Staging a Protest: Fiction, Experience and the Narrator's Shifting Position in "Las aventuras

de don Chipote o Cuando los pericos mamen"

Author(s): Paul Fallon
Source: Confluencia, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Fall 2007), pp. 115-127
Published by: University of Northern Colorado
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Staging a Protest: Fiction, Experience and the

Narrator's Shifting Position inLas aventuras de
don Chipote o Cuando los pericos mamen
P?ud>foUorV
East Carolina University

During the climactic penultimate chapter ofDaniel Venegas's 1928 novel, Las aventuras de
don Chipote o Cuando lospericos mamen, the Chipote family confronts a strong inscription
of the distinction between creating an entertaining fiction and addressing difficult realities.
Do?a Chipote, with her children in tow, has come after her husband, the title character,
from ruralMexico and finally arrives in Los Angeles. Tired of searching, she and the family

a five
enter the very theater inwhich Don Chipote steps on stage in the
hopes ofwinning
to his family's
dollar prize and the affection of his desired "pelona" (145). Oblivious
presence, Don Chipote begins crooning. When his wife recognizes him, she goes on stage
and attacks him. At first the audience reacts with pleasure: "a grito pelado, ped?a que les

dieran el premio a los que tan bien estaban representando la comedia de marido y mujer"
(146). Yet when the children come into view and it becomes obvious that this is no act,
the reaction changes radically: "[cuando los hijos] se le prendieron por todos lados al

se
amor a sus
su
se
Chipote padre y ?ste, por
hijos,
dej? agarrar de
Chipota, entonces
pidi?
a
sense
A
los
la
of
mandaran
c?rcel"
realism
this
suits
audience
but
fine,
(146).
que
just
come to see live
not
to
thus
call
for
intervention.
Sensitive
did
the
they
they
disputes;
the
has
the
theater
notified
who
the
authorities,
management already
public,
classify
family
asMexican and deport them as
illegal immigrants.1
Since Venegas's novel itself crossed the border and was republished in 1984, critics
have consistently commented on the author's identity and on questions of distinguishing
fictions and concrete experience. Nicol?s Kanellos characterizes it as "la primera novela
chicana" because he views the author as identifyingwith the "obrero ducano" and because
the narrator adopts Chicano language and rhetorical style ("Introducci?n" 8-9). Kanellos

conflate the narrator's and author's perspectives as they affirm

thatVenegas experienced episodes recounted in the book and "lived the life of a camello"
("A Socio-Historic Study" 114; Mel?ndez 87). Along similar lines, though more cautiously,
"true intentions" and maintain
other critics speak of Venegas's
that he has a "class
and A. Gabriel Mel?ndez

or that he identifieswith them (Mart?n

Rodriguez
allegiance" with workers,

"Textual" 50;

115

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novel
146). By contrast, Ana Perches holds that the text "is a Mexican
in the United States dealing with a chicano theme (not Chicano)"
(29).2 She
thatVenegas criticizes "ch?canos" for betraying their own cultural heritage and

Baeza Ventura
published
maintains

that the language of the novel differs from that used by Chicano writers (27-28). These
conclusions, though distinct, take the relation between the author and thework as being
inscribed in straightforward fashion, among stable identity options.

In affirming such a direct relationship to lived experience, this body of criticism has
left unexamined metafictional aspects of the work that complicate that linkage. Rather
than an easily discernible portrait from a single, homogenous perspective, I argue that the

novel reveals a complexity that communicates a cultural tension of itsperiod, and that this
to define what isMexican
and what is
complexity arises around the boundaries used
in thework.

Chicano

I read the abovementioned

the text as a whole,

theater scene as helpful to understanding

the narrative situation of the novel itself. In

since it reflects back upon

s view. In a
moment
Chipote and his family shift in the audience
single
as
a
on
from
fictional
and
stage
representation
receiving the
they go
being perceived
to
audiences acceptance,
being revealed in their connective reality and subsequently
that scene, Don

aware of this
dynamic, the narrator self
suffering the audiences rejection. Reflexively
to
connect
text even as he criticizes a
tries
his
the
with
readers
consciously
throughout
number of popular fictions.3 Las aventuras itself is a theatrical presentation, and in it, the
to his artifice, while also insistently
narrator
frequently calls attention
directing the

is no actor, the narrator

toward a truth in his protest. Though Don Chipote
the
role
of
multi-faceted, shifting
emcee-alternatively directing, questioning,
performs
to the audience.
addressing and expounding
audience

As

other critics have noted,

Quijote de laMancha,

Cervantes' Don

has important connections with Miguel

and with Mikhail Bakhtin's theoretical conceptions.

the work

studies, my analysis deals primarily with the narrator and narrative

technique.4 Specifically, I link the metafictional critiques inVenegas's novel and inDon
Quijote and take up Bakhtin's discussion of the relation between author, hero, and reader.

