Carlos fuentes’ The Death ofArtemfo Cruz:

A Literary Analysis of a Revolution Betrayed

MARCUS BACHER

Carlos Fuentes is widely regarded as one of l\kxico's greatest twcnticth-ccnmry novelists, commentators, and intcllccmals. Arising to prominence during the Larin American literary boom of the 196os, Fuentes' best known and influential work is La muene de Anemia Cmz (The Death of Anemia Cmz).' Originally published in 1962, the novel profiles the life of its title character, tracing the course of modem Mexican history from the I\ lcxican Revolution of 1910 to the late 1950s. Coupled with its unique narrative strucntrc, representative of the Latin American "New Novel," the themes found in La nmene de Anemia Cmz penetrate modem Mexico's political, social, and economic ills and offers the reader an interpretation of the complexities of modem Mexican life as they developed out of the Revolution.

The revolutionaries had multiple goals, which included producing agrarian rcfom1, closing a wide economic gap between the rich and poor, increasing labor rights, ending political com1ption, improving education, and providing restrictions on Church power. Each of these clements is present within the pages of La mucne de Anemia Cmz. This essay will identify, and place into historical contc>.1:, the themes in Anemia Cruz's life centered around the revolutionary goal of agrarian refom1 and the economic factors-the disparity between rich and poor, corruption, and the role of foreign interests-that the Revolution attempted to rcmed)'. 111rough the events of the life of Anemia Cruz, Fuentes analyzes and criticizes the events of modem I\ lcxican history to explore the contradictions of the Revolution and show how the social, political, and economic goals of the Revolution went unfulfilled.

I. The Author

Carlos Fuentes was born in Panama City, Panama in 1928. The son of a Mexican diplomat, Fuentes lived in various loc-.itions throughout his childhood, including Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Santiago, and Washington D.C. In Washington D.C. Fuentes received much of his primary education, but he spent many summers with his grandparents in Mexico City where he took in l\lexican politics and culmre. Fuentes smdicd law at the National University of l\Iexico and then at the Graduate Institute oflntemational Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. Like his father, Fuentes obtained a diplomatic position in 1965. While working for the Foreign Sm1ce, Fuentes engaged in his passions of writing and literamre. 11 is literary works, which were highly influenced by his cosmopolitan upbringing and international experiences, gained Fuentes international recognition.

Carlos Fuentes first published a collection of short stories in 1954 entitled Los dias cnmascarndos. By the age of twenty-eight, Fuentes had published his first novel, La regi6n mas trnnsparente ( I \'here the Air is Clear) in 1958. I lowcver, his 1962 fictional examination of the Mexican Revolution and its legacy in La mucne deAnemio Cmzbet:ame his brcaJ..1:hrough work. Within die novel's complexity, the reader finds ·a passionate echo of the inchoate protest which causes young Mcxic-.in intcllccmals to find themselves (at least in theory) disenchanted with material affluence and yearning for a cause worthy of their devotion.·, A novel of such influence however must be snidied within the larger mntcn of its influences and the contemporary writings that emerged out of Latin America at the time.

Latin American novels that incorporated and critiqued the Mexican Revolution within the plot did not originatc with Fuentes. In 1915, Losdeabajo('fhc Undcrrfogs), by Mexico's l\lariano Azuela, focused on the social and political implications of the Revolution using the power struggle between Vcnustiano Carranza and Pancho Villa as its backdrop. Los de abajo explores

'Carlos Fuentes, The De-.ith of Anemia Cmz, trans. Alfred MacAdam, (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1991) ' Mildred Adan1s, "'lnc Linc of Life Lies Between Paralysis and FrenZ)•," New l'ork Times, 24 May, 196�.

EX POST FACTO

110 Marcus Bacher

several of the themes embraced by liberal intellectuals since its publication, especially the idea thatthe “Revolution became little more than a senseless bloodbath and that it simply opened the countryup to a new breed of parasitical opportunists, who used revolutionary rhetoric to advance their owncareer intcrcsts.’ ‘l’he novel uses gritty social realism to depict the violence of the period andexplores the Revolution in terms of its failure to achieve any of its original goals. Perhaps moreimportantly, it was the first to incorporate the idea that the Revolution was betrayed by rapaciotisopportunists, a theme that became highly influential to later generations ofMexican writers.including Fuentes.4

