary writings. As the Revc-lution
spread across the country, every strata of the Mexican
society was not merely affected but either got involved or
forced to forge a new Mexican society that would, at least,
manage its own affairs. It is without saying that the
Revolution did provide enough intellectual stimulation and
writer like Martin Luis Guzman's profound literary merit
owes much to it. It was in the workshop of the Revolution
that Martin Luis Guzman gave shape to his feelings and ideas
to awaken a national conscience in his compatriots to steer
their way successfully against all odds.
This literary genius was born on 6 October 1887 as the
second son of general Martin Luis Guzman Rendon and dofia
1 Walter M. Langford, The Mexican Novel comes of Age (University of Notre Dame Press, 1972), p. 40.
125
Carmen Franco de Guzman. He had two brothers and two
sisters. After the birth of Martin Luis Guzman, his father
was offered the post of 'Maestro de Caballeria' at the
Military College in mexico city. Martin Luis Guzman was five
years old when he was admitted to a school in Mexico City.
In 1894, he was admitted to another school called Escuela
Primaria Cat6lica Gratuita de Tacubaya. On 7 January 1897,
he goes to .the Escuela Primaria Superior de Tacubaya. After
spending his first eleven years in Mexico City, in 1899, his
father was transferred to the port-city of Vera Cruz as the
director of the naval school. Martin Luis Guzman was then
admitted to the Escuela Contonal Francisco Javier Clavijero.
As a child, he was fascinated by "the two magical words :
P f · · 0' n2 or 1r1o 1az •... His childhood foundation was laid on
anti-religious family ~tmosphere. Guzman recalls that " ... he
was never taken to Mass nor he ever went near to a confessor
for strict and final paternal orders."3
It was in Veracruz that young Martin Luis Guzman learnt
at the school the political philosophy of liberalism. He
then not only showed his literary interest by studying
Victor Hugo, Rousseau and Benito Perez Gald6s, but also
realized the need of an elected form of civilian government.
Benito Juarez's liberal ideas had started agitating the
young mind. His father's anti-Church education to child
2 Martin Luis Guzman, Academia : Tradici6n, independencia, Libertad (Mexico City, Compafiia General de Ediciones, S.A., 1959), p. 22.
3 Ibid., p. 24.
126
Guzman had made him a strong opponent of any kind of
religious interference in the political life of the nation.
With his classmate, Feliciano Prado, he founded and
published a bi-monthly literary magazine named La Juventud.
The magazine could not last more than six months, but it had
clearly indicated Martin Luis Guzman's future course of
action. In 1904, Guzman got admission in the Escuela
Nacional Preparatoria in the capital city. In fact, Guzman
enrolled himself there because his father never wanted him
to join military service. Cometian and Spencerian positivism
had greatly influenced the Mexican academic world. But that
philosophy was being mis-interpreted by the cientificos to
the convenience of Diaz's dictatorial regime. In order to
counter cientificos' positivism, a group of young
intellectuals had founded the 'Ateneo de la Juventud'. It
was here that young Guzman had the opportunity to know many
great Mexican intellectuals like "Alfonso Reyes, Mexico's
great essayist, literary critic, poet and thinker; Jose
Vasconcelos, the Mexican author who would later reappear as
a comrade in the Revolution; Diego Rivera, one of Mexico's
leading muralists who would later acquire universal acclaim
in the art-world; Antonio Caso, the young philosopher who
instigated the group to launch itself against the official
philosophy of the Diaz regime and Pedro Henriquez Urena,
literary critic, essayist and poet11 •4
4 Larry M. Grimes, The Revolutionary Cycle in the Literary Production of Martin Luis Guzman (Cuernavaca, Mexico, Centro Intercultural de Documentaci6n, CIDCO cuaderno, no. 26, 1969}, pp.3-4.
127
This group Ateneo de la Juventud was representing
almost the whole new generation of Mexican intellectuals
that could no more rely on the older generation of
intellectuals which was either openly supporting the
dictatorial regime of Porfirio Diaz or was giving its silent
approval to whatever wrong was being done to the Mexican
people. An extraordinary liberal intellectual like Justo
Sierra had worked as Secretary of Education in the Diaz
Government. It was under these circumstances that Guzman's
childhood image of Diaz had been dismantled and he had
become conscious of the fact that "the dictator and the
class which supported him were the cause of the- widespread
'dolor popular"'· 5
Guzman started his journalistic career in 1908 when he
took up a job with a Mexican daily newspaper El Imparcial.
But he was not ready to surrender his principles for a job
in that newspaper when he found that it suddenly started
condemning the opposition forces as the staff was suitably
bribed by Porfirio Diaz to do so. Therefore, in 1909, he
resigned from the newspaper-job and took admission to study
law in the Escuela Nacional de Jurisprudencia. The same
year, on 24 July, he was married to Anita West Villalobos
who later gave birth to Martin Luis Guzman's three sons.
Subsequently, in August, Guzman was nominated as consular of
the Mexican Chancellery in Phoenix, Arizona (U.S.A.}.
5 Ibid., p. 4.
128
Incidentally, in 1908, Francisco I. Madero's book 'La
sucesion presidencial de 1910' was published.
During Revolution
On 27 September 1910, as was expected, the Chamber of
Deputies declared Profirio Diaz as re-elected president of
the Mexican Republic. On 5 October, in the Plan of San Luis
Potosi, Madero proclaimed the presidential e·lections null
and void. A call for a national uprising with a slogan of
"no re-election" was given on 25 November 1910. On the same
day, Martin Luis Guzman's father, General Martin Luis
Guzman Rendon, was seriously wounded in the battle of
Malpaso and died four days later on 29 November 1910.
