ENRJQUE AMORlM
THE MAN AND HIS WORKS

Thesis for the Deaf” of M. A.

MICMGAN STATE UNIVERSWY

Allaira Verde Schlicher
1963 ‘

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LIBRARY

Michigan State
University

ENRIQUE AMORIM

THE MAN AND HIS WORKS

BY

Allaire Verde Schlicher

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Department of Foreign Languages

1963

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 0 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O C O O 0
CHAPTER
I. ENRIQUEAMORIM--THEMAN..............

II. REALISTIC NOVELS OF THE GAUCHO AND PAMPA LIFE--
THE KEY TO FAME AND SUCCESS . . . . . . . . . . .

Tangarupé El caballo y su sombra
La carreta La luna se hizo con agua
E1 paisano Aguilar La desembocadura

III. THE NOVELS WITH POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS . . . . .

Nueve lunas sobre Neuquén
La Victoria no viene sola

IV. NOVELS OF SOCIAL INJUSTICES . . . . . . . . . . . .

Corral abierto
LOS'montaraces

V. MYSTERY NOVELS O O O O O C O O O O O O O O O O O 0

El asesino desvelado
Feria de farsantes

VI. URBAN NOVELS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
La edad despareja
Todo puede suceder
Eva Burgos
VII . SHORT STORIES o o o o o o o o o o o o O o o o o o 0
CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
B IBLIWMHY O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

APPENDH O O O O O O O C O O O O O O O O O O O O O 0 O 0

ii

PAGE

19

56

61

68

73

81

91

95

105

INTRODUCTION

In Mexico, Central and South America there are numerous writers
who are distinguished and prominent men in their respective fields of
scholarly endeavor, but primarily only in the Spanish-speaking areas of
the world. Many have not received their due recognition in other
countries or received it only after they were no longer able to appre-
ciate it. It would seem that there are four primary factors involved
here: 1) Only a small minority of the inhabitants of non-Spanish-
speaking countries are able to read, speak or understand Spanish; 2)
There is only a limited number of the works printed; 3) Spanish-English
translations are limited; and 4) The translations do not always do
justice to the author's original work.

The purpose of this thesis was to gather and make known more in-
formation about the life and works of one of these outstanding writers
of Latin America who has been somewhat overlooked in the United States
up to the present.

Enrique Amorim (1900-1960), a native of Uruguay and a writer
well known in Latin America, spent two thirds of his sixty years pro-
ducing literary works which have won him.awards, been translated into
ten other languages, been plagiarized, and now remain to preserve
for him fame and recognition.

Beginning at the age of twenty with a book of verse entitled
Veinte Ages) he has produced a continued and varied assortment of
literary materials ranging all the way from novels, short stories,

1

2

poetry and plays to essays and hundreds of newspaper and magazine
articles written on diverse subjects.

Enrique Amorim's stories of the country people confronted with
the realities of life and nature have been his most popular and appealing
works. The source of inspiration for most of these realistic stories was
drawn from his experiences as a child on a ranch in Northern Uruguay.
The key to his fame and success undoubtedly lies in the novels of the
gaucho and life on the pampas. These novels include La_carreta, El
paisano Aguilar, E_l_ caballo y 311 sombra, Tangartyé, lg lung is h_i_z_c_>_ 5:23
2322, La desembocadura and Los montaraces. The first three in partic-
ular are likely to endure after his other works have been forgotten, al-
though the last two novels mentioned above, among his latest works, may
well become as popular as their predecessors. He has also written some
highly-regarded short stories, the general themes of which are much the
same as those found in his novels.

In the United States very little has been written about him.
There has been a limited number of critical reviews in major newspapers
written about his novels. Richard O'Connell and James Graham Lujan
translated §l_caballo y 32 sombra (Thg_Horse and His Shadow), Scribner &
Sons, New York, 1943, and presented a short biography. In 1952 J. C.
Herman and Agnes M. Brady presented an adaptation of El asesino desvelado
for classroom use. This also contained a brief biography. In.§ggkg
Abroad, published by the University of Oklahoma, Vol. 34, 1960, Harley D.
Oberhelman presented an article entitled "Enrique Amorim as an Interpreter
of Rural Uruguay". To the best of my knowledge this exhausts the list of
materials written in the United States about Enrique Amorim other than

that found in anthologies and histories of literature.

3

Since there is no complete edition of this author and materials
are widely scattered, the purpose of this thesis is to assemble as much
information as possible about Enrique Amorim as a man and writer. I
shall attempt to evaluate his major works and bring together the numerous,
sometimes little-known, materials in such a form as to give a total
overall picture of the man, the influences which affected his literary
output, and the purposes of his works which were: first, to depict in
a realistic manner the country people and life of rural Uruguay; second,
to protest against the inequalities suffered by the lower classes, the
workers; and third, to point out the need for social reforms. Lastly,
I shall try to present as complete a bibliography as possible, including
all of Enrique Amorim's works, criticisms and evaluations of his pub-
lications, and miscellaneous materials which give a picture of the man

and his talents.

CHAPTER I
ENRIQUE AMORIM—-THE MAN

Enrique Manuel Amorim was born July 25, 1900, in Salto, Uruguay,
the son of Enrique Amorim and Candalaria Areta Torres. During his for-
mative years he lived on the ranch of his Portuguese forebears in
Northern Uruguay near the Brazilian border. There, at his father's side,
he developed an interest in the work and future of the frugal, indif-
ferent and melancholy people who served on the ranch. It is these people
and events in their lives which Enrique Amorim has drawn upon as the
source of inspiration for his now famous novels of the gaucho and the

Hruguayan countryside: Tangarupa, La carreta, El paisano Aguilar, El

caballo 1 s3 sombra, La luna gs hizo con agua, _L_a desembocadura and Los

 

 

montarac e 8 o

 

He began his schooling at the Osimani and Llerena Polytechnical
Institute in Salto. In a personal interview with Marcha, Amorim was
asked if there was something in his life which had had a deep influence
upon his intellectual creativeness and he answered:

A 103 quince afios tuve un maestro (Don Pedro Thévenet), que nos
exigia diariamente una copia de cualquier textoJ-diario, revista,
libro. Yo empecé a escribir las diez lineas exigidas sacandolas
de mi caletre. Eso me hizo escritor. El maestro calibraba e1
gusto del alumno, leia en su caligrafia, escudrifiaba en las diez
lineas. Al fin del afio supe que yo ténia capacidad de inventiva.
Ya es algo en paises sin imaginacién. Aqui se copia y poco se
inventa, casi nada.1 ' ~

 

1M'archa, Montevideo, April 8, 1960.

4

5
In 1917, at the age of sixteen, he was sent to the Colegio
Internacional de Olivos in Buenos Aires where his literary talents were
further developed. In a letter to Angel Flores he tells of his experi-
ences there:

Me hice bachiller. Alli empecé a escribir una revista que haciamos
los estudiantes. No saIieron muchos escritores de aquella colmena.
El colegio tenia una tradicion humanista porque lo habia fundado

un italiano demgran cultura y lo dirigia en mis tiempos, un gran
maestro, Francisco Chelia. A su alredédor circulaban artistas,
hombres de letra, cientificos y pedagogos. Frecuentaba la casa José
Ingenieros que, en cada'visita, dejaba un revulsivo en el ambiente.‘
Aparecieron personajes de toda indole. Ejemplares raros de aquella
época. Desde Bagaria a Benaventi, desde el escultor que fracaso o
él pintor hasta el celebrado actor. Caian bien en aquella casa las
domingos. Teniamos un lunes lleno de resonancias y falta de dis-
ciplina en el éstudio. Y en ese Colegio fué profesor de literature
cuando la madurez empezo a golpearme las carnes. A1 mismo tiempo,
era secretario de una oficina de Impuestos, en la Provincia de
Buenos Aires. Estas funciones, la una y la otra, y la aparicion de
mi primer libro me enfrento a un pais que amo tanto como mi patria.2

In Buenos Aires in 1920, while in his twentieth year, he published

 

his first work, a book of verse entitled Veinte afios, which contained a
prologue by Julio Noe and a few prophetic words by Baldomero Fernandez
Moreno.3 These poems are almost adolescent in nature and tend to be
nostalgic and sentimental, but the volume is full of "frescura y de

gracia."4 The intense young poet revealed his highly artistic temperment

 

2Angel Flores, Historia y antologia del cuento y 1.3 novela _e_r_1_
hispanoamericana (New York, 1959), p. 578.

The literary magazine was Paginas which Amorim edited in con-
junction with his friends Alfredo O'Connell and Felix Callo.

A personal letter from Mrs. Amorim, April 26, 1962, states that
Francisco Chelia was the person who directed Ammrim's first steps in the
field of literature.

31 am including in this chapter brief criticisms and resumes of
Mr. Amorim's other volumes of poetry, plays and miscellaneous materials
in order not to exclude them entirely. The novels and short stories are
dealt with in later chapters.

4Juan Carlos welker, "La obra literaria de Enrique Amorim,"

appearing in Amorim3s La carreta, 1st and 2nd ed. (Buenos Aires:
Editorial Claridad, 1932), p. 153.

6
which was to be more fully exposed in his forceful and poetic prose of
later years.

Another volume of poetry, Un_sobre con versos, was probably pub-

 

lished sometime between 1920 and 1923 or 1924 according to Mrs. Amorim.5

It was a very limited edition, and there is no other information avail-
able regarding this work.6

A third volume of poetry, Visitas §l_giglg, appeared in 1929.
The title page was done by Alejandro Sirio, a friend of the author, and
Amorim's wife, Esther Haedo, did the drawings. The first part contains
a miscellaneous collection, while the second part describes various
European sights and cities. The title is significant when we read
Amorim's comment on the title page, "Y, que nos sirve la poesia, para
escapar de este mundo y visitar el cielo."7 In this handful of poems of
nee-romantic inspiration the author reveals a refined and polished
approach to writing in which his poetry becomes the condensed outlet for
his spiritual as well as physical speculations.8 M. Lopez Palmero cites
the influences of the first symbolists Verlaine and Rodenbach, the in-

fluence of Juan Ramon Jimenez, the humorous and rhetoric exoticism which

 

5A personal letter to the writer, April 26, 1962.

6Some of Enrique Amorim's earliest works are out of print and
therefore are not available so it was necessary to rely on the limited
criticisms of others. However, since there has been so little published
about Amorim, I have included these volumes to give as complete an out-
line of his works as possible even though they were unavailable for
consultation for this thesis.

7Visitas al_cielo (Buenos Aires: Gleizer Editor, 1929), title

page.

8Juan Carlos welker, "La obra literaria de Enrique Amorim," La
carreta, 2nd ed.(Buenos Aires: Editorial Claridad, 1932), p. 158.

7
now is a decadent form, and other examples to show a lack of organization
and the absence of an "estetica bien delimitada" in this volume of poetry
by Amorim.9 Nevertheless there are a half dozen poems, among which are
"Estancias en el crepusculo", "Romance desde los techos", the romance
which begins "Una noria de pajaros", "Toledo", "Paris" and "Mujer de
Castilla", which have been admired by critics.

Cinco poemas uruguayos, a book of poetry inspired by his native

 

country, was published in Salto in 1935 in a limited edition. Dos poemas,

1940, was also published in Amorim's hometown of Salto. Cuaderno Saltefio,

 

1942, contains poetry written by him, but without his signature. His
wife did the illustrations, also without signature. The year 1949 saw
the appearance of another volume of poetry, Primero d£_mayg, which con-
tains a variety of poetry written from the years 1942 to 1949. guiero,
1954, contains many of his poems--a1most all of a political or social
nature-~which had been previously printed in newspapers or magazines.

Sonetos del amor 22 octubre, 1954, contains love sonnets as the title

 

suggests; a second edition of this volume was published in 1957. The
year of Amorimis death, 1960, saw the publication of a number of works,
but the only poetry in this year was a volume entitled ME patria, which
according to the editor,

. . . representa la vena lirica que se deja entrever en La carreta,

en El caballo y §g_sombra, Corral abierto, y‘La desembocadura, sus
mas reputadas novelas de los altimos afios.1

 

 

His poetry contains variety in meter and theme. The subjects

 

9M. Lopez Palmero, "Sobre Visitas a1 Cielo," Nosotros, Vol. 66
(Buenos Aires, 1929), p. 410-412.
1%!i patria (Montevideo: Ediciones Papel de Poesia, Impresora
Uruguaya, 1960), cover of paper jacket. ’

8

range from love, political and social problems, scenes of country life,
and of his travels and acquaintances, to miscellaneous thoughts of his
inner spirit and personal observations. His love sonnets and some of
‘the poems dealing with life and scenes of the countryside, such as
"Estancias en el crepusculo", "El mate", "El ombu" and others, have
been cited as outstanding.

Amorim wrote regularly for Argentine newspapers and magazines:

L§_Prensa, Critica, Caras y_Caretas, Plus Ultra, L§_Nacion, Mundo

 

Argentino, etc. Articles relating to the theatre and current events
appeared in the magazine El H2535. In Uruguay be contributed to El
Nacional, §Q_§§égfi E1 Popular, Justicia, Mundo Uruguayo, and La Mafiana.
In his native Salto, he submitted materials to _L3 E293: _L_a_t_ Taxis,
Tribuna Saltefia and El Pueblo. He also contributed short stories,
poetry, essays and miscellaneous other articles to various other news-
papers and magazines such as Sur, Nosotros, Ficcion, Atenea and others.
His wife writes in a personal letter to the writer,

Se puede decir que no hubo revista o diario editado en ambas
margenes del Plata que no conto con sus colaboraciones.11

The theatre recognized him as a dramatist, and he wrote fre-
quently for the Argentine movie companies from 1938 to 1944. Nosotros,

Vol. 14, 1941, reviews a film, zg_guiero morir contigo, which Enrique

 

Amorim‘wrote in collaboration with Roman Gomez Masia. He also col-

laborated with Sixto Pondal Rios and Carlos Olivari.12 The year 1950

 

‘11April 26, 1962.

2These men are all prominent Argentine playwrights. Carlos
Olivari and Sixto Pondal Rios collaborated in Viejo verde and others.
Roman Gomez Masia (1903-1944) has numerous plays to his credit such as

 

Temistocles en_Salamina, Xg_mg_llamo Juan Garcia and Islas Orcadas.

 

 

 

 

9

brought forth a flurry of activity in the theatre. Amorim.wrote and
directed three plays, La segunda sangre, Pausa en _l_a_ w, and 32 291
még_lgjg§, La segunda sangre, first shown in Buenos Aires March 16,
1950, is dedicated to

. . . mis amigos de Francia, camaradas de la resistencia, como

contribucion a1 esclarecimiento del gran destino que guardan todos

los pueblos del universo en la cruenta lucha por la libertad.13

The scene is France during the German occupation. The protagonist

is Teresa, a village girl who is the personal maid of Dede Lefevre. She
warships her mistress because she is beautiful and of noble birth.
Dede's husband, Gaston, is fighting with the French Underground. During
his absences his wife entertains the German officers at their chateau.
When Gaston returns he is captured by the Germans. He is to be shot,
but the Germans first want some valuable information from him. When he
refuses to talk, the Germans send Dede to see him. She tells him they
have agreed to pretend to shoot him, and in the morgue his body is to
be exchanged for another so he can escape. He is unable to make her
understand the Germans are lying to her. She is still patiently waiting
for Gaston's homecoming when Teresa returns to the chateau which she
left the day of Gaston's supposed execution. Teresa joined the French
Underground where she was accepted as an individual rather than a
servant. A German officer comes to see Dede and in an ensuing argument
Dede learns that they have killed Gaston. Teresa kills the officer and
Dede and then returns to the resistance fighters.

Amorim's works deal primarily with the downtrodden, the poor, the

 

13§§,§gggg§§'§§gggg (Buenos Aires: Editorial Conducta, Coleccién
Maese Pedro, 1950), p. 7.

10

lower classes and their Spiritual and physical battle with the strong
and powerful in their society; this play is no exception. Amorim's
heartfelt sympathies lie with the French people, but this play is con-
cerned with more than the Frenchmen's battle with the German conquerors.
Amorim portrays an individual's fight for bodily and spiritual inde-
pendence and recognition of one's own true worth. Teresa, the village
girl, is attracted to her rich, beautiful and immoral mistress as light
attracts the moth. Gaston's death puts out the light for Teresa, and
she is able to escape the attraction. She finds herself among her own
kind with the resistance fighters; there she is accepted and treated
like another human being. She discovers for the first time that she
is attractive to men of both noble and common birth. Most important
of all is that she finds she can be useful to her village, her country
and her fellowmen, and life very suddenly becomes rich and full of
meaning for her. In the united effort to free France from Germany's
strangle hold, she emerges as one of the braVe, patriotic and inde-
pendent young people fighting for their liberty, which now has more
meaning for them.

Page 3.31 13 £2133, dedicated to Dr. Jean Dalsace in Paris, is
set in a tropical area of America where the Germans have set up a
station to experiment with artificial insemination. The main characters
are the Professor, his young co-worker Frank, and Sara the nurse.
Hitler wants lots of strong young men for his armies so these three
people are brought together to experiment on the Indians of the area to
determine how this can best be done. Some of the women have died from
the experiments. Frank is the only one who has been able to gain the

children's confidence. He learns that the Indian chief's daughter,

11
Isabel, is considered almost holy because she has received instruction
from a priest and therefore is seldom seen. The rainy season descends
upon the area. The Indians fear it because they die with the plague.
Isabel comes to Frank hoping he can save her from this illness, and
they become lovers. The next truck bringing new supplies has seeds
and plants on it which Frank hopes will better the diet, health and
economy of the Indians. The Indians plan to attack the station because
the chief has learned that Isabel is pregnant. Everyone leaves the
station except the Professor and Frank. After a tense night filled
with fear and the beating of drums, the dawn arrives and with it comes
Isabel; Frank is no longer afraid of anything.

Amorim depicts three people with a ruthless, utilitarian purpose
in mind: to use the Indians any way they can to conduct merciless ex-
periments in artificial insemination since for them.the Indian is
expendable. Again we see the theme of exploitation of the helpless in
Amorim's work. Contrasted with this is Frank's humanitarian impulse to
help the Indians improve their health, diet and economical status; his
love for Isabel has changed him. The play is credible and realistic.
Its criticism of those who exploit the helpless is apparent.

112 m E 12.123: with a French version by Jean Camp entitled
An .1293 in 13%, takes place on a ranch, "El Palenque", in a subtropical
region in the summer of 1919. Julio has come from the city to visit his
brother, Teodoro Azara, whose wife has supposedly just given birth to a
son and heir. He chuckles about what the doctor's reaction will be when
he learns that Silvia has had a boy after the doctor said she could
never have children. Silvia only knows that she was unconscious a long

time and awoke to find the boy in her arms. One evening Rosaura comes

12
and demands that Teodoro return her son to her, or she will tell his
wife and the police. She willingly gave up her son to avoid her
father's wrath, but now she wants him back. Teodoro threatens her, and
she is almost out of her mind when the old 2222 leads her away. When
the boy Teo was nine, Teodoro died and his widow, Silvia, married
Eduardo. They have a daughter, Elena, who becomes a medical student.
Teo manages the ranch and falls in love with Elena when she comes to
the ranch for a vacation. The old 2222 dies and leaves a packet of
letters for Teo, but he burns them without reading them; then Silvia
tells him she is not his mother and therefore he can marry Elena, thus
fulfilling his father's wish that her blood and his be united.

This play illustrates Amorimis sensitive ability to depict the
psychology of the rural people. He portrays the power of the feudalistic
rancher over his people whereby he is able to alter and change laws and
customs to suit his purposes. There is the ever-present desire to have
an heir at any cost. He aptly reveals Silvia as a woman who unselfishly
raises, protects and loves the boy, Teo, knowing that he is not of her
flesh, but that he deserves her care in order to follow in his father's
footsteps.

The year 1958 saw the introduction of another play, _D_o_n_ Juan '3_8_.
The scene for this is a feudal estancia where horses are raised. An
old woman relates facts between the scenes about the characters and
events. Gabriella, a widow, is in love with Don Juan, her deceased
husband's best friend. She thinks her three children are unaware of
her affair. Don Juan, apparently has never married, and always has
excuses when marriage is mentioned. Don Juan takes an interest in

Gabriella's daughter, Elvira. Years later he is attracted by Elvira's

l3
daughter, Ada. He declares he will learn her weaknesses when he is un-
successful in exciting her passions, but she tells him that he will
never know the truth. The old woman gives him a drink, and he falls
dead.

Don Juan is the proverbial lover. He loves each female member
of the family until he has conquered them both physically and spiritually,
and then he leaves them for a new love which in each case is a daughter
of his previous conquest. His downfall comes when he attempts to con-
quer the third generation and fails pitifully. Fantasy and reality are
mixed in this play, and many superstitions of the country people are
related in the dialogue. For me this was the most interesting part of
the play.

