la fiesta del chivo history, fiction or social psychology

7/29/2019 La Fiesta Del Chivo History, Fiction or Social Psychology

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Mario Vargas Llosa's La fiesta del chivo: history,

fiction, or social psychology?

The Latin American novel of dictatorship has long constituted a "subgenre" of Latin American

historical fiction. (1) The mid-nineteenth-century novel Amalia, by Jose Marmol, is frequently

cited as the very first work of this sort, based on the dictatorship of Juan Manuel Rosas in

Argentina. A long list of novels has followed, including Miguel Angel Asturias's El senor

presidente (1946), Alejo Carpentier's El recurso del metodo (1974), Gabriel Garcia Marquez's El

otono del patriarca (1975), Augusto Roa Bastos's Yo el Supremo (1974), and Luisa

Valenzuela's Cola de lagartija (1983), just to name a few. MarioVargas Llosa has twice forayed

into this genre: first, in his novel Conversacion en La Catedral (1969), based on the dictatorship

of Manuel Odria (during the years 1948-1956 in Peru); second, in his novel La fiesta del chivo

(2000), based on the dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo in the Dominican Republic from

1931-1961. In an interview with Enrique Krauze, Vargas Llosa explains his motivation for writing

La fiesta del chivo:

Yo estuve en Republica Dominicana [en 1975] cerca de ocho meses y

oi muchisimas anecdotas sobre un tema que parecia inevitable en

todas las conversaciones con dominicanos: la era de Trujillo.

Tambien lei algunos libros sobre este personaje, sobre la

conspiracion para acabar con el, sobre la vertiginosa represion. Y

de todo eso quiza lo que mas me impresiono fue la conducta de

personajes como el general Roman, conspiradores importantisimos que

hicieron fracasar la conspiracion. Por que fracaso? Porque los

principales conspiradores quedaron paralizados por lo que habian

hecho ... Trujillo seguia dentro de ellos, vivo aunque el cadaver

estaba alli. (22).

Thus, the author's stated intent is to il lustrate the effects of Trujillo's dictatorship on the

Dominican psyche through a historically-based, novelistic recreation of the Trujillo era. Since its

appearance in 2000, many critics have commented upon the historical basis of La fiesta del

chivo, but none has fully explored the relationship between the novel and history. Only Robin

Lefere has discussed the text's place within the Latin American historical novel, suggesting first,

that La fiesta del chivo falls short of what a contemporary historical novel should be, because it

does not problematize its relationship to history ("Lectura critica," 544). Second, Lefere claims

that because the novel lacks any aclaratory paratextual information regarding its historical

sources, it would be:


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erroneo--no procedente, contrario al 'pacto ficticio' que se nos propone --inferir del texto datos y

conocimientos relativos a un referente extratextual determinado, como la dictadura de Trujillo

[...] en rigor, solo podemos y debemos leer la novela como una fabula, que nos habla de la

dictadura y del poder, pero de forma metaforica y universalista; cualquier parecido con la

realidad es pura coincidencia. ("La fiesta del chivo" 332)

Lefere's comments ignore a long tradition of surreptitious use of historical intertexts in

contemporary Latin American historical fiction. Although some novels, like Garcia Marquez's El

general en su laberinto or Roa Bastos' Yo el Supremo make explicit reference to some of their

historical sources, other intertexts are covertly cited or alluded to within these texts, in a way

similar to Vargas Llosa's employment of historiography in La fiesta del chivo. Such "hidden"

references and parallels nonetheless invite a simultaneous reading of historical sources (which,

in the case of Vargas Llosa's novel, are, not surprisingly, easy to discover) as well as a dialogue

with them on the historical figure portrayed in the novel. In this manner, Vargas Llosa, like his

predecessors, implicitly questions the relationship between fiction and history, and the relative

truth values of each. (2)

Lefere's confusion on this topic may stem in part from the specific type of historical fiction that

Vargas Llosa creates in La fiesta del chivo. First, the author's work neatly reflects Noe Jitrik's

definition of the historical novel in Latin America. Jitrik favors a somewhat broad definition of the

historical novel which can include works that focus on local customs (costumbrismo), social

and/or political criticism, and social psychology. According to Jitrik:

la novela historica se propone representar conflictos sociales ...

pero tambien ... podrian entrar manifestaciones costumbristas, de

critica social o politica y aun de psicologia social ... en tal

abanico, una constante insoslayable seria la referencia a hechos

historicos ... En suma, ... lo que peculiarizaria la nocion de

novela historica es la re ferencia a un momento considerado como

historico ... y ... cierto apoyo documental realizado por quien se

propone tal representacion. (20-21)

Jitrik's definition citing the inclusion of representations of social psychology combined with

historical documentation characterizes with precision the type of historical fiction that Vargas

Llosa achieves in La fiesta del chivo. Vargas Llosa fictionalizes history by inventing a series of

characters and events who reflect the Dominican people's internalization of a code of

humiliation, adulation, and subservience vis a vis Trujillo.

Vargas Llosa has explicitly stated his view of the relationship between historical fact and

narrative fiction in his article "The Truth of Lies." According to the author:


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Successful fiction embodies the subjectivity of an epoch and for

that reason, although compared to history novels lie, they

communicate to us fleeting and evanescent truths which always

escape scientific descriptions of reality. Only literature has the

techniques and power to distill this delicate elixir of life: the

truth hidden in the heart of human lies. (164).

In other words, Vargas Llosa's interpretation of the demoralization and paralysis of the

Dominican nation as a psychological factor operative in the perpetuation of the Trujillo

dictatorship and the ultimate inability of the conspiracy against Trujillo to lead to a successful

overthrow of his government, may be thought of as an example of the "fleeting and evanescent

truths" provided by literature as opposed to history books.

