Narrative Strategies in La última canción de Manuel Sendero

Author(s): LUCILLE V. BRAUN

Source: Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos , Primavera 1996, Vol. 20, No. 3
(Primavera 1996), pp. 409-432
Published by: Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/27763307

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 LUCILLE V. BRAUN

Narrative Strategies in La ?ltima

canci?n de Manuel Sendero

La historia de Manuel Sendero evoca la del cantante chileno V?ctor ]ara, asesinado
durante el golpe militar de 19/3. En vez de escribir una obra convencional de
denuncia, Dorfman emplea m?ltiples estrategias no realistas. Representa el conflicto
entre el Bien y el Mal en un ?mbito fant?stico poblado de personajes derivados del
cuento de hadas, la ciencia-ficci?n y la Biblia. La sensaci?n de irrealidad se debe
tambi?n a una sucesi?n vertiginosa de narradores y a saltos desconcertantes en el
tiempo. En efecto, el desarrollo de la novela - hecha a base de relatos orales,
dirigidos a oyentes ya cr?dulos, ya esc?pticos - refleja c?mo se forma una leyenda.
Los episodios fant?sticos de Adentro alternan con la situaci?n aparentemente
realista de Afuera. En ?sta, dos exiliados planean un c?mic de ciencia-ficci?n que
tratar? de los siniestros experimentos que se est?n realizando en "Ch?ex" para
eliminar los genes de la disidencia. Sin embargo, la realidad del marco es minada
por la infiltraci?n de personajes de la historieta y por anotaciones que revelan que
tanto autores como personajes son parte de otro texto, escrito hace 30.000 a?os. Los
mundos de Afuera y Adentro, aunque tan distintos, est?n ligados por sutiles
correspondencias.

The character alluded to in the title of Ariel Dorfmans La ?ltima canci?n de

Manuel Sendero is a singer who lost his voice in prison, perhaps because his
vocal cords were cut, perhaps because he refused to use his voice in the service
of the new regime, or perhaps because silence seemed the only appropriate
response to the horror and torture experienced. Anyone familiar with events in
Chile during the military coup of 1973 will see a parallel with the immensely
popular V?ctor Jara, first imprisoned in the Santiago Stadium, then shot.1 Since
the songs of both the real and the fictional singer spoke for the hopes and
aspirations of so many, it is important to know whether either of them was able
to sing, miraculously, one last time. The song, in effect, represents undying faith
in a better future.2 That it may have been heard - despite everything - has a
certain factual basis in a last song written by Jara while a prisoner.3 Beyond the
evident historical allusions, there are also Biblical resonances. The surname

REVISTA CANADIENSE DE ESTUDIOS HISP?NICOS Vol XX, 3 Primavera 1996

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410

Sendero clearly has the meaning of "way" or "path" and calls to mind Christ's
phrase "I am the way, the truth and the light" (John 14.6). His given name,
moreover, derives from Emmanuel ("God with us"). The main narrative voice,
however, is not that of Sendero, but of his son, who, when he returns to his
country, is thirty-three years old, the age of Christ when crucified.4 As we will
see later, Dorfman also draws implicitly on parallels between the act of belief
necessary to accept Christ as the son of God and the faith necessary to accept the
existence of the son of Manuel Sendero. Finally, the name Manuel also brings
to mind the general of the Wars of Independence, Manuel Rodriguez, renowned
for his ability to escape almost certain death and to appear where least expected
to lead the struggle for independence.5
The work itself is divided into five main sections whose titles evoke the
process of conception, gestation and birth: Encarnaciones, Maduraciones,
Dolores, Pasajes, Alumbramientos. These are appropriate divisions because the
story begins in the fetal world, where the son led a rebellion of fetuses who
delayed their birth because of their reluctance to be born into a world full of
injustice, in which the government coldly murders the opposition. However the
fact that the words are used in the plural gives them a broader application. They
serve also to designate stages in the developing awareness of the main character
in his adult life. Additionally they allude to the slow genesis of a new society of
the future. The first three of these major divisions consist of alternating chapters
titled Adentro and Afuera (a total of nine, unevenly distributed). The Adentro
sections recount a battle between good (Manuel Sendero and his companions)
and evil (the Caballero), which replays, in terms of fantasy and fairy tale, the
trauma of Chile during the military coup of 1973. The term "Inside," on one
level, thus deals with the internal political situation. The country itself, however,
is never named and there are no concrete historical references.
The Afuera divisions take us into the world of exile and deal with two
Chileans, David, who went to France, and Felipe, who is living in Mexico. They
meet in the latter country to create a comic strip for Latin American readers. Its
intent is avowedly political, although certain editorial considerations make it
necessary to disguise the country slightly as "Chilex." The discussions of Felipe
and David about their project and their disagreements about how an exile
should conduct himself politically and personally soon become intermingled
with the action occurring in the strip itself. There one will read of the science
fiction horrors that await Carl Barks6 and his wife Sarah when they accept an
invitation to visit Chilex as guests of the government. The Adentro and Afuera
sections thus set up another opposition: the contrasting play of a fabulous
associated with the folk tale and a more contemporary fabulous derived from
science fiction.7 Even though the Adentro and Afuera episodes initially appear
unrelated, they nonetheless share a number of motifs such as the apple,
abortion, elevators, and the question as to whether either son - Manuel's or

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 411

David's - really died. Part Four (Pasajes) consists of a first, second, and third
epilogue - epilogues that offer contradictory resolutions to the central
ambiguities of the novel. The final part (Alumbramientos) contains a single
heading "Ep?logo ?ltimo y primer pr?logo" and points clearly towards the
eventual birth of a better society.
Somehow all these disparate elements coalesce into an extremely effective
whole, due, in large part, to an array of narrative techniques that create a climate
of fantasy and myth. Those familiar with Dorfman s literary criticism will know
that, prior to undertaking this novel, he was already the author of many
perceptive essays on the uses of time and myth in Latin American fiction. He has
written of a message for future generations to be wrested from violence, which
is very close to the symbolic import of the song of Manuel Sendero:

Lo que debe hacer toda gran literatura, y lo que ha efectuado la nuestra, es instalarse
dentro de ese ser que sufre la violencia y que la expulsa de s?, para poder transmitir a las
futuras generaciones lo que significaba vivir y morir en esta temporalidad americana, en
esta nuestra pen?nsula contra la muerte, disolvi?ndose hacia el futuro, que espera ansioso
nuestro mensaje y nuestro quehacer. (Imaginaci?n 37)*

Elsewhere Dorfman has provided a good justification of why he has chosen

to reject an historical recreation of events in Chile in favour of one based on
myth and legend: "El mito, nostalgia de lo que se ha perdido, falsificaci?n de lo
original, es tambi?n un modo de recuperaci?n, un recobrarse para algo tal vez
mejor" (Imaginaci?n 84).
Myth is not only an accretion of the distant past. Many contemporary critics
have stressed that today's society is likewise creating its own myths, a position
reflected by novelists such as Juan Goytisolo who equates James Bond with
legendary figures like Count Julian and Saint James, the patron saint of Spain.
Referring to the dynamics of Asturias' Hombres de ma?z, Dorfman emphasizes
that "la leyenda se hace no s?lo en el momento fundador, en la acci?n humana,
sino tambi?n en la transmisi?n, en la elevaci?n o ca?da de ese instante olvidable
e inolvidable" (Imaginaci?n 74-75).
A similar approach is employed in ?ltima canci?n. At intervals throughout
the Adentro sections, we are shown how the legend of the last song evolved, a
product of the "ornamentaci?n del boca a boca del folklore" (344).9 Early in the
novel, el Flaqu?simo says "La gente inventa muchas cosas, especialmente cuando
se trata de Manuel Sendero ... De aqu? a poco andar todo el mundo va a estar
transmitiendo el cuento ... Y en cien a?os m?s nadie va a distinguir a ciencia
cierta qu? es lo que pas?, no podr?n separar la verdad de la mentira" (25).
Toward the end of the work, an impersonal narrator explains the process: "El
pueblo a menudo adorna y deforma y reforma as? los cuentos, sobreponiendo
y trasladando y borroneando hasta que el cantante fuera m?s heroico, el

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412

enemigo m?s despiadado, el sacrificio m?s ejemplar, y la recompensa, alg?n d?a,

la mejor del mundo" (344). Another character (Eduardo), sceptical by nature
and impatient with improbable tales, concedes that "el pueblo rescat? y
simplific? la figura de su cantor, no permiti? que la victoria fuera del gobierno,
y que no est? mal que as? sea, porque ser?a intolerable que una historia popular
terminara con Manuel Sendero vencido y sin aliento" (347). To be sure, these
voices are those of the realists and pragmatists, whose measured opinions
provide a consistent counterpoint to the fantastic tales told by the son. The
latter is totally identified with the legendary aspects and indeed has no existence
outside them.

