El Señor Presidente

The President

The cover of a recent translation, from Waveland Press.
Author	Miguel Ángel Asturias
Original title	'El Señor Presidente'
Translator	Frances Partridge
Language	Spanish
Genre	Dictator novel
Publisher	Costa-Amic
Publication date	1946
Publication place	Mexico
Published in English	1963
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	321 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN	NA

The President (orig. Spanish El Señor Presidente) is a 1946 novel by Guatemalan Nobel Prize-winning writer and diplomat Miguel Ángel Asturias. A landmark text in Latin American literature, El Señor Presidente explores the nature of political dictatorship and its effects on society, making early use of a literary technique that would come to be known as magic realism. One of the most notable works of the 'dictator novel' genre, El Señor Presidente developed from an earlier Asturias short story, written to protest social injustice in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in the author's home town.

Although El Señor Presidente does not explicitly identify its setting as early twentieth-century Guatemala, Asturias drew on the 1898-1920 presidency of Manuel Estrada Cabrera as inspiration for his title character. The novel was started in the 1920s and completed in 1933; but political conditions delayed its publication for a further 13 years.

Asturias's distinctive use of dream imagery, onomatopoeia, simile, and repetition, combined with a discontinuous structure with abrupt changes of style and viewpoint, sprang from his influences in movements such as surrealism and ultraism. In turn, El Señor Presidente would go on to influence a generation of Latin American authors, becoming an early example of the "new novel" and a precursor to the Latin American literary boom.

On its eventual publication (in Mexico) in 1946, El Señor Presidente met with rapid critical acclaim. Asturias received numerous awards—most notably the 1967 Nobel Prize in Literature. Presented for Asturias's entire body of work, this international acknowledgement was celebrated throughout Latin America, where it was seen as a recognition of the region's literature as a whole.

El Señor Presidente has been adapted for the screen three times, with the latest version made in Venezuela and released in November 2007.

Origins

In a 1970 interview, Gunter W. Lorenz asks Miguel Ángel Asturias how he conceived his books. The novelist replies, "Yes, at 10:25pm. on the 25th of December in 1917, an earthquake destroyed my city. I saw something like an immense cloud conceal the enormous moon. I had been placed in a cellar, in a hole, in a cave or some place else. It was then that I wrote my first poem, a song of farewell to Guatemala. Later, I was angered by the circumstances during which the rubble was cleared away and by the social injustice that became so bloodily apparent." From this experience Asturias wrote "Los mendigos políticos" (The Political Beggars), the short story which was to be expanded upon and eventually inspire El Señor Presidente.

Asturias began El Señor Presidente, his first novel, in 1922 while he was still a law student in Guatemala. He then moved to Paris in 1923, and continued working on the book while he studied anthropology at the Sorbonne under George Raymond. He finally completed the novel in 1933, while still in Paris, shortly before returning to Guatemala.

Even though the novel does not indicate a specific timeframe or locale, El Señor Presidente is set in a Latin American country at some time in the late-nineteenth or early-twentieth century. This was a period in which Guatemala was subject to the iron rule of President Manuel Estrada Cabrera. Evidence that El Señor Presidente is inspired in part by historical and political events is shown by the way in which it integrates and reworks certain incidents from Estrada Cabrera's dictatorship. For instance, Estrada Cabrera's torture of a political adversary, Manuel Paz, "included deceiving the latter into believing that his innocent wife had been unfaithful to him: an episode reworked in El Señor Presidente."

Like "Los mendigos políticos", El Señor Presidente was not published until years after it was written. Asturias attributes this to Jorge Ubico y Castañeda, who ruled as dictator of Guatemala from 1931 to 1944. Asturias also comments that Ubico "prohibited its publication because his predecessor, Estrada Cabrera, was my Señor Presidente which meant that the book posed a danger to him as well." The book may have been viewed as a threat to Ubico because Ubico was a continuation of Cabrera's dictatorial regime. Furthermore, because Ubico was Guatemala's dictator while the novel was being finished, some critics link him to the characterization of the President in El Señor Presidente. The book was eventually published, in Mexico, in 1946, at a time when Juan José Arévalo was serving as Guatemala's (first ever) elected president.

But according to Richard Callan, and despite certain historical references, Asturias's "attention is not limited to his times and nation, but ranges across the world and reaches back through the ages. By linking his created world with the dawn of history, and his twentieth-century characters with myths and archetypes, he has anchored them to themes of universal significance." Asturias himself affirms that he "wrote El Señor Presidente without a social commitment." By this he means that unlike some of his other books, such as Leyendas de Guatemala ("Legends of Guatemala") or Hombres de maíz ("Men of Maize"), El Señor Presidente did not focus on Guatemalan myths and traditions. In doing so, Asturias establishes the universality of life under dictatorial regimes and establishes El Señor Presidente as one of his most important works.

