El Vago by Laurence Gonzales
1984; University of Nebraska Press; Volume: 19; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/wal.1984.0041
ISSN1948-7142
Autores Tópico(s)Latin American and Latino Studies
Resumo64 Western American Literature class minority concerns; point of view — from child to adult (including four stories in the masculine point of view) ; theme — from family and femalemale relationships to women’s individual concerns. Because of this variety, the reader will necessarily find some stories more amusing, interesting or edifying than others. Yet this variety of response is not, I think, due entirely to personal perspective, for the stories definitely vary in quality. For instance, I was able to identify strongly, on the one hand, with Rico’s point-of-view in Estela Portillo Trambley’s “Village,” when, as a private in Viet Nam, he shoots his sergeant in the arm to prevent the massacre of a village of innocent Vietnamese citizens. On the other hand, I found equally convincing and realistic the story of a young girl Ann and her first encounter with death — the child’s attempt to understand the rules of the adult world (“Rules” by Ann Marable Sparks and Betty Marable Flowers). Yet other stories such as Ruth Brodsky’s “The Shamus and the Shikse” and Carolyn Osborn’s “Wildflowers I Have Known,” were less accessible either because of a strong and specialized cultural perspective or a rather unconven tional technique. The volume itself is well-bound and attractively printed, and its dust cover carries a painting by Ancel E. Nunn of a woman, presumably in a rural Texas setting, gazing out of her window at the endless vastness of the prairie. If we cannot judge the quality of a book by its cover, the cover of this volume does offer at least a clue to the vastness and variety of the material contained within. As Rodenberger so aptly puts it in her excellent introduction, these women writers, most of whom have been recognized as novelists, short story writers, or poets, have exercised choices that Texas spaces offer — the opportunity to reflect freely on life as they saw and felt it — as women, as residents of a region if it served their purpose, but most often as human beings demonstrating sensitivity to the puzzle that life is wherever their protagonists hang their hats. Most readers, then, will find something to please them in this collection of stories written, as they were, to explore in diverse ways the “tragicomedy we call human experience.” NANCY OWEN NELSON Henry Ford Community College El Vago. By Laurence Gonzales. (New York: Atheneum, 1983. 309 pages, $16.95.) The revolution which rocked Mexico after 1910greatly altered the course of that nation’s history. It ended the dictatorial power of the entrenched upper classes and abolished the centuries-old feudal system, setting in motion significant popular movements. The revolution was not the product of some Reviews 65 noble plan. There was no Washington, Lenin, or Castro to rally the masses in a united cause. Instead the revolution was fought by competing leaders who resorted to violence and outright brutality. The carnage was such that over two million people —one out of every eight Mexicans — lost their lives. In effect there were few heroes; mainly one found villains and victims. Laurence Gonzales’ excellent novel El Vago captures the spirit of this revolutionary era as have few other works. His story is told from the point of view of the revolutionaries. His characters emerge from degraded peasantry to challenge the sources of their misery. Yet they are not granted unabashed heroic status. Such revolutionary leaders as Villa, Huerta, Orozoco, and Carranza are characterized as callous and sadistic egotists who love the fight more than the cause, the role of leader more than the mission. They have little grasp of a goal beyond leading their armies victoriously into Mexico City. Only Zapata appears with a sense of purpose beyond self. The peasants who comprise the fighting forces are also less than heroic. The novel’s central character, a fictional friend of Pancho Villa’s, develops from a naive peasant youth into a skilled warrior who lacks any real grasp of political ideals or goals. He fights unselfishly with the vague dream of a better Mexico, but he looks to his leaders to define precisely a cause that justifies participation. The warrior soon recognizes that his leaders...
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