Writing in the Air: Heterogeneity and the Persistence of Oral Tradition in Andean Literatures
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Writing in the Air: Heterogeneity and the Persistence of Oral Tradition in Andean Literatures
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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780822391913 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Duke University Press |
| Publication date: | 05/13/2013 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 224 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Antonio Cornejo Polar (1936–1997) was an internationally acclaimed Peruvian literary and cultural critic. He taught and served as Rector at the National University of San Marcos in Lima. Over the course of his career, he held visiting professorships in Latin America, Europe, and the United States. Cornejo Polar wrote eleven books and founded and edited the well-respected journal Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinaomericana.
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Writing IN THE AIR
Heterogeneity and the Persistence of Oral Tradition in Andean Literatures
By ANTONIO CORNEJO POLAR, LYNDA J. JENTSCH
Duke University Press
Copyright © 2013 Duke University PressAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8223-5432-1
Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Voice and the Written Word in the Cajamarca "Dialogue"
Understanding Latin American literature as a complex system of multifaceted conflicts and contradictions carries a principle obligation: to examine the basic duality of literature's structural mechanisms, that is, orality and writing. This problem precedes and is deeper than bi- or multilingualism and diglossia in that it affects the very materiality of discourse.
In literary production, orality and writing have their own codes and histories and are based on two strongly differentiated rationalities, with a wide and complicated zone of interactions separating them. In Latin America this zone is exceptionally fluid and complex, especially if one rightly assumes that its literature is not solely the one that the lettered elite write in Spanish or other European languages, and the one that can become quite unintelligible if its links with orality are severed.
It is certainly possible to distinguish the many shapes that the relationship between oral and written literature may take, several of which have been treated exhaustively by philologists, especially the conversion of oral discourse into written texts (for example, Homeric poetry). In other cases, however, as in Amerindian literatures, classical philological instruments seem to be insufficient.
THE CAJAMARCA CHRONICLE
I would like to first examine what could be called "ground zero" of this interaction, or the point at which orality and writing do not merely reveal their differences but evidence their mutual estrangement and their reciprocal, aggressive repulsion. This point of friction is documented and, in the case of Andean history, even has a concrete date, setting, and cast of characters. I am referring to the "dialogue" between Atahuallpa Inca and Father Vicente Valverde in Cajamarca on the afternoon of November 16, 1532.
This is not the origin of our literature, which goes back to the lengthy history lived and breathed long before the conquest, but it is the most visible beginning of the heterogeneity that has characterized Peruvian, Andean, and, in large part, Latin American literary production ever since. Obviously in other areas of the Americas there are situations similar to the one acted out by Atahuallpa and Valverde in Cajamarca.
For my purposes let us put aside for the moment the commentaries concerning the inevitable miscommunication between two people who speak different languages. Neither is it very helpful to analyze the job well or poorly done by Felipillo (or Martinillo), one of the first interpreters utilized by the conquistadors. My focus is on the clash between orality, formalized here by the supreme voice of the Inca, and writing, which in this case becomes incarnate in the book of the West, the Bible, or a text derived from it, all of which sets in motion an extensive and complicated series of acts and repercussions.
I shall first describe the event according to the chronicles, then briefly examine its vestiges in several ritual dances and songs and, more thoroughly, in "theatrical" texts that, despite their common theme being Atahuallpa's execution, consistently include sporadic references to the topic I intend to study. Nevertheless I need to clarify why I give such importance to an event that in principle seems to have no other relationship to literature save that it has been the point of reference for many chronicles and other, later texts.
At issue is a broad concept of literature that assumes a complete circuit of literary production, including the reception of the message and attempts to explain the problematics of orality, to mention just two basic points. But above all it has to do with something much more important that to this day continues to leave its mark on the richly textured fabric of our written culture and the whole of social life in Latin America: the historic destiny of two ways of thinking that from their first encounter repelled each other because of the very linguistic material in which they were formalized. This presages not only a series of more profound and dramatic confrontations, but also the complexity of processes of transcultural overlapping. With the Cajamarca "dialogue" both the great discourses that for five centuries have expressed and constituted the abysmal condition of this part of the world and the inevitable dissonances and contradictions among the various literatures produced here are in nuce.