CHARACTERS
The realm of myth and legend is not the only dimension in which the characters
of ?ltima canci?n move. Related, but essentially different varieties of fantasy also
make their appearance, especially with the use of fairy tales in the Adentro
sections and of science fiction in the Afuera parts. Furthermore, religious
symbolism is prevalent throughout the novel. One also finds characters who
represent the nation of Chile or important sectors of the population. At other
times, one encounters characters whose presentation is predominantly realistic,
although not exclusively so. As is common in the Postmodernist aesthetic,
characters from all these worlds interact. Additionally, a single character may
function within several literary codes.
Let us see in greater detail how this plays out in the Adentro portions, which
describe events occurring either during the First Fetal Rebellion, that spanned
the period of a brutal military coup and the months immediately after, or during
the Second Fetal Rebellion. The time, in the latter case, is some twenty or thirty
years later, for the first group of fetuses that delayed their birth are now young
adults.
The events and characters of the First Rebellion draw heavily on the
traditions of the European fairy tale. This orientation is made very explicit
toward the end of the novel when one of the narrators speaks as follows: "?rase
una vez, ni?os, en el borde de un cuento de hadas, ?rase un cantante de nombre
Manuel, hab?ase nosotros en ese pa?s que no era de nunca jam?s. ?rase un pa?s
de mientras tanto, una ?poca de entrepar?ntesis, un pa?s de puerta de atr?s, un
pa?s en que adormecen a las mujeres y toman presos a los ni?os" (321).10 The
main adult characters are Manuel Sendero, imprisoned during the coup and
recently released; his wife Dor alisa; his mother, la vieja; his uncle; a compa?ero,
el Flaqu?simo; Esmeralda; and their common enemy the Caballero. The
Caballero stands for all the forces of oppression and is described in an inventive
array of references to ice and cold. Among many other comparisons, he is a
"frigor?fico parlante," "un dedo de escarcha," a "tar?ntula polar," an "estaca de
hielo afilado." The terms evoke evil, death, infertility, cruelty, lack of human

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 413

warmth.11 Doralisa, who, for reasons known only to her, has consented to take
the pills offered by the Caballero, sinks into an interminable slumber and an
impossibly prolonged pregnancy, a new bella durmiente (42). Later, as she dies,
she is Manuel's bella muriente (321), a phrase that reinforces the allusion to
Sleeping Beauty. The activities of Manuel's mother, who produces counterfeit
bills bearing scurrilous messages about the regime, doubtless have their
inspiration in similar acts of resistance in Pinochet's Chile. However, so great
is the quantity and persistence of her messages that the limits of probability are
soon exceeded:

Un d?a a los pies de la gente comenz? a caer un polen de papel picado en que estaba
escrito en cada pedacito min?sculo gobierno de suprema mierda, suprema mierda
mierda ... y eran tan reducidos que se te met?an por las narices y en los ojos y se
pegoteaban a los dedos como caramelos y exig?an ser le?das, y eso quer?a decir que su
madre segu?a produciendo en alg?n lugar secreto de la ciudad, que hab?a logrado burlar
las disposiciones m?s severas de sus captores y que cada atardecer y hasta la medianoche
soplaba sobrehumanamente, con el ventilador de su malquerencia, los centenares de
abejorros mensajeros que llov?an como citas b?blicas sobre los callejones. (130-31)

Very similar is the presentation of Manuel's uncle, shot standing erect

outside his home, because he refused to kneel before his executioners. The
police come seeking him again and even establish a cordon around the cemetery
because they are convinced that only he can be responsible for the continual
mocking alterations to notices posted by the government. The exaggeration in
these examples of black humour underscores both the stupidity of the forces of
repression and the widespread nature of small acts of defiance. Then there is
Esmeralda, who had previously managed a canteen for factory workers.12 Now,
as in the magical tales of abundant food, her breasts provide full-course meals
to the hungry. One of those she succours at a temporary campsite is Manuel
Sendero. Equally fantastic is the way el Flaqu?simo, by ingesting the dirt he
excavates, manages to dig a tunnel and escape from prison (16). However, as we
will see, his most important qualities place him in other categories. Much later
in the novel, the son's death is imminent when they seize his shadow: "... La
arrancaron como una ra?z, la ataron de cuajo con reflectores, la basurearon al
fondo de un saco repleto de otras sombras serpenteantes, cerraron el saco. Ni
a despedirse, alcanz?" (315). The scene that follows intermingles the son's
confrontation with the Caballero with the earlier abortion performed on
Doralisa.
The supernatural also finds expression in religious symbolism, which is
constant throughout the novel. It is not that Manuel Sendero and his son are
viewed as divine figures, but rather that they function as idealized secular
redeemers who hold out the promise of a better life on earth. Thus the familiar

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414

words of the prayer, "Padre nuestro que est?s en los cielos ..." become in this
text "mi padre tu padre nuestro padre que est? en la tierra que todav?a no es
nuestra" (325) or "nuestro Manuel Sendero que est?s en los sue?os" (343), the
latter when his message becomes hope for a remote future. A number of words
associated with Doralisa evoke the Virgin Mary: el pesebre de la Doralisa (51),
nuestra Doralisa de los dolores (345). One description recalls paintings of the
Annunciation: "cubri?ndose el portento de guata con el p?jaro de la otra mano"
(29) although with the significant difference that her relationship with Manuel
is intensely carnal. The mystery is not how the son was conceived, but rather
how he survived death (forced abortion) and returned to lead the Second Fetal
Rebellion (echoes of the Second Coming). Equally problematic is how his seed
survives in the countless generations born of Pamela, for he had scrupulously
avoided making her pregnant. Yet as the forces of the Caballero closed in,
somehow he found refuge in the folds of her womb: "... Pese a los esc?pticos y
los amargados y los falsarios y los mercaderes, el templo de Pamela me esperaba
con la palabra caliente de mis nietos adentro ..." (325). In the dynamics of the
novel, these improbable happenings find their own refutations. The constant
clash between affirmation and denial is far more effective than a hagiographie
approach would have been. Thus Manuel at times is the santo de los senderos, but
critics like Eduardo, who lost his father because the latter had been drawn into
reckless political activism, compare him to the Pied Piper of Hamelin, since with
his singing, Sendero ultimately led many to their deaths.13
Religious parallels are also employed to cloud the central questions of
whether Manuel Sendero's son was ever born or whether Manuel Sendero sang
a last song. When the grown son returned to his country, his first visit was to el
Flaqu?simo. The son does not reveal his identity, but is secretly hoping to be
acknowledged warmly by his father s old friend who, when he visited the family,
"se sentaba a la vera de mi Doralisa y a la diestra de mi se?or padre Manuel
Sendero ..." (26). Instead, insisting a birth never occurred, el Flaqu?simo "lo
rechazaba triplemente," a refutation reminiscent of St. Peter s denials of Christ
(41). In contrast, the former priest Pap? Ram?n, more comfortable with the
miraculous, loves to repeat the story of the song to his adopted daughter Pamela
and is characterized as "el evangelizador de Manuel Sendero y ?ltimo testigo de
su haza?a" (57). The allusions multiply toward the end of the novel. The Judas
like twin who betrays the son to the Caballero is "el gemelo que hab?a sido su
ap?stol y que ahora acababa de medirle como una cuenta bancaria o un pagar?"
(278). There are also phrases such as: "pregunt?ndole a Dios por qu? nos hab?a
abandonado" (347), "sacrificar a su hijo" (350); "que baj? hasta el infierno"
(348); "resucitar" (344). The words are infantile when the son cries out to
Manuel Sendero - "Me van a matar, pap?. ?l no me contest?" (326) - but they
recall the Crucifixion.