II. The New Narrative

The realism depicted in novels such as Azuela’s Los de abajovas challenged in the 1940Sand 1950S by a style that emerged in Latin America known as the New Novel or New Narrative.Infitienced by modernismo, an influential artistic and literary movement rooted in escapism andEuropean Romanticism popular in Spain in Latin America from 1890-1910. the New Novelchallenged the idea that reality was comprehensible and qtiestioned the ability of language to capturereality in its traditional third-person narratives.5 A New Narrative was required and emerged.“characterized by a range of’difficult’ narrative techniques which demanded a more active role fromthe reader’ where the reader would have an “engaged role in the construction or reconstruction of thenarrative itself.” ilie literature challenged the reader to decipher a reality that was often uncertain.chaotic, complex, contradictory, and ambiguous. The New Narrative also introdticcd new conceptsto Latin American fiction stich as Magical Realism, a style which highlights the separation betweenperception and reality in order to more deeply probe and critique Latin American reality. JtianRulfo’s Pedro 1’a1ln1o(l955), a novel abotit the Mexican Revoltition, employs Magical Realism toexplore the role of the cacique, corruption, and moral decay in the town ofComala. ‘I’he reader isforced to differentiate between characters that are alive and the speaking souls of the deceasedtownspeople. The New Narrative author’s writings centered on the problematic nature of languageto accurately depict reality and thtis challenged conventional ideas about literature dttring the era.Another key theme that made the novels of the period standout is their ‘highly diseontinuoctstreatment of time and space and the instability of the narrator’s and characters identities.”7 Like thenature of language, chronological and linear conceptions of time are challenged by New Narrativewriters, forcing the audience to assemble and disassemble the texts. Dtiring the 1960s. the era of theNew Novel reached its apex in what became known as El Boom, the period that saw the emergenceof Fuentes as a literary force.8

III. The Boom

The Boom period of the I9rios was marked by the voluminous production of LatinAmerican fiction that reached international audiences and received worldwide accolades. Literarycritics have identified four key New Narrative writers, the “Big Fottr, that rode the crest of the Latin

Philip Swanson, Latin Ainerk”an Fiction:A Short Introduction (MaIden, MA: BlackwcllPctblishing. zoo5), 25.- Swanson, Latin American fiction, 25-28.Swanson, LathiAmerican fiction, 3.

6 Swanson, Latin American Fiction, 38.Naomi Lindstrom, The Social Conscience ofLatin Arnerk-an Wddng(Austin. TX: University ofTexas Press, 1998), 63.8 Swanson, Latin American fiction, 38,39,49-59.

EX POST FACTO

Carlos Fuentes’ The Death ofArtemio Cruz j

American literary wave: Mexico’s Carlos Fticntcs, Argentina’s Jtilio Cortazar. Peru’s Mario VargasLlosa, and Colombia’s Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Several factors prompted increased internationalinterest in the Latin American world during this period, especially the Ctiban Revolution of i959.The material played a significant role in fostering a sense of community and identity across mtich ofSpanish Latin America and offered alternative cultural perspectives to the rest of the world.9iiiuugh not necessarily considered the greatest novelist of the time, I lispanie Sttidies professorPhilip Swanson nevertheless sees Carlos Fuentes as the main cultural ambassador and promoter ofthe New Narrative and Latin American fiction. An examination of the stylistic and structuralelements in La mueiw de.4itcmio Gruz will help place the novel in the context of El Boom.

La muertedcAtremio L’,vzcriticizes the failure of the Mexican Revolution and takes acritical perspective on the past and presentof Mexico through its anahsis ofclcments of society.politics, and religion. The narrative highlights pervasive class divisions between the haves and have-nuts in Mexico. These conditions, contends Latin American Literature professor Victor ManuelDuran, necessitates a Marxist reading of the narrative structure and themes to assist the reader’sunderstanding of the soeio-political implications of the work.” This is not to suggest that the text is aMarxist novel; Duran employs Marxist literary theory for analytical purposes.”

Ftientes challenges the ability of language to depict reality through the traditional third-person narrative by writing in the first, second, and third persons. Each chapter in La mucrrc de,4,remio Cruzopens w’ith the first-person perspective ofArtcmio Crtiz. Upon his deathbed, Crtizobserves the commotion around him as he is surrotindcd by his wife Catalina, his daughter ‘I’eresa,his secretary Padilla. and the priest who attempts to provide Cniz his last rites, Father Paez. Thetechnique. representing the present, invites the reader into the mind ofCniz to he-ar his thoughts,probe his conscience, and wimess the internal psychological state of the dying oligarch. Eachchapter concludes with an episode that employs the second-person, the “iou” narrative structure, orfuture tense. An episode depicting Cniz riding horses with his son Lorenzo is illustrative:

You will bring Lorenzo to live so that he can learn to love this land on his own,without need on our part to explain the motives behind your labor inreconstructing the burned walls of the hacienda and reopening the flatlandagriculture. The two ofyou will go out into the stm. You will pick up thewide-brimmed hat and put it on your head. ‘lhe wind from your gallopthrough the quiet, shimmering air will fill your mouth, eyes, and head.3

The use of the future tense, “you will,” throtighotit the novel suggests that the future for both Cruzand vlcxico is pre-determined. In each chapter, positioned henveen the opening deathbed scenesand the closing future tense scenarios, are the flashbacks to the pivotal events of the life ofArtemioCrux. Written in the third-person narrative form, this is the most widely used perspective and takes

Swanson, Latin Ameiie-an Fiction, 6o-6z.Swanson, Latin Arnei-ican Fiction, 66.Victor Manual Duran, A !IarvisrReadingoffuenres, Vargas Liosa, and Poig(London:University Press ofAmerica, 1994), Xii, Xiii. For a brief summary ofMarxist literary theory, seeDtiran p 1-14.In a 1984 interview w’ith the New York Times, Fuentes stated: “In Mexico, the left thinks that I’m

too amicable to the United States, that I see too many virtues in the United States, that I am not aMarxist, that I don’t have a rigid set ofdogma and principles, or that I won’t adhere fully toMarxism, although I am very respectful ofMarx... I’ve always proclaimed myself a reader ofMarxand a student ofMarx.” Intervietv accessed online athttp://www.nytimes.com/books/97/Io/26/home,/fticntes-Iifelang-html.Fuentes, Arrcmio C’ivz, i6t.

