UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff MMoonnttaannaa SScchhoollaarrWWoorrkkss aatt UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff MMoonnttaannaa Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Graduate School Professional Papers 1997 NNaarrrraattiioonn aanndd ttiimmee iinn PPoocchhoo aanndd ......yy nnoo ssee lloo ttrraaggoo?? llaa ttiieerrrraa Christopher W. Minster The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits you. RReeccoommmmeennddeedd CCiittaattiioonn Minster, Christopher W., "Narration and time in Pocho and ...y no se lo trago? la tierra" (1997). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 3057. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/3057 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Maureen and Mike MANSFIELD LIBRARY MONTANA The University of Pennission is granted by the author to reproduce diis material in its entirety, provided that this material is used for scholarly purposes and is properly cited in published works and reports. ** Please check "Yes" or "No" and provide signature ** Yes, I grant pennission No, I do not grant permission Author's Signature Date 6 - - ^"7 Any copying for commercial purposes or financial gain may be undertaken only with the author's explicit consent. NARRATION AND TIME IN POCHO AND ••.Y NO SE LQ TRAGo LA TIERRA by Christopher W. Minster B.A. The Pennsylvania State University, 1991 presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts The University of Montana 1997 Approved by: Chairperson (J Dean, Graduate School Date UMI Number: EP34988 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMT OisMTtation Publishing UMI EP34988 Published by ProQuest LLC (2012). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code uest* ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Minster, Christopher W., M.A., 1997 Spanish Narration and Time in Pocho and ...y no se lo traao la tierra (130pp.) Director; Maria Jose Bustos Fernandez Pocho. by Jose Antonio Villareal, and .. .y no se lo trago la tierra. by Tomas Rivera, are two works of Chicano prose fiction that are ideally suited to narrative analysis. Both novels are set in mid-twentieth-century United States and describe the experience of growing up Mexican-American. Many of the themes they describe -- such as racism, religious crisis, and acculturation -- are similar. The narratives, however, are fundamentally different, as Villareal explains the acculturation process of an individual and Rivera shows the experience of being part of a community of migrant workers. This difference, that of showing versus explaining, manifests itself in many forms in the narrative. An examination of the various narrators utilized by Rivera offers insight as to the different aspects of migrant culture that he wished to portray. An analysis of the temporal/chronological structure of the relationship between story and narrative of both works further shows the agenda and techniques of the authors. While either novel is adequate for a sustained narrative analysis, it is in relation to each other that the differences can most clearly be seen. Their themes are so similar, yet their structure so different, that together they present the scholar with an opportunity to closely examine and compare the different ways that two authors can say similar things. I. Introduction In this study, I will undertake an analysis of the complex narration of Tomas Rivera's masterpiece ...y no se lo trago la tierra. Rivera's innovative style paints an elegant portrait of his people, and the work won the first prestigious Quinto Sol award shortly after being written. This analysis will also cover Jose Antonio Villareal's novel Pocho. Pocho is a fascinating novel in its own right, considered by many to be the first work of modern Chicano literature. It predates y no se lo trago la tierra by more than ten years. In many ways, Pocho and ...y no se lo trago la tierra are very similar works. The two authors had similar experiences during their formative years, and dealt with similar themes in their novels. Villareal and Rivera were very aware of themselves as Mexican-Americans. They knew well the history of their people, from the arrival of the first Spaniards who colonized what is now the American Southwest, to the times of the Mexican-American war and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. They were aware of the Mexican revolution and the multiple connotations that it held, and continues to hold, for the American Chicano. In addition, Rivera was involved in, or at least very aware of, the la causa movements of the sixties while he was writing. Rivera also knew a great deal about literature: classical. North American, and Mexican. He was well educated 1 2 and knew what turned bad writing into good writing, and good writing into literature. When he felt that his people needed a literature of their own, and sat down to create just that, he did so deliberately and consciously. Villareal, perhaps because he was the first writer to write fiction about the Chicano experience, was less calculating. The works are similar in that they are firmly established in the canon of Chicano Literature, but as similar as they are, the narrative techniques employed by their authors are very different. Villareal writes in a chronological and linear style, and Rivera's writing, like that of the great Mexican writer Juan Rulfo, is temporally fragmented and choppy. This situation--that of two writers with very similar backgrounds writing in the same period of time about many of the same things--yet using vastly different narrative techniques--gives us the opportunity to take a close look at the narrative styles of both works and compare them. The essential difference is this: Villareal explains the Chicano experience during the thirties and forties, and Rivera shows the Chicano experience of a few years later. Rivera merely describes memories; Villareal analyzes the situations in which his characters find themselves. Rivera asks more of the reader, insofar as the reader has to come to his own understanding of the consequences of the depicted actions, as few consequences are ever spelled out. Both works are 3 effective in different ways. The first step in coming to an understanding of these works is to understand the culture from which they come. The Chicano culture of the United States is complex, rich, and fascinating, with a long history of which both writers are keenly aware. It comes of the marriage of two cultures -- an Anglo one, centered on the individual, and a mexican one, centered on family and community. As incompatible as these cultures sound, they have merged into one in the American Southwest and elsewhere, and the literature this union has produced is at times confusing and contradictory, but at times stirring and beautiful. Therefore, before analyzing the narrative of the both works, it is necessary to understand the history of the Mexican-American, and how that history is seen by the Chicano. The first two sections of this study will summarize and analyze the history and literature of this culture in the United States. Once the various influences working on these authors is understood, a narrative analysis of their works can be undertaken. The essential difference between the works--that of showing vs. telling--can most clearly be seen in the narration of both novels. First, a thorough examination of the various voices that Tomas Rivera uses to narrate his anecdotes and tales will show that he uses broad brushstrokes of language to impart to the reader a sense of the rich community in which he 4 grew up. Second, an in-depth analysis of the time structure of the novel, analyzed through the methods suggested by Gerard Genette in his study Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method, will show that both Rivera and Villareal use the structuring of time to their advantage as they respectively show or tell the stories of their protagonists. The results of this background study and comparison will show that although the writers have similar histories and work with similar themes, in the end it is the differences that define the works in comparison to each other. Pocho tells the story of a lonely young man trying to make it as an individual, and .,.y no se lo traao la tierra is the story of a community as seen through the eyes of a young man over the course of one year. These differences manifest themselves most clearly in the narration of the works.