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 415

Consistent with Dorfmans frequent mingling of literary codes, el Flaqu?simo,

although part of the two groups just discussed, is the prime example of a third
category : those who symbolize the nation of Chile. The physical descriptions of
him evoke the outlines of this long, narrow country and incorporate, as well,
allusions to its flora and fauna, its history and culture. The geographical
references are clear in the mention of "la estrechez magall?nica que le oficiaba
de boca" and his "cara de escarbadiente." One hears the sounds of the country
in "su voz de cuna y cuncuna [a Chilean bird], sus pasos aflautados." He lives
in an apartment "m?s estrecho que un cl?set. Peque?o era, pero ?l cab?a a sus
anchas" (23-25). Geography and social history combine in the description of
how he has "la piel de la espalda pegada a la piel del est?mago ... Se ha vuelto
casi invisible para enga?ar el hambre y la represi?n." He is a "recuerdo del
hambre que hemos tenido desde siempre" (347). In moral terms, he stands for
"toda esa parte insobornable del pa?s" (157). From another perspective, as the
fatherland that produced the son, he contributed significantly to his existence.
For the latter, it is "casi como si me hubiera inseminado ?l y arrancado a punto
de fe y garabatos de la negrura sideral" (26). To a lesser degree Doralisa and the
Caballero also have symbolic roles. She perhaps represents the mother country,
artificially forced into a period of somnolence by the new regime and acquiesc
ing only to save the next generation. In the opinion of Eduardo, the Caballero
also belongs in this classification. Rejecting the sons supernatural view of his
enemy, which speaks of a "demonio, viento de la muerte, compra-almas,"
Eduardo instead poses the disquieting question: "?Ese hombre era parte de
nuestro pa?s, naci? de nuestra historia? Para ponerlo de una manera m?s
urgente, ?puede volver?" (162). This idea is reinforced when the son discovers
that one of the twins who participated in the fetal rebellion is now a high
executive, allied with the forces of repression, and in the process of becoming
a second Caballero. His voice is almost that of his model, but not yet identical
because "todav?a amaba a alguien m?s en ese universo funerario, todav?a amaba
a su compa?ero de ?tero" (271).
Eduardo s question is indicative of an important shift from the fairy-tale
milieu of Manuel Sendero to the more realistic characters and situations that
appear in the framework of the Second Fetal Rebellion.14 We must accept,
however, the improbable assumption that, apart from a few surviving friends of
his father, nearly all those the son encounters on his return had been part of the
original conspiracy and had talked and plotted from womb to womb. Yet birth
erased those memories. They possess no supernatural powers and they react as
normal people to the situations they encounter. Pamela meets and falls in love
with the son at a march sponsored by opposition groups; they soon begin a love
affair. Eduardo, her former boyfriend, understandably becomes jealous. When
the twins reappear as adults, each of them, in his own way, has betrayed his
original idealism for personal gain. Only the blind girl, with her fondness for

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416

storytelling, retains, unknowingly, some connection with the fetal world (277).
The son too behaves in very human fashion. He instinctively dislikes Eduardo.
Often he experiences moments of fear and self-doubt. Even though Pamela is
too much in love to question some of his fantastic assertions, he still prudently
limits what he tells her, in order not to strain her credulity. The evidence that
points to his non-existence - he has, for example, no name to give either Pamela
or the police who arrest him (40, 272) - is outweighed by his undeniable
physical presence in the love scenes with her. Nevertheless, these generally
realistic characters may, at any moment, acquire other dimensions. Further
more, there is a void at the heart of this second group, for the very existence of
the son, who is the centre of all the action, is problematic.
The role of Eduardo deserves further attention. It is to him that the son
entrusts Pamela in one of his final messages (357). As abuelo Eduardo, husband
of abuela Pamela, he may be the biological father of all the generations of her
descendants. Or, conversely, perhaps the sons hope was realized: "... Me atrev?
a creer que ?l cuidar?a, como si fueran suyos a los m?ltiples nietos de Manuel
Sendero" (357). More likely Senderos true heirs are spiritual: all those in the
future receptive to his message. Eduardo was the first of the fetuses to be born,
for he was impatient to begin changing things in the real world. His tag phrase
"?Hasta cu?ndo?" will be repeated by his descendants and expresses a demand
that concrete steps be taken to reform society:

Hasta cu?ndo, dijo Eduardo treinta a?os antes desde la concavidad de su madre pujando
por salir, hasta cu?ndo, dijo Eduardo treinta a?os despu?s con sus amigos esa misma
noche, hablando como si el hijo de Manuel Sendero no estuviera presente ... hasta
cu?ndo, dir?a Eduardo en cuarenta, en cincuenta, cien a?os m?s, los hijos de Eduardo lo
repetir?an cuando estuvieran exasperados, sus biznietos sin saber de qui?n proven?a tal
frase, hasta cu?ndo. (59)

In just a few pages (59-68), the rival for Pamela speaks first as a fetus, then
at widely spaced periods in his life, backward and forward in time. His
professional activities vary constantly. At one point he is stressing the factual
imprecision of the Sendero legend to the history class he teaches; on other
occasions he is a professor of literature or a member of a commission charged
with selecting names of workers and peasant heroes for city streets and squares
- an activity that presupposes that major political changes have somehow
occurred. Then he is again old, a grandfather talking to his grandchildren, or
once more an unborn child eager to enter the real world.
Eduardo is a decent man of liberal inclinations, impatient with legend and
the miraculous: "Eduardo s?lo confiaba en lo que pod?a tocar y medir y
practicar y leer" (45). Just as some scholars have sought the historical Jesus, he
dismisses all talk of Manuel Sendero that does not have a basis in fact: "A

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 417

Manuel Sendero hay que situarlo con pelos y se?ales en una latitud, una
longitud, un clima, una cadena de hechos hist?ricos" (62). Another time he asks
with a touch of sarcasm, "?Canci?n? ?Con qu? ritmo? Y si fue tan popular como
dice, ?por qu? nadie puede informarme si fue mambo, si fue chachach? o si fue
folklore?" (60). One of his comments is described in such a way that the
moment in which he made it almost disappears: "Yo conozco al cantante que
en esta historia se le da el nombre de Sendero. Eduardo hablaba como si lo
hiciera en el siglo venidero, en un art?culo para una revista comentando con
neutralidad altanera un libro reci?n aparecido" (61-62). It soon becomes evident
that he is as much a way of thinking as an individual and stands for all the right
thinking, but sceptical intellectuals down the years who accept neither the
legendary trappings of the Manuel Sendero story nor the reckless idealism of
father and son. For the latter, he is an even more serious antagonist, since
Eduardos insistence on demonstrable fact undercuts his very existence.
In a bit of Postmodernist self-reflective irony and anticipating possible
negative criticism, Dorfman also utilizes Eduardo as a critic of his whole
novelistic enterprise. Eduardo announces: "Yo soy la mayor?a ... yo soy el lector,
yo ser? el lector" and complains that in the work "todo se esconde, se vuelve
brumoso, aleg?rico y distante." It should not be "tan fantasiosa, ni tan confusa
ni tan maniquea ..." (59-60). More tellingly, Eduardo rejects the basic formula
of the novel itself: "No compro el libro ... No, se?ores. Hasta cu?ndo los
par?sitos que se ganan su pan revolvi?ndole el dolor ajeno, adorn?ndolo con
mitos y f?bulas para que sea m?s vendible" (61). And then, in a further playful
twist, the novelist discredits Eduardo s critical powers by having him offer
several fatuous analyses. There is a contrived comparison of Doralisa and
Esmeralda: "una madre que se dorm?a sin estimarse capaz de parir, y frente a esa
extrema apat?a, por f?rtil que fuera, la mujer de inmensos manantiales cuya
actividad se pagaba sacrific?ndose en los altares de la esterilidad" (148). It is a
merely ingenious remark, as is his unconvincing sally into feminist criticism:
"Doralisa se durmi? para denunciar el trato de la mujer, la subordinaci?n suya"
(66).
Much earlier, when the fetus who was to be Eduardo chose life and action in
the outside world over continued adherence to the rebellion and headed down
the birth canal, the son predicted that this child would eventually father "miles
de Eduardos imperfectos" (67). He was the first to go, to be followed, as the
rebellion faded, by other key members of the fetal network: Pamela, the twins,
and the girl born blind. After the adult son again clashes with Eduardo over
courses of action, he states that he would have liked to be his friend, but that too
much separated them. By the standards of this novel, Eduardo is indeed
imperfect, too narrowly rational, but at the same time he is as good an ally in the
struggle against the Caballero as one can expect to find in the real world.