In other words, Valverde's and Atahuallpa's gestures and words may not be "literature," but they compromise its very material on the decisive level that distinguishes voice from written word, thereby constituting the origin of a complex literary institutionality, fragmented in its own base. It could be said that they allow for the interplay of several discourses, especially the Bible (which, even in its sweeping universality, also seems to relate to the intertext peculiar to Andean literature), the longstanding discourse of imperial Spain, and the one that from then on came to be globalized as "Indian" (obviating even more Andean ethnic differences) with its signifiers of defeat, resistance, and revenge. Together they contain the seedbed of a never-ending story.
These gestures and words serve to condense the historical-symbolic memory of the two sides of the conflict and therefore are so frequently reproduced in the imaginaries of their literatures. At the same time they constitute the emblem of the tenacious Latin American preoccupation that the pertinence (or not) of the language with which it represents itself includes the image of the other.
There are few testimonies of those present at Cajamarca. All are, obviously, from the Spanish side. As cases in point, I offer these: "When Atabaliva had advanced to the center of the open space, he stopped, and a Dominican Friar, who was with the Governor, came forward to tell him, on the part of the Governor, that he waited for him in his lodging, and that he was sent to speak with him. The Friar then told Atabaliva that he was a Priest, and that he was sent there to teach the things of the Faith, if they should desire to be Christians. He showed Atabaliva a book that he carried in his hands, and told him that that book contained the things of God. Atabaliva asked for the book, and threw it on the ground, saying: — 'I will not leave this place until you have restored all that you have taken in my land. I know well who you are, and what you have come for.'"
The Marquis don Francisco Pizarro, having seen that Atahuallpa was coming, sent Father Friar Vicente de Valverde, first bishop of Cuzco, Hernando de Aldana, a fine soldier, and don Martinillo, an interpreter, to go and speak with Atahuallpa and to require him, by God and the King, to subject himself to the law of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the service of His Majesty, and to tell him that the Marquis would treat him as a brother and would not consent to there being committed outrage nor damage in his land. The Father having arrived at the litter on which Atahuallpa was being carried, spoke to him and told what he had come for and preached about our Holy Faith, this being declared to him by the interpreter. The Father was carrying a breviary in his hands, from which he read what he was preaching to him. Atahuallpa asked for it, and he gave it to him closed, and since he did not know how to open it when it was in his hands, he threw it to the ground.... After this Atahuallpa, calling them scoundrels and thieves, told them to go away, and that he was to kill them all.
[And a friar from the order of Santo Domingo carried] a cross in his hand, wishing to tell [the Inca] the things of God, and he said that the Christians were his friends, and that the lord governor loved him dearly and that he should enter his dwelling in order to see him. [Atahuallpa] replied that he would not advance further until the Christians returned all they had stolen from him. Leaving this discussion to one side, the friar with a book in his hand began telling him the things of God that he needed to know. And [Atahuallpa] did not want to accept them. But he asked for the book and the friar gave it to him thinking that he was going to kiss it, and he took it and threw it down. And the priest turned round shouting and saying, "Come forth, come forth Christians, and attack these dogs our enemies, who do not want the things of God. Because this cacique has thrown the book of our holy law on the ground!"
Seeing this, the Governor asked the Father Friar Vicente if he wished to go and speak to Atabaliba, with an interpreter. He replied that he did wish it, and he advanced, with a cross in one hand and the Bible in the other, and going amongst the people up to the place where Atabaliba was, thus addressed him: "I am a Priest of God, and I teach Christians the things of God, and in like manner I came to teach you. What I teach is that which God says to us in this Book. Therefore, on the part of God and of the Christians, I beseech you to be their friend, for such is God's will, and it will be for your good. Go and speak to the governor, who waits for you." Atabaliba asked for the Book, that he might look at it, and the Priest gave it to him closed. Atabaliba did not know how to open it, and the Priest was extending his arm to do so, when Atabaliba, in great anger, gave him a blow on the arm, not wishing that it should be opened. Then he opened it himself, and, without any astonishment at the letters and paper, as had been shown by other Indians, he threw it away from him five or six paces, and, to the words which the monk had spoken to him through the interpreter, he answered with much scorn, saying: "I know well how you have behaved on the road, how you have treated my Chiefs, and taken the cloth from my storehouses."
