"Arts, Faculty of"@en . "French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of"@en . "DSpace"@en . "UBCV"@en . "Powell, Vincent Robert"@en . "2009-06-12T04:11:58Z"@en . "1998"@en . "Master of Arts - MA"@en . "University of British Columbia"@en . "This thesis examines Carlos Monsiv\u00E1is's cr\u00F3nicas, focusing on the transformative nature of\r\nlanguage and signification. By incorporating multiple perceptions into his narration, and by\r\nresorting to irony, sarcasm, satire and parody, he challenges and undermines the dominant class's\r\nhegemonic discourse, and in the process, he underlines the pluralistic nature of Mexican society.\r\nIn chapter one we analyze the characteristics of the cr\u00F3nicas in so far as they oscillate between\r\njournalism and literature. Chapter two focuses on the crucial role assigned to urban popular\r\nculture, and we investigate how its myths, symbols and beliefs are resignified within the\r\ncontemporary urban setting. Chapter three explores the narrational posture because this is how\r\nthe author shapes and conveys his or her point of view. In Monsiv\u00E1is's cr\u00F3nicas, this narrative\r\npoint of view is multifarious, such that a kaleidoscope of viewpoints are presented to the reader.\r\nChapter four is an exegesis of the various languages which are put into play in Monsiv\u00E1is's\r\ncr\u00F3nicas, highlighting the conflictive and contradictory opinions of the different sectors of\r\nMexican society. In relating Bakhtin's idea of heteroglossia to Monsiv\u00E1is's texts, we accentuate\r\nthat this appropriation of numerous languages implies that they compete for signification and\r\nsocial transformation, given that meanings are reformulated as previous discourses are\r\nincorporated into new forms and contexts. Therefore, Monsiv\u00E1is's cr\u00F3nicas echo Bakhtin's\r\n\"Discourse in the Novel\" and his idea of language as an open system where signification is not\r\nlimited to the interpretations imposed by the dominant classes, but rather it is in a constant state\r\nof collision and resignification according to the concrete and ceaseless flow of utterances\r\nproduced in dialogues between speakers in specific social and historical contexts. In this sense,\r\nMonsiv\u00E1is cr\u00F3nicas could be read as a democratic project."@en . "https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/9021?expand=metadata"@en . "6389048 bytes"@en . "application/pdf"@en . "A NEW SYNTHETIC DYE by VINCENT ROBERT POWELL B.A., The University of British Columbia A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Department of French, Italian and Hispanic Studies) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA December 1998 \u00A9Vincent Robert Powell, 1998 in presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada Date VeC- (*j l9fj DE-6 (2/88) Abstract This thesis examines Carlos Monsivais's cronicas, focusing on the transformative nature of language and signification. By incorporating multiple perceptions into his narration, and by resorting to irony, sarcasm, satire and parody, he challenges and undermines the dominant class's hegemonic discourse, and in the process, he underlines the pluralistic nature of Mexican society. In chapter one we analyze the characteristics of the cronicas in so far as they oscillate between journalism and literature. Chapter two focuses on the crucial role assigned to urban popular culture, and we investigate how its myths, symbols and beliefs are resignified within the contemporary urban setting. Chapter three explores the narrational posture because this is how the author shapes and conveys his or her point of view. In Monsivais's cronicas, this narrative point of view is multifarious, such that a kaleidoscope of viewpoints are presented to the reader. Chapter four is an exegesis of the various languages which are put into play in Monsivais's cronicas, highlighting the conflictive and contradictory opinions of the different sectors of Mexican society. In relating Bakhtin's idea of heteroglossia to Monsivais's texts, we accentuate that this appropriation of numerous languages implies that they compete for signification and social transformation, given that meanings are reformulated as previous discourses are incorporated into new forms and contexts. Therefore, Monsivais's cronicas echo Bakhtin's \"Discourse in the Novel\" and his idea of language as an open system where signification is not limited to the interpretations imposed by the dominant classes, but rather it is in a constant state of collision and resignification according to the concrete and ceaseless flow of utterances produced in dialogues between speakers in specific social and historical contexts. In this sense, Monsivais cronicas could be read as a democratic project. Table of Contents Abstract ii Table of Contents i i i Acknowledgments iv INTRODUCTION 1-14 CHAPTER ONE Contemporary Cronicas: Between Literature and Journalism 15-38 CHAPTER TWO Urban Popular Culture in Contemporary Mexico and its Importance in Monsivais's Cronicas 39-69 CHAPTER THREE Narrative Point of View in Monsivais's Cronicas 70-94 CHAPTER FOUR Heteroglossic Languages and Intertexuality in Monsivais's Cronicas 95-118 CONCLUSION 119-122 Bibliography .- 123-130 iii Acknowledgments I would like to thank all of those people who helped me throughout the preparation of this M . A . thesis. First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Rita De Grandis, who without her encouragement, this thesis on Carlos Monsivais never would have been completed. Aside from encouraging me to write on this very difficult topic, she spent countless hours reading, editing and providing me with illuminating ideas of how to improve this text. Dr. Rubio must be thanked for his insightful comments throughout the writing process of this thesis. He provided me with some terrific suggestions, particularly with respect with how to particularize certain segments of this work. I would also like to thank him for all that I have learned from him over the years at U B C . I would also like to thank Dr. Blanca Muratorio for her participation in this thesis. Specifically, she asked me some probing questions during my defense, which allowed me to rethink and rewrite a couple of passages, making them clearer and more coherent. A word of thanks to Dr. Antonio Urrello who introduced me to Carlos Monsivais's Amor perdido in his excellent class on El ensayo hispanoamericano. Thank you to my good Mexican friend, Ismael Chaveznava S., for introducing me to Carlos Monsivais's numerous works. Last of all, I have to thank Vicky, who without her, I do not think that I would have completed this work. She supported me tremendously throughout the writing process, through all the frustrations and difficulties which writers must somehow overcome. ) iv Introduction Carlos Monsivais is one of Mexico's foremost social and cultural critics. He has written extensively on every possible subject of Mexican national life, particularly urban popular culture (cinema, comics, Mexican foibles, celebrities, popular music), 'high' culture, the youth movement, generational conflict, sexual revolution, technology, urbanism, politics, and a host of other related subjects. The unifying theme found in his works is the affirmation of change from and 'old authoritative regime' to a more democratic one, and for that reason his cronicas could be read as a democratic project. His prime interest lies in deflating and undermining the dogmatic language of the establishment and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), a hegemonic discourse which has attempted to control all aspects of Mexican society. By including a kaleidoscope of perceptions in his narration, Monsivais, \"according to Antonio Urrello, \"constantly challenges the official version of events and characters and rewrites important segments of Mexican history and cultural life\" (Antonio Urrello, 1999, 567). He uses exaggeration, irony, satire, sarcasm and parody to criticize social behaviour and beliefs. Monsivais sets up all his works in an urban setting because he is interested in \"la vida cotidiana\" and the distinctive space that popular culture has in the modern urban context. Since urbanization and industrialization have had a huge impact on Mexican society (sixty to seventy percent of the population now lives in cities), the cities, and in particular Mexico City, act as an entry point for traditional customs which blend with the modern elements of modernization. As Rowe and Schelling argue, \"the city is a place of 1 entry of transnational culture, of TV programs, comic-strip heroes and advertisements, whose references are to a different environment, that of the advanced capitalist countries\" (Rowe and Schelling, 1989, 97). Consequently, Monsivais formed his critical spirit in Mexico City. \"La inquietud, base de su caracter, lo empuja por todos los barrios y rincones a medida que recorre teatros, cines, espectaculos, partidos politicos, mitines, desmadres en medio del rasgo central del caracter de la ciudad: E L Relajo.