However, before he died, he had opined about the Revolution:
" .•• I don't think that is the bad weed." 6 Martin Luis
Guzman, who had returned to Mexico, rejoins the Escuela
Nacional de Jurisprudencia in January 1911. This year was of
special significance in Guzman's life. He became part of
the literary group EL Ateneo de la Juventud. On 24-25 May
1911, Guzman also took active part in the demonstration and
blockade of the central plaza of the Mexico City that forced
the dictator to resign and flee the country. That victory of
the Revolution led Madero to become the president of the
nation on 1 November 1911. The same year, Guzman was
nominated as professor of Spanish in the Escuela Superior de
Comercio and librarian in Escuela Nacional de Altos
6 G ~ uzman, n. 2, p. 37.
129
Estudios. Guzman was also nominated a delegate to the
national convention of the Partido Liberal Progresista.
Madero could remain in the office only upto February 1913
when his Chief of Staff, Victoriano Huerta, trecherously
murdered both Maedro and his vice-president, Pino Suarez and
proclaimed himself the president of the nation.
These events forqed Guzman to resign from his post and
flee to the United States. After less than a week's stay in
New York with a writer, Alberto J. Pani, he came back to
Mexico city and started circulating political pamphlets
against Huerta's regime. In September 1913, he again left
Mexico city and through Vera Cruz went to Habana, New
Orleans, San Antonio,Texas and back to Mexico. The same year
in November, he worked with the forces of General Ramon F.
Iturbe in Culiacan, state of Sinaloa. Then, in February
1914, he worked in the capacity of civilian advisor with
Alvaro Obregon's forces in Sonora. In March 1914, on
Venustiano Carranza's order, he went to Ciudad Juarez,
Chihuahua to join the staff of the Primer Jefe. But the very
same month, he was disillusioned with Carranza's politics
and his style of functioning and left him to join as Pancho
Villa's personal secretary. On the orders of Pancho Villa,
Guzman reached Mexico City in Augustt 1914 as his
representative before the Primer Jefe and helped in
organizing the stay of the Division del Norte in the capital
city. Soon news reached the capital that General Alvaro
Obregon had been arrested by Pancho Villa. As a retaliation
130
to that event, Guzman was also
confined in the Penitenciaria
arrested by Carranza and
in the Mexico City in
September. Through the intervention of the Convention. of
Aguascalientes, Martin Luis Guzman along with other
supporters of Pancho Villa was set free in October 1914.
Next month in November, Pancho Villa appointed Guzman as
advisor to the General Jose Isabel Robles in the capital
whom the Convention had nominated as secretary of war.
Guzman was also nominated secretary of the National
University, director of the National Library and colonel-of
the Ejercito Revolucionario. The Convention had elected
Eulalia Gutierrez as the president of Mexico, but he was not
accepted by Venustiano Carranza. Therfore, Eulalia Gutierrez
had to take military help of the Division del Norte. All
efforts of reconciliation were proving futile. Carrancistas,
Zapatistas and Villistas had created a situation of utter
chaos. The situation became so much volatile that president
Eulalia Gutierrez ran for his life and fled the capital with
all his ministers and advisors on 16 January 1915. Guzman
was left with no choice but to follow the suit and,
therefore, fled the Mexico City to save his life. Passing
through the .united States, he went to Spain and lived in
Madrid with his family for a little more than a year.
It was in Madrid that Guzman's book La querella de
Mexico was published in 1915 by the Imprenta Clasica
Espanola. He was fully involved in his literary activities
and found Gregorio Silvestre's poems that he got published
131
in La Revue Hispanique in 1916 with an introduction. Under
his pen-name 'Fosforo' he collaborated with famous licerary
critic Enrique Diaz-canedo in a weekly called Espana that
was also published from Madrid. In February 1916, he left
Spain with his family and reached New York. In October that
year, he was offered a post of professor of Spanish language
and literature at the University of Minnesota. In 1918, he
started editing the Spanish-language magazine El Grafico
published from New York. At the same time, he contributed to
another Spanish language magazine Revista Univers3l also
published from New York. In May 1920, he returned to Mexico
after Venustiano Carranza was overthrown and assassinated.
In June, he met Adolfo de la Huerta and General Alvaro
Obregon and convinced them to recognize duly General Ramon
F. Iturbe. He resumed to head the editorial section of the
Mexican newspaper El Heraldo. In 1920, his another book A
orillas del Hudson was published by the Editorial Andres
Botas e Hijos: In December, he was made personal secretary
to Alberto J. Pani, Foreign Affairs Secretary in the
President Alvaro Obregon's government. on 18 March 1922, the
first issue of El Mundo was published by Guzman. This became
one of -the most important political daily newspapers until
the close of 1924 when it was confiscated by the General
Alvaro Obregon. In September 1922, he was also elected
member of the thirtieth Legislature Congress of the Union.
In 1923, he campaigned in favour of the opposition
presidential candidate, Adolfo de la Huerta, and went to New
York as special representative of Huerta. De la Huerta fled
132
Mexico and left the field absolutely free for the official
candidate, General Plutarco Elias Calles. Guzman was
destined to live in exile. In February 1925, he went to
Spain and lived there with his family until March 1936,
except a period. of fiteen months (Aughst 1926 to October
1927) when he lived in Paris.
Guzman was not new to the intellectual circles of
Spain. After revisiting Madrid, he started working as a
contributor, columnist and sub-editor in periodicals like El
Debate, Ahora, Luz, etc. published from Madrid. He also
held the position of an editor in El Sol and La Voz. He was
also writing for El Universal of Mexico, La Prensa of San
Antonio (Texas) and La Opinion of Los Angeles (California).
