in war and in peace representations of men of violence in salvadoran liter.pdf

In War and in Peace:Representations of Men of Violence in

Salvadoran Literature

ASTVALDUR ASTVALDSSON

University of Liverpool

[. . .] despues del conflicto armado hay otros conflictosbastante graves y delicados en nuestro pas. [. . .] laguerra comienza en el 81; pero, para que se de laguerra es porque ha habido una pre- guerra queestallo en guerra; o sea, son mas que veinticinco anosde guerra.1

La violencia [. . .] es parte de la salvadorenidad. Esuna cultura muy violenta, y permea la familia, lasinstituciones, el estado, todo.2

Since General Martnezs coup in 1932 and the subsequent massacre ofthousands of peasants, primarily Pipil Indians,3 modern Salvadoran historyhas been marked by extreme violence, which has mainly been perpetrated bymen, both local and foreign. However, as both Dalton and Argueta frequentlyunderscore in their writing, while the 1932 coup marks a milestone, theorigin of political violence in the twentieth century can actually be tracedback to the Conquest.4 Moreover, if hope was raised that a new and peaceful

1 Manlio Argueta, in Edward Hood, et al., Del infierno al milagro: conversacion conManlio Argueta, Antpodas, 10 (1998), 8188 (pp. 8182).

2 Horacio Castellanos Moya, in Rafael Menjvar Ochoa, Entrevista. HoracioCastellanos Moya: La violencia . . . es parte de la salvadorenidad , Vertice, 16 de julio de2002, pp. 15 (p. 2), Bhttp://www.elsalvador.com/vertice/2002/06/16/entrevista.html (ac-cessed 20 March 2008).

3 For a detailed account of these events, see Hector Perez Brignoli, La rebelioncampesina de 1932 en El Salvador, in El Salvador, 1932: los sucesos polticos, ed. ThomasAnderson, trans. Juan Mario Castellanos (San Salvador: Biblioteca de Historia Salvadorena,2001), 1743.

4 See Roque Dalton, Las historias prohibidas del pulgarcito (San Salvador: UCA, 1997[1st ed. 1974]); Manlio Argueta, El valle de las hamacas (San Salvador: UCA, 1992 [1st ed.1970]) and Cuzcatlan, donde bate la mar del sur (San Salvador: Editorial Universitaria, 1988[1st ed. 1986]). All further references are to this edition.

ISSN 1475-3820 print/ISSN 1478-3428 online/12/03/000435-20# Bulletin of Spanish Studies. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14753820.2012.674238

Bulletin of Spanish Studies, Volume LXXXIX, Number 3, 2012

future lay ahead with the end of the Civil War and the signing of the PeaceAccords in 1992, the reality has turned out to be markedly different. Not onlyhas violence continued to blight the daily existence of people of all walks oflife but it has often appeared to be even more gratuitous than before. In arecent study based on extended fieldwork, for example, Hume emphasizesthe fact that the question of security remains paramount for citizens duringthe transition process, due to high levels of violence, criminality, and theperceived randomness of victimization patterns.5 Not surprisingly, then,representations of men of violence are central to the writings of manyleading Salvadoran authors and for that reason provide one principal focus ofthis article. This term is not used here as simply another way of sayingviolent men. As the ensuing analysis will show, the men of violence onwhich this study focuses are not just men who perform acts of violencebut also men who at the same time are often the victims of that sameviolence. Moreover, the term can be seen to include their immediate victims,whose lives, if they survive, are transformed by the violence they havesuffered, paradoxically, often in a way that turns out to be positive in thelong run.

Drawing on the work of two of the countrys leading novelists, ManlioArgueta and Horacio Castellanos Moya, this article seeks to examine how, innovels written and published during and after the Civil War, respectively,these writers depict the men of violence who for so long have terrified thenation. Who are these men?; where do they come from?; what motivatesthem?; how do they relate to other men?, and to women? How does violenceaffect the humanity of both the perpetrators and their victims? Are thereviable alternative ways of constructing a masculine identity in violentsocieties, like that of El Salvador? These are the kind of questions thispaper will explore. At the same time, as a secondary objective, it also seeks toassess the extent to which Connells influential concept of hegemonicmasculinity can be imported discursively from the social sciences to helpus understand the issues involved. Initially, this term is taken to have themeanings attributed to it by Bradley: In contemporary context, this is theform of masculinity we refer to as macho: tough, competitive, self-reliant,controlling, aggressive and fiercely heterosexual.6 However, it is importantto note that Connell refuses to see hegemonic masculinity as a fixedcharacter type.7

5 Mo Hume, Contesting Imagined Communities: Gender, Nation, and Violence in ElSalvador, in Political Violence and the Construction of Identity in Latin America, ed. WillFowler and Peter Lambert (New York: Palgrave Macmillian, 2006), 7390 (p. 73).

6 Harriet Bradley, Gender (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007), 47.7 R. W. Connell, Masculinities (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2005 [1st ed. 1995]), 76.

436 BSS, LXXXIX (2012) ASTVALDUR ASTVALDSSON

Arguetas Un da en la vida (1980) and Cuzcatlan, donde batela mar del sur (1986)

As Connell has explained, hegemonic masculinity refers to a historicallymobile relation.8 It is the form of masculinity that occupies the hegemonicposition in a given pattern of gender relations, a position that embodies thecurrently accepted answer to the problem of the legitimacy of patriarchy, butwhich is always contestable.9 In what follows, I propose that Connellstheorization of multiple masculinities helps us to see how Arguetas novelsdescribe a historical moment in which the measure of consent that thenotion of hegemony generally implies is being eroded and the old orderopenly contested.10 Unfortunately, in a society like that of El Salvador,where the dominant form of hegemonic masculinity has for so long beenlargely characterized by direct and brutal violence, the response of thepowerful to any forms of threat to their elite status has often been extreme.In this regard, historical and gendered processes of change are inscribed inthe narrative fiction, processes in which women play key roles in oppositionto the armed forces of the state and its foreign allies.

During the 1980s Manlio Argueta published Un da en la vida (1980) andCuzcatlan, donde bate la mar del sur (1986), both of which deal directly withthe causes and consequences of the armed conflict in El Salvador, whichactually began many years before the Civil War itself broke out in 1981.These novels have as their protagonists the rural poor, who became involvedon both sides of the conflict. A considerable amount of narrative space in bothtexts is devoted to detailed descriptions of campesino life as it used to bebefore armed resistance started in the 1960s: a simple existence lived close tonature and in tranquillity despite conditions of poverty.