\"' Hence, Monsivais examines the social actions and behaviours of the Mexican people in an urban context. Monsivais's cronicas reflect upon the social lives of the Mexican people and how they are recreated and presented dramatically through their legends. History, myth and character are at the heart of his cronicas because the interactions between people, their attitudes and gestures, provide the material for his discussion, investigation and criticism. The cronicas are episodic in nature and usually each episode is realized in a particular character (an artist, a writer, a leader, etc.) or a socially determined group (the establishment, politicians, or the students, etc.). The experiences of these interpersonal relationships are a fundamental aspect of his work because they reveal la vida social and how it manifests itself through language. In chapter one we will analyze the historical event that shaped the Mexican contemporary cronica: the October 2, 1968 Tlatelolco massacre. This tragic event has had a profound effect on all aspects of Mexican society, particularly the intellectual life. ' Jose Cueli, La Jornada, 5 de agosto de 1995, pg. 49. 2 Writers such as Monsivais committed themselves to unmasking the corruption of the Mexican state, voicing the concerns of the students and the subaltern classes. We will also explore the problematic modality of the Mexican cronica, focusing on how literature and journalism has affected the evolution of it. One of Monsivais's originalities is the mixture of the devices of literature with a serious aim and factual approach, so that artistic redefinition's and social change are seen to be integrated. As we will demonstrate, the Mexican cronica is more an exercise in the literary recreation of real events, epochs and characters, than conventional journalism. Another important factor that we will investigate in chapter one is the influence American New Journalism has had on the cronica; in fact, it has served as a source of inspiration for Monsivais and many other \"cronistas\". New Journalism and the cronica are concerned with attacking the establishment, the falseness of bourgeoisie social life and condemning status quo's point of view. They both incorporate various forms of subjectivity in their texts in order to problematize and undermine monolithic language. Furthermore, there is a constant reference to an immediate \"reality\" and they respond to concrete situations, such as the negative effects of urbanization and industrialization, and the need to build roads, homes, etc. for the marginalized sectors of society. Chapter two is an exegesis of the important relationship between the urban popular classes and the cronicas. This is a major theme in Monsivais's works, and he writes from the perspective of urban popular culture because he firmly believes that a civil democracy can only arise from the marginalized classes. In positioning himself with the urban popular classes, Monsivais presents a scathing attack of the establishment and 3 the PRFs failure to democratize Mexico. The chapter commences with an analysis of the transformative nature of urban popular culture, focusing on Monsivais's analysis of it (he has written extensive articles on the subject). We will then investigate how he practices his theory of urban popular culture in his works. Chapter three examines the narrational posture in Monsivais's cronicas. The narrative position continually shifts, displaying a multifarious character. The multiple perceptions that are put into play serve to deflate and undermine the values and the beliefs of the hegemonic discourse of power. In reflecting on the pluralistic nature of Mexican society, Monsivais accentuates the conflicts between the dominant and the urban popular classes. He highlights this in the manner in which he mocks and ridicules the social values and beliefs of the Mexican establishment. In chapter four we will continue our analysis of Monsivais's multiple perceptions, relating his cronicas to Bakhtin's idea of heteroglossia and intertexuality. For Bakhtin, literature should reveal all the languages of heteroglossia, reproducing the conflicts that exist between ideologies that are produced in each individual and society. The most important aspect for the fictional writer is that these varying ideologies should not be described, reformulated or exposively analyzed in the narrator's discourse, \"sino mostradas en conflicto mediante la citation de lenguaje que constituye la novela\" (Graciela Reyes, 1984, 128). This central idea of Bakhtin's is captured in the following paragraph: A l l languages of heteroglossia, whatever the principle underlying them and making each unique, are specific points of view on the world, forms for conceptualizing the worlds in words, specific world views, each characterized by its own objects, meanings, values. As such they all may be juxtaposed to one another, mutually supplement one another, contradict 4 one another and be interrelated dialogically. [...] They are all able to enter into the unitary plane of the novel, which can unite in its parodic stylizations of generic languages, various forms of stylizations and illustrations of professional and period-bound languages, the languages of particular generations, of social dialects and others (Bakhtin, 1981, 298). Monsivais's cronicas echo Bahktin's concepts of heteroglossia and intertexuality such that the multiple perceptions and viewpoints, imprinted on top of the authorial voice, constitutes the form in which the text recognizes and dialogizes with other texts. The languages which represent specific ideologies that are in conflict with one another range from Mexican popular songs and expressions, literature, economic and political rhetoric, euphemisms, anglicisms, and to familiar American expressions as they are used in colloquial language. Consequently, this literary technique of including fragments of other texts into his own, for the purpose of re-creating a certain event or character, is a central narrative component of his cronicas. Since Monsivais believes, like Bakhtin, that every word is actualized in a particular context, he continually reexamines and reconstructs events or characters in order to highlight the transformative nature of signification, to challenge the official version of events and also to explore their significance in Mexican society. In order to orient the reader, we have provided a brief panoramic analysis of Monsivais's five major works. This will enable the reader to gain a greater overall understanding of Monsivais's project. Dias de guardar (1970) contains cronicas written between 1968-1970 which consign and explore some of Mexico's principal dates in which a series of popular 5 mobilizations rebelled against the establishment, such as the famous generational movement of \"la Onda.