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418

NARRATORS
The activities of Manuel Sendero and his son are always presented within a
frame of a narrator telling a tale to others, usually an audience of children. Since
there are numerous narrators, speaking at a considerable remove from events,
no account can be considered definitive. The text itself makes this clear by
frequent use of the word versi?n.15 The chief narrators are the son of Manuel -
variously, as a fetus, a young man, and a grandfather - and a grandson of that
son, who recounts his grandfather s activities during the second fetal rebellion.
The latter refers to himself on one occasion as "este nieto favorito que les habla
y les transfiere todo a ustedes sin sazonarle de su propia cosecha" (160). The
term nieto, however, is not limited to the third generation in descent; others who
also identify themselves as nietos may be voices from generations far in the
future.16 The fact that a descendant is speaking serves to affirm, paradoxically,
that the son was indeed born. Regardless of the questionable existence of these
narrators, the very fact that a narrative yo speaks to us confers reality on them,
as much reality as any other fictional narrator possesses.17
From time to time other narrators participate briefly - don Ram?n, the blind
girl - and, toward the end of the novel, Pamela emerges as an important source.
Her case shows how the legend passes down the generations. As a very young
child, orphaned as a result of her parents being murdered by the government,
she first heard accounts of Manuel Senderos song from the lips of her adoptive
father, Pap? Ram?n. Years later, just before leaving for her final, problematic,
rendez-vous with the son - now her lover - she asks Pap? Ram?n to repeat the
story:

-?Otra vez? -pregunt? Don Ram?n-. ?Otra vez lo de la ?ltima canci?n? A tu edad,
todav?a interesada en cuentos de hada, parece mentira.
Yo le dije, ni?as que me acompa?an el tejido de la vejez, yo le dije que era para
cont?rselo a ustedes, a mis nietos, a mis nietas. (345)

The leap in time between the paragraphs just cited is typical of the many
abrupt temporal shifts that characterize this novel. Suddenly the young woman
is old; she finds pleasure in the act of storytelling as well as satisfaction in
knowing she is fulfilling her obligation to pass the story on to another
generation. Then, as the Tercer Ep?logo begins, an unidentified voice, speaking
in the first person plural, continues the chain of listeners and narrators: "Los
nietos y las nietas de Pamela nos contaron muchas veces la larga espera de su
abuela en el ascensor del viejo edificio donde el hijo de Manuel Sendero le hab?a
dado cita" (343).
As we have seen, the nietos are both storytellers and listeners. In the latter
function, they are far from passive; when the abuelo tells his tales, they object
again and again to the improbable aspects of the Sendero legend. In effect, they

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 419

provide - as did Eduardo - a rational counterpoint to myth.18 The abuelo gently

rebukes them: "... Siempre con las mismas objeciones de sus mentes pervertida
mente racionales y encuadradas por el ?lgebra y otras estupideces eduard?sticas
con que les esterilizan el pensamiento" (18). Dorfman invents many ingenious
ways of referring to the children: "nietos racionales y con caras de tri?ngulos
euclidianos" (137), "jodidos sabuesos" (46), "nietos esc?pticos y secos" (348),
"nietos pitonisos e impenitentes" (144). Some expressions like the conventional
"hijos de mis entra?as" (26) point to biological descent and others, such as
"nietos de mis enc?as" (32), "nietos de mis am?gdalas" (18) and "mis ediciones
in?ditas" (129), hint that the paternity is only verbal.
No narrative voice is uninterrupted for long and the story line continually
passes from speaker to speaker. Use of the first person singular is often a clue
that the son is the narrator. When the nietos take over, singly or as a group, they
retell the story of their grandfather in the third person, often in fairly extensive
passages (two or three pages). Additionally one encounters a narrative nosotros
of some complexity, for Dorfman exploits the fact that it is an "empty" signifier,
with no fixed referent. It may designate the circle of eager listeners who
surround their grandfather; at other times, it includes the son as fetus, along
with the other participants in the first fetal rebellion (the dead and murdered are
later added); or it may be the unborn children to whom the son sends messages
while he is abroad in the world during the second rebellion. The latter grouping
is potentially vast, as is evident in the following passage. The moment is just
after el Flaqu?simo has told that son that Manuel Sendero never had a child:

Pero nosotros no pudimos acallar sus dudas ni acallar su penumbra. Unos porque no
hab?amos nacido todav?a, otros porque ni siquiera nos hab?an concebido, otros porque
nos est?bamos instalando en pa?ses extranjeros con un idioma impronunciable, los
dem?s porque los muertos no hablan.
No le respondimos ni una palabra. (143; see also 134)

For purposes of analysis, I have attempted to isolate some of the threads in

the skein of narration, but the whole thrust of the novel is to entangle them. An
incident may have several narrators, as in the five pages devoted to Esmeralda.
The tale is begun by a rather indeterminate voice, probably in representation of
the general nosotros, which is immediately replaced by that of one of the
grandchildren, repeating what the group heard from the abuelos lips: "...
Siempre en ese momento, el abuelo les contar?a, nos contaba, la historia de
Esmeralda" (144). Soon the abuelo himself speaks directly, remembering pre
natal days: "Los fetos, me acuerdo, estuvimos divididos frente a ese incidente"
(147). Then a nosotros (the grandchildren?) concludes by reporting how
Eduardo, the abuelo and el Flaqu?simo variously interpreted Manuels encounter
with her. As is evident, one account can be embedded in another.

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 420

The most radical technique applied to narrators is an abrupt shift from one
to another, often within the same sentence or paragraph. The example of "nos
diera de mamarme" is extreme (36), but one finds many changes such as: "entre
Manuel y su hijo, entre mi padre y yo" (30); or one paragraph ends, "Iba a tener
que baraj?rselas por su cuenta" and the next begins, "Por mi cuenta, jam?s"
(139).
In the Afuera sections, narrators are less important, for large portions of the
text consist of the dialogue between Felipe and David, with the connecting
material filled in by an omniscient narrator. Dorfman also employs first-person
recollections by Felipe or David of the Allende era and of David's time in Paris.
These flashbacks likewise contain a great deal of dialogue. Leaving aside the
footnotes (discussed in my note 9), the first destabilizing element in the text
body is Paula, who has agreed to do the drawings for the science fiction strip.
She participates in the frame dialogue, even though she has not yet arrived in
Mexico and it is uncertain whether she will be permitted to leave Chile or enter
Mexico. Her remarks are invariably expressed in the future or conditional tense:
"-Bueno, ?y qu? demonios es el factor X? -dir? Paula, dir?a Paula si es que logra
llegar, hubiera dicho Paula de estar presente en el coche detenido" (87). We are
further told that David is summarizing his ideas concerning the plot of the
political cartoon, but, in fact, the proposed sequences are presented almost
entirely in dialogue, as if they were actually occurring. Thus they periodically
come to the fore, replacing the frame situation.
Before long, the boundaries between the frame and the episodes erode. Carl
Barks (as Disney illustrator or as cartoon character?) breaks into the conversa
tion between the two friends (108). Later, there is a statement that David never
finished telling Felipe how his script would end; nevertheless the horrible events
in Chilex continue: "... Hay desenlaces que se cumplen m?s all? de los deseos
o planes de su autor" (291). Eventually the two realities (or unrealities) merge
and we find Paula, caught up in Sarah's adventure, about to warn her to be
careful in dealing with Marras, one of the science fiction villains: "Paula, de
haber estado presente, le hubiera susurrado que no hablara as?, que disimulara.
Pero Paula no est? presente" (296).19 The apparent reality of the frame receives
a final blow when the reader discovers in the Ep?logo segundo that Felipe and
David are only characters in a telenovela that is being filmed in Mexico (341).
Dorfman is making it clear that, regardless of whether the novelist chooses
realism or fantasy as his medium, both worlds are equally fictional and possess
only the reality conferred by a skilful teller of tales and a willing listener or
reader.