In fact, it was in 1926 that he started serializing his
experiences of the Mexican Revolution in Mexico's leading
newspaper El Universal and which were later, in 1928,
published entitled El aguila y la serpiente by Aguilar
Editores of Madrid. However, Guzman's this work could not be
published in a book-form in Mexico· before 1941. In 1929,
Guzman's another book La sombra del caudillo was published
by Madrid's publisher Espasa Calpe. In 1931, another
publisher of the same city, La Compafiia Iberoamericana de
Publicaciones published Guzman's Aventuras · democraticas
whose original title was Axkana Gonzalez en las elecciones.
In 1932, again Espasa Calpe published Martin Luis Guzman's
Mina el mozo; heroe de Navarra which was again pubished in
1955 but under the changed title--Javier Mina, heroe de
133
Espana y de Mexico. In 1933, Guzman contributed his writings
in various Spanish and American magazines which were later
published in a book form entitled Filadelfia, paraiso de
conspiradores y otras historias noveladas.
After Calles was exiled to the United States and Lazaro
Cardenas was firm in his position as the president of
Mexico, Martin Luis Guzman returned to Mexico in April 1936.
A few months later, he started writing the Memorias de
Pancho Villa which was completed in five parts in a span of
about four years. All the five parts were published by
Andres Botas· e Hijos--El hombre y sus armas (1938), campos
de batalla (1939), Panoramas politicos (1939), La causa del
pobre (1940), and Adversidades del bien (1940). In October
1940, Guzman also assumed the editorship of the literary
magazine Romance. In May 1942, he founded the weekly
magazine Tiempo. In November 1946, Kinchil was published in
Colecci6n Lunes that was part of Guzman's novel Maestros
rurales.
In May 1951, Guzman gave a stimulating talk on the
"Verdadero concepto de la hispanidad". On 5 June 1951, he
lost his mother dona Carmen Franco Vda. de Guzman. On 16
June the same year, he was honoured with the ambassadorial
assignment at the United Naions. In the month of June only,
his all five parts of the Memorias de Pancho Villa were
published in one volume by the Compafiia General de Ediciones
in Maxico City. In April 1952, he assisted in organizing the
134
Conference on Culture and Education in the University of
Rutgers (New Jersey, U.S.A.) and delivered a talk "The
Eyes and Ears of Latin America". on the occasion of his
formal recognition by the Academia Mexicana de Lengua, on 19
February 1954, Guzman delivered a talk : "Apuntes sobre una
personalidad". In October 1954, Guzman was honoured as the
correspondent of the Real Academia Espanola.
In August 19 58, Guzman's Muertes hist6ricas _was
published by the Compafiia General de Ediciones. On 2 0
November 1958, Martin Luis Guzman was honoured with the
National Award for Literature by the Mexican president,
Adolfo Ruiz Cortines. In December, as a second edition, La
querella de Mexico y A Orillas de Hudson--Otras paginas also
appeared in the market. In August 1959, Islas Marias was
published again by the Compafiia General de Ediciones. In
October 1959, the same publisher published Guzman's Academia
tradici6n, independencia, libertad. This work was a
collection of his speeches that he had given in series
before the Academia Mexicana de Lengua. In February 1960,
Guzman became the president of the Instituto Cultural.
Mexicano Israeli. In July 1961, the Compafiia General de
Ediciones published Guzman's Obras completas. In September
1963, Guzman's collection of articles and speeches,
Necesidad de cumplir las Leyes de Reforma, was published by
the Empresas Editoriales. The same publisher also published
his Febrero de 1913 in November 1963.
135
La querella de Mexico was the book in which Martin Luis
Guzman took a historical and political perspective of the
events that changed Mexico's face from colonial past to an
independent, soveriegn nation. He, therefore, overviewed the
periods of the independence movement (1810-21), the liberal
reforms (1856-67), and the Revolution (1910-17). Guzman
tried to find out the effects of these historic events on
the sociology of the nation. What he found was that the
creole oligarchy, the champion of the cause of liberty, was
interested only in snatching power from the gachupines, the
native born Spaniards. The oppressed, if at all participated
in the struggle, was not conscious of the grand designs of
that power struggle. To Guzman, both the creoles and the
gachupines were the same in selfishness, brutality and
immorality. There was "the same absence of sentiment and the
idea about the motherland. 117 This ·resulted into an
independence movement which was basically the dream of one
social class to rise to a position of absolute power.
'La querella de Mexico' is thus an attempt to analyse
the principal causes of the Revolution. " ... The book
presents an unimpassioned analysis of the political factions
which while fighting in Mexico for control of the government
were aware all the time that from outside the boundaries of
their country the United States threatened to, and at times,
7 Guzman, La querella de Mexico y A orillas del Hudson Otras pagina (Mexico City, compafiia General de
Ediciones, S.A., 1958), pp. 11-12.
136
did impose its will upon its weaker neighbour."8 Martin Luis
Guzman was of the opinion that the solution of the
democratic government· "must come by itself out of our own
perverted souls" and "that Mexico's interest is to solve the
problem of its normal existence as an organized people that
is raising barriers of moral incapacity."9 He does not agree
with the past interpretations of Mexican culture and history
in totality. He did not think either that the principal
cause of Mexico's armed uprisings was its shattered economy.
For him it was the nation's " ..• lack of spiritnlO that was
responsible for the prevailing disasterous conditions. It
was the directionless rule of the oppressors that ·was
responsible for the absence of a national consciousness.
What interested the creole oligarchy was to make use of the
Mexican masses in the garb of new European doctrine of
liberty to oust its arch-enemies--the gachupines. Augustin
de Iturbide was nothing but a symbol of fraudelent political
compromise and military immorality of the creole oligarchy
that was simply followed by the majority of the Mexican
leaders of subsequent years.11
Instead of looking into the reality that "is sad, that
is ugly, that is miserable"l2 and analysing its causes,
8 Ernest R. Moore, "Novelists of the Revolution", Mexican Life, vol. 16, no. 9, 1940, p. 24.
9 Guzman, n. 7, pp. 27-28.
10 Guzman, n.7, p.12.
11 Ibid. , p. 23.
12 Ibid., p. 16
137
Mexican September
Mexicans straight away jump to resolve their national
problems through the experiences of other nations. The
author feels that this reluctance to acknowledge one's own
reality also got reflected into Mexican educational system.