... Father Vicente Valverde, of the Order of Preachers, who later was Bishop of that land, with the Bible in his hand and together with Martin, an interpreter, made their way through the crowd in order to be able to speak with Atahuallpa, to whom he began to tell things about Holy Scripture and that Our Lord Jesus Christ commanded that among His people there be neither war nor discord, but rather full peace; and that he in His name thus requested and required the same of him ... at which these and many other words that the friar told him, he was quiet and without answer; and saying again that he look at what God commanded, which was written in that book in his hand, marveling, in my opinion more at the writing than at what was written there, he asked for the book and opened and turned its pages, looking at the printing and order of it, and having seen it, he threw it among the people, saying with great ire and a flaming face, "Tell them to come hence, for I shall not leave here until they give account and satisfy and pay for what they have done in my land."
Scholars have shown that the conquest's first eyewitnesses were not entirely reliable (especially with regard to cultural behaviors and artifacts of the Tawantinsuyu) and were barely understandable through amateur and sometimes biased interpreters. Furthermore this was a case of a bilingual "dialogue," mediated by one of these interpreters and in whose transcription (to confuse the matter even more) reality might well have been mixed with dialogistic stereotypes from classical historiography or chivalric novels, although I sense that these interferences and those from the romanceros became more pronounced as time progressed.
In any case there is a definable common theme in these testimonials: Valverde, through an interpreter, requires that the Inca be subject to Christian beliefs and the rule of imperial Spain and gives him a sacred book (presumably the Bible or a breviary) that Atahuallpa in the end throws on the ground. With subtle differences in the renderings, this act provides the rationale for the unleashing of the conquistadors' violent military machine. Although it is clear that no historical retelling is an exact replica of what really happened, there is all indication that the versions noted here seem to "reproduce" events that did indeed happen, as well as some of the exact words that were spoken. But even if one were to doubt the veracity of the narration out of excessive skepticism or for other reasons (Inca Garcilaso de la Vega roundly refutes it and Martín de Murúa alludes to the fact that each one relates the episode according to his interests), the subject matter that the Cajamarca witnesses recount possesses sufficient symbolic consistency to be retold countless times (from the colony to the present) in chronicles and other accounts produced by those who could draw upon both written and oral tradition. Obviously the cited texts originate in the former, but the understudied oral tradition is most probably based on a much more varied array of sources.
It is impossible to present here an exhaustive compilation of all later versions, but most of them clearly expand upon and/or stylize the material in the first accounts, although the fact remains that their roots are not only found in the written tradition but also in the oral, which seems to take a parallel path. Examples of expansions are found in texts by Agustín de Zarate or Francisco López de Gómara, who "transcribe" (or rather imagine) Father Valverde's long speech: a prolix recounting of Catholic dogma and the King's ordinances derived from the text of the requerimiento drafted by Juan López de Palacios Rubios in 1512. Despite its length it is useful to cite Zarate's version:
Then the bishop, Fray Vicente de Valverde, came forward with a breviary in his hand and expounded how One God in three persons had created heaven and earth and all that was in it, and had made Adam, who was the first man on earth, taking his wife Eve from his rib, whereby we were all engendered, and how by the disobedience of our first parents we had fallen into sin and could not achieve the grace of seeing God or going to heaven until our Redeemer Christ was born of a virgin to save us, as a result of which He received His death and passion; and that after His death He was reborn in glory, and remained in the world for a short time before rising to heaven, leaving in His place Saint Peter and his successors who lived at Rome and whom we Christians called popes; and how the popes had divided the whole world between the Christian princes and kings, entrusting each with a task of conquest; and that this province of Atahuallpa's had been assigned to His Majesty the Emperor and King Don Carlos, our master; and that he had sent Don Francisco Pizarro to represent him as governor and inform Atahuallpa on behalf of God and the Emperor of all that he had just said; that if Atahuallpa chose to believe and receive the waters of baptism and obey him, as did the greater part of Christendom, the Emperor would defend and protect him, maintaining peace and justice in the land and preserving his liberties as he did those of other kings and lords who accepted his rule without the risk of war; but if Atahuallpa were to refuse, the Governor would make cruel war on him with fire and sword, and lance in hand.