USE OF TIME
Bruno Bettelheim has stressed "the feeling of timelessness that is an important
element in the effectiveness of fairy tales" (23on). Dorfman himself, referring to

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 421

Asturias' Hombres de ma?z, has observed that "La transformaci?n del pasado en
mito arroja a los personajes a un tiempo eterno, inconmensurable confusi?n de
cronolog?as y lejan?a de puntos de referencia." He adds, however, that "no
resulta paradojal que ... frente a ese naufragio de fechas, haya tambi?n
menciones concretas a un tiempo medible ..." The latter "permiten encerrar a
los personajes dentro de l?mites fijos, aunque fluctuantes, desde donde lo m?tico
se hace cercano y lejano a la vez" {Imaginaci?n 81-83).
?ltima canci?n employs many related strategies, the simplest of which is to
begin with a fairly precise chronology and then expand by great leaps into the
future, leaps so vast that they undercut any narrative present: "Casi como si [the
Caballero] temiera que entre todos esos ni?os que llevaban m?s de diez meses
en el pesebre de su madre hubiera uno que treinta, cuarenta a?os, mil, diez mil
a?os m?s tarde, retornar?a para exigirle cuentas de lo que ?l y ellos hab?an hecho
con la humanidad" (318). In the fable of the apple of hope, passed from
generation to generation, store clerks gradually turn into mannequins: "Al tercer
mes, al cuarto, al a?o, al primer siglo, ya se empiezan a endurecer" (285). There
is a reference to a time millennia after Pamela's death (234). When we reach the
Ep?logo segundo, we hear a mother telling her child a bedtime story at some
point so far into the future that Pinochet has become the dragon Pinchot (339).
Her tale in all probability is the legend of David and the dragon, alluded to in
the Afuera footnotes.
If some techniques work to expand time, others collapse it. The telescoping
of narrators, previously studied, does not occur without altering our perception
of time. Now a phrase serves, like Proust's madeleine, to fuse distinct moments:
"No es cierto, le dijo el abuelo a la ciega, le dijo la ciega a Pamela al otro d?a, le
dijo Pamela a los nietos a?os m?s tarde, se lo murmuraron al abuelo, a nuestros
propios nietos y muertos cuando lleg? la ocasi?n, a veces no es cierto" (284).
Then again a person may be the axis that facilitates the transition, as happens
with Pamela:

-Hay una sola cosa en el mundo, Eduardo m?o -dijo Pamela-, peor que usar la iron?a
con un ni?o chico y que no te entienda. Y eso es usarla y que s? te entienda -y se dio
media vuelta, a?os antes, y le dijo al abuelo nuestro que se entristec?a a su lado-: Ya lo
encontraremos, amor, Sen derito lindo, ya lo vamos a encontrar. (162-63)

Elsewhere the similarity of situations or settings permits repeated displace

ments, back and forth in time.20 The operating room where Doralisa underwent
an abortion is indistinguishable from the laboratory where the son, despoiled
of his shadow, has his second fatal encounter with the Caballero. The text (315?
26) alternates between Manuel's refusal to use his voice in service of the
government, even to save his son, and the son's futile defiance of the Caballero,
since to kill him he would have had to have been born. The final lines starkly

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422

condense the outcome: "Cerraron la puerta. Hubo un olor a anestesia.

Desapareci? mi sombra. Despu?s no me acuerdo nada."21
Some uses of the future and conditional tenses also deserve mention. In
Afuera, Paulas statements are always provisional, but at one stage (the part of
his outline that David never finished telling his collaborators) his remarks also
become hypothetical and a whole conversation is couched in terms of "dir?a
Paula" and "hubiera dicho David" (300-01). More significantly, the last act of
lovemaking between Pamela and the son - crucial if there are to be biological
descendants - is narrated only in the future:

-Venga -le dir?-. D?jame un recuerdo -le dir?-: Te van a matar -le dir?-: Te mataron
una vez. Ahora te van a matar otra vez y ya no volver?s. Te van a seguir matando -le
dir?- cuantas veces vuelvas -le dir?, con esta voz de mujer en v?speras de ser abuela ...
-Ven -le dir?-. Si no tienes un hijo, una hija, los nietos, no va a quedar nada. (349)

If events are cut loose from their mooring in time, the reader is afloat in a sea
of indeterminacy. Everything is possible because nothing is real.

AMBIGUITY
Todorov has given the classic definition of the uneasy balance in fictions that go
beyond the reality we know: "Le fantastique, c'est l'h?sitation ?prouv?e par un
?tre qui ne conna?t que les lois naturelles, face ? un ?v?nement en apparence
surnaturel" (29).22 The more improbable the tale, the more important the role
played by the conviction or magnetism of the storyteller and the fascination of
the story itself. Much of the suspense of Dorfman's novel consists in a masterly
balancing act between affirmation and negation. Never to be totally answered
are the questions of whether Manuel Sendero really sang his last song and
whether the son was ever born or actually aborted. Less central questions - why
Doralisa consented to take the pills, what caused Manuel Sendero to lose his
voice, how Manuel's encounter with Esmeralda affected him, whether the
descendants are the biological offspring of Pamela and Eduardo or of Pamela
and the son - also receive contradictory answers. The reader, caught up in old
fashioned reading habits, in vain seeks definitive answers. Whenever the weight
of the evidence seems overwhelmingly against the song or the survival of the
son, Dorfman finds a way of affirming some kind of continuity, be it biological
or legendary.23 We as readers, reluctant to accept the total annihilation of the
Sendero heritage, collaborate - at least to the extent of the hesitation posited by
Todorov. We may protest like the nietos, but we too listen eagerly.
The struggle between affirmation and negation, belief and denial, begins in
the opening paragraph:

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 423

Y ahora, como si estuvi?ramos todos muertos, ustedes y nosotros y los dem?s, ahora me
lo quieren negar, empiezan, empiezan. Ya andan algunos murmurando, en cuanto a la
?ltima canci?n de Manuel Sendero, que jam?s nadie la escuch?, que nunca la cantaron.
As? son los seres humanos, as? son los adultos, triste de ellos. Suelen pedir un pr?logo,
una presentaci?n, un justificativo. Dentro de poco, viene y viene, alguien va a aventurar
la opini?n de que no existi? el hijo de Manuel Sendero ... (13)