Ex POST FACTO

112 Marcus Bacher

the reader from the present into the past life of Cruz, and correspondingly, of the country ofMexico.4

The distortion of time is a fttndamental feature of the New Narrative and is a key literarydevice Fuentes employs in Artemlo Gn,z. The novel begins with the protagonist Cniz on hisdeathbed in 1959 and the novel concludes with the character’s birth in 1899. This inversion of timehas been interpreted by Duran as representative of the author’s perception of“the ‘death’ of Mexicoafter the 1910 Revolution and of its eventual ‘birth’ after it has been purged of its present corruptcapitalist influence.”5 l’or the goals of the Revolution to succeed, Mexico must literally remove thecorruptive post-Revolutionary influences such as Cruz. The birth ofCruz at the end of the novelsymbolizes the rebirth ofMexico.

IV. The Porfiriato: Symptoms of Discontent

Between the years 1876-1880 and then again from 1884-1911 Mexico was under theleadership of President Porflrio Diaz. More dictator than elected President, Diai. ran a tightlycontrolled state from the capital. Mexico City, through force and intimidation. As a result of Diaz’sstrong-arm tactics. Mexico experienced an era of relative peace and stability known as the PaxPorfiriana. which contrasted sharply with mtich of the earlier nineteenth-century period which wasmarked by warfare, bloodshed, and contestations for power.’6 Centuries of Spanish colonial nile andpolitical tinrest had left Mexico behind the United States and Europe in terms of economicdevelopment and indtistrialization. The astute Diaz recognized the need for Mexico to develop itseconomy and indtistry and thus instituted a program for modernization tinder the philosophicalplatform of positivism. a system of thought based in scientific progress and precise economicplanning. The results were astounding. Dtiring the Diaz yeats. Mexico successfully balanced itsbudget. stabilized its economy. irnited foreign capital investment, biult railroads that criss-crosscdmuch of the county, repaired its ports and harbors, revived and modernized the mining industry, andforeign investors struck oil. Construction proceeded at a rapid price in towns and cities throughoutthe country, while the major cities and capitals had electricity, sewage systems, hotels, and hospitals.Unfortunately, despite the peace, stability, and progress during these years. the rapid modernizationthat Mexico experienced left out the majority of the poptilation, specifically the rural poor.°

By the turn of the twentieth-century, Mexico remained a largely niral country, and therural peasantry bore most of the costs of the modernization that transformed the capital and largecities. Peasants were harassed by local officials, their laborw’as exploited in the farms andplantations of the hacienda system and seizure of private and commttnal lands by the governmentand foreign investors devastated their traditional ways of life, as some “134 million acres of the bestland had passed into the hands of a few hundred fantastically wealthy families.”8 When rural labororganized and engaged in strikes, stich as the 1906 strike at the U.S. owned Cananea ConsolidatedCopper Company tune, the strike was quickly put down by government troops who killed betweenthirty and one hundred Mexican workers and four Americans. and also imprisoned the laboragitators in Vcmcruz. Foreign interests seemingly ruled over the plight of the Mexican worker. Therural Mexicans were destitute, powerless, and without hope, clearly far worse off than their ancestors

Duran, A Marvist Reading, 57.58.Dtiran. A ?ilacaisrReading, 55.Alan Knight. The Mexican Revohidon: Pothrians, Liberals and Peasants Vol. i (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1986), i.° Adolfo Gilly. The jllexican RetvluUon, (New York: The New Press, 2005), 40-43.8 Michael C. Meyer, tVilliam Sherman, and Susan Deeds. The course of11 lexican ilisto,), 6l ed.(New York: Oxford University Press, ‘999). 443.444.

EX POST FACTO

Carlos Fuentes’ The Death ofArtemlo cruz 113

of a century before, and it became clear that Diaz had developed his country at the expense of hiscountrymen.9

The abuses of the Diaz regime are well represented in La rnuerre de.4ircrnio Cniz. Thevhid descriptions anchor the text to a grim historical reality throtigh which Arternio Cruzmaneuvers. Born an illegitimate SOfl of a wealthy hacienda owner, Cmz is rejected by his father andfitreed to live among the peasants, where he witnesses at an early age the disparity between the richand poor. Dtiring his youth, he empathizes with the goals of the Revolution, specifically closing thegap in prosperity between rich and poor, which compels him to join the rebel forces of theRevolution. In Dcccmhcr 1913, Arternio Cruz, a lieutenant in the northern revolutionary army, andhis battalion encounter a set of hanging bodies murdered by the Federales. Another lieutenant in theforce wants the fl1Cfl to remember the atrocity:

“Don’t anyone cut them down!’” shouted Lieutenant Aparicio from his rearinghorse, tising his riding crop to beat back the hands imploringly. ‘We\’e all gotto remember this forever! Everyone’s got to know who we’re fighting! Theymake the common people kill their brothers. Take a good look That’s howthey killed the Yaquis, bceattse the Yaqttis didn’t want their land taken fromthem. “the same way they killed the workers at Rio l3lanco and Cananea, whodidn’t ‘ant to die of htinger. And that’s the way theyll kill all of us unless wekick the shit out of them first.”