In this process of elucidating the social psychology of the Dominican nation, Vargas Llosa's

novel also illustrates the concept of "fiction biography" as described by Naomi Jacobs in The

Character of Truth: Historical Figures in Contemporary Fiction. Jacobs defines three different

types of contemporary historical fiction: 1) fiction biographies; 2) fiction histories; and 3)

recombinant fiction. According to Jacobs, fiction biographies are fictional works that treat a time

period in the life of a single historical figure. These works employ both modernist and

postmodernist literary techniques and do not subscribe to the traditional obligations of

completeness and objectivity that characterize historical biography. Historical facts serve merely

as a departure point for the equally valid fictional development that "may provide truths more

valuable than those built on factual research" (Jacobs xx; 28). Jacobs's notion of fictional

development providing more valid truths than factual research is a concept that neatly coincides

with Vargas Llosa's notion of the "fleeting and evanescent truths" of fiction. Jacobs asserts that

in the twentieth century the tasks of the biographer and the fiction writer more closely

approximate each other than ever before:

Since we now tend to locate the true meaning of a life in the

private springs of public actions, any biographer who undertakes to

present a life must attempt to provide knowledge that cannot be

established irrefutably upon facts; working more or less from

speculation, the biographer finally resurrects a spirit that could

be the biographer's own shadow. More and more, biographies have

come to read like psychological novels, and once biographers had

entered the domain of the novelist, it was inevitable that serious

novelists would reenter the domain of the biographer ... The new

fiction biographer solves this problem [of verifiable vs. imagined

elements] by creating a context in which the two sorts of facts,

now indistinguishable from one another, serve equally the

stimulative function of truth and the symbolic and evocative


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functions of fiction. (30-31)

Jacobs's comment about the linking of truth and the symbolic functions of fiction leads us to her

second category, fiction histories. The author defines these works as those that reduce

historical figures to simplified types. They go beyond specific historical contexts and present

historical figures as "representative of unchanging patterns of human behavior" (Jacobs, xx).

Jacobs's third category, recombinant fiction, refers to the mixture of historical and mythical

figures that destroys all boundaries between fiction and history.

Vargas Llosa's La fiesta del chivo clearly exemplifies Jacobs's concept of fiction biography. The

Peruvian author focuses on the "slice of life" constituted by the final days of Rafael Leonidas

Trujillo's existence. From this concretely historical departure point, through flashbacks,

dialogues, and reminiscences, other key moments in the dictator's life are recreated in the

novel. Although the novel is based on historical sources, it presents multiple and first person

narrators (as opposed to omniscient narration), and Trujillo and other characters' thoughts,

dialogues and conversations. These are the so-called "imagined facts" (in addition to invented

characters and anecdotes) that blend with the verifiable ones (historical names, dates, and

events) to create the fusion of truth and the symbolic effect of fiction. This symbolic effect is

manifested through the representation of absolute power and its effects on a populace. (3)

The "imagined facts" present in La fiesta del chivo are carefully interwoven with information from

historical sources and frequently overlap with them within the novel. These "imagined facts"

illustrate Vargas Llosa's main novelistic technique in La fiesta del chivo: the invention of

characters and/or events during the Trujillo dictatorship, which, although not historically

documented, illustrate Vargas Llosa's interpretation of historical information about the Trujillo

era as expressed in historical documentation. Vargas Llosa either invents circumstances or

manipulates historical facts to express his vision of the social psychology of the Dominican

people under the dictatorship. Vargas Llosa portrays the Dominicans as a people so frightened,

browbeaten and manipulated by the Trujillo government, as to have internalized a code of

subservience and humiliation which rendered them paralytic and doomed to inaction until the

conspirators of May 30th finally assassinated Trujillo. The failure of this act to propel the nation

into rising up against the government and instituting a new one, is also seen as a result of years

of psychological abuse that causes the nation to be paralyzed by Trujillo's death.

The first conspirator upon whom Vargas Llosa focuses in the novel is the army lieutenant

Amado Garcia Guerrero. The narrator informs us that Trujillo tests Garcia Guerrero's loyalty by

forbidding his marriage to Luisa Gil, whose brother was supposedly a conspirator against

Trujillo, arrested for belonging to the opposition group, 14 de Junio. Although this episode

appears to be fictional, it is based on Trujillo's historically documented tendency to subject his


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supporters to such proofs of faithfulness. The novel highlights Garcia Guerrero's servile

behavior in this episode by emphasizing the intimidating effect of Trujillo's glance ["una mirada

que nadie podia resistir sin bajar los ojos, intimidado, aniquilado por la fuerza que irradiaban

esas pupilas perforantes" (52)] and Garcia Guerrero's passive acceptance of Trujillo's negative

response:

Salio con paso marcial, disimulando la zozobra que lo embargaba. Un

militar obedecia las ordenes, sobre todo si venian del Benefactor y

Padre de la Patria Nueva, quien habia distraido unos minutos de su

tiempo para hablarle en persona. Si le habia dado esa orden a el,

oficial privilegiado, era por su propio bien. Debia obedecer. (54).

Hence, Vargas Llosa uses historical information (that Trujillo subjected his men to such tests)

projected through fictional details (Garcia Guerrero's marriage plans with Luisa Gil) to illustrate

his thesis about the progressive squashing of the psyche of the Dominican people.

Another undocumented but plausible episode that highlights Dominican humiliation and passive

acceptance is Trujillo's treatment of the character don Froilan, one of his ministers. In the novel,

Trujillo has an affair with Froilan's wife. The dictator later boasts of his relationship with her in

front of Froilan and in public:

-- Saben ustedes cual ha sido la mejor, de todas las hembras que me

tire? ... La cabeza de cabellos plateados busco y encontro, en el

circulo de caballeros que escuchaba, la cara livida y regordeta del

ministro. Y termino: La mujer de Froilan! ... don Froilan habia

heroicamente sonreido, reido, festejado con los otros, la humorada

del jefe ... tantos millones de personas ... aceptaron ser vejados

de manera tan salvaje (lo fueron todos alguna vez) como esa noche,

en Barahona, don Froilan Arala. (81-82)

Don Froilan's passive acceptance of Trujillo's outrageous comments and actions is offered as a

typical example of the type of humiliating behavior to which the dictator subjected his people.