The narrative slant, evident in these words of a grandson, persists throughout

the novel. It is one that affirms the legend, yet repeatedly gives voice to the
sceptics, if only to disparage them. Children, with their innocence and through
the tales they favour, see the truth more clearly than adults.
Let us consider in detail the question of Manuels song. Every version agrees
that he was mute after being released from prison.24 For him to have sung at all
would have been a miracle. Even so, there are strong affirmative statements
from his close friends. Pap? Ram?n declares that Manuel announced he was
going to sing that night (347) and el Flaqu?simo says he heard his voice after they
parted for the last time (25). Other remarks, however, work to free the song
from dependence on a single singer. The son describes how Manuel in his
recitals would fall silent at a certain point "para que fueran los otros quienes
cancionaran adentro de ?l" (32). Pap? Ram?n affirms it is impossible to say from
where the song emanates, "si est? ac? o en la cordillera o en la esquina" (32).
Eduardo inclines to the view that "... si cant?, fue el resultado de haber
participado activamente en un movimiento casi coral, una pieza m?s en un
engranaje o himno colectivo" (225). Yet in the Ep?logo tercero, when the nietos
challenge abuela Pamela with abuelo Eduardo's assertion that Sendero "cant?
... porque ustedes creen que lo hizo," she retorts: "No es suficiente decir que es
mejor que la gente piense que ?l cant?, as? cantamos todos un poco m?s. Se trata
de que avis? que lo har?a, y hay dos testigos de buena fe, y lo hizo" (348). Recall
that just as Pamela leaves for her final tryst with the son, the legend shines forth
triumphant as it lives in popular memory, as she had heard it from childhood:

... Manuel Sendero que est?s en los sue?os, en vez de echarse a morir, se hab?a puesto
a cantar ... s?, y lo fueron a buscar y segu?a cantando montado en una bicicleta feroz, s?,
y lo desaparecieron, s?, y segu?a cantando, y lo seguir?, as? dicen, hasta que todos seamos
capaces de cantarla tambi?n y devolverle as? el hijo que perdi? por servir nuestra causa
y salgamos desde la nada donde nos tienen relegados, as? hab?a sido, s?, se?or, yo lo vi con
mis propios ojos cantando con su Doralisa por las calles como si fuera a despertar a los
mismos muertos. (343)

Another excellent example of how this novel uses ambiguity is the moment
captured on the cover of the original Spanish edition. In the sketch, there is a
bicyclist crumpling to the ground. We are told, early in the novel, that Manuel

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424

Sendero witnessed a murder as he was walking home with his mother after being
released from prison. For a moment it appears to him (and to the reader) that
he is about to be killed by the soldiers who brake their unmarked car close by.
However, he continues on his way unscathed and the victim turns out to be a
bicyclist (20-21). "De un momento a otro, Manuel Sendero recuper? su
respiraci?n ... Tuvo nuevamente la sensaci?n de que alguien le estaba contando
un desenlace ..." (22). (One could interpret the last phrase as suggesting that his
life is already viewed as a story told by another.) The version in which Manuel
Sendero survived this ambush is the one that the son tells his grandchildren and
great grandchildren. But, in point of fact, when the son returns to his country
and seeks to find out what happened that day, he is investigating the death of his
own father. There are no longer any witnesses of what Sendero saw. The news
vendor on the corner closed his eyes at the crucial moment and the other
persons at the scene, Senderos mother and Pamelas mother, the latter standing
on a balcony, are dead (22). Additionally, the news seller is doubtful that the
passer-by was Manuel. He says he would have recognized him, since he owned
several albums with his picture on the front, but finally concedes, "... Yo no soy
nadie para llevarle la contra."25 The vendors remarks, decades after the fact, are
interwoven with the original story of the bicycle incident. Shortly afterwards,
when the son repeats Sendero's account to el Flaqu?simo, the latter protests,
almost as if he were an historian scrupulous of chronology or perhaps a literary
critic concerned with novelistic structure: "La ?ltima vez que yo lo vi a mi
compadre - aunque no la ?ltima vez que lo o? - estaba montado en una bicicleta
como la que usted dice, y ahora, como si esa no bastara, le tuvieron que meter
una al principio de la historia" (25). This statement clearly ties in with Sendero's
reference to a desenlace. Ultimately, nothing will help the reader uncomfortable
with ambiguity. To quote Carlos Fuentes's discussion of Jacques le fataliste: "...
the reader, constantly, must exercise his own liberty vis-?-vis the author and
decide, among the various versions proposed by the latter, ?that one which suits
you best, reader'" (83).

LINKS BETWEEN AFUERA AND ADENTRO

One's first impression is that the Adentro and Afuera sections almost belong to
different novels. Then it becomes evident that the two contrasting approaches
mutually enhance each other. If Adentro exploits the timelessness and universal
ity of fairy tales and legend to show man's unending battle against evil and
authoritarianism, the confrontation gains immediacy and impact by being
linked to specific outrages in a given historical moment. Finally, more subtle
correspondences between the two parts reveal themselves. Rather than being of
great significance, these are essentially motifs that play over the surface of the
novel and provide, along with the small pleasure of recognition, a sense of unity.

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 425

There are a number of curious references to elevators, possibly inspired by

the adventures of Mampato, a favorite of Dorfman's children in the months
before the coup. In that comic book series, a tyrant "reigns over a mammoth
tree, as elongated and slender as Chile, its different floors or regions intercon
nected by elevators" (Old Clothes 179-80).26 In ?ltima canci?n the Caballero at
one point assigns Manuel the job of powering the elevator in an apartment
house by pedalling on a bicycle. On one hand, this elevator provides an ironic
comment on Chile's economic miracle, realized at the expense of the oppressed:
"Ning?n edificio, ninguna casa, sin un ascensor, ning?n ascensor sin su familia,
esa era la consigna. As? se ejerc?a la verdadera - ?qu? vocablo les gusta tanto a
ustedes? - solidaridad, ese vocablo. Pedaleando se llega al cielo, Manuel" (231).
But this same elevator connects with the nether world of the dead and
unspeakable horrors. Entering an elevator usually presages disaster. Doralisa is
taken down in an elevator to the operating room; the son similarly descends
with the Caballero, prior to his extinction. Sarah and Marras go down in the
elevator of a mysterious building just before she challenges him, with fatal
results. Finally, David lost a hand when, angered by his wife's decision to return
to Chile with the children, he thrust his hand through the wrought-iron cage of
an old French elevator.
David's missing hand may be symbolic punishment because he used force,
not the words he planned, against the French boy who had been tormenting his
son at school: "Vi esas dos manos que siempre hab?an sido m?as agarrarlo por
la solapa y empujarlo contra la reja del colegio" (189). Elsewhere in the novel
hands are truly sinister. On the plane to Chilex, an elderly first-class passenger
wraps his hands around Sarah's throat with the intent of strangling her. Marras'
hands are always gloved, since, despite his having undergone Chilex's rejuven
ation therapy, hands reveal one's true age. His hands fill a whole cartoon panel
just before he kills Sarah. Gloved hands perform the abortion on Doralisa; as for
the son's shadow, "cinco manos la arrancaron como una ra?z" (315).
Other similarities between Afuera and Adentro are more limited in scope.
David in exasperation utters Eduardos tag phrase, hasta cu?ndo. Also, in a
humorous repeat, one of the twins, who were originally fetal co-conspirators in
the Adentro world, has matured into a ne'er-do-well who promotes various
fraudulent deals: "Prometi? a un grupo de turistas norteamericanas de avanzada
edad que en este pa?s exist?a un m?todo para rejuvenecer y hasta para gestar
hijos" (270), precisely the lure that entraps Sarah in Chilex's socio-genetic
experiments.
Abortion appears in various contexts unrelated to Doralisa. David obliges his
girlfriend, la gringa, to have an abortion, against her wishes. And the son is
aghast when Pamela defends a woman's right to choose. Abortion also plays
against a theme present throughout the novel: the association of the Caballero
with death and the importance of having children as a way of resisting his