\" In this text, Monsivais chronicles the commencement of the fateful events of the October 2, 1968 student protest, which would culminate in the massacre of Tlatelolco. With irony and penetrating humour, Monsivais \"places the calendar of Mexican national celebrations under a radically different and critical light\" (Antonio Urrello, 1999, 567). He examines the gestation and development of the official and bourgeoisie Mexico, and how their actions have been the principal causes of Mexico's political and economic crisis. The voices that belong to the dominant classes are juxtaposed with those of the marginalized classes, who developed a counterculture in the 1960's which resisted the hegemony of the state. In particular, Dias de guardar sets out to explore the values honoured by the society that gave rise to the Mexican student rebellion in 1968 and its suppression. Monsivais builds up a picture of a consumer society, bent on the pursuit of power defined in terms of wealth and property, determined to hang on to its newly acquired assets and stifle all dissent, a society in conflict with youth who have rejected such goals and are pursuing different ones. The optimism of the bonanza years of the 1960's, followed by the crisis that culminated in the Tlatelolco massacre, and the subsequent sober assessment of gains and losses are presented in a series of cronicas about a wide variety of events and attitudes of the time. They are introduced by a series of photographs representing daily life as well as the events of national importance, often with irony. The text includes snatches of pop music, a list of banners paraded by the marchers, mock questionnaires, and aphorisms from Marshall McLuhan. Furthermore, it is interspersed with a series of 6 scenarios reproducing imaginary conversations and situations dramatizing stereotypes of the late sixties. Monsivais presents us with a rapidly moving kaleidoscope of a society in constant change. Tags from the media, advertising cliches, meaningless lines from pop songs, and oracular pronouncements from the gurus of the day have substituted themselves for communication. The nostalgia implicit in the title is wholly ironic, for the innocent optimism of the sixties is irrevocably over, slaughtered in 1968 in the establishment's attempt to preserve one set of the conflicting values depicted in this text. Amor perdido (1977) continues where Dias de guardar left off, \"cronicando\" until 1977. A variety of characters appear in these cronicas, ranging from the idols of popular culture to politicians. He investigates the work of those people whose work was ignored by society in a particular epoch - even though their personality was recognized - due to their confessed homosexuality or leftism which questioned the moral character of the dominant ideology: Salvador Novo and David Siqueiros. The characters, like the situations, are unified by an oppressive character of government and the loss of hope in the great transformations that where expected of Mexican society. Famous singers like Jose Alfredo Jimenez who synthesize Mexican chauvinism and the poor person resignated to a life without hope appear in the text. Other significant characters are the important forgotten intellectuals, writers and painters from the Left who rebelled against the dominant class, like Jose Revueltas. As well, Monsivais incorporates the anonymous voices of the bourgeoisie, who simply concern themselves with \"jet-set\" values, in order to reflect the social tension that exists among Mexico's dominant and urban popular classes. 7 Many of the cronicas are homages to important figures such as Jose Alfredo or Agustin Lara, written at the time of their deaths. He also writes about el Porfiriato, the birth of the PRI, the sexenios of Cardenas, Avila Camacho, Aleman, Diaz Ordaz, Echeverria and Portillo, the Mexican Revolution, the Tlatelolco massacre, la Onda, David Siqueiros, Jose Revueltas, Fidel Velasquez, Salvador Novo and Isela Vega, among others. Monsivais explores the significance of each individual or group within its particular historical circumstances in order to highlight how they have affected past and present Mexican society. An understanding of this allows one to better understand the present context in which they find themselves. And if Mexican people become conscious of their external surroundings, then democracy has more of an opportunity to flourish in Mexico. What is central to this text and the others, is the dynamics of the multiple interrelationships between people within particular contexts. Monsivais's approach to understanding Mexican reality allows the reader to seek signification as it is generated through the different layers of text, thus \"providing the possibility of alternative readings of the characters and events portrayed\" (Antonio Urrello, 1999, 567). Therefore, interpretation plays a key role in this text because historical events, the historical protagonist, president, union leader, cultural leader, and the \"popular\" movie idol are scrutinized from a variety of different and converging perspectives, and through the use of personal diaries, letters, declarations, manifestos, and interviews granted to the media (567). Furthermore, Monsivais incorporates other versions of events such as eyewitness accounts. Thus, new signification is created, given that Monsivais's texts shed a new 8 light on events and characters. By reassembling events, characters and contexts, he provides the reader with another version of Mexican reality. By investigating characters and events within their particular context, he exposes how the official version succeeded in glorifying or condemning those individuals or events from a prejudiced point of view. As Urrello argues, \"Monsivais's method allows the possibility of different interpretations by a reader who now has at his or her disposal a more complex and complete version of the historical and institutional circumstances\" (567). Nearly half of Monsivais's cronicas in Entrada libre: Cronicas de la sociedad que se organiza (1987), recreate the events of the 1985 Mexico earthquake. The underlying theme that runs throughout this text is that of the spontaneous growth of democratic social organization to help people get desperately needed services that were not forthcoming from inept or venal government officials. The disaster was so overwhelming that tens of thousands of city residents, even those living in areas unaffected by the tremors, mobilized to fill what amounted to a political vacuum. Mexican officials, on the whole, are depicted as bumbling and counterproductive. Soldiers cordoned off areas to prevent would-be rescuers from aiding with rescue efforts. President Miguel de la Madrid arouses scorn and ridicule when he proudly refuses outside aid, claiming to be able to handle the crisis that is clearly beyond Mexico's resources. Defying the government's exhortation to stay at home and remain calm, volunteers streamed from all parts of the city to help. By the time the government recognized that it could not cope with the disaster without volunteer corps, the volunteers themselves had learned that they could indeed cope without the government. 