Plot summary

Part one

On the Cathedral Porch, where beggars spend their nights, one beggar, the Zany, is exhausted after being continually harassed about his deceased mother. When Colonel Jose Parrales Sonreinte jeers "mother" at him, the Zany instinctively retaliates, murdering the Colonel. The beggars are interrogated and coerced into agreement that General Eusebio Canales and Abel Carvajel killed the Colonel. Meanwhile, the Zany has fled in a delusional state and broken his leg before collapsing into a garbage heap. A woodcutter and Miguel Angel Face find the Zany there and offer him money.

Meanwhile, Doctor Barreno and Mr. Secretary converse regarding prisoner problems. The doctor argues that prisoners of the republic are suffering due to low-quality water. In the office, the President sentences an aide to 200 lashes for spilling ink. Later, while eating lunch, the President is informed that the man died from the lashing. The President has Miguel Angel Face inform General Eusebio Canales that he must flee tonight or face arrest.

Miguel Angel Face meets Vasquez and tells him that he is kidnapping Canales's daughter, Camila, that very night. Later, Vasquez and Genero de Rodas meet see the Zany at bar and shoot him. Genero de Rodas returns home and discusses the event with his wife, Fedina de Rodas, who mentions her intent to have Camila be their baby's godmother. Meanwhile, General Canales leaves Miguel Angel Face's home, exhausted and anxious about fleeing the country. The President receives a letter reporting Canales' visit with Miguel Angel Face, and the movements of Doctor Barreno and Abel Carvajel. Miguel Angel Face and a gang of men storm General Canales's house, destroying nearly everything. Miguel Angel Face finds Camila, and brings her to the Two Step.

Part two

Camila is distressed about her father and Vasquez is thrown out of the tavern by La Masacuata (the barkeep). The Judge Advocate arrives at General Canales' home to arrest him and instead meets his wife, Fedina de Rodas, who is searching for Camila. Fedina is arrested along with Abel Carvajal. Miguel Angel Face visits Camila's aunt and uncle (Don Juan and Dona Jundith de Canales) who refuse to take Camila in.

Fedina de Rodas is tortured, beaten, and made to listen to the cries of her infant. The soldiers smear lime on her breasts before giving her back her baby. The baby refuses to feed because of the lime and dies. Back at the Two Step Bar, Miguel Angel Face visits Camila. The pair seek out Camila's aunt and uncle but are refused entry, so they return to the bar. The Judge Advocate, who has just written an indictment and arrest warrant for those involved in the escape of General Eusebio Canales, names Fedina de Rodas, Genero de Rodas, Lucio Vasquez, and Miguel Angel Face as accomplices. When he presents the indictment to the President, Fedina de Rodas and Miguel Angel Face are ordered to be taken off the list, and the other two men killed.

Camila grows very ill and a boy is sent to inform Miguel that her condition has worsened. He dresses quickly and rushes to the Two Step to see her. He learns that Fedina de Rodas has been purchased into a brothel, and later discovered with her dead baby in her arms and placed in a hospital. The President has become truly invasive in his watch over the populace. Miguel Angel Face tries to push the Major towards life and not death, informing him about the plot on his life and thereby offer God a good act in order to save Camila's life. General Canales escapes into a village and, assisted by three sisters and a smuggler, crosses the frontier of the country.

Part three

Three prisoners, the student, the sacritisian, and Abel Carvajel, the lawyer, discuss the reasons for their imprisonment. Carvajel is given a chance to read his indictment, but during his trial he is unable to defend himself against insurmountable falsified evidence, and is sentenced to execution. Miguel Angel Face is advised that Camila will only be spared through the power of love and thus a marriage ceremony is conducted. Carvajel’s wife beseeches the Judge Advocate and the President’s soldiers for news of her husband’s fate, only to be thwarted at every turn. Angel Face is urgently summoned to the President’s house, where learns, after helping the intoxicated dictator to bed, that his marriage has been publicized. The hate he has been nursing for the President becomes passionately clear, although Angel Face does his best to mask his true feelings.

Carvajel’s wife, who has been publicly shunned, tries once more to plead with the President via a letter, but her request goes unanswered. Doña Chon, the local brothel owner, comes to demand money from the President for her loss of the service of Fedina de Rodas. Camila is healing, and both she and her new husband struggle to navigate the complexities of an unconventional marriage. General Canales dies suddenly in the midst of plans to lead a new revolution when he reads of the President’s presence at his daughter’s wedding, and Camila then subsequently learns of her father’s death.

In a local bar, the President is being promoted for re-election, while Angel Face is entrusted with an international political mission to ensure the President’s re-election. Camila and Angel Face share an emotional parting. Major Farfan intercepts Angel Face once he reaches the port and arrests Angel Face under the President’s orders. Angel Face is violently beaten and imprisoned. A pregnant Camila waits anxiously for letters from her husband, and when she can no longer hope, moves to the country with her young boy. Meanwhile, through his whole ordeal, Angel Face thinks constantly of Camila and ultimately dies heartbroken when he falsely hears Camila has become the President’s mistress.

