Abstract:
This essay deals with the theme of the “indigenous” character represented in Mexican literature and literatures in native languages. The text is divided into three sections: the first one exposes the origin of the meaning given to the concept “Indian” in European and New Spanish narrative; in the second one, it reflects on the character in Mexican literature and, finally, in the third section, it shows how the “Indian” is blurred to present the expression of himself in indigenous literature.
The construction of a character, based on experience or on the mixture of imaginary elements, responds to a series of connections that is far from being an innocent act, even when it escapes the writer’s will, since it is a representation of what we know. This essay intends to analyze: how is the indigenous character expressed according to the literature that enunciates it? with this, we will also be able to investigate: to what imaginaries does the construction of characters allude, to what empirical and theoretical constructions, and why?
None of us escape the conceptions that have been made about us and our culture, therefore, to examine the indigenous character and its expressive form is to question our social constructions. To answer the central question, adjacent questions will also be answered: what are the imaginaries that operate behind a literary character, how does the expression of an indigenous character contrast with that of the character created from a person called “indigenous” that is represented in literature, what could be the implications of an indigenous voice from the outside, and what could be the implications of an indigenous voice from the outside?
In this way, we will reflect on the writing of otherness (Mexican literature) and the writing of self (authors of native peoples), to finally focus attention on how a character is configured in a dual dynamic of what is known about the indigenous and from the community.
The work will be based on a comparison of the expression of the indigenous character in the Mexican narrative and the indigenous narratives, properly speaking, in the novel. However, in the second case, it should be clarified that it will be expressed in Spanish, since the life of this character arises with this language. Allusion will also be made to the category of “Indian” and “indigenous” in a Hispanic sense, since it is the word as such that is pursued, an external identity classification; although it is understood that the continuity from one era to another is offered by the original people of these lands, the meanings have been transforming, so that here a rupture arises.
A nominative rupture that has greater effects.
These renamed lands and also renamed people (Matías, 2014), entails an act of power (Reding, 2009) and a struggle for life. Christopher Columbus’ act of naming was an act of power over lands and people, however, to the extent that these lands had not only one name, but hundreds, according to each cultural and linguistic block, in reality, it was a renaming and homogenization. Renaming affirms the act of power, especially,
when the wars are tilting and the new colonial regime is established. The renamed people themselves become a rupture. They are being called “Indians” under the signs of an imaginary that responds to diverse motives. It will be the centuries that will make the struggle for the change of meaning of this word find new channels.
This essay will be divided into three sections to explain the concerns that are present in this preliminary. In the first, an explanation of the emergence of the concept of the “Indian” as a character in European, New Spanish and novel Mexican literature, in parallelism with those who will be known as “Indians”. In the second, an analysis will be made of the expression of the indigenous in Mexican literature, while the third will reflect on the expressive forms of indigenous literature in native languages.
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This article was published in Revista Argos and can be found at: https://revistaargos.cucsh.udg.mx/index.php/argos/article/view/167