The constant fear instilled in the public, the lack of free will and need to practice servile

behavior, led to reactions of paralysis and passivity among the Dominican people. Although the

narrator of La fiesta del chivo affirms with regard to this episode: "Lo contaba el propio

Crassweller, el mas conocido biografo de Trujillo" (83), no such mention appears in this

historical source. Instead, we are told by Crassweller that Trujillo used sex "for other purposes

than sex itself, the use of it as a lever. In Trujillo's case it was employed at times as an

instrument of power" (Crassweller, 80). Such passages in historical texts allow the reader to

imagine Trujillo doing just the sort of thing Vargas Llosa attributes to him in the novel (bedding

his minister's wife to test and humiliate him), but without his actually having necessarily


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performed the specific actions attributed to him by novelistic discourse. Thus, there is a certain

foundation in historical documentation, at the same time that the events appear to be purely

fictional. They are "imagined facts," yet their historical derivation contributes to their expression

of greater truths achieved through fictional development: the psychological damage and general

demoralization suffered by Dominicans under Trujillo.

Many other similar examples can be cited. When Juan Tomas Diaz, one of the dictator's

generals, shows mercy toward the invaders during the VenezuelanCuban attack on the

government of the Dominican Republic, Trujillo removes him from his post and then holds a

dinner to which he invites him in order to shame him in front of his fellow officers. Diaz's only

reaction is to lower his gaze, unable to meet Trujillo's stare (96-100). When Antonio de la

Maza's brother is murdered by the regime because he was witness to the Galindez murder

ordered by Trujillo, he remains silent, as if paralyzed (130) and passively accepts Trujillo's

pacifying offer of some government contracts. Even after Trujillo's assassination, characters,

such as general Pupo Roman, are portrayed as unable to act to consummate the government

overthrow because of a passivity instilled in them for years and years under the Trujillo

dictatorship: "Sumido en esa especie de hipnosis penso que su indolencia acaso se debia a

que, aunque el cuerpo del Jefe estuviera muerto, su alma, su espiritu o como se llamara eso,

continuaba esclavizandolo" (450). Pupo Roman's inaction is of course historically documented,

but here Vargas Llosa offers an interpretation of the inner motives of historical figures. Such

motives have never been historically determined, since Pupo Roman was subsequently

arrested and tortured to death by Trujillo's son and the remaining state intelligence apparatus.

Of all the novelistic episodes that dwell on the servile behavior, humiliation and paralysis of the

Dominican nation, the one that stands out the most is the story of Urania Cabral and her father,

Agustin Cabral. This episode, the central one of the novel, focuses on Cabral's desperate

reaction when he suddenly falls into disfavor with Trujillo. Through Urania's recollections and

narration, we learn that Cabral offered the virginity of his fourteen year old daughter as a peace

offering to Trujillo, in the hopes that the dictator (who was merely testing his loyalty) would

restore him to his former position. Although Agustin Cabral and Urania are largely fictitious

characters, the act of offering one's daughter to Trujillo in this manner, was a historically

documented practice that shows better than any other, the level of demoralization and servitude

of the Dominican nation.

Vargas Llosa invents and develops Urania according to the way in which Trujillo actually treated

women, according to a number of historical sources. Trujillo y sus mujeres by Ramon Alberto

Ferreras is the historical source that serves as the main inspiration for Vargas Llosa's

representation of Urania and the horrible experiences that befall her. Ferreras describes the

practice of fathers offering Trujillo the supreme sacrifice of their daughters' virginity thus:

Aquel personaje [Trujillo] de quien era orgullo en sus dias, para


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algunos padres, el que sus hijas sostuvieran relaciones sexuales

con el tirano ... Fueron muchachas con quienes Trujillo ejercio el

medieval "derecho" de "prima noitte" o de pernada, ... con o sin su

consentimiento previo. (57-60)

In addition, the following comment by Ferreras is clearly the source for the description of how

Urania loses her virginity at Trujillo's Casa de Caoba:

Hay quienes aseguran; basados en confesiones de algunas de las

muchas virgenes que desfloro Trujillo entre 1950 y 1961, que cuando

ya el miembro viril no respondia con erecciones rapidas, ante la

presencia de las invioladas formas de la hermosa nina que tuviera

delante [...] Trujillo se irritaba consigo mismo, y en varias

ocasiones llego hasta romper el himen de una que otra muchacha,

utilizando el dedo mayor de su mano derecha. (98).

If we compare this description to Vargas Llosa's disturbing narration of the sexual encounter

between Urania and Trujillo, it is impossible not to see Ferreras's book as its source:

--Te equivocas si crees que vas a salir de aqui virgen, a

burlarte de mi con tu padre--deletreaba, con sorda colera, soltando

gallos.

Cogiendola de un brazo la tumbo a su lado. Ayudandose con

movimientos de las piernas y la cintura, se monto sobre ella. Esa

masa de carne la aplastaba ... Pero la asfixia no evito que

advirtiera la rudeza de esa mano, de esos dedos que exploraban,

escarbaban y entraban en ella a la fuerza. Se sintio rajada,

acuchillada; un relampago corrio de su cerebro a los pies. Gimio,

sintiendo que se moria.

--Chilla perrita, a ver si aprendes--le escupio la vocecita

hiriente y ofendida de Su Excelencia--. Ahora, abrete. Dejame ver

si lo tienes roto de verdad y no chillas de farsante.

Era de verdad. Tenia sangre en las piernas ... (558-559).

Finally, Ferreras narrates an episode of a girl who, like Urania Cabral, found herself thrown into

Trujillo's arms against her will. This tale may have partially inspired Vargas Llosa's writing of La

fiesta del chivo. In the episode recounted by Ferreras, the girl in question is tricked by her


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mother (who wanted her to be Trujillo's lover) into an encounter with Trujillo, who whisked her

off in his car and kept her captive for a month against her will when she refused to have a

sexual relationship with him. The girl finally decided she had no other alternative but to

capitulate to Trujillo, since no one would believe she was still a virgin anyway. Ferreras tells us:

La muchacha decidio correr la aventura y, luego de sus relaciones de aposento con el tirano, y

al dejarla este en libertad de hacer lo que le viniera en ganas ... se dedico a estudiar de nuevo

en su pueblo, y luego en la capital, hasta que corono su aspiracion de siempre, de dedicarse a

la medicina en cuerpo y alma, donde lleva decenios de bien logrado ejercicio profesional.