Epilogue

The Cathedral Porch stands in ruins and the prisoners who have been released are quickly replaced by other unfortunate souls. The puppet-master, Don Benjamin, has been reduced to madness because of the environment he has been made to endure, leaving the reader with one final impression of the life under a dictatorship. However, "[t]he novel closes to the sound of bells, which recalls the opening; but now they strike a more cheerful note and the initial incantation to evil seems far removed from the peaceful evening prayer recited by the mother of the newly released student." Asturias concludes with this image of hope to demonstrate the power of resilience among an oppressed and terrorized people.

Style

Asturias’s El Señor Presidente uses a style that is now classified as the 'new novel' or 'new narrative.' In this novel, Asturias demonstrates a break from the historic and realistic style which dominated contemporary novels at the time. For Gerald Martin, "The President exemplifies more clearly than any other novel the crucial link between European Surrealism and Latin American Magical Realism. It is, indeed, the first fully-fledge Surrealist novel in Latin America." On occasion surrealist writing obsucres meaning but in El Señor Presidente Asturias "skillfully avoids the degenerate use of surrealism by sythesizing two universal forms; rational discursive language and a world of forms an imagry which reveal a deeper reality, one which is more deeply rooted in the human psyche."

Asturias's also employs figurative language to describe dream imagery and the irrational. He also frequently appeals to the senses such as the auditory. In fact, through Asturias's often incantatory style, he uses "unadulterated poetry to reinforce his imagery through sound." This help the reader to understand the physical and psychological aspects of the novel. According to Smith, "few of Asturias's characters have much psychological depth; their inner conflicts tend to be externalized and played out at the archetypal level." Furthermore, Smith notes that "animistic elements surface occasionally in the characters stream of consciousness." One example from the novel is the dance of Tohil. In this chapter a Mayan god who demands human sacrifice, glimpses at Miguel Angel Face who is sent on the mission which ends in his death." According to Smith, is “a sign of the President's evil nature and purposes."

Additionally, it has been asserted that "Asturias introduced stream-of-thought techniques to the modern Latin-American novel." These stream-of-thought techniques are often infused with firguartive language. As such, figurative language also features highly throughout El Señor Presidente. From the novel's onset, the gap between words and reality is exemplified through Asturias's "stylistic techniques such as onomatopoeia, simile and repetition together with a discontinuous structure give the text its surrealistic and nightmarish atmosphere."

Genre

El Señor Presidente belongs to the Latin American genre of the dictator novel: for Gerald Martin, it is "the first real dictator novel." Unlike dictator novel precursors, like Sarmiento's Facundo, by giving no time and place Asturias broke from traditional realistic writing. In doing so, Asturias's avantgarde novel laid the foundation for many other authors to develop what is now a broad and extensive genre of the Latin American dictator novel.

At the same time, El Señor Presidente is also recognized as a precursor to what is known as the Latin American Boom of the 1960s. It is a landmark Latin American novel because of Asturias's early use of magic realism, a literary technique often employed by acclaimed Latin American writers such as Gabriel García Márquez. Asturias is sometimes heralded as the inventor of magic realism, and even as its most successful practitioner, Asturias himself defines this style as "not a concrete reality but a reality that arises from a definitely magical imagination... in which we see the real disappear and the dream emerge, in which dreams are transformed into a tangible reality."

Also important is how Asturias combines "poetic exploration into the inner most recesses and reality of the human mind" with "the material content of an urban mass caught in the grip of an iron regime." Franklin heralds the synthesis of these two elements as "a real contribution to the novelistic genre of America."

Major themes

Reality vs Dream

One of the most prominent themes of El Señor Presidente is the constant blurring between dream and reality which is an important effect of a dictatorial regime. Asturias allows the reader to feel this effect through his abundant use of figurative language which itself blurs the line between reality and dream within the story. Critic Ariel Dorfman also notes that "[j]ust as el Señor Presdiente [the President] can exercise his mandate because he is sustained by fear, and by the conscious or involuntary support of others, the legend is able to impose itself upon reality because men live it fully in a way to make sense of their humanity, and thus cosmic fire can break out because men with its effort and thus free it."

An elucidation of this theme is a series of scenes leading to the arrest of lawyer Carvajal. When the President decides to blame Carvajal for the murder of Colonel Sonriente it is clear that Carvajal is completely suprised by the charges being thrown at him. Moreover, despite being a lawyer, Carvajal finds himself unable to defend himself in a faked trial with "the members of the tribunal so drunk that they cannot hear him." As Eckart assrts, "to be captured and tortured without ever knowing why is another horrible feature of a dictatorship. For the victim, reality unexpectedly becomes unreality, no longer comprehensible by a logical mind.

