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  • Utopías inquietantes: narrativa proletaria en México
  • Manuel Gutiérrez
Ortega, Bertín. Utopías inquietantes: narrativa proletaria en México. Veracruz: Ataranzas, 2008. 231 pp.

Mexican literary studies have dedicated much attention to the Novel of the Revolution, a genre that continues to inspire rereading. More recently, however, other genres of the immediate post-revolutionary era have caught the attention of scholars. Studies dedicated to Cristero and Indigenista novels, as well as to the experimental fiction of the Contemporáneos and the Estridentistas, have expanded our understanding of 1920s and 1930s Mexican narrative. Yet, not surprising for an era rich in literary and artistic production, there still remain some subgenres to be explored, if not for their literary quality, certainly for their historical relevance. Bertín Ortega’s Utopías inquietantes: narrativa proletaria en México (2008), examines social realist literature that narrated the experience of downtrodden workers, corrupt union leaders, and heroic rural teachers in the 1930s. These narratives focused on class conflict and were informed by socialist doctrines of various stripes. These in turn imbued the plots of these works with pedagogical and ideological purpose. According to Ortega, novels like Gustavo Ortiz Hernan’s Chimeneas (1937), Miguel Bustos Cerecedo’s Un sindicato escolar (1936), and Raúl Carrancá y Trujillo’s ¡Camaradas! (1938), have been unfairly excluded from the purview of literary historiography. Noting that many of these social realist novels were centered on urban life in the age of Cardenismo, Utopías inquietantes attempts to reconstruct some of the more memorable narratives that have long been discarded by publishers and critics alike.

In the introduction to Utopías inquietantes, Ortega describes the rise of the proletariat in Mexico and establishes a loose working definition of what characterizes “proletarian narratives.” For Ortgea, most of these novels were written by professors who participated in the rural educational campaigns that succeeding revolutionary governments sponsored in the aftermath of the war of 1910. Ortega points out that many of these narratives focused on education and deployed fiction as a means to educate workers and peasants about their civil and social rights (20). These novels also depicted labor strikes and often openly advocated for unity among workers. Finally, corrupt politicians and heroic union leaders and teachers were staple characters of “proletarian narratives.” Chapter one, “Razones y condiciones para la aparición de un literatura proletaria,” elaborates on this definition and further examines the historical conditions that gave rise in Mexico to a proletarian literature. According to Ortega, the main difference between these narratives and those that form part of the canon of the Novel of the Revolution is that the latter represented the revolution in a negative light. Proletarian literature on the other hand—though not an impartial observer—explicitly viewed itself as addressing a certain social class. Its main purpose, therefore, was to denounce the revolution’s mistakes, but more importantly, to support its successes and further its social commitment. While the Novels of the Revolution viewed the social upheaval as a failed enterprise, “proletarian narratives” believed the revolution was still ongoing and still capable of achieving its goals. [End Page 374]

Chapter two, “El campo como utopía,” focuses on narratives that addressed the experience of rural peasants as they came into contact with the metropolitan worker. The main goal of these narratives, like Ortiz Hernández’s Chimeneas, was to advocate for unity between peasant and urban workers. The author believed their struggles as laborers in the face of a modernizing nation was a common cause. Chapter three, “El cardenismo: hacia la nación soberana” analyzes novels set in the age of Lázaro Cárdenas. Despite the negative view of the Revolution presented by liberal authors like Mariano Azuela, in his canonical Los de Abajo, Ortega finds a more positive vision in “proletarian narratives” that echoed the euphoria of Cadenismo. These texts, such as Fortino López’s Amaneceres (1937), focused on the revolution’s accomplishments and vindicated the successes of the post-1917 revolutionary governments. It also highlighted that the many worker protests that characterized the 1930s often implicitly supported the Cárdenas presidency. Characteristic of most proletarian narratives, Amaneceres includes an account...

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