Atahuallpa's response is rendered by Francisco López de Gómara as
Atahuallpa responded very angrily that, being free, he did not desire to become a tributary nor hear that there might be another, greater lord than he; nevertheless, he would be glad to be a friend to the emperor and make his acquaintance, because he must be a great prince, since he sent as many armies as they said throughout the world; he said that he would not obey the Pope, because he gave away what was not his and would not leave his father's kingdom to someone who had never seen it. And, as for religion, he said that his own was very good and that he was contented with it and neither wanted nor was obliged to question such an ancient and well proven matter, and Christ died and the Sun and Moon never died.
The not-so-ingenuous process of stylization is made obvious by comparing the above text with Jerónimo Benzoni's, which derives from it: "When the king had heard all this, he said that he would live in friendship with the monarch of the world; but it did not seem, to him, incumbent on a free king to pay tribute to a person whom he had never seen: and that the pontiff must be a great fool, giving away so liberally the property of others. As to the religion, he would on no account abandon his own; for if they believed in Christ who died on the cross, he believed in the Sun, who never died."
No doubt such textual sequences depend heavily on not only the literary-historiographic codes employed but also the transformations in Spanish oral memory and the receptivity of the narrator for native oral memory. These are obviously related to the ideological and social interests implicit in the subject of the text. For example, the approval or disapproval of the conquistadors' behavior, especially by Valverde, usually shifts from the direct expression of this judgment to the "objective" narration of the events, or vice versa.
Such is the case in the chronicle by Pedro Cieza de León, who condemns Father Valverde's action ("so that [the Inca] could understand, he should have said it in a different way"), adds information about the fear motivating the priest's actions, and extrapolates a general judgment about clerical behavior ("the friars here only preach where there is no danger"), thus casting doubt on the veracity of the long discourse that Pizarro's chaplain was to have pronounced. Likewise Miguel Cabello de Balboa, who also has a critical attitude (he complains that Valverde mentions the Gospels "as if Atahuallpa knew what Gospels were or was obligated to know"), prefers the version in which the Inca lets the breviary fall by accident. It is also noteworthy that Martín de Murúa opts not to linger on parts of the Cajamarca episode ("and so I shall not speak of them") because there are other versions that already do so. But still, he points out the utter senselessness of the Dominican's behavior.
(Continues...)
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments viiForeword / Jean Franco ix
Introduction 1
1. Voice and the Written Word in the Cajamarca "Dialogue" 13
The Cajamarca Chroncile 13
Rituals of Other Memories 31
A Perhaps Impossible Reading 46
Identity, Alterity, History 55
2. The Structures of Homogeneity: Discourses of Impossible Harmony 59
Garcilaso: Harmony Rent Asunder 60
Social Depictions of the Inca 66
From Garcilaso to Palma: One Language for All? 71
Concerning Patriotic Speeches and Proclamations 75
In Fiction: Three Novels 82
Cumandá 84
Torn from the Nest 89
Juan de la Rosa 94
Celebrations 103
3. Stone of Boiling Blood: The Challenges of Modernization 113
The Ambiguities of a New Language 114
The Emergence of Dualism 126
An Andean Modernity 131
A Hobbled History: The Indigenist Novel 136
The Subject Explodes 145
Underground Voices 154
Overture 165
Notes 173
Index 209