09/15/21

A Bird and Freedom

Throughout the short story, “Guatemala 1954- Funeral for a Bird,” by Arturo Arias, the motif of the dead bird suggests a commentary on the fleeting freedom experienced by Guatemalans and other victims of civil unrest.

Commonly in literature, the presence of a bird represents freedom. Since Maximo was born at the beginning of Guatemala’s Civil War, freedom is something he has never truly experienced. At the beginning of the story, Maximo suggests that the fighting and bombing has ceased for the time being, and with relief from the war, he begins to feel free. As he wanders the streets, Maximo remarks on his sense of freedom, saying, he, “could walk in any direction unless streets were blocked by corpses or fallen walls. That was called freedom” (50). Birds, which would be scared of the loud noises of war, would return to the community. Therefore, with the ceasing of bombs, the bird represents a return of freedom.

Yet, the bird the children gather around is dead, not alive, suggesting that the freedom Maximo is experiencing will soon come to an end. The Guatemalan civil war lasted for 36 years, with peace and war coming and going. The dead bird symbolizes the complexity of war and peace, bringing up the question when is peace fully attained? Additionally, with the history of United States intervention in Guatemala and other Latin American countries, the fleeting freedom shown by the bird invites the debate of what true freedom is. In conclusion, Maximo’s experience of the dead bird can be seen as a commentary on freedom during war and in post-war communities.

09/14/21

Estrangement, Violence and Innocence

In exploring the central themes of Arturo Arias’ “Guatemala 1954: Funeral for a Bird” the concept of  estrangement coined by Viktor Shklovsky communicates the motifs of death and violence prevalent throughout the story and in this time period.

Maximo is a child of only 5, who’s entire existence has been defined by death, violence and loss, yet as a child is presented with a sense of innocence. His understanding of the world is confined to stories from his mother, presumed to be dead, as well as photographs in magazines in his home. Due to fighting, and the constant threat of death he is largely confined to his home and his freedoms limited.

The bulk of the story follows Maximo as he explores the horrors of a war torn Guatemala, where as the reader we observe Maximo completely desensitized to the concept of human death, to the point where corpses littered throughout the city both intrigue and annoy him. This is illustrated by Maximo curiously observing bugs crawling out of the mouths of corpses, and kicking one after tripping over it while enjoying his perceived freedom.

This is starkly contrasted with his, and the other children’s reaction to the corpse of a dead bird. Here we observe a more somber attitude where the children seem aware almost saddened by the concept of death among this bird.

These two prominent and opposite responses is central to the theme of the short story, illustrating the extreme violence and death experienced in this time period without outlining specific details. Maximo, a child so normalized to the concept and sight of death, can only truly grasp what death itself is when he is taken outside of his normalized environment. This I believe presents a depiction of war that communicates its horror more strongly to the reader than simply outlining the events that occurred.

09/14/21

Birds, Rings, Coups, and Children

“Maximo could walk in any direction unless the streets were blocked by corpses or fallen walls. That was called freedom.” (pg. 2) In Funeral for a Bird, Arturo Arias captures the harsh reality of the U.S.-backed coup in Guatemala that overthrew Arbenz in 1954. By speaking through the eyes of a child, Arias is able to use a slightly dissociated voice of a child who can’t comprehend the true gravity of the situation. The violent reality is communicated bluntly, from the smell of decomposing bodies to the cockroaches that live inside the corpses. For Maximo, “fallen walls” are as common as corpses, revealing the depth and extent of violence in his town. Arturo adds the phrase “That was called freedom” to seemingly critique the United States’ role in the mass death of civilians. The passive voice seems to indicate that freedom was something promised or explained to those experiencing violence.  While the coup of 1954 was often outwardly branded as a quest for freedom and rejection of communism, the true motivating factors were largely economic. Arbenz pushed for land reform and land redistribution, two policies that threatened American interests. Arias shows the reader what American brought “freedom” really looks like and it looks like death and suffering.

In Maximo’s worldview, corpses are a fact of life and so commonplace that the death of a bird holds more weight for his child self. As bombs likely killed many birds or drove them away from the area, the single dead bird represents something beautiful and foreign to the children, a reminder of the past. Arias also shows how desensitized the children are through their interaction with the bird and its funeral. Children are careful to not step on the bird, yet when Maximo trips on a corpse he kicks it. The genre and narrative voice make this piece so powerful; the reader is forced to consider the enduring impact viewing this violence would have on a child.

09/14/21

The Irony of It All

Arturo Arias in  “Guatemala 1954 — Funeral for a Bird” utilizes irony to expose the near unfathomable horrors left by the bombing experienced through a child’s perspective. The most apparent example is the children’s lack of empathy towards the bodies contrasted with their admiration of the dead bird. Sanchez “in a fit of anger… kicked the corpse” when the corpse becomes an obstacle between him and the dead bird (Arias 51). Furthermore, at that moment, Sanchez “didn’t see the headless body” (Arias 51). For a moment, Sanchez is so consumed by his thoughts of the bird that he literally fails to recognize the human body in front of him. When Sanchez is forced to recognize the body, he does not do so with the same honour as the bird, but rather with contempt. While Arias definitely uses irony to unsettle the reader, perhaps more interestingly, he makes the reader further distrust Sanchez and the narration.