Unlike

previous

aventuras

its buffoonish protagonist

and criticizes the
alternatively mocks
humor
U.S.
and
realistic
contemporary
society by carefully mixing
critique in a
testimonial mode. The work rejects a univocal position and maneuvers among several
contexts: Spanish-language
and U.S. political
literary and theatrical traditions, Mexican
climates, and rural and urban mentalities. The narrator's constant shifting of position, his

Las

of linguistic registers, and his metafictional play make it difficult to tie the
manipulation
text to any fixed
text.
standpoint. These features reflect and embody the complexity of the
these moves, the narrator negotiates among the conflicting and unstable
in a group thatwas in the difficult process of defining itselfduring a
manifest
allegiances
of
cultural
change.
period
significant
In making

novel tells the story of Don Chipote, an immigrant Mexican

laborer who is
a countryman returned from theU.S., and
tales
him
the
tall
told
Pitacio,
by
tempted by
leaves his rural village in search of work. Accompanied
by his dog Sufrelambre, he makes
a
across
the difficult trip
the border, and, along with
newfound friend, Policarpo, he gets
The

job with the railroad. After working under exploitative conditions and being treated
on the tracks, he
poorly
injures himself and is sent to Los Angeles along with Sufrelambre

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FALL 2007

and Policarpo. There he recuperates, gets a job as a dishwasher, and becomes romantically
involved with an Anglo flapper. He falls not only for thepelona, but also for the intrigues
of shysters and faith healers. While he tries to orient himself in this new and unfamiliar

the novel takes up a second narrative thread that reveals how Do?a Chipote sells
everything and treks north to find her husband after his long silence. After the climactic
confrontation in the theater, the story comes full circle and closes with the protagonist
over his fate almost exactly as in the
ruminating
beginning, his apparent lesson (the subtitle
se har?n ricos en
of the book) capitalized for the reading audience: "que los mexicanos

world,

EstadosUnidos: CUANDO LOS PERICOS MAMEN"

(155).

Changing (Formsof) Address andMessages about

Border Crossing

Critics posit particular associations between author, protagonist, and readers based on the
to the lesson they see Don
Chipote learning.Most have tended
significance they attribute
a
as
to
(93), and
emphasize
Urquijo Ruiz (64), Mel?ndez
singular morality. Some, such

("Las aventuras' 361), cite the final line as the principal point made.5 Perches
concurs that the text conveys this lesson, but she
distinguishes this univocal point of view
in
of
from that working-class Ch?canos,
part because, for her, the novel criticizesMexican
emigrants for betraying their culture (28). Manuel Mart?n-Rod?guez, however, holds that

Kanellos

"should not be taken literally, since it is clearly undermined by Venegass

with
those who have been uprooted fromMexico and have become permanent'
solidarity
identifies a more complicated
Chicanos/as"
("Textual" 49). Though Mart?n-Rod?guez
text because he recognizes more diversity in theChicano/a community that
meaning in the
the moral

is involved in producing and receiving themessage of the novel, he also focuses principally
linking the author's perspective with that of his intended reading audience. These
interpretations of the border crossing in Las aventuras do not address in depth the

on

narrator's active role, and it is through the narrator's activity thatmuch

of the text arises.

of the complexity

The text undermines any easy alignment of author, protagonist, and reading public
manner of
as the narrator
a rule,
frequently changes his
addressing the reading public. As
"the position of the author of a novel vis-?-vis the life portrayed in thework is in general
(Bakhtin "Forms," 160), and the narrator's and
highly complex and problematical"
readers' roles in generating meaning in the text further complicate the picture ("Forms"

In Las aventuras, the narrative agent makes his presence nearly ubiquitous, for,
256-57).
as Elena Urrutia notes: "con cualquier pretexto se introduce en el relato" (36). Yet the angle
fromwhich the narrative voice speaks is always changing, as his grammar and description
alter his relationship to the public. To refer to his readers, the narrator uses every one of
the available pronouns for direct address: t?, vosotros, usted, ustedes, and nosotros (54; 29;

97; 42; 18). In nearly Brechtian fashion, these changes disturb the adoption of any single
uniform point of view. After describing Don Chipote headed forwork on the tracks, the
narrator queries, "Ahora, lectores, aqu? tienen a don Chipote
camino de California.

mucho?" (53). By shiftingthe

T? que te has reenganchadodime, ?le faltar?
?Llegar??