Detail and Abstraction

Asturias's use of detail, while still being very ambiguous, adds to the confusion between reality and dream. For example, the reader knows that the plot develops over April 21-27 and that Part Three then continues for "Weeks, Months, Years" yet he or she does not know the precise year. Furthermore, the novel takes place in a country similar to Guatemala and includes references to Maya Gods, but there is no statement that the story is located within Guatemala. It can be argued then that Asturias, by "preferring instead to distance himself from the immediate historical reality and focus critical light on the internal problems" focuses on what "he sees there" Asturias is therefore able to deliver a broader message on dictators and terror. The nicknames of the characters also employs the concept this theme. By omitting specific names, Asturias creates a distance between the words and things.

Writing and Power

A major theme of dictator novels looks at the different ways in which writing is used as a medium of power. In El Señor Presidente Asturias uses language to write against the power of dictators. Throughout the novel we see the power the President has over the people through his control of what they write. For example, in the chapter "The President's Mail-Bag" there are a stream of letters which inform the President of peoples' actions which shows that no one is safe from his eyes. While many are "writing the truth" and turning in their fellow man we see many others who feel "it is not safe to trust to paper." Asturias shows that writing is closely linked to power and can be used to solidify someone's power because language can be manipulated into lies which can kill.

A core element of "Writing and Power" is the 'Manipulation of Language' because it can increase one's power. In both Asturias and the character of the poet we see how language can be manipulated and get away with the writer. The poet sees his task as praising the President but his speech is so hyperbolic that it turns into more of a joke. In contrast, Asturias is indirectly critiquing the President and opposes his power but his language to gets away with him because of his abundant use of metaphors and figurative speech. Asturias shows how dictators manipulate language and therefore create that distortion between truth and fiction. We see how the characters lose their sense of reality and grounding making it difficult for them to know who to trust. As Rosello affrims, "in this state of terror, language is deliberately used as a means of seducing the adressee into harmlessness, and has lost its function of conveying information." Asturias gives two examples of how the manipulation of language can kill: General Canales is killed by the false news that the President was at his daughter Camila's wedding and Angel Face is killed by being told the lie that Camila has become the President's mistress.

Hope and Love

The theme of hope in this novel is that under a dictatorship hope does not exist for "the President's first rule of conduct is never to give grounds for hope, and everyone must be kicked and beaten until they realise the fact." In fact, Asturias demonstrates tht not even the most apolitical character is able to hope to stay silent, even if they do not wish to express a political opinion. It may be argued that in this novel Camila represents hope and when the thought of is destroyed through false stories hope is lost and two men die, as mentioned above. Furthermore, Camila's happiness with her child and their escape to the country side can be seen as the one glimpse of hope in an otherwise dark and disturbing ending.

For critic Jean Franco, it is love that give grounds to what little hope is on offer in the novel: "The system is undermined only by love--the love of an idiot for his mother, a woman trying desperately to save her husband from death."

Tyranny and Alienation

Literary critic Ariel Dorfman, in a 1967 essay affirms that "dictatorship, which in El Señor Presidente manifested itself in the political realm, is now a dictatorship of fire and of the world, but always a tyranny that men themselves ask for, adore, and help to build." Dorfman also notes that "The "little human bundles" of Asturias's world end up destroying themselves, being disintegrated by the very forces that they themselves spoke. The tyranny of language perversely parallels the political oppression which is omnipresent in Asturias's world."

Richard Franklin asserts that "in a philosophical sense, Asturias has eloquently affirmed the validity of individual experience."

Dehumanization

Through the use of both literal and figurative language, Asturias causes many of the characters to slowly lose their human identities and adopt the characteristics of animals. The Zany, while fleeing the city, is described as running "aimlessly, with his mouth opened and his tongue hanging out, slobbering and panting." Just a few lines later, the Zany is "whin[ing] like an injured dog." Asturias also uses the idea of dehumanization in conjunction with the loss of identity. When Miguel Angel face is captured at the port, "[a]n individual with a handkerchief tied over his face appeared out of the darkness. He was as tall as Angel Face, as pale as Angel Face and with hair of the same light brown as Angel Face; he took possession of everything the sergeant was abstracting from the real Angel Face...and disappeared immediately." This dehumanization of many of the characters demonstrates the power of the dictatorship and the environment that is cultivated when living under such rule.

Fertility and Destruction

This dichotomy is embodied through the opposition of the President and Miguel Angel Face. While the President "embodies sterility and destruction" his favourite, Miguel Angel Face, begins to "impersonate the generative force of nature." "His transformation is not deliberate; it results from the birth of true love in his formerly barren heart. However, he is too engrossed in his love to notice the shift in his relationship with the President." The President, not surprisingly, "identifies himself candidly with death...[while] Miguel's love identifies him with life, for love leads to new life, to procreation" In fact, Miguel Angel Face knew that the only "truth" in his world are the words that the President is speaking right now because one cannot even be safe in repeating the words of the President as he has stolen both language and time. As such it is argued that "he knew from the beginning that the only "saftey" in the President's world is a form of self destruction: only be losing his indentiyu and letting the President's mind invade his own could he hope to remain alive." So, when he failed to comply, he did indeed lose his life.