The untiring efforts that are required to gain scientific
knowledge which is necessary to avoid superficiality and
pedantry in resolving the nation's problems are absent. "A
pot is made stronger and more durable if clay is shaped as
clay rather than shaping it as gold. 1113 The society that was
"inhuman and cannibalistic, whose religion is cooked up with
superstitions and terrors and that did not know the weakest
moral gleam" 14 cann·ot deliver any good just by glorifying
its past. The priests who used to worship the plumed serpent
and propagated the rituals of human sacrifice n~ither
deserve tribute nor glorification. Guzman considers the
mythological exile of Quetzal-Coat! as the beginning of a
spiritual decline in the pre-Cortesan civilization. Complete
unquestionable loyalty to his religion and an unending
subjugation of the Indian could only make him devoid of
national conscience and without any political understanding
of 'patria'. What is known as his hisotry is nothing ·but a
sad story of his sufferings at the hands of priests,
caciques, conquistadores, creoles and friars. He neither
provoked nor asked for anything and happened to be a mere
geographic accident and a stumbling block to his own
nation's progress. Guzman takes the Indian as a negative
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid., p. 18.
138
factor in the context of the Mexican society's progress, but
he still recognizes him as a potential citizen. 15 There is a
belief that all constituents of the Mexican society are
capable of implementing the purest of democratic principles.
Also exists a group that holds that only the creoles can
rule the nation with democratic principles and not the
Indians. Thus formed democratic set up would not have more
than cosmetic touch to the real problem. Guzman considers
neither the Indian nor the creole capable of practising
democratic principles as neither possesses the civic virtue,
moderation, patience, respect, loyalty and justic, necessary
qualities required to put to practise the democratic rule in
its real sense. 16
Martin Luis Guzman stresses that the only social
movement in Mexico's history was ignited by Benito Juarez in
1856. That movement was able to perceive that " ... weakness
of the creole spirit demoralized and brutalized by the
Catholic Church1117 was the social reality of Mexico. But
before Benito Juarez's Reform Movement could bear some
fruits, it met with its premature death under the
dictatorial regime of Porfirio Diaz. Creoles were mainly
responsible for this state of affairs who not only supported
'Porfiriato' but also collaborated with it. The social
consciousness was such that "there is no politics, but pure
15 . Ib1d., pp. 19-20.
16 . Ib1d., p. 29
17 . Ib1d., p. 33.
139
and simple obedience. 1118 Guzman, first of all, wanted to
continue Revolution against those who intended to solve the
nation's serious economic crisis through "peace at the cost
of corruption and systematic crime.n 19 Had it been the right
way, Mexico's serious economic problems would have been
solved by Porfirio Diaz and the Revolution would not have
culminated into violence and the society would not have
plunged into moral perversion. This heavy price that Mexico
had to pay to save its democratic values was in no way a
success story of Diaz regime. The peace of his regime was a
lull before the storm. It utterly failed to achieve the
objectives of the Reform Movement for it never aspired for
them.
Martin Luis Guzman's several articles appeared in the
New York based Revista Universal and El Grafico from 1916 to
1918 which further elaborated on his ideas that were already
expressed in the La querella de Mexico. They were later
compiled and published entitled A orillas del Hudson. He
firmly believed that Mexico's pathetic political crisis
produced the most ignorant and violent leadership of the
immoral and selfish creoles and mestizos. A host of
illiterate self-proclaimed generals and immoral politicians
used the Revolution as stepping stone for reaching the seat
of power and remain there by all means. It had " resulted
into deirecting the run of the motherland with one's own
18 Ibid., p. 34.
19 Ibid., p. 36.
140
arms. n2 ° Guzman thinks that there were two principal
characteristics of this whole political drama.Firstly,
violence was the order of the day if one was thrown out of
power or defeated in the battle. Secondly, the one that
grabbed power was perpetually under threat and, therefore,
resorted to eliminate his opponents.2 1 The radical departure
was noticed with the emergence of Francisco I. Madero who
symbolized the real spirit of the Mexican Revolution. For
him " ... to be a citizen is the only way that is not to be
slave. n22 For Guzman, it was· Madero who made Mexico realize
its real political responsibility to steer the country away
from the Porfirian dictatorship. He was exceptional simply
because he did not resort to violence and elimination of his
political opponents. The majority of his contemporaries
thought of him incapable of running the country without
violent methods. "Madero means, within our public life, a
reaction of noble and generous spirit against the Porfirian
brutality", 23 Guzman states. Although he was well accepted
by the people, he was not understood by the Mexican
politicians and generals for motives best known to them. He
laid his life for the cause of his nation fighting against
immorality, violence and decadent values. His refusal to
accept violence as order of the day, met with his violent
20 Ibid. I p. 50.
21 Ibid.
22 Ibid. I p.196
23 Ibid. I p.62.
141
death. However, Guzman underlines the fact that Madero had
left an indelible impact on Mexican political system. 24
El aguila y la serpiente which was published in 1928
from Madrid combined the qualities of a history, a biography
and a novel. "It was essentially an autobiographical sketch
of Guzman's active participation in the Mexican Revolution
from the date of Medero's assassination (22 February 1913)
to the year the author went into his first political
exile. " 25 The way Guzman lived the Revolution and found
others participating in that historic event, he narrated
everything chronologically in the first person. However, he
does not emphasize his role in the upheaval. All sorts of
characters appear and disappear but the one whose presence
is felt throughout the novel is the author himself. The
author is "discreetly hidden in the multitude of the persons
he evokes, like those painters who have left their faces
almost on the border of the painting, mingled with other
figures", 26 says Antonio Castro Leal.