Pero, la de esta muchacha medica ... no es la historia de amor que titula este breve

comentario; que bien podria dar pie a una interesante novela historica. (Ferreras 109-110)

The girl in this anecdote, like Urania, is tricked into a sexual encounter with Trujillo by her

parent. They are also both excellent students and become respected professionals (Urania

Cabral is a successful attorney in the United States in the novel). Perhaps La fiesta del chivo is

the "interesting historical novel" that Vargas Llosa writes in response to Ferreras' comment. (4)

The life of Urania's father, the character Agustin Cabral, is also somewhat historically inspired.

Agustin Cabral appears to be based on the figure Mario Fermin Cabral, president of the Senate,

whose role as Trujillo favorite fallen in disfavor is documented in Robert Crassweller's Trujillo:

The Life and Times of a Caribbean Dictator. According to Crassweller, Fermin Cabral was the

Senator who proposed renaming Santo Domingo "Ciudad Trujillo": "Fermin Cabral moved in the

zone of adulation. Parades, reviews, titles, commemorations, memorials and the like were his

speciality" (Crassweller, 117). Fermin Cabral was later named Governor of Santiago Province.

After nine months in that office, he was suddenly arrested and accused of having coerced the

judge who dismissed charges against a Trujillo enemy, Gustavo Estrella Urena. These

accusations were part of a political hoax that Trujillo had elaborated to disassociate himself from

the excesses committed by one of his Generals, Jose Estrella. Estrella was accused of crimes

that were later thrown out on a technicality and Cabral was also eventually released

(Crassweller 117, 179, 192). (5)

Cabral's public humiliation in the newspaper section titled El Foro Publico also has at least a

theoretically historical basis. Crassweller indicates that all the letters printed there came fromthe office of Trujillo in the National Palace (Crassweller, 78). This episode may have been

inspired by the public defamation of another Cabral, the Licenciado Sanchez Cabral, whom

Jesus Galindez mentions in his study La Era de Trujillo:

El Caribe del dia siguiente, 10 de agosto, publico en su seccion

Foro Publico una carta insultante para el Lic. Sanchez Cabral,

llamando la atencion sobre la cena y los discursos pronunciados.


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[...]

Si se leen atentamente todas estas cartas y comentarios, poco a

poco se confirma la extrana razon del escandalo: el Lic. Sanchez

Cabral y el Lic. Alvarez no habian mencionado a Trujillo en sus

discursos ... (129) (6)

Vargas Llosa appears to fuse these two historical figures that share the name Cabral in his

construction of their novelistic namesake. Nonetheless, the author significantly alters historical

detail in his portrayal of Agustin Cabral, because historical texts specifically point out Cabral's

role as political scapegoat in the episode surrounding General Estrella, whereas the novel

simply extracts the notion of a feigned disfavor to test Cabral's loyalty and to show how Trujillo

employed such tactics to augment the feelings of dependency and subservience of his

followers. Hence, Vargas Llosa diffuses the political charge of the historical reference and

infuses the episode with a purely psychological content: the portrayal of the techniques used to

subjugate and humiliate the Dominican people. This is the emphasis that Vargas Llosa gives to

his portrayal of Trujillo as historical figure in his novel in his effort to i llustrate the devastating

psychological results (paralysis and passivity) of authoritarian rule on Dominican society. (7)

Finally, the details surrounding Trujillo's unusual Tuesday trip to La Casa de Caoba on the night

of his assassination have been altered in the novel for purely fictional purposes. Ferreras' text

Trujillo y sus mujeres suggests that Luis Rodriguez, Manuel de Moya Alonzo's chauffeur, called

Trujillo that night with the news that he had successfully arranged the rendezvous for the

dictator with the female whom he had requested:

Amigos de Luis Rodriguez cuentan que la noche del 30 de mayo,

1961, Luis Rodriguez llamo a la estancia Radhames y pregunto al

telefonista de la puerta si Trujillo estaba en su residencia ...

Trujillo escucho a Luis por telefono decirle que la muchacha de

que le habia hablado esa manana en el Palacio Nacional, estaba

lista

para su primera noche de amor, esperandole en la casa de Caoba, a

donde el la habia llevado ...

Segun los amigos de Luis Rodriguez, esa llamada llevo a Trujillo

a la perdicion... . no tenia otra visita ni actividad programada

para esa noche, toda vez que al dia siguiente, como de costumbre,

era que estaba programado su viaje al retiro de la Casa de

Caoba....

Luego de la llamada de Luis Rodriguez Trujillo volvio a salir a la


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calle ... (119).

Vargas Llosa also attributes Trujillo's decision to travel to La Casa de Caoba in San Cristobal

that night as one based on a desired sexual encounter. However, in the novel, it is not the

spontaneous call of Luis Rodriguez that causes Trujillo to change his plans, but rather Trujillo's

own decision to seek another sexual partner after his disastrous experience a few nights before

with Urania Cabral. Thus, once again, the historical essence remains intact, but the minor

details are changed for narrative coherency and enhanced narrative characterizations. In other

words, the fact that in the novel Truji llo decides to seek a new sexual partner (rather than

receiving a fortuitous call from Rodriguez) suggests the character's machismo and inability to

accept his impotence, which he views as a sign of weakness, during his previous sexual

escape. This simple alteration is designed to better develop Trujillo as novelistic character, his

personality and motivations.

In addition to the "imagined facts" based on historical sources examined above, the novel also

incorporates historically documented events and characterizations. The novel's intertextual

dialogue with its historical documentary sources begins with its title, La fiesta del chivo. Vargas

Llosa points out the title's relationship to a popular Dominican merengue through the novel's

epigraph: "El pueblo celebra/con gran entusiasmo/la Fiesta del Chivo/el treinta de mayo." Its

source is indicated as "Mataron al Chivo, Merengue Dominicano." This same Dominican

merengue, translated into English, prefaces another book, the historical work Trujillo: The Death

of the Goat by Bernard Diederich, certainly one of Vargas Llosa's major sources for his novel.

(8) This historical work, just as Vargas Llosa's fictional one, focuses mainly on the events

surrounding the assassination of Trujillo on the night of May 30, 1961.