I consider _L_a_ segunda sangre and 32 m FEE 13.12% to be among
his better productions for their vivid portrayal of times, people and
emotions. His dramatic writing is limited, and comparison is difficult;
but, as in the case of his poetry, some of the material is superior to
the rest, although neither his poetry nor his plays seem to me to
equal the quality of his novels.

EEEE g, Castagnino, written in 1945, is the sole monograph among
his literary works. He also wrote an essay entitled El ultimo ni§2.bign
which was published in 1960.

In an interview with Marcha, April 8, 1960, Amorim was asked
to relate what works and authors most influenced his intellectual for-
mation, and he replied,

La formacion intelectual no esté supeditada a una obra ni a
ciertos autores, sino, mas bien, a los ambientes en que se
desarrollo esa formacion. Para mi fueron piedras de toque--

pedernales diriamos--Ivén Bunin, Maupassant, Chejov. Sin La
maison Téllier (Maupassant) yo no me habria atrevido a 'inventar'

14

La_carreta. En la época en que el escritor resuelve continuar

escribiendo recurre a los maestros luego de haber frecuentado,

sin pensarlo, a los clésicos. Lei a Sherwood Anderson para pene-

trarlo. Estoy inscripto en la tradicion nacional, y los

movimientos estéticos extranjeros no son mas que eso--'movimientos';

cambios, modas, paparrucha a1 fin.1
From these men Amorim absorbed the art of the Realist and that of the
Naturalist. All of his characters have an air of realness in an
appropriate environment. Even the highly original but ficticious
quitanderas appear to be a part of history, although there is nothing
to support this claim but Amorim's lifelike descriptions of them.
Amorim.delves deeply into the psychology of some of his characters
and presents their prime concerns in life. Thus in §l_caballo yflgu
sombre we see Nico Azara's desire to maintain the status quo, the
feudal estancia, and his brother's desire to improve his country. In
La luna_§g_hizg £22 3532 we see Silvia's belated but sincere interest in
the welfare of the workers on the ranch and Goyo Lanza's same interest
seen from the worker's point of view. The descriptions of customs and
superstitions help to support the scene and aid in the development of
the plot.

Amorim's earliest works may have been influenced by Horacio

Quiroga.15 It is natural that Amorim as a son of Salto might attempt
to follow in the steps of the older man whom he admired and who had

lived and breathed the same atmosphere as he. His realistic portrayal

of the rural scenes in Tangarupé (1925) suggest Quiroga's technique,

 

léyéEEHEp Montevideo, April 8, 1960. Nosotros, Vol. 58 (Buenos

Aires, 1927), p. 79-80, contains a poem by Amorim entitled "Tarde con
Maupassant".

lsflggggggg, Vol. 3 (Buenos Aires, 1937), p. 319-321, contains an
article written by Amorim in which he paid homage to Horacio Quiroga
at his death.

15

but Amorim's novels and short stories developed in a different direction
later.16 Although Enrique Amorim may have been influenced by others at
times, he always maintained his own style, his own individuality.

Amorim.wrote under a number of pseudonyms. Dr. Harley Oberhelman
of Texas Technological College has kindly lent me the following list of
pseudonymns and the year in which Amorim used them: 1929-D.P.; l930-T.
and Dr. Ignotus; l932-Don Perogrullo and Federico Paz; 1933-Joaqufn de
Salto; 1937-Arapey, Juan de Dios, Agapito, Juan Minimo and Primer
Comisario; l939-Diogenes; l947-Lazaro Riet; l950-Campesino, Francisco
Aguilar and Globe Trotter; l951-E1 Abate Julio, Observadora and
Teatralero; 1952-Fray Gerundio; 1953-A.B.C. and Linuco Pereira; 1955-
Ub Artiguense Indignado and Celedonio; 1957-Froilon, Lansquenete and
Diplomatico I; 1958-El Asecino (sic) Inglés, Diplomatico XXIII, Margarita
Moncloa and Juan Barcos; l959-Veter I Nario and Manuel Goncalvez.17 As
can be seen the list is extensive, and a good deal of research would be
necessary to locate all the materials written under.these various names
and initials.

Enrique Amorim was an enthusiastic photographer and made a
number of sixteen-millimeter films which won him awards in competitions
sponsored by the Cine Club of uruguay and the Cine Universitario of
Uruguay. He was also an excellent still photographer as his numerous

photographs and pictures will testify.

 

16Quiroga, a native of Salto, Uruguay, wrote short stories of
the South American tropical scene and fantasy which are well known; he
is considered to be the first outstanding short story writer in con-
temporary Spanish American letters.

17Personal research of Mr. Harley Oberhelman contained in a
personal letter to the writer dated March 3, 1962.

l6

Amorim spent many of his years in Argentina and was well known
and liked in that country as well as in his own. During Peron's
regime, Amorim, who had been actively participating in anti-Peron
activities, was detained as he got off a plane. He returned to his
home, "Las Nubes" in Salto, Hruguay, in 1950 and remained there until
the dictatorship in Argentina was overthrown. He traveled extensively
through Europe, the United States and various Latin American republics.

In the forward to The Horse And His Shadow (1943) he wrote:

 

I have traveled much. Not long ago when I crossed North America
from New York to Los Angeles I realized that this earth's most
prodigious accomplishment lies in the formation of the United
States. I believe that if I were faced with the problem of
describing earthly life to an inhabitant of Mars, Moon or Saturn,
I'd be content to try to tell him about the United States.18

He held offices in several organizations and took an active
part in literary affairs. Mrs. Amorim writes:

Form6 parte de varias Comisiones Directives de la Sociedad
Argentina de Escritores y fué su Vice Presidente en el afio 1936,

en que se realizo el primer Congreso Gremial de Escritores en la
Argentina. Fué fervoroso luchador por los derechos de la propiedad
intelectual y principal promotor para que la SADE adquiriera su

sede propia. Una bella y antigua casona de la calle Méjico en la
ciudad de Buenos Aires. Suya fué la idea de que la SADE instituyera
e1 Premio de la Medalla de Oro cuyo primer posedor fué Jurge Luis
Borges. También bajo su iniciativa se creo E1 Dia Del Escritor

y la Faja de Honor que la SADE otorga al mejor libro del a'fio.19

He represented Argentina in June, 1931, at the 9th Congress of the P.E.N.
Club at the Hague. In 1939 he traveled to New York where he represented
Uruguay at the International Congress of the P.E.N. Club. He had a

special invitation to attend the 18th Congress of this same club in

 

18The Horse and His Shadow (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,

1943), p. x.

19Personal letter to the writer, April 26, 1962.

17
Stockholm, Sweden, in 1946 but was unable to attend. His wife gives us
a further list of his activities. In August of 1948 he took part in the
First WOrld Congress of Intellectuals for Peace which took place in
Wroclaw, Poland. In the following years he traveled to Europe frequently
and in some years made as many as two annual trips. In December of 1952
he was Uruguay's delegate to the Congress for Peace in Vienna. There
he became ill and went to Paris where he spent a month before returning
to Montevideo. He entered a hospital where his illness was diagnosed
as endocarditis. This later developed into pancarditis. From this time
on his health was very delicate. In 1954 he decided to return to
France and obtained a tourist's visa for three months. About midway
through his stay he was arrested by agents of the Sureté Nationale,
questioned, and then ordered to leave the country. As a result the in-
tellectuals of Paris mobilized, and Robert Mitterand, brother of the
Minister of the Interior at that time, intervened and succeeded in
having the interdict lifted and the arrest annulled. Near the end of
1954 Amorim represented Uruguay at the Second Congress of Soviet
Writers in Moscow. In 1958 his native city of Salto rendered homage
to him with activities which lasted a full week. In 1959 he received
an invitation to travel to China, but his precarious health forced him
to refuse the invitation.20

Amorim joined the Communist Party in 1943. Nueve lunas sobre

 

Neuguén and La_victoria 22 viene sola, a famous statement by Stalin,
both reflect this influence. Adolfo Silva Delgado, editor of §1_Pueblo,

Salto's liberal Catholic newspaper, wrote in one of his issues,

 

20Ibid.

18

Y Amorim con ellos se adelanta y da un paso decisivo, afiliandose

a1 Partido Comunista. No es un obrero; es un burgués; no espera de
la revolucion social bienes para 51, porque tiene una solida posicion
economica, no busca posiciones politicas, porque su partido no las
tiene, no busca la tranquilidad personal, porque sabe que encontraré
hostilidad y, quizas, persecucion; no busca popularidad benevolente,
porque sabe que la inmensa mayoria lo condenare. Amorim da e1 gran
paso, venciendo su posicion social y economica, venciendo su
tradicion familiar, venciendo su origen y su educacion, con la
humildad que otorga solamente una firmisima conviccion. Un hombre
que se atreve a tanto es, sin dude, todo un hombre.21

A poem entitled "Palabras a José Stalin" appears in Primero d2 may .

He made his home at "Les Nubes" in Salto with his daughter,
Liliana, and his wife, the former Esther de Haedo Young, whom he married
in 1928. It was here that he died of a heart attack on July 28, 1960,
just three days after his 60th birthday. His wife writes,

En los ultimos diez afios de su vida fué un trabajador infatigeble.
Escribio en ese lapso de tiempo once libros, dos de los cuales
salieron después de su fallecimiento. Innumerables cuentos,

articulos, poemas, ensayos lo atestiguan. Aparecera en un futuro
cercano un volumen de memories.

 

21§;_£ygblg, Salto, July 29, 1960.

22Personal letter to the writer, April 26, 1962.

CHAPTER II

REALISTIC NOVELS OF THE GAUCHO AND PAMPA LIFE--

THE KEY TO FAME AND SUCCESS

The works most likely to endure and keep Enrique Amorim's name
high on the list of Argentine and Uruguayan writers are those novels
written for the most part early in his career--novels about the gaucho
and the country people of Northern Uruguay.

The gaucho in literary tradition was a romantic fellow who
lived a wild, exciting life riding his horse over the pampas, getting
into knife duels, playing his guitar, dancing the pericon and perhaps
running off with some enchanting young lady to live happily ever after.
Amorim destroyed this concept with his realistic novels and short
stories of pampa life. He himself has made clear his concept of the
gaucho. Referring to it in his novels Tangarupa, La carreta and El

paisano Aggilar, he says:

The gauchos I wrote about . . . do not resemble the familiar,
romantic figures that appear in our literature. They are men
of the plains, working men, unable most of the time to cope
with the responsibility of a harsh and fierce land.1

In these novels we also see a lonely, desolate pampa which can be

both beautiful and deadly, where the poor live in misery and toil, and

the rich hold a feudalistic hand over the rights and thoughts of those

 

1The Horse and His Shadow (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,

1943), p. ix.

l9

20

less fortunate.

TANGARUPA--THE INTRODUCTION OF AMORIM' s GAUCHO NOVELS:

Tangerupé, which Roberto J. Payro describes as a dangerous river
crossing the Salto countryside near Palomas, was used as the title of
this book, and was the first of the gaucho novels by Amorim. It was
published in two editions (1925) and contained material for twelve
loosely-joined chapters and three short stories entitled: El pajaro

negro, Los explotadores dg|pentanos, and Las quitanderas. Juan Carlos

 

Welker feels that L23 explotadores dg.pantanos is strong, admirable, one
of the best.2 Las quitanderas first appeared in 1923 in Amorim, a
volume of short stories, and was then published separately in 1924.

This title was plagiarized by a Frenchman, Adolfo de Falgairolle. In
the third edition of Tangarupa (1929), the three stories were omitted
and the twelve chapters were loosely woven together to form a novel.

It is interesting to note the strong similarities between this
novel by Amorim.end one written later by Benito Lynch, El romance £2.33
gaucho (1930). The young gauchos of both stories are named Pantaleon.
They fall in love with the young wives of nearby ranchers. They leave
their homes since they are unable to marry the young ladies. In re-
turning to their loved ones they both meet solitary deaths. In both
novels use is made of gatho language but there the resemblance ends.

The theme of Amorim's novel is based upon a desire for an heir.

Nicolas Acunha, educated for city life, became the sole heir of the

family ranch, "El Fondo", when his father was killed in battle. He

 

2Juan Carlos welker, "La obra literaria de Enrique Amorim,"
'53 Carreta, 2nd ed. (Buenos Aires: Editorial Claridad, 1932), p. 154.

21
lived there alone for several years and then at the age of thirty-eight
married Maria, a poorly educated young girl. As he grew older his
supreme desire was to have a son, an heir.

The ants were eating all the green plants and it became almost
his obsession to kill them. When Nicolas spread poison and had the
Brazilian, Pereira, bring him some cannibal ants from Brazil, his
workers told him that God was punishing him by giving him no heir be-
cause he killed the ants so relentlessly.

Maria went to see Felipe who was known to cure childlessness
and almost anything else. Felipe was raising three illegitimate
children whose parents had abandoned them. One of these children was
Pante (Pantaleon Molinas), the whistling gaucho. He and Maria were
strangely attracted to one another from.the very beginning. Felipe
took advantage of their attraction and on one of Marie's visits sent
the two young people to the house for a potion. There they suddenly
found themselves in each other arms. When Felipe arrived they had
both gone.

Marie became pregnant and Pante fled to Brazil where he worked
with some smugglers. After they had successfully carried contraband
tobacco across the Brazilian border into Uruguay in a coffin that
supposedly held the remains of their dead father, the smugglers allowed
Panta to go home. He planned to carry Maria away. Stopping at the
Tangarupa river, in sight of "El Fondo", to go swimming, he discovered
a big fish caught on a line. When he tried to pull it in, the fish
gave a strong jerk, and the line whipped through his hands and around
his body opening up a mortal wound. The neighbors found Panta's body

the next morning. Maria gave birth to a son, and Nicolas had his long

22

sought heir.

is

She

age

Maria, a country girl, is poorly educated and superstitious. She

. . . rubia, menuda, delgaducha. Tenia su voz la inflexion de los
temperamentos flojos o apaticos. De una inocencia rayana en la
boberia, todo lo preguntaba: y averiguaba los por qué y los como
con curiosidad inocente y desmedida. Apenas sabia leer, y escribir
era para elle e1 mayor sacrificio. Tanto pudor guardaba por su
garabateada letra como por dejar al descubierto alguna parte de

su cuerpo menudo.5

has married a man twice her age, and, while life treats her well,
is taking its toll of her husband.
Vida como la suya, 1e sirvié para conserverse joven y fresca, a1

lado de su marido, el cual die a die tenie mas arrugas en la care,
mas cabellos blancos y menos disposicion para el trabajo.4

Early in their married life Nicolas decided that they would not have

children. Then as he grew older it became his supreme desire.

Cuando triunfo la buena época, y las haciendas llegaron a un precio

enloquecedor, Nicolas "hizo la America" con su invernada. A.raiz

de equellos felices acontecimientos, y presintiendo una fria vejez,

comenzo a insinuarse de continuo:

---Es inutil Maria, los gurises alegran una casa, es inutil . . . .5

Maria's faith in Felipe is like that of a simple child. It may be that

she fears her. The old woman's description is not unlike that of a

witch:

Toda ella are un espectaculo de miedo. Sus rotosas ropes negras;
sus ojillos grises y vivaces; 1a desdentada boca, sumida y seca;
sus ufias largas; sus brezos esqueléticos y el pecho hundido, como
si tuviese e1 corazon escondido en una cueve . . . .6

 

3Tangarupa, 3rd ed. (Paris: Le Livre Libre, 1929), p. 16.

4Ibid., 17.

51bid., 17.

61bid., 3o.

23
The country people have boundless faith in the curative powers and
sayings of the old woman. One of the workers tells don Nicolas:
. . . Vea, patrdn, yo que usted hacia ver a la patrona Maria, con
la medice. iCasos ansina la Felipe tiene curaus muchos. Tanto

lidiar con gente errevesada.
. Las machorras por ojeo se curan, patron. .

[Quién sabe no 11 han codiciau la patrona. . .
0 la mujer aquella, que vivio con usted, no la ha dafiau a la
patrona, con sus ojos dobles. . . .7

In the baptism that takes place the frightened babies cry, but this
is considered a good omen.
Hubo mucho llanto de nifio asustado, pero aquello, en lugar de
preocupar, agredaba. Segfin la Felipe, si lloraban tanto en el
cristianamiento, era sefial de que iban a vivir muchos a'fios.8
The plot is loosely drawn together, but the author depicts well
the prime concerns of the country people and the undercurrents of their
lives. The main concern is Nicolas' desire for a son:
Cuando llegd la noche, ya en el lecho, Nicolas sintié mas intense-
mente la frialdad de su casa. La idea fija de que no podia
alcenzar 1a dicha de tener un heredero se incrusté en su cerebro,
como la cifra de una deuda impagable.9
Era tel e1 deseo de tener un heredero, que ya no podia callarlo,
y menos aun sebfa disimular. Comentaba, lo que era para él la
peor desgracia, con todos sus amigos y conocidos . . . En la
estacion, con la familia del jefe; con su pedn casero, viendo
correr por el campo a alguno de los hijos de éste . . . 0
So great became his desire that he was willing to do or try almost

anything:

Hebia oido que la médica en casos ansina, de embrujamiento,
aconseja que se auguen las mugres en agua limpia; que hay que echar

 

71bid., 24.

81bid., 111.

9Ibid., 43.

1oIbid., 23.

24

e1 rio las enmundicias; que viviendo cerca e1 arroyo poco a poco
1a correntada se yeva la mugre del embrujo . . . en fin, mil con-
sideraciones que era bueno de tener en cuenta. Y, convencido o no
march6 a1 rio con los aparejos.

Finally we sense his great emotion when he returns one night, looks at
his wife and realizes that she is going to bear him a child:

. . . el regresar a la estancia, encontr6 a su mujer dormida, . . .

Encendi6 un candil. La mir6 un buen rato con lagrimas en los ojos.

. . . Haste que uno de los lagrimones rod6 por sus mejillas, cayendo

sobre el lienzo que cubria el abultado vientre de la mujer. Sus-

pirando, lloriqueando como un nino, con pena y alegria a un mismo

tiempo, Nicolas sali6 tambaleando de su pieza . . .12

The animals and plants are the basis for the existence of humans

in this area. If the ants eat all the living plants, the animals will
die, and the people will be in dire straits for they depend on the
animals for their very life and livelihood. Thus it is natural that
this problem should be one of their prime concerns. We encounter this
conflict between husband and wife. Nicolas is spreading the poisonous
powder on the ground and his wife says:

. . . [Mira, canejo, no te pongas en bebia . . . mire! A.Nicolés

comenzaba ya a molestarle, la no participacidn de su mujer en

aquella lucha contra las hormigas. E1 consideraba aquello como un

signo de civilizaci6n y de progreso en la estancia. . . . Igo yo,

ty no here mal perseguir a esos pobres animalitos?

. . . IPobres animalitos. . . . y en una noche te dejan pelau una

hilera de arboles---y sigue sacudiendo el tarrito, rodeando el

tronco ,de un naranjo con el polvo venenoso.

. . . ILastima que va a yover. . . . [Pero eyas yevan e1 veneno en

las patas . . . y en la cueve sera 1a cosa! . . 13

Amorim gives us a description of the poverty and misery that

exists in the village. Father Cipriano has come for the baptism of

the infants, walking down the single street to bless the dwellings

 

111bid., 96.

12Ibid., 111.

131bid., 56-57.

25
as he passes by.

De cada puerta selfa una care, 0 dos o tres, sucias, curiosas, que
aguardaban e1 paso del padre Cipriano. Les guarecidas en los
ranchos eran aquellas que, por su indumentaria miserable, no podian
concurrir a1 acto. Mujeres en camisa, rapazuelos desnudos y

viejos cubiertos apenes con una camiseta agujereada, en calzoncillos
de colores vivos. 14

The author describes the manner in which the workers are paid
in this area--not unlike situations that have occurred in our own
country.

Como era domingo y dia de pago, los peones de "El Fondo" y "El
Rinc6n" concurrian alegres a lo de don Ram6n a cobrar sus jorneles.
E1 pulpero, la semana anterior, habia bajado a1 pueblo en busca de
dinero. Algunos estancieros depositaban en la pulperia las sumas
correspondientes a los jorneles, para favorecer a don Ramon. .

En esa forma, los primeros gastos se efectuaban en su casa pudiendo
asimismo cobrar los adelantos y fiaus. . . 15

There is superfluous material such as the chapter dealing with
don Pedrito and his two brothers who live on the estancia, "E1 Rinc6n".
They are not necessary to the plot, although the dominance of the elder
brother over the actions of the two younger ones is interesting. Amorim
gives us an insight into the lives and very hopes and desires of these
people. He demonstrates their poverty, their misery, their superstitions,
and thus gives us a realistic picture of rural life.

El campo en este obra de Amorim se muestra tal cual es en la
realidad; pobre, aspero, inmenso en su dolor, arido y seco. En
este campo de Amorim es el verdadero, e1 rudo, sensual, supers-
ticioso campo nuestro; sin nada que lo eleve, ni amor, ni religién,
ni afan de progreso 0 de ideal. Amorim ha sabido trazar en este
novela cuadros en un realismo brutal sin que nunca pierda calldad

la elegancia de su estilo. Hay momentos en que las frases candentes
de sus descripciones parecen haber sido trazadas por un Zola 0 un

 

14Ibid., 107.