9 Monsivais places the earthquake in the context of a series of recent events that have, together, revealed the reality of Mexican society. In his treatment of \"la mitologia\" surrounding the San Juanito disaster, Monsivais delves into a level of deeply felt rancor that has rarely made its way into print in Mexico. Less than two weeks after the tragedy, he says, there suddenly appeared an epidemic of cruel San Juanico jokes, a subgenre of what he calls \"humor naco\" (144-47). The word \"naco\" is, as Monsivais points out, an expression of both race and class prejudice on the part of those who consider themselves \"criollo\", that is, part of the modernized establishment. \"Naco\" humour makes sport of the marginalized masses whose greatest sin, Monsivais writes, is that they bear no resemblance whatsoever to Robert Redford. He continues by stating that as long as there is no danger of explosions in one's own neighbourhood, horror can be quickly replaced by humourous digs at the notorious passivity, ignorance, and bad taste imputed to the victims. Since, as Monsivais argues, there were no Pemex gasoline storage tanks in the affluent neighbourhoods of Pedregal, Coyoacan and Las Lomas, these people believed that they could indulge in cruel jokes like, \"En San Juan Ixhuatepec no se sirven tacos al carbon, sino nacos al carbon\" (148). By contrast, the tremendous spontaneous organization of youthful rescuers within hours of the earthquake, elicits an unmistakable patriotic interpretation of events. The earthquake struck both rich and poor sections of the central city, suddenly victimizing Mexicans of all classes whom other Mexicans sprang to rescue even at the great risk to their own lives. The ugly \"naco\" jokes of 1984 obviously did not apply in 1985. Instead, popular scorn switched from the \"naco\" marginalized by poverty and ignorance to the 10 government functionary, marginalized in his turn by his insulation from the lives of ordinary Mexicans. In line with his theme of democratization in this work, Monsivais accentuates anecdotes of the sudden politicization of ordinary people. He writes that neither political denunciations nor media exposes or eyewitness testimony had managed to accomplish what the earthquake accomplished in an instant: \"desmitificar de raiz y hacer visible la sordidez antes considerada natural\" (106). Clearly, Monsivais sees in the popular response to the 1985 disaster an important shift, replacing the passivity long thought to characterize the Mexican masses with a surge of cooperative action. Hence, he sees something positive arising out of this disaster, namely the spontaneous generation of democratic life among their people. Understandably, he longs to see a new Mexico, and a new Mexican, rising from the city's ruble. Escenas de pudory liviandad (1988) examines \"la vida cotidiana\" of the popular marginalized groups who live in Mexico's poor neighbourhoods and the effects popular idols have had on Mexican society. In his exegesis of urban popular culture, Monsivais concentrates on three elements: (1) The influence of television, movies and rock music on Mexican society; (2) the relationship between the dominant classes and the urban popular classes; (3) the daily communicative exchanges among the marginalized sectors of society, such as in the \"cantinas\" or dance halls. In investigating these aspects of Mexican society Monsivais penetrates \"la vida cotidiana del pueblo\" to observe the process of their collective production of culture by the marginalized classes. 2 This work was originally published in 1981. The current tenth edition includes nine new cronicas that were written after 1981. 11 This work is a collection of cronicas which were written between 1977-1987. The common theme which holds the work together es el espectaculo y sus figuras...y la cultura popular urbana...que es a la vez realidad viva para millones de personas, nostalgia inducida, efectos de las personalidades unicas sobre los modos de vida, industria cultural y respuestas colectivas al proceso de la modernization (Escenas de pudory liviandad, 19). He examines why and how popular artists - such as stars, actresses, comics and singers -are mythologized in the public sphere. He gives voice to important Mexican characters such as Juan Gabriel, Cantinflas, Maria Felix, Dolores del Rio and Celia Montalvan and \"chavos banda\", \"cholos\", and \"pachucos\" who converse with one another in discotheques, rock concerts and dance clubs. Some of the cronicas in Escenas de pudory liviandad are composed of pure dialogues,3 and in others, the voice of the narrator can be clearly heard as though he is a tourist guide pointing out significative historical and cultural landmarks and characters. In one case, he is at Cantinflas's funeral contemplating the significance and the impact of his life on Mexican society at large: \" E l mito de Cantinflas se funda en sus origenes, en el acto de memoria que exalta los heroicos tiempos de la carpa en Santa Maria la Redonda\" (\"Instituciones. Cantinflas. Ahi estuvo,\" 77-96). In another instance, Monsivais is at \" E l Salon Los Angeles\" observing a group of popular artists dance la rumba and notices the friction between them and a group of conservative intellectuals. The investigative narrator also visits a cantina and listens in on a conversation between a group of people and then makes some observations about the clientele: Miren al tipo de la entrada. Que barbaro! Como le hara para manejar ese bamboleo? Carajo, esta hasta atras, hasta el gorro, hasta la madre.[The 3 See \"Dancing: E l secreto esta en la mano izquierda\" (137-40). 12 narrator's opinion begins]..El Borracho Sangrante se desploma sin caer, se abate de pie, como un derrumbe en el vacio...el sigue de pie por necedad aunque todos sabemos que ya hace un rato que se desplomo...Pero nosotros solo vemos un cuerpo derruido, obstinado en desafiar certezas y pronosticos: que no habra alguien que lo levante antes de su caida (\"Mexicanerias: La epica de la embriguez,\" 200). Monsivais also delves into sexism and machismo in Mexican society. He advises us that 'el machismo' has undergone a series of transformations. The \"nuevo macho\" has lost its force: Las nuevas figuras, tan escasamente afirmativas, responden a los ambientes donde la despersonalizacion es la norma, da igual lo que piensan de mi los vecinos porque estos son intercambiables y pasajeros (\"Mexicanerias: Pero hubo una vez once mil machos?\" (109) ). As with his previous works, Los rituales del caos (1995) contains a number of individual cronicas on diverse aspects of contemporary Mexican culture: three different works discuss how soccer, boxing, and the festival of \"La Virgen de Guadalupe\" are public performances of national identity; another cronica critiques self-motivation books as signs of \"la religion de exito\" or the cult of upward mobility, while yet another examines the metro as an ongoing lesson in plurality and tolerance. Monsivais organizes this spectacular chaos in three sections. Underlying the ephemeral quality of urban culture, most phenomena are described under the title \"la hora de...(e.g. \"...la identidad acumulativa, \"...el control remoto\", \"...las convicciones alternativas)\". Inserted periodically are brief allegories called \"parabolas de las postrimerias\" in which Monsivais spins tales of life in mass society. Finally, there are three cronicas about particularly important cultural \"Protagonistas\": Jesus Helguera, 13 popular calendar artist and the Mexican version of Norman Rockwell; E l nino Fidencio, a messianic curandero from the 1920's and 1930's; and Gloria Trevi, a famous pop singer and movie star. Los rituales del caos has a religious overtone to it, not only because it touches upon the theme of faith with \"La Virgen de Guadalupe\" or the miracle-worker, \" E l nino Fidencio,\" but because it investigates \"el milagro de la supervivencia colectiva.\"4 This is further exemplified when Monsivais offers us a revelation \"sobre la cultura de postapocalipsis y la funcion del testigo\":5 Y en ese instante vi al apocalipsis cara a cara. Y comprendi que el santo temor al Juicio Final radica en la intuition demoniaca: uno ya no estara para presenciarlo. Y vi de reojo a la Bestia con siete cabezas y diez cuernos, y entre sus cuernos diez diademas. Y la gente le aplaudia y le tomaba fotos y videos, y grababa sus declaraciones exclusivas, mientras, con claridad que habia de tornarse bruma dolorosa, llegaba a mi el conocimiento postrero: la pesadilla mas atroz es la que nos excluye definitivamente\" (\"Parabolas de la postrimerias: E L APOCALIPSIS E N ARRESTO DOMICILIARIO,\" 248-49). 4 See La Jornada, 5 de agosto de 1995, pg. 44. 