referent, the text interrupts a scene, reminds readers of their own activity in generating the
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117

fiction, then more intimately invites the reader to compare his/her own experience with
the protagonist's. Such shiftsdisrupt a static
positioning of author, narrator, and readership
and call into question the relation between reader, text, and experience.
Significantly, the characteristics of the pronoun referents also change, as the narrator

includes and excludes different readers' identities. In some instances, the narrative voice
commandingly includes the reader as part of "we": "[d]ejemos a don Chipote y familia
durmiendo" (18). At other times he uses "nosotros" to refer only to himself as thewriter:
"no queremos meternos en honduras y
esta labor a
dejamos
plum?feros m?s aguzados ym?s
narrator
nosotros"
Later
the
straddles the line and uses a less clear "we,"
(23).
picudos que
so that as he affirms that "Estos
negreros...viven de la desgracia del mexicano_[e]omo
lamayor?a de nosotros cruzamos la frontera sin cinco y s?lo con
esperanzas," he identifies
himself as Mexican,
but may or may not include the reader in that
description (47). In
other instances, "nosotros" includes the reader, if only
indirectly: "Los que la dibujamos
por los famosos Estados Unidos sabemos lo que quiere decir el no haber amartillado y estar
armarse con
es que ya
bruja y de pronto
algunas jolas. As?
pueden figurarse el gusto que
sentir?an estos pobres parnas..."
narrator
Here
the
does group together reader's and
(92).
protagonist's experiences to emphasize the possibility of understanding and sympathizing
with the problems of being an immigrant.
Thus, the narrator continues shifting positions and terms. Later in the text, the
narrator separates the reader
again, while solidifying his own association with themigrant
en
cuenta que los camellos nunca tenemos cuartilla alzada y se ver?
workers: "T?mese
que

la necesidad nos hace trabajar por lo que nos

(97). Here, addressed separately
pagan..."
and formally as "Usted," the reader finds him/herself distanced, while the narrator
identifieswith workers, and is able to explain the situation in the first person
plural. The
text reiterates this identification
as the narrator reveals his own
throughout,
experiences of
on the tracks,
con
substandard
and
victims
of
artists (63
pay,
working
receiving
meeting
narrator
the
more
associates
himself
64; 71-72;
105). Finally,
specifically with migrant
workers, calling himself a "chicano," and leaving the reader to take his/her own position:
"Pitacio...no

sab?a nada de ingles y s?lo sab?a pedir lo que la mayor?a de los ch?canos
(138). Yet the term "Chicano" does not settle the critic's identity concerns,
since itdoes not have the same meaning as itdoes today, but rather refers toMexicans who
had come to work temporarily in the United States (Villanueva 393-94).
In fact, the
narrator uses "Mexican" and "Chicano"
"...ten?a
cambiar
la fierrada
que
interchangeably:
chicana por d?lares, pues que en la estaci?n no quer?an moneda mexicana" (139). To insist
on
between
these two adjectives
today
distinguishing
imposes an anachronistic
differentiation both on the terms themselves and on the text. The narrator does not
sabemos..."

distinguish between them, but draws readers in to sympathize with the protagonists as he
alludes to common experiences of exploitation and uses both terms
interchangeably. At the
same time, the narrator's
stances
changing referents and
highlight his active role and
undermine static identifications.

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FALL 2007

The Language

of Las Aventuras: Registering

Identity

or

Democracy?
narrator navigates through an array of linguistic registers, intertexts, and tones, and
this strategy emphasizes mobility and complexity. Colloquial
language full of popular
and
sayings, slang,
journalistic prose and satirically florid
bilingualisms accompanies
more formal
to the
in
literary descriptions
Spanish. Significant segments dedicated

The

contemporary theater scene in Los Angeles and to popular corridos appear alongside the
references. Broad, often scatological comedy dominates, but
obvious Don Quixote
of testimonially-phrased
narrations
serious
scattered moments
effectively make
an
ease
with moving between a
counterpoints. This cultural and linguistic variety conveys

number of contexts in a society neither simple nor homogenous.

Some critics celebrate the breadth of the discursive mixture as inclusively dialogic;
others associate the distinct linguistic registers and narrative style of the textwith specific

terms.
in exclusionary
of the
Bakhtins
conception
Using
Baeza
Ventura
Gabriela
Eriinda
and
Alfred
("El
aspecto"),
Gonz?les-Berry
carnivalesque,
see
use
Patricia
and
Cabrera
of
the
Rodr?guez ("Las aventuras"),
("Dialogismo")
working
class vernacular, bilingualism, and allusions to popular genres as democratizing in nature.
Kanellos
14), Mel?ndez
(89), and Tom?s Ybarra-Frausto
("Introducci?n"
(157), refer to
identities

described

of the same traits to argue the text establishes a Chicano narrative style. Perches,
however, argues that the language inLas aventuras differs fromChicano speech because the
novel marks its English words in italics, whereas "the use of English in contemporary

many

literature is either themain language or part of a code-switching and therefore

natural linguistic process whereby italics or quotation marks are not needed" (28). She also
maintains
that because "the linguistic patterns of the ch?canos in the novel are very
different from those of the narrator" (27), and because she observes "the Malinche
Chicano

