Nice, quick read!
Also, some interesting notes on wikipedia with decent analysis.
Sobre el autor y la obra
-
Esteban
o
Vida:
1805-1851
o
Part of
Creole aristocracy
o
Argentine poet, fiction writer, cultural
promoter, and political activist
o
Significant role in development of Argentine literature
o
One of Latin America’s most important Romantic
authors
o
He expressed the dilemma of his time: artistic
tendencies teach the writer to love the countryside and the “folk,” but living
experiences teach the man that the countryside and its inhabitants constitute a
threat to all the values (Franco, pg. 48)
-
Was considered the first Argentine story
-
Esta obra, según Wikipedia (English): Echeverría's
renown as a writer rests largely on his powerful short story El matadero
("The Slaughterhouse," written in 1839 but not published until 1871),
a landmark in the history of Latin American literature. It is mostly
significant because it displays the perceived clash between "civilization
and barbarism", that is, between the European and the "primitive and
violent" American ways. Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, another great
Argentine writer and thinker, saw this clash as the core of Latin American
culture. Read in this light, "The Slaughterhouse" is a political
allegory. Its more specific intention was to accuse Rosas of protecting the
kind of thugs who murder the cultivated young protagonist at the Buenos Aires
slaughterhouse. Rosas and his henchmen stand for barbarism, the slain young man
for civilization.
-
Work was written in 1838 but not published until
1871
Contexto político y social
-
Escrito
durante la dictadura de Juan Manuel de Rosas
-
División
política en el país entre los federales (con Rosas) y los unitarios (contra
Rosas)
-
Echeverría
y otros unitarios pensaban que el gobierno rosista hacía mucho daño al progreso
del país
-
Interés
entre los intelectuales en el romanticismo (desde Europa)
Apuntes de Wikipedia (Estilo
de la obra, y análisis/interpretación)
-
Estilo
o
Costumbrista
elements
§ Local color
§
Reflects normal Argentine speech (de la clase
popular) – americanisms and use of “voseo”
o
Idea of power of feelings over reason (romanticism!)
o
Estilo libre
-
The slaughterhouse (matadero) represents the political environment of Argentina during
the dictatorship of Rosas. Echeverría was criticizing the violent iron fist of
the dictator, which he thought was holding the country back.
o
Work had the goal of showing the reader the
damage of Rosas’ violence in the country – there’s got to be another way! (So
go Unitarian!)
-
Idea of the loss of the individual to the
federal mass that had replaced individual thought during Rosas’s dictatorship (this is majorly important in the romantic
light, since romantics glorify the individual)
-
Implication that the church is on Rosas’s side,
with Rosas being almost like a god
-
Indication of the injustice and social
manipulation performed by Rosas’ government
-
Comparison of the federales with cannibals (their vicious hunger for meat)
-
The power of the mass/multitude (the crowd of
hungry federals) – fear of the power of the mass (which is a little bit
enlightened!)
-
The focus in the battle between civilization and
barbarie
-
Racism against blacks/mestizos/mulattos / SOCIAL
DIVIDE
o
Many blacks blindly supported Rosas, while many unitarios were the richer white
intellectuals
o
Pictures blacks as dishonest and untrustworthy
-
Defiant/vigorous spirit of unitarios as
portrayed by the runaway bull (which is initially thought to be female,
underestimating its power and oomph...)
-
Parallel between the torture of the bull and
then later, of the young unitario,
who is killed by the federales
What Franco says about El
matadero
-
Defends European values and attacks primitive
native barbarism
-
The conflict between the forces of primitive
darkness (the tribe or the mass) and the civilized individual
-
Political allegory which attacks the
dictatorship of Rosas and the barbarism of his supporters
-
Story relates an incident that took place in the
slaughterhouse of Buenos Aires during the Lenten fast – the sudden arrival of
50 head of cattle after a period without meat is the occasion for an orgy of
butchering
-
Butchers are symbolic for gauchos, the parts of
the nation that supported Rosas
-
Image of a degraded society, in which men are
ready to betray one another and Negro/mulatto men/women are too insensitive to
realize the disgusting nature of their work
-
Death of a young man dressed in European style –
symbolic; this is the story of the forces of civilization defeated by those of
barbarism
Resumen breve (Wikipedia)
Ocurre una inundación que causa una crisis
económica en Buenos Aires. La crisis se manifiesta en una falta de vacas para
el consumo. Al fin el gobierno “provee gentilmente” cincuenta novillos gordos
para ayudar a aliviar la falta de res en la ciudad. Echeverría pasa a narrar
como sucede el día en el matadero: la violencia del acto de matar a los
novillos, el descubrimiento de que uno de estos es un toro viejo, el escape de
dicho toro y su persecución por los campos vecinos, y finalmente, el asesinato
de un joven unitario que simplemente pasaba por la zona.
Temas/ideas importantes
-
Estilo
de escritura
o
Narrator is sometimes “objective” but is
demonstrated to truly be passionate about what he’s narrating; sometimes
interjects to talk directly to reader, showing passion
o
Censura
de palabras “malas”
o
Tongue-in-cheek, sarcastic tone (especially when
describing church and federals)
o
Seems to write it as though from the future,
writing as though looking back on this incident that occurred while Rosas and
federals were in power
o
There are some touches of metafiction, since the
narrator interjects sometimes and occasionally refers to “el lector”
-
Influencia
del romanticismo
o
La masa
vs. el individual
§ “¡Qué nobleza de alma! ¡Qué bravura en los
federales! Siempre en pandilla cayendo como buitres sobre la víctima inerte.”