Truth

According to Rosello, the fantastic universe that Asturias places his characters in leads them to "explore the margins of human forms of communication, within the codified space of the "realisitic"discourse demonsrates, a contrario, that communication does not survive the disapearance of what is (arbitrarily) recognized as truth in any given system. In fact, it is the President who decides what is true, denying any other opinion, even if another character witnessed something with their own eyes or ears. Rosello further afirms that the reader, unlike the characters in the novel, is aware that the characters are relying on a notion of truth that no longer exists under the dictatorship of the President. Unfortunately, even though "truth" does not exist before the President puts it into words, the characters in the novel are still expected to act in accordance to a truth that has many times, not yet been voiced.

Characters

"The ugly reality of dictatorship is reflected subtly in each of the characters of the novel."

The President is never named, which gives the character a mythological dimension, rather than the personality of a specific Guatemalan dictator. The reader is not let into the mind of the President instead his appearance is "continually re-evaluated, re-defined, and, ultimately, re-constructed according to his perception by others, similar to Asturias's own novelistic (re)vision of Estrada Cabrera's regime." The President "represents political corruption but his presentation as an evil deity who is worshiped in terms that mockingly echo religious ritual elevates him to a mythical plane" and he is "an inverted image of both the Christian and Mayan deities since he is the source only of death." The dictator also has an element of mystery about him, and "[n]o one [knows] where he [is], for he occupie[s] several houses in the outskirts of the town; nor how he [sleeps]--some sa[y] beside the telephone with a whip in his hand; nor when--his friends declare[d] he never [sleeps] at all."

Asturias modeled this idea of a mythological leader after his personal observations of Estrada Cabrera, with whom he came in almost daily contact while working as the secretary of court which tried the dictator. The President thus becomes a model for similar dictatorial power. His dictatorial power is based in part on his ability to communicate via an invisible network of words: both in writing and in speech. These written words and spoken discourses go up the pyramid of power and his order is exerted downwards. Through the rest of the characters in the novel, the reader observes how "all of the individual elements of society... are subject to the broad power and influence of the dictator, the presidente."

Miguel Angel Face (orig. Spanish Miguel Cara de Ángel) is the novel's complex protagonist. He is intorduced as the President's confidential advisor but although there are many references to him being the President's favourite and "as beautiful and as wicked as Satan" the reader sees Miguel Angel Face's struggle to remain loyal to the dictator and his increasingly horrific acts. In fact, Miguel Angel Face's first appearance in the novel is as the 'newcomer' who the woodcutter sees at a garbage dump where the Zany is also laying. Also, when the woodcutter saw Miguel Cara de Angel, he thought he was really seeing an angel. His character represents an individual struggling to reconcile a position of power among a terrorized people with a desire to fulfill a higher moral purpose. Angel Face "struggles to affirm his absolute existence and to relate this to an authentic self." The reader is able to see into his innermost thoughts and witness his moral struggle through Asturias’s use of figurative language and vivid imagery.

In falling out of favour with the President, "Miguel's crime was not to have turned against the dictator, but to have turned away from him. By turning away, his actions became positive. In saving Canales, in saving Farfan, in 'saving' Camilia by marrying her, he meant no harm to the President; what he intended was a positive thing, to give or prolong life. But although the president was not aimed at, he was hit in the recoil in the decrease of destructive forces. By his transformation, Miguel was becoming more dangerous to the President than if he had merely turned into a personal enemy while remaining aligned with the same negative camp."

In addition, Eckart notes: "Miguel Cara de Angel has an inexplicable vision after having found the President in the thirty-seventh chapter. He sees Tohil satisfying his thirst for human sacrifices. This vision serves as a propepsis for the tragic end of the novel" where Miguel Angle Face, "who seemed to have been redeemed from his wickedness by the love of his wife Camila, must rot away in a subterranean catacomb. In addition, he is made to believe that his wife has a sexual relationship with the president, at the same time the dictatorship is triumphing."

Camila is the daughter of General Canales. She marries Miguel Angel Face, and gives birth to his son, once Angel Face has disappeared. Camila and her son then move to the country to escape the harsh rule of the dictator.

"When Camilia was thought to be dying a priest came to administer the sacrement of Pennance. Her girlish faults stand out in the contrast with the evil that weighs upon the city. Indeed, one of the things she mentions in her confession is not fault at all: she went horseback riding astride, in the presence of some Indians."