The novel directly references three injttsdccs committed by the Porfiriato: the Yaqui removal and thestrikes at the tctile factory in Rio Blanco and at the Copper mines ofCananea.

The Yaqui Indians of the state of Sonora offer a prime example of the agrariandispossession that occurred during the Porfiriato. TheYaqttis had a history of revolt against theChurch and the state since the conquest, and especially in the nineteenth-century, btit by the time ofDiaz their sittlation had worsened. Foreign interests and the construction of railroads made theYaqui land increasingly attractive for expropriation, and over 900,000 hectares of land \‘cre stolen tobttild railways or converted into haciendas, The government hoped the Yaquis would becomepeaceful peons after they ‘erc settled into approved pueblos and compelled to find work in themines, the cities, or in the plantations. It was not long before mestizo settlers and American farmerssettled into their Pueblos and tribal lands, which instigated Yaqtu attacks against them, Federalatithorities responded with gucrilla tactics against the civilian population and massacred women andchildren, while captured militant Yaqttis were deported to the plantations in the Yucatan. Anilluson peace was established in 1908, only for contestations for land and viclent outbreaks to resumeafter I9to.

V. Outbreak of Revolution

In 1910. the social and political tensions ofMexico rose to a boil. For three and a halfdecades, the power in Mexico had been centered in Mexico City around the Diaz regime and hisassembly ofadvisoes and planners, the cientificos. In this sham demctcracy, elections at all levelswerepredetermined, local bosses (jefèpolidc’os) loyal to the Porfiriato administered justice, the press wascensored, and opposition forces were either jailed or exiled. By the early I9oos, a new generation ofMexicans was coming of age and fi)ttnd their opportunities for advancement blocked clue to the

John I lart, ReivludonaryMexico: The Corning and Process ofrisc Mexican Revoltidon(Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1987), 67-70; Meyer, 444.449,472.474.Fuentes, Arternio Crtiz, 74, 75.Knight, ?‘hcMexk”an Revolt; don, 111,112,195.

EX POST FACTO

114 Marcus Bacher

entrenched Porfirian hegemony. ‘flc inequality and corruption that the dictatorship perpetuatcdbecame increasingly unacceptable to young, socially conscious Mexicans. The presidential electionsof iio saw Francisco Madero, running under an Mti-Re-electionist platform, emerge as the mainpolitical rival to the regime, however, he was imprisoned in San Luis Potosi in June. 1910. while Diazwon re-election again. The pressures of the social and political sintation however, wotild soon breakthe tyranny of the PodIriato.’

‘While in prison. francisco Madero drafted his Plan de San Luis Porosi. a documentcalling for a revolution on Sunday, November 20. 1910. The document was primarily political innature, w’ith little reference to Mexico’s social conditions, but the masses responded with rebellionsthrotighout the country, and thus initiated the violent phase of the Mexican Revoltition. The rebelswere not armies in any sense of the word, but rather a loose organization ofMexicans of differentbackgrounds and professions incltiding peons. shopkeepers, students, teachers, miners, armydeserters, lawyers, and bandits. ‘l’heyjoined the tiprising for variotis reasons, some were radicals,others liberals. Some saw jefëpoidcvsas their main enemies, while others viewed foreign capitalistsas their enemies. Regardless. Diaz was the symbol of all that was wrong with Mexico.°

The rebellion grew most intensely in the northern state ofChihtiahua tinder the militaryleadership of Pascual Orozco and a collection of local leaders, most notably Francisco Pancho Villa.By May of 1911. the Diaz regime was no longer able to control the uprising, and after the capture ofCitidad Juarex by the Northern forces, Diaz submitted his resignation. 1)iaz was overthrown, andas historian Adolfo Gilly notes. “as far as the bourgeoisie was concerned, the revolution had come toan end.”4 The bourgeoisie however, constituted the minority. For the masses, the Revolution hadjust tegun. iYie following months revealed the many divisions within the Revolutionary leadershipand illuminated the lack of a mutual, unifying ideology between them. Madero assumed thePresidency in 1911 and, primarily concerned with establishing democracy and political reform, largelyignored the pressing social realities. This would prove to be a costly oversight.

