Tag Archives: naranjo

09/24/21

Who Sold The Rain? (We Did)

In Carmen Naranjo’s And We Sold the Rain, I find there to be an interesting connection between the use of the third-person plural (particularly in the title), and the removal of the country’s natural resources. Throughout the work, the ineptitude and greed of the higher ups is constantly satirized and ridiculed, even from the first line; “This is a royal fuck-up”(page 1). The country is plundered for all its worth, and countless mechanisms and cycles are catastrophically damaged. In these descriptions, the work singles out both foreign and domestic culprits, though undeniably it is the multinational influence that is portrayed as the true evil, whereas the local corruption simply allows or permits for such evil.  What is most interesting, however, is to see how the work uses “we”. Other than the title, there is only one occasion where the third-person plural is used by the voice of the essay and not in citation; the moment where this “we” laments what the country had once been.

This causes me to question the title of the work, why the use of “we”, and who exactly is “we”? Though it may seem obvious that “we” refers to the writer and their country, in the work itself, “we” only comes into play from the perspective of the working class, and is otherwise merely recalling what a higher-up or a newspaper was saying, and their use of “we” comes across as dishonest and detached due to their obviously privileged position. Why then, is it used in the title? It seems to me like this reflects that, despite all the protests and complaints the author has for the country’s public officials, they still recognize them as part of the same group. It might seem like this is inevitable, but in my personal experience, many radically-minded Canadians tend not to refer to Canada as a “we”, especially when discussing the government itself or our international presence. It is certainly possible to avoid using “we” for one’s own people, so I find the use of it in the title (and almost exclusively there) quite interesting.

09/24/21

Magical Realism and Government Corruption

Elements of magical realism are juxtaposed with harsh realities in Carmen Naranjo’s short story “And We Sold the Rain” to portray the corruption of a developing nation’s government in a sardonic, satirical tone. In an attempt to escape its debilitating debt, the president of an unnamed Latin American country looks to unconventional methods of procuring funds. We can immediately grasp how unfairly the situation affects lower class citizens, and see the government’s inclination to ignore their struggle for their own gain.

The nation’s worsening conditions are evident: some neighbourhoods must now contend with the rising price of water bills and increased rates of violent crime, whereas others, characterized by “a whole alphabet of trade names of gleaming new cars” (151), are more distressed at their inability to travel to exotic destinations. The government considers various proposals, from imposing a tax on the air (151), to praying to patron saints (150), to creating a transnational aqueduct system to aid in selling their only remaining natural commodity: rainwater. They end up implementing this final idea, and while citizens are initially supportive of the rain funnels, the lack of precipitation soon destroys their beautiful “green” (153) land, leaving them with even less than before. It is at this point that people begin to travel through the aqueducts in hopes of finding a better life on the other side, and while they do for a short while, the final paragraph hints at the cycle beginning again.

Though the ideas of air taxes and rain funnels are implausible in the real world, it is precisely their comical nature alongside the sarcastic narration that allows readers to better understand how willing a government can be to exploit every last drop that their country can offer in order to rake more money in, even when it comes at the cost of losing the very people that make up the country.

09/23/21

Us vs Them

We never discussed in class the effect of the change from third-person narration to the first-person plural narration at the end of “And We Sold the Rain” by Carmen Naranjo. This is something that I have been thinking about and I would like to share my thoughts on its effect.

The use of “And” in the title suggests a sense of desperation since it sounds like the end of an extensive list of goods that the country had to sell to get itself out of debt. The “And” adds to the satirical and hyperbolic tone of the story in which Naranjo is critiquing the international organizations that economically destroyed this nation forcing them to sell their natural resource of rain to stay afloat. The “We” in the title however adds a sense of collectivity in this mass economic struggle.

After numerous failed attempts by this nation’s leadership to dig themselves out of debt, the citizens were forced to finally escape this unsustainable country. Once the citizens fled from their economic oppression, the narration turns to the first-person plural, with the line “In that country, we were second class citizens, something we were already accustomed to.” (pg 156). There is a sense of awakening and hope for the citizens of this unnamed nation, that perhaps this new country will be better. This line also acts as a critique of the unjust distribution of wealth. However, the line “the emir asked for a loan, then another, then many” (pg 156) indicates that while there may have been a moment of hope, the never-ending vicious cycle of a loan and debt repayment catches up to them again. The cyclical nature of this story is representative of the dependency that the international organizations forced upon Latin American countries resulting in economic crises during the 1970s and 1980s.

Naranjo never names the nation at focus in this story, but critiques explicitly the multinational organizations at fault for the crisis. The anonymity of the nation in contrast with the explicit naming of the international organizations acts as a powerful attack from Naranjo, there is no doubt who the villain is in this story. The impact of the change from third-person narration to first-person plural narration is that it reminds the reader that there are real victims of these irresponsible financial decisions of those in power and brings the story to a personal level.

09/23/21

Marquez and Naranjo

Magical realism is a powerful tool within Latin American literature as it challenges our conceptions of life and culture. In Naranjo’s “And We Sold the Rain” the seemingly impossible within regular life highlights the strain of the economic crisis in the collective conscious. In our class discussion, we briefly touched on Naranjo’s use of intertextuality and reference to Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s work. While there is a direct reference with the mention of “Macondo,” there seem to be stylistic similarities between “And We Sold the Rain” and “100 Years of Solitude” (pg. 151). Marquez begins “100 years of solitude” stating “Many years later as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía” would remember the first time his father showed him ice (pg. 1). Naranjo begins her piece quite similarly, focusing on one man of power, a climactic moment, and a distorted sense of time. Naranjo’s narrator is omniscient, narrating what the treasury minister said “a few days ago” similarly to how Marquez begins his story in both the future and the past (pg. 151). Both Marquez and Naranjo play with time as a concept at the start of their stories as if to suggest that the nature of the problems that face both men are cyclical.  This technique also drops the reader immediately into the meat of the story and gives them a view of the potential conflict. Additionally, the cyclical nature of time points to a trend in magical realism that focuses on generational stories and struggles. I found the introductions of both stories to feel quite similar in style and am interested to see if others feel similarly.

09/22/21

Blame The Bank

The story criticizes the world bank and the international monetary fund for their policies on providing funding to latin american countries. A common complaint against these organizations is that the rich countries who run them use the power of funding to make countries do what is best for the countries funding the bank rather than the countries receiving the funding. The wellbeing of the country at hand is of lesser importance  than balancing the books.As seen in the story, the government employees have the means to travel and buy expensive cars, and this is a common complaint about the world bank and the IMF, that it expands the wealth of the bureaucracy but does not help the people.The policies of the World Bank would force countries to slash social funding. During the 1980s, when this story was written, many saw these policies as making the problems worse and not helping the people of the countries, as inflation was causing food prices to rise dramatically. The way the loans were given out did not take into account the culture and needs of the people in each country separately, causing the policies to be ineffectual in reaching the people who really needed the aid. These impacts are seen in “And We Sold the Rain”, when the cost of food rose steeply and the cost of luxury goods,such as caviar fell due to the measures implemented by the IMF and World Bank. 

09/21/21

Cycle of Crisis

Despite having a strong allusion to Costa Rica in the 1900’s, the story “And We Sold the Rain” by Carman Naranjo and its critiques can also represent a wider theme in Latin American literature and history of this era.

The Magical Realist tone of this story uses imagery of a poor nation full of inequality and corruption to critique the fictional government in the story. The use of anonymity however intrigues me as it enables the reader to interpret the story as a wider critique of an economic and political cycle that Latin American countries seemed to have been trapped in at this time.

Based on our understanding of Costa Rica (as a base line) we observe a country that was corrupt, poor and underdeveloped due to poor leadership and political/economic institutions. Following WW2, we see the country begin to adopt increasingly capitalist policy. Along with this export businesses were thriving, and economic conditions were relatively stable. Here is where it seems things turn, and governments begin to nationalize enterprise, while people begin to demand social policies and welfare, slipping towards a socialist regime.

As the history we have so far been presented suggests, as these nations first turn towards capitalism, they begin to borrow at unsustainable levels, and more of this debt is being used to fund such social programs demanded by the people. At this point all it takes is one economic shock for this house of cards to topple.

This is where it seems we start off in the story “And We Sold The Rain”. A nation insolvent, and an economy unable to generate capital to meet its debt obligations. Here is where the cycle begins. As we see in the story, the government must enact strict austerity measures, symbolized sarcastically when the president suggests that the nation begin to tax the air, yet meanwhile social programs were cut, food was being rationed, and the currency was being devalued and incredible rates.

After embracing what is coined as economic “Shock Therapy” we see an economy that begins to restabilize. This concept has been coined by the works of economist Jeffery Sachs, who has advised governments transitioning out of communist era, and into democratic capitalism, and had done so with great success in countries such as Bolivia.

However as we can see today this cycle, in Costa Rica, has repeated. Where governments eager to appease to citizens, continue to borrow to fund socialist policies and social welfare programs, a substantial amount of debt has been accrued to the point that 42% of the nations GDP in 2021 will go towards interest and amortization of federal debt.

This, similarly to the period before this story is alluded to unfold, comes at a time of a global economic shock. Where in 1980 we saw an energy crisis, today we see a global pandemic.

Due to all of this, I read and interpret this story more so as a warning of this cycle. Rather than critique on capitalism, it seems as if socialism is the issue, although nice in theory, it is practically inefficient, leading to corruption and inequality rather than a world of prosperity and equals.

09/21/21

and we sold all of nature

In “And We Sold the Rain,” Carmen Naranjo emphasizes water as a source that causes contempt, happiness, and lastly, exile; through this, the people’s relationship with water comes to symbolize a fraught relationship people have with nature under capitalism. The first mention of rain happens when the people complain that “they raise our water bills but don’t give us any water even though it rains everyday” (Naranjo 149). Rain has yet to become exploited, and (while incredibly sardonically) rain is considered separate from water as a commodity. At this stage, rain (as a representation of nature) is an obstacle, a cause for frustration when “poor people without umbrellas, without a change of clothes, they get drenched” (Naranjo 151). This sentiment is further emphasized when Naranjo writes “[t]he sea of poverty” — the sea, a large water mass, is chosen to represent poverty. However, this soon changes when they sell the rain, and the rain becomes a commodity. For a moment, it seems that they have conquered this cause of annoyance, and “[t]he people smiled. A little less rain would be agreeable to everyone” (Naranjo 154). Furthermore, they are able to profit off their triumph over nature. It is almost smart, until it becomes unsustainable. 

Finally, water becomes the ultimate cause, and aid, of their exile. The rain stops forever, and people are forced to flee — a situation that the real world will perhaps come to sooner than later due to the climate crisis. By their triumph over nature, and the commodification of natural resources, the people have made their home uninhabitable. Like The Lorax, this short story’s hyperbolic situation mirrors one of the real world’s rapid and insatiable consumption of nature that can only lead to exile.

09/21/21

Satire, Sarcasm, Sea of Poverty

This piece by Naranjo (a short story) contained many, many literary devices that lent to its effectiveness as what is ultimately an educational short story with a huge moral tilt. I believe the “genre” (if we are using that term) would be a satire, as it makes fun of the monetary agencies such as the IMF and EEC, as well as Costa Rica’s own delusional leaders. Naranjo effectively uses sarcasm to make her points, lending to the satirical tone, as in the lines about levying a tax on air: “ten colones per breath would be a small price to pay.” (151)

Above all, the literary device that I picked up on was metaphor. It was administered in small doses, such as, “sea of poverty,” (150). But metaphor manifests itself in a much bigger way, too, from the concept of Miss Underdeveloped, to the “fat cows” representing international lending. In honesty, I had a bit of difficulty understanding what the idea of Miss Underdeveloped represented, and I’m hoping that a colleague can help me out with this!! (Perhaps in the comments).

The back-and-forth between such metaphor and reality (between the conceptual and the specific) throughout the story had the effect of making me stop and think in the middle of the text, especially because it was done so abruptly between modes (see page 152: the “lean cows” seem to come out of nowhere)! For me, this definitely broke up the flow of the reading and was a bit frustrating, but perhaps this was the intention – to make the reader stop and be an active participant in decoding the metaphor so as to understand it better. I am wondering if the inclusion of such rich metaphor so seamlessly/casually in the text makes this piece an example of magical realism, or whether it’s just metaphor?