The Closed Hand: Images of the Japanese in Modern Peruvian Literature

Chapter Three. A Japanese Swashbuckler in La casa verde and a Japanese Gangster in Travesuras de la niña mala

59 Chapter Three A Japanese Swashbuckler in La casa verde and a Japanese Gangster in Travesuras de la niña mala In his remarkable novel La casa verde, Nobel Prize winner Mario­Vargas Llosa (Arequipa, 1936) creates one of the earliest and most indelible portraits of a Japanese protagonist in Spanish American literature .1 The novelist tapped into the legends echoing in the Amazon villagesaboutarealman,aruthlessfugitive of Japanese ancestry but of unknown origin who was called Tushía.2 Vargas Llosa first heard stories about Tushía’s mythical exploits on his eye-opening journey into theAmazonjungleinthesummerof19583 (Harssand­Dohmann366; Díez65).HetraveledtotheUpperMarañónregioninthecompanyof Peruvian anthropologist José Matos Mar and Mexican anthropologist Juan Comas who was studying the ­Aguaruna and Huambisa tribes. Vargas Llosa reveals what intrigued him about the mysterious and popular Japanese adventurer in his book La historia secreta de una novela: “Este extraordinario personaje se convirtió en pocos años en un turbio señor feudal, en un héroe macabro de una novela de aventuras” (48). Many years before, the local villagers said that Tushía had been seen riding a raft up the Marañón River where the Huambisa tribe lived, ignoring the warnings about all of the dangers he would find. Some thought he was fleeing the authorities who hunted the Japanese during World War II, but others believed he was escaping from the crimes he had committed in Iquitos (47–48). Tushía settled on a small island in the most impenetrable part of that area near the Ecuadorian border (Vargas Llosa, “On Being Nine” 71; Historia secreta 48) and organized his own small army of exiled Aguarunas and Huambisas, soldiers who had deserted from frontier military posts, and “other ‘Christian’ adventurers like him” (Historia secreta 48; “On Being Nine” 71). He led his followers on raids of the Aguaruna and Huambisa villages, seizing the rubber and hides the villagers had gathered for the local rubber barons, and selling the plunder in the cities through middlemen (Historia secreta 48; “On Being Nine” 71). 60 Chapter Three Described as a devil, but also touted for his exceptional daring and prowess with women, Tushía gained the popularity and envy of the villagers. They admired him not so much for plundering hides and rubber from the Indians, but for kidnapping young Indian girls whom he brought back to the island for his own personal harem. Vargas Llosa describes the cult that surrounded him: “Se hablaba míticamente del harén de Tushía, unos decían que tenía diez niñas, otros veinte y más: cada varón poblaba el harén con el número que le habría gustado para el suyo” (Historia secreta 49). Citing Vargas Llosa’s article “Crónica de un viaje a la selva,” published just after his return from the Amazon in the magazine Cultura Peruana,4 Luys Díez adds that although the villagers often referred to Tushía with a “temor reverencial,” very few, including the novelist, had ever seen him (68). In Chicais, however, the novelist learned firsthand about Tushía’s cruelty to women when he met a twelve-year-old girl who had escaped from his harem and was making her way back to her village (Vargas Llosa, Historia secreta 49; Díez 68). On a return trip to the jungle in 1964 to confirm the veracity of his portrait of Santa María de Nieva,5 Vargas Llosa interviewed a man in Nazareth who had known Tushía and witnessed some of his raids on the Jívaro Indian villages. Fluent in the languages of the Aguaruna and Huambisa, Tushía was well-acquainted with their customs and practices, which he used for his own benefit. Vargas Llosa describes what he learned about the celebrations that accompanied the looting, which was still occurring when the novelist visited the area: Era una ceremonia barroca y sensual, algo más complejo y artístico que un simple pillaje. Ocupado el pueblo, vencida la resistencia de los indígenas, Tushía se vestía de aguaruna, se pintaba la cara y el cuerpo con achiote y rupiña . . . y presidía una gran fiesta en la que danzaba y se emborrachaba con masato hasta caer inánime. (Historia secreta 49) Vargas Llosa also read an almost unintelligible letter that Tushía had sent to the Mission of Santa María de Nieva just prior to his death from smallpox on his island. In the...