151bid., 65.

26
Barbusse.16
La_quitendera, which first appeared in Tangarupa as a short story
and then was enlarged to form the novel La carreta, brought about a case
of evident plagiarism. Adolfo de Falgairolle, a French writer who had
translated many Spanish works, was loaned a copy of Tangarupa by Pedro
Figeri, an artist who had painted and exhibited in Paris a series of

pictures entitled quitanderas as he conceived them to exist after having

 

himself read the book. In February 1929 Falgairolle published and
registered the title of a book, volume 56 of "L'Oeuvre Libre", entitled
‘La quitandera. A verbal battle in newspapers ensued. Amorim accused
Falgairolle of plagiarism in L'Intransiggant, Comedie,ng§ nouvelles
Littéraires and Candide, and the accused replied in the Chicago Daily_
Tribune and the New York Herald, but he had fallen into a trap. The

meaning that Amorim.had given to the word quitandera was taken over un-

 

changed; it signified traveling prostitutes. D. Martiniano Leguizam6n
and other folklore specialists investigated the background of the word
and denied that such people existed. Furthermore they could find no
evidence of the word in the Spanish language nor the several aborigine
languages--Guarani, Quechua and Araucano--which have numerous words that
have been incorporated into the common language of the Rio del Plata
region. They did locate the word guitande in a dictionary of the

Portuguese language by Beaurepaire-Rohan entitled Diccionario des

 

vocabulos brazileiros. This word refers to a vender of fruits, vege-

tables, poultry, fish end other similar products: the individual who

 

16Juan Carlos welker, "La obra literaria de Enrique Amorim,"

La carreta (Buenos Aires: Editorial Claridad, 1932), p. 157-58.

27
buys and sells produce. Thus this word would seem to indicate a humble,
honest working women, while Amorim's interpretation suggests vagabond
lovers. The word is used near the Brazilian border in Northern Uruguay
to indicate a vender of "goodies"--fruit, tarts, cookies, etc. at the

fairs and fiestas. This was the original occupation of the quitanderas

 

until their other trade became more profitable. Falgairolle appar-
ently read the story and then saw Figari's exhibition which dealt ex-
clusively with quitanderas inspired by Amorim's narrative. Perhaps

he thought they were a national institution like the gauchos. He cer-
tainly did no research on the matter. In any case the publicity was
indeed profitable in that he sold many copies of his book. It was
finally concluded that guitandera, in the sense in which Enrique Amorim

used it, was an original word from the fertile mind of this writer.

‘LA CARRETA--AN ORIGINAL NOVEL:

The carreta is a long, narrow cart rambling about the rural
Uruguayan countryside. It is the vehicle by which the author presents
and describes a lonely, forlorn area where there is only one woman for
every five men. It also produces an excellent opportunity to introduce
a whole series of new episodes, people and scenery to the reader.

La carreta no es una novela, porque no tiene un conflicto individual
0 colectivo como tema central desarrollado. Pero nada oblige a
encasillarla con un r6tulo en los limites precisos de una preceptiva.
Basta con que haya cumplido su prop6sito de belleza y con que se la
distinga por el tono personal de su originalidad en el plano de

una realizaci6n de jerarquia.17

There is no real plot. 'La carreta is a series of short stories held

 

17Alicia Ortiz, Las novelas d2 Enrique Amorim (Buenos Aires:
Companie Editora y Distribuidora del Plata, 1949), p. unknown.

 

28
together by the travels of the cart. It is in this manner that we

travel with the quitanderas from their inauspicious beginning to their

 

sad ending.

The quitanderas began their career with the circus where they
sold fruits, goods, tobacco and miscellaneous items. It was there they
discovered a more profitable business, selling their favors. When the
circus was asked to leave because of their activities, Don Pedro, the
owner, planned revenge. The lights were turned off the last night, and
the men were given worthless bills to pay the women, who, needless to
say, had a very busy night. In the morning they discovered the trick;

a cart containing the quitanderas left the circus and began its lonely

 

journey through the predominantly masculine countryside.

The protagonist of the book is the carreta itself, but there are
a number of important characters such as Matacabayo, the gaucho, who
in his younger days was heralded for his feats of strength and his
prowess in breaking horses. Now after an illness, with his strength
gone and feeling useless, he leaves his wife and children and follows
the quitanderas. Later he is killed by a revolutionary's bullet.
There is Marcelino Chaves, a mysterious tropero, a widower with scars
on his face, who helps and often defends the women. This honorable
gentleman appears here and there throughout the book. We sympathize
with Correntino who has never known a women intimately and is the butt
of many jokes. The marica (Correntino) is taken to the guitanderas'
camp where he loses all his inhibitions, but when the girl refuses to
marry him he begins to cry and loses his manly virility. Some
strangers who tired of his crying beat him so badly that he died.

Another character is Don Caseros who has paid well to take the

29
virginity of thirteen year old Florita. He is kind, gentle and unsure
of himself under the circumstances. Florita, who has slept little for
worrying about the encounter, falls asleep under his caresses. Per-
plexed, he lacks the heart to disturb her and leaves her as pure as
when he met her.

The women who live in the cart lead a miserable existence, but
they are intensely loyal to one another. Examples of this occur when
Petronila refuses to marry Correntino and when the Turk has to kill
old Rita because he knows Brandina will never leave the old woman as
long as she lives.

Amorim depicts cruelty in the scene where Paujuan, seeking
attention, initiates a cat race for interest and excitement.

Levant6 la bolsa en alto, en edeman de dar la orden de partida, y,
lanzando un ronco lAuraE, baj6 e1 brazo, sacudiendo en el suelo

e1 saco de arpillera. Y la pareja de gatos rompi6, asustada, en
feroz carrera, ante 1a amenaza de un castigo. Huyeron bajo la
tendida cuerda sin apartarse de elle, hasta dar con sus cuerpos
en la otra estaca. Choceron en el extreme de la cuerda y se
tumbaron, previo vuelco por el aire. El rabon lleg6 primero e
inmediatemente revole6 por el aire la cola el otro animal. Como
dos briosos cabellos, luego de haber corrido, los gatos daban
seltos, atados a la cuerda, amarrados a las estacas.18

Horror appears when the old Indian, Ita, profanes his dead
woman's body. The spectators, who have seen death and perhaps have
themeelves killed, are horrified when they unexpectedly witness this
morbid scene in which Ita bids his wife goodbye.

Y, como presas de pavor, los dos hombres, e1 alto de negro,
Chaves, y el muchach6n recién lanzado a los caminos y las pampas,
ambos pudieron ver la escene pavorosa que dentro del rancho

acababa de descubrir el hombre de los cabellos largos. Ita, e1
indio milagrero, desnudo, y desnudo e1 cuerpo de la finada,

 

18La carreta, 5th ed. (Buenos Aires: Editorial Claridad,

1942), p. 79.

30
desnudo el cadaver de la Pancha, estaban amandose. Barbaramente
unidos, frenético e1 indio desde la vida, y yacente y fria la
mujer. Los brezos de le hembra pendian de la came, mientras iba
la cabeza del indio de un lado o otro del rostro palido, beséndola,
en aquellas apresuradas ultimas nupcias, a la luz de un candil
parpadeente y amarillo.19
This exceeds the brutality which even they could accept and went be-
yond the moral limits which placed few restrictions on their activities.

Another scene of violence portrays an example of gaucho vengeance.

Chiquifio discovers that his wife, Leopoldina, a former quitandera, likes

 

their neighbor, Pedro Alfaro. He starves his prized pigs for three
weeks and then one night he kills Alfaro and throws his body into the
pigpen.

Volc6 e1 cadaver en el chiquero. El cuerpo, al caer, hizo un

ruido como de pellejo a medic llenar. Se abalanzaron las bestias

sobre los despojos de Alfaro. Grufiian, rezongaban, se peleaban

a dentelladas, para ver quién daba el mejor golpe de colmillo.

En un segundo, andaban las piernas de Pedro Alfaro por un lado,

los brezos por otro. . . . )Aprendé, miserable!20

Superstition does not play a strong part in this book as it did

in Tangarupa, which abounds with it, but there is one brief scene when
Chiquifio, returned from jail, learns his wife was buried with Alfaro's
knife.

Pensaba que, si durante su encarcelamiento 1a Leopoldina habie

muerto y sido enterrada con el pufial de su enemigo mortal, era

porque el diablo andaria metido en el asunto. [Y 61 debia

arrancar a su china de las ufias del diablo!

This leads us to a fantasy scene where Chiquifio, dealt a traiterous

mortal blow, believes he has opened his wife's coffin, removed his

 

191bid., 94.

2oibid., 13s.

211bid., 177.

31
rival's knife, taken out the bones and washed them, but somehow they
slip from his hands and disappear in the river.

Pudo sofiar, antes de morir, en el rescate de los huesos de
Leopoldina, salvedos de las uhas del diablo.22

Death is a common event in the lives of these people. Old Rita
was poisoned, Correntino was beaten to death, Matacabayo was killed by
a stray bullet and his son, Chiquifio, was murdered. The last two died
alone on the pampa with this epitaph, "Barro y flores de espinillo
para los dos pobres canallas."23

Thus we meet a series of people and scenes which have no real-
life counterpart in history, but take on life and seem real enough to
appear not only possible but probable.

Superstition, misery, brutality, violence and a preoccupation
with sex occur often in this novel. Amorim has presented the pictur-
esque and spiritual affinity of these lonely people of the plains,
along with their sensuality, crudeness and brutality. The author
himself writes:

Today, correcting a new edition of La carreta, I realize that in
this story of women wandering in an ox cart over the plains with
their alarming miseries, I had my strongest theme.2

The characters are realistically human but not always well
drawn. Some of them are heard of only once, and others like Chaves,

Chiquifio and Matacabayo appear here and there throughout the book.

Amorim loves his plains as we see in this paragraph which

 

221bid., 184.

23Ibid., 134.

24The Horse and His Shadow (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,

1943), p. ix.

32
describes not only the beauty and loneliness of it, but the hope that
lies there for the future.

A uno y otro lado del camino, las tierras laboradas ofrecian un
armonioso paisaje. Hondonadas y cuestas, abierta en surcos la
tierra negra, infundien en el animo un estado noble de amor al
trabajo. La entrafia partida por el arado exhalaba un olor pene-
trante. Parelelos los surcos, determinaban un orden perfecto en
las ideas de los que los contemplaban. A_lo lejos, un rancho daba
la sensaci6n de la propiedad, lo que llaman e1 progreso lento y
seguro. Un labriego, de pie en el medio de la tierra arada,
aparecia como surgiendo del surco. Alta y fornida estaca de

carne y hueso, que traia a la mente una idea sana y alentadora.
Imagenes de salud y de vida surgian a1 contemplar la labor realizada
tal vez por aquel ejemplar humano, de pie sobre la tierra. Aquel
hombre era un poco arbol y otro poco bestia de labranza. Era une
presencia sugerente.

Some critics have remarked on the book's realistic aspects and
its originality: "un libro crudo, amargo, pero original y de recia
contexture."26 The carreta provided the means by which to present new
scenes and characters--a method which is common today on our television
screens. Amorim did not capitalize on it as writers do today since he
did not use similar vehicles in later works.

This book is naturalistic in tone; it may be, however, that one's
sense of morals will protest against some of its aspects.

Con la intervenci6n de esta clase de gente y de la de algunos
paisanos de los suburbios pueblerinos, Amorim.tej16 una trama, y
de elle sali6 L§_carreta, novela bien escrita, de valores esti-
‘mables, por momentos interesante, pero concluye por hastiarnos con

tantos tipos y acciones repulsivos y acanallados.

There is the breath of reality in the human emotions and actions, but

 

2§L£.Carreta’ 5th ed. (Buenos Aires: Editorial Claridad, 1942),
p. 67.

26Alberto Zum Felde, Proceso intelectual del Uruguay y_critica
dehgu literature (Montevideo, 1941), p. 613-614.

27Domingo A. Caillava, Historia de la literature gauchesca en
el Uruguay (Montevideo, 1945), p. 142- 143.

33
the poverty, misery and degradation of these wandering people in their
hopeless situation eventually cause boredom.
La_carreta, first published in 1932 and now in its seventh
Spanish edition, has sold more copies than any of Amorim's other works.
It has been translated into German by V. Rodewald Grebin, into French

by Francis de Miomandre, and into Italian.

[EL PAISANO AGUILAR--RURAL LIFE SUBDUES CIVILIZATION:

Another novel of the gaucho, El paisano Aguilar, first appeared

 

in 1934. It is in its fifth Spanish edition, the last printing of which
was in 1958. In 1959 it was translated into Portuguese. It relates
nature's conquest of a young man who has spent many years in an urban
setting and then is forced to return to the country. In this book

Amorim combines his own experiences as a young estanciero and as a city

 

dweller to depict Pancho Aguilar, the protagonist, who has been educated
by his parents for city life and then as the only surviving heir has to
assume charge of the family ranch, "E1 Palenque", near the Brazilian
border. Here he finds himself in conflict with the values of two dif-
ferent environments and the two contrary halves of his own nature. The
ranch is a very lonely place with only the servants and a radio for
company. His cook, Juliana, becomes ill; before she dies she begs
Pancho to look after her daughter, Malvina, who works for Don Cayetano.
Don Cayetano, Melvina's father, refuses to recognize her as his daughter
and lusts for her virginity. When Juliana dies, Malvina stays on as
Pancho's cook and eventually bears him sons. He makes occasional trips
to town but soon becomes bored and homesick for the ranch. He ignores

his old girl friend, Sofia, who lives in the city. Then tragedy strikes:

34
his young son dies and drought kills his animals. He is about to go
into bankruptcy when he meets some smugglers on his property. They
persuade him to take his cattle to virgin land in the North. The herd
is caught in a flash flood and his faithful retainer, Don Farias, loses
his life trying to save the animals. Pancho is greatly upset by the
loss but Malvina consoles him. As the story ends we find him in town
for Christmas, but he becomes lonesome and returns to the ranch to be
with the mother of his sons for New Years.

Pancho Aguilar's proud spirit is buffeted about by nature and
people. He makes the same mistakes and falls into the same vices as
did his forbears despite his education. Thus he loses all the benefits
of his education and eventually cmmes to vegetate like a true gaucho;
city civilization is conquered by the solitude of the 22922 in Pancho's
soul.28

Pancho has the psychology and characteristics of a true gaucho
and the heritage of the gauchos in his blood. His parents expected
him to become a city dweller, but the city bored him and he yearned
for the country to the extent that his friends teased him and called
him the country boy, "El paisano". When he was forced to manage "El
Palenque" himself, he found he was unable to handle the task. He was
dissatisfied with his existence there for he disliked the solitude,
the monotony and sameness of life. After he had talked with the
smugglers he got the urge to roam, free as a gyspy, in the North

where there would be excitement, adventure, less social order and

 

28Domingo A. Caillava, Historia d2 13 literature gauchesa 22
'31 Uruguay (Montevideo, 1945), p. 148.

35'
freedom from his responsibilities. The gaucho lacked adaptability,
initiative and perseverance for work. Pancho was irritated when a
cattle seller refused to take his check and requested cash, but the
longer he remained on the ranch, the more he recalled from his child-
hood, and these ways came to please him. "E1 paisano" could not adapt
himself to the city nor to life on the plains. He lacked initiative
to try new methods on his ranch and the perseverance to continue trying
when things went wrong. His first thoughts seem to be "escape". He
didn't love his sweetheart nor his mistress, but herely accepted them
in his time of physical need and used them for companionship. It is
here that Amorim begins the thread of annihilation of the gaucho which

continues on into his other gaucho works. The gaucho paisano who could

 

not adapt himself to the new ways of life brought by the European
immigrant was going to be exterminated by European progress and industry
much as José Hernandez described it years earlier in Martin Fierro.29
German Garcia too, expresses the idea of the criollo who disliked the
city and new methods which were brought into his life by immigrants
from far away lands.30 These new people were slowly going to displace
those who could not and would not adapt themselves to their changing
environment. The whole structure of society seemed to be suppressing
the gaucho and his natural instincts.

This novel contains more plot than did Lg carreta, but the

architecture is still not strong. Notable in this novel as in

 

29Juan B. Gonzalez, "Letras argentinas--Una novela gauchesca",
Nosotros, No. 4 (Buenos Aires, 1936), p. 446-448.

30German Garcia, La_novela argentina (Buenos Aires, 1952),
p. 155-156.

 

36
'LE carreta are the sharp, penetrating observations of the people and
countryside.
Muchas de estas observaciones se formulan en metaforas que
pertenecen a la familia de la literature "de vanguardia". S610
que en Amorim estas nuevas metaforas, aun las audazmente
expresionistas, entran en el relato con naturalidad, sin cambiar
la voz, sin atropellarse.31

There is little optimism and joy in this book which reflects
conditions on the Uruguayan pampa during the depression years. The
whole story is permeated with the desolation and loneliness of the
pampas and the struggle to break away from the isolation as well as
the responsibilities of a father and rancher. Aguilar is constantly
changing his plans, for he cannot seem to find his own little niche in
life. He proved to his workers that he could be a just and astute
master when he decided the case of the stolen hens successfully. He
could be obstinate like his neighbor, Don Cayetano, the brutal, feudal
master whose word was law on his ranch, but he lacked strength of
character.

Amorim gives us his view of the old criollo politics in the
words of Dr. Coppa, whereby the rich supported the officials, who in
turn aided the feudalistic ranchers.

The women in the story are typical of that period--submissive,
hard working and quietly suffering individuals who knew little joy and
happiness in their hard lives. Juliana has cooked over the hearths

of numerous ranches. Her experiences with men have made her impassive

and indifferent to their actions as in this dialogue: "ILuego, sefior,

 

31Enrique Anderson-Imbert, Historia de la literature hispano-

americana, Vol. 11 (Mexico, 1961), p. 197-198:__

37
luego! {Que se me quema e1 asau! iDéjeme ehora!"32 Malvina, is
timid and insecure until she becomes mistress of "E1 Palenque" and
then she begins to assert herself and lose her feeling of inferiority.
She probably hopes that Pancho will marry her and recognize their
children as his heirs. Pancho Aguilar seems to have one redeeming
feature: he loves his children, because he cuts short his trip in the
city to return to them. The wise old man, Don Farias, is the confident
of everybody. He helps people by listening to their problems and
allowing each one to solve his own affairs in his own way.

El paisano Aguilar has been compared to 222_Seggndo Sombra for
its importance, depth and beauty. Some even consider its plot to be
justly comparable.

§l_paisano Aggilar crea un tipo a1 que Amorim debi6 y pudo
destacar con los netos, perfiles de otros de la novela americana.
Su feliz interpretaci6n, su animado estilo, asi lo hacen pensar.
Con toda, la vision de la naturaleza en Amorim se esfuma ante su
c0ncepcion de la conducta de las protagonistas.
It is praise enough for a novel to be compared with one as outstanding
as _l_)_o_n mido Sombra.

Amorim wanted to portray country life as it actually existed
without the duels, fiestas and other activities which made it seem
romantic. He succeeded in the scenes of every day happenings and
customs on the ranch and the surrounding countryside. The descrip-

tions of the loneliness, the scenery and buildings are exceptionally

impressive.

 

32§l_23$§§gg_éggila£, 2nd ed. (Buenos Aires: Editorial Claridad,
1937), p. 68.

33Luis Alberto Sanchez, Proceso y.contenido dg.la_novela HisEano-
americana (Madrid, 1953), p. 281, 339.

38
Thus the cycle of the legendary gaucho, which began with Jesé

Hernandez's Martin Fierro and appeared to end with Don Segundo Sombra,

 

seems to continue with Amorim's interpretation of the gaucho in.§l

paisano Aguilar.

No he abatido Amorim a nuestro gaucho; 10 ha renovado solamente.
Le ha hecho adopter para su comodidad cosas estandardizadas de
'hoy dia como la radio y el automovil, sin que tales y otros
artefactos del progreso, y el estudio, sobre todo--lo que por
cierto es sorprendente--modificaran en un apice su idiosincrasia
de paisano. La inconformidad gauchesca, 1a cobardia frente a los
obstaculos diarios, la carencia de espiritu de empresa, e1 natural
fatalista y haragan del criollo se salvan intactos en Aguilar.34

EL'CABALLO‘Y'§U_ SOMBRA--THE SEEDS OF PROGRESS TAKE HOLD:

Amorim wrote §l_caballo y_§2.sombra, considered by most critics
to be his best novel, in 1941. It unites all the themes of his earlier
works to depict a contemporary picture of the pampa.