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426

domination. Pamela s parents make love despite the police car parked near by
with the motor running (354). Even in the most hopeless situation, the decision
to have a child is to place a bet on the future (37).
The apple is a more complex element, as befits its long history in myth and
legend. One reason why Dorfman uses it as a symbol may be Joan Jara s account
of how Angelita Huenum?n - a humble weaver from near Lake Lanalhue,
immortalized in one of Victors songs - offered their daughter Amanda "a small,
rather wizened apple which she took out of the depths of her pocket" (94). In
a memorable episode, David "sins" by eating a glorious Chilean apple - the kind
exported - after years of boycotting all products from there. The scene in effect
represents his acknowledgment that the methods of resistance employed by the
exiles are futile. More like Angelita's is the apple that the mannequins pass to the
son for his journey: "escu?lida, fea, hasta mordida, pero una manzana que
servir? de algo, que llegar? hasta nuestros hijos" (285). The clear import is that
ever since Adam and Eve tasted the apple, human solidarity has been essential
for survival. Prior to being told the unborn cannot kill, the son shoots at the
Caballero and briefly believes he has taken on the guilt of Cain: "Inaugur? la
historia con una ejecuci?n en vez de repartir una manzana" (323). He is within
an inch of becoming like his enemy. In other uses, Manuel Sendero at times is
called, like Johnny Appleseed, the sembrador de manzanas. Every child,
embodying hope, is like an apple. Pamelas parents had passed her on to Pap?
Ram?n "como una manzana mordida" (353). Even the dead consider that there
are "peores destinos que ser el sabor de una manzana ..." (234).
Some repeats are more thematic. The opponents of the Caballero and his
comic strip equivalents perish, or so it would seem. David s hope that his son
Lolo may still be alive in Chile, despite a report to the contrary, mirrors the
problematical existence of Sendero's son. In the legend, as told thousands of
years later, David is rushing back to Tsil to save his son from the dragon.
Furthermore, the scientists in David's script are seeking to isolate Factor X,
responsible for dissidence, in order to eliminate it from the genetic stream. We
are back to the rebellions of Adentro when we read that in fetuses, it unfortu
nately produces "signos de rebeld?a, asomos de rabia, incluso de nostalgia" (213).
Dorfman has written a powerful novel of protest in an unlikely way. Aware
both that twentieth-century sensibility has been numbed by the recitation of
horrors and that accounts written by survivors of atrocities usually lack the
literary qualities that would give them universality, he has turned to fantasy.27
All who listened to fairy tales as children or followed the adventures of a Captain
Marvel recognize at once the eternal battle between good and evil. An Eduardo
may protest against the use of myths and fables, but we are not exclusively in
that realm. The subtext of what occurred in Chile is always there, although
partially erased and transmuted. Both aspects are necessary to the desired
effect.28

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 427

Carmen Mart?n Gaite, in her own fantastic novel Cuarto de atr?s, describes
how "Franco hab?a paralizado el tiempo ..." (133). In literary terms, as Debra
Castillo explains in a recent article, the Spanish dictator's "mastery over time left
no room for the narrative once upon a time' of fantastic tales ..." (819). Fantasy
is an affirmation of freedom, that of the storyteller to reshape the world as
he/she pleases. Its timelessness subverts historical time. And Dorfman has
chosen as his storytellers the ultimate innocents, an unborn child and his
improbable descendants. The very structure of his novel demonstrates that, as
with Spain's transition to democracy, no dictator can permanently control time.
At some point in the future, be it decades, centuries, or millennia, Pinochet
becomes the dragon Pinchot and the message of hope in Manuel Sendero's song
triumphs.

University of Illinois, Chicago

NOTES

1 Chavkin writes that "at the age of thirty-five he was the most popular folk
singer in Chile" and adds, "From the start his songs had a captivating melodic
richness and a consistent theme - the despair of the poor, the anguish of the
hopeless copper miners, the life of Chilean peasants ignored by the absentee
landlords ..." (223). Jara is mentioned once byname in ?ltima canci?n-. "?Qu?
le digo a un taxista en Tunisia, o un campesino en Perugia, o un carnicero en
Cracovia, a esa gente simple que se les alumbra la piel cuando sabe que
venimos de Chile, y Jara, Jara, dicen gutural y casi incomprensiblemente,
Estadio, Estadio, a?os despu?s del golpe, millones de desconocidos en cuarenta
idiomas repitiendo y coreando Allende, Neruda, Allende, Allende?" (106).
2 The idea that Manuel Senderos voice and that of the people are essentially one
comes forth clearly when Pap? Ram?n recalls hearing the last song: "Porque
esos puentes en su voz apostaban a otro futuro, a otra intersecci?n: la historia
?ramos, ser?amos nosotros. Y como esa sensaci?n de poder?o iba m?s all? de
una persona, nadie, dijo Pap? Ram?n, puede ubicar de d?nde sale la voz, si est?
ac? o en la cordillera o en la esquina" (32). A similar idea informs the title of
Dorfman's recent volume, Some Write to the Future.
3 Joan Jara tells how that last poem was saved: "A group of guards came to fetch
him ... He quickly passed the scrap of paper to a compa?ero who was sitting
beside him, who in turn hid it in his sock as he was taken away. His friends had
tried each one of them to learn the poem by heart as it was written, so as to
carry it out of the Stadium with them" (249). The text appears only in English
(250-51). She also mentions another occurrence that could be interpreted as a
last song: "... The newspaper La Segunda published a tiny paragraph which
announced Victor's death as though he had passed away peacefully in bed ...
Then the order came though to the media not to mention Victor again. But on

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428

the television, someone risked his life to insert a few bars of 'La plegaria' over
the sound-track of an American film" (244).
4 The time elapsed between the father's death and the son's return is often stated
vaguely as some twenty or thirty years, but on page 321 it is said to be thirty
three years.
5 His fight for liberty was very much in the national consciousness during the
Allende years, as can be seen by the fact that the Movimiento Revolucionario
Manuel Rodr?guez took his name, as did a Manuel Rodriguez housing
settlement near Puerto Mont (Jara 125). Earlier Neruda included him in the
"Los libertadores" section of the Canto general
6 Carl Barks was an animator who worked for Disney. According to David
Kunzle, "... Some of the best 'non-Disney Disney' stories, those by the creator
of Uncle Scrooge, Carl Barks, reveal more than a simplistic, wholly reactionary
Disney ideology. There are elements of satire in Barks' work which one seeks in
vain in any other corner of the world of Disney, just as Barks has elements of
social realism which one seeks in vain in any other corner of the world of
comics" (16). In ?ltima canci?n Barks eventually becomes Parks.
7 Brooke-Rose writes: "Scholes's book [Structural Fabulation] is the clearest
statement, which may help us to reconcile the contradictory theses: science
fiction as marvellous/science fiction as realism. For clearly it is both ... And in
Scholes's sense that science fiction is 'structural fabulation,' a new form of
speculative fabulation, which uses the radically discontinuous world it invents
to confront the known world in a cognitive way, it must be also realistic" (81).
8 Other relevant observations are the following: "Es lo mismo que sucede en el
resto de Hombres de ma?z, donde algo se vive o se hace para que
posteriormente permanezca en la palabra futura, se aleje de su forma factual al
reflejarla, enga?oso espejo que deforma, pero que captura la esencia palpitante
mediante la leyenda, transcendiendo la triste certeza de lo cotidiano" (80). See
also 87-88.
9 The whole matter of how a legend evolves reappears - from a satiric
perspective - in the Afuera sections. An array of notes, ponderous and full of
scholarly hubris and rivalry, accompanies the David/Felipe conversation,
known as the "Di?logo" to researchers working some 30,000 years later. Their
aim is to determine the relationship between this text and the legend of David
and the dragon Pinchot. Often they reach humorously erroneous conclusions.
Discussing Ronald Reagan, they end up by declaring fictitious precisely those
characters based on real historical figures: "De todos estos nombres, el ?nico
que aparece en la Enciclopedia de Hombres Ilustres de los siglos XX al XXX, es
el de Ronald Reagan, presidente de los Estados entonces Unidos. Pero la
escuela anti-hist?rica contra-ataca, observando que la misma fuente menciona
en passant, a un oscuro actor de apellido similar, que existi? probablemente
veinte o treinta a?os antes ... Refuerzan sus argumentos el hecho de que las
otras menciones, Guilfoyle, Soro, Tadenhofer, Arnold AID and Milton FMI
(nombres estos, raros para la ?poca), no parecen haber existido ..." (86). In
reality, the last two references are to the economists of the Chicago School,