in the text (28), it is aMexican, not a Chicano novel.6

as
or
simply Chicano
language in the novel, however, challenges categorization
Mexican. Labeling the text "Mexican" proves difficult, for, as Perches notes, the examples
of '"Chicano' words areMexican as well, and therefore not exclusively Chicano"
(27). Yet
Perches s designation of the novel as not Chicano
is also problematic. While
shemaintains
text is not natural (as quoted above), as Gonz?les
that the code-switching inVenegass
and
Shaw
Berry
Gynan note, "code-switching in bilingual literature is first and foremost
(307). Furthermore, Perches s position does not
stylistically and aesthetically designed..."
Complex"
The

take into account when the novel appeared, "natural" literary code-switching had no place
within canonically published writing. The novel includes a great deal of informal language
at a time when to do so was only marginally acceptable. As Kanellos points out, Venegas
had already suffered a critical rejection of one of his works because of a flexibility of
account read "el jurado cr?tico condena acremente la libertad del
printed
in "Daniel Venegas" 271). Given that code-switching had not
Navarro
lenguaje" (Gabriel
as
a
been accepted
standard literarypractice, and that its representation, therefore, had not
language;

been conventionalized, to classify the combination of registers in the text as definitively

Mexican or Chicano would be to impose another anachronistic distinction.

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119

of these linguistic registers and his

the same time, the narrator smanipulation
use of comic critique limit the
democratizing aspects of the carnivalesque humor
pointed
seen in the novel.
narrator establishes a distance between himself and the
the
Specifically,
At

that distinguishes and creates hierarchies. As Perches observes, while the

an uneducated
own
Spanish, the narrator repeatedly signals his
protagonists speak only
In addition, although humor
education by mixing inmore formal expression (27-28).
protagonist

narrator does not include himself as a

subject of laughter.
throughout the text, the
not
at the camellos"
"is
affirmation
that
with
and
Mel?ndez's
Despite
Venegas
laughing
a
more
text
tone
narrators
serious
takes
that suggests the
(90), the
"superiority" when
runs

recounting situations stemming from his "firsthand" experiences. Unlike the gullible Don
cons or ruses he has observed. Further, while the
Chipote, the narrator does not fall for the

or resists
authority principally through evasion, the
protagonist often follows orders
own boss' abuses:
nos
narrator directly rebels
his
"Despu?s de esto elmayordomo
against
sus
a rega?ar de una manera tan soez que, no
m?s
le
insultos
empez?
pudiendo soportar
con
me
un
contest?
el
volar!
hasta
dio
otro, y ?a
contest?,
tiempo
golpe que
perdiendo
narrator as less submissive and
These
the
(63-64).
separate
effectively
episodes
trabajado"
a
counters
smarter than the protagonists, as he avoids
being the butt of jokes. Such distance
the democratizing base of Bakhtin's idea of the carnival: "Carnival is a pageant without

a division into performers and spectators. In carnival everyone is an

footlights and without
active participant, everyone communes in the carnival act. Carnival is not contemplated
and, strictly speaking, not even performed..."
{Problems 122). While often sympathetic to
Don Chipote and the other workers, the narrator's comments about them, his seriousness,
his own testimonial interjections, and the distinctiveness of his character in those episodes
establish a division

akin to those of the footlights of theater.While

the laughter of
text
narrator does
be
the
somewhat
the
humor
and
inclusive,
may
carnivalesque
liberating
not support a uniform communal view, but instead sets himself apart in
contemplation.7
Instead of an expression of a singular identity or a popular will, I suggest that the
use of discourses in Las aventuras evidences a strategy to shift among perspectives in order
to interest the widest possible audience. As Mart?n-Rodr?guez
observes, the Mexican
a
was not uniform ("Textual").
Venegas's novel indicates
reading public is and
consciousness of these differences, taking up language, humor, and themes likely attractive
a distinct perspective at least somewhat
to a larger
working-class public, but also adopting

American

acceptable

to a educated

elite.8 The

distinct combination

in the text allows both for a

a
separation from the protagonist's ignorance and gullibility and for consistent connection
to be made with the workers'
mix
this
of
plight. Thus,
linguistic registers, scatological
testimonial
unsettles
and
easy
any
comedy,
critique
pigeonholing of his position.