As far as the question of classifying this literary
work is concerned, it is not without controversy. Many
critics call it just a chronicle of the Mexican Revolution.
But the majority finds El aguila y la serpiente as an
autobiographical novel. Whatever type of novel it may be
24 Ibid., pp. 195-6.
25 Grimes, n. 4, p. 33.
26 Antonio Castro Leal, La novela de la revoluci6n mexicana (Mexico City, Aguilar, 1962), vol. 2, p. 16.
142
called, for the purpose of this study, the fact remains that
it is a novel concerned with the Mexican Revolution and
written by an author who himself was involved in the actual
process of history and know very intimately the protagonists
of the Revolution.
Guzman had the opportunity to work under Venustiano
Carranza, the Primer Jefe, who continued to follow the
legacy of Porfirio Diaz and like him was another symbol of
corruption and degeneration. Guzman categorically states
that "with Carranza the country and the Revolution are
heading to a steep rock, to a personalized fight in the
guise of the revolutionary postulates." 27 Carranza indulged
in corrupting the entire political set up in such a
systematic way that the MeY.ican masses could not be stopped
from coining an appropriate Spanish word 'carrancear' as a
synonym for 'robar' (to steal). Guzman identifies him as a
symbol of the Creole decadence and calls him as "the most
sincere ... enemy of the human rights". 28
Carranza's general, Alvaro Obregon, who later became
his successor as Mexico's president, was another typical
character. Guzman initially thought of him a sincere person
as he had reguested Carranza to issue a decree debaring all
military leaders from holding any public office. Obregon
suggested that Mexico's crisis could be overcome if "the wild
27 Guzman, El agnila y la serpiente (Mexico City, compafiia General de Ediciones, S.A., 1862), p. 273.
28 Ibid., p. 298.
143
ambitions of the military leaders" 29 could be contained. But
Guzman soon realized that Obregon was a very good actor and
what he normally said for the benefit of the country and its
people, he did not seriously mean. He was a fraud and
deceived the nation for his selfish motives. Knowing fully
well that, Obregon was a clever, unscrupulous caudillo,
Guzman recognized the fact that he was a very capable
military leader and a good strategist.
The leader of the peasant army of the southern Mexico,
Emiliano Zapata, was somehow not liked by Guzman. He viewed
Zapata with contempt. When his first encounter with his
group took place, in the Convention of the Aguascalientes,
Guzman observed : "The cultural and moral poverty of the
Convention-atmosphere grew with the arrival of Zapata's
delegates and their deputies." 30 After Venustiano Carranza,
if any other leader was hated most by Guzman, it was
Emiliano Zapata. He called him "the apostle of the perfect
idea of barbarism". 31 Historians like Henry Bamford Parkes
and Jesus Silva herzog do not agree with Guzman's analysis
of Zapata. Zapata is still a legendary figure in Mexico. The
famous Mexican historian, Herzog, comments that "we must
recognize in plain language, the force of the Zapata
movement, its good faith and the integrity of its
29 Ibid. I p. 80.
30 Ibid. I p. 315.
31 Ibid. I p. 390.
144
caudillos. n 32 Guzman ridiculed the peasant leaders of the
Zapata movement by portraying them as backward, uncivilized
characters who, by capturing· one wing of the national
palace, had destroyed the elegance and splendor of the
edifice with their presence. They are shown as organizing
drinking orgies and the place littered with broken
bottles. 33
Although P~ncho Villa had fascinated Guzman and he even
travelled and worked with him_, the chasm between them
remained uncovered. Guzman was never fully comfortable with
him. He was suspicious of Villa's abnormal behaviour and
that element of suspicion and fear made him comment that
"Pancho Villa's soul was more of a jaguar than of a man ... ,
jaguar whom caressing, we pass our hand on his back,
trembling that he may hurl a blow on us with the paw." 34 He
was not different from other bandit leaders as he also
wanted " ... to accumulate power at all cost; to eliminate,
without any sentimentality, the obstacles to his avenging
and free action". 35 Perhaps that is why Guzman personifies
him in the form of the pistol that was part of Villa's life:
32 Jesus silva Herzog, Breve historia de la revoluci6n mexicana (Mexico, fondo de Cultura Econ6mica, 1960), vo 1 . 2 ' p . 6 5 .
33 Guzman, n. 27, p. 387.
34 Ibid. , p. 54.
35 Ibid., p. 249.
145
It is his basic instrument, the centre of his work and of his game, the constant expression of his innermost personality.... While shooting, it will not be the pistol that fires, but he himself •.. He and his pistol are only one thing... From his pistol havl been born and will be born his friends and his foes. 3
Despite the fact that Guzman deals with Pancho Villa's
character extensively, he is not his hero. He could not make
him one because he would never accept Pancho Villa's immoral
acts for reaching the seat of ·power. A man for whom all
principles were either "non-existent or incomprehensible" 37
and who always ·relied on "his blind instinct" 3 8 could
neither impress Guzman nor become his ideal.
Don Delfino Valenzuela was the man who earned Guzman's
praise and respect since the time he taught him in Veracruz
and when Guzman was in his youth. He was "an illustrious
Veracruzano who was neither a general nor hoped to salvage
the motherland from the presidency, but who ... had done for
the country much more than many generals and presidents
together, because he was a great pedagogue, a true
educator", 39 says Guzman about don Delfino Valenzuela.