El caballo y_su_ sombre gathers all these themes (Tangarupa,

La carreta and El paisano Aguilar) and resolves them in the

light of today' 8 —life. The horse Don Juan represents the

traditions that made life on the plains beautiful. Bica,

the inarticulate peasant girl, holds in her provident hands

a sane and hopeful solution to all the struggles I have

reflected.3
For the first time men drop their passive role and take an active
part in shaping their destiny. Amorim presents the decay and down-
fall of the feudalistic ranches with their gaucho elements, and
pictures the growth of new towns, new ideas and new blood brought by

the immigrants. Amorim believes that the future progress and well-

being of Uruguay is closely tied to these European immigrants.

 

34Juan B. Gonzalez, "Letras argentinas--Una novela gauchesca",
Nosotros, No. 4 (Buenos Aires, 1936), p. 445.

35The Horse and His Shadow (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,
1943), p. ix, x.

39

The concluding sentence of §l_paisano Aguilar--"aun no he

 

comenzado e1 dialogo entre el hombre y la llanura",36 is used as the
epigraph of'gl caballo yD§g.sombra and serves to unite the two novels.

The plot involves two brothers. Marcelo Azara was educated in
the city and belongs to a political party which is trying to improve
the country by bringing in European immigrants. Marcelo is progressive.
His brother, Nico, lives on the estancia "El Palenque" which is the
ancient estate of the Aguilar family--his wife, Adelita, being the
last surviving heir. Nico symbolizes rural feudalism. A typical
gaucho, he lives in the past and resents the parceling of land and the
intrusion of foreigners with new ideas and customs who have come to
till the land. He is a rancher and not a farmer. His resentment and
antagonism is not unlike that between the ranchers, the farmers and
sheepmen of our own West. He plows furrows across his land to isolate
the ranch and prevent the foreigners from Colonia using his land as a
public highway. An Italian immigrant, Toribio Rossi, deformed by the
First WOrld wsr, gets stuck in the muddy furrows while taking his small
son to the doctor and the child dies. The Italian challenges Nico and
they kill one another. Marcelo returns to Montevideo after an affair
with Bica, the servant girl.37 Bica bears Marcelo's son and Adelita
gives her a parcel of their father's land along the river.

The first half of the book concerns the life of the people who

live on "El Palenque" estancia and the stallion, "Don Juan", whose

 

3§§l.2§$§332.ég2il§£, 2nd ed. (Buenos Aires: Editorial Claridad,

1937), p. 200.

37Bica is the daughter of Pancho Aguilar and Malvina. Adelita,
then, is her half sister although Bica is unaware of this relationship.

4O
arrival brings new blood to the horses on the ranch.
The gaucho and the feudalistic master are symbolized in the
character of Nico Azara.

Demostraba idéntico dominio sobre lo grande y lo pequefio, sobre
el coraz6n y las manos de Adelita, sobre las cerraduras de la
despensa, sobre el destino de las majadas.38

He obstinately and steadfastly refuses to accept progress. He is the
true gaucho to his very death when he refuses to let his workers inter-
fere and save him from.Rossi's knife. The criollo code of honor must

be upheld.

. . . Cuando se pelea en su ley--se oy6 decir a uno de los tres
paisanos, es de criollo respetar a1 que gana . . . y al que
pierde!

Era una voz criolla, eran palabras de hombre, tendidas a1
sol de la mafiana. Las habie pronunciado uno de ellos, pero el
pensamiento sonaba parejo en las tres cabezas gauchas.

. . . [No 1e hagan nada! ins 1e hagan nada! . . . pudo decir
Nicolas Azara. La sangre que brotaba de su boca 1e impedia
hablar. Pero sus peones, los paisanos de "El Palenque", conocen
muy bien las leyes del campo abierto, las del bajo . . . Y las
saben cumplir.39

Marcelo represents the city way of life and thinking. He is a
part of the progressive movement and sees the need for improvements on
the ranch as this passage indicates:

La estancia entera estaria alerta para recibir al padrillo,
porque en "El Palenque" los acontecimientos sacuden por igual

a los patrones y al paisanaje. Y--pensaba Marcelo--nada menos
que un caballo de carrera con su "pedigree" como un titulo
nobiliario. Era un paso adelante en el refinamiento caballar,
aparejado a la modernizaci6n de la estancia. No podria ser de
otra manera. Primero, toros; luego, carneros; ahora se trataba
de un padrillo importado de Buenos Aires, un verdadero lujo
para “E1 Palenque". La sangre de los reproductores de "El

 

38El caballo y.su sombra, lst ed. (Buenos Aires: Club del

Libro A.L'.'X., 1941), p738.

39Ibid., 215.

41

Palenque" no mereci6 mucho celo en otros tiempos y se comen-
taba la deficiencia de sus planteles.4o

Amorim has portrayed the three feminine characters of this book
well. Adelita seems out of place on the estancia; she is kind, under-
standing and intelligent--a delicate flower among thorns. She can see
the advantages and progress that the immigrants have brought. She
tells Marcelo how mail used to come once a week, and now it comes "die
por medio". There is "tierra labrada y los sembrados". There are new
and different agricultural methods. The £g§2§_even.work their tractors
at night. The colony wants a port so it can ship grain down the river,
and one of the immigrants is working on a machine to press oil from.the
sunflower seeds more easily. She can see how the immigrants have
improved the area.

Bica, Adelita's half sister, is a simple gauche respected by
the men for her horse-breaking prowess. Adelita describes Bica to
Marcelo:

[Belarminal : . . La llamabamos Bica.--Siempre se rebel6 a

toda educacion, pero fue de tiernos sentimientos. . . . Por

su mania de cultivar plantas olorosas, se distingui6 entre

todas las chinitas de por aqui.
Bica has remained a virgin until Marcelo uses her as a toy. He dis-
covers that though she is a gauche she lacks some of the usual attri-
butes. "Les caracteristicas de sumisidn campesina, de humilidad, no

predominaban en su aspecto."42

Dofia Micaela, the Azara brothers' mother, is described as

 

4oibid., 13.

411bid., 21.

421bid., 34.

42
avaricious and miserly. Because she wears rubber heels to sneak up
on conversations, the servents call her "1a rate". She worries about
expenses and carefully hoards the rations and provisions.

The second part of the book is concerned primarily with life in
Colonia which is populated with Jews, Russians, Poles, Lithuanians
and Germans contemptously and collectively called EEEEE by the
paisanos. They are not accepted by the natives for they are hard
workers and use modern agricultural methods. They fight the ranchers
in their own small way by using their animals for food and by cutting
fences which were deliberately placed to force them to go miles out of
their way to attend school or go to town. They want a port on the
river, but have to cross Azara property first.

The story is full of symbolism. Amorim seems to indicate that
there must be a blending of the old and the new if Uruguay is to
progress. The principle of mixing the blood lines of animals to
improve the stock, as in the surreptitious mating of "Don Juan", the
pedigreed stallion, with the mere of common stock, parallels that of
the humans--in this case the son of Bica and Marcelo who combines
peasant stock with the landed aristocracy. It is hoped the child will
contain the most desirable qualities of the two classes. It is this
new, strengthened strain.which will be best able to meet the problems

of the future. This same theme is repeated in La_desembocadura (1958).

 

Don Nico's death represents a crumbling of the foundations of
the old feudalism which kept the land in the hands of a favored few.
As the new immigrants settle the land, the big estates will gradually
shrink, and the land will lose its desolation and loneliness. Adelita

gives Bica a parcel of land from the main ranch, "El Palenque". This

43
is only the beginning of the division of the big estates which Harley
Oberhelman describes as essential, in Amorim's view, if Uruguay's
agricultural problems are to be solved.43 Mechanization is forcing
the horse to become a sombre. Machinery is rapidly replacing the horse
in an economy which is also changing from animals and their products to
grains and like crops. Thus a new type of individual is needed to meet
the demands of this new and ever changing economy and way of life.
Enrique Amorim believes this is the key to Uruguay's future.

The scenes of pampa life and customs are drawn with the care of
an artist. Amorim.puts a great deal of color and emotion into common,
every day events and scenes such as this description of twilight on
the estancia.

Caia 1e tarde. El crepusculo embellecia la estancia. Apretados
y negros nubarrones hacia el norte y el sur. Por una abertura
entre los densos cirros del poniente, se colaba e1 sol. Un lampo
dorado abarcaba la arboleda, encendiendo el verde que contrastaba
con las espesas nubes de los restantes puntos cardinales. El sol,
resplendeciente en la brecha, como en una ventana. Las vacas
miraban hacia el poniente, en extrano éxtasis, con los cuernos
erguidos, para que la luz se los dorase. Los pajaros--el misto,
la tijereta nerviosa, e1 vivo benteveo--se dejaban bafiar por aquella
claridad prodigiosa. Colocados estratégicamente en las ramas mas
altas, inmovilizados por la luz. Los afiosos erboles, graves,
solemnes, despedian el dia campesino con esos adioses lentos que
manda la brisa vespertina. Los troncos lucian sus heridas y las
arrugas de los ahos. Una pareja de horneros alardeaba saludable
elegria, en el pretil de la casa. El primer fog6n alzeba un humo
ceniciento, en columna impecable hasta mas arriba de las ruedas
del molino. El Angelus reducia a todos a un silencio religioso.
Si un ternero mugia en el encierro, su lamento se estiraba como
un minucioso tiento de lonja.44

 

43Harley D. Oberhelman, "Enrique Amorim as an Interpreter of

Rural Uruguay", Books Abroad, Vol. 34 (1960), p. 117.
44E1 caballo y_su som r§,lst ed. (Buenos Aires: Club del Libro,
A. L. A., 1941), p. 44, 45.

44
Amorim has also given us descriptions of the mating process of the
horses and the flood where Don Ramiro was trapped in a tree with a
deadly assortment of animals, insects and reptiles. It was here that
he was bitten by a snake which caused his blindness.

Amorim's character descriptions have become stronger. Some of
the characters of El paisano Aguilar seem to return in this novel.
Bica, the daughter of Pancho Aguilar and Malvina, parallels the life
of her mother and her grandmother. Wise old Don Farias reappears in
the form of Don Ramiro, the blind old gaucho who in his dark world is
full of wisdom, advice and knowledge of his surroundings, and is the
confident of the fatherless Bica. Don Cayetano Trinidad appears in
the character of Don Saturnino Ghana, the feudal rancher who lives near
the Azaras. It is the opposing and complementing characters of this
book which give the story color and life.

This novel is a "belle e inolvidable fusi6n de la naturaleza,
e1 animal y el hombre."45 Amorim has painted a rural scene with in-
tensity and realism. He has drawn together elements in the rural
setting which need improvement and has given possible solutions. Thus
he hopes Uruguay's social, economic and cultural problems and programs
will be improved. The continuity has greatly improved over his pre-
vious novels. The language of the paisano adds authenticity to the
story. This novel, which climaxes the first series of four gaucho
novels and is probably Amorim's best work in this area, in a sense,

continues the historical progress of rural Uruguay.

 

45Enrique Mallea Abarca, "Sobre El caballo y su sombre",
Nosotros, XV, No. 67 (Buenos Aires, 1941), p. 96-100.

45
In a letter to the writer, Amorim's wife gives us these back-
ground statements:

No 10 afirmo categ6ricamente, pero creo que mi marido estaba
satisfecho con su novela, El caballo 2 £2 sombre. Segun la gran
mayoria de los criticos la juzgan como teniendo la mayor continui-
dad. Era sin embargo un escritor insatisfecho y muy rare vez
estaba totalmente contento con lo que hacia. Creo que sus
criticos estan de acuerdo en pensar que de sus novelas de la

primera época, _L§_ carreta, fl Eaisano Aggilar y El caballo z §_u_
sombre son las que mas gustan.

Another critic has given this review in reference to §l_paisano Aguilar
and §_1_ caballo y §_1_1_ sombre.

. . . novelas de estancias que desembocan en parcelas para
chacareros. Se presentan en ambas personajes de robusta
constituci6n y son totalmente logradas una y otra, de buena
arquitectura. Estudios de tipos y pintura de ambientes, se
enfoca sobre todo 1a psicologia de los habitantes de nuestro
campo rioplatense, tan similar en ambas mérgenes: los que
viven en el pasado ya lejano, los que despiden e1 presente y los
que haran e1 futuro; e1 viejo criollo, el paisano en el que
luchan como pareja fuerza la ciudad y la estancia, y el nuevo
poblador de la campifie, llegado de tierras lejanas. Incor-
porando éste, Amorim nos coloca mas cerca de la realidad del
campo de ahora. No poniendolo en sus libros, los novelistas
gauchescos, incluso Lynch, hen sido parciales porque mostraron
s6lo una faz 0 un aspecto de nuestro ruralismo. 7

It is for these reasons that the books have been so popular, because
the author has given us historical fiction from the viewpoint of a
sociologist and a man who loves his country. §_1_ caballo y _sA1_ sombre
is the first of Amorim's works to end on an optimistic note, "La
tierra se leventa con el sol. Esta amaneciendo."48 This demonstrates

his faith in the future.

 

46Personal letter to writer, April 26, 1962.

47German Garcia, §§_novele Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1952),
p. 155-156.

48Elcaballo y;§g_sombra, lst ed. (Buenos Aires: Club del
Libro, A.L.A., 1941), p. 221.

46
The book has two Spanish editions. Silveira Peiroto translated
it into Portuguese in 1943. There was an English translation, also in
1943, by Lt. Richard O'Connell and James Graham Lujan. It was trans-
lated into the Czech language in 1950. The latest edition is a 1962

printing done in Peking, China.

.Lé L A S HIZO CON AGUA--THE CONTINUED BREAKDOWN OF TRADITION:

 

EE.122§.§E.E$EQ.E£E.EEE§ (1944) pictures a further breakdown of
feudal customs and gaucho life. The younger generation is beginning
to see the misery and oppression around them and wants to do something
about it. The fermenting gaucho revolution never quite gets started
because reforms appear in the new era and the gaucho, of course, is
always outnumbered. The scene is presented from a contemporary urban
perspective by the protagonist, Silvie Guerrero de River6s, who was
born in Paris but brought up in the provincial city of Tacuaras, Uruguay.

Silvia, an only child, is spoiled, used to having her own way
and being independent. She grew up with one interest and love--music,
and hated the ranch, "Los Pingos", where so much violence and bru-
tality had occurred in the past and where such misery still existed.

She has numerous suitors but is interested in Leonardo Corti,

a writer who sympathizes with the peones. It is probably this person
who first opens her eyes to the social and physical problems and in-
justices on the ranches and causes her to feel compassion for the
victims, but Leonardo is murdered and she is left disorientated and
alone. Giving in to her father's plea for an heir to the ranch, she
marries Don Raul River6s.

She returns to the ranch after her father's death. Goyo Lanza,

47
who had left the ranch after her father's funeral, also returns, and
the two young people find themselves strangely attracted to one another.
Goyo had found a pot of gold which was mentioned in Don Jer6nimo's
will. Raul is interested in obtaining this additional wealth imme-
diately.

Silvia and Goyo go looking for the gold, but decide to leave it
where it is. The rains fall, for the moon is made of water. The river
floods and isolates the ranch leaving the two young people in solitude,
for Raul has left the ranch never to return.

Again Amorim has brought to life the brutality and cruelty of
the ranchers as witnessed in one of the scenes. Gregorio Lanza,

Goyo's father, was a horsebreaker. He so angered Don Jer6nimo's father
that the latter caused Gregorio to be trampled and killed by a herd of
wild horses. Don Jer6nimo spent most of his life trying to make up

for the boy's loss. The people lived in squalid ranchos with little
food and clothing and no money for medical services. It was Silvia
who became aware of these oppressive conditions when her father
wouldn't get down from his horse to see the alarming misery of his
workers.

The foundations of feudal customs continue to disintegrate in
this novel. In his will Don Jer6nimo leaves Goyo Lanza some property.
Thus the breakdown of the large holdings expressed by Amorim in EL
caballo y_§g sombre is continued in this book. Thanks to his daughter's
pleading, the old man has also left grants of money to build a school
and a hospital on the estancia for his workers. This is the first time
the aristocracy has considered the needs of their workers beyond shelter

and food.

48

There is also a suggestion that Silvia and Goyo find themselves
compatible, perhaps in love, and with the departure of Raul River6s,
the scene is left open for a breakdown of social barriers. Since these
two people do not belong to the same social class, it is a big step
toward individual equality without regard to financial status and
physical heritage.

Up to this point the women in Amorim's novels have been quiet,
submissive, and long-suffering individuals with no personal freedom.

In comparison with the gentle Adelita of §l_caballo y §2_sombra, Silvia
is domineering and authoritative. This could be the result of having
been an only child or of having been her father's child. She is unsure
of herself, wanting to make decisions, and yet not sure enough of her-
self to make them. Only as the story nears its end does she make
decisions with wisdom, leaving the headstrong, obstinate characteristics
.behind her.

The superstitions of the country people are beautifully woven
into this novel. we find May Vieja is the wise old lady whom.the
paisanos depend upon to answer their questions and solve their problems.
It is she who tells Goyo where to find the crock of gold and reveals
that his life is intertwined with that of Silvia. There is a sense of
the supernatural in the scene at the river where Goyo witnesses a nude
woman on an inaccesible rock. There is the feeling that legend, history,
fantasy and superstition have been blended to form a reality.

An interesting scene portrayed by Amorim is that in which the
locusts descend in swarms on the ranch. Goyo brings some peones to the
ranch to help save the garden. Silvia thankfully gives them cigarettes

and food and treats.them so kindly that they don't know how to react

49
because they have never before been treated with consideration and
thoughtfulness by their employers.

Graphic descriptions of the countryside, the people and customs
make this book interesting. Social injustice is slowly beginning to
dissipate due to the proddings of the younger generation. AmorimFs
attacks on social inequalities and injustices will continue in his
other works where they become the major theme in most cases. It is
interesting that Enrique Amorim, one of the favored class, should feel
these injustices so intensely and put them into written form so accu-
rately, when he viewed them from the "other side of the fence." Harley
Oberhelman suggests that the book belongs to "la literature de
vanguardie" because it acts as a transitional step to later works of
Amorim which deal for the most part with urban settings and leftist
political tendencies.49

This book does fill the gap between the gaucho life as such and
the gradual change beginning to take place in the rural scene, but it

lacks the dramatic intensity of the former novels of country life.

‘AA DESEMBOCADURA--HISTORY UNFOLDS:

The year 1958 saw the introduction of LE desembocadura, in which
a dead man relates the activities of his family, half of which is
illegitimate. The author tells of the growth and civilizing process
which takes place as people move in and populate the area, and of how
the two branches of the family react to the conflict between material

progress, wealth, freedom, and other values which are rooted in the

 

49Harley D. Oberhelman, "Enrique Amorim as an Interpreter of
Rural uruguay", Books Abroad, Vol. 34 (1960), p. 118.

 

50
worth and dignity of man.

When the tractors began to plow the fields around Salto, they
brought to light some human bones. These bones were the remains of
the founder of the Montes dynasty and it is this man, Manuel Montes,
who tells the reader how the country developed with the first white
settlers and the part that he and his heirs played in its development.
His Spanish wife loved her animals more than her husband and children.
One of his worker's daughters bore him a blue-eyed son, and thus begins
the two branches of the family, the Montes and the Lope. He and his
eldest son were killed in battle, but he has followed the progress of
his offspring. His wife brought her relatives from Spain. The ranch
degenerated under their management and she returned to Spain. The
riffraff were dispersed, but they built a small village near the ranch
and called it Corral Abierto. The Montes family went into politics;
the Lope family went into the professions, medicine and teaching. The
fortified houses on the frontier became ranches. They began to brand
animals and build fences. Windmills pumped water and mechanized
machinery became commonplace. New settlers came and developed ranches.
Manuel Montes' great-grandson writes poetry, and Manuel Mbntes muses
that he will get nowhere as a poet, but perhaps poetry from the Lopes
is better than the quarrels and political insincerity of the Montes
family. One of the Montes opened a machinery agency and spoke as
though machinery alone would save the workers. The men who came with
the tractors to plow the land expected to find a pot of gold and not
human bones. Amorim concludes that time has buried those first con-
quests of the land and now museums hold the tools of progress. "De

ese museo sali6 la misi6n que terminaria con un estudio adecuado a la

51
culture de la época."50

This novel spans a period of time beginning with the first
settlers in Northern Uruguay and follows the two branches of a family
through their ups and downs and those of Uruguay until the period after
the Second World war when mechanization brought a change into the lives
of all the people. Although the first Manuel Montes is proud of his
heirs and the way they have grown along with their country, he seems
most proud of the great-grandson who writes poetry and, because he is
the product of a Lope and a commoner mother, is all the stronger for
it.

Amorim's book is a "curious mixture of naturalistic detail and
attempts at lyricism" in which the author is suggesting that uruguay's
poets and idealists may be the country's salvation in the years to
come.51

There is no one outstanding, strong character in this novel,
but there is a theme previously expressed in §l_caballo y §2_sombra
which appears again. This is the precept that, in order to progress,
the old families need new blood so that the best qualities of the two
individuals may be vested in the offspring. This will then forge the
‘makings of a new, more superior individual who may well be the leader
of tomorrow. Hope for the future lies in the youth of a nation.

