Fictions of Apprenticeship: Following the Growth of Narrative Strategies and Cultural Ideologies in Rosario Castellanos

FICTIONS OF APPRENTICESHIP: FOLLOWING THE GROWTH OF NARRATIVE STRATEGIES AND CULTURAL IDEOLOGIES IN ROSARIO CASTELLANOS by Carol Clark D’Lugo Clark University WITHIN the trilogy of Rosario Castellanos’ short story, “Primera Revelación” (1950), and her two novels, Balún Canán (1957) and Oficio de tinieblas (1962), one can discern a trajectory of experimentation and reformation, with each piece growing out of and recontextualizing the material from the earlier effort. Indeed, there is evidence of a metaphorical Kunstleroman, the coming of age of a writer, in the author’s passage into a mature commentator of her homeland in Chiapas. This essay will examine the three works in succession, with attention given to strategies of enunciation, autobiographical references, the adversarial positioning of words vs. action and the ontological limits of class, gender and race in Mexico. The pieces exist as entities, yet are intertwined within time, space, character and thematics. The first two are the closest in story; the third is more of a major reworking, yet clearly a response to the earlier works. The main point of view of “Primera revelación” and Balún Canán is that of an unnamed girl, eight-years old, told primarily in the first person. In the short story, the child and her brother attend catechism classes, and readers are privy to their bewildered reactions. In Balún Canán, the child has an indigenous nana from whom she learns Mayan values, superstitions and mythologies as counterpoint to the classes in Catholic dogma. Each has a brother Mario, younger by one 101 year, who is the clear favorite as the male who will continue the family name. His death is traumatic for the family, leaving the girl in solitude in her attempt to reconcile church teachings with the concept of death. Both fictions depict vividly the frightening lessons of catechism when taken literally by children. Encouraged by literary friends to record her memories of childhood in Comitán, Chiapas (formerly Balún Canán), Castellanos publishes “Primera revelación” in 1950.1 With narration in the first person, the story is rich in loving descriptions of the family house and garden. The paragraphs are long, with scant dialogue, and soon center on the siblings and the differences between them in temperament, abilities and status within the family. They share, however , fear of dogs and God. God is particularly frightening, for their catechism teacher, who seems to delight in her depictions of Hell, has told them that God is always watching, and he has the power to call the good children to his side. They reason that God is more powerful than Satan, because it is his final decision to determine who goes where, and that, to avoid being called by God for their good deeds, they should try to be bad or to hide from God. After a nightmare in which he hears God calling him, Mario awakens in sweat and days later succumbs to appendicitis. Assured by the many crosses in the cemetery that her brother is not alone, the narrator concludes that, once again, he was the smart one, for God would never think of looking for him underground. The limited dialogue in the story is centered on Mario and the narrator’s efforts to protect him: the post-dream conversation; the girl’s effort to prevent the priest from entering Mario’s room; her pleading to return home, having been sent to a neighbor’s house for care after the death; and her incessant questioning about her brother’s whereabouts at the end. Having begun with detailed descriptions of house and family, the narrative has moved through more abstract notions of religion and death. It ends with the narrator’s taking pencil in hand and “naming” her brother, writing “Mario” on objects in the house and garden, thinking that to name is to make present. A number of years in gestation, Balún Canán takes the kernel that was the story and develops it into a multi-faceted narrative that deals more completely with questions of lack of communication between spouses and between races; socio-political repercussions from the Cardenista efforts to effect agrarian and educational change for...