"Precisely what was meanwhile going to follow would be
the ruin of the original enthusiasm : its dissolution shaped
like few persona 1 ambitions" 40 commented , the author. In
36 Ibid. I pp. 2 50-1.
37 Ibid., p. 241.
38 Ibid.
39 Ibid., p. 242.
40 . Ib1d., p. 417.
146
addition to describing the main characters of the
Revolution, Guzman was concerned with the decaying moral
values during the movement which he particularly saw when
violence broke against Huerta and warring factions were face
to face in the field. Whether it was 'convencionista',
'Villista', Carrancista' or 'Zapatista' everybody had an eye
on the seat of power in the capital city. National
aspirations of almost all warring factions were overtaken by
personal egos and ambitions. The principles of fighting for
safeguarding national interests and upholding social, moral
and cultural values were nowhere to be seen. The principal
reasons for this pathetic situation in which caudillos were
in absolute possession of power and politics in Mexico were
lack of national consciousness among the people and the
apathy of the large segment of Mexican society towards
nation-building. Guzman condemns this inactive segment and
says, "Those who clamour for searching a motherland and
avoid risks and discomforts in doing or attempting to do so
do not deserve it". 41 Guzman comes to the conclusion that
Mexico lacked a national political conscience and that
foresight that temporary setbacks might follw the period of
national progress and often cast the . nation's bright
future. 42 Guzman's rejection or acceptance of his historical
characters is basically based on the liberalism of Benito
Juarez and Francisco I. Madero. Martin Luis Guzman,
41 Ibid. I p. 391.
42 Ibid., pp. 418-9.
147
therefore, analyzes his characters in the light of his own
political ideology that took shape in La guerella de Mexico.
After Revolution
La sombra de caudillo is essentially based on the
political corruption in Mexico and is a novel of post
revolutionary era that was published in Madrid in 1929. The
events described pertain to the period of 1923-24 and its
characters partially reflect the real persons of the time.
The Arnulfo G6mez-Francisco Serrano rebellion of 1923 is
described against the background of Huerta's presidential
campaign in 1923-24.
The novel begins with the desire of some disgruntled
people that Mexico's secretary of war, general Ignacio
Aguirre, should become their presidential candidate in the
1928 election. Aguirre is a close friend of the president
who is referred to as the caudillo in the novel. The
caudillo believes that Aguirre is going to be the
presidential candidate of his enemies. Since the nominee of
the Caudillo for the presidential post was Hilario Jimenez,
he, therefore, started a slanderous campaign against his
opponent Aguirre. When that did not have desired effect,
Jimenez along with his stooges planned to assassinate
Aguirre and his men. They did not succeed in their attempt.
Aguirre tried to convince the caudillo that he had no desire
to contest presidential election, but his persecution
continued. When he came to know about another assassination
148
plan, in order to save his life, he fled from the Mexico
City and went to a nearby state which was being controlled
by a friendly military leader. Aguirre did not agree to his
supporters' suggestion that he should lead a rebellion
against the caudillo as he believed that that kind of
movement should be led by the opposition parties unitedly.
In the mean time, his military protector friend is suitably
bribed by the caudillo and while ~guirre and his confidents
were heading for Mexico city, they are mercilessly
assassinated by the caudillo. Badly wounded, Axkana Gonzalez
survived and fled from the scene.
Guzman creates his characters out of Obregon's
secretary of war, Francisco Serrano and the military
general, Arnulfo Gomez who had rebelled. Guzman portrays
Aguirre as a typical military general produced by the
Revolution who was confined to his post to make fortune out
of bribes. Aguirre had throughout his military career during
the Revolution followed faithfully his caudillo. He was,
therefore, pained to learn that the caudillo did not trust
him any more. He was so much faithful that knowing fully
well that the caudillo was after his life, he did not agree
to rebel against him. he failed to understand the existing
situation in Mexico in which "if you do not forestall your
enemy, your enemy will forestall you". 43 That is what
exactly happened in the case of Aguirre.
43 Guzman, La sombra del candillo (Mexico City, Compafiia General de Ediciones, S.A. 1962), p. 212.
149
Prieto Laurens, the chairman of the Partido Nacional
Cooperatista, whose member once Guzman had been, was
partially portrayed by Olivier Fernandez. He symbolizes the
institutionalised corruption and immoral practices prevalent
in the Mexican society. Olivier Fernandez's philosophy was
to be victorious and earn absolute power at any cost. He did
not believe the kind of faithfulness or gratefulness Aguirre
believed. For him "Gratefulness ! In politics nobody is
grateful because nothing is given. The favours or the
service offered are always those that are convenient to
one. 1144 It was Olivier who forced Aguirre to enter politics.
But when circumstances changed and Aguirre was no more in
the. caudillo's good book, Olivier also left Aguirre and
switched over to the caudillo's side unhesitatingly without
wasting any time.
Olivier Fernandez's equivalent is General catarino
Ibanez who is also a by-product of the Revolution. He knew
fully well that military might was a decisive factor in
winning the game. He would carefully weigh the concessions
offered and possibilities to win of both the factions and
then throw his weight behind the supposedly victorious
party. This kind of military politicians produced by the
Revolution were " ... converted as by magic in governors or
ministers illiterates, with licence of uncouthness, in
public offices of high responsibilities. 1145
44 Ibid., p. 42.
45 Ibid., p. 86.
150
The caudillo figures in the entire novel at one place
only, but his shadow is felt everywhere. He was powerful
but, at the same time, insecure and uncomfortable due to the
trechorous atmosphere he helped to create. It was this
insecure feeling that did not let him believe Aguirre's
claim of innocence. He suffered continuously a fear
psychosis that he might be eliminated at any time in the
same way as he eliminated his predecessor. That forced him
to consider all doubtful characters as his enemies and,
therefore, made every possible effort to nip them in the
bud. When he was told that his opponents would be proposing
Aguirre's candidature for the post of the president, the
caudillo took it as direct threat to his power. Since
Aguirre knew the caudillo'~ system too well, it made him all
the more uncomfortable and the caudillo did not leave any
chance to liquidate Aguirre before he could become a real
threat to his power. After Aguirre was assassinated, the
Mexican press did not print a single line against the
caudillo. It rather kept supporting him and his wild rule in
Mexico. Guzman did not hinder in attacking the role of the
Mexican press. He had also condemned it in his previous work
-- La querella q.e Mexico. In fact, the caudillo and his
successor resemble with the characters of Alvaro Obregon and
Plutarco Elias Calles.