Vargas Llosa cleverly infuses the word "fiesta" with a double meaning through his alternation of

chapters based on the fictional character Urania Cabral (who returns to the Dominican Republic

thirty-five years after her exit right before Trujillo's death), and chapters based on the

development of the assassination plot. During the course of the novel, Urania narrates the

events that prefaced her leaving the country and the animosity she feels toward her now elderly

father. It is not until the end of the novel that we learn that Urania's father, a former Trujillo

favorite fallen in disfavor, attempted to regain Trujillo's support by offering him the virginity of his

fourteen year old daughter, Urania. When Agustin Cabral arranges this encounter throughManuel Alfonso, he simply tells Urania that she has been invited to "una fiesta" at Trujillo's

house. The reference to this party motivates much of the novelistic discourse. It is this

unsuccessful sexual encounter with Urania that leads Trujillo to seek another sexual adventure

a few days later, a Tuesday (the day of his assassination), when he doesn't usually frequent La

Casa de Caoba (the site of his amorous affairs) on that particular day of the week. Hence,

"fiesta" simultaneously refers to the sexual "party" and Trujillo's death (as in the song). Indeed,


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the two are seen as linked in the novel, since Trujil lo's increasing decadence in his final years of

rule provoked the conspiracy against him that led to his downfall.

Vargas Llosa has replicated minute historical detail throughout the novel. Although it would be

impossible to review every instance in which the author extracts information from historical

sources, if we examine his portrayal of the conspirators involved in Trujillo's assassination plot,

the reader will learn much about Vargas Llosa's technique. In each case, Vargas Llosa

accurately replicates the historical background and motivations of these protagonists. The novel

simply fills in their words and thoughts in an attempt to offer their full psychological portrayal. In

this sense Vargas Llosa performs a traditional task of the historical novel, fill ing in what Sandra

Berman calls the "interstices of history" (23). The particular bent that the author gives to these

details illustrates his novelistic purpose of portraying the devastating demoralization of the

Dominican people during the Trujillo regime.

In most instances, Vargas Llosa's portrayal of the assassins corresponds to the portraits

presented in Diederich's Trujillo: The Death of the Goat. For example, Diederich recounts

Trujillo's murder of Octavio de la Maza, brother of Antonio de la Maza's (one of Trujillo's

assassins). After this event, Trujillo woos Antonio with a series of government contracts as a

"consolation" for the death of his brother. Diederich goes on to portray de la Maza thus:

Trujillo's favors gave Antonio the reputation of being El Jefe's

crony, high on the list of his favorites. The implication hurt

Antonio deeply. As the months of pampering by El Jefe went by, he

became more morose.

Guts Antonio de la Maza had. He could kill in passion, in the

heat of the moment, as Tavito had killed in London. To kill in

solitary vengeance was contrary to his hot-blooded nature. Even

when Trujillo made him dance attendance and tormented him about the

cause of his brother's death, he was not goaded to murder. He only

brooded. But events within and beyond the Republic were moving

steadily toward the removal of the dictator, events which would

sway and inflame Antonio's grief and rancor until talk became

action, became assassination. (25-26).

Compare Diederich's description of de la Maza to Vargas Llosa's:

Antonio de la Maza no habia sido nunca un trujillista de corazon

... Apreto los dientes asqueado: nunca habia podido dejar de

trabajar para el Jefe.... hacia veintitantos anos que contribuia a

la fortuna y el poderio del Benefactor ... Era el gran fracaso de

su vida.... Odiandolo con todas sus fuerzas, habia seguido


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sirviendole, aun despues de la muerte de Tavito. Por eso, el

insulto del Turco: Yo no venderia a mi hermano por cuatro cheles.

El no habia vendido a Tavito. Disimulo, tragandose la bilis. Que

otra cosa podia hacer? ... No era una conciencia tranquila lo que

Antonio queria. Sino vengarse y vengar a Tavito. Para conseguirlo,

trago toda la mierda del mundo estos cuatro anos.... Por que no

salto sobre el [Trujillo] cuando lo tuvo tan cerca? ... Era algo

mas sutil e indefinible que el miedo: esa paralisis, el

adormecimiento de la voluntad, del raciocinio y del libre albedrio

que aquel personajillo acicalado hasta el ridiculo ... ejercia

sobre los dominicanos ... (119-130).

Vargas Llosa captures Diederich's characterization of de la Maza as hot-tempered, brooding,

and sensitive to the implication that he had been "bought off " by Trujillo's favors instead of

avenging his brother's murder. Vargas Llosa further develops Diederich's summary of Antonio

de la Maza's personality by suggesting that his failure to seek immediate revenge stemmed

from a pervasive spirit of paralysis that permeated Dominican society during and immediately

after the Trujillo government (the same paralysis we noted in examples of "imagined facts").

Diederich's interpretation of de la Maza as uninclined toward bloody revenge until a confluence

of other events in the country provided the propitious moment for such action, is taken as a

departure point for Vargas Llosa's development of a thesis of psychological passivity deeply

rooted in the Dominican psyche as a result of years of authoritarian rule.

Similarly, Diederich portrays Salvador Estrella Sadhala as an intelligent, introspective, religious

man:

At thirty-eight, Estrella was a quiet, dry man and a devout

Catholic. [...] He had graduated from teacher's college but had

gone into road contracting in 1959. Because of his father's loyalty

to Trujillo, he had received lucrative state contracts. [...]

Estrella launched into a long list of abuses committed by Trujillo

against priests and nuns since the February pastoral letters. (73)

Vargas Llosa also emphasizes Sadhala's religious devotion and conflict upon contemplating the

possible murder of Trujillo:

Con sus cuarenta y dos anos, Salvador era uno de los mayores

entre los siete hombres apostados en los autos que esperaban a

Trujillo ... en las semanas que siguieron al jubilo del 25 de enero

de 1960 [the date in which the Church renounced support for

Trujillo], Salvador se planteo por primera vez la necesidad de


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matar a Trujillo. Al principio, la idea lo espantaba, un catolico

tenia que respetar el quinto mandamiento [...] (258-263).

Almost every one of Vargas Llosa's characterizations maintains a similar faithfulness to his

historical sources, including the dialogues and thoughts of Trujillo himself.