5 Ibid. 14 Chapter One Contemporary Cronicas: Between Literature or Journalism? The Generation of 1968 The historical event that shaped the post-1968 contemporary Mexican cronica was the Tlatelolco student massacre of 1968. The students who were slaughtered were protesting against the authoritative nature the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and they were seeking a democratic dialogue with the state. During and after the traumatic events, the Mexican cronica assumed a powerful role of interpretation and protest; in some respects, this form of \"literary journalism\" acted as a vehicle to express the voices of the silenced masses. Monsivais said unequivocally that 1968 was \"un ano axial\" (Dias de guardar, 15) and that much of Mexican life during the years preceding this moment of truth was in great measure, inauthentic: \"Tal es la situacion anterior a julio del '68: anos devaluados, donde el auto engano nos hace participar y nos obliga a creer. Anos de intensidad minima, fraguada en recepciones, cocteles, notas encomiasticas...\" (74). Monsivais argues that since the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), and up until 1968, the Mexican cronica had lost its original social commitment to uncover injustices and give voice to the marginal sectors of society. The cronica was characterized with \"un olvido programado del presente\" and \"[e]n este lapso, de hegemonia duradera hasta el 68, cronica y reportaje ignoran marginalidad y luchas sociales...\" (Monsivais, 1979, 32). In addition, he claims that the post-1968 generation of writers felt obligated to write about the repression of class consciousness, and uncovering political and social problems. In 15 this manner, 1968 was not only a pivotal moment in Mexican history, but in Western society. But, in the particular context of Mexico, it inflicts a major transformation in the cronicas. From then on, the cronistas have looked for new methods to approach reality and to apprehend its significations. Specifically, after the massacre, writers such as Monsivais analyzed the present, stripping it of its myths, and especially of its official ones, those of which are the myths of power of the bourgeoisie. Bearing this in mind, \"La cronica contemporanea parte de esta necesidad de despertar la conciencia social y revela el esfuerzo del autor por romper sus limitaciones de clase (y de perspectiva) para hacerse cada vez mas eficaz vocero the sectores populares\" (Ruffmelli, 1987, 75). Monsivais echoes this concern arguing that the purpose of the post-1968 cronicas is to give voice to the silenced sectors of society, \"las minorias y mayorias de toda indole que no encuentran cabida o representatividad en los medios masivos\" (Monsivais, 1979, 36). As it has already been pointed out, the events of 1968 revitalized and diversified the themes and the forms of the cronicas. Most Mexican critics, including Monsivais, postulate that La noche de Tlatelolco (1970) is one of the first important works that unmasked the repressive and authoritative nature of the PRI. This classic work by Elena Poniatowska is a complex montage of many fragmented discourses, which somehow inaugurates a new formalistic device to render through the eyewitness accounts the distinct voices into a coherent but polysemic composition which no single speaker can dominate.6 The fragments range from a few lines to half a page or a page in length, and 6 Zunilda Gertel speaks of the \"deconstruction and reconstruction of fragmentary languages which an editorial voice recomposes\" (pg. 58) in her comments on the creative and interpretive labour of the editor 16 interspersed among the testimonies, are passages from a myriad of other sources: newspaper articles, speeches by government officials, protest songs and chants, graffiti, police records, and literary texts. Photographs are also introduced to complement the verbal representation. \"The montage form with its juxtaposition of heterogeneous elements creates a multilayered vision fraught with gaps, discrepancies, and contradictions, as well as startling moments of unanimity and consensus.\"7 By rejecting the homogenizing tendencies of much conventional journalism, a discourse which reduces and isolates events in a single synthetic capsule, Poniatowska creates a highly effective new form of presenting the silenced, marginalized alternative history of the 1968 student movement. Monsivais argues that this work reconstruye las dimensiones objetivas y subjetivas del movimiento estudiantil, la espontaneidad que el arrojo solidifica, la ideologia visceral y las actitudes epicas que se hallan, a la vuelta de la esquina. La noche de Tlatelolco exhibe la densa capa mortuoria de la vida politica de Mexico, la sensation de un pais colocado bajo una campana neumatica al cual vivifican las brigadas y las manifestaciones, y al cual pretende silenciar en vano lamatanza (Monsivais, 1992, 18). Hence, the particular historical event that constituted the founding moment of a new stage of cronicas was the Tlatelolco massacre. This new modality is characterized by its democratization of styles and its commitment to give voice to the marginal sectors of society. The writers that fall within this particular realm of writing are Carlos in La noche de Tlatelolco. See, Zunilda Gertel, \"La mujer y su discurso: Conciencia y mascara,\" in Cambio social en Mexico visto por autores contempordneos, ed. Jose Anadon, 45-60 (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame, 1984). 7 Beth Jorgensen, 1994,78. 17 Monsivais, Elena Poniatowska, Carlos Fuentes , Gabriel Zaid, Jose Emilio Pacheco, Cristina Pacheco, and Joaquin Blanco, among many others. In the particular case of Monsivais, he considers himself both a representative of the popular sectors of society and marginal within a strongly patriarcal and Catholic society.9 This marginalization points to an ambiguous relation with the literary institution, given that his cronicas are not part of the Mexican literary canon. The Particular Circumstances A short historical analysis of the student massacre is necessary in order to gain a greater insight into those events that shaped Mexican society and the new cronica. This is fundamental because within the context of the 1968 student movement, a group of writers emerged who, echoing the concerns of the students, engaged themselves in a forceful ideological and political critique of the PRI. 1968 was a year of opportunity and crisis for Mexico. After forty years in power, the ruling party, the PRI, headed by President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, was anxious to demonstrate to the world that Mexico was not an underdeveloped, violence-prone country populated by the gun-toting bandits and lazy peasants of the Hollywood movies. The Carlos Fuentes is not generally thought of as a cronista, but he has produced a substantial corpus of articles and commentaries that are exemplary of cronicas. For example, In Tiempo mexicano (1971) he avoids abstract economic discussion and seeks explanations in broadly human terms. He delves deeply into such matters as Mexican myth and national character along with the specious enticements of rapid economic development. He points out that many urban sectors of Mexico have succeeded in realizing the dream of modern progress and have been able - almost - to live in Monterrey as i f in Milan, or in Mexico as if in Los Angeles, but this goal has been achieved at an inopportune moment: it has coincided with uprisings, the destruction of the environment, pollution, and urban ghettos {Tiempo mexicano, 32-33). 9 According to biographical data Monsivais is a Protestant. Please see Carlos Monsivais's autobiography: Carlos Monsivais: Nuevos escritores mexicanos del siglo XXpresentados por si mismos (Mexico: Empresas Editoriales, 1966). 