Critiquing Fictions:Of Gold-laden Streets,LoveMagic, and

Sacred Cactus

Land

the metafictional critique in the novel. The

handling of this mix complements
to final
phrase ("cuando los pericos
skeptical stance that unites the book from subtitle
mamen") points to this principal thematic it shareswith Don Quixote: both texts challenge
The

The Spanishhidalgohas filledhis headwith the talesof the libros

widelyknownfictions.
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FALL 2007

de caballer?a and, in effect, sallies forth to put them to the test (Murillo 13; Haley 163).
Popular narratives similarly enchant Don Chipote as he heads out to fulfill the promises
of easy money his friend Pitacio has painted for him. These fictions spur the protagonist s
journey and provide the impetus for the plot of the novel. The narrator underlines that
such stories have can powerful negative effects on an entire nation. "[M]?s que por las
condiciones en que la revoluci?n ha puesto al pa?s," he affirms, peoples belief in
those stories forms the cause "por lo que cada d?a se despuebla m?s ym?s" (23). Thus, the
as a means
text lambastes the
immigrants
exploitative working conditions facingMexican

malas

of dispelling the pervasive myth of getting rich quick.

Yet the metafictional critique in Las aventuras, as in Cervantes' novel, addresses a
number of tales. Just as Don Quixote
finds himself manipulated
by others as they
own
construct narratives
for
their
entertainment and gain in the second
involving him

volumeof theSpanish text(Haley 164-65;Allen 3; El Saffar

Beyond,82-85), in thelatter

half ofVenegass book Don Chipote confronts the fabrications newcomers face in the big
city. In Los Angeles, the protagonist meets a lawyerwho convinces him to go forward with
a work

never hears from the lawyer

injury suit against the train company, and then
again
(104-05). The "pelona," Don Chipotes flapper coworker and extramarital love interest,
leads him on to have him spend money on her (119). In the hopes of gaining her

affections, he consults with a curandero, who charges an exorbitant fee, but only deceives
him with nonsensical incantations (119). Though
the gullible hero uncritically accepts

each of these stories as true, the narrator sees through all the falsehoods and points them
comes to the fore in the
clearly to the reader. This metacriticism of fictions

out

a
Chipote at the theater.The framework of staged
a
are
performance is interrupted in such way that artifice and reality
brought into question.
The climactic scene I described at the beginning of this article echoes Don Quixotes
confrontation between Don

and Do?a

intercession in the puppet plays ofMaese Pedro, which itself has been interpreted as a
text (El
mise-en-scene
that reflects back upon the narrative positioning in Cervantess
Saffar "Distance"; Haley). Venegass novel raises questions about such positioning earlier,
a show soon after
enters
Chipote first happens upon
leaving the hospital. He
the darkened house curious but fearful. Yet just as stories told in the darkness entertain

when Don

Sancho Panza and the Spanish knight errant in theCervantes classic (Vol. I 241?244; Vol.
II 350-51),
the fictional narratives and the comfort of others calm Don Chipote. The
narrator, however, maintains a critical eye toward the theatrical performance that follows
the movie: "nuestros artistas sostuvieron un di?logo callejero, que a la fecha en que lo

pon?an por novedad, ya lo sab?an hasta los ni?os de pecho" (111). The narrator affirms,
further, that as itdid for the shyster, the flapper, and the curandero, self-interestmotivates
the trite, nostalgic show: "la palomilla de c?micos que la vacila en los Estamos Sumidos,

sabe que la chicanada se pone de puntas cuando le ponen por enfrente algo que le recuerde
como es natural, esta
se la
su santa
flaqueza
explotan por todos lados" (111).
nopalera y,
as a
narrator
himself
the
this
criticism,
implicates
Despite
participant in this fictionalizing:
"Mis lectores me perdonar?n que me haya dado esta sacada, para darles a conocer entre
azul y buenas noches el ambiente teatral de la ciudad de Los ?ngeles; pero si lo hice fue
para darles oportunidad a los c?micos que se quedaran bailando el jarabe, que lo acabaran
y a la vez que se quitara la polvareda que las patadas sacaban de las rendijas del tablado"
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the narrator both places himself at the level of the story (he
the others dance as a service for the performers) and apart from that story (as
he critiques the performance and directs himself to the audience), taking up the role of
emcee for the show.9
of others
The same critique the narrator directs toward the narrative manipulations
own textual discourse. Ostensibly intended to reveal the
points to the construction of his
(111). With
speaks while

this declaration,

to
immigrant worker in theU. S. and
signal the fictive base of instant
plight of theMexican
a
success stories, the novel
in
that
offers no better an option for
and
ends
setting
begins

no better an option for the reader

text
verisimilarly.10 The
Chipote economically, and
opens and closes with the same harmonious pastoral image of theMexican
countryside,

Don

recall
withDon Chipote workinghis fieldsbehindhis yokedoxen.The imagesstrongly
the criticized nostalgia of the "santa nopalera': "El sol se ocultaba en el ocaso y las nubes
(155).
pon?anse coloradotas al recibir la postrera caricia de la cobija de los pobres..."
Further, the distinctly literary register of these passages causes the conceit to stand out. As

serve only as a frame for the novel.