The story is related in a manner such as one would use in telling

of happenings in one's own life. It expresses the poignant aspects of

 

SQEA desembocadura (Buenos Aires: Editorial Losada, 1958),
p. 105. (English translation by writer.)

51Dorothy Mthhon, "La desembocadura by Enrique Amorim”,
Books Abroad (1960), p. 164.

52
the rather vague characters--their hopes, their disappointments, their
joys and their accomplishments through the years. In a few pages the
whole history of an area unfolds before the reader's eyes in a vivid
panorama of progress. It also summarizes all the aspects of the previous
gaucho novels and unites them with the present under the author's hand.
This book, which combines rural and urban aspects, is probably one of
Amorim's best works in the last decade.

Amorimis gaucho novels depict rural Uruguay from the turn of the
century to the present. Tangarupa provides the setting--the pgmg_.
Lg,carreta and El paisano Aguilar etch the theme of physical and
spiritual solitude which held the pampas in its grasp. Ei.caballo y_
22 sombre presents a breakdown of feudal customs and displays the first
hint of optimism which provides solutions for men's problems. _l_.§_ $23.9.
£9 ill-£9. £93 25.9.9. depicts a further breakdown of the gaucho heritage
as seen from an urban perspective, and finally Ag_desembocadura sum-
marizes the other four novels in terms of progress and knits them to
the present.

Enrique Amorim's contribution to gaucho literature is that he
was able to lay aside the romantic stereotype of the gaucho and pre-
sent him as a ordinary human being with normal faults and attributes.
He pictures the gaucho as he lived during the early part of the
twentieth century--not as a romantic, heroic individual, but one who
had serious problems and was often unable to meet their challenge--

a gaucho or paisano who had difficulty settling down to one job,
accepting responsibility and adapting to the changes which progress
brought. Amorim's gaucho novels have filled the links in the chain

between Don Seggndo Sombra and the present.

53

The clear-cut characterizations, the objective, realistic and
colorful descriptions of the Uruguayan countryside, the people, customs
and life there leave a lasting impression on the mind of the reader.
Much of his written material, we know from his life, is autobiographical.
His animal portraits are particularly charming for their color and the
obvious love with which he drew them. This is evident in his descrip-
tions of the stallion, "Don Juan" and the mere, "La Marinera". He has
developed "una concepci6n lawrenciana del hombre en sus relaciones con
la naturaleza”52 as seen in the pages of £2 carreta, Tangarupa and El

paisano Aguilar.

 

Amorim has shown a deep understanding and knowledge of the rural
scene where man is closely bound to nature and the land and dependent
upon them for his very existence. He has portrayed the influences of
feudal servitude in all its human degradation and misery. Amorim,
at heart a literary social worker, could see the unfavorable conditions
under which so many of the workers lives--a feudalistic master who held
their very life in his powerful hands, the poor pay, the long, hard
working days, the miserable shelters, and the lack of schools, medical
and cultural facilities--all were depicted in the lives of his people.
He painted the paisanos' superstitions and beliefs which bound and
hampered their lives, and the spiritual and physical battle between
the old and new customs and methods which progress brought, particu-
larly in agriculture, with the advent of the European immigrants.

Enrique Amorim learned the art of the true story teller when as

 

 

52Fernando Alegria, Breve historia g2_lg_novela hispanoamericana
(Mexico, 1959), p. 234.

54
a child he sat around the campfires with the gauchos absorbing their
stories and developing a sensitive interest in their heritage. Thus
he has unfolded some astute characters, rich and poor, lovable and
despicable, domineering and subservient, male and female, with all the
human foibles of their time and culture. One will remember the wise,
old, blind gaucho, Don Ramiro; stubborn Nicolas Azara; gentle Adelita
and unfortunate Bica from _E_l_._ caballo 1 s3 sombra, or Don Cayetano
Trinidad, the feudal rancher, and Pancho Aguilar in El paisano Aguilar
or willful Silvia of _L_a_ .1325 _s_§_ 111.52 go_n_ Ag_1_1_a_. His deep psychological
penetrations have shown the inner conflicts and aspirations of some
of his characters.

A love for his country and its future caused him to point out the
need for better breeding animals, more diversified agriculture, modern
methods of farming and ranching, and the parceling of the big estates.
Amorim has suggested in a subtle way that social injustice has and
continues to hamper Uruguay's progress as a nation. New blood in family
and animal lines will do much to improve the offspring of the two. The
breaking up of the large estancias and land holdings will help to
develop a middle class and do away with the wealth that belongs to a
few while the majority are very poor and dependent on the rich, some-
times for their very existence. It will also assure better use of the
land.

Finally, every individual has a contribution to make to the
lnation's progress. The politicians may run the country, but the common
laborers, the doctors, the teachers, the artists, the poets and all
the others are necessary and will influence the development of the

country. This idea is well expressed in EE desembocadura. The strength

55
of a nation is invested in all of its people.
Thus one can see why critics acclaim Enrique Amorim's gaucho
novels as his outstanding contribution to literature. They have turned

out to be his key to fame and financial success.

CHAPTER III
THE NOVELS WITH POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS

Social injustice is not a new idea in the works of Enrique
Amorim, but never before has it been the main theme of the story, and
never before has it been associated with political ideologies. Amorim
was interested in people, and he was sensitive to all the meanings
implied in the words "freedom", "equality" and "justice". The novels
of his last years are filled with the inequalities which society and
people impose on one another. These elements are most evident in the
works which have been translated for the Communist bloc countries. In
all probability these works are read more for the description of a
decadent, capitalist world than for their literary content and style,
but they express some of the problems which Amorim felt society should

be aware of and do something to remedy.

NUEVE LUNAS SOBRE NEUQUEN--AMORIM' 3 FIRST POLITICAL NOVEL:

Nggzghlgggg.§22£g.Neuguén (1946) is a political novel which
expresses the newly found political ideologies of Amorim. It describes
the experiences of the Communists as prisoners under the Per6n dictator-
ship during WOrld war II. It reflects conditions in Buenos Aires at
the time and the indignant resentment the Communists felt at being
imprisoned when their mortal enemies, the Nazis, were allowed to roam
freely about the country.

Dieva Burman, a Jewess, has married José Hernandez. They both

56

57
belong to the Communist party which hates the Nazis who have a strong
foothold in Argentina. Less than a month after their marriage Jose is
taken prisoner along with some other men. They are tortured and then
sent to Neuquén, a concentration camp in Southern Argentina.

It is cold in the camp and the food is poor. There is little
light and the mail is heavily censored so no information can enter or
leave the walls of the prison. Dieva's letter telling of her pregnancy
is censored, and the rose petals from the grave of JOsé's mother are
removed from.e letter. The men in the camp who survive become more
firm in their beliefs as time passes. When the war ends they are among
those who wait at the dock for the return of the political refugees.

Amorim describes social injustices in en Argentina whose govern-
ment favored the Nazis and allowed them to develop on Argentine soil.
The plot is nearly non-existent. These conditions may have existed in
fact, but the material would have been no less dull if the fictional
characters had been omitted and the material presented as a documentary
account of existing conditions during that period.

This was Enrique Amorim's first work of propaganda, and it suffers
because it is just that--propaganda and nothing more. From the moment
JOsé cuts a clipping from.the papers which announces the Nazi's theme
song, "Mueran los judios", the reader is bombarded with artificial
dialogues and propaganda. The fervor is there, but the novel lacks
depth, form, content and artistic development. In my opinion, this
novel is a poor example of Enrique Amorim's talents as a writer.

In 1950 the book was translated into the Czech and Polish

languages.

58

EA; VICTORIA N2 VIENE sou--

 

.92 Victoria 22 viene sola (1952), which also has a Czech version

 

(1953), is the title of Amorim's second political work and also is a
phrase made popular by Stalin.1 It is a psychological study of two
young men. One grew up in poverty and has turned to Communism to fight
his way upward, and the other, who was born into an old, aristocratic
family, sympathizes with the downtrodden and suffers because of it.
This novel describes their struggle between what is expected and re-
quired of them in their respective classes, and what they themselves
wish to do and be.

Carlos Lista grew up on Luis' grandfather's ranch in extreme
poverty. He had to work at an early age and became a bricklayer. He
is a member of the Communist Party because he sees it as a means to
better the lives of other underpriviledged people like himself.

Dr. Luis Vera y Amaranto is a lawyer. His family was once
wealthy, but now all he has left is the town house. Even as a child he
was concerned with the problems of the less priviledged and has defended
persons unjustly accused.

Luis and Carlos become good friends, and Luis allows Carlos to
use his home for a meeting. Afterwards Luis receives notes threatening
his life. He becomes so upset that he forces the druggist at gun point
to give him some deadly poison because he would rather take poison than
be arrested and tortured by the police as a Communist sympathizer.

Luis confesses to his fiancé that he has long sympathized with

 

1Enrique Anderson-Imbert, Historia S2.l2 literature hispano-
americana, Vol. 11 (Mexico, 1961), p. 198.

59
the downtrodden, but that doesn't make him a Communist. This sympathy
has caused him trouble and heartache and loss of friends because he
is determined to stick by his convictions despite the pressures of
society.

This book is a political novel with all evident propaganda. It
describes the corruption and cruelty of the police force, and corruption
in government. There are the professional Communist agitators stirring
up trouble in the trades. The plot is abstract and the novel skips
around--darting from the present to childhood scenes and then back to
the present. Luis' character seems stronger, but more sensitive than
that of Carlos. Carlos is more stubborn and unyielding because he has
become hardened to social criticism and is better able to withstand
it. The characterizations of the two protagonists are distinctive.

The author suggests that social injustice and inequality exist
for the upper classes as well as the lower classes if one doesn't agree
with his fellowman. Amorim is suggesting that there is more than one
way to work out a problem, and sometimes one should be willing to face
up to social criticism to uphold his beliefs.

This novel may express some of the problems and criticisms en-
countered and endured by the author when he became a Party member.

He reminds one of his character Luis.

It can be said that Amorim showed a certain amount of personal
courage when he wrote these novels related to his political beliefs.

It was a step in a new direction as far as his literary career was con-
cerned, and it was an area which hadn't received much attention from
fiction writers in Latin America. However, his attempts at fiction

and propaganda have encountered the same pitfalls as those of other

’2

60

political writers. The story loses its objectivity, interest and
beauty through artificiality and forced propaganda. The characters
often tend to be abstract and the situations static, perhaps because of
the political situations and the spiritual disorder and discontent of
the times. A newspaperman and a friend writes:

He left himself open to criticism and perhaps a ruined career.

He was one of the priviledged class. There was no hope for a

political office because the Party didn't have one. There would

be no financial gain and he had no need of monetary rewards. He

wouldn't be popular with the majority for his actions and could

expect hostility and persecution. He had nothing to gain and

everything to lose for he was prepared to sacrifice and renounce

his social and economic position, family traditions, and his

education and very origin for a cause he believed to be just.
This takes a high caliber of personal courage and integrity for any
individual.

These two novels dealing with the Communist Party are not

comparable to his novels of country life, nor do they do justice to

his creative genius, but they undoubtedly have their place in Latin

American literature, if only as an experiment.

 

2Adolfo Silva Delgado, "Personalidad de Amorim: Hombre y
poeta", El Pueblo, Salto, July 29, 1960. (English Translation by the
writer.)

CHAPTER IV

NOVELS OF SOCIAL INJUSTICE

CORRAL ABIERTO--

In 1956 Corral Abierto, which was translated into Russian in

 

1958, appeared and described the life of a young man, who was brought
up in a slum area where he lived in the depths of misery, poverty,
filth, disease and degradation. It was an indictment against a society
which allowed such conditions to exist. It continues the theme of
inequitable social conditions and society's indifference to them.

Horacio (Costita) Costa, the seventeen year old protagonist of
the novel, was the owner of the knife which had killed a factory manager
in a big city. Although he was far from the scene of the crime and
had witnesses to prove it, he was detained in a juvenile delinquent's
home for a period of time and then released with the understanding that
he was to be carefully watched.

He got a job and saved his money so he could buy a new blue
suit. The first time he wore it he was taken to police headquarters
and held overnight with no explanation. His employer gave him good
references when the police came, but discharged him because he didn't
want anyone who was involved with the police.

He returned to his home, Corral Abierto, and became a carpenter.
From then on he was known as "El carpintero". He gained a strong hold

on the people because he listened to their troubles and helped them

61

62
when he could. ‘

The police were still interested in the factory manager's death
and went to Salto to see a former mistress of his, a once beautiful
Italian Jewess named Gemma, whom the factory manager had blinded and
horribly scarred for life when a gun accidentally went off. In the
man's last letter to his former mistress he tells her that he is going
to commit suicide, so Horacio is finally cleared, but his life has been
visibly scarred with the repeated arrests.

When a smallpox outbreak hit the village, Horacio gathered
everybody together--the blind, those dying of syphilis, typhoid, typhus,
bubonic plague, cancer, smallpox and all the other pestilences along
with hunger, and they marched en masse toward the ranch, "Los Troperos",
which had originally created this village of pestilence. In olden days
the ranchers kept the people on the ranch to protect them from.raids.
When they no longer needed them for protection, they sent the helpless
ones away. All the flotsam--the cripples, ill, helpless, aged, degraded
and jobless--came and built at the edge of the ranch's property and so
developed Corral Abierto, a living hell. The people are herded on a
train bound for the city and are like little children at the new sights
the train offers them for the first time. Horacio plans to burn down
the village of rats and pestilence.

Amorim has once more described an urban slum scene in all its
crude, but realistic ugliness. Horacio's family helped him to escape
to a better life, but there he was persecuted by the police who made
life so unbearable for the innocent young man that he developed un-
healing wounds which would last him all his life and constantly remind

him that there is little consideration for the poor and helpless

63
regardless of their aspirations or efforts.

The police are depicted as unsympathetic and cruel. They con-
sider Horacio guilty until the letter proves otherwise. They are
merciless in their pursuits as in the scene where they browbeat Gemma
until she allows them to read the last letter from Paco. This may
indicate a need for reforms in the police department.

Horacio's own problems have opened his eyes to the misery and
degradation in which his family and friends live. This new awareness
coupled with his experiences in society put him in a position to help
his people. On his trip home from.the city which has rebuffed him,
he stops at a house of prostitution and gets drunk. In this state he
suddenly realizes his capabilities.

En ese instante de euforia, comprendia que si habie vencido las
penurias de una infancia con hambre y liendres, si sobrevivio
a los reveses de la urbe encanellada, también venceria e1 oleeje
de alcohol y sexo a que estaba expuesto.
He realizes for the first time that he has the strength to overcome
any obstacles, and his trip home becomes more direct and filled with
purpose.

The old maxim "hope for the future lies in a nation's youth"
can very well apply here. Amorim has depicted a strong, bending, but
resilient protagonist, a leader, a living Mbses who can lead his people
out of human bondage and who is the hope for the future. For it is he
who must face the problems resulting from older cultures. Only when

people begin to see and understand their social problems can they begin

to solve them, and people have to learn to help themselves before they

 

1Corral Abierto (Buenos Aires: Editorial Losada, 1956),
p. 119.

64
can expect help from others.

Amorim has painted a slum area as he has never depicted it
before--one where there are no medical facilities and little police
protection, no running water, shacks to live in, and disease and cor-
ruption of every description. Society, the ranchers in this case,
feels no sympathy or compassion for a situation which it has created
and does nothing to improve.

This book, which is filled with pages of misery, brings forth
a whole portrait gallery of people like Nella, the school teacher who
goes out of her mind in the degrading surroundings; Candido, "e1 tisico",
Horacio's childhood friend, who works a little and spends the rest of
his time in a drunken stupor; respected, old Delibrendo Andrada who
lives in the past with his wisdom; "La Isabel", Horacio's sister who
didn't escape in time and like so many of the other young girls has
become a prostitute to stay alive; Rezendez, the merciless police
detective who has a job to do and does it; and Gemma, the blind Jewess
who is called "judia leprosa" because of her terribly scarred face.
These are only a few of the many characters in the book who arouse our
sympathy and compassion.

Enrique Amorim in his objective style and observant manner has
forcefully presented a festering thorn in the side of humanity which
needs to be noticed and cared for. The realness portrayed suggests

the influence of Zola and others of the Naturalistic school.

LOS MONTARACES--
Los montaraces (1957), an outstanding study of a boy's battle

with nature and man and the resulting disillusionment which he suffers,

65
exposes the evils endured by the woodcutters on an island in the river
and the growing-up process of the protagonist, Cecilio.

Cecilio lives on the banks of the river and works at a nearby
ranch. He has often tested his muscle against the river's current.

His dream is to swim to "Isle Mala", an island in the river, from which
no one has ever returned alive. He swims through the rapids and whirl-
pool and reaches the island where he becomes one of the woodcutters.
The conditions on the island are bad and, though they are not forcibly
held on the island, the workers believe they can't leave because of the
pirana in the river and their lack of boats. They make good money,

but they spend it so fast at the company store and become so debt-
ridden that they can never hope to repay the sum. When the overseer
kills one of their friends, Cecilio persuades the group to swim the
river. In a later trip a boatload of men is lost in the rapids, and a
newspaper investigation results in reforms on the island which had been
run for years by the Ulloa family. When Cecilio returns to the island,
he is arrested as the instigator of the unrest among the workers. The
body of Wanda Ulloa, wife of the owner of the island, lodges on the
rocks in the rapids. A strong swimmer is required to retrieve it, and
Cecilio is released from jail to perform the task.

This novel is divided into two general parts. Theiirst is an
interesting psychological study of Cecilio Merales, who has a desire
for adventure like all youth. He has a tremendous curiosity about the
things and people who live around him. He wants to discover the world
which is limited to grown men, but which to a boy seems limitless and
full of wonders. Physical strength needed to swim the treacherous

river or break wild horses is a pleasure for him. In the end there is

66

bitterness and disillusionment, for he learns that man can be cruel
and deadly.

Los miré de cerca. Uno por uno. Me di cuenta de que los malos

a1 fin resultaban buenos, y de que los buenos, los que nos parecen

buenos, son los peores. Tan ruines, que es poco desearles la

muerte.
His innocent youth is gone and his life stained with arrest and jail.
He is almost willing to give up his fight to help the exploited men on
the island after he has had his first taste of Aminda, but even his
disappointment and pleasure can not hold him back from his appointed
task. The conclusion seems most fitting: "los calabozos que de alguna
manera, siempre son e1 destino de nuestros gauchos rebeldes, cuando
todavia no hen aprendido e1 camino de la rebeli6n."3 His small efforts
have not been in.vain because reforms do appear on the island.

This novel has the strength, objectivity and acute observations
found in Amorim's best gaucho novels. Its dynamic presentation of the
countryside--horsebreaking on the ranch, the fury Of the river, and
nature on the island--add bits of beauty to a brutal scene. In subject
matter it recalls the work of a fellow Saltefio, Horacio Quiroga, who
once was one of Amorim's guiding stars.

Superstitions abound in regard to Vlsla Mala", the "Rinc6n
Asombrado" where animals go crazy and die, and "La cola del diablo",

the rapids and whirlpool in the river. They are caused by the mystery

that surrounds them and the lack of knowledge about them.

 

2Los Mentaraces (Buenos Aires: Editorial Goyanarte, 1957),
P0 136-1370

3E. C., "Los Montaraces por Enrique Amorim", Ficci6n, Vol. 14
(Buenos Aires, July-August, 1958), p. 155.

67

There are only three women in Cecilio's life. There is his
stepmother Floriana; "La Peleda", who was the only woman on the island
until she brought in girls for a house of prostitution; and Aminda,
whose caresses and kisses nearly put an end to Cecilio's fight for the
rights of men.

The second part of the book gives background material on the
Ulloa family and sets the stage for the appearance of wanda's body
in the river. It is a story in itself of a childless woman.who learns
after years of doctoring and cures that her husband knowsthe is sterile
due to a childhood illness. She falls in love with his brother; when
she tells her husband she is leaving him for his brother, he pushes her
off the balcony into the river below. It is Cecilio who rescues her
body.

Amorim has successfully united man and nature in a brutal
scenario to present us with a novel reminiscent of his gaucho works
which may be the best example of his creative talents in the last
decade.

Enrique Amorim was concerned in his last years with the problems
of society. He was disappointed with society's indifference to and
disregard of the poor. He used his novels as_a medium to awaken people
to the need for reforme in working and living conditions. His ever
observant eye in harmony with his ever ready pen have given us two
classic examples of penetrating writing filled with realism and truth
and a moral: we can't expect others to help us if we don't first try
to help ourselves. One must have convictions and be willing to make

sacrifices for them. Herein lies his faith in mankind.

CHAPTER V
MYSTERY NOVELS

Enrique Amorim'was always looking for something new to challenge
his creative talents. We have seen this in his diversified topics and
fields of endeavor in literature. The field of the mystery novel in
Latin America had not been thoroughly tried; Amorim's El asesino
desvelado (1945) is described as "la primera novela policial escrita en
idioma espa'r‘iol".1 Let us see how Amorim met this new challenge and
with what results.