18 summer Olympics, scheduled for October 12-27, 1968, in Mexico City, were planned as a showcase in an economically developing nation. At the same time, however, growing political dissidence in Mexico challenged the monolithic state apparatus and the powerful monopoly of the PRI. By 1968, a decade of repressive measures taken by the government against labour activists, teachers, and university students, and the atmosphere of student rebellion in Europe and the U S A combined to create a critical juncture in Mexican history. It was at this moment, virtually on the eve of the Olympics, when international attention was focused on the country, that a series of initially spontaneous incidents aroused the students of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) and the Instituto Politecnico Nacional (IPN) into what came to be known as the movimlento estudiantil, the 1968 Mexican student movement. By the end of July of 1968, the students from U N A M and IPN had managed to mobilize and demanded compensation for injured students, release of detained students and other political prisoners, disbanding of the riot police, and repeal of Article 145 of the penal code, which defines \"crimes\" of public disorder. Over the course of the next two months the students made more demands on the PRI, such as a more open, democratic society, greater rights for workers and a freer dialogue between those in power and those who, fifty years after the revolution, remained powerless. The student movement's protest attracted an enormous amount of People: 150, 000 at the Zocalo on August 13, a march involving 300,000 on August 27, and tens of thousands at the famous \"silent demonstration\" on September 13 (Michael Meyer, 1998, 19 701). The government responded with repressive measures: police violence against protesters and onlookers, hundreds of arrests, attacks on school buildings occupied by the students, and finally, on September 18, the invasion and two-week occupation of the U N A M campus by the army (701). Dramatic as these events were, the definitive tragic confrontation between the student movement and a government intolerant of opposition took place on October 2, 1968, when, at a peaceful rally at the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco, army troops and police trapped thousands of protesters, indiscriminately fired on them, and pursued them into the surrounding apartment buildings. The Tlatelolco massacre left hundreds of demonstrators dead, thousands illegally detained, and many tortured in military camps. By the next morning the student movement was effectively destroyed and the city soon returned to an uncomfortable state of silence, calm, and disturbing \"normality\" as the opening day of the Olympics - October 12 - drew nearer.10 In the aftermath of the massacre, government cover-ups and censorship of the media impeded any investigation of the events and prevented effective dissemination of what scant information was available to the press.\" The Olympics proceeded on schedule, and Poniatowska said with bitter irony that Mexicans applauded when an army lieutenant won a medal. But, in the years following 1968, Tlatelolco and the student movement have figured prominently in the intellectual, political, and artistic expressions 1 0 A n exact accounting of the number of protesters killed, wounded, and imprisioned has never been possible due to the PRI's refusal to conduct a complete investigation of the massacre. In Posdata, Octavio Paz states that 325 protesters were killed. ' ' Carlos Monsivais says that mechanisms of government censorship of the media included bribes and outright threats against journalists. When that failed, the authorities silenced their few remaining critics by arresting them. See, Carlos Monsivais, \" A veinte anos de La noche de Tlatelolco;\" Semanal, Supplement to La jornada, October 13, 1991, 20-29. 20 of Mexico. Opinions vary as to the lasting impact of 1968 on Mexican politics, but it is clear that the Tlatelolco massacre, far from silencing the students' demands for dialogue, guaranteed an ongoing debate over the issues of repression, corruption, and monolithic exercise of authority which they raised. Themes and Concerns of the New Cronica: Unlike the earlier generational ideologue writers (Alfonso Reyes, Leopoldo Zea, Octavio Paz) who wrote in abstract terms, the cronistas respond to concrete situations, and current trends in the world bent on accelerated growth, industrialization and modernity. Instead of writing about the essence of the Mexican being in abstract terms12, this new generation of writers are concerned with \"las modas, las canciones, los autores de protesta, las corbatas, los estilos de baile...\" (Monsivais, \"Mexico 1967\", in La cultura en Mexico (17 enero 1968): ii-vii). As in Europe and the USA, the new freedom claimed by the younger generation led to an inevitable confrontation with the establishment: in the case of Mexico, this took the form of the Tlatelolco student massacre and its aftermath. These events and their background became central themes for these writers and major determinants of their 1 2 The \"cronistas\" reject the type of writing that frames serious problems and specific events in terms of archetypes, symbols and flights of poetic prose. A case in point is the negative reaction of Monsivais and Jorge Aguilar Mora's toward Paz's handling of the Tlatelolco massacre in Posdata (1970). Paz takes specific events as his point of departure, but his handling of the raw material differs markedly from that of the cronistas. Time, space and his penchant for intellectualizing - and poeticizing - work to rob the essay of the journalistic immediacy of the event. Aguilar Mora notes in his La divina pareja (1978) that Tlatelolco was not a \"metaphor\" as Paz would have us view it, but a real tragedy. Paz's relegation of the violent events of 1968 to a mythic, timeless zone of identity with the Mexico of Aztec ritual sacrifice is for him simply another example of Paz's characteristic tendency to juxtapose \"history\" vs. \"myth\" and opt for the latter. Paz's recourse to myth leads him to value the aesthetic, poetic realm over historical reality. 21 generational identity. The mood of the times is best appreciated in the light of Mexican political history since the mid-century, a period which witnessed the continued - i f not accelerated - growth of power by the PRI, a political force whose pervasive style has become unique in Latin America. The presence of a highly bureaucratized, manipulative regime whose \"revolutionary\" rhetoric often seemed hollow in the light of its specific policies and its parade of mediocre chief executives, was becoming increasingly irksome to the intellectuals, especially since many of them earned their livelihood either directly or indirectly through government funded positions. Like the political situation, Mexico's economic environment, with its accompanying social and demographic changes, has played an important role in shaping this generation. In this regard, the central phenomenon of the 1960's and 1970's has been desarrollismo - \"development\" in the technical sense of the social scientist.13 Not only have these writers examined the concept itself, but they have also pondered the physical and social changes resulting from the developmental process. Thus, such matters as the migration of rural population to the city, the growth of the peripheral slum areas, the impact of technology on humans, and issues related to ecology appear in their works. The economic crises of 1982, and the subsequent restructuring of the economy, has also had a large impact on these writers.14 They reflect upon the new ideological shift of 1 3 The Mexican government believed that urbanization and industrialization would lead to the creation of a prosperous nation. One of the major reasons why this economic model failed was because political interference encouraged corruption and incompetence, as people were appointed to run state-led companies on the basis of political favouritism rather than merit. Along with this problem, efforts at rapid industrialization encouraged a huge rural migration to the Mexico's cities. Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey, the major centres of industrial concentration, soon became overpopulated with the unemployed and the under employed. 