Mart?n Rodriguez notes, "Mexico and life inMexico
a
scenes
bucolic vision reminiscent of a nostalgic
(49). Elena Urrutia suggests the
present

characterizes the language in these framing sections as

song (36), while Kanellos
"altamente literario y florido" ("Introducci?n" 13). Such a fictive base should not surprise
readers, since the narrator admits early on he never intended a strong dose of reality: "muy
en los Estados Unidos,
larga ser?a la labor de presentar realmente la vida de losmexicanos

y sobre todo, nosotros, no queremos meternos en honduras" (23). Even as it counters the
lies told by those returning fromworking in theU.S., the text constructs itsown obviously
fictive image of home, sweet home.
Thus, Las aventuras follows Don Quixote in using fictions to critique fictions.While
to recognize
text comments on chivalric romances?
emphasizing the need
their status as fictions, even while creating one (Haley 164)-, Venegas's novel criticizes the
stories of unqualified success recounted by the returning workers through Don Chipotes

Cervantes's

constantly exposing the falsehoods behind the stories

narrator also reveals another reason behind these
the
Chipote,
falsehoods?the
need for help and the desire for a good story.As they arrive home at the
end of the novel, broke and without a job, the Chipotes themselves do not challenge the
on the success stories "sabiendo que si los
townspeople's assumptions based
desenga?aban
invented misadventures. While

Pitacio

told Don

ymanifestaban que iban en la bruja, dejar?an de hacerles fiestas y ayudarles" (153). From
the climactic scene in the theater, the Chipotes learned that an audience desires a certain
amount of fiction, and they enact their own performance for their fellow
townspeople. Of
on
success
as
comes
in theU.S., the Chipote
the curtain
down
the stories of easy
course,

as artificially constructed
family finds itselfback in the just
setting of theMexican pastoral
frame. The text effectively undercuts the fictions on both sides of the border even as it
explains the desires and motivations that drive those creations.
a
to those fictional constructs, and as
to the dominant
counterpoint
remedy
text
tone and
accounts
narrator
in
the
the
the
claims to
work,
dispenses
language
two
first-hand. These
episodes
generally share
experienced
distinguishing

As

comedie
have

a shift in
to the use of
first-person pronouns: they introduce
to
to
tense.
from
narration
For
from
and
past
present
emphasis
description,
example, after
characteristics in addition

122

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FALL 2007

noting that the protagonist and his friends get in line for a job, the text generalizes about
their difficulties to speak of others experiences:
Para los habitantes de El Paso es cosa corriente ver a cualquier hora del d?a las
.se
peregrinaciones de paisanos que..
dirigen o, m?s bien dicho, les dirigen a la
estaci?n de uni?n de los ferrocarriles. Para los que hemos pasado por estos

trances, es tristey doloroso ser el punto de vista de los transe?ntes que, muchas
veces hasta burlas tienen para los que,
a
obligados por la necesidad, recurren las
oficinas de reenganche (51).
the comically narrated events remain in the past, the text places a number of these
serious passages in the readers present, using static verbs of having and being to
convey ideas of certainty and stability (23, 45, 48, 63, 71, 104-05, 111,119). The more
formal expression and the seriousness in the episodes presented as testimonials lend added

While
more

involved. Further, the use of the present tense for other

to the truth claims

weight

passages (28, 32, 37, 39, 53, 83-84, 89, 97), forfolksayings(40, 83), and for
descriptive
some "common

sense" generalizations?"Todos
saben que los m?s flojos son los m?s
same
sense of verisimilitude by
that
supports
(21)?reiteratively
affirming the
continued existence of accepted knowledge. Moreover, by frequently foregrounding the
comedy and not letting solemn topics take over, the text encourages its readers to consider

habladores"

themore uncomfortable

realities thatmight otherwise be rejected, as the Chipote family

in the theater.Thus, the consistent comedy and themetafictional critique in the text
enhance, as a clear counterpoint, the tenor of truthfulness in the passages that are

was

as
presented distinctly
first-person, eyewitness narratives.11 Carefully controlling the
relational distance between reader, protagonist, and narrator, and agilely moving from the
comic to the serious allow the text to present an engaging fiction, a metafictional critique,
and a sharp protest for the readers' contemplation.
The dynamics arising from the theatrical climax and themetafictional elements of
the novel also afford a reflection on the critics' readings of the text itself.As Louis Gerard

critics have used different cultural expressions, like Las

observes, Chicano/a
as
"factual" counterhistories ofMexicans and Mexican Americans in
aventuras, to function
theUnited States (18-26). Thus, Kanellos affirms that: "the 'historicized' Daniel Venegas
comes to usurp the first level of the narrative and wrests
historicity away from Don
a doubt, the
his
and
Without
companions.
Chipote
painful reality of abuse and injustice
were more important to the author than the fictiveworld he was
creating" ("Introduction"

Mendoza

7). The theater audience rejected the Chipote family drama when it became too real, but
rather than reject the elements of reality he sees in thework, Kanellos embraces them and
minimizes the importance of the "fictive" constructions. In depicting the perspective on

critics rehearse the tendency that

that reality as Chicana
(or, alternatively, Mexican),
Chicano/a
has
noted
that of developing a "bipolar
S?nchez
historians,
among
George
I agree that thework relates a difficult truth of
cultures" (7).While
concur
with Mendoza's view of both literature and history
immigrant exploitation, I also
as constructions (20-21), and I argue that the "inventions" in
text bolster the
Venegas's

model

of opposing

effectiveness of the truth claims made.