General Eusebio Canales (alias 'Chamarrita' or Prince of Arms) finds himself on the road to exile after being accused of the murder of Colonel Jose Parrales Sonriente. Appears to be organizing some form of guerrilla attack on The President's rule but dies after reading in a false newspaper article detailing his daughter's wedding to Miguel Angel Face, at which the President was apparently present. Through General Cannales' flight, the reader is introduced to the hardships on an indigenous man as well as three sisters who are being taken advantage of by a doctor who visited their ailing mother.

The Zany (orig. Spanish el Pelele): The Zany, also referred to as the Idiot, appears only in the first four chapters and again at the end of chapter seven but serves a critical function in the novel. The Zany, who "looked like a corpse when he was asleep" and had eyes that "saw nothing, felt nothing" is critical to establishing the tone of the novel. As the central character in Chapter One, The Zany is responsible for creating the ambiance, tone and triggering the action of the novel. Also, by "choosing the Idiot as a representative of the innocent, a-political, who suffer the abuses of a totalitarian regime... Asturias shows how dictatorship corrupts people and destroys their values to the extent that compassion for one's companion in distress ceases to exist." In fact, it becomes clear that the only happiness that the Zany experiences is through the memory of his dead mother. Asturias then shows how el Pelele, a mother-loving figure, "suffers at the hands of those who, long under the domination of the over-aggressive father figure, lack love and pity." Furthermore, el Pelele, is a tool that allows the reader to see the psychological effects of living under a dictatorship ruled by terror. His act seems to trigger the subsequent events of the novel and to impact all of the characters. Also important is the fact that the one moment of complete happiness experienced by The Zany in the novel takes place while he is in a dream-like state. This servers to highlight the harsh, nightmarish world of reality in which he has been forced to live. Also, it is through the Zany that the reader is introduced to the protagonist, Miguel Angel Face. Importantly, in this scene Miguel Angel Face gives the Zany some money. This good act of charity will make him late for his meeting with the President- thus foreshadowing his later fall out of the President's favour and "preludes his spiritual salvation through love" with Camilia. Thus, the Zany not only sets the tone buts sparks the action of the novel but by instinctively killing Colonel Sonreiente and thereby linking Miguel Angel Face to the other characters of the novel.

Minor characters

The novel also includes a host of minor characters who, in critic Richard Franklin's words, all "grope for the means to assert the validity of self and to anchor this individuality in a nightmare which constantly faces it with black nothingness".

These characters range from the Colonel José Parrales Sonriente, otherwise known as the "man with the little mule" , whose murder at the Cathedral porch opens the novel, to a series of beggars, prisoners, minor officials, relatives, flatterers, barkeepers and prostitutes. Some of these are tragic figures, such as Fedina de Rodas, who we see tortured and then sold to a brothel while she still clutches her dead baby in her arms. Others, however, provide comic interlude. Sometimes they have colourful or playful names or nicknames, such as "Flatfoot" (a beggar), the "Talking Cow" (a woman who delivers a speech of praise to the President), or Doña Benjamin VenJamón [check this too!], who, with her husband the puppetmaster Don Benjamin, close the novel with a lament for [check this too: what are they up to at the end!]

Literary significance and reception

Significance

Written in the 1920s, El Señor Presidente remained unpublished until 1946, when Juan José Arévalo's more liberal government came to power in Guatemala. El Señor Presidente was first written in protest of Guatemalan dictator Manuel Estrada Cabrera but ever since its publication the novel has been applied to the gamut of horrors carried out by the multitudes of dictators Latin American countries have experienced ever since. To this day the novel remains a provocative or affecting story of a nation controlled by and submerged in terror.

The novel is set in no particular time or place and, by leaving the President unnamed, El Señor Presidente marks a dramatic shift in narrative writing. By keeping time and place ambiguous, Asturias's novel represents a break from narratives, which until this point, were judged on how adequately the reflected reality. For this reason, El Señor Presidente is often classified as a "New Novel" because although it seems to deal with Latin America and has realistic moments, it does what other narratives of the time would not dare to do, blatantly assert itself as fiction. Moreover,El Señor Presidente defies traditional narrative style by inserting a number of scenes which contribute little or nothing to the plot and by injecting the novel with a number of characters who appear inconsistently. Instead, Asturias uses repetition of motifs and a mythical substructure to solidify the books purpose and/or message. Swanson elucidates this point through his description of the following scene; "At one stage, two of the principle characters stumble across a drunken and incomprehensible mailman, dropping and losing his letters as he goes. The episode contributes nothing to the plot, but is typical of a repeated series of scenes indicating failure of communication. The reader reads the text as an indictment of the breakdown of meaningful social networks under dictatorship, but through associative inference rather than thanks to explicit narrational guidance." So, Asturias's novel, written and published before the Latin American Boom of the 1960s, is an important early example of the "New Novel" or "New Narrative" and as such, this Nobel Laurate's style brings out the crisis that modernity in disintegrating long-standing belief systems. Asturias's novel also had, according to Swanson, an unprecedented renovatory affect on literature.