Pancho Villa of the northern army and Emiliano Zapata ofMorelos concernedthemselves with the social and economic concerns of the vast majority of the population. Of primaryconcern were land rights and they were not prepared to compromise with the moderate policies ofMadero. The Revolution began with a shared goal, the overthrow ofDiaz however, only afterMadero had risen to the presidential office did he realize “that the Revolution had profoundlydifferent meanings to different groups ofMcxicans.”4 Madero’s tumultuous presidency was markedby failure at the national and state level as the labor movement made few gains, there was littleprogress in education, and land redistribution was meager at best. The iolent phase of theRevolcition had only just begun, and it would degrade into a bloody contest for potver — marked byshifting allegiances — between both ambitious generals and the bourgeoisie, who hungered forpower, and the factionalized peasant forces, led by Zapata and Villa. In Fuente’s novel, the shiftingnature of the Revolution caused the character Gonzalo Bernal, while imprisoned with Artemio Cruxto lament. “A revolution starts in the battlefields, but once it gets corrupted, even though militarybattles are won, it’s lost.”6

VI. Land and the Hacienda System

Knight, The?ilexiean Ret vlution, 19.21.24,25.‘3 Meyer, ?iIexiean Ilisrort, 481-483.‘ Gilly, Iie.viean Ret vludon, 8.‘ 1%Ieycr. ilIe.sican iiisrort, 493.‘ ftientes, Arrernio Civz i86.

EX POST fAcTo

Carlos Fuentes’ The Death ofArtemlo Cruz 115

Land redistribution was the fundamental priority for the majority of the peasantparticipants in the Revolution, and as historian Alan Knight argues, the basic character of the 1910Rcvolution was as a “popular, agrarian movement.”’7 After six years of violence, by 19l7 theRevolution had dwindled down due to a weakened Villa settled in the North. and Zapatista forcesisolated in the South. First ChiefVenustiano Carranza assumed the new leadership and decided tobegin the institutionalization process of the Revolution. Carranza convened a meeting at Quereraroto draft a new constitution. I lowever, Zapatistas, Villistas, and political opponents were ineligibleto participate. The Congress witnessed a split benveen moderates who wanted to focus on politicalelements, and radicals who desired to bring about rapid social reform. One of the most iniportantaspects of the new constitution was the drafting ofArticle a. which addressed the country’s landproblems. Article 27, based on Emiliano Zapata’s intlucntial 1911 Plan deAiala, otitlincd theimmediate agrarian demands of the Zapatista insurgents. Article 27 thus elaborated and enrichedthe original sentiments within the Plan dcAjala. The provisions required that land illegally seizedduring the Porfinato be restored and also elicited a new conception of ownership of land, whichvotild now be considered a privilege rather than a tight. Further, if the land did not serve a practicalsocial function and serve the public interest, the state could appropriate the holding. The article alsoput restrictions on the land owned by foreign nationals and their tights to acquire lands, water, andmines:

Article 27 was of fttndamentai importance to the second phase of the Revolution in the1920S and 19305 as the presidents ofMexico faced demands for land redistribution from the largepeasant population. Despite the demands for land, the first major presidents after the violent phaseof the Revolution. Carranza Alvaro Obregon, Plutarco Calics, and the three ptlppct presidentssucceeding Callcs, were ver modest in the land they distributed to the peasant populations.I lacienda owners remained powerful, and the Presidents were hesitant to distrihuite land to thecalnpesinos. fearing decreased agrictilniral output and production injurious to the economy.

for Artcrnio Cmz, the Revolution has a fornutous otiteurne, not only hceatisc he survives,btit because he marries into the family of a rich hacienda owner. In 1919, Cniz arrives at the haciendaofGamaliel Bernal prepared to cotirt his only daughter, Catalina. Cruz had met Don Gamaliel’sson, Gonzalo, while they were imprisoned by Pancho Villa’s Northern army forces of during the war.Posing as one ofGonzalo’s best comrades, and the last person he was with while he was alive, heappeals to 1)011 Gamaliei’s business sense as well as his sense as the family patriarch with no maleheir to pa.ss on the land

Youi said it yoturseif, Don Gamaliel,” said the guest when he returned the nextday. Its impossible to stop the coutrse ofevents. Let’s turn over those plots tothe peasants; after all they’re only good for dry farming, so no one’s going toget muich out of them. Let’s give out those plots so they can be tised only tbrsmall-scale farming. You’ll see that, to thank tis, they’ll leave their women towork that dust and conic back to take care ofour good land. Think about it:yoti could turn out to be a hero of tile agrarian-reform program, and it won’tcost you a thing”’9

In 1919 Mexico, the Constitution and Article 27 had been passed, however few lands had beendistributed to the peasantry. ihe large landowners had reason to bc fearful, as tile peasantry wasrestless and social activists were eager to begin the process of agrarian reform. In the novel, Cmzargues that it is ‘impossible to stop the course ofevents,” so instead of having tile most profitable,

‘7 Knight, The Mexican Reivlurion, xi‘ Gilly, Mexican Reivlurion, 246,247; Meyer, Mexican iIisro 124, 125.‘‘ Fucntcs, Airernio Gruz 4$.