VOLUME

23,

NUMBER

Specifically, through itsmetafictional

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critique, the

123

text contrasts those claims with popular fictions and uses comedy and colloquial language
to make the difficult situation palatable to an audience that might otherwise not be

interested in such unpleasant underlying truths. Rather than an exclusively Chicano/a or

a
perspective, the complexity of Las aventuras suggests
negotiation of the

Mexican

conflicting allegiances S?nchez argues that many faced in the process of "becoming
Mexican American" in the 1920s.
In reflecting the pressures of a societal moment of change, amoment when identities
were in flux, the narrators trajectory of
changing identifications and perspectives
challenges the stable identity labels and concomitant narratives critics have been inclined
to

aventuras de Don
place upon thework. The distinct metafictional combination in Las
a
in
involved
reflects
the
that
era,
conflicting allegiances
allowing both for
Chipote
s
a consistent connection
from
and
for
the
and
separation
ignorance
protagonist
gullibility

to be made with theworkers'

of identity associations
plight. The narrator's manipulation
and linguistic registers plays out over multiple positions, as he varies his relationship with
the reader and the subject of narration, as well as the relationship between these two. In
addition, the fictional framing of the self-consciously textualized main storyline is placed

as homeland, and calls

over the backdrop of a decidedly fictionalized image ofMexico
attention to the construction of each of these discourses, thereby resisting a fixed
one over the other and
to the
pointing
artificiality of both. Rather than
preference for
lessen the veracity of the claims about social problems in the novel, this metafictional
critique strengthens those claims and allows the seriousness of present problems to stand
same
out amidst the comedy of the narrated past.While other critics attempt to
lodge the

protest that the novel announces in one particularly interpreted place or another, I hold
that thework self-consciously "stages" its own protest, pointing to a set of realities even as
it dances about, finelywrapped in fiction.
Notes
Iwill

hereinafter,

refer to Las aventuras de don Chipote

2Perches distinguishes
(the term

Ch?canos

3Because
atenemos

between

"ch?canos"
in the 1960s

"emerging

of his self-identification
a las
viejas"

and

"el que

o Cuando

lospericos mamen

as Las aventuras.

who immigrates to the United

States") and
("aMexican
to
ofMexican
descent")
(36).
designate Americans

as such in the text, Iwill

esto escribe"

refer to the narrator

as male:

"los hombres

nos

(61; 63).

to the
and/or Balduins work to characterize Las aventuras. Critics have noted
Quijote
4Many have referred
names ("California Dreamin";
the parallelisms with theQuijote
Kanellos
"Introducci?n; Mart?n
regarding
structural correspondences
and Rodriguez),
and
"Textual"; Urquijo
Ruiz),
(Gonzales-Berry
Rodr?guez
concerns

over internal colonization

carnivalesque

aspects

and/or

(Childers).

the dialogism

Analyses
of the novel

referring

to Bakhtin's work

(Baeza Ventura;

Cabrera;

have underlined

Gonzales-Berry

the

and

Rodriguez).
s
language edition of the novel, Ethriam Cash Brammer, extends Kanellos
seven of the novel, Don
In
of
this
line.
the
of
and
interpretation
importance
chapter
sing
Chipote
Policarpo
a corrido inwhich
to have seen many odd
to Kanellos,
"se entiende que
they claim
things, and, according
nunca han visto un
the Spanish language version of the
("Las aventuras" 361). Though
perico mamar"
5The translator of the English

itself does not contain this line, Brammar s translation of the novel adds the idea, as the protagonist
never seen a
to the corrido connects the
(64). This alteration made
sings, "But I've
parakeet breast-feed"
as the moral of the
and
title, middle,
story.
ending of the work, and reinforces that particular idea

corrido

124 CONFLUENCIA,

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FALL 2007

Perches refers to aMexican

intellectual tendency that used the
Complex,"
woman Malintzin,
of
the
who
Hern?n
Cort?s
conquer the Aztec empire, to
figure
indigenous
helped
to be cultural traitors. Because
she perceives that the narrator criticizes "ch?canos"
critique those perceived
6With the term "theMalinche