Reception

El Señor Presidente garnered acclaim as soon as it was published. Upon becoming a Nobel laureate for literature in 1967, the praise of the press followed Asturias almost everywhere in the world. The largest sensation of triumph, however, was felt in Guatemala where his face soon adorned postage stamps, a street was given his name, he received a medal. Moreover, "the whole of his little country was given over to rejoicing" while they waited for Asturias to return ‘home’ with a exultant entry into the capital. These sentiments of admiration for Asturias were not confined to Guatemala. Instead the rejoicing for Asturias and the reactions of sympathy were felt in most Latin American countries. This is not too surprising, given that Asturias Nobel Prize was viewed as an award and recognition of a single author or country but to Latin American literature as a whole.

Awards and nominations

Throughout his career, Asturias has received a number of awards for his many literary works. The first award he received for El Señor Presidente was the Prix du Meilleur Roman Étranger in 1952. In an interview with Gunter Lorenz, Asturias informed his readers that they "should be conscious of the fact that... [my] books constitute the response to this living and changing reality. One must see not only with the eyes. One must penetrate thes green world, this land of tigers and eruptions. One must familiarize oneself with this world of telluric struggles, with this world in which the struggle for survival still goes on."

Miguel Ángel Asturias also won the Nobel prize in Literature for his life's work, including El Señor Presidente, in December 1967. Upon receiving the prize, he gave a lecture regarding Latin American literature and said this about El Señor Presidente:

"This novel shares – consciously or unconsciously – the characteristics of the indigenous texts; their freshness and power, the numismatic anguish in the eyes of the Creoles who awaited the dawn in the colonial night, more luminous however than this night that threatens us now. Above all, it is the affirmation of the optimism of those writers that defied the Inquisition, opening a breach in the conscience of the people for the march of the Liberators."

The Nobel Prize Committee, in awarding the prize, described El Señor Presidente in the following terms:

"This magnificent and tragic satire criticizes the prototype of the Latin American dictator who appeared in several places at the beginning of the century and has since reappeared, his existence being fostered by the mechanism of tyranny which, for the common man, makes every day a hell on earth. The passionate vigour with which Asturias evokes the terror and distrust which poisoned the social atmosphere of the time makes his work a challenge and an invaluable aesthetic gesture."

Professor Gregory Rabassa, who has translated other works by Asturias, highlights the importance of the Nobel Prize in Literature on Asturias's further writings, saying, "[h]is winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1967 gave him a long-awaited financial independence that...enabled him to withdraw to his writing and the many aims and possibilities that [had] been on his mind for so many years."

Film adaptations

El Señor Presidente has been adapted for the screen on three separate occasions. All three adaptations were filmed in Spanish.

The first adaptation, filmed in black and white, was made in 1970, by Argentine director Marcos Madanes. It was originally shown at the Venice Film Festival on August 28, 1970. The cast included Pedro Buchardo as The President, Luis Brandoni as Miguel and Alejandra Dapassano as Camila. In this film version, "the village idiot kills an army colonel after enduring endless sadistic taunts. The president tries to pin the murder on his political rival. The president sends an operative to fuel the rumor mill but he falls for the accused man's daughter. He defects to the other side and helps the daughter and her father starts revolution with inside information on the corrupt leader. Asturias sent a telegram to the Venice Film Festival denying permission to show the feature, but the letter arrived a day late. The unfortunate audience then had to endure this malodorous melodrama."

The second adaptation, in 1983, was directed by Manuel Octavio Gómez, a Cuban, and starred French actor Michel Auclair as "El Presidente."

File:00presidente.jpg

This 2007 Movie Poster was used to promote the most recent adaptation of Asturias's The President or, El Senor Presidente

The most recent adaptation, directed by Venezuelan Rómulo Guardia Granier and produced by RCTV, was released in November 2007 and is the first film produced by RCTV in more than 20 years. This version paints the picture of "a tragic and impossible love story lost between degradation and fear." According to Jorge Granier-Phelps, this movie brings to life "the tale of a fictitious Latin American country living under a fierce dictatorship sponsored by a society in frank decadence. Evil spreads downwards from the ruler, justice is a mockery, and the military spends their time abusing their fellow citizens and enjoying corruption.". The official website summarizes the plot in these terms: ""El Señor Presidente", ruler of life and death, is attracted by the young daughter of his rival and enemy, General Canales, and pulls all strings necessary to destroy the father and seduce the young girl. He is not counting with any opposition, especially from Miguel Cara de Angel his closest ally, whom he has asked to mastermind the evil plot. The General after several disgraceful events, manages to escape and Cara de Angel, contradicting his orders, falls in love with Canale's daughter Camila, bringing upon him the jealous wrath of the master and the premature beginning of his end." Other reviews have also noted that "Rómulo Guardia shares with us a strange vision of a reality only comparable to magical and surreal nightmares. Set in a semi-futuristic environment, where opulence is contrasted against sordid misery, and where the past and present intertwines within an atmosphere of cruelty and hellish corruption, the film could be considered an avant-garde expression of a common Latin curse: the wrong choice of those governments that rule for themselves instead than for those that first elected them."