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 429

Milton Friedman and Arnold Harberger. The New York Times of Aug. 2,1989
carried the obituary of John W. Guilfoyle, a retired executive of the
International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation, who had been group
executive in Latin America for ten years. Soro refers to the Strategic Operation
Research Office of the American University, Washington. All were involved, in
one way or another, with events in Chile.
10 Zipes traces lucidly the evolution of the fairy tale and points out that in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the main concern of writers such as
Perrault "was civility, and the fairy-tale discourse ... became increasingly
moralistic as children were regarded as the major audience" (31). A change of
focus is evident at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth
centuries: "The new classical' fairy tales of MacDonald, Wilde, and Baum were
part of a process of social liberation. Their art was a subversive symbolical act
intended to illuminate concrete utopias waiting to be realized once the
authoritarian rule of the Nome king could be overcome" (131). Then by the
1960s "the expansion and subversion of the fairy-tale discourse became
increasingly noticeable not only in Germany but throughout the western
world" (167).
11 Consider Dorfman's description of the Colonel in Cien a?os de soledad: "He is
made of ice, the very ice that so fascinated him at the dawn of the novel - dead
in life instead of running like the Edenic springs and waters of early Macondo"
{Some Write 212). See also Hacia 237: "Cada acto de contacto, de amor, es un
avance, en cuanto el tirano [Somoza] simboliza la infertilidad, el odio, la
muerte."
12 "In the nationalized industries, much effort went into providing cr?ches and
canteens serving hot food. There was even an experimental scheme in which
women workers could collect a hot meal from the canteen to take home for the
family's evening meal" (Jara 177). Also relevant is the fact that, after moving to
Santiago, Jara's mother bought "a stall in the market and set up her own
pension where market-workers paid by the week for their daily meals" (32).
13 Eduardo's comments serve to mute the earlier sharp contrasts of good
(Manuel) and evil (the Caballero). Oropesa has commented that this novel
"supone un gran paso en la evoluci?n del autor, ya que en ella introduce el
humor, y desaparece el manique?smo que hab?a dominado la producci?n
anterior" (167).
14 There is not a clear progression from one type of presentation to another, for
the narrative shifts constantly in time, jumping back and forth, decades or even
millennia, often within a single paragraph.
15 One illustrative passage provides several different versions, as a grandson of the
son changes his story of the abuelo to suit the demands of his listeners: "Era el
?nico no nato de la historia que hab?a conseguido dominar el misterioso arte
del espacio exterior. Ya los escucho, nietos racionales y con caras de tri?ngulos
euclidianos, ya les escucho los reparos. Est? bien. Si esta versi?n les parece
demasiado extravagante, pong?mosla de otra manera: era el ?nico nacido del
universo que todav?a recordaba y viv?a hacia atr?s ...

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430

Si quieren que lo relatemos de ese modo menos fantasioso, est? bien. Da lo

mismo, porque el resultado no se altera." (137). See also 37, 40, 45, 60, 59.
16 In effect, both author and readers, as well as generations of Chileans yet to be
born, can be considered nietos of Manuel Sendero.
17 The presence of narrators whose very existence is in doubt recalls the opening
line of Gald?s' El amigo Manso where the protagonist declares unambiguously,
"Yo no existo ..." For Kronik, "Manso, knowing he is a creation, affirms the
paradox of existence within non-existence ..." Kronik adds, paraphrasing
Robert Scholes in "Metafiction": "When magic is real and fairy tales are true
and symbols are human essences, we have a measure of the novelist's 'despair
over the exhausted forms of our thought and our existence'" (Kronik 45, 48;
Scholes 115).
18 The nietos sometimes demand that the abuelo avoid digressions: "... Le
hac?amos ver que no est?bamos interesados en melodramas de amor y que
hablara de su Pamela y la nuestra m?s tarde, que ahora este cuento era otro,
uno de acci?n y venganza ..." (129), although "pedirle orden y coherencia a sus
cuentos ... es como asesinarlo al pobre" (224). They likewise complain with a
certain impatience, probably shared by the reader in this section of the novel:
"Queremos acci?n, abuelo. Estamos cansados de esa gente que no tiene
nombre, que no tiene memoria, que no tiene pa?s, que pasan censores y
fronteras y los barajan como naipes y los hacen cantar himnos y les capturan la
sombra" (284). Once again the novel contains its own criticism.
19 A similar conjectural statement occurs in Adentro: "Seg?n Eduardo, si hubiera
estado presente en vez de haber huido hacia su madre a punto de quedar viuda,
seg?n Eduardo a?os m?s tarde cuando circulaba el cuento" (148).
20 Four separate times merge in the following example: "Y aqu? el abuelo se qued?
callado por un rato. Se qued? callado en el fango duradero y liso de Doralisa, se
qued? callado en la falda de Pamela, se qued? callado frente a este nieto
favorito que les habla y que les transfiere todo a ustedes sin sazonarlo de su
propia cosecha" (160). They are the son's time in the womb, the time he spent
with Pamela, the time of his storytelling for his grandchildren and the
unspecified time when one of the latter repeats the tales.
21 In Afuera similar words mark the end of Carl Park's existence when someone
pushed a button on the machines that kept him alive: "Despu?s nada. Lo que se
dice nothing nada" (334). His unspoken final wish had been: "Hubiera querido
llamar a alguna mujer, Sarah o ?gueda o alguna otra, perpetrar un nombre
para que quedara atr?s como una reliquia o un eco, hijo, hija, nieto, ni?os ..."
Unlike Sendero's son, Parks is unworthy of such descendants because of his
cowardice and his rejection of the Hispanic girl, ?gueda, mother of his
illegitimate daughter.
22 Differing with Todorov, Brooke-Rose affirms that, if one excepts the
supernatural, ambiguity may be central to non-fantastic literature as well as to
the pure fantastic (65). She convincingly asks: "Is not the very condition that
defines the pure genre (or evanescent element) merely a particular (historical)
manifestation of a more general feature (at least two contradictory readings)

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 431

which can and perhaps should be found in all sophisticated (complex)

narrative, at any time, with varying degrees of predominance and various types
of manifestation according to the period?" (71).
23 To reinforce the suggestion of biological continuity, Dorfman employs an
elaborate and somewhat unconvincing metaphor of aquatic species that spawn
and swim off to an uncertain fate, leaving their eggs in the care of warm,
coastal currents (352-53).
24 The reasons suggested are that they cut his vocal cords (147), that he was
traumatized by the horrors committed (323), that it was psychological because
he considered himself responsible for a friend's death (62), that it was a
conscious decision (65). Only the Caballero believes he is faking.
25 The son tells his listeners that Pamela, from her mother's womb, transmitted a
report of the incident to the other fetuses, but adds that when he, as an adult,
repeated the story: "Me crey? porque era yo el que lo relataba, pero no porque
fuera ella quien lo hubiera presenciado o recordado" (23). Clearly the
conviction or magnetism of the storyteller overcomes the listener's reluctance
to believe.
26 Dorfman's discussion emphasizes how Mampato reflected, consciously or not,
events in Chile. There are a number of similarities between the comic strip and
?ltima canci?n: the shape of the tree reminds us of el Flaqu?simo; the action
also supposedly occurs 4,000 years in the future; and the series that David and
Felipe plan depicts how American representatives manoeuvred in Chile.
27 See his chapter " Political Code and Literary Code: The Testimonial Genre in
Chile Today" in Some Write (133-95).
28 As Donald Duck says in Wagner's imaginary interview with him: "... If you
wake up on Krypton and your whole comic-book day is spent there, no matter
what happens it'll just be another day on Krypton ... You have to start from
right here and now and then rip a hole right through reality to really get the
comic working ... Nobody cares about raw fantasy. It's cheap. What we're
really interested in is what fantasy has to do with what's going on every day
right under our noses" (4).

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