1 4 The economic reforms are a process known as 'structural adjustment', involving a relentless assault on the state's role in the economy, including cuts in social spending, privatization, and deregulation of 22 privatization, and the severe socio-economic conditions that it created in Mexico. Closely related to these interests is their fascination with new life-styles and sub-cultures. Essay vs. Cronica These writers use a rich variety of stylistic resources such as mixing \"scientific materials\" (statistical tables or questionnaires), richness and variety of authorial voices, frequent and playful use of foreign words or phrases, other linguistic gambits such as extreme irony or using taboo lexicon of sex and the erotic, the use of novel framing devices or unusual formats, a marked penchant for humour, an element not especially strong in the essay writers of the earlier years, and a strong sense of authorial self-15 consciousness. Despite the intrusion of lyrical or narrative modes and the inclusion of reportage and journalistic practices contained in the cronicas, the quintessential essayistic intent to persuade remains dominant. Although, as Masiello observes, after the 1950's the everything, from trade to banking to employers' abilities to hire and fire at will . Privatization is part of a broader ideological shift, of which neoliberals believe in cutting back the state and passing ever-larger chunks of the economy over to the private sector. Once privatised, they argue, management will be able to take decisions based on economic efficiency rather than politics and a company's performance is bound to improve. Privatization programmes are extremely good news for the local business class (often through joint ventures with foreign companies) to buy industries at bargain prices. Mexico's stock of billionaires rose from 2 to 24 during the privatizing presidency of Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988-1994), all of them with close ties to the PRI. This model of economic development has had severe consequences on Mexican society. Structural adjustment programmes have exacerbated poverty and inequality in many ways. One of the main causes of increasing poverty and inequality has been the massive decline in real wages, the rise in unemployment, and the number of people employed in very low-productivity jobs. State cutbacks, recession and unemployment have all combined to suppress wages; adjustment policies have also lowered wages and exacerbated poverty by removing food subsidies and other price controls. Subsequently, even though neo-liberal policies have curbed inflation to a certain extent, unemployment is higher than ever, real wages are down, there is greater polarization of wealth, food prices have increased and there is greater social inequality. See Duncan Green, Faces of Latin America, 1997, pp. 73-86. 1 5 See Martin Stabb, The Dissenting Voice, 1994, pp. 93-95. 23 traditional, strongly \"biographical\" authorial voice found in the traditional essay gave way to \"multiple dialogues\" and \"ceaseless debate\" among writers and readers. The newer authorial presence constantly redefines itself and \"does not claim authority on its own but finds its identity within a broad network of communicative codes\" (Masiello, 1985, 32). Not surprisingly, in contemporary literary review these codes derive from shared interests, current social trends and especially from popular culture in all its forms. The principal Mexican periodicals - La cultura en Mexico, Plural, Vuelta, Didlogos and Nexos - suggest a great deal of literary interaction, shared concerns (between author and reader, as well as between author and fellow authors) with respect to social and political issues and, in general, a preoccupation with popular culture. These writers do not pretend to offer transcendental truths, and as such, cannot be characterized as authorial, \"distanced\" divulgators of wisdom. Moreover, while Paz searches for the distinguishing permanent features of the Mexican being (\"la mexicanidad\"), Monsivais is more interested in the constant transformations of la cotidianidad. The rift between a more established traditional - and in a sense more authorial and distant - writer such as Alfonso Reyes or Octavio Paz and members of the younger generation like Monsivais, for example, can best be understood in this manner. This notion of a less authorial 'omniscient' voice also helps illustrate the formal differences between the older generation of essayists and the writers of cronicas. As the critic Theodor Adorno has demonstrated in his penetrating studies on the aesthetics of the genre: La actitud autoritaria se lleva bien con la insistencia en los generos mas puros y sin mezcla posible; el pensamiento autoritario cree que una concretion no reglamentada esta manchada, es impura: la teoria de la authoritarian personality ha senalado ese rasgo como intolerance of 24 ambiguity y su presencia es inequivoca en todo arte y sociedad jerarquicos (T. Adorno, 1971, 267). Viewed in the broad context of Mexican history and cultural patterns, the generational identities of writers like Monsivais, Poniatowska and Jose Emilio Pacheco become quite clear. The preceding generation - Reyes, Ramos, Zea and Paz - pursued the question of Mexican essence and sought to explain what appeared to be a radically new phenomenon: the unique society created by the Revolution. While they might have questioned or criticized many aspects of this novel sociopolitical experiment, they were in general supportive of the new Mexico. Indeed, they could even be Utopian in their vision of a Mexican hombre nuevo, stripped of mask and pretense, rising from the carnage of the Revolution and the decades of groping which followed it. By the 1960's the works of the new generation of writers which emerged contained a marked note of revisionism, dramatically underscored by the Tlatelolco massacre and its aftermath. The unifying element in the works of the writers of the 1960's and 1970's is their fundamentally critical position toward the political establishment and its self-serving popular mythology. Perhaps most striking in their work and, what distinguishes them from previous generations, is their use of humour, journalistic closeness to current and concrete realities, their frequent use of technical gambits drawn from mass media and an interactive authorial mode, highlighting their presence as a chorus rather than as individual voices. According to Jose Luis Martinez, \"el proposito del ensayo no es crear literatura sino ejercer 'rigor expositivo' de temas filosoficos, politicos o de otros campos 25 discursivos que le interesan a la sociedad\" (Martinez, Jose Luis, 1985, 10). The principal preoccupation of essayistic writers resides in the content of ideas, which they present in abstract terms. While the discourse of the essay appears to be neutral because of its codified and formalized language, in the Mexican contemporary cronica, the language employed tends to be strong and emotive. There are an abundance of references to el habla comun and urban popular culture. Furthermore, there is always a constant allusion to a real and immediate reality. While the referent and themes of the Mexican essay converge with those of the cronica, essayistic writers tend to write from the perspective of the middle-class mestizo, idealizing and mythologizing Mexico's ancestral past. On the other hand, the cronistas write from the perspective of the marginal sectors of society, focusing on the extreme polarization of wealth, poverty, illiteracy, crime, government repression, etc., always concentrating on the immediate reality and how it affects the millions of marginalized people in Mexico. For example, when Monsivais criticizes the PRI for its blind pursuit of hyper-development, he does so in concrete terms: anarquia en los precios, crisis habitacional, carencia de agua, transporte inalcanzable, caos del transito, ocho mil toneladas diarias de basura, stress de la vida urbana, insalubridad, drenaje y alumbrado publico insuficientes, contamination ambiental, falta de servicios medicos y de mercados, delincuencia, sobrepoblacion {Amorperdido, 294). Cronicas: Fiction or Reportage? Jorge Ruffmelli also