§l_asesino desvelado, the first of Amorim's two detective
’stories, was published in 1945 and was the lucky number thirteen in a
group of mystery stories collected by JOrge Luis Borges and Adolfo
Bioy Caseres for "El Séptimo Circulo". It is an intriguing story with
roots in Europe and Buenos Aires.

The protagonist, Tito Hassan, is an Argentine-born Arab artist
who luckily escapes from Paris as Hitler marches in. On the boat trip
home he meets and marries mysterious blonde Gloria Liber. Once in

Argentina he becomes suspicious of his wife when she receives fono-cartas

 

which indicate there is another man in her life. His only clue is the
man's voice and he begins to search for this voice. In a jealous rage

he shoots his wife, and then, while trying to establish an alibi in a

 

1._E:_l__asesino desvelado (Cambridge, Mass.: Riverside Press, 1952),
p. viii.

68

69
theatre, he hears the man's voice on the screen. He arranges with a
film critic friend to visit Delta Films where he recognizes the man's
voice on a set; the police arrest the mysterious gentleman.

This is an enjoyable and easily read story. The plot deepens
and thickens quickly. Tito had been in a bar where three Greek sailors
were fighting. He went to his wife's apartment, shot her, and then left
his car to be washed while he was at the theatre creating a disturbance
to develop his alibi. When he returns to the car he is arrested because
a dead sailor with drugs has been found in his car. Tito sees the
sailor as a possible alibi and admits hitting him, but another sailor
confesses and Tito is freed. He searches the newspaper for news of his
wife's murder and learns she is Noemi Farinelli, an Italian spy. Pedro
Altavez, a film critic, arranges for him to visit Delta Films. Altavez'
secretary, Julia Bay6n, has dinner with him but receives a phone call
telling her to leave him. Tito recognizes the man's voice; it turns
out to be a fake captain who sailed on the ship from Europe. The climax
comes when Tito learns his wife had been poisoned by the espionage ring
before he shot her. The story ends happily with prospects of money from
a book and movie about his harrowing experiences--and a new girl.

Amorim is a master of suspense and intrigue. What could have
been a simple, boring story was made interesting with unexpected situa-
tions and events like the dead sailor in his car and learning that
Tito's wife was a spy.

The character study of Gloria is interesting. There was mystery
surrounding her from the very beginning. Despite the fact that her back-
ground sounded unlikely, she seemed to be fleeing from the Nazis.

Neither Tito nor the reader becomes suspicious when she is willing to

70
marry after such a brief acquaintance. Though she is seen only through
the protegonist's eyes, she is a life-like character.
It is easily understood why there are two Spanish editions of

this story. J. C. Herman and Agnes M. Brady adapted it for classroom

use in the United States in 1952.

EER_IA 2E FARSANTES--

Amorim attempted his second and last mystery novel in 1952.
EEEEEHEE farsantes won the Premio Nacional de Literature. Amorim
traveled a great deal and so it is natural that a novel, like his play
£3 segunda sangre, should have its scene laid in France where he had so
many friends.

The scene is a chateau in Normandy and includes the surrounding
French countryside and Paris. The Countess de Hendebouville is murdered
and her paying guests, all people of the arts, are suspects. Pierre
Calin, a jeweler's son and suspected lover of the dead woman, is arrested
when his fingerprints are found in the room. The twin sister of the
Countess returns from New York and tries to interest the Count in her
charms. When this fails, she tells him she has paid for the perfect
murder of her sister. -

René Gernier, a detective story writer, overhears a strange con-
versation in an inn and goes to the police who identify the people.
Gabriel Dubech, one of the persons at the inn, is arrested later when he
sends a disguised policeman to kill a political leader. Dubech, an
ex-Nazi, loved the Countess but hated the nobility and all it stood
for. He thought she was having an affair with Pierre and killed her

for revenge.

71

This is without doubt Amorimis best mystery novel. He has woven
an excellent plot in post-war France. There is absolutely no clue given
as to why one should suspect Dubech until near the end when he himself
tells why he committed the murder. He does crop up here and there in
the story for no apparent reason known to the reader. In the meantime
one is led to suspect nearly all the other guests. Among the other
characters are Gaby and Pierre who are lovers, but Pierre also has a
famous Parisienne model for a mistress; Dino Velardi, an Italian com-
poser; Joequin Padine, a Spanish artist; Blais Borjac, a poet; Delia
Gomez, a sculptress from Argentina; and the clever detective, Casimiro
Kassin. The portrait of the Countess' jealous twin sister, Victoria,
is a fine one. She not only hated her sister and ordered her death
but was also sly enough to tell people she had killed her sister because
they wouldn't believe it.

There is also a group of would-be suicides whose motto is "do
not-die in vain". They are persuaded by Dubech that they can become
heroes by killing enemies of the State before they die. There is a
chest with money in it which is never explained to anyone, and the Count
finally drops the matter. Dubech says it was a Nazi secret how Calin's
fingerprints got on the window in the Countess' room.

The novel does end on a happy note. The murderer is apprehended,
and the Count has fallen in love with Delia and is going to South
America with her.

The whole plot unfolds very concisely and neatly, with just the
right amount of suspense and mystery. The unexplained events mentioned
above do not mar the plot of this mystery story.

Amorim accepted the challenge of a new genre, wrote the stories,

ill ‘I I .1! III. {all I’ll! ! i l 1. 51.! (II II

72
found they were successful and then went on to new challenges to his
writing ability. I don't believe he was trying to prove anything other

than his ability to write this type of novel.

CHAPTER VI

URBAN NOVELS

14A EQAQ DESPAREJ --

The urban novels began with E2 edad despareja (1938). It was
the first attempt by the author to describe the solitude of the in-
dividual among the masses and to picture the bustle and confusion of
the city. The story rambles from.Montevideo to Buenos Aires and up the
Parana River. It expresses the disorientation of the writer and the
times. It is through the protegonist's eyes that we are able to observe
the big city and the people in it.

.EE 2222 despareja describes the life and loves of a fatherless
city boy named Abelardo Sanchez. His mother, apparently French, will
tell him nothing about their background, and thus he is always wondering
if this or that men might be his father. As the story unfolds, the author
presents an array of completely different female characters who help to
teach Abelardo about life. There is beautiful, stupid Lidia; Alicia, a
medical student; Dora, a wealthy, dissatisfied young matron; a maid;
and Maria with whom he finally falls in love. While working in a
packing plant he is arrested as a suspect in a murder case. In jail
Abelardo becomes sympathetic with another accused man and helps him to
escape when he himself is released. Fearing arrest, Abelardo seeks

refuge in the library and there he meets Maria. When his mother dies

he is given a sealed envelope to deliver to a wealthy rancher. The

73

74
two men discover that they have some peculiar habits in common which
suggests a relationship, but the old man gives him no satisfaction in
the matter. Abelardo settles some virgin land and then learns the ranch
has burned. He returns to Buenos Aires to marry Maria and tell her of
his inheritance.

In this novel Enrique Amorim has used the city and its life as
the background for his plot, whereas previously the EAmpg_has been his
field. He pictures the city as a multiple personage, turbulent and
frustrating when the people become bored with their solitude because
they don't know how to communicate with others. Abelardo suffers all
the fears and problems of a fatherless, inexperienced city boy growing
up during a restless period, slowly learning to adapt himself to his
surroundings. Through his person we are able to attend the literary
teas at the Dalsace home. We meet his best friend, Real Diana, with
his vacillating character and revolutionary ideas; the Pocardis, father
and son who are so heartily disliked; students at the university; humble
servants; the prostitutes by profession; and girls who are trained for
nothing more than marriage and a home. Apart from Buenos Aires we
visit Montevideo, the beaches in summer, hotels, the packing plant
and the estancia.

The women are not always well drawn: Maria seems vague and
nebulous; Alicia, an intelligent medical student, seems more concerned
with having a son by Abelardo than marrying him--somewhat out of con-
text with her education and profession and sex. Dora, who is very
religious, is willing to kill herself or Abelardo when their affair
comes to an end.

The construction of the book is as disorganized as the times.

75
It skips around from the 1930's to the 1920's, back to the 1930's and
the end of the 19th century so that it is difficult to keep the time
sequence in order.
It is a novel which expresses the uneasiness and confusion of
its period and generation. Its merit lies in the panorama of the city

it portrays.

TODO PUEDE SUCEDER--

 

The author begins by stating that the material for this novel
was given him by a stranger on the street in front of a bookstore in
Punta del Este. He has never learned the whereabouts of the true
author, and it is possible that this is the true story of one, Martin
Durand. 2292.223gg_suceder (1955), briefly records the trials of a
young Jew in Europe and then relates the events in the young man's
life shortly before he has to make a momentous decision.

The protagoniSt is Martin Durand, a thirty-three year old Jew,
who has come from Europe as a displaced person. The ambassador charged
him dearly for his visa and new name. For six years he has worked as a
night watchman for an architect and enjoys the solitude. His only
company is a stray dog he has named Nana from a novel by Zola. Now
he has to decide whether to continue this way of life or resume his
true identity and position in society. The architect, Miranda, is
building a new home for a banker, and Martin is introduced to the
banker's wife, Laura Ribans, a beautiful, dissatisfied young woman.
Laura is obviously attracted to Martin and tells him that her husband
feels more strongly about his money than herself. Laura comes to

Martin one night and begs him to help her remove a dead man from her

76
bed before her husband comes home, but the latter arrives home early.
Martin left Punta del Este and read in the papers of the deaths of the
architect, Miranda, and a male cousin of Laura's.
The "decisi6n" to be made seems to be the focal point of the
story, but the reader never knows what the decision was--"todo puede
suceder". Nor do we know who the dead man was--the architect?, the
cousin?, somebody else?
The protagonist, Martin Durand, a solitary individual who likes
his pipe and peace, is the impersonal observer of events. Laura Ribans
is a rich and unhappy woman who tries to find solace in quiet affairs.
She spends the night on the beach with Martin when her husband comes
home, and she is unable to remove the dead man's body from her bed.
She relates her life with her husband thusly:
---Ahore mi marido despertara----Mi marido ya debe haberse dado
vulta. A veces se leventa y corre e1 cortinado con suavided,
para no despertarme. Si sus ojos soholientos no miran hacia el
lecho, como tantas veces, seguira durmiendo hasta las ocho. A
las ocho y media dejara e1 cuarto, otra vez en silencio y en la
penumbra, como a1 acostarse. Ira al de vestir, recogera la rope,
tomara un bafio, se vestira y habra pasado la noche entera con el
cuerpo del otro, sin darse cuenta . . . Esto es lo cotidiano, es
cosa de todos los dies. He vivido anos como una muerta a su lado,
y él no se ha dado cuenta.1

Sefior Ribans is known to us through the eyes of others only. He is

rich and educated and interested in money.
. . . era incapaz de amar con pasi6n a Laura, pero tenia e1
placer de respetar los caprichos, las alteraciones de caracter,
como si se tratase de méritos excepcionales. Una suma de dinero

perdida en pocos minutos tenia para él la misma importancia que
para su mujer una cita fracasada. Ribans quizas se deprimiera.

 

1Todo puede suceder (Montevideo: Editorial Viv, 1955), p.
114-115.

77
Pero lds reveses de fortune no eran frecuentes.2
"He believes himself to be the perfect husband", says his wife.
Considera como algo primordial la esmerade educaci6n. . . .
Y yo debo aparecer como mal educada para entretenerlo. Entra en
la casa sin hacer e1 menor ruido. Queria demostrarme que no ere
capaz de perturbar mi suefio. Y se desvestia a obscures, en la
antecamara, alardeando de ingenio . . . Iba e1 bafio como una
sombre. Haste se frotaba los dientes cerrando la boca. Desde
mi cama oia sus movimientos, y no daba sefiales de vida, para
darle e1 gusto, para complacerlo. Esperaba que se metiese en
la came de a1 lado g se durmiese antes que yo, feliz de ser un
cumplido caballero.
The only other character of importance is young fifteen year old Eva
who has heart trouble. She spends a night with Martin, pretending
the almost finished house is her family's. Perhaps she realizes she
will never have a house of her own because soon after she goes to the
hospital on the verge of death.
Amorim's novel in a minor way shows the unkind treatment accorded
the Jews, but the merit of the work lies in the fact that it gives us

a panoramic view of wealthy Punta del Este and examples of the people

living there.

_E_Y_A BURGOS--

Amorim, one of a group of successful Uruguayan writers such as
Acevedo Diaz, Carlos Reyles and Javier de Viana, had just finished
this novel when he died in Salto at sixty years of age. This story
which he designated as a nivola in the unamuno manner describes society
in Punta del Este and other playgrounds of the wealthy.

Eva Burgos (1960) which was published posthumously, relates the

 

2Ibid., 103.

31bid., 103.

78
life of a prostitute in Punta del Este. Carlos Panda first met Eva
Burgos when she was eleven and even then was greatly impressed by her
beauty and voluptous figure. He gave her advice and kindness because
Eva was one of the many illegitimate children whose mothers came to
Punta del Este to have their children and leave them behind. Years
later Carlos Panda is killed while crossing the street and Eva, who has
just recently returned from Europe as the mistress of a wealthy Spaniard,
attends the funeral. Eva sees Panda's secretary, Carlos Ochoa, and in a
secluded hotel she tells him about her rise in the world, her life in
Europe and her return with Luis Castromagno. Castromagno's wife has
come from Spain in a hysterical state. She refuses to divorce him be-
cause she wants to inherit his millions. Luis wants Eve to act as his
wife's nurse and give her an overdose of sleeping pills. He knows a
doctor who will certify her death as a suicide. Eva is afraid. If she
kills his wife she will be caught, and if she doesn't she will have to
tell the police about his intentions. Either way she is going to lose.
Later Eva is found dead surrounded by empty sleeping pill bottles. The
news makes headlines. Eva's death ruins Castromegno's commercial
opportunities in South America, and women avoid him.

Once more we are left up in the air as in an Alfred Hitchcock
thriller or Amorim's Todo puede suceder. The girl is dead but mystery
surrounds her death. We will never know for what reason or by who's
hand she died. Nor will we know who the stranger was at her funeral.

Amorim delved deeply into the personality of this girl and she
evokes our sympathies when she is found dead. Through the pages of
this book we have watched Eve grow up. She learned early that she was

illegitimate. Wise beyond her years, she knew men intimately at eleven.

79
The police arrested her hoping to rehabilitate her, but it was already
too late. Carlos Panda was the only one who truly befriended her and
advised her. He told her to get married. Perhaps if he had married
her, things would have been different. A rich woman, Fanny Perlot,
read her palm and took her to Paris. There Mr. and Mrs. Perlot fought
over who was going to have her. She met Cestromagno there, and he gave
her his book on the art of making love. Later he bought her from
Fanny. She returned to South America, beautiful enough to be a movie
star, but not strong enough to take another person's life. At twenty-
five she knows all there is to know about life and is found dead in a
forested area near the sea. A suicide? Her environment was such that
,she had no hopes of a normal childhood, much less a normal adult life.
The vividly portrayed men and women in the story are for the most

part jaded and live for pleasure only, even in its most degrading forms.
The Naturalistic elements and the influence of Zola make this book most
realistic. One is reminded of Eggha'Reggles by Manuel Galvez who
describes prostitution in Buenos Aires, but Egg Burgos is much more
degrading, and there is no one to save Eva once Carlos Panda dies.

Esta esperando qué hacer ahora que no esta guardada por los

barrotes de la celde, inventada por una sociedad que defiende su

moral, unanimemente de acuerdo en mantener 1a prostitucion

legalizada. Eva este a la’espera. El azar es para elle, y para

otras tambien, el Dios comun. Acabe de entrar en otra carcel.

Y ésta no es menos atroz que la primera.4
It is legalized prostitution which makes cases like Eva's possible.

These novels written about urban conditions are difficult to

classify. Each is a separate entity in itself and completely different

 

4Eva Burgos (Montevideo: Ediciones Mille, Editorial Alfa,
1960), p. 92. .

80
from the others. Let it suffice to say that most of Amorim's books of
the last decade were fighting some social ill, whether it was prostitu-
tion, indifference, or poor working and living conditions. No trained
sociologist could have been more aware of society's weaknesses than

Amor im.

CHAPTER VII
SHORT STORIES

Enrique Amorim's best works are those in the field of the novel
where he has proved that he has the narrative ability necessary for the
development of this complex literary form, but his story telling ability
is also noteworthy in the less complex structure of the short story.
Anderson-Imbert and Kiddle write that "Amorim.constructs his novels
better than he does his short stories and, in the latter, the influence
of the novel form is obvious."1 This statement has exceptions as noted
in the case of Amorim's "La doradilla". Since the year 1923, when a
series of fifteen short stories were published in a book entitled
Amorim, there has been a continual flow of short stories from the pen
of Amorim. As in the novels, the themes dealt with the scenes, people,
animals and birds of the Uruguayan countryside; scenes of city people
and incidents in their lives as well as descriptions of city life it-
self; humorous anecdotes; psychological studies of people and animals;
character studies; love stories; tales of fantasy, legend and super-
stition; and miscellaneous other incidents and topics. Some of the
stories are charming, and all of them portray Amorim’s love for life
and nature and people.

Amorim (1923), a volume long since out of print and therefore

 

1Enrique Anderson-Imbert and Lawrence B. Kiddle, Veinte cuentos
Hispanoamericanos del siglo §§ (New York, 1956), p. 91-97.

 

81

82
almost impossible to obtain, deals primarily with stories of life in

the camp . It was here that the theme of the quitanderas first appeared

 

and acknowledged by critics to be the best story in the group. Another
fine story is "La criada" which appeared in Nosotros in 1923.2 It is
the story of a servant, Lola, whose face has been badly scarred by small
pox. She has no boy friends although everyone thinks so. She loves to
watch the elegant ladies and gentlemen who come to the nightclub in
their silks and satins and jewels. Her mistress asks that she bring
her a shawl, and when Lola gives it to her at the dance she notices that
none of the beautiful ladies have smallpox scars. Already ill with
fever, she falls down the stairs. Once in her room she kills herself.
Her mistress tells the children, "Tenia un novio, es de suponer que
estaba embarazada. . . ." Zum.Felde severely criticized the volume,
using words such as puerile and adolescent, and continued, "Toda la
accion es interior. Algo nos hace recorder la primera manera de
Horacio Quiroga".3

In 1924 the Editorial Latina published a special edition of
Amorim’s story "Les quitanderas" which appeared later in the first two
editions of Tangarupa. Later, of course, it was incorporated to form
‘Lapcarreta. We have already described the obvious plagiarism of this
theme by the Frenchman Adolfo de Falgairolle in the second chapter.

Lg tramps gellpejonal (1928) is another volume of six short

stories based on both country and city life. In "Relato para 1999"

 

2Enrique Amorim, "La criada", Nosotros, Vol. 44 (Buenos Aires,
1923), p. 480-483. ”

3Alberto Zum Felde, "'Amorim' por Amorim”, §1_Dia, October 23,
1929.

83
Amorim presents his own brand of fantasy and science fiction. The
story which gave the volume its title has appeared in an anthology of
short stories compiled by Serafin J. Garcia,4 and in brief is this: A
young boy spends the night with some woodcutters on the mountain to
prove his bravery. He awakens late in the morning and walks in the
direction from which he can hear the axes chopping, but he becomes
hopelessly loss in the pajonel and cannot find his way out. "La
perforadora" and "Farias y Miranda, avestruceros" are also worthy
reading material, the latter being the better of the two.

‘Lg pla§2_d§_l§§ carretas (1937), is divided into four parts:
"De tiro largo", "Dos tipos" with an enchanting story of an old
gentlemen, "Uh payador" and "El retobado“, five stories of birds'
relationships with people in "Histories con pajaros" and "La plaza de
las carretas". The five bird stories have been revised and reprinted
in L g pajaros y los hombres (1960), which will be mentioned later.
The stories all describe country life and are distinguished by the
movements of the characters in their settings.

‘LQEDEEjaros 2 log hombres (1960) brings back ten short stories
which appeared in earlier publications. The book deals with interesting
studies and characteristics of birds as they relate themselves to
humans. In "Los Horneros" Pedro Lima leaves the hospital and hurries
to keep a wedding date, but the girl doesn't know what he is talking
about. They had originally found the wounded Pedro from the chatter

of the horneros; in his delirium these things became real for him. The

 

4Serafin J. Garcia, Panorama del cuento nativista del Uruguay,
(Montevideo, 1943), p. 191-202.