o
Glorificación
del individual – el unitario individual como un Cristo
§ “un vaso de agua para que se refresque”
(like they gave to Jesus on cross)
§ “quedó atado en cruz”
o
National intellectual identity
o
Crítica social
o
The narrator is passionate
-
Presagia
el realismo y el naturalismo
o
Realismo: dibuja
la sociedad como un espejo (reproducción fiel del habla de la clase baja)
o
Naturalismo: determinismo (los de la clase baja
son bárbaros), énfasis en el lado animalista de los seres humanos (la
deshumanización), lo grotesco de la muerte de niño degollado (más detalles de
lo que quisieramos
-
Social criticism
-
Anticlericalism (not against religion, just the
church)
o
Idea that church has too much power over the
pueblo
-
Violencia
o
All the blood from the slaughter of the cows
o
The execution of the escaped bull
o
The torture and murder of the young Unitarian
-
Racismo
o
Describes
a group of blacks and mulatos as ugly – “cuya fealdad trasuntaba las harpías de
la fábula”
-
Civilización
vs. barbarie
o
Idea that the hunger/desperation for meat is
symbolic of the barbaric nature of the people
o
“Simulacro
en pequeño era éste del modo bárbaro con que se ventilan en nuestro país
las cuestiones y los derechos individuales y sociales.”
o
A little black boy is killed when the bull
manages to escape, beheaded by the rope. (Violence and barbaric nature of the pueblo
– they’re so focused on the bull that they don’t even notice the decapitated
child)
o
Idea of
mass against individual – “¡Qué nobleza de alma! ¡Qué bravura en los federales!
Siempre en pandilla cayendo como buitres sobre la víctima inerte.”
o
Individual
unitarian compares the federals with brutal animals (“Deberíais andar como
ellos en cuatro patas”)
Notes and Quotes from the story....
-Starts by powerfully differentiating himself from the antiguos historiadores españoles by saying, "I'm not starting this from Noah's ark!" haha! Also it is MI historia (ownership)
-In Lent= suffer, abstain.
-Critique of church's authority over people, "por delegación directa de Dios, tiene el imperio inmaterial sobre las consciencias y estómagos...."
-Abastecedores (suppliers, purveyors) were the federales (and also Catholics) & control flow of meat
-Tone: slightly tongue-in-cheek
-Rain comes! (so he doesn't start with Noah, but he starts with a flood!!) The faithful "gimoteaban" (almost like a sound an animal makes). They are blaming the sinners, the unitarios for this flood-YOUR crimes brought us this plague.
-so, there are now no cows at the matadero (NO meat in Argentina?!?! How can this be?!)
-Meat/fish becomes very expensive, terrible things were happening, and souls were going to heaven alright (just maybe not the way that was planned...)
-negras walked around looking to "devour" anything edible (negative language)
-Church is inflexible-doesn't see a need to break the forced fasting because it's still lent, darn it!
-50 cows available for a population used to consuming 250-200 daily. Again, church controlling stomach. Maybe they'll start contollig other things-like breath or walk!
-People praise federales for the beef. Even the rats got excited.
-Naturally, "el Restaurador" (the dictator) was given "special permission" to eat meat.
-Mini-metafiction: "Pero para que el lector pueda percibirlo a un golpe de ojo preciso es hacer un croquis (sketch) de la localidad."
-In the winter, this place is like a lodazal and the animals can't even move.
-The people of the matadero are pro-federal, as evidenced by the signs they have placed around.
-The scene is grotesque. Mulatas and negras also have a fable-like hideousness. It's a bloodbath. People are hooting/hollering, sliding...gross. Playing with estiércol.
Echeverría leaves his thoughts on this crystal clear:
"Simulacro en pequeño era éste del modo bárbaro con quien se ventilan en nuestro país las cuestiones y los derechos individuales y sociales."
-Emphasizes that this is impossible to describe "era para ser vista, no escrita."
- includes cuss words, but doesn't write them out completely (style choice?)
"sientiendo flojo el lazo", the bull manages to get away.
"El tropel y vocifería era infernal." (hellish, even though he's among the "saints").
-Emphasizing disloyalty....When the negras saw this, they swore they'd stop being achuradoras (women who take entrails from cows)- "No se sabe si cumplieron su promesa"
-Even though he's tired, bull keeps fighting...until he's cornered. Brutally torture the bull until "cayó el soberbio animal." Matasiete, the guy, "como orgulloso" (as in, he shouldn't be proud for doing this!)
- Matasiete, violent dude, heads to unitarian gathering (this can't end well). Sees 25 year old, attractive...and again, brutally killed. "Degüellalo como al toro!"
-But they didn't- take him to judge. He calls them "infames sayones {executioners}"
-They continue to torture him (cut his hair, shame him)
-Unitario responds: Sí, la fuerza y la violencia bestial. Esas son vuestras armas; infames. El lobo, el tigre, la pantera también son fuertes como vosotros. Deberíais andar como ellas en cuatro patas.
-Then, Uni blames them for assassinating the patria. All the federales seem to be able to respond is "don't you know what the Restaurador said?"
-Then, they start undressing him (again humilliation). Says he'd rather be decapitated than undressed. He has blanco cutis, sweat like perlas (imagery of innocence). He dies from the torture
-Stupefied spectators. Judge says, "We just wanted to have fun, he took it too far by dying"
-calls out their hypocrisy: Llamaban ellos salvaje unitario, conforme a la jerga inventada por el Restaurador, patrón de la cofradía, a todo el que no era degollador, carnicero, ni salvaje, ni ladrón; a todo hombre decente y de corazón bien puesto, a todo patriota ilustrado amigo de las luces y de la libertad; y por el suceso anterior puede verse a las claras que el foco de la federación estaba en el Matadero.
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