Raza, género e hibridez en El lazarillo de ciegos caminantes by Mariselle Meléndez

Review by: Melvin S. Arrington, Jr.

Hispania, Vol. 85, No. 4 (Dec., 2002), pp. 858-859
Published by: American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4141242 .
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858 Hispania 85 December 2002
subjetividades,epistemologias,relaciones con el poder y conflictividadesdiscursivasdonde los
textos de Sor Juananos revelan su saber maisperturbador."
Saberes Americanos, que estudia la subalternidady epistemologia en los escritos de Sor
Juana,se origin6 como la tesis doctoralde Martinez-SanMiguel. Luego, ella public6 tres de los
seis capitulos del volumen anteriormenteen varias revistas, y por fin agrega al estudio datos
adicionales en forma de cinco ap6ndices.Este procedimientosugiere una carenciade uniformi-
dad asi como tambi6n una falta de coherencia, la cual debe caracterizarcualquier estudio
acabado.Este mismo m6todoexplica, en parte,la notablefalta de ciertasentradasbibliogrificas,
considerandola fecha de publicaci6n del volumen. A pesar de que dos capitulos se cierrencon
una conclusi6n, esto es lo que falta en el libro y lo que un trabajoque abarcatanto como 6ste,
requiere.Saberes americanosconsiste en una introducci6n,seis capitulos,cinco ap6ndicesy una
bibliografiaampliapero no exhaustiva.
Debido al "renacimiento"de internse investigaci6nrespecto a la obra de Sor Juanaen los
iltimos afios, tenemos nuevas percepciones, estudios comparativos,nuevos hallazgos y hasta
pol6micas. Saberes americanos abarcamucho con su profusi6nde temas y cumple con su meta
trazada.A veces, en este libro de enfoque feministabrillanrevelaciones itiles y podemos, con
confianza, agregarun libro maisal corpus creciente de los estudios que tratanla obra y vida
fascinantesde Sor JuanaIn6s de la Cruz.
Lee A. Daniel
Texas Christian University

Mel6ndez, Mariselle. Raza,genero e hibridezen El lazarillode ciegos caminantes.ChapelHill:

U of North CarolinaP, 1999. ISBN 0-8078-9268-8. 238 pp.

Alonso Carri6de la Vandera(c. 1715-1783), authorof El lazarillo de ciegos caminantes,was

born in Spain but spent most of his life in the Americas. In Lima, where he settled and married,
he held numerousadministrativeposts in the colonial government,amongthemthatof"Visitador
y Segundo Comisarioparael arreglode Correosy Ajuste de Postas entre Montevideo,Buenos
Aires y Lima"(17). As visitadoror inspector,hisjob was to investigatehow well thepostalsystem
operatedandsuggest ways to improveservice.Inthe exercise of these dutieshe madethe overland
journey-from November 5, 1771 to July6, 1773-and got the idea for the book. In theLazarillo
Carri6offers a vivid portraitof the territory,its people, and their customs as well as a running
commentary on colonial society. In discussing the region's social, political and economic
problems,he seeks to explainthe reasonsfor the backwardnessof the area,all the while exposing
his own colonialist mentalityand prejudices.
Mel6ndezshows how the Lazarilloreflectscolonial officials' effortsto controla multi-racial
society and,on a muchbroaderscale, she offers a socioculturalanalysisof SpanishAmericain the
eighteenthcentury.Following herbrief surveyof criticismof theLazarilloandpresentationof the
work's historical and cultural context, she devotes individual chapters to specific subaltern
groups: viz. Indians, gauchos, blacks, and women. In discussing the indigenous population,
Mel6ndezably demonstrateshow these marginalizedpeoples threatenedto destabilizethe social
order in three specific areas: religion, language, and sexual practice. The interactionbetween
colonizerandcolonized revealedways of life thatwere at odds with the dominantculture,andnot
surprisingly,these customs were often viewed as dangerous.Both of the narrativevoices, the
Visitador (white) and Concolorcorvo (his supposedly indigenous guide, who was originally
creditedas the book's author),justified the conqueston the groundsthat it freedthe Indiansfrom
the errorof their ways. Carri6's colonialist agenda was simple: he advocated integratingthis
group into society-through economic development and reforms-as a means of instituting
stability and order.
In many ways, Carri6'sdescriptionof the gauderios serves as a forerunnerof Sarmiento's
portraitof the gaucho in Facundo. The sparsely-populatedregion, accordingto the Visitador,is
blessed with an abundanceof naturalresourcesbut plagued by waste, mismanagement,idleness