points out that 1968 was a crucial year in the development of the Mexican cronica. He advocates that one of the most notable changes was \"el de aproximar el periodismo a la literatura amenazando con borrar sus confines\" (Ruffmelli, 26 1987, 70). Without abandoning its condition of immediacy, the cronica begins to search for an undefined permanence (70). At the same time, this specific type of cronica begins to lose \"la superficialidad periodistica de la noticia\", in favour of an investigative exegesis. For example, in the political sphere, the brevity and urgency of proclamations are left aside in favour of a mediation of the causes that produce proclamations. These writers have a desire to go beyond simply reporting the facts 'objectively' and investigate the reasons behind the causes. They examine the social and the political aspects of society in a critical manner, exposing the inherent contradictions and the hidden problems behind 'simple' \"news items\". As Ruffinelli argues, \"Lo social y lo politico se ven con otros ojos, dejan de ser \"noticia\" para convertirse en problemas\" (70). Consequently, what is the difference and relationship between these types of writing and the realms of journalism and literature? Before we attempt to answer this complex question it is necessary to provide a working definition of these two realms. To begin with, we would say that journalism \"significa comunicacion, entrega de information directa y sintectica\" (Dallal, 1985, 25). Although there is much controversy about whether or not journalism is objective, it does tend to describe, situate and expose a particular event, allowing the reader to interpret the event and come to their own conclusion. In effect, \"el periodismo es action inmediata, vital, directa\" (27). If we accept this argument, then we can ask ourselves the following important question: what is the fundamental characteristic of a literary language? According to Dallal, \"la principal cualidad del lenguaje literario...se refiere a su capacidad para 27 registrar la realidad (circundante o no) que el escritor intenta describir o inventar.\" He goes on to argue that this necessarily involves lafuncionalidad de este lenguaje con el universo descrito y por tanto implica una relation dialectica lenguaje-atmosfera, aunque esta ultima desee representar una realidad no existente o fantasiosa, una realidad que, como en el caso de la mas abstracta poesia, queda inmersa en la pura subjetividad (32). Therefore, Dallal emphasizes the referential character of language and it is this condition of language which allows these realms of writing to converge. Dallal argues that we are currently in a process of experimentation where journalism and literature are influencing one another in positive manners. A nueva vision has arisen \"que ha desbordado los recipientes que tradicionalmente mantenian sujetos y apartados a los textos del escritor y del periodista\" (34). He makes a further observation claiming that for the writer of fiction, the methodologies of journalism will provide a path \"abierto a su creatividad en la medida en que entienda, reconozca y domine los secretos del oficio periodistico\" (35). For the journalist of today, \"poseedor de posibilidades vastisimas en su propio medio, resultara indispensable que, atraido por la literatura, se esfuerce por intensificar sus conocimientos en torno a ella\" (35). Hence, both these forms of writing have influenced one another, and will continue to do so. And for Dallal it is clear that for the literary writer journalism is a source of renovation and enrichment. One of the important issues that arises out of this problematic hybrid genre of the cronicas is that the dissolution of boundaries between journalism and literature entails a mutual influence. The important writer Eduardo Gale claims that las frdnteras entre los generos son ahora mas borrosas, hay un estallido de los limites, y yo creo que esto es muy positivo, porque a medida que la 28 realidad del continente va cambiando, necesariamente ha de modificarse el lenguaje que tienen los escritores para comunicarla.16 Similarly, Ruffinelli points out that these two modalities of writing are un buceo en lo cotidiano pero dandole a la fugacidad de sus motivos una consistencia mayor, una durabilidad mas extensa y mas propia de lo literario...En definitiva, diriamos que se trata de dos modulaciones periodisticas que dialogan entre si y con la literatura. En el dialogo interno se influyen y se enriquecen, pero seran siempre diferentes por el contexto de su production (Ruffinelli, 1987, 73). Jorge Edwards also claims that journalism and fiction are not only related to one another, but \"se alimentan una de la otra\" because \"[p]ara saber inventar, primero hay que saber nombrar\" (Jorge Edwards, 1979, 41). Considering what Gale, Ruffinelli and Edwards suggest, we are of the opinion that the Mexican cronica is more recreative than informative, and therefore, it is closer to literature than journalism. The cronica employs narrative strategies and techniques similar to those used by fiction writers. Writers such as Monsivais believe that the traditional form of journalism, with its linear structure and its supposed \"objectivity\", is far too restrictive to capture the heterogeneous aspect of contemporary Mexican society. New Journalism A n influential American writer who was one of the first to explore the boundaries between journalism and literature is Truman Capote, and for Jose Emilio Pacheco, Capote's important work/n Cold Blood (1965) erased forever the borders between 1 6 In Jorge Ruffinelli, Palabras en orden, Mexico (1985, pg. 71, 2a. edition). 29 literature and journalism. \"Ya no hay fiction ni no-ficcion. Despues de Truman Capote tan solo existe la narrativa.\"17 Monsivais affirms that Capote's In Cold Blood contains elements characteristic of New Journalism: la cronica y el reportaje son grandes formas artisticas inexploradas que los buenos escritores desatienden. Segiin Capote, un texto que aborde situaciones reales puede explorar nuevas dimensiones literarias cuyo efecto es distinto al de la fiction: el hecho mismo de ser verdad, de ser estrictamente cierto, imprime otra fuerza.18 These predecessors are useful when discerning the close relationship and overlapping between New Journalism and cronicas. On the one hand, the writers accede techniques typically characteristic of journalism and explores new possibilities, thus renovating the genre in the process. This is Capote's lesson, that is to say the lesson of a writer, not a journalist. Ruffmelli argues that this New Journalism influenced important Mexican writers such as Monsivais, Poniatowska, Fuentes, Jose Emilio Pacheco, among others. This closeness between the two writing modalities is not a fusion of genres - nor a dissolution of its characteristics, as Emilio Pacheco would like us to believe - but a particular form of communication that \"dignifica su practica narrativa con los recursos de la narration literaria, y es asi como puede renovar su genero desprendiendose de los resortes mas gastados para alcanzar una mayor, diferente, eficacia expresiva\" (Ruffmelli, 1987, 73). Thus, for Ruffmelli the works of Tom Wolfe have served as a source of inspiration for the contemporary writers of Mexican cronicas. 1 7 Jose Emilio Pacheco, \"Musica para Capote\", in Proceso, no. 409 (3 September 1984), pp. 46-52. 1 8 Carlos Monsivais, \"Truman Capote\", in_Proceso, no. 409 (3 September 1984), pp. 46-52. 30 Therefore, the Mexican cronicas and New Journalism are closely related. Their purpose and function are comparable in that they both attack the establishment and in doing so, their desire to revindicate the rights of a civil society are exposed. Moreover, they critique the falseness of bourgeoisie social life, and analyze and condemn status quo's political points of view. They also fiercely criticize mass media for falsifying \"reality\" and instilling a false sense of behaviour into the masses. The referent and themes of the cronicas and New