Arias further exposes Sanchez’s fickle (unreliable not as a result of purposeful manipulation, but childish perspective) narration to the reader when he finds the ring to bring as an offering to the bird. When Sanchez finds the ring, he shouts that “I found a ring! A precious ring!” (Arias 53). We only find out after the ring is described in detail that “the finger it encircled also seemed beautiful” (Arias 53). Sanchez is not concerned with the finger: he does not say that he has found a finger, rather just the ring. The reader is forced to recontextualize the ring after finding out that the finger is attached. This further causes the reader to question the narration. 

While we often understand the rhetoric that horrors of war and suffering are unfathomable in children’s eyes, Arias literally makes these horrors unfathomable. The reader never gains access to a version of this story as a normal adult would tell it; instead, we must constantly try to piece together the story narrated through the thoughts of a four-and-a-half-year-old.

09/14/21

Arturo Arias’ Funeral for a Nation

Arturo Arias’ “Guatemala 1954-Funeral for a Bird” develops under a context where Guatemala is again deprived of sovereignty and self-determination. Guatemala is a majority working-class and Indigenous nation, two continuously marginalized identities by upper-class and Western societies. But hope this marginalization would end seemed plausible with Jacobo Árbenz’s rise to power. Unlike most Guatemalan leaders before 1951, Árbenz sought to grant power to historically ignored national communities. Guatemala followed a pattern of “Caudillo” rule, defined by militant and strict governmental policies prioritizing foreign and upper-class interests at the expense of the rest of the nation. Hence, once Árbenz ambitiously began to reform inequalities in the country, Guatemalans saw political and economic representation as a growing reality. Specifically regarding land redistribution, as land ownership provided a great deal of autonomy and liberation. Yet, this working-class and Indigenous re-claim of power quickly threatened U.S. interests, and by 1954, Árbenz, a symbol of hope, was deposed, and upper class and foreign companies usurped power.

With this context in mind, Arias’ story seems to be an ode to the death of a dream that was close to realizing before foreign intervention and greed destroyed it. In the story, Maximo, the protagonist, and the other kids are holding a funeral for a bird. But I would like to believe the bird symbolizes Guatemala or Árbenz’s reforms, and in reality, they are having a funeral for Guatemala’s lost hope towards a more equitable society. The boys’ intense emotions are perhaps how Arias wanted to reflect that Guatemalan future life is again succumbed to living under the same exploitative conditions they have been living in since the institution of colonialism. Thus, the “bird’s” funeral is emotional because it represents the burial of a free Guatemala, where working-class and Indigenous sovereignty were plausible and where those who worked the land owned the land.

09/13/21

Through a Child’s Eyes

For this weeks’ blog post I want to engage with Arturo Arias’s short story, Funeral for a Bird.

What initially struck me was that in the story, the children do not seem fazed about the corpses in the streets; yet all are sad – “one of the littlest boys started to cry” (Arias 52) – about a single, tiny, seemingly insignificant creature, even amidst the rubble and remnants of human life. Arias juxtaposes Máximo’s tenderness toward this bird with his impartial, even annoyed, attitude toward the corpses – for example, when he trips over a “headless body,” and in a “fit of anger, kicked the corpse” (Arias 51). I think that Arias intended to make the reader uncomfortable with this inversion; normally, one would express more empathy and concern with the death of humans than birds. I would be interested to know if Máximo’s “disrespect” toward the corpses, and simultaneous care for the bird, made anybody else feel “discomfort” when reading. Arias also may be expressing how violence and death are seen through the eyes of a child who doesn’t yet understand the world.

On this note, I noticed right away that Arias’s writing had a “childlike” quality. He used short, quick sentences that mimic a child’s way of speaking, as well as simpler language – no words are floral or complicated. I think that Arias is allowing the reader inside Máximo’s head, to perhaps understand violence as a child with little experience of the world might. This technique reminds me of the novel Room by Emma Donoghue, in which a boy named Jack acts as the narrator of the book. At first this way of writing, to me, was scattered and slightly irritating to read but in both Donoghue and Arias’s works, it has the effect of bringing the reader into the mind and experiences of a child.

09/7/21

Welcome to SPAN312

¡Hola a todes! My name is Tamara Mitchell (she/her/hers), and I am your professor this semester for SPAN312. This initial post is to make sure everyone can access the course blog, to tell you a little about me, and to learn a bit about each of you.

Please respond to this post with your preferred name and pronouns, and answer 2-3 of the following questions:

  1. What’s the best book/work you’ve read recently? Bonus points if it’s a Latin American author!
  2. What’s your favourite podcast?
  3. Which SPAN312 unit are you most interested in learning about this semester? (syllabus under Canvas Files)
  4. Do you have any pets, plants, hobbies, or other fun things you want to tell us about?
  5. Other details you want to share with us.

I am a professor of contemporary Mexican and Central American literature in the Department of French, Hispanic and Italian Studies. I have two cats, Mona and Gigi, who you might see during our occasional Zoom sessions. I’ve read so many great books this summer… Yuri Herrera’s La transmigración de los cuerpos The Transmigration of Bodies, Emiliano Monge’s Las tierras arrasadas Among the Lost, Laia Jufresa’s Umami, NK Jemisin’s The City We Became… but one of my all-time favourites is Samanta Schweblin’s Distancia de rescate Fever Dream. I’m excited about SPAN312, as this is the first time I’ll teach a literature class in English.

Looking forward to learning together this semester. Un saludo y hasta la próxima, Tamara