Ix POST FACTO

iió Marcus Bacher

arable land confiscated, he suggests that Don Gamaliel dole out the dry land to appease the peons.i’he Bernal hacienda would not lose its labor force because the land is so poor that it will be left forthe women to work, while the men will return to their traditional roles. Further, the benevolent DonGamaliel will be perceived as a hero of the agrarian reform, thus gaining influence within thesurrounding community. Cruz’s logic is strategic and cunning as he sets himself up to inherit theprofitable lands through marriage, and will be thus insulated from having to parcel out qualityproperty because of the “generous” donations of Don Gamaliel. I lere. fuentes depicts the programof agricultural reform, designed to aid the economic situation of the peasants, and the simultaneouscorrupt practices of the wealthy class attempting to undermine and profit from the program.3° Cruzlater consolidates his landholdings and manipulates the peasants of neighboring haciendas to turnagainst the hacendados. Cniz then purchases these lands and began to amass his fortune, indicativeof the way a new elite class emerged from the Revolution and manipulated what should have beencommunal peasant land for private gain.

VII. Modernization: The Revolution Institutionalized

Towards the end of the presidency of the social-reform minded Lazaro Cardenas. theleadership of the official party, the Pairido Reivlucionario ]liexicano (PRIVI), recognized the need tofoecis on economic development. Cardenas had diligently worked towards achieving many of thesocial reform goals of the Revolution. Through his land distribution, he effectively broke the hack ofthe centuries old hacienda system. Construction of schools benefited rural education, the labormovement tvas sn-engthened through the creation of a strong national union — Confederacion deTrabajadores tie illcxico(CTM) — and Cardenas struck a blow for Mexican economic nationalismby his 1938 decree, which nationalized seventeen foreign-owned oil companies. Unfortunately.foreign and domestic capital investment was virtually non-existent as investors were reluctant toinvest in a country with such leftist tendencies. Cartlenas’ nomination of the conservative ManuelAvila Camacho signaled a shift to the right.3

The 1940S tishered in a new era of economic investment and industrialization in Mexico.The shortages produced by World War II found Mexican raw goods in increased demand by theUnited States.et at the same time “deprived Mexico of its normal sources of importedmanufactured goods and convinced even the dotibters of the need for industrialization.”3 Thisthought confirmed the belief of many leading Mexicans that for the people ofMexico to have a betterlife, the economic base needed to be expanded. The wartime era proved to be a boom for internaldevelopment. Economic growth and indtistrialization continued tinder the presidency of MiguelAleman and drastic tipgradcs were seen in communications, agriculture, and transportation.Aleman is also credited w’ith discovering “Mexico’s tourist potential. ‘creating’ Acapulco as aninternational resort and establishing a pattern that would be followed by his successors” that wouldlater create resort towns like Cancun and lxtapa.33

An episode from La rnue,te deArrenilo Ciuz finds the protagonist vacationing at anAcapulco resort with his mistress in September. 1911. Cruz takes a moment to sit back and observeand reflect on the remarkable transition that transforn3ed the resort town:

° Duran. A ManistReading. 48,49.Meyer, iliexican Iliston’. 582-585.° Meyer, Mexican Iiistoii 6ii.Alan Riding, DistantNeighbors:A Portrait ofthe Mexicans(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985).

136.

Ex POST FACTO

Carlos Fuentes’ The Death ofArtemio Cruz 117

From his table, he could see the csplanadc ofAcapulco’s new frontage, whichhad been hastily erected to provide comfort for the huge inficix of travelerstrom the United States, w’hich the war had taken from \Vaikiki, Portofino. andBiarri, and to mask the squalid, muddy land behind it where nakedfishermen lived in shacks with their swollen-bellied children, their mangydogs, streams of sewage. trichnosis. and bacteria. Two ages are alwayspresent in this Janus-like community with its dotible face, so far from what itonce was, and Sc) far from what it will be}

The passage describes the boom that Mexican tourism experienced from United States travelers.hut the text also alludes to another product of the burgeoning industrialization.

I lere Fuentes penetrates the façade of the so-called “economic miracle” Mexicoexperienced in the 19405, pointing out that it left behind a significant portion of the poptilation.While the Mexican government catered to the dollars of the U.S. tourists through the constructionof fifteen-story hotels, its own people wallowed in the slums, a iew to be kept out of sight ofvisitors.The shift of the Revolution from a program of social reforms under Cardenas, to a program ofindustrialization clearly did not benefit everyone.

VIII. Corruption

fuentes purposely places Arternio Cniz in Acaptilco. The creation ofAcapulco duringthe presidency ofAleman is illustrative of the comipt business practices that went on during theperiod of industrialization. This president, whom many historians identify as the “architect ofmodern Mexico,” courted foreign investment and spent heasly on the construction of roads. But ashistorian Alan Riding points out, ‘ptiblie works in particular enriched many officials and Alemanhimself bought up much ofAcapulco before building a new airport and oceanfront boulevard, asvell as a key road linking it to Mexico City.35 President Aleman knew’ that the region ofAcaptilcowas going to undergo a drastic transformation and made sure that he would share in the profits.Alan Riding notes that Mexican bureaucrats and officials often preferred to invest in real estaterather than ventures that would recycle their takings taek into soeiety.36 In La mucire deArtcmioCrt,z, there is a moment when Cruz reminisces at his cozy, tight relationship w’ith Aleman” whohelps usher in “twenty years of confidence, social peace, class collaboration; twenty years of progressafter Lazaro Cardenas’s demagogiiery7 13y placing Crtiz in Acapulco, Ftientes draws a symboliclink between the protagonist and the practices ofAleman, as both the fictional character and thePresident profited in the era of industrialization through corruption.