Axkana Gonzalez is a character of Guzman's imaginative
mind. It seems that the author invented him to put forward
his own thoughts and ideas. Axkana feels sorry for his
151
political friend Aguirre who met his tragic death and for
which he himself was not less responsible. He had helped in
creating that tragic situation. If Axkana symbolizes the
conscience of the Revolution, that is also shown without
action to correct the wrong. He visualizes clearly his own
and his friend Aguirre's tragic end, but the hostile and
volatile atmosphere makes him also impotent. He survives the
assassination attempt and takes shelter in the American·
ambassador's car and becomes unconscious. Larry M. Grimes
finds a symbolic meaning in this scene and states that it
gives "the only faint note of hope in the entire novel,
Guzman allows the possibility that conscience of the
Revolution might live on. 1146 To say that Axkana exonerates
himself completely of the guilt of his presence in such a
terrible hopeless situation would be erroneous. Those forces
that compel him to participate in the political process and
make him unable to correct the wrong that was an outcome of
a historical process cannot be ignored. Axkana was in that
paradoxical situation in which in spite of his good
intention he could not avoid his participation in the
degeneration of human values. But what he perhaps thought
better was to be in the main stream rather than being a
silent spectator. The creation of Axkana's character in the
novel is in a way Guzman's objective commentary on the
chaotic si tutation that prevailed at that particular
46 ' 6 Gr1mer, n. 4, p. 2.
152
juncture of the Mexican history and which is analysed by
Grimes as follows:
If the author had not wanted to attack the moral degeneration of the Revolution, he would not have bothered to introduce a figure symbolic of a true revolutionary conscience. Guzman does portray postrevolutionary Mexico with objectivity, but most certainly not with sympathy. He is sympathetic to the personal tragedy of Aguirre, the moral tragedy 9f Axkana and the social tragedy of the Mexican masses. 4
Guzman seems to be so disillusioned and bitter in the
course of his political career that he finds, except
Francisco I. Madero, all national leaders corrupt and
degenerated. The· dark side of the Revolution has been in
focus in both of his novels El aguila y la serpiente and
La sombra del caudillo. What the author thinks is that the
corrupt, self-centred and directionless leadership would
never allow re-birth of Mexico. it does not mean that Guzmen
fails to recognize the sincerity and good intentions of the
Revolution. What he is worried_about is the impossibility of
achieving the national objective through the corrupt and
unprincipled political leadership. What Guzman does not
realize is that he has overemphasized the events and has
tried to impose his own ideology in drawing the conclusion.
There was hardly any well thought out ideology to guide the
Revolution that Guzman was looking for while working with
the immoral caudillos. And if at all there was any, that was
overtaken by the whims of power hungry leadership to cater
for its individualistic interest.
47 b" I 1d., p. 63.
153
Mina el . mozo, heroe de Navarro which was published in
1932 in Madrid was entitled as Javier Mina, heroe de Espana
y de Mexico in its sec·ond edition that was published in
1955. In 1938, Filadelfia, paraiso de conspiradores was also
published. Both of these novels were short and dealt with
the Mexican Independence Movement of 1810. It is not
proposed to deal with these novels here as their themes
pertain to a different historical period which is not
intended to be probed in this study. In spite of the fact
that the present thesis is principally concerned with the
period 1900-1930, it would be too mechanical an approach if
Guzman's ambitious five-volume novel Memorias de Pancho
Villa would not have been touched upon. These five volumes
consist of El hombre y sus armas (1938), Campos de batalla
( 1939), Panoramas politicos (1939), La causa del pobre
(1940), and Adversidades del bien (1940).
In El hombre y sus armas Martin Luis Guzman describes
Pancho Villa's early days when he was a bandit in the north
and gained prominence for his military skill in Madero's
army. He fought against Porfirio Diaz' s army~ Victoriano
Huerta got him jailed, but he succeeded in escaping from the
jail with which this first volume comes to an end. The
second volue Campos de batalla narrates Villa's.rise to the
post of a general of the Division of the North and his
efforts to throw the military dictator Victoriano Huerta out
of power who had managed to assassinate Madero. Panoramas
politicos not only describes Villa's military campaigns
154
against Victoriano Huerta's army but also underlines the
political differences between Pancho Villa and the 'Primer
Jefe', Venustiano Carranza. The fourth volume La causa del
pobre deals with the end of fightings between Villa and
Huerta and the beginning of power-struggle between Villistas
and Carrancistas forces. The last volume of this series
Adversidades del bien begins with the victorious entrance of
Villa into the capital city to meet Emiliano Zapata, the
military leader of the armies of the South. But there was
something else in the store as General Alvaro Obregon
defeated the Division of the North in the famous battle near
the city of Celaya. The last part of this novel ends with
the vivid description of Villa returning to the North with
his remaining soldiers.