Another character who is historically based but whose activities in the novel are not strictly

documented is Manuel Alfonso. Vargas Llosa has given his character a slightly different name,

but he clearly corresponds to Manuel de Moya Alonzo, a historical figure who is discussed in

both the books by Robert Crassweller and Ferreras. Ferreras's text appears to be the "filter" for

the information used by Vargas Llosa [the name "Alfonso" is very close to "Alonzo," which is the

name Ferreras uses in his text; Crassweller simply refers to this individual as Manuel de la

Moya]. (9) Ferreras explains Alonzo's role as Trujillo's go-between ("celestino").

En sus correrias de prima noche en los primeros dias en su gobierno, el tirano se hacia

acompanar de un hombre bien parecido, que dizque habia sido modelo profesional en los

Estados Unidos de Norteamerica, llamado Manuel de Moya Alonzo, quien ocuparia los mas

relevantes cargos durante los treinta y un anos en que goberno Trujillo. Se le reconocia como

el principal de los muchos celestinos que tuvo el tirano en su vida. (Ferreras 59).

Similarly, Urania's aunt describes Manuel Alfonso thus:

Bien parecido y de excelente familia. Se fue a New York a buscar la

vida y termino exhibiendo trajes de modistas y almacenes de lujo, y

apareciendo en los carteles callejeros ... Trujillo, en su viaje a

Estados Unidos, se entero de que el pimpollo de los afiches era un

tiguere dominicano. Lo mando llamar y lo adopto. Hizo de el un

personaje. ...

--Sobre todo, le escogia las mujeres--interrumpe Manolita--

Verdad mami?

Manuel Alfonso is the character who arranges Urania's sexual encounter with Trujillo through

her father, Agustin Cabral, and who escorts her to La Casa de Caoba.

One historically based character, the minister Henry Chirinos, actually has nothing to do with

the Trujillo dictatorship at all. Chirinos is based on a congressman during the Fujimori

dictatorship in Peru (1990-2000) by the name of Enrique Chirinos Soto. According to Catherine

M. Conaghan, the Peruvian Chirinos was "often lampooned in the press for his weight and his

drinking problem" (130), both of which are characteristics used to portray Henry Chirinos in La


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14

fiesta del chivo. The construction of this character suggests an important connection between

the Trujillo regime and that of Alberto Fujimori. Indeed, there are many parallels that can be

drawn between the Trujillo era in the Dominican Republic, and the Fujimori presidency in Peru.

Each man relied heavily on underhanded intelligence organizations run by ruthless men (Abbes

in the Dominican Republic and Montesinos in Peru), each intelligence agency had a similar

name (SIM in the Dominican Republic; SIN in Peru), each government controlled the press

(Trujillo was responsible for the writing of many of the letters that appeared in the Foro Publico

of the newspaper, El Caribe, while Fujimori bought or bribed almost every television station),

and each government was responsible for significant persecution of its enemies and human

rights violations. Since La fiesta del chivo was published in 2000, the year the Fujimori

government ended, and Mario Vargas Llosa was the opposition candidate who ran against

Fujimori in 1990, it seems likely that Vargas Llosa's reflection on dictatorship, although centered

on the Dominican Republic, was largely motivated by the Peruvian circumstances of the last

decade and certain analogies which can be established between the two dictatorships. Vargas

Llosa's interpretation of the Trujillo dictatorship thus cannot escape an ideological predisposition

to criticize his former political opponent, Fujimori, through the parallels established between the

Peruvian and Dominican presidents.

This connection between Trujillo and Fujimori has important implications for the development of

a theory of contemporary Latin American historical novel as a whole. At the beginning of this

article, I spoke briefly about both the overt and implicit relationship between the Latin American

historical novel and historical sources. After having examined the relationship between La fiesta

del chivo and its historical intertexts, it now seems relevant to reflect on how this relationship

can help us to broaden the definition of the contemporary Latin American historical novel as a

whole. As previously discussed, Lefere's definition of the historical novel as a problematization

of its own relationship to history seems too narrow. Consequently, I would like to now suggest

that contemporary Latin American historical fiction implies at least four different ways in which

history can be used, all of which should indeed be considered within the contemporary definition

of the historical novel. The first type of historical novel links history to individual or collective

identity, examples of which abound in the Latin American Boom novel. Good illustrations of this

type of historical novel are Carlos Fuentes's La muerte de Artemio Cruz (1962) and Terra

Nostra (1975). In the first of these novels, Fuentes shows how the identity of his protagonist,

Artemio Cruz, is linked to the Mexican Revolution, and how the choices this character makes

within this specific historical context are emblematic of Mexican national identity as a whole.Similarly, Terra Nostra rewrites history by mixing historical and literary figures in an attempt to

arrive at a definition of the essence of Latin American culture.

The second category of historical novel refers to those novels that portray history through the

technique of magical realism. Such texts as Alejo Carpentier's El reino de este mundo (1949),

Garcia Marquez's Cien anos de soledad (1967), or Isabel Allende's La casa de los espiritus


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(1982) respectively reflect on political realities such as the Haitian revolution, the Colombian

civil wars/ U.S. imperialism, and the Allende and Pinochet governments in Chile, by mixing

historical events with fantastic or exaggerated elements that reflect popular beliefs. This

category is akin to Jacob's "recombinant fiction." The use of such fantastic or popular elements

may correspond to diverse imperatives. For example, in Allende's novel, magical beliefs and

practices are associated with the female protagonists, especially Clara, and are employed to

construct a feminist space of protest and resistance against patriarchy.

The third type of historical novel is the one referred to by Lefere. These historical narratives

employ historical interests within themselves to question and contest official historiography. In

this process, historical figures are either vindicated or demystified, as in Augusto Roa Bastos's

Yo el Supremo (1974), which deconstructs the black legend surrounding the nineteenth century

dictator, Jose Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia. Another good example is Gabriel Garcia

Marquez's El general en su laberinto (1989), which demystifies the heroic figure of Simon

Bolivar.