An episode where Artemio Cruz hands out di lands to the peasants shows he is nostranger to corruption himself. After he amasses his btisiness empire, Cruz engages in the high levelcorrup000 that had become so endemic in the late 19505 when Fuientcs wa writing. Just prior tofalling ill in 1959. Cniz makes a business trip driving his new’, Swedish import car from Mexico Cityto Sonora:

You will have made the trip to Sonora by car—a 1959 Volvo, license plate DF712—because some government officials were misbehaving badly and youwould have to go all that way List to make sure those people remain loyal, thepeople you bought—bought, that’s right, you will not fool yourselfwith words

ftientes, Airernio cnzz 143, 144.3 Riding, DisranrNeighbois, 57.36 Riding, DisrantNeighbors, 122.Fuentes, Aireniio Groz, 10.

Ex POST FACTO

11$ Marcus Bacher

from your own annual speeches: Ill convince them. I’ll persuade them. No,yotill buy them—and then rhevil impose tariffs (another ugly word) on thetruckers who earn fish on the Sonora-Sinaloa-Mexico City route. Yott w’illgive the inspectors ten percent. and becatise of those middle-men, the fish willbe expensive when they reach the city, and your personal profit will be twentytimes larger than the original value of the fish.9

The passage illustrates corruption on two levels: the “buying of officials” to ensure their loyalty, andthe fixing of prices by instituting a tariffon the truckers transporting fish, thus driving prices tip andincreasing the profits ofCniz.

11100gb certainly not horn during his nile, corruption grew rapidly tinder Aleman, tookmany shapes and extended well into the future, btit sapped the strength and vitality of theinstitutionalized Revolution. Corruption in the police force and the judiciary 9’as not untisual. whilecorruption in both small and large btisinesses was rampant because of the btireaticracy involved indealing with the government and competing interests. Riding notes that a common saying inMcxico,La Reivlucion lelozo/usdchi—thc Revolution brought him justice,” remains a populareuphemism for those appointed a government lob with perks.39 Pciblishing his work in 1962.showing Cnws acts ofbribery and manipulation. Fuentcs demonstrated how tile post-revolutionaryelite cla.ss perpetuated corrupt influence at the expense of social justice, clearly an indictment of therecent past.

IX. United States Economic Relations

Throtighout much of their history. the United States and 11exico have Ilad anasymmetncal relationship. tvitll Washington D.C. clearly holding an advantage. The Mexican-American Var (1846-i848) cost Mexico half of its territorial holdings. Meddling in economic andpolitical affairs has at times hindered development, and the presence of US tmops on Mexican soil atvarious points in histon wounded national pride. The presence of United States economic interestsin Mexico accelerated tinder the Porfiriaro, as Diaz sotight foreign capital to propel tile drivetowards rnodernization.4 After the demise or the Diaz regime however, economic policy wasaltered. In the wake of tile Revolution, tile Mexican government turned inward to focus on socialdevelopments. Investnlent and growtll rates vere low’. whicil left capitalists and btisinessmenunilappy.4

During World War II and especially tinder Alenlan, social programs and agrarianrcfomls were ctit in favor of investment in tile cc000nw, and tile Mexican governments liberalpolicies once again w’ooed foreign investment. If there x’as a profit to be made, tile northernneigllbor was willing to assist. Mexican famling in tile Northwest soon mirrored the capitalistagricultural prodtiction of the United States and many exports were sent to U.S. owned companiesfor processing. The industrialization spawned the contintied growth of a iligh-spending middle classand American companies arrived to nlect their demands for cars. appliances, consumer goods. aildpilarmaceuticals. and in tile proces9.virnlaily controlled tile market. Orporate giants stich as ford.G\l. and Chnsler built assembly plants that provided jobs to the middle-class and elements ofAmerican ctiittirc were visible in metropolitan areas throtighout the country.

Fuentes, ,4rwmio C,i,z. 8.3 Meyer. elk.viean IJIsro,i 6zo Riding, Di,cranriVcighbors. 113-122.° It silotild be noted tilat Diaz also recruited investnlcnt from France and England tocounterbalance the infitience of tile Yankee entrepreneurs. Riding, 318.Riding, DisrncNeighbois, 134,135, 3i6-3i9.