Helen Phipp Houck in her article 'Las obras novelescas
de Martin Luis Guzman' claims that Guzman's Las memorias de
Pancho Villa is the most original work. 48 As the novel is
written in the first person, Guzman does not seem to impose
his thoughts and ideas on the reader. It is the character
that speaks for himself in an autobiographical style. This
style, on the one hand, saves Guzman from facing unnecessary
explanations and criticism, on the other, enables him to
recreate Pancho Villa from bandit to saviour with great
success. He let his character narrate his life, his actions,
his faith and his emotions freely. There is no camouflaging
48 Helen Phipp Houck, "Las obras novelescas de Martin Luis Guzman", Revista Iberoamericana, vol. 3, no. 5, 15 February 1941, p. 157.
155
of any kind. Pancho Villa himself reveals what made him a
bandit:
... I am a man whom destiny has certainly thrown to this world to suffer. I do not expect any mercy because my enemies do not want me to live. You know from where my sufferings came : from wishing to defend my family's honour. And the truth is that I. prefer to be the world's first bandit before admiting that my family's honour is withered. 49
This is also Guzman's argument in defence of Villa's
banditry. What he implies to say is that the rules and so-
called value based system of the haves are responsible to
drive one to banditry to save one's honour. Villa is not at
all ashamed of his banditry, which he found compelled to
adopt for salvaging his people from unending misery and
atrocities committed on them by those few whom they have
been serving since the dawn of the master and servant game.
So even without having the opportunity of attending any
seminary or school education to develop a formal mental
calibre and arising out of Mexico's vast majority living in
oblivion and anoymity, the objective reality of life imbued
him with those thoughts and courage that were not at all
less important for a social change than the lessons learnt
in sophisticated class-room environment. Therefore, he
fights for that cause with full dedication and nothing
destracts him from following his selfless path:
That is to say that all men of now and all those of future will know that I, Pancho Villa, was a loyal man
49 Guzman, Las memorias de pancho Villa (Mexico City, Compania General de Ediciones, S.A., 1963), p. 17.
156
whom the destiny brought to this world for fighting for the poors' well being, and that I did not ever betray my cause nor I forgot for anything the fulflllment of my duty. 50
In spite of the fact that he was an illiterate military
general, he had clear vision of leading the impoverished
Mexican masses. He was neither athiest nor a dogmatic
religious man. He also wanted his people to understand that
either of the extremes was bad for them:
But I do not consider all that sacred that is covered under the name of religion, because most of the socalled religious people use religion for the benefit of their interests, not for the benefit of the teachings they preach, and that is why there are good and bad priests, that is why we must tolerate sgme and help them, and persecute and annihilate others. 1
He had not even heard of social or political thoughts
that are considered necessary for the forward mobility of a
society. However, he had understood well the reasons for a
vast majority of people living in impoverished conditions
for centuries. The political scientists may call it class
consciousness, but for Villa it was a naked truth written
large on the faces of toiling Mexican masses : " •.. The force
of the rich people is very large until it seems to be
victorious, and they have many ways to block the poor
people's path for which they corrupt and hire with money and
threaten some, and fondle others." 52
50 Ibid. I p. 124.
51 Ibid. I p. 567.
52 Ibid. I p. 229.
157
Pancho Villa did suffer from inferiority complex and
the 'Carrancistas' deliberately infuriated him by reminding
him of his low social backgrou-nd and pointing to him that he
was a leader only of some illiterate and uncivilized people.
But this bandit leader could not be cowed down by such cheap
tactises. He was such a great military strategist that he
masterminded the major battles between Victoriano Huerta's
federal forces and the revolutionary forces and led them to
victory. That is why he was proud of his military skill and
said that he might not be a career militarist, but through
experience he knew that the main thing for a leader was to
conceive the possible development in a battle field and the
capacity of taking timely decisions and execute them
accordingly. 53 If Villa at all accepted anybody's
leadership, it was Francisco I. Madero. In the factionalist
period of Mexican history, when Villa saw no end to their
personality clashes, he proposed that; for giving the
Revolution a logical conclusion and in the larger interest
of the people and the nation, he and Venustiano Carranza
should be executed.
The negative or pessimistic approach that Guzman had
taken in El aguila y la serpiente and La sombra del caudillo
is no more seen in Las memorias. He starts seeing the
unwanted events in the Revolution as necessary outcome of
the historical, socio-political forces and which also played
53 . Ib1d., p. 127.
158
a positive role by raising the level of political
consciousness and nationalistic approach of the Mexican
masses. Further without Las memorias the autrentic portrait
of this legendry revolutionary leader would not have been
complete. Grimes rightly states:
No amount of historical data nor eye-witness accounts could possibly provide the material necessary to treat Villa in the depth achieved by Martin Luis Guzman .... Indeed, the historical and literary aspects of the leader blend together so well in the Memorias that it is ditficult to know where one begins and the other ends. 4
If La querella de Mexico tries to interpret the history
of the Mexican people from Guzman's point of view which was
shaped by the Mexican liberalism, El aguila y la serpiente
shows the author's disillusionment and dismay about the
Revolution. La sombra del caudillo portrays the post-
revolutionary faction-ridden political system of Mexico. The
caudillos who create chaos ultimately become victims of
their misdeeds. In these two novels Guzman finds the re-
birth of Mexico as a day-dream. The Revolution rather gets
terminated into institutionalized corruption and complete
lawlessness. It is Las memorias de Pancho Villa in which the
author seems to have done some introspection and
retrospection that lead him to affirm the Mexican
Revolution. Here the author's pessimism gets converted into
optimism and a positive attitude is found towards the
54 Grimes, n. 4, p. 85.
159
Revolution. Guzman's literary efforts are invaluable as they
represent his generation's serious concern about re-defining
the history of its people and their movements. It is an
attempt to comprehend its own history, evolution of
political systems and degenration and regeneration of
national values. Whether the Revolution succeeded in
transforming the Mexican society or not, the temptation is
to look for Mexico and its Mexican.
160