Finally, the fourth type of historical novel refers to those texts that use history symbolically. In

other words, they portray a concrete historical figure or event to mediate upon another, different

historical event or historical tendency. They may also employ figures that are composites of

various historical personages who represent a certain historical type or category, such as the

dictator. La fiesta del chivo is this kind of historical novel, as shown throughout this article. In

other words, Vargas Llosa's exploration of the Trujillo government is in large part a reflection on

other, more contemporary dictatorships and their psychological effects on the people of their

countries, specifically, the dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori in Peru. Another good example is

Vargas Llosa's novel La guerra del fin del mundo (1981), which focuses on the nineteenth

century socialist rebellion in Brazil. Seymour Menton has suggested that this novel is actually a

reflection on the failure of Latin American socialism and a defense of Peruvian property rights

(40-41).

These suggested categories overlap somewhat with those established by Naomi Jacobs, but

also conflate some aspects of her groupings. Novels from all four of my categories use both the

historical and imagined facts characteristic of Jacobs's "fiction biographies," while the idea of

emphasis on the symbolic function of history in my fourth category, clearly borrows from

Jacobs's notion of the symbolic function of "fiction history," just as my third category of magicalrealism closely parallels her idea of "recombinant fiction." However, Jacobs's discussion of the

symbolic function of fiction histories suggests that such texts avoid the specificity of a particular

historical figure, and tend instead to base themselves on a composite of historical phenomena

and tendencies. Nonetheless, I demonstrated how novels such as La fiesta del chivo employ

one specific historical episode to symbolically refer to another. The analysis of this novel

suggests that the symbolic function of historical fiction is not limited to novels such as Gabriel


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Garcia Marquez's El otono del patriarca (1975) or Alejo Carpentier's El recurso del metodo

(1974) that reflect on dictatorship through the construction of figures who are a composite of

various historical dictators, but rather also includes texts that construct parallels between sets of

very specific historical events and circumstances that evoke one another.

Similarly, Jacobs views her categories are largely independent of one another, and hence does

not consider the possibility that historical novels can concurrently belong to several

classifications at once. Many Latin American novels simultaneously fit into two or more of my

categories. A good example would be Yo el Supremo, which simultaneously mixes historical

elements with purely mythical ones (category two), questions official historical discourse

(category three), and symbolically reflects on present dictatorship (the government of Alfredo

Stroessner) through a past one (the government of Dr. Francia, category four). Consequently,

unlike Jacobs, who presents her categories as discrete entities, my four types of historical

novels posit a more fluid relationship between different types of historical fiction. In turn, these

overlapping uses of history suggest a broader view of what constitutes a historical novel in the

twenty-first century. (10)

WORKS CITED

Barragan Jimenez, Luis. "La corruptibilidad de un chivo." Especulo: Revista de Estudios

Literarios. 21, n. p.

Berman, Sandra. Introduction. On The Historical Novel. By Alessandro Manzoni. Lincoln:

University of Nebraska Press, 1984, 1-60.

Cabrera, Fernando. "Apuntes para 'La fiesta' de Mario Vargas Llosa." Horizontes: Revista de la

Universidad Catolica de Puerto Rico 42.83 (2000): 141-152.

Carlyle, Thomas. Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, Vol. 4 Carlyle's Complete Works. Boston:

Estes and Lauriat Publishers, 1885.

Castellanos, Jorge and Miguel A. Martinez. "El dictador como personaje literario." Latin

American Research Review 16.2 (1981): 79-105.

Conaghan, Catherine M. Fujimori's Peru: Deception in the Public Sphere. Pittsburgh: University

of Pittsburgh Press, 2005.

"Conversacion entre Alvaro y Mario Vargas Llosa: Las dictaduras latinoamericanas." Letras

Libres (2000): 20-23.


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Crassweller, Robert D. Trujillo: The Life and Times of a Caribbean Dictator, n.p., n.d.

Diederich, Bernard. Trujillo: The Death of the Goat. London: The Bodley Head, 1978.

Drews, Joerg. "El punto culminante del habilidoso. Mario Vargas Llosa no maneja la izquierda."

Revista de Critica Literaria Latinoamericana 27.54 (2001): 213-216.

Ferreras, Ramon Alberto. Trujillo y sus mujeres. 9th ed. Santo Domingo: Editora Amfer Grafica,

2003.

Galindez, Jesus. La Era de Trujillo. Santo Domingo: Editorial Letra Grafica, 1999.

Jacobs, Naomi. The Character of Truth: Historical Figures in Contemporary Fiction. Carbondale:

Southern Illinois University Press, 1990.

Jitrik, Noe. "De la historia a la escritura: predominios, disimetrias, acuerdos en la novela

historica latinoamericana." The Historical Novel in Latin America: A Symposium. Ed. Daniel

Balderston. Gaithersburg (Maryland): Ediciones Hispamerica, 1986. 13-30.

Krauze, Enrique. "Conversacion entre Mario Vargas Llosa y Enrique Krauze: La seduccion del

poder." Letras Libres 2.19 (2000): 22-26.

Lefere, Robin. "Lectura critica de La fiesta del chivo." Literatura y musica popular en

Hispanoamerica. Granada: Universidad de Granada, 2002: 541-546.

--. "La fiesta del chivo, mentira verdadera?" Actas del XIV Congreso de la Asociacion

Internacional de Hispanistas. Eds. Isaias Lerner, Robert Nival and Alejandro Alonso. Newark

(Delaware): Juan de la Cuesta, 2001: 331-338.

Luna Escudero Alie, Maria Elvira. "Transgresion y sacrificio de Urania Cabral en La fiesta del

chivo de Mario Vargas Llosa." Especulo: Revista de Estudios Literarios 24, n.p.

Martin, Georges. "Reperes pour une etude de la 'compilatoire' historique dans Yo el Supremo."

Imprevue (1977): 37-55.

Masoliver Rodenas, Juan Antonio. "La arana en el corazon del laberinto." Letras Libres (Abril

2000): 84-85.

Menton, Seymour. Latin America's New Historical Novel. Austin: University of Texas Press,

1993.


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Rojas-Trempe, Lady. "Violencia politico-sexual del Estado, trauma y la historia de una victima

en La fiesta del chivo." Mario Vargas Llosa: Escritor, ensayista, ciudadano y politico. Ed. Roland

Forgues. Lima: Minerva Miraflores, 2001. 537-552.