Un da en la vida opens with Lupe, the female peasant protagonist, asshe gets up at 5:30 in the morning as usual, describing the birds she can hearsinging and the stars she can see through holes in the walls of her simplehut. She goes on to say: Yo soy muy alegre, es la verdad, nunca he sidotriste.11 As the quotation indicates, Arguetas writing suggests that thepeasants basic existence used to be relatively harmonious, for they weremostly left alone by the authorities and were at one with their naturalenvironment. Intuitively, they made sense of their life by comparing it to thenatural phenomena that surrounded them and were undisturbed by the

8 Connell, Masculinities, 77.9 Connell, Masculinities, 76, 77.

10 R. W. Connell, Gender and Power: Society, the Person and Sexual Politics(Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995 [1st ed. 1987]), 186.

11 Manlio Argueta, Un da en la vida (San Salvador: UCA, 1998 [1st ed. 1980]), 7. Allfurther references are to to this edition. The novel was inspired by a testimony given by awoman known simply as Guadalupe who had gone into exile in Costa Rica after her husband,Jose, was killed shortly before the Civil War began. She is the model for the novelsprotagonist (Argueta, personal communication).

MEN OF VIOLENCE IN SALVADORAN LITERATURE 437

subsequent political violence. In this regard, at the start of Cuzcatlan, theprotagonist, Luca, ponders: Dice mi familia que eran muy felices [. . .] Conpobrezas y todo pero no existan las muertes de ahora (12).

In spite of the socio-political tranquillity of the pre-war period, bothwomen speak with wonderment at the idea of an idyllic happiness, which isalien to their culture and to which they are therefore unable to relate. Lupe,for example, states: [. . .] dicen que somos felices. Yo no se. En todo caso esapalabra feliz no me cuadra nada. Ni siquiera se lo que significaverdaderamente (Un da en la vida, 10). In this way, both narratives placeunder question the (stereotyped) representation of conditions of poverty inassociation with the unchanging emotional contentment of the characters.Furthermore, what the novels make clear is that any relative happiness thatdid exist was made possible in part by the political ignorance in which peopleused to live. Later, increased awareness about the political and socio-economic injustices these characters suffer leads to active participation inthe liberation movement, both the Christian campesino cooperatives and theguerrilla, the former shown to be led in certain cases by a new generation ofpriests who, influenced by liberation theology, bring a message that isradically different from that offered before by the Church. In turn, this newawareness allows the campesinos to re-examine their traditional roles andvalues and, significantly, the repression which forces the men undergroundimpels the women to reassess their social and political situation.

But not all the characters who represent El Salvadors rural poor formpart of the resistance. The government army and, in particular, the NationalGuard, effectively a military police force, are also shown to be largely madeup of the sons of poor peasants, often forcibly recruited. It is in this contextthat different kinds of masculinities can be seen to be present in Arguetasnovels: not only do we have the peasants and common soldiers but also thepriests, military leaders, foreign advisors and the elite, although the lattermostly stay in the background. Yet while there are important dissimilarities,broadly speaking, these masculinities can all be defined as patriarchalbecause, in one way or another, these men always dominate women, while atthe same time some of them tend to dominate the others. However, the formsthat masculinity takes, and the forms that this domination takes, are shownto differ markedly between the different groups and between different socialclasses.

Both Arguetas novels clearly represent male-dominated ruralcommunities. For example, in Un da en la vida we see this in Lupesdescription of how her relationship with Jose came about. At the time shewas still basically a child and so he did not approach her but rather herparents to ask for her hand. His words, while respectful, are revealing: Hepensado que si me regala la Lupe no se va a arrepentir, para que me ayude, yame canse de estar solo (7). When the girl feels embarrassed by his suggestionthat she can be gifted to him, she is told to leave in a way that underlines her


inferiority: Nina, vayase, no ve que estamos platicando gente mayor (7).12

Similarly, the novels make clear the different attitudes towards boys andgirls within the family: for example in terms of the division of labour. Toenforce these patriarchal relations, structural violence is present but there isno indication of brute force: there is no representation of personal, physical,or psychological violence.13 On the contrary, based on specific culturalprinciples that require an ostensible formality in interpersonal contact, wesee that both men and women from the poorer classes tend to treat eachother with mutual respect and consideration, and within a system that couldbe called truly hegemonic, since all those involved seem to accept it.14

This, of course, might well be seen as oversimplified idealization since, asHume points out, violence has come to permeate both social and intimatefamily relations in modern-day El Salvador, and the home is now a key sitewhere violence is learned as part of the gendered socialization process.15

However, Arguetas point is that this is a direct consequence of the violentmodernization processes of the last eighty years or so, and that it goesagainst the socio-cultural principles inherent in the culture of the countrysoriginal inhabitants to which most of the rural poor still adhere. Hisnarrative project is openly ideological: his aim is to creatively rediscoverthe true values of the Salvadoran people and their past in order to bringabout a new, more just and more peaceful future in his country.16 In thepertinent words of Connell: In some civilizations the hegemonic forms ofmasculinity stress restraint and responsibility rather than violence.17

A different kind of masculinity is associated in Un da en la vida with theruling classes and the military, one based on brute force: personal, physicaland psychological violence. Yet, as stated earlier, it is important to make adistinction between diverse groups of men. The group on which Arguetasnovels actually concentrate is the National Guard, so the ensuing discussionwill now focus on them and their position vis-a`-vis the campesinos as well as

12 Unless explicitly stated, all quotations in italics from the novels discussed here are inthe originals.

13 For a typology of violence, see Johan Galtung, Violence, Peace and Peace Research,Journal of Peace Research, 6:3 (1969), 16791.

14 The affectionate manner in which Lupe talks about her husband, Jose, in Un da, orEmiliano about his wife, Catalina, in Cuzcatlan, shows this very clearly. I will come back tothe question of legitimacy or the lack of it below.