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 Reviews 859
and barbarism.He considersthe humanresourcesinadequateand calls for Europeanimmigrants
to replacethe native gauchos and Indians.Carri6'sthinkingwas motivatedby a desire to correct
the failures of the government,lessen the enthusiasmof foreign travelersfor coming to South
America, and control the inhabitantsby disproving the notion that abundanceguaranteeseco-
nomic success. In his view, the lack of a workforcehelps explainthe failureof the colonial system.
Thus, he defends the colonial authorities'efforts to impose orderand controlthe physical space
occupied by the gauderiosby calling attentionto the latter's shortcomings.
The colonial establishmentwas also worriedaboutthe rapidly-multiplyingblack population
because it was fearedthatwith theirnumbersalone they would createdisorder.Blacks could also
pose a menacebecausethey manipulatedthe system of racialclassificationby mixing with lighter-
skinned peoples, therebyundergoinga "whitening"process for the purpose of improvingtheir
status. The authorof the Lazarillo frequentlydepicted blacks as inept and barbaricindividuals
with poor hygiene, who quickly acquired the Spanish language and adapted to the colonial
culture.Their music was, from his perspective, disorderlyand uncivilized. In these stereotypes
Carri6found his primarydiscursive strategy.
Next, Mel6ndez analyzes the representationof the New World as a female body, a territory
createdforthe benefit of the male to controland exploit as he wishes. The women in the Lazarillo
come fromvariousraces andclasses, and many arethe productof racialandethnichybridization,
a fact which prohibitsany attemptto depictthemwithin a single homogenousportrait.Whenthey
appear in public places (as midwives, curanderas,panaderas, seamstresses, and prostitutes),
women are considereddangerous;in their domestic roles, however, they are deemed stabilizing
forces. Inmattersof clothing,sexuality,hygiene, and illnesses women convey a sense of disorder.
Mel6ndez points out the futility of laws institutedto control what people wore: since clothing
indicated status, individuals could easily representthemselves as belonging to a higher social
class by acquiringanddressingin apparelappropriateto thatclass. She also analyzesthe author's
warningagainstracialmixing, which he believed could resultin sterileoffspring,as in the case of
the mule. People of mixed ancestrydid not neatly fit into traditionalracial categories;therefore,
they were consideredmoredifficultto control.Filth, sickness, andimmoralitywere all associated
with disorderand chaos and thus were dangerous.Health and cleanliness, on the other hand,
promotedstability.By eradicatingsickness and disease one could, accordingto this logic, restore
orderand control.
In conclusion, it should be noted that the Lazarillo de ciegos caminantesbelongs to a rich
literarytradition,that of the eighteenth-centuryLatin American travel narrative,a genre that
includes such classics as the five-volume collaborationof Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa, A
Voyage to South America, and the writings of the great German naturalist Alexander von
Humboldt.Nevertheless, Mel6ndez,in keeping with currenttrendsin scholarship,is much more
preoccupiedwith the social, political, and economic structuresof colonial society than with a
strictly"literary"analysisof the work itself. Inthis engaging studyshe demonstratesconvincingly
that the policies instituted by colonial authorities were based on the assumption that all
marginalizedgroups-Indians, gauchos, mestizos, blacks, women-posed a seriousthreatto the
status quo. Her text, accompaniedby several illustrations from the period and an extensive
bibliography,makes a substantialcontributionto ourunderstandingof colonial SpanishAmerica.
It will be of inestimablevalue to anyone interestedin researchingthis fertile field.
Melvin S. Arrington, Jr.
UniversityofMississippi

Niifiez, Ana Rosa, Rita Martin y Lesbia Orta Varona, eds. Homenajea Eugenio Florit: De lo
eterno, lo mejor. Miami: Ediciones Universal, 2000. ISBN 0-89729-826-8. 314 pp.

Con la muertedel distinguidoautorEugenio Florit en 1999, muri6un te6rico literariode los mas
perspicacesy un poeta hispano de los mas brillantes."De tres patrias,"le dicen tambi6n,por su
nacimientoen Espafiaen 1903, su trasladoa Cubaa los catorceafiosy residenciaen la isla hasta

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