 

 

84

most tender and sad tale is the one found in "Les palomas". Inocencie,
an old maid, lives alone. In her garden there is a dove cote; as the
years pass she is the only one keeping doves because the other women
fear they will remain single if they have one. The doves are gradually
all killed until there is only one male left. Inocencia put a mirror
on her bedroom window ledge and watched the male make love and flirt
with his reflection in the mirror. That night Inocencia died after
watching the unrequited love of the dove. In "Los carpinteros" a
little boy wants to see the babies and nest of the woodpeckers. A
friend finds one in a tree and the little boy rides up to it and puts
his hand in the hole. The birds fly away, and the horse moves away
leaving the little boy with his arm caught in the hole. He hangs there
until his friend appears and helps him down without any comments--like
a true friend. There are other enchanting stories such as "Les
calandrias" and "LOS‘miXtOS". All give the author an opportunity to
philosophize and paint charming scenes of nature which he obviously
loved. Two rural stories, "El mayoral" and "Vaqueros de la cordillera",
appear at the end of the book.

Horizontes z_bocacalles is a book of short stories published in

Buenos Aires in 1926. It is divided into two parts. Horizontes deals

 

with the country and Bocacalles describes city life. The short stories
"Quemacampos" and "Un peon" were both later incorporated into El
paisano Aguilar. The first story, "Seucedo", gives a tragic view of
£2922 life. A poor, dusty, sleepy little village, Saucedo, is suddenly
aswarm with locusts who drop like clouds from the darkened heavens and
quickly strip every living plant despite the flames and flapping arms

of the poor people who lose their crops to the voracious insects.

85

There are six stories of the campesinos. "Florentino" sees a three

 

legged colt but doesn't tell anyone because he knows the patron will
kill it. The colt is found and brought to the ranch. Later it is sent
with some mares who are going to be sold in town. The patron tells his
son that they are going to find a leg for the colt. The stories in
this first part are all tragic and portray the misery and suffering

found in the country. The stories in Bocacalles are satirical as we

 

see in "Mal humor y heroismo" where a young man gets his name in the
paper for returning a purse found in his taxi. He loses his life in a
fire trying to save people who weren't there and becomes a hero. The
stories of country life in this volume are superior to those of the
city. The characters are vague as are the themes; therefore the latter
stories lack interest.

In 1927 Trafico appeared. It is a book of short stories describing
city life and scenes. There are descriptive scenes of store windows,
the theatres, autos, street corners and trains. Fantasy is woven into
several of the stories. The section labeled "Tranvias Imposibles" is
a whimsical account of how trains could be used to make people happy
and life more enjoyable. These are a series of personal impressions,
primarily about Buenos Aires, which picture the hustle and bustle of a
big, cosmopolitan city.

Egggg.dg_aggg (1960) consists of ten touching love stories.

They are short but poignant glimpses into the lives of both men and
women and the outcome of their search for love, companionship, security
and dignity. There is the "Doble vida" of Maria who is single and
beautiful. Neighbors used to suspect her trips to Buenos Aires, but

at thirty their interest began to flag and now at forty they don't

86

care though they wonder why she has never married. "Humo" describes a
prostitute of Paris, Mayenne. A Latin American tells her to stop
smoking. He tells her about a hotel room lined with mirrors which
recalls to her mind scenes of"a day when Paul held her in his arms,
while the Germans strafed the roads, and told her of a hotel room in
Paris where the walls were lined with mirrors. "La madre polaca"
tells the touching story of two widows who raise the son of one of them
and records their pleasure when he passes his exams and becomes a
doctor. There is sadness and disappointment and disillusionment and
sex in these stories. There is very little love in these narratives
which is beautiful and pure, except perhaps in "La madre polaca".
Though the word "love" suggests romance, there certainly is none in
these short accounts of happenings in people's lives.

Editorial Ercilla of Santiago de Chile printed the book
Histories d§.amg£ in 1938 containing five short stories about women
and their loves. “Miss Violet March" describes love on a ranch.
"Donde se habla de Gluvia" recalls the fate of a bar girl whose brothers
and father went to sea. "Flora y‘Clara Maria" are the two loves of a
young writer. He meets them years later and is surprised at the way in
which they have changed. In "Eugenia" a young man tells of a tragic
affair his sister had, not realizing that the author he is speaking to
was the cause of it all. The best story is "Quién es Maria Damia?"
which first appeared in Presentacion.§g_Buenos Aires (1936). It relates
an evening in the life of a young man about to commit suicide. He
meets Maria Damia who persuades him to wait until morning. The next
morning he is glad to be alive, but he can find no trace of the girl

who saved his life. Amorim displays his narrative skill in these tales

87
and develops a certain amount of suspense in each one which makes for
interesting reading.

Presentacion dg_Buenos Aires appeared in 1936. It contains two

 

 

stories of miscellaneous nature. A series of short impressions make

up the first one. A young writer receives a cable from a wealthy Dutch
girl saying she is coming to see the beautiful Buenos Aires he
described to her when he was in her home. Only a letter comes to him
on the boat. It tells of a loss of fortune, father and beauty and her
subsequent stop in Rio. He believes that someday she will come to
drink in the beauties of Buenos Aires. The second section entitled
"Maria Damia" has already been discussed and relates the story of a
"dream" woman of that name who saves a would-be suicide. Humor, satire
and fantasy are all blended with reality in these two stories to in-
dicate the author's lyrical qualities. He has also presented scenes

of Buenos Aires and the Rio del Plata region. Francis de Miomandre
translated the book into French in 1937.

In 1932, Enrique Amorim published a series of six short stories
entitled 2§l_l.al.§, These stories are depressing bits of life and
fantasy and are not among Amorim's better short stories. There is
satire and discontent which were typical of the second and third
decades of this century, and they are portrayed most realistically in
these tales.

Después del temporal (1953) is Amorim's best collection of short
stories with a varied assortment of themes. In them he pictures in-
tricate psychological processes, paints scenery, dissects personalities,
draws clear men, women and children types, and depicts the realities of

life with sympathy and compassion. In "Después del temporal" Ben

88
Finney, wealthy and fifty years old, married Cora in hopes of having
children. There were no children and she was having an affair with
Alex, a penniless young man. Ben asks her if Alex is in love with her.
She tells him that because of Alex she has been happy and able to endure
living with him the past four years. When she turns to see his reaction,
he is gone and she finds him asleep in his room. Did he hear her answer?
In "Una palabra de mas" Bodutcha wants a child. She chooses a sailor
who is strong as a tree to plant the seed. He sails away and finds
her gone when he returns. He longs for her and hopes she will return
one day. We find a bit of legend in "Les fiapangas". Lus and Flora are
fiapangas who live in the valley and are said to be descendants of women
the conquistadores left behind. They are enemies of the Indians who
live in the hills, but the Indians come to the valley to make love with
them. A stranger comes one day and Flora begs him to give her a child,
but the Indian refuses because the hapangas must not be allowed to
reproduce themselves. "La doradilla", which first appeared in §g£,5
and was included in Anderson-Imbert and Kiddle's anthology,6 is one of
Amorim's finest animal stories. It is told by a boy who loves his
beautiful mare who has been barren. One day he sees a colt with her
and proudly tells his father, but his father tells him that the colt
belongs to another mare. When next he sees the mere he discovers that
she has fought the colt's mother and kept her away from her offspring.

The colt is dying for lack of food and the mere, who has all the

 

5Enrique Amorim, "La Doradilla", Sur, 15 [i.e. 16] (139):
May 1946, p. 54-60. ”

6Enrique Anderson-Imbert and Lawrence B. Kiddle, Veinte cuentos
Hispanoamericanos del siglo §§;(New York, 1956), p. 91-97.

89
instincts of maternity, has bloody teats from trying to feed the colt she
has tried to adopt.

There is the interesting fable that l'Los gorriones" like peace
and order. When Luis tries to cross the patio late one night to get to
Lucila's room, the birds flew about and screeched so that everyone was
awakened. Luis notes that the birds are the best guards of the honor
of a home and are dangerous to one who wants to lead the life of a Don
Juan. "La fotografia", which Amorim claimed to be his favorite short
story in the collection, relates the loneliness of a French prostitute
in a small uruguayan town. She wants to send a picture to her mother
assuring her of her well-being. She finally finds courage to ask the
school teacher to be in the picture, but the school teacher doesn't
appear at the photographer's at the appointed time. On the way home
she sees the teacher standing on the balcony, but the latter slams
the door and goes inside when she sees the French woman. Anderson
Imbert and Eugenio Florit included this story in their book.7 There
are twenty-six stories collected in this book, and each is an example
of Amorim's love for animals and mankind in tales filled with love,
whimsy, humor and sorrow; they are undoubtedly his best efforts in the
field of the short story.

Enrique Amorim has earned well-deserved compliments for his
penetrating and modernistic handling of his literary ventures in this
area. Although a good many short stories were published, either in-
dividually or bound together in volumes, they do not as a whole attain

the same high caliber as his novels, particularly those of the camp .

 

7Enrique Anderson-Imbert and Eugenio Florit, Literature
Hispanoamericana (New YOrk, 1960), p. 719-722.

 

90
Again, it is the short stories of the gampg_which seem to present his
strongest and most positive themes, although there are exceptions to
the rule as in "La fotografia". There are primarily three main subjects:
country life, urban life and love. Into these three main themes he has
woven satire, pessimism, character studies, fantasy and disillusionment.
There is only an occasional story with hope and a ray of sunshine.
The rest abound with sorrow, hardship and the unhappy, seamier side of
life. Amorim knows how to "desentrafiar las mas sutiles reacciones
psiquicas o fisicas"8 of his many characters in order to make them
appear more realistic. As in his novels the influence of the Naturalists
is apparent. They will probably never reach the heights of popularity
that some of his novels have. Después d£l_temporal is, in my opinion,

the best volume in Amorim's short story collection.

 

8Serafin J. Garcia, Panorama del cuento nativista del uruguaz
(Montevideo, 1943), p. 202.

CONCLUSION

Enrique AmorimFs literary output involves some thirty volumes
and includes novels, poetry, plays and collections of short stories.
His numerous short stories, articles about the theatre and other topics

have appeared in such magazines and newspapers as Mundo Uruguayo,

 

Ficci6n, Nosotros, El Popular, La Nacién, Marcha, EL Pals, El yoga;
and MMndo Argentino, to just mention a few. There has been a variety
of themes beginning with the rural scene with charming studies of the
people, birds and animals therein, and continuing to the city and
people and scenes there. There is also love, political and social
problems, fantasy, mystery, legend, and everyday occurrences woven
into his literary tapestry.

Amorim has proven himself to be an astute and intelligent ob-
server of life around him. He was best able to depict his childhood
environment, but his many years of city residence are also well repre-
sented. Sometimes the political and social situations, andepiritual
disorder and discontent of his times caused him to produce static
situations and abstract characters as in his few political novels,
but in general, his attachment to reality is firm.

Religion never plays a part in his work, nor do extreme cruelty
and brutality except that which is nature's own. Romance isn't con-
sidered a necessary element in his writings. Sometimes elements of
Zola are evident in the poverty, degradation and promiscuity that he
pictures because Amorim uses the Naturalist's and Realist's art to its

91

92
fullest. Amorim has fully developed "una concepci6n lawrenciana del
hombre en sus relaciones con la naturaleza,"1 His rural scenes are
certainly realistic and provide poignant bits of human drama.

His technique is modern and his style has strengthened with the
passage of time and experience. His characters have become more in-
tense and realistic in their exterior forms, although he has avoided,
for the most part, analysis of the interior problems of his characters.
He has experimented and incorporated new themes, styles, ideas and
genres into his literary output. The lyrical quality of his works some-
times gives one the feeling that the soul of a poet lurks just around
the corner, but then one is suddenly brought back to actuality by the
intense realism of the situation and characters with a style which is
sometimes more journalistic than poetic.

It is Amorim's originality which sets him apart from other
writers. His devotion to the Latin American scene and the people who
live and work there has superseded his cosmopolitanism. His characters,
both male and female, represent such nationalities as Germans, French,
Polish, Russians, Austrians, Spaniards, Italians, Turks, Arabs, English-
men, Lithuanians and Jews.

Those novels which are most outstanding and will keep his name
prominent in literary history are those which Amorim skillfully and
conscientiously tooled and etched to depict rural Uruguay--his novels
of the gaucho and the gamp_,

El libro mas vendido es L§.carreta. Siete ediciones en castellano
y verias traducciones. Creo que sus criticos estan de acuerdo en

 

1Fernando Alegria, Breve historia dg_lg_novela Hispanoamericana
(Mexico, 1959), p. 234.

93

pensar que de sus novelas de la primera epoca La carreta, El

__._____,_. __.
paisano ilar y‘El caballo XLEE sombre son las que mas gustan y
de la segunda epoca diremos Los montaraces y La desembocadura,
ésta, al decir de Emir Rodiguez Monegal, un reconocido critico
uruguayo, es una novela que ira ganando laureles con el correr
del tiempo. Como Ud. habra visto, pinta el crecimiento de una
region, como se fueron civilizando tierra y gentes casi salvajes
y como fue avanzando el crecbmiento de las families a medida que
esas tierras desiertas se iban poblando.2

 

 

In these novels Enrique Amerim presents a different, a personal, view
of the gaucho and breaks away from the somewhat stereotyped version of
the gaucho which in many instances painted him as a romantic, devil-
may-care Don Juan, running off with some other man's 223222 or playing
his guitar, singing, dancing and telling stories all night, and
finally ending in a knife duel. Amorim depicts the gaucho as a man,
like all men, facing problems incurred by their physical and social
environment, resisting changes because it destroys their independence,
security and entire way of life. There is nothing romantic about this
type of gaucho. Ybu may even feel pity for him.because of his in-
ability to adapt to a changing world in which he had no real place.
Roberto J. Payro shows why Amorim's rural novels have met with such
success.

Con osadia, pero sin tropezar, Amorim nos he llevado a ver al

hombre, gosero, rustico, en quien no se ha encendido todavia

la lucecilla del idealismo sentimental, pero en quien arde

naturalmente e1 fuego de’los sentidos frente al inefable

misterio del amor, son paginas rudas, sin adorno, sin rubores,

pero también sin viciosa complacencia.3

Enrique Amorim at this time is the last Uruguayan to have

 

2Personal letter from Mrs. Amorim to the writer, April 26, 1962.

3Roberto J. Payro, "El azar de las lectures, por Magister Prunum"
‘LEDNacion (Buenos Aires, no date).

94
produced nativista novels of note.4 It is precisely these rural novels
which are his outstanding contribution to Latin American literature and
assure that his name will be included as one of a long series of writers
who have depicted rural life, among whom are such illustrious names as
Eduardo Gutierrez, Eduardo Acevedo Diaz, Roberto J. Peyré, Benito
Lynch and Ricardo Gfiireldes.

Although Amorim's novels of the gaucho and rural life are his
finest contributions to literature, one shouldn't overlook the plays,
poetry, short stories and other novels which demonstrate Enrique Amorim's
skillful creative powers with outstanding selections in each of these
genres. This author has not only produced quality but quantity. Thus
we are able to repeat his biographer's statement that Enrique Amorim
has been able to do what few novelists and short story writers are
able to do and that is, "escribir mucho y muy bien"5--one of the highest

compliments we can pay this fine writer.

 

 

4Arturo Torres-Rioseco, Historia d2 la gran literature Ibero-
emericana, 2nd ed. (Buenos Aires, 1951), p. 315.

5Juan Carlos walker, "La obra literaria de Enrique Amorim",
La.carreta, 2nd ed. (Buenos Aires: Editorial Claridad, 1932), p. 153.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

NOVELS BY ENRIQUE AMDRIM:

El asesino desvelado: Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1952. (Adaptation
by J. C. Herman and Agnes M. Brady)

‘El caballo y_§2_sombra: lst ed., Club del Libro A.L.A., Buenos Aires,
1941.

The Horse and His Shadow: Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1943.
(Translation by Lt. Richard L. O'Connell and James Graham
Lnjan)

 

Lg carreta: lst and 2nd ed., Editorial Claridad, Buenos Aires, 1932.
(Bibliography by Juan Carlos welker)

La carreta: 5th ed., Editorial Claridad, Buenos Aires, 1942. (Prologue
by Ricardo A. Latcham)

Corral abierto: Editoral Loseda, Buenos Aires, 1956.

La_desembocadura: Editorial Loseda, Buenos Aires, 1958.

 

La edad despareja: Editorial Claridad, Buenos Aires, 1938.

Eva Burgo : Ediciones Milla, Editorial Alfa, Montevideo, 1960.

Feria d2 farsantes: Editorial Futuro, Buenos Aires, 1952.

La luna §g_hizo con agua: 2nd ed., Editorial Claridad, Buenos Aires,
1951.

 

Los montaraces: Editorial Goyanarte, Buenos Aires, 1957.

Nueve lunas sobre Neuguén: lst ed., Editorial Lautaro, Buenos Aires,
1946.

El paisano Aguilar: 2nd ed., Editorial Claridad, Buenos Aires, 1937.
Tangarupé: 3rd ed., Le Livre Libre, Paris, 1929.

Todo puede suceder: Editorial Vir, Impresora Uruguaya Montevideo,
1955.

‘La'victoria Eg_viene sole: La Bolsa de los Libros, Impresora Uruguaya
Montevideo, 1952.

95

96
SHORT STORIES BY AMORIM:
Del l_§l_§; Impresora Uruguaya, Montevideo, 1932.

Después del temporal: Editorial Quetzal, Buenos Aires, 1953.

 

Histories dg_amor: Editorial Ercilla, Santiago de Chile, 1938.

Horizontes y_bocacalles: Ediciones "El Inca", Buenos Aires, 1926.

 

Los pajaros y_los hombres: Galeria Libertad, Montevideo, 1960.
[La plaza 22 las carretas: Domingo Viau Editor, Buenos Aires, 1937.

Presentacion dg_Buenos Aires: Ediciones Triangulo, Buenos Aires,
1936.

 

Temas dg_amor: Instituto Amigos del Libro Argentino, Buenos Aires,
1960.

 

Trafico: Editorial Latina, Buenos Aires, 1927.

‘21 trampa del pajonal: L. J. Rosso Editor, Buenos Aires, 1928.

DRAMAS BY AMORIM:
Don Juan 28: Impresora LEA, Edicion del autor, Montevideo, 1959.

'La segunda sangre, Pausa en la selva, Yg'vqy mas lejos: Editorial

Conducta, Coleccion Maese Pedro, Buenos Aires, 1950.

 

POETRY BY AMORIM:
:Mi Patria: Ediciones Papel de Poesia, Montevideo, 1960.
Primero d2 mayo: Impresora Adelante, Montevideo, 1949.

Sonetos de amor en octubre: Ediciones Botella a1 Mar, Buenos Aires,

1954.

Visitas al.cielo: M. Gleizer Editor, Buenos Aires, 1929.

MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS IN MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPERS:

"El bailarin": Mundo Uruguazo, Afio XV, No. 736, Montevideo (February 16,
1933), 7.

"Besos de Paris": Mundo Uruguayo, Afio XV, No. 747, Montevideo (May 4,
1933), 22.

97

"Cinematografia argentina": Nosotros, Series 2, Vol. 6, Buenos Aires
(1938), 466-468.

"Cinematografo": Nosotros, Series 2, Vol. 8, Buenos Aires (1938),
465-470. -a

"La criada": Mundo Uruguaya, Afio XII, No. 616, Montevideo (October 30,
1930), 4. ‘

"La criada": Nosotros, Afio XVII, No. 171, Vol. 44, Buenos Aires
(August, 1923), 480-483.

"Del otro lado del muro": Sur, (September, 1949).

"Diariamente": Mundo Uruguayo, Afio XV, No. 732, Montevideo (January 19,
1933), 13.

"Digo Fidel": .El Popular-Suplemento de Culture, Montevideo (August 5,
1960), (Salto, April, 1936).

"La doradilla": Sur, No. 15, [i.e. 16] (139), 54-60.

"La edad despareja": Nosotros, Afio II, No. 14, Series 2, Vol. 4,
Buenos Aires (1937), 76-79. (Primicia de una novela asi
titulada). ”

"En defense de la novela": (Article from unknown source)

"Estancias en el crepusculo": Nosotros, Afio XVIII, Vol. 47, No. 181,
Buenos Aires (June, 1924), 220-221.

"Un fabricante de felicidad": Ficcion, No. 21, Buenos Aires (Sept.-
OCt. , 1956), 6-90

"La fatiga": Mundo Uruguazo, Afio XIII, No. 627, Montevideo
(January 15, 1931), 2.

 

"La fotografia": Sur (April, 1942).

"Graf Spee": Sur (March, 1943).

"Uh gran libro de Martinez Estrada 'Radiografia de la Pampa'", Mundo
Uruguayo, Afio XV, No. 768, Montevideo (September 28, 1933), 56.
(Con una fotografia de Amorim)

"Histories con pajaros: El tero": Sur (April, 1945).

"H. Q. Fiel y solitario": Nosotros, Series 2, Vol. 3, Buenos Aires
(1937), 319-321. (Homage to Horacio Quiroga)

"La isle de hierro": Nosotros, Vol. 68, Buenos Aires (1930), 316-321.

