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Abstract
Carlos Fuentes’s 1962 novel La muerte de Artemio Cruz is a fundamental work in twentieth century fiction. The theme of choice permeates and complicates the novel’s plot. Behind these choices is what appears to be a win-or-lose mentality, as Artemio seems to perceive the world as divided between chingones and chingados. This dichotomy is one that echoes the discourse of Mexican intellectual, writer, and diplomat Octavio Paz (1914–1998) in his well-known book on Mexican identity, El laberinto de la soledad (1950). Building on previous criticism that studies the intertextual relationship between the two works, this paper argues that Fuentes’s protagonist embodies Paz’s theoretical description of un hijo de la Chingada, simultaneously paying tribute to Paz’s book while also questioning and problematizing its dichotomous thinking. Artemio’s individuality, highlighted by the novel’s opening (“Yo despierto…”) and its closing (“moriré”), is something often overlooked by criticism that views Artemio Cruz as a trope, more than a man. Throughout the novel Artemio encounters doubles of himself that force moments of reflection. These doubles haunt him on his deathbed, creating a crisis of conscience that complicates the reader’s interpretation of Cruz as protagonist. To presume that Artemio Cruz is merely a literary manifestation of Paz’s theory is to overlook the craftsmanship behind his construction as a complex character who reflects on how the choices he has made have shaped his life and legacy.
Notes
1 See Flores, Girgen, Solana, Verjat.
2 “No one doubts that Artemio Cruz, main character of the novel by Carlos Fuentes, The Death of Artemio Cruz, is an incarnation of Mexico: the nation of the past and of the present, Mexico considered materially and spiritually,” writes Castañeda (139).
3 The biographical details from this paragraph are from Malva Flores’s Estrella de dos puntas: Octavio Paz y Carlos Fuentes: crónica de una amistad. Paz and Fuentes maintained an international correspondence by letters that Flores has synthesized.
4 Scholarship on La Malinche engages with the problematic relationship between the historical figure and her representation in popular culture and the arts. See Messinger Cypess.
5 As the natural child of an Afro-Mexican mother and criollo father, Artemio is a variant of un hijo de la Chingada, while not technically un hijo de la Malinche, as the term as espoused by Paz refers to the offspring of a Spanish father and an indigenous mother. However, Artemio’s conception and birth bear the literal and symbolic violence behind the term hijo de la Chingada. His mother’s name, alternatively Isabel Cruz or Cruz Isabel, highlights the “crossing” of race and culture inherent in her identity, and in Artemio’s. For a more in-depth discussion of Artemio Cruz’s Afro-Mexican identity, see Hernández Cuevas and Ribas. Whereas my discussion mentions Artemio’s drive to separate himself from his humble origins (life of poverty), Ribas focuses on how Artemio separates himself from his African heritage, “passing” as white in his upward social trajectory. Ribas writes, “Aunque sus acciones son consecuencia de la opresión racista en el medio rural mexicano, la villanía de Cruz no se origina en una mistificada herencia africana maldita sino precisamente en el abandono de este aspecto de su identidad y su sustitución por una dinámica psicosocial destructiva” (108).
6 See Younoszai for a discussion of the problematic romanticization of rape in novels by Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel García Márquez and Ian McEwan.
7 Payne sees Artemio’s decision to leave Laura as consistent with his need to control women and his inability to do so in this particular relationship (67). Boldy likewise views Artemio as incapable of choosing a life with Laura, due to his personal limitations (34).
8 For a discussion of la Malinche as palimpsest, see Messinger Cypess.
9 As explained in note 5.
10 In relation to other studies of Artemio Cruz’s doubles (see Gyurko and Parsons, for example), the focus in this essay is on how they relate to the question of choice and alternative paths.
12 Cruz’s “colorless” reflection could be read as an example of what Ribas critiques in his assertion that Artemio rejects his African heritage to pass as white (sin color).
13 Pedro García-Caro describes Artemio Cruz as “an inverted allegory, a full-blown parody, which articulates Fuentes’s denunciation of the political uses of nationalist consensus by the postrevolutionary political elite” (90). While it is important to recognize the allegorical aspects of Cruz’s character, it is equally important to recognize his development beyond the symbolic level.
14 For further discussion of the symbolic implications of Artemio Cruz’s name, see Krauel, Tejerina-Canal, and Williams.
15 The first English translation of La muerte de Artemio Cruz appeared in 1964, translated by Sam Hileman (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux).