• Search for:

• Recent Posts

  • Span 365 reflection
  • McOndo
  • Final Reflections
  • Final Reflections
  • Asturias, Marquez, and Carpentier

• Blogroll

  • French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies
  • LAST201: Popular Culture in Latin America
  • Latin American Studies
  • SPAN322: North of the Río Grande
  • SPAN364: Survey of Spanish-American Literature to the 1820s
  • SPAN401: Spanish-English Translation
  • SPAN404: Cinema of Mexico

• Contributors

  • “Black Velvet”
  • Alex E’s Blog
  • alice365
  • Britt’s Blog
  • Chris Weber – SPAN 365
  • Daniela’s 365 Blog!
  • Eben’s 365 Blog
  • espanishola
  • Hanne’s blog
  • Hills’ Blog
  • Howimetpatrick’s Blog
  • Jeff’s365
  • jeremyBLAUGRANA
  • Kayo’s Span 365
  • KYLA BURKE-LAZARUS
  • Laura’s Blog
  • Lee un pinche libro
  • Literatura Española 365
  • Mark Atherton 365
  • masalladelacordillera
  • Matt’s blog SPAN 365
  • Max’s Blog
  • Megan’s Blog
  • My thoughts
  • pensamientos
  • Pooneh- Espanol 365
  • Raluca’s Blog
  • shima_span365
  • Siena’s 365 Blog
  • SPAN 365
  • SPAN 365
  • span 365 blog
  • span365
  • span365
  • stayin’ alive in 365
  • svetlana_sp365
  • The Muse
  • The Room of Lights
  • Tracy’s Blog for SPAN 365
  • Visca Catalunya
  • Words on Whatever

Well, it seems that the general consensus remains that the Leyendas de Guatemala are a bit difficult to decipher and follow, and they definitely take a long time to read. That being said, it is true, in my opinion, that while the legends are lengthy, they allow the reader to explore Mayan culture and it’s influences on Guatemala.
While these legends have probably been passed down through generations verbally, which means the legends have probably changed a bit through time, they retain obvious Mayan influence which can be seen in the almost worship of the morning, the evening and the night. “de la manana a la tarde, de la tarde a la noche, de la noche a la manana” seems to be a constant theme which is repeated continuously throughout the stories. I found this to have a connection to the idea of the changing worlds of reality and magic. The magic world comes to life at night, while reality is set in the daytime. Dusk is the transitional period. It seems that the author is attempting to reenforce the idea that both of the worlds rely on each other to truly exist, as do day and night.
There is also a very well defined connection made between these worldly forces, nature, and the people. Caculcan continuously repeats “Soy como el sol!”, which I took as a literal reference to said connection. It takes a connection with all of these forces for the world in this story to function and to maintain order.

I gotta be honest with ya: the second half of Leyendas de Guatemala makes about as much sense to me as the Bible (again, no offense is meant by my lack of enthusiasm for religious literature. I’m just tellin’ it like it is). By this comparison I mean that both involve characters that remind me of pompouos aristocrats making statements about ‘who they are’ and what lineage they come from, while going about their own little isolated worlds starting wars and making claims to property. I now consider these ‘leyendas de Guatemala’ to be the Mayan equivalent to paganistic/bibical stories. Yet not ALL of it was boring. For example, when Guacamayo got drunk off the chicha, I was quite entertained. Of course, in all truth, the guy had a toothache and I’m pretty sure that in ancient mayan times chicha would have been the anesthetic most commonly used [by the way, I’ve tried the chicha in Colombia and if the Guatemalan type is anything the same, then it would be sure to cure any physical malady that plagued Guacamayo!] But just the fact that Guacamayo would get drunk in these ‘sacred’ legends illustrates a part of the culture and spirituality of the Mayans, and not to mention more information about the character; whom I have come to affectionately think of as ‘El Diablo’. To continue with this pseudo-theatre scenario, I would cast Cuculcán (“Soy como el sol!” p. 79) as Jesus, Chinchibirín as John the Baptist as he constantly tries to protect Cuculcán from the engeñador Guacamayo, and the tortugas as the disciples, simply because a religious leader needs disciples, and why not turtles with beards? Yaí is a bit of a conundrum. At first I cast her as Mary Magdalene due to her being promised to Cuculcán (p. 126), but then Guacamayo tries to trick her into strangling Cuculcán, and claims that she would die if she doesn’t do it; which causes her to seemingly go insane due to ‘un ataque nervioso’ (p. 126) and incessantly laughs throughout the next cortina (p. 133)….poor poor Cuculcán. Could this be an allusion to Eve who is tricked to take the apple from the snake and consequently damns humanity into a societal slump of clothes and sin for the rest of eternity? It seems that the women in any religious culture are always doing something of the sort.

Again, these leyendas concentrate on the distinction of colours; the most marked of which in the second half of the book being las cortinas de amarilla, roja y negra. I’ve been trying to find a common thread to these colours. An obvious one would be that they signify the passing of a day, and thus Cuculcán and his sun, with amarillo in the morning, rojo in the afternoon, and negro at night. On top of this, the ‘tones’ appear to change from cortina a cortina: yellow feels pretty and full of love, red involves arrows flying at the curtain and battles between Guacamayo and Chinchibirín, and black always seems to have….tortugas. However, the third cortinas of each colour added extra confusion with Chinchibirín and Guacamayo yelling at one another, and then, at night, Chinchibirín receives no answers to his calls, doesn’t carry his arrows, and does not jump. Then he falls and stops moving. Fin. …..what a mind game!!

Encontré el segundo mitad de “leyendas de guatemala” algo más fácil de leer que el primero. Las palabras eran más o menos bien conocidos, y había una continuidad entre todas las partes (o cortinas de colores)- los mismos personajes, siempre en forma de obra teatral, la repetición de amarillo, rojo, y negro. Pero eso no significa que entendí bien lo que pasó. Los personajes me confundían mucho. He leído lo relevante en las últimas páginas, pero no entiendo más que lo que dice las palabras. Hay que ser símbolos, pero está fuera de mi alcance. Por ejemplo, la abuela de los remiendos fue tirado al cielo como una nube por Chinchinbirín. Hace un imagen fuerte en la mente, pero sé que hay importancia más que esto.

Y hay más confusión todavía. Culculcán es Dios (¿del sol? ¿de todo? ¿un Dios entre muchos?), y Guacamayo es engañador. No entiendo la relación entre Chinchinbirín y los otros, pero pienso que tenga buenas intenciones. Las tortugas y los Chupamieles vienen con la noche, y en una escena, la mujer de Culculcán está robado en la noche. La próxima cortina amarillo (mañana), el Dios no da cuenta de que su amante ya no está. El engañador más tarde convence a Yaí que Culculcán va a olvidarla después de una noche, y pensaba antes que Culculcán era el Dios cariñoso, pero si no le molestaba que su amante fue robado… me da confusión todo esto.

Pero pienso que entiendo más o menos el fin de “Culculcán”. Con la toca de sus manos de espejo, Yaí traslada su (¿espejo? ¿su poder de destrucción? Quizá el segundo, porque cuando estaba mirando a sus manos, Ralabal y Huvaravix la imploran a cubrirlas o volvería loco el mundo) regalo de Guacamayo a Culculcán, y Chinchinbirín se muere (no estoy seguro de esto, pero se caye) buscando a Yaí. Guacamayo se ríe, y creo que Guacamayo ganó la batalla contra Culculcán.

Como dije, no entendí más que lo que leí directamente. Leí de los tortugas jugando y de las batallas de la tarde (cortina roja), del hombre que con el toque de su timbre causa la lluvia, de un pájaro de tamaño humano que tenía siempre un dolor de dientes. Pienso también que todo lo que pasa está en algún lugar muuuuy lejos del mundo de los humanos. Tal vez todo pasa al nivel de Dios. Y leí al principio, bajo del título “Culculcán” “serpiente envuelta en plumas.” Por esto, supongo que la tema sea algo sobre el engaño. Pero ahora, antes de clase, solo tengo unas escenas y imágenes bonitas a recordar.

hola el mundo de BLOG 🙂

The play, “Culcucán serpiente envuelta en plumas” is the third part of the book “Leyendas de Guatamala” and serves as the conclusion to the book. The play in written in the style of ancient Mayan legends, it incorporates elements of magic and myth. The characters in the story are personifications of different elements such as the wind and the sun or personification of nature, like flowers. The characters in the story is what really gives it the sense of being an ancient Mayan legend. And the story serves to explain the universe and the reason why the things on Earth are the way they are, especially why the day changes into night. The story debates if the things we see are real or merely the illusion of being real, and the illusion being controlled by mythical creatures, especially Culculcán. I think the story serves as the conclusion of the book because Asturias is debating reality of the present woorld against the Mayan myth and history. In the story you have Guacamayo fighting that the passing of day to night is just an illusion.

The ending of the play became more confusing to me, it was hard for to understand the role of Yaí, I think I got the sense that Guacamayo was trying to use Yaí in order to prove Culcucán wrong but some how Guacamayo was fooled in the end.

This ending would consistent with the rest of the book, “Leyendas de Guatamala” because it would support the beliefs of the ancient Mayan legends; that the “Gods” are in control and determine what we see. Asturias writes to show that the modern world is based on the past and Mayan beliefs and again the play accomplishes this by explaining what we see in the present using the style of a Mayan legend and their beliefs.

Overall, I liked the play. Like the other stores in the book it reading the legend felt like it was being told out loud to me. The language was more simple than the others, making it easier to understand.

Solo quería comentar sobre la forma del libro entero de Leyendas por Asturias. Tiene una forma muy organizada y lógica, y a pesar de todo, muy artística.

Al principio tenemos tres cuentos, más o menos sencillos y cortos, que lleva cuidadosamente al lector a la segunda parte lo que consiste en las leyendas. Las cinco leyendas aunque son breves, tienen aspectos del escrito que son difíciles entender y sabemos que ya estamos en un mundo irreal. Luego el libro contiene la obra ´Cuculcán´. Este es mucho más largo que los demás, trata profundamente con el mágico-realismo como las leyendas del anterior, pero es una obra de teatro, un estilo nuevo hasta ahora en el libro. Al final tenemos el índice de modismos que explica las frases alegóricas y los términos desconocidos.

Así ´Leyendas´ ofrece una variedad que sigue un progreso artístico aparte de los detalles de la prosa. Creo que al lado de decir algo impresionante, es importante como presentar la información. La manera de que Asturias ha presentado sus cuentos y leyendas tiene mucho impacto porque no asusta al lector, a quien puede meterse poco a poco sin ahogarse por la fuerza de tratar de entender.

Es como la cena de Navidad, primero tenemos la ensalada (los primeros 3 cuentos) para dar ganas de comer algo más substancial, luego viene la carne y verduras (las leyendas y el teatro), finalmente el postre (el índice) que nos da exacto lo que queremos – ¡las respuestas!

Alright, well I am completely aware that this post is very late, but thought better than late than never. First, I want to talk about “Leyendas del sombrerón” one because I especially liked this piece and two because it stood out to me from the other stories as it had no surreal component to it and followed chronological time. It is however still is similar to the others stories as it is also a legend; gives reason for the way things are, because at the end it says “y así nace al mundo Sombrerón.” I wanted to clarify because my understanding is that the monk’s obsession with the ball introduces sin into the world, therefore to me the story seems similar to the story of Adam and Eve and confirms the need for God to punish people for there sins. I also thought is was interesting that the act of sin was brought by a ball, something so innocent and juvenile, and that it was the happiness he gets from the ball that is either is a sin itself or makes him sin. I do not know if Asturias is trying to comment on Christianity compared to traditional Mayan religion?

As we have talked about in class, Asturias emphasizes the connection between Guatemala’s past and present and the present building on the past as Asturias writes about “cuidades construidos sobre otros.” In “Ahora que me acuerdo” the protagonist discovers and literally grows his own roots by talking to los viejos. Again this image of building on top of these roots and not being able to forget or destroy your roots is seen in “Los brujos de la tormenta primaveral.” For example, Asturias describes “soló las raíces profundas seguían pegados a sus telares” after everything has been destroyed. The story fast forwards to a new generation of los nietos and the same roots persist.

I also wanted to add one more question I was really not sure about from the reading. In the “Leyenda del tesoro del lugar florido,” Asturias repeats “los hombros blancos” in the text. He writes that the attack of the hombros blancos was unfair, unforeseen, brutal… As I was reading I kept thinking he was referring to the Spaniards during la conquista but wanted to know what other thought?

Here is the second half of Miguel Angel Asturias’s Leyendas de Guatemala.

asturias_leyendas2

I found it very fascinating and intriguing reading Asturias as it really captured my imagination. With the use of colorful and poetic words and phrases he was able to really draw me into his narration of his description of nature, wildlife and forests. Although it was a little difficult at times to follow the meanings of the terminology that was being used, I was able to get the underlying feeling and direction of where Asturias was trying to make me see and feel.
At first the description of the royal rituals and mention of the cities of the conquistadores was leading to believe that there was more of a historical significance to his writing. But it was not the case. With in depth perceptions and the feeling of being within nature and the ability of writing to make you surrounded magically within his world was really what was at the center of his Leyendas.
One quote that really stood out for me and really had me really interested was when he wrote ‘El tropico es el sexo de la tierra’. In a way he describes the earth as being alive with desires and tries to express this in a way that everyone can relate to and understand.

Mejor tarde que nunca… I’m not sure how well that expression translates. Reading Asturias quickly has been like listening to music in an art gallery full of essential oils. My senses are filled and overwhelmed. He practices anthropology through more through the human than the scientific. I enjoy this because it captures the vitality, the dance and breath of a culture deeply woven with its environment. I want to digest each page and let sit with my senses, but I’m plowing through it because, well that’s the only way to surf the wave of course materials. So reading page after page, without the proper time to digest, I’m finding that I’m on sensory overload and the metaphors often bleed into each other in a kind of a goopy way. This book was meant to be savoured like a cup of oaxacan hot chocolate.

I think Asturias could teach us a thing or two about language, some enchantment a la Asturias. For example, the way he describes a woman’s hair: “una lluvia de esmeraldas en el cuello carnoso de los cocos.(23)” -There is a real satisfaction that comes with reading a good metaphor and Asturias has the gift. He applies deeply romantic language to describe not only people, but also nature. His descriptions are not only sensual, they are often sexual. To describe the forests, he taps into the sexual fertility of the land, el bosque: “ una masa maleable, tierna, sin huesos…(24).

He also isn’t shy of exclamation marks. He uses them like a singer uses dynamics. “!Nuestro Nahual! ! Nuestro Natal! (33).” He is singing off page to not only emphasize an idea, but to give reverence to an image. That said, with so many of them on a single page, they tend to lose their individual emphasis.

When he wrote about cities formed over cities, it made me think of Vancouver and UBC. It made me wonder what city Buchanan was sitting on. What colours existed before it’s pale white frame. There is a sliver of a reminder in between Marine Drive in the ocean. Our rain forests are just as rich as the ones that Asturias describes. I have no doubt that he would tune in with their magic just as he has with selva of Guatemala.

• 

• Categories

  • admin
  • asturias
  • comparison
  • garcía márquez
  • introduction
  • mcondo
  • paralelismo entre los 3 textos
  • responses
  • SPAN 365
  • Span 365 1 Asturias
  • span365
  • Span365- McOndo
  • Span365- Reflection
  • Uncategorized

• Recent Comments