EX POST fAcTo

Carlos Fuentes’ The Death ofArtemio Cruz 119

In the Fuentes novel, Artcmio Cruz participates in facilitating U.S. investment intoMexico, revealing the inherentcorrttption and one-sidcd economic relationship that the relationsoften prodticed. In 1941, Crux meets w’ith two American businessmen over a plot of land thatcontains sulfur domes and a rich forest. They enter into negotiations with Arternio:

The other man explained that the zone was so rich they could go on mining itat full capacity until well into the twenty-first eenwry...’Fhe American winkedand said that the cedar and mahogany forests were also enormous and all thepmfits from that would go—one hundred percent—ti) the Mexicanpartner.. lie [Cmz demanded sa million...’I’he $2 million was ncjt an advanceor credit or amthing like that: that was how much they owed him for gettingthe concession fur them; with the payment. it might be impossible to get theconcession; over time they would earn back what they would give him now’;but without him. withotit the front man...thcy would never get the concessionto work those deposits..tley could exploit those sulfur deposits until well intothe next cenmn’.4

I lere Fuentes depicts one of the methods used by the post-Revolution elite to accumulate wealth.accepting bribes from foreign business interests and mortgaging potential revenue and the eotintrv’sresources tc) outsiders. Duran argues that Etientes is thereby describing a social and political realitycommon to Mexico, noting that Thefore international or even national businesses can operate, theyhave to negotiate bribe payments to the appropriate ministers of government. 43 Fuentes portraysCrnz as self-centered and greedy, representative of a larger elite class in Mexico whose btisinesspractices contradict the social concerns over which the Revolution was fought.

X. The Gap Between Rich and Poor

By the late 19505, the Revolution took a decidedly different course ofevents. Under theleadership of I.azaro Cardenas, social reforms took precedence, btitaftenvards the pendtilurn shiftedmarkcdh towards the consenative side. Reformers on the left that once hoped for the Revolution totake a socialist shape 5’cre disappointed to see Mexico transform into an industrial-capitalist state.Further, while much tvealth \‘as being generated, it was notdistrihuted equitably. On his ;vayoutofoffice in 1958. PresidentAdolfo Rtiiz Cortines conceded that the Mexican masses had not benefitedfrom the revolutionary process, and that its promises were yet to be tiiltillecl as poverty, illness, andignorance remained prevalent. The political and economic elite grew fat and rich and the middle-class experienced growth and increased ptirehasing power, but the affluence did not trickle down tothe rural peasantry who remained at the margins of society. Economic progress proceeded at dieexpense of social justice.4

The lifestyle ofArtemio Cruz illuminates the harsh disparity between the optdence of theMexican elite and the plight of the impoverished. ihrotighotit the novel Fuentes describes theluxurious lifestyle of the main character. We have already seen that lie drove imported cars andvacationed in Acapulco, but there are also numerous instances where Fuentes portrays the wealthand fortune ofCrtiz. To amuse himself, Crux inventories his assets:

The newspaper, real-estate investments.sulftir domes in Jaltipan, the mines inI lidalgo, the logging concessions in Tarahumara, your stock in the chain of

‘ Fuentes, Airemlo Grtzz, i8, 19.43 I)uran, A Ma,tisr Reading, 53.44 ?.Ieyer, iIexican Jlisron 6z6.

Ex POST FACTO

120 Marcus Bacher

hotels, the pipe factory, the fish business, financing of financing. the net ofstock operations. the legal representation of US companies, theadministration of the railroad loans, the advisory posts in fldticiary institutions,the shares in foreign corporations—dyes, steel, detergents—and one fact thatdoes not appear on the diagram: $15 million deposited in London, New York,and Zurich...45

Artemio Cmz amasses a vast empire through opportunism, cunning, and deception. and he is alsounafraid to exhibit his wealth. At various points in the novel. Cruz is depicted wearing Italianloafers, riding on yachts, admiring Bohemian crystal, vacationing in Pads, listening to German operarecords, smoking fine cigars, and hosting lavish NewYears parties in his mansion for his sycophanticfollowers.

All he acquires contrasts starldy with the poverty he experiences as a rural peasant boy, yetprosperity becomes meaningless in the face of declining health and impending death. By the end ofhis life, the decrepit Artcmio becomes a shell of his former self, and while his worldly possessions willforever be left behind, the history of modem Mexico indicates that another ambitious individual inthe mold ofCruz w’ill assuredly betray, deceive, and maniptilate their way into the powerfuloligarchic role Artcmio once embodied. The cycle of corruption and inequality will continue withoutend.

XI. Conclusion

Carlos Fuentes’ La mueire deArternio Qvz is a complex, multi-layered text that offers apowerful, critical examination of twentieth-century Mexico and the author’s perceived failure of theMexican Revolution. The uniqtlc narrative structure, symbolic of the Nesv Novel, offers the reader aglimpse into Mexico’s past, present, and future as narrated throtigh the life ofArtemio Cmz. Thesocial, political, and economic threads therein depict a cotintry permeated with corruption by a smallelite class who co-opted the Revolution for their own personal gain at the expense of the masses.The novel thus acts as an indictment against the ills of the present, yet retains a sense ofoptimistichope for the future. The influence of the book gained fuentes worldwide recognition as an authorand intellectual; whether the novel has effected any change in the ever-present ills in Mexican societyremains a different question altogether.

° Ftientes, Aneniio C,v 9,10.

EX POST FACTO