Vargas Llosa, Mario. La fiesta del chivo. Madrid: Grupo Santillana de ediciones, S.A., 2000.

--. "The Truth of Lies." Trans. John King. Pen America: A Journal for Writers and Readers 4.2

(2002): 159-167.

Weldt-Basson, Helene C. Augusto Roa Bastos's I The Supreme: A Dialogic Perspective.

Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1993.

--. "The Purpose of Historical Reference in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's El general en su

laberinto." Revista Hispanica Moderna 47.1 (1994): 96-108.

by Helene C. Weldt-Basson

Wayne State University

NOTES

(1) Note that I am conflating here two categories that some critics have chosen to view as

separate: dictator novels (that focus on the dictator as central character) and novels of

dictatorship (where the dictator is usually a minor character). Technically, La fiesta del chivo

belongs to the dictator novel category, whereas Vargas Llosa's previous work, Conversacion en

La Catedral, belongs to the group titled "novels of dictatorship." For my purposes here, the

terms can be used interchangeably, only because I am interested in looking at the phenomenon

of novelistic representation of dictatorship, whether the dictator is the main character or not.

(2) Although Vargas Llosa's primary concern, as we shall see, appears to be a mimetic

representation of "history" based on the particular viewpoint of certain historical sources upon

which he has chosen to base the novel, the tracing of the novel's constructive process will show

how the author manipulates and expounds upon such sources in order to achieve a novelisticportrayal focused on the question of the Dominican people's internalization of a code of

subservience. The question of historical truth, always present at some level in an intertextual

reading with historical sources, is subordinated, although not eradicated, by the focus on the

issue of the effects of authoritarian rule on the Dominican psyche. The comparison to

manipulated sources always raises to some degree the question of the subjectivity both of the

novelistic version of history as well as that of the novel's historical counterparts.


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(3) The current bibliography on La fiesta del chivo consists of the following articles:

"Conversacion entre Alvaro y Mario Vargas Llosa," Letras Libres (2000): 2023; Luis Barragan

Jimenez, "La corruptibilidad de un chivo," Especulo: Revista de Estudios Literarios 21, n.p.;

Fernando Cabrera, "Apuntes para 'La fiesta' de Mario Vargas Llosa," Horizontes: Revista de la

Universidad Catolica de Puerto Rico 42.83 (2000): 141-152; Joerg Drews, "El punto culminante

del habilidoso. Mario Vargas Llosa no maneja la izquierda," Revista de Critica Literaria

Latinoamericana 27.54 (2001): 213-216; Enrique Krauze, "Conversacion entre Mario Vargas

Llosa y Enrique Krauze: La seduccion del poder," Letras Libres 2.19 (2000): 22-26; Maria Elvira

Luna Escudero Alie, "Transgresion y sacrificio de Urania Cabral en La fiesta del chivo de Mario

Vargas Llosa," Especulo: Revista de Estudios Literarios 24, n.p.; Juan Antonio Masoliver

Rodenas, "La arana en el corazon," Letras Libres (abril 2000): 84-85; and Lady Rojas-Trempe,

"Violencia politico-sexual del Estado, trauma y la historia de una victima en La fiesta del chivo,"

Mario Vargas Llosa: Escritor, ensayista, ciudadano y politico. Ed. Roland Morgues (Lima:

Minerva Miraflores, 2001): 537-552.

(4) It is interesting that Roa Bastos seems to "answer" a comment in a historical text as well with

his novel Yo el Supremo. He responds to the following comment by Carlyle: "As the

Paraguenos, though not a literary people, can many of them spell and write, and are not without

a discriminating sense of true and untrue, why should not some real Life of Francia, from those

parts, be still possible! If a writer of genius arise there, he is hereby invited to the enterprise"

(Carlyle, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, 216-217). Roa Bastos's novel is in many ways the

"Life of Francia" written by a Paraguayan "writer of genius."

(5) In "Conversacion entre Alvaro y Mario Vargas Llosa," the author of La fiesta del chivo denies

any connection between his character Agustin Cabral and any historical figures: "Cabral es un

apellido muy comun en la Republica Dominicana y el Cabral de la historia no tiene la menor

relacion con el senador Cabral, padre de Urania, que yo me invente" (21). Vargas Llosa makes

this statement in reference to another historical Cabral who served as a connection between the

conspirators and the CIA. Despite the author's declaration, there does appear to be some

similarity between a historical Cabral and the character of Urania's father.

(6) Note that Galindez himself was a victim of Trujillo. His study of Trujil lo is thought to have

provoked the dictator into ordering his abduction from a train station in New York City in 1956and having his thugs carry out Galindez's subsequent murder. Galindez is also a character in

Vargas Llosa's novel.

(7) There are many other fictional episodes that derive from historical fact. These include the

rape of Rosalia Perdomo which loosely corresponds to the rapes and wild parties historically

attributed to Ramfis Trujillo by Crassweller (304-307); the banquet held in honor of Simon


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Gittleman, which has its basis in comments by Diederich (98); Trujil lo's nickname "Chapita"

discussed in the novelistic episode about "el loco Valeriano," which corresponds to some words

by Diederich (60); and the description of Trujillo's house, which relates to a similar description

by Crassweller (146), among others.

(8) Vargas Llosa states that this book was one of his principal sources. See: "Conversacion

entre Alvaro y Mario Vargas Llosa," Letras Libres (2000): 20-23.

(9) Georges Martin uses the term "filter" with regard to Yo el Supremo's use of historical

sources. He claims that many of the texts are not cited from their original historical sources in

Yo el Supremo, but rather filtered into the text through the historical biography on Dr. Francia

written by Julio Cesar Chaves. In a similar fashion, various historical texts speak of Manuel de

la Moya, but Ferreras's work appears to be the direct source because of Vargas Llosa's

derivation of his character's name. See: Martin, "Reperes," 37-55.

(10) The further development of these categories remains outside the scope of this article. The

articulation of the specific characteristics of these four uses of history in contemporary Latin

American fiction will be the topic of a future book project.

COPYRIGHT 2009 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Department of Romance Languages

No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.

Copyright 2009 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

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