In characterizing
for cultural betrayal, Perches maintains Venegas s novel isMexican.
the novel as Chicana,
he sees Venegas
shows a similarly linguistically and culturally exclusionary idea. Though
expressing
the ideology of preserving Mexican
culture elsewhere, he contrasts that idea with the expression in Las

Kanellos

aventuras:

the protection ofMexican

culture and the Spanish language, chose
"Venegas, while advocating
an
.inDon
272). Mart?n-Rodr?guez
("Daniel Venegas"
adopt Chicano
speech..
Chipote..."
gives
excellent critique of imposing such divisive definitions on Chicanos/as
and Chicano/a
literature in his book
to

Life inSearchofReaders.
7The text also distances

the readers from Don

Chipote

and Policarpo,

as it

repeatedly

and consequentdependencyon others (30; 39; 63; 72; 92; 138; 144).
illiteracy

the pair s

emphasizes

awareness of the
perceived conflict between popular topics and intellectuals'
8Venegas expressed
on
notes that
the combination
of the two as a duty. Kanellos
orientation, characterizing
alongside reports
con
su
affirms:
"Los
deben
al
frente
de
las
dem?s
sociedades
ponerse
agrupaci?n
boxing, Venegas
periodistas

como
un
guiadores hacia
porvenir de afectiva solidaridad y verdadero patriotismo para todos los
little is known about his work indicates Venegas
chose to take up
(cited in "Daniel" 272). What
as
even
censure from critics for
boxing, migrant work, and jazz,
topical themes such
though he also risked
the "liberties" he took with language (as noted above). In his book Becoming Mexican
American
(particularly

mexicanas,
exiliados"

in Chapter
5, pages 108-25), George J. S?nchez offers an insightful analysis of similar conflicting values
American
enacted by the Los Angeles Mexican
of that time.
population

inVenegas s novel does touch upon the

9Patricia Cabreras
analysis of dialogism and carnivalization
narrator s role and coincides with some
I
make
here.
maintains
She
that the narrative voice expresses
points
a la vez ir?nico y solidario" of the
in Luis Valdez's Zoot Suit (171).
"sarcasmo y el distanciamiento,
pachuco
exist?a en la escena un
She proposes that later study determine whether "si ya desde la ?poca de Venegas
narrador,

con una function

conductor

claramente

en el teatro de variedades,

did?ctica;
o del c?mico

o si la
ese
es una estilizaci?n del
pachuco
figura de
de la lengua" (178). She also characterizes
the novel

as

in
I agree with some of her assertions (for
the
describing
example,
work as signaling societal change and noting the importance of theatricality in the text), I argue that her
a
of the narrator as a "pachuco
characterization
incipiente" presents
similarly restrictive, though unclear,
toValdez's film character and the
identity label (171). Cursory references
stereotypical portrayals
"una obra de transici?n"

(177). While

Paz and Samuel Ramos

form the basis of Cabrera's characterization
of the narrator
by Octavio
as a savvy, urban
Yet
into
also
this
when
Cabrera
she signals that
injects ambiguity
depiction
proto-pachuco.
the narrator parodies the principal characters' buying the very clothing "que a?os despu?s ser? la imagen de
established

marca del pachuco" (171). Rather thantryto clarifyand/orisolatea specificidentify

fortheauthorand
narrator here, Imaintain

which

speaks both

a number
shifting of position reveals
of the work and of the context from which

that the narrator's

to the
complexity

10The fact that, before his wife's

of contending
it arose.

loyalties,

success
enjoys relative
Chipote
in the U.S.
focuses on the difficulties ofmigrants
the text affirms that he "pesc? camello como
bien cebado y con algunos d?lares en el bolsillo"
(118).

arrival in the climactic

theater scene, Don

strongly undercuts the thesis that the novel unequivocally

a while in Los
After the protagonist
recuperates
Angeles,

en un restaurant y all? lo tenemos muy

lavaplatos
toMexico)
at the end of the novel (of
His
arise principally because he does
being hit and returned
problems
to his
not attend
his
consistent commentary on
wife's
north
The
(123).
family, spurring
trip
properly
to each other, "ch?canos" to
Don
and
characters' loyalty (Sufrelambre to Don Chipote,
Policarpo
Chipote
the Spanish
nationalism

language and amongst themselves,

than to a developing
transnational

etc.), suggests the text directs

itself less to ideas of

community.

mention
of the truth claims as rhetorical strategies informs my argument here (xxix). In
Noriega's
see as part of an
to attend to the
this respect, Iwould
my
argument with what I
emerging tendency
align
Louis Mendoza,
rhetorical strategies involved in Chicano/a writings, as observed in studies by Noriega,

nChon

Leticia M.

Garza-Falc?n,

VOLUME

23,

and Doris Meyer.

NUMBER

125

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