The film's cast includes many acclaimed Latin American actors, such as Carlos Mata, Gustavo Rodríguez, Chantal Baudaux and Javier Vidal. El Señor Presidente was filmed in hi-definition for less than US$1 million in Caracas and other locations. Rómulo Guardia Granier divulged in an interview, "We had to film in secret in order to avoid being shut down." Antonio Blanco, also working on the this adaptation, said that "We plan to market the film as a Guatemalan story to avoid any problems with authorities." RCTV lost its terrestrial broadcasting rights in mid-2007 when Hugo Chávez's democratically elected government opted not to renew the network's license, accusing it of siding with the opposition and allegedly violating broadcast laws.

Publication details

The third (Spanish) edition of El Señor Presidente, revised and corrected by the author, and published by Losada in 1952.

Selected editions

• 1946, Mexico, Costa-Amic (ISBN NA), pub date ? ? 1946, hardback (First edition - original Spanish)
• 1948, Argentina, Losada (ISBN NA), pub date ? ? 1948, hardback (Second edition - Spanish)
• 1952, Argentina, Losada (ISBN NA), pub date ? ? 1952, hardback (Third edition - Spanish - corrected by author)
• 1963, UK, Victor Gollancz (ISBN NA), pub date ? ? 1963, paperback (Eng. trans.)
• 1972, UK, Penguin Books (ISBN 978-0140034042), pub date 30 March 1972, paperback (Eng. trans.)
• 1978, France, Klincksieck, and Mexico, Fondo de Cultura Económica (ISBN NA) pub date ? 1978 (Spanish, first critical edition, ed. by Ricardo Navas Ruiz and Jean-Marie Saint-Lu, part of Asturias's Complete Works)
• 1997, USA, Waveland Press (ISBN 978-0881339512), pub date ? August 1997, paperback (Eng. trans. by Frances Partridge)
• 2000, Spain, Galaxia Gutenberg, and France, ALLCA XX (ISBN 84-89666-51-2), pub date ? 2000, hardback (Spanish, critical edition ed. by Gerald Martin)
• 2005, Spain?, Alianza Editorial Sa (ISBN 978-8420658766), pub date 2 January 2005, paperback (Spanish)

See also

• Dictator Novel
• Miguel Ángel Asturias
• Guatemalan literature
• Manuel Estrada Cabrera

References

• Asturias, Miguel Ángel (August 1997). El Señor Presidente. USA: Waveland Press. ISBN 978-0881339512.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: year (link) English Translation by Frances Partridge
• Balderston, Daniel (2004). Encyclopedia of Latin American and Caribbean Literature, 1900-2003. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415306876.
• Bauman, Kevin M. (1992). "Novelistic Discourse as History: Asturias's (Re)vision of Estrada Cabrera's Guatemala, 1898-1920". Romance Languages Annual (4). Retrieved 2008-03-04. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Callan, Richard J (Sept 1967). "Babylonian Mythology in 'El Señor Presidente'". Hispania. 50 (3). {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Eckart, Gabriele (2001). "Latin American Dictatorship in Erich Hackl's Novel 'Sara und Simon' and Miguel Asturias's 'El Senor Presidente'". The Comparatist. 25. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Foster, David (1992). Handbook of Latin American Literature. New York: Garland Pub. ISBN 0815311435.
• Franco, Jean (1994). An Introduction to Spanish-American Literature, third edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521449235.
• Franklin, Richard L (Dec 1961). "Observations on 'El Señor Presidente' by Miguel Angel Asturias". Hispania. 44 (4). {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Grass, W H (1987). "The First Seven Pages of the Latin American Boom". Latin American Literary Review. 29. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Grieb, Kenneth (May 1981). "Guatemalan Caudillio: The Regime of Jorge Ubico, Guatemala 1931-1944". Journal of Latin American Studies. 13 (1). {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Himelblau, Jack (Winter 1973). "El Senor Presidente: Antecedents, Sources and Reality". Hispanic Review. 40 (1). Retrieved 2008-03-05. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Krstovic, Jelena (ed.) (1994). "Miguel Angel Asturias with Gunter W. Lorenz" in Hispanic Literature Criticism. Detroit: Gale Research. ISBN 0810393751. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)
• Rabassa, Gregory. The Life and Works of Miguel Ángel Asturias.
• Rosello, Mireille (1990). "El Senor Presidente: 'Moi, la Verite je parle'". Modern Language Studies. 20 (3). {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Smith, Verity (1997). Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature. New York: Routledge. ISBN 1884964184.
• Swanson, Philip (2004). Latin American Fiction: a Short Introduction. Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 1405108665.

External links

• Official site of the 2007 motion picture adaptation