15 Hume, Contesting Imagined Communities, 74.16 For more detail on this, see Astvaldur Astvaldsson, Towards a New Humanism:

Narrative Voice, Narrative Structure and Narrative Strategy in Manlio Arguetas Cuzcatlan,donde bate la Mar del Sur, BHS (Liverpool), LXXVII:4 (2000), 60517 and Estudiopreliminar, in Manlio Argueta, Poesa completa, 19562005, ed. crtica AstvaldurAstvaldsson (Maryland: Ediciones Hispamerica, 2006), 11105.

17 R. W. Connell, Masculinity, Violence, and War, in Mens Lives, ed. Michael S.Kimmel and Michael A. Messner (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1995 [1st ed. 1989]), 12530(p. 128).


their superiors. Lupe describes their despicable behaviour early in thenarrative, just after she has been talking about the attitude of the youngpriests: the increased presence of the Guards and the vicious violence bywhich it is accompanied is directly related to the fear the authorities haveregarding the influence that the priests radical new teachings are exerting.She explains that the people have to be careful when the soldiers are around,because they are very strict and their methods of upholding the law areextremely fierce: for example, the campesinos have been banned fromcarrying around with them their machetes, which are not only instrumentsof work and weapons with which to defend themselves*against beast andman*but also markers of their cultural identity. The punishment forcarrying a machete is likely to be a blow with the butt of a rifle, if nothaving a hand cut off: [. . .] la guardia es severa y no se anda con remilgos parabajarle el machete al mas pintado a puros culatazos. Y si andan el corvoamarrado a la muneca, les vamos a cortar la mano (Un da en la vida, 23).

Verbal force is also associated with the military. The language thesoldiers use is extremely foul, full of sexual innuendo, typical of the kind ofhegemonic patriarchal masculinity that openly degrades those who do notagree with and conform to its norms.18 They refer to the priests as hijos deputa . . ., culeros con sotana . . . (Un da en la vida, 24), and use similarlanguage in order to try to frighten and intimidate the peasants who go toSunday mass:

Para ir a ver al cura se ponen tiperas estos hijos de puta, hasta camisablanca se ponen . . . Yo pienso que estos cabrones de por aca tienenvocacion de culeros, a saber que putas le han visto al cura, quiza como eschelote [fair] y galan se han enamorado de el. [. . .] O quizas han vistoorinar el cura. (Un da en la vida, 25)

Their language also replicates the stereotypical virgin-whore dichotomy inrelation to women:

Pues miren que todas estas mujeres son unas putas. Ser mujer es habernacido puta, mientras que los hombres se dividen en dos clases: losmaricones, y nosotros los machos, los que vestimos este uniforme; y deentre los machos habra que escoger los mas, mas, mas machos: los de laespecial, los que hemos pasado las escuelas con los chinitos karatecas ylos cheles sicologos. (Un da en la vida, 101)19

18 Connell, Masculinities, 79.19 Connell notes that heterosexual men expelled from the circle of legitimacy by

hegemonic masculinity tend to be bombarded with abuse which symbolically associates themwith femininity (Connell, Masculinities, 79). He also points out that Homosexual men seem toarouse particular fear and loathing among tough macho men and that This fact has ledmany to think that violence is an attempt to purge the world of what one suspects of oneself.


The language used here highlights the fact that the soldiers themselvesaccept a hierarchy within their own ranks, although their superiors, whohave real power over their lives, are favourably distant at this juncture. Thisleaves the lower-ranking officials and ordinary soldiers free to construct apatriarchal hierarchy and to institute and defend it in part with verbalviolence.

But does this kind of behaviour and the violent language that goes with itreally show the strength the soldiers associate with traditional masculinity?Or is there perhaps something else going on here? Elsewhere in the novel itis made explicit that the soldiers are subordinate to the military authoritiesand to the foreigners who train them, who do not just treat them badly butdespise them (Un da en la vida, 7374). In fact, while weary of the soldiersand their violence, partly because of the new awareness that the teachings ofthe young priests provide (Un da en la vida, 2728), Lupe sees throughthem. She knows that most of them are of peasant origin just as she is, andthat, as Jose explains to her: cuando andan de civiles se ven humildes comonosotros, ni siquiera se les conoce, se transforman en otra gente, en lo queson; cuando van a ver a sus hijos y a su mama y su papa (Un da en la vida,99100). It is the uniform and weapons, and what they stand for, that turnsthem into heartless beasts, as the words pronounced by one of themdemonstrate:

No deben olvidar que este uniforme se defiende hasta la muerte, la vidade nosotros se explica por este fusil, somos poderosos y nos temen encuanto lo agarramos como hombres y lo sabemos disparar cuando locreemos necesario, mientras no nos tiemble la mano, estamos salvados.

(Un da en la vida, 100)

This is symptomatic of a masculinity constructed through performativity. Itis also a sign of troubled consciousness: the fact is that deep down thesoldiers are afraid of the priests, since they know they speak the truth aboutwhat is happening in their country. The foul language and the brutal acts ofviolence are the purest expression of this, although they try to justifythemselves by referring to the flawed teachings of their military instructors(Un da en la vida, 73), which ultimately boil down to a conviction that theirown people should be exterminated (Un da en la vida, 102).20

In psychoanalytical terms, there is a current of repressed homosexual feeling buriedsomewhere in hegemonic masculinity (Connell, Masculinity, Violence, and War, 128).This, which effectively highlights masculinity in crisis, certainly rings true in the context ofthe men of violence in all the novels discussed here.

20 For example, they beat up a priest, leaving him naked with a wooden stick in hisanus at the road side (Un da en la vida, 26). The drunken state in which they tend to be whenexpressing their absurd adherence to the ideology of their masters is another symptom of theirtroubled conscience.