98

"LOS‘montaraces": Ficcién, No. 5, Buenos Aires (1957), 7- 15. (De una
novela asi titulada) ‘

"Les novies de Astier": Mundo Uruguayo, Afio XIII, No. 677, Montevideo
(December 31, 1931), 8.

 

"Los ojos de mi hermena": Mundo Uruguaya, Afio XII, No. 579, Montevideo
(February 13, 1930), 8.

"Palabras a Enrique Mendez Calzada": Nosotros, Series 2, Vol. 13,
Buenos Aires (1940-1941), 77-78.

"Los perros": Mundo Uruguayo, Afio XIII, No. 629, Montevideo (January 29,
1931), 3.

"Poema a1 tango: Protagonistas del tango": Ficcion, Vol. 28, Buenos
Aires (November-December, 1960), 58-63..

"Poemas de un viaje": Nosotros, Vol. 58, Buenos Aires (1927), 79-80.

"Romance del contrabandista negro": Atenea, 38 (148), (October, 1937),
82-86. ' ”

"Sobre 1a paz": Sur (July, 1945).

"Sobre voces americanas": Nosotros, Vol. 54, Buenos Aires (1926),
422-423. ”

"Véase también: Desagravio a Borges": Sur (date unknown).

BOOKS AND ARTICLES ABOUT AMDRIM:

Agosti, Hector P., Defense del realismo, Ediciones Pueblos Unidos,
Montevideo (1941), 73- 81.

Alberti, Rafael, "Respuesta a Enrique Amorim", El Popular- Suplemento
de Cultura, Montevideo, August 12,1960.

Ediciones de Andrea, Mexico, 1959.

 

Ambrossoni, Andrade, "Homenaje a Enrique Amorim”,‘§1 Popular-Suplemento
de Cultura, Montevideo, August 8, 1960.

"Amorimeescritor", La Nacion, Buenos Aires, July 29, 1960.

Anderson-Imbert, Enrique, Historia de la literature Hispanoamericana,
Vol. II, Fondo de Culture Economica, Mexico, 1962.

and Florit, Eugenio, Literature Hispanoamericana, Holt,
Rinehart & Winston, Inc., New York, 1960.

99

Anderson-Imbert, Enrique and Kiddle, Lawrence B., Veinte cuentos
Hispanoamericanos del siglo XX, Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc.,
New York, 1956.

 

Arévalo, Julia, "Homenaje postumo de Enrique Amorim", El Popular-Junta
Departamental, Montevideo, August 15, 1960.

Arrieta, Rafael Alberto, Historia gg_lg literature Argentina, Vol. IV,
Ediciones Peuser, Buenos Aires, 1959.

 

Asturias, Miguel Angel, "Enrique Amorim", Ficcién, Vol. 28, Buenos
Aires (November-December, 1960), 54-55.

Ballesteros, Montiel, "Sobre La edad despareja", Atenee, LIV (XLIV),
No. 161, (1938), 350-354. '

Berbagelata, Hugo D., La.nove1a y;gl cuento gg_Hispanoamérica, Enrique
Miguez, Montevideo, 1947.

 

Bleiberg, German and Marias, Julian, Diccionario d2 literature Espgfiola,
2nd ed., Revista del Occidente, Madrid, 1953, 720.

 

Bogert, Janet, "Don Juan Casts His Long Shadow", San Francisco Chronicle,
August 29, 1943.

"Books of the Times", New York Times, August 16, 1943.

Borges, Jorge Luis, "Mito y realidad del gaucho", Marcha, Montevideo,
March 5, 1955.

E. C., "Los montaraces por Enrique Amorim", Ficcion, Vol. 14, Buenos
Aires (July-August, 1958), 154-155.

R. C., "Uh escritor a1 servicio de la realidad", El Pais, August 1,
1960.

Cabrera, Sarandy, "Requiem para Enrique Amorim", El Popular-Suplemento
de Cultura, Montevideo, August 12, 1960.

Caillava, Domingo A., Historia d2 13 literature gauchesca gg,gl_Uruguay,
Biblioteca "Rodo", Claudio Garcia y Cia., Montevideo, 1945.

Canal, Feijoo B., "Sobre La lune se hizo con agua", Sur XIV, No. 124
(1945), 81-84.

"La carreta de Amorim", Lg.Mafiana, Montevideo, November 8, 1929.
Castro, M., "Sobre Tangarupa", Sintesis, XI (1929), 92-94.

Conroy, Jack, "Elemental Story of Today's Uruguay", Chicago Tribune,
September 9, 1943.

100
Diario d2 Sesiones, No. 543, Tomo 540, September 7, 1960.

Enciclopedie Universal Ilustrada, Europeo-Americana, Tomo I, Espasa-
Calpe, S. A., Madrid (1930), 527.

"Enrique Amorim", Lg Prensa, Salto, July 29, 1960.

Fayard, C. A., "Sobre El caballo y su sombre", Verbum, No. l (1941),
92-99. I

Fernandez Moreno, Cesar, "Enrique Amorim--Yo quiero morir contigo",
Nosotros, Series 2, Vol. 14, Buenos Aires (1941), 222-223.

Ferraz Amorim de Gadee, Julieta, "Enrique Amorim-poeta", L§_Mafiana-
Suplemento Femenino, Montevideo, August 14, 1960.

Ferreiro, Alfredo Mario, "Enrique Amorim, Interprete del campo-La lune
se hizo con agua", La.Razon, Montevideo, September 26, 1944.

Flores, Angel, Historia y antologia del cuento z_lg novela gg.Hispano-
américa, Las Americas Publishing Co., New York, 1959.

 

Freitas, Newton, Ensayos Americanos, Buenos Aires, Shapire (1942),
203-210. "

Gahisto, M., "Sobre Horizontes y bocacalles", Revue dg.1fAmerigue Latine,
XIII, Paris (1927), 562.

Garcia, German, Lg novela Argentine, Editorial Sudamericana, Buenos
Aires , 1952.

Garcia, Serafin J., Panorama del cuento nativista del Urugggy, Editorial
Claridad, S. A., Montevideo, 1943.

, "Enrique Amorim, un novelista auténtico", Mundo Uruguayo,
August 18, 1960.

 

, "La carreta", El Pais, December 10, 1961.
, "Tangarupa", El Pais, November 26, 1961.

Gomez Brown, Juan, "Modos de accion novelesca en la obra de Enrique
Amorim", Accion, July 31, 1960.

Gonzalez, Juan B., "Letras argentinas--Una novela gauchesca", Nosotros,
Series 2, Vol. I, Buenos Aires (1936), 440-449.

"Ha muerto Amorim, lucido testigo del siglo XX", Clarin, Buenos Aires,
July 29, 1960.

Ibarbourou, Juana, "La carte de Juana de América", El Pueblo, Salto,
July 30, 1960.

101

"Un juicio sobre Enrique Amorim en Revista Nacional", Revista d2 las
Indies, t. 26, No. 78, Montevideo, 1944.

Koremblit, Bernardo Ezequiel, "Etica y estética de Enrique Amorim",
Ficcion, Vol. 28, Buenos Aires (November-December, 1960), 55-57.

H. L. R., "En la carreta Amorim confirma sus condiciones", El Pueblo,
Montevideo, November 13, 1929.

Latcham, Ricardo A., Antologia del cuento Hispanoamericano, Empresa
Editora Zig-Zag, Santiago de Chile, 1958.

, "Sobre La plaza de las carretas", Atenee, LII, 125-129.

, "Evocacion de Enrique Amorim", Marcha, Montevideo, August 12,
1960.

Leguizamén, Julio A., Bibliografia general dg_lg literature Hispano-
americana, Editoriales Reunidas, Buenos Aires, 1954.

 

 

, Historia dg_1§;1iteratura Hispanoamericana, Tomo II, Editoriales
Reunidas, S. A., Buenos Aires, 1945.

Lomas Barrett, L., "Enrique Amorim--El caballo y su sombre", Revista
Iberoamericana, VI, No. 12 (May, 1943), 504-507.

 

Lopez Palmero, M., "Sobre Visitas a1 cielo", Nosotros, Vol. 66, Buenos
Aires (1929), 410-412.

Luna, Jose Ramon, "E1 caballo y su sombre de Enrique Amorim", Noticias
Graficas, September 21, 1941.

Mallea Abarca, Enrique, "Sobre El caballo y su sombre", Nosotros, XV,
No. 67, Buenos Aires (1941), 96-100.

Massera, José L., "Homenajes en el die de su muerte", El'Popular-
Suplemento de Cultura, Montevideo, August, 1960.

Mastronardi, C., "Sobre E1 caballo y su sombre", Sur, XII, No. 80
(1942), 66-88.

Mazzei, Angel, Lecciones dg literature americana y argentina, Editorial
Ciordia, Buenos Aires, 1958.

 

McMahon, Dorothy, "La desembocadura by Enrique Amorim", Books Abroad,
Univ. of Oklahoma Press (1960), 164.

Miomandre, F., "Enrique Amorim", Revue Argentine, I, No. 10, Paris
(1935), 38-40.

Monterroso Bonilla, Augusto, "Sobre E1 asesino desvelado", Suma
Bibliografica (November-December, 1947), 133.

102

Navarro, Raul, "Sobre La edad despareja", Nosotros, XII, Buenos Aires
(1940), 295-297.

"Nuestra encuesta literaria--De Enrique M; Amorim", Nosotros, Afio XVII,
No. 168, Vol. 44, Buenos Aires (1923), 23-25.

Nichols, Madeline W., "Histories de amor by Enrique Amorim", Books
Abroad, Univ. of Oklahoma Press (1941), 117. ‘

Oberhelman, Harley D., "Enrique Amorim as an Interpreter of Rural
Uruguay", Books Abroad, Vol. 34, Univ. of Oklahoma Press (1960),
115-118.

Ortiz, Alicia, Las novelas d§.Enrigue Amorim, Companie Editora y
Distribuidora del Plata, Buenos Aires, 1949.

"Palabras de Jesualdo", El’Popular-Suplemento de Culture, Montevideo,
August 5, 1960.

Pando, "Amorim", E1 Este, August 31, 1960.
Pan, Peter, "Apuntes a un libro-La carreta", Lg_Razén, November, 1932.

Payro, Roberto J., "A1 azar de las lectures, por Magister Prunum",
‘L3_Nacion, Buenos Aires, sin fecha.

, "Nuevo libro de Amorim", Lg Plate, Montevideo, sin fecha.

Petit de Murat, Ulises, "El magnifico frenesi de Enrique Amorim", E1
Mundo-Suplemento de Cultura, Buenos Aires, November 2, 1960.

Pottier, Mme H., Argentinismos z uruguayismos en 13 obra £13 Enrique
Amorim, Tesis de la Sorbona, Impreso en Montevideo.

Prampolini, Santiago, Historia universal £5 13 literature, Vol. 12,
Utehe Argentina, Buenos Aires, 1941.

Prego Gadee, Omar, "Sobre La victorie no viene sole", Marcha, XIV,
No. 667, Montevideo, 1953.

"Presentacion de Buenos Aires", Nosotros, Series 2, Vol. 6, Buenos
Aires (1938) , 477.

Qgién §§.ggién 22,13.Argentina, 7th ed., Editorial Guillermo Kraft,
Ltd. (1958-1959), 44.

Rama, Angel, "Les narreciones del campo uruguayo", Marcha, Montevideo,
March 10, 1961.

, "Un creador infatigable", Marcha, Montevideo, August 5, 1960.

"Repueste del Semanario", Marcha, Montevideo, April 8, 1960.

103

Sanchez, Luis Alberto, Nueve historia dg_lg.literatura americana,
Editorial Americalee, Buenos Aires, 1944.

, Proceso y contenido d2.lg_nove1a hispanoamericana, Biblioteca
Romanica Hispanica, Editorial Gredos, Madrid, 1953.

 

Sergio Visca, Arturo, "Panorama de la actual narrative uruguaya",
Ficcion, No. 5, Buenos Aires (January-February, 1957), 120-126.

Silva Delgado, Adolfo, "Enrique Amorim--vida y literature", Marcha,
Montevideo, August 5, 1960.

, "Personalidad de Amorim: Hombre y poete", El Pueblo, Salto,
July 29, 1960.

Silva Valdés, Fernan, "Sobre la carreta", Nosotros, VTCC, Vol. 78,
Buenos Aires (1933), 98-100.

"Sobre E1 caballo y su sombre", La_Nac16n, Buenos Aires, October 19,
1941.

Solari Amondarain, Ismael, "La vida cinematografica de Enrique Amorim,
escritor y automovilista a contramano de horizontes", Mundo
Uruguayo, Afio XV, No. 774, Montevideo (November 9, 1933),
12,79.

Soto, Luis Emilio, "Enrique Amorim", §1_Mundo, Buenos Aires, August 3,
1960.

Stevens, Georgiana C., "Life on the Estancia", The Inter-American,
October, 1943.

Usler-Pietri, Arturo, Breve historia gg_lg_novela Hispanoamericana,
3rd ed., Autores Venezolanos, Ediciones Edime, Madrid, 1954.

 

 

Vidort, Daniel D.,‘Lg_vide rural uruguaza, Dpto. de Sociologia Rural,
Pub. No. 1, Montevideo, 1955.

Welker, Juan Carlos, "Comentario Bibliografico--La obra literaria de
Enrique Amorim", La_carrete, Editorial Claridad, Buenos Aires,
1932.

Welty, Eudora, "Sobre E1 caballo y su sombre", New York Times,
August 15, 1943.

, "A Powerful Novel of the Pampas", San Francisco Chronicle,
August 29, 1943.

 

Wolfe, Bertram D., "A Fine Novel of the Uruguay Plains", New York
Herald, August 15, 1943.

104

Zum Felde, Alberto, "Amorim por Amorim", §1_Dia, October 23, 1929.

w—u—W‘“

 

, Proceso intelectual del Uruguay 2 critica d§.§u literature,
Editorial Claridad, Montevideo, 1941.

NOVELS:

APPENDIX

WORKS OF ENRIQUE AMDRIM

PUBLISHED IN BOOK.FORMH

EL ASESINO DESVELADO: lst ed., Editorial Emecé, Buenos Aires, 1945.

71‘

: 2nd ed., Editorial Emecé, Buenos Aires, 1946.
: The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1952.
(Adaptation by J. Chalmers Herman and Agnes Marie Brady)

*EL CABALLO Y SU SOMBRA: lst ed., Editorial Club de Libro, A.L.A.,

7':

Buenos Aires, 1941.

: The Horse and His Shadow, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York,
1943. (English translation by Lt. Richard O'Connell and James
graham Lujan)

: Q cavalo g g sombre dele, Editorial Guayra, Ltd. , Brazil,
1943. (Portuguese translation by Silveira Peiroto)

: 2nd ed., Editorial Loseda, Buenos Aires,1944.

: Run a jeho_ stin, Preha, Ceskoslovensky spisovete1,l950.
(Czech translation by Zdenek Smid)

: .....(Chinese translation), Peking, China, 1962.

LA CARRETA: lst & 2nd ed., Editorial Claridad, Buenos Aires, 1932.

(Bibliography and comments by Juan Carlos walker) Available at
Univ. of Illinois.

: 3rd ed., Editorial Anaconda, Buenos Aires, 1933. (Comments

by Daniel Grenade, Roberto J. Payro, Fernan Silva Valdez and
Martiniano Leguizamén)

: Die Carreta, Holle Editor, Berlin, 1936. (German translation
by V. —Rodewe1d Grebin)
: 4th ed., Lorenzo Rosso Editor, Buenos Aires, 1937.
: 5th ed., Editorial Claridad, Buenos Aires, 1942. (Illustrations
by Carybé)
: Il.Carretone, Editorial ULTRA, Milan, Italy, 1945. (Plaragized
by Atilio Davini)

 

*Volumes available in Michigan State University Library.

1This list compiled by the writer from bibliographies received

from Mrs. Amorim, Harley Oberhelman and the Biblioteca Nacional of
Montevideo, Uruguay.

105

106

: 6th ed., Coleccion Contemporanea, Editorial Loseda, Buenos
Aires, 1952.

: Lg Roulotte, Editorial Gallimard, Paris, 1960. (French
translation by Francis de Miomandre)

*CORRAL ABIERTO: Editorial Loseda, Buenos Aires, 1956.
: ..... (Russian translation), Moscow, 1958. (1962?)

*LA DESEMBOCADURA: Editorial Loseda, Buenos Aires, 1958.
*LA EDAD DESPAREJA: Editorial Claridad, Buenos Aires, 1938.
*EVA BURGOS: Ediciones Milla, Editorial Alfe, Montevideo, 1960.

*FERIA.DE FARSANTES: Editorial Futuro, Buenos Aires, 1952. (Premio
Nacional de Literature)

LA LUNA SE HIZO CON AGUA: lst ed., Editorial Claridad, Buenos Aires,
1944.
* : 2nd ed., Editorial Claridad, Buenos Aires, 1951.

*LOS MONTARACES: Editorial Goyanarte, Buenos Aires, 1957.
*NUEVE LUNAS SOBRE NEUQUEN: Editorial Lautaro, Buenos Aires, 1946.

: ..... (Czech translation), 1950.
: ..... (Polish translation), 1950.

 

EL PAISANO AGUILAR: lst ed., Editorial Amigos del Libro Rioplatense,
Montevideo,'l934.

2nd ed., Editorial Claridad, Buenos Aires, 1937.

....., Editorial Claridad, Buenos Aires, 1945.

3rd ed., Editorial E1 Siglo XX, Buenos Aires, 1946.

....., Editorial Loseda, Buenos Aires,1958.

O fazendeiro Aggilar, Colecao os Livros das tres Abelhas,

Publicao oes Europa-America, Lisbon, 1959.

*

TANGARUPA: lst & 2nd ed., Editorial Claridad, Buenos Aires, 1925.
* : 3rd ed., Le Livre Libre, Paris, 1929.

*TODO PUEDE SUCEDER: Editorial Vir, Montevideo, 1955.

*LA VICTORIA NO VIENE SOLA: Impresora Uruguaya, Montevideo, 1952.
: ....., (Czech translation), 1953.

SHORT STORIES:

AMORIM: Editorial Pegaso, Montevideo, 1923.

*DEL 1 AL 6: Impresora Uruguaya, Montevideo, 1932.

*DESPUES DEL TEMPORAL: Editorial Quetzal, Buenos Aires, 1953.

107
*HISTORIAS DE AMOR: Editorial Ercilla, Santiago de Chile, 1938.
*HORIZONTES Y BOCACALLES: Ediciones "El Inca", Buenos Aires, 1926.
*LOS PAJAROS Y LOS HOMBRES: Galeria Libertad, Montevideo, 1960.
*LA PLAZA DE LAS CARRETAS: Editorial Viau, Buenos Aires, 1937.
*PRESENTACION DE BUENOS AIRES: Editorial Triangulo, Buenos Aires,
t93gorrea Editor, Paris, 1937. (French translation by Francis

de Miomandre)

LAS QUITANDERAS: Special edition of Editorial Latina, Buenos Aires,
1924. ‘

*TEMAS DE AMOR: Instituto Amigos del Libro Argentina, Buenos Aires,
1960.

*TRAFICO: Editorial Latina, Buenos Aires, 1927.

*LA TRAMPA DEL PAJONAL: L. Rosso Editor, Buenos Aires, 1928.

POETRY:

CINCO POEMAS URUGUAYOS: Salto, Uruguay, 1935. (Library of Congress)

CUADERNO SALTENO: Salto, Uruguay, 1942. (Publication, prologue by
José Pereira Rodriguez, and illustrations by Esther Haedo de
Amorim.ere all without signature)

DOS POEMAS: Salto, Uruguay, 1940.

M1 PATRIA: Ediciones Papel de Poesia, Impresora Uruguaya, Montevideo,
1960.

PRIMERO DE MAYO: Impresora Adelante, Buenos Aires, 1949. (Available
at Univ. of California) “

QUIERO: Impresora Uruguaya, Montevideo, 1954.

UN SOBRE CON VERSOS: Salto. (Probably from 1920 to 1923 or 1924)

*SONETOS DE AMDR EN OCTUBRE: Ediciones Botella e1 Mar, Buenos Aires,
tgsgoleccion Lazarillo, Madrid, 1957.

VEINTE ANOS: Imprenta Mercatali, Buenos Aires, 1920. (Prologue by
B. Fernandez Moreno and Julio Noé)

*VISITAS AL CIELO: Gleizer Editor, Buenos Aires, 1929.

108
TEATRO:
*DON JUAN 38: Impresora LEA, Edition of the author, Montevideo, 1958.
*LA SEGUNDA SANGRE, PAUSA’EN LA SELVA, YO VOY MAS LEJOS: Edicion
Conducta, Coleccion Maese Pedro, Buenos Aires, 1950.
MISCELLANEOUS:

EL ULTIMO NINO BIEN: (Essay), Revista Estudios, Mbntevideo, July,
1960.

JUAN C. CASTAGNINO: (Monograph), Editorial Loseda, Buenos Aires,
1945. (Library of Contress)

HICHIGQN STQTE UNIV. LIBRQRIES

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