In Un da en la vida, further examples of this enactment of a brutalizingand imperialist ideology are found in two sections entitled Ellos, narrated bya soldier who, while never named, is best understood as a version of CorporalPedro Martnez (they are not strictly speaking the same man), a key militarycharacter in Cuzcatlan. In the first of these sections, he starts off bydescribing the food the soldiers receive from their masters. It is remarkablydifferent from what they are used to eating. Although he has mixed feelingsabout it, he tries to convince himself that it is good and that they liveluxuriously. He then goes on to recount the inane platitudes of the instructor:

Debemos estar bien alimentados, nos dice el gringo, para poder defenderla patria. A cambio de esos gustos, nosotros no podemos fallarle a estagente. Uno tiene que estar dispuesto a defender la patria de los enemigosaun a costa de los propios hermanos. Y para que decirle, aun de nuestrapropia madre. Aunque parezca exagerado, pues el mundo occidental estaen peligro y nosotros sabemos que el peor peligro que tiene el mundooccidental es eso que llaman pueblo. El profesor nos pone a gritar: Quienes el peor enemigo de nosotros? Y nosotros contestamos a gritos: Elpueblo. Y as por el estilo: Quien es el peor enemigo de la democracia? Yrespondemos todos: El pueblo. Mas fuerte nos dice. [. . .] A nosotros nosdicen los especiales.

Todo eso se lo van metiendo a uno. Y es verdad, pues si no fuera verdadno estuvieran gastando de gusto en nosotros, dandonos tanto lujo.

(Un da en la vida, 75)

These ideological outpourings go on for several pages and incorporateelements of an overtly racist discourse, directed at both the Spanish andSalvadoran peoples, which glorifies the genocide of the North AmericanIndian. The way in which the foreign trainers, their bosses and the nationalelite*who identify with their imperialist allies against their owncountrymen*look down upon and profoundly despise the peasants andcommon soldiers is represented as typical of a form of globalized hegemonicmasculinity where gender, class and race attitudes are strictly related. In thewords of Connell once more: To understand gender [. . .] we must constantlygo beyond gender. The same applies in reverse. We cannot understand class,race or global inequality without constantly moving towards gender.21

Ultimately, the foul language and the brutal behaviour of the soldiers isalso self-destructive. What their behaviour reflects is a process ofbrainwashing in which the soldiers are taught to despise their history andculture, and to hate not just their families and people but effectively alsothemselves.

21 Connell, Masculinities, 76.


This brainwashing process*a process of intimidation that forces thesoldiers to block out their authentic cultural identity22*is the opposite of theprocess through which the other main characters in the two novels go, whichleads to heightened awareness. Lupe frequently refers to this new awarenessas la voz de la conciencia (see references below), which she says she firstheard when she had just turned twelve and was coming of age. On the onehand, this voice is linked to a religious sentiment, to doing the right thing, tonot sinning, and to treating others with respect (Un da en la vida, 1416,28). However, it is also specifically associated with a new political awarenessthat is associated with a sense she develops, through a process of intuitionand daydreaming, of the authentic values of her own culture (Un da en lavida, 2228, 43, 47, 92, 13436, 158), all set in opposition to the values thesoldiers have learned from their imperialist trainers. These values are alsorelated to knowledge about the past, as Lupe makes clear when she says: Am me gusta recordar. Es la voz de la conciencia que les deca (Un da en lavida, 110).

The way in which the campesinos refuse to let themselves be crushed bythe cruel and, to them, inexplicable violence meted out by the soldiers is ablyexpressed by Jose in a dialogue with Lupe, which she imagines after hisdeath. In response to her suggestion that cuando uno esta muerto no sesiente nada . . ., he replies: *Claro que no se siente nada, es como estardormido y si antes de dormir te toca padecer una agona cruel, es igual,porque vos tenes que hacerte de que ese dolor no te lo vas a llevar a la tumba.Los asesinos que torturan se quedan con ese dolor (Un da en la vida, 160).In other words, Jose is fully aware of the torture that those who perpetratethe senseless violence must suffer (unless they have irreversibly lost theirhumanity) and Lupe reveals her understanding of this when she thinks: novayan a creer que solo hablamos de cosas tristes y de pesimismo (Un da enla vida, 161). Despite all the injustice and suffering, they will not allow theirexistence to be reduced to unmitigated sorrow. Hence, the humanity of thesoldiers is clearly negatively affected by the violent acts they perpetrateagainst the defenceless. Conversely, the humanity of the victims isreinforced, for the violence forces them to draw on and re-evaluate theirculture, its roots and its principles, and, thereby, reinvent it in light ofongoing historical processes. It is in this sense that both can, paradoxically,be seen as men of violence.

22 Lupe refers to the consciousness produced by this corrupting practice in the followingwords, which show her bewilderment when faced with the incredible malice involved in thebrutal torture and murder of her husband: por que esa tortura, esa maldad en los corazonesde estos hombres que tambien tenan una madre, un padre, hijos, hermanos. Quien los habapervertido y les haba lavado la sangre de raza [their real identity], ni de cristianos ni depobres lo que les corra por las venas? Que [sic.] chucha rabiosa los haba adoptado como hijosy les haba hecho una horchata en vez de la sangre comun y corriente de los seres humanos?(Un da en la vida, 148-49).


The idea that there is a crucial relationship between authentic forms ofpolitical awareness and intuition is more fully developed in Cuzcatlan, dondebate la mar del sur. At the beginning of the novel Luca tells the reader thather favourite pastime is reflexionar. O sonar, como se dice (Cuzcatlan, 9).Later, she states that the main strength of the guerrilla movement is that itis well organized and that its members are politically aware, and then adds:A veces pienso que toda esta vida es un sueno (Cuzcatlan, 15). A closereading of the novel reveals that we may take these words to indicate that,for Luca, authentic political awareness involves a vital link to the past,which is partly provided through a dream-like process of intuition.23

Lucas attitude stands in stark contrast to that of her uncle, CorporalMartnez, who, as a member of National Guard, wants to live only for thepresent. In other words, in order to be able to lead the life of brutal violencein which he has become caught up, which involves killing his own kind incold blood, he must block out the past that links him to his people and is partof his authentic identity. In one of the novels most obvious moments ofpathos, the reader gains an insight into the corporals confused mind, justbefore a chance meeting with his grandfather which forces him to face up tothe pitiable reality of the life he has come to lead:

[. . .] es un privilegiado, con potestades para decidir sobre la vida y lamuerte, lo cual le da una personalidad inconmovible. Por lo menos asparece [. . .] Todo le hace sentirse como un hombre de la categora deinmortales. Ha sido educado en la escuela donde los hombres no lloran.

El da que me salga una lagrima, habre terminado como hombre ycomo soldado. Se considera persona para quien solo existe el presente,que es su pasado y su futuro. Para quien el tiempo es nada mas el minutoque se esta viviendo. Desde ese punto de vista su podero lo confunde conla eternidad. Y la eternidad es el momento mismo en que aprieta el gatillopara disparar y ver caer a alguien frente a el. De otra manera su vida notendra fin ni sentido. (Cuzcatlan, 24647)

The fact is that, by losing touch with his family and with the history of hispeople, his life has been deprived of any heartfelt meanings. Rather thanbeing the new strong man who lives only for the present, as he wants tobelieve, he has become a dehumanized robot, underscored by the fact that lossonidos de los mecanismos de su fusil, los confunde con las pulsaciones de sucorazon (Cuzcatlan, 247).

The novels main theme is the dilemma of its protagonist, Luca, amember of a popular tribunal, when faced with the question of how the courtcase of her uncle, a proven war criminal, should be dealt with. Should he be

23 For a more detailed discussion of Cuzcatlan, see Astvaldsson, Towards a NewHumanism.


sentenced to death for the crimes he has committed against his own people,or should he be pardoned, since he is only partially responsible for hisactions? As a teenager he was kidnapped by government troops and, througha brutal process of coercion and intimidation, forced to become a member ofthe National Guard. Drawing on values inherent in their own culture, themembers of the popular tribunal decide to condemn the corporal to live*inother words, he is given a second chance at life*, a judgment thatcontradicts not only the logic and ideology of the national and imperialisthegemonic powers who are trying to suppress the Salvadoran people but alsothat of the westernized leadership of the guerrilla movement, as the novelmakes explicit. If he had thought that the day he shed a tear he would befinished as a man and as a soldier, the opposite is true. In his reaction to hisgrandfather being killed by his captain, when he finally breaks down in tearsshows that despite the intimidation he has suffered, he has not been strippedof his humanity and, potentially, it marks the beginning of a rehabilitationand re-incorporation into the community to which he belongs.24 Thus, thenovel suggests that human identity, and by implication masculinity, is notfixed but depends upon the circumstances in which people live. This isconsistent with Connells theory, as we have already noted: Connellemphasizes that masculinity is not a coherent object and that hegemonic masculinity is not a fixed character type, always andeverywhere the same: it is a historically mobile relation.25 However, avital question remains unanswered: does Connells theory convincinglyexplain situations like those described in Arguetas novels, where coercionand brutal intimidation play such an important role in positioning menwithin society? This question is also relevant, and arguably betterillustrated, in the context of Castellanos Moyas work.

Castellanos Moyas La diabla en el espejo (2000) andEl arma en el hombre (2001)

Castellanos Moyas take on the issue of violence and the men who carry it outin El Salvador is different from that of Argueta, although there aresimilarities. One thing that accounts for the disparity is that most of hisfiction is set in the post-Civil War period and focuses almost exclusively onurban-based characters: in the particular context under discussion here, on

24 Argueta was criticized for the one-dimensionality of characters of Un da: todos loscampesinos son buenos, todos los guardias son malos. This is to some extent true, and he setout to correct it in Cuzcatlan: . . . claro, el soldado (o el guardia) no tiene por que ser solamentemalo. . . . El mismo es un explotado. . . . que es lo que lleva hacia la maldad a un guardia cuyaprocedencia social es campesina . . . esto sera la idea principal de mi proxima novela (ZulmaNelly Martnez, Entrevista con Manlio Argueta, Hispamerica, 14:42 [1985], 4154 [pp. 4344]).

25 Connell, Masculinities, 67, 76, 77.


violent mens relationships within the community, as well as on how theyrelate to and treat women. The rural-based counterpoint on which Arguetaplaces so much emphasis is absent. Another variance is that CastellanosMoyas attitude to fiction and to the role of the writer is different fromArguetas more explicit social commitment. While it would be a mistake tosuggest that a conscious engagement with social, political and historicalissues is missing from his work,26 Castellanos Moya is sceptical about theability of literature to influence such issues.27 For this reason, his novelsprovide narratives that describe certain aspects of reality, but they neversuggest any solutions to the social, cultural and political problemsportrayed.28 As the analysis that follows suggests, this potentially makes itdifficult to see how theories such as Connells, drawn from the social sciences,are relevant to any reading of his fiction. In this sense, Castellanos Moyabelongs to a new group of Central American writers who, in the 1990s,curbed utopian or messianic revolutionary inclinations and transformed thewriters self-perception as prophetic voices speaking in the name of themasses.29

One of Castellanos Moyas best known and probably most notoriouscharacters is an ex-soldier turned criminal, given the nickname Robocop by

26 For example, he has said: Cuento historias de ficcion basadas en realidadesdolorosas. See Alvaro Matus, Entrevista con Horacio Castellanos Moya (1 de julio de2005), 17 (p. 5), Bhttp://hotelsaturno.blogspot.com/2005/08/entrevista-horacio-castellanos-moya.html (accessed 23 April 2008); regarding one of his best known and most controversialnovels, El asco, he noted: pienso que en esa novela se reflejan los anos de la primeraposguerra, que se produjeron en la frustracion de la transicion democratica, vividos, en micaso, a partir de proyectos en los que me embarque [. . .] (Menjvar Ochoa, Entrevista, 3).Moreover, like Argueta, in his fiction Castellanos Moya has been critical not just of the Rightbut also of the Salvadoran Left, which he feels were, in the end, equally responsible for themany atrocities committed during the Civil War. Having been a left-wing activist himself, heconcludes a commentary on his critique of the left by saying: [. . .] todos somos criminales. Esees el problema, nadie tiene la bondad etica a su lado (Enzia Verduchi, Horacio CastellanosMoya: Todos somos criminales [n.d.], 15 [p. 3], Bhttp://www.sololiteratura.com/hor/horentrtodossomos.htm [accessed 20 March 2008]): hence his refusal to take sides andcommit himself politically in the aftermath of the Civil War.

27 Hence assertions like: [. . .] soy un escritor de ficciones, no un poltico metido aredentor (Horacio Castellanos Moya, Breves palabras impudicas, Istmo, 9 [juliodiciembre2004], n.p., Bhttp://collaborations.denison.edu/istmo/n09/foro/breves.html [accessed 22April 2008]), or: Yo escribo ficciones que muchas veces tienen un paisaje poltico de fondo,pero me gusta ser ledo como un escritor de ficciones (Matus, Entrevista, 5).

28 Referring to El arma en el hombre, discussed below, he says: . . . como todas misobras, no tiene mas intencion que plasmar en una narracion aquellos aspectos de la realidadque me atosigan y que puedo procesar a traves de mi imaginacion (Francisca Guerrero,Horacio Castellanos Moya: El lector salvadoreno ha sido muy generoso conmigo , La Prensa[11 de julio de 2001], 13 [p. 2], Bhttp://archive.laprensa.com.sv/20010711/revista_eco/eco1.asp [accessed 23 April 2008]).

29 Arturo Arias, Taking Their Word: Literature and the Signs of Central America(Minneapolis/London: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2007), 19.


his former military colleagues, who finds it impossible to abandon violenceand adapt to life as a civilian at the end of the Civil War. Robocop firstappeared in Castellanos Moyas fourth novel, La diabla en el espejo (2000), asthe assassin of an upper-middle-class woman, Olga Mara, whom heruthlessly guns down in front of her two young daughters as they arriveback home. That this was cold-blooded murder is made evident by the factthat the culprit was not interested in robbing his victim: sin decir palabra, ledisparo a Olga Mara en el pecho y luego la remato . . . no quera nada masque matarla, como si alguien lo hubiera enviado, como si ya traa la ordenprecisa.30 When the police ask the older girl, who is just ten, to describe thekiller, she explains: el criminal era un tipo alto y fornido, un grandulon queno usaba barba ni bigote, con el pelito corto, como si fuera cadete, [. . .]caminaba como Robocop, ese robot polica que aparece en la television (Ladiabla, 16). Later the murder is described as el acto de un energumeno que lounico que sabe hacer es matar (La diabla, 35). The motive behind the killingis never made explicit but it is implied that it is linked to infidelity, andpolitical and financial intrigue, associated with international drugtrafficking, involving businessmen, politicians and high-ranking militaryofficials. Thanks to the little girls description, Robocop is identified as unexsargento del batallon Acahuapa (La diabla, 71) and arrested, but he neverutters a word and eventually escapes. Again, it is implied that the men ofpower who hired him are prepared to do anything to protect their interestsand that they had a hand in his getaway. Robocops identity and the motivesbehind his actions remain obscure, and indeed marginal to the novels mainstory.

However, as both the protagonist and first-person narrator of CastellanosMoyas fifth novel, El arma en el hombre (2001), Robocop reveals more abouthis background and his essence as a man. He proclaims that the motive fortelling his story is to explain who he is: No contare mis aventuras encombate, nada mas quiero dejar en claro que no soy un desmovilizadocualquiera.31 Yet much of the narrative is in fact a rather disturbing accountof his adventures: a euphemism for the acts of violence he has committedboth during and after the Civil War. He is indeed proud of what he has done,because he has no sense of right and wrong and does not understand at allwhat he has become. While emphasizing his prowess as a man of arms, nowthe Civil War has ended he sees himself as a victim, someone who, havingbeen of excellent service to his masters and their just cause, has beenunfairly dismissed from the army: a la hora de la desmovilizacion, cuandonuestros jefes y los terroristas se pusieron de acuerdo, me tiraron a la calle

30 Horacio Castellanos Moya, La diabla en el espejo (Ourense: Ediciones Linteo, 2000),1415. All further references are to this edition.

31 Horacio Castellanos Moya, El arma en el hombre (Mexico D.F.: Tusquets Editores,2001), 11 (my emphasis). Further references are to this edition.


(El arma, 9). He is also keen to stress he is not a common peasant, like mostof troops: Tuve ventajas. No soy un campesino bruto, como la mayora de latropa: nac en Ilopango, un barrio pobre, pero en la capital; y estudie hastaoctavo grado (El arma, 10). Yet, his real school was the war (El arma, 9),which marked him permanently as a man, or more accurately dehumanizedhim. In fact, his real name, Juan Alberto Garca, is mentioned only once inthe novel, when he is being detained by the police for the murder of OlgaMara, and can be seen to symbolize his true identity as a young man, beforebeing subjected to the brainwashing process that turned him into a beast.His only close family in El Salvador is a cousin, Alfredo, a police informant,his mother and two sisters having fled to the USA at the beginning of theCivil War, and disowned him when they heard he had joined the army. Infact, the army had become his only family and the war his only culture.Hence, when demobilized, he feels he has been orphaned, and he does notunderstand at all why peace has been negotiated and why fighting machineslike himself no longer command prestige:

Pese a las charlas en las que los jefes nos explicaban los alcances de la pazy presentaban opciones para nuestro futuro, supe que mi vida estaba apunto de cambiar, como si de pronto fuese a quedar huerfano: las FuerzasArmadas haban sido mi padre y el batallon Acahuapa mi madre. No mepoda imaginar convertido de la noche a manana en un civil, en undesempleado. (El arma, 12)

Peace makes no sense to him since, basically, all he has been taught is theneed to exterminate the terrorists. His understanding of the reasons behindthe war or of the cause for which he has been fighting is equally non-existent,all he knows is how to follow the orders to kill the enemy: anyone he is told/hired to kill.32 As a civilian he is completely dysfunctional and, thus, whendismissed from the army, his only option is to turn to crime. This he does firstas a thief who does not hesitate gunning down his victims to protect hisidentity, then as a hired assassin working for his ex-military commanders,and finally as a mercenary employed by international drug traffickers, whoinclude his former military bosses, politicians and businessmen. He fightsvariously for opposing groups, even side by side with ex-guerrilla fighterswho have turned to crime. When he becomes a liability to one group, whichthen tries to have him killed, he has no problem changing sides: he is akilling machine and what is ultimately important to him is not the cause orside he is fighting for; what is imperative is to be in a position to exercise theonly craft he knows: fighting and killing.

32 In what Robocop claims is a hallucination, he is approached while in prison by hismother and one of his sisters who want to hire him to kill his father for having abandoned thefamily. His only concern is how much they are prepared to pay him for eliminating el objetivo!(El arma, 65).


His perceptions of and attitudes to other men are related to the powerrelations he has with them. He sees himself as superior to the soldiers belowand beside him because he considers himself a better fighter, and henormally has deep respect for those above him, who are more powerfulthan he and give him orders. However, when they turn against him, he doesnot hesitate to kill them to protect his life, since if he has one true impulse itis a survival instinct. Women he despises, since he is totally unable torespond to their emotional needs. He is only interested in using them forsexual fulfilment and deeply distrusts them: las mujeres llevan la traicion enel alma (El arma, 15). Having been a member of the special forces of theNational Guard, just like the soldiers in Arguetas novels, and having beenfed on the same patriarchal ideology, to him all women are whores. Hence, hespends his free time in the company of like-minded colleagues, drinking andvisiting brothels. It is unsurprising, therefore, that when asked about whereRobocop comes from, or what has produced him, Castellanos Moya gave thefollowing answer:

Yo creo que hay varios elementos que se juntan. Por un lado, la culturanorteamericana violenta que se difunde a traves de los medios y afecta atoda Latinoamerica; por otro lado la cultura militarista norteamericanacomo factor de desarrollo de maquinas criminales a lo largo y ancho delplaneta. Robocop es un anti-heroe. Un tipo que casi no tiene sentimientosni pensamientos, y que, a traves de una larga guerra, un largoentrenamiento y un ejercicio permanente de la violencia como oficio,llega a niveles de deshumanizacion sorprendentes. Es como la sntesis dela violencia. Robocop no es malo: su oficio es matar.33

It is noteworthy that the author calls Robocop un tipo que casi no tienesentimientos ni pensamientos. In fact, early in the novel it is suggested thathe may be vaguely fond of a prostitute he visits regularly, Vilma. However,after living with her for a short while, he ends their relationship, apparentlybecause he does not like the fact that she has a daughter, who lives at hergrandmothers house and whom Vilma visits every day, to whom he referswith contempt as la mocosita (El arma, 27). This reminds us of anothercharacter from a Castellanos Moya short story entitled Paternidad,published in the collection El gran masturbador (1993), who could be seenas an earlier version of Robocop. Here a man whose name is never revealed,who is clearly involved in serious illegal activities, visits a woman who ispregnant with his child to try to convince her to have an abortion. Curiously,he refers to the unborn baby as el futuro mocoso, before going on to give thewoman his reasons for not wanting to see their baby born:

33 Nicole dAmonville Alegra, La mutuacion de la lengua se produce en AmericaLatina, Revista Lateral, 84 (diciembre de 2001), 16 (pp. 4-5; my emphasis)


*Eso que tenes en la barriga es un monstruo . . .*masculle.*Vos no sabes lo que soy, ni lo que he hecho. Ni siquiera sabes como mellamo.[. . .]*No te parece que ya hay demasiados hijos de puta sobre la tierra?34

Paradoxically, this seems to suggest that he is conscious of what he really isand wants to prevent the appearance of progeny who might turn out to belike him. This seems to be confirmed when, after the woman rejects his wish,he coolly gets out a revolver and shoots her and her servant. However, ifRobocop at some point possessed any redeeming qualities, such as theability at least to be conscious of the dangers of producing his own children,by the end of El arma en el hombre, they have disappeared. On the run inGuatemala, he meets Vilma again. After narrowly escaping his pursuers, hetakes her to a motel for sex, after which he tells her all about what has beengoing on in his life since they last met. Yet, by giving her this information shehas become a liability to him and, without hesitation, when she is asleep, hecallously shoots her in the back.

Ultimately, though, while a skilled soldier, able to get himself out oftrouble again and again, Robocops muscle is sustained only by the powergiven to him by others and, ironically, after being seriously injured in battletowards the end of the novel, he is taken to the USA where, after reviewinghis military record, the authorities decide he deserves a second opportunity:El trato era este: yo les contaba todo lo que saba y, a cambio, ellos mereconstruiran (nueva cara, nueva identidad) y me convirtiera en agente paraoperaciones especiales a disposicion en Centroamerica (El arma, 131). Thealternative is to be sent back to El Salvador to permanent incarceration. Asone of his new found friends tells him: Es tu chance de convertirte en unverdadero Robocop (El arma, 132). This, of course, is highly ironic, becausenot only is he to become an anti-narcotics agent, having previously workedfor drug traffickers, it also marks his definitive conversion into a mindlessautomaton.

A comparison with what happens to Corporal Martnez in Cuzcatlan ispertinent here. Whilst in order to be able to function as a soldier he had toblock out his true identity, it was never completely destroyed, as we see bywhat goes through his mind at the time of his startling re-encounter with hisgrandfather. He has tried to convince himself that what the militaryinstructors tell him makes sense and that the life he is living is betterthan the one he had before. The fact he has had to make that effort shows hehas doubts and, tired of his confusing thoughts, after remembering somewise words his grandfather uttered*Cada quien va librando su cacaxte

34 Horacio Castellanos Moya, El gran masturbador (San Salvador: Ediciones Arcoires,1993), 10001.


[yoke]*, he suddenly realizes: Esa sicologa mierda de los gringos ha venidoa cagarse en nosotros (Cuzcatlan, 24748). Martnez, therefore, is seen asnot beyond redemption and, unlike Robocops, his second chance at life is notan irony but a serious suggestion on the authors behalf about how,potentially, some of the socio-psychological wounds created by the CivilWar may be healed. Arguetas novels can be seen to portray an alternativeway of being a man, one rooted in the ideas and ideology of a subalternculture that refuses to meet violence with violence, as the denouement ofCuzcatlan suggests with its criticism of both the Left and the Right.Conversely, although a subtle undercurrent of socio-political critique canbe found in his novels, Castellanos Moya is more pessimistic and his fiction isclearly marked by his scepticism towards any kind of ideology and towardsthe idea that literature can or even should be used as a vehicle for trying toeffect socio-political change. His work seems to grow out of the circumstancesof the Salvadoran situation, where it might appear that any hope of finding apositive way out of the violence is nothing but absurd utopia.

Conclusions

What has been argued is that in the novels discussed, the men of violence arenot strong but pitiful characters whose power is provided by the uniform andthe weapons they carry, which, far from being their own, represent theirsuperiors; the national elite, including military leaders, and representativesof USA imperialism, who all despise their lowly servants*as well as theculture to which they belong*and who only tolerate them as long as theyserve their sinister interests. This suggests that men like Corporal Martnezand Robocop, for whom violence has become a way of life, are not simply theperpetrators of violence but victims of a hegemonic masculinity that is bothbacked up by and expressed through the structural and cultural violence ofan inherently inhumane state system.35 Drawing on the Salvadoransituation, Hume writes: This model of hegemonic masculinity denies menagency, choice, and the possibility to be different.36 In fact, while we may beable to talk about male privilege in this context, ultimately, all men, as wellas women, are negatively affected by this kind of hegemony, even those whoreally are in a position of dominance. This seems to call into questionwhether Connells concept of hegemonic masculinity actually explainssituations like those described in these novels, where coercion and brutalintimidation play such an important role in positioning men within society.

In basic terms, Connell defines hegemonic masculinity as the globaldominance of men over women, while also pointing out that Hegemonicmasculinity is always constructed in relation to various subordinated

35 See Galtung, Violence, Peace and Peace Research, and Johan Galtung, CulturalViolence, Journal of Peace Research, 27:3 (1990), 291305.

36 Hume, Contesting Imagined Communities, 77.


masculinities as well as in relation to women. The interplay betweendifferent forms of masculinity is an important part of how patriarchalsocial order works.37 He also notes that Violence is not just an expression; itis a part of the process that divides different masculinities from each other.Moreover, he highlights that the state is inherently violent, an instrument ofcoercion and much of the actual violence is not isolated and individualaction, but is institutional.38 At the same time, he emphasizes that

In the concept of hegemonic masculinity, hegemony means [. . .] a socialascendancy achieved in a play of social forces that extends beyondcontests of brute power into the organization of private life and culturalprocesses. Ascendancy of one group of men over another achieved at thepoint of a gun [. . .] is not hegemony. [. . .] hegemony does not mean totalcultural dominance, the obliteration of alternatives. [. . .] Other patternsand groups are subordinated rather than eliminated.

He also adds:

[. . .] though hegemony does not refer to ascendancy based on force, it isnot incompatible with ascendancy based on force. Indeed it is common forthe two to go together. Physical and economic violence backs up adominant cultural pattern [. . .], or ideologies justify the holders ofphysical power (law and order). The connection between hegemonicmasculinity and patriarchal violence is close, though not simple.39

This demonstrates that in his early work Connell was well aware of thethreat that overtly violent socio-political orders posed to his notion of howhegemonic masculinity really functions. He gets as far as saying that, whilehegemony is not incompatible with violence, power relations sustained byarms are not hegemony and that hegemony means subordination rather thanthe obliteration of alternatives. However, he does not actually consider whatexactly happens to hegemonic masculinity in situations where the violencegets out of hand, such as in El Salvador where some of the actions taken bythe military during the twentieth century seem to suggest that the aim, infact, was to eliminate certain groups. It was not by chance that the 1932Massacre virtually wiped out the Indian population in Western El Salvadorand the idea that another massacre may be justified in order to establish lawand order is clearly present in the minds of the soldiers and their superiors inArguetas novels: for example, commenting on his instructors teaching, oneof the soldiers in Un da says: Yo estoy de acuerdo con todo: a la raza hay queexterminarla con fuego (102).

37 Connell, Gender and Power, 183.38 Connell, Masculinity, Violence, and War, 128.39 Connell, Gender and Power, 184 (my emphasis).


It would seem that Connell was aware that here was a problem whichneeded to be carefully thought through, and the publication of Masculinities(1995) indicates that this did indeed continue to be a matter of concern forhim. He is now clearer about what constitutes successful hegemony andabout how keeping violence under control is part of securing hegemoniclegitimacy. Hence, he writes: It is the successful claim to authority, morethan direct violence, that is the mark of hegemony (though violence oftenunderpins or supports authority); and Violence is part of a system ofdomination, but is at the same time a measure of its imperfection. Athoroughly legitimate hierarchy would have less need to intimidate.40

Although he does not directly address the question of what happens whenthe violence gets out of hand, what he says is enough to indicate that by thetime the Civil War in El Salvador broke out, probably much earlier,hegemony had failed, since hegemonic masculinity no longer embodied acurrently accepted strategy: for much of the countrys population it hadlost its legitimacy, i.e. the basis of its dominance had been eroded, and hadbeen replaced by tyranny.41 In Connells words, a historic collapse of thelegitimacy of patriarchal power had taken place, with both men and womenunited in effecting the complex historical change needed so that the countrycould function in the modern world.

Connell tentatively talks about [. . .] two types of relationship*hegemony, domination/subordination and complicity on the one hand,marginalization/authorization on the other*[that] provide a [sparse]framework in which we can analyze specific masculinities which aregenerated in particular situations in a changing structure ofrelationship.42 It is perhaps here that, while relevant to our discussion,Connells theory may not offer any radically new understandings of asituation like that of El Salvador. Quite legitimately, his research hasfocused on developed, industrialized, western societies and therefore mightbe somewhat reductive if indiscriminately applied to an underdevelopedthird-world country like El Salvador. In the context of Arguetas novels, ithas already been argued that a relatively benign form of hegemonicmasculinity exists at the level of the rural population. If we can talk aboutmultiple masculinities,43 in trying to understand the plight of men likeCorporal Martnez and Robocop, might it also be appropriate to talk aboutsocieties in which several layers of hegemonic masculinity coexist? Thatwould allow us to suggest that, whilst in relation to the masses these men arein a position that is truly hegemonic*albeit blatantly violent*in relation totheir bosses they are subordinate. Moreover, the two types of relationships

40 Connell, Masculinities, 77, 84.41 Connell, Masculinities, 77.42 Connell, Masculinities, 81.43 Connell, Masculinities, 76.


Connell mentions*hegemony, domination/subordination and complicity, onthe one hand, marginalization/authorization, on the other*seem too neat forthe Salvadoran situation. The idea concerning the relationship of complicitywith the hegemonic project indicates that some men who are in asubordinate position willingly identify with that project, since they benefitfrom the patriarchal dividend.44 While this is undoubtedly true, the novelsstudied here point to a different kind of complicity, one achieved througha more complex process of marginalization, coercion and, finally,authorization. Young, marginalized men are captured, forced through adehumanizing process of intimidation and, once they have learned to identifywith their oppressors, are given unlimited power to terrorize their own kind,whom they have been taught to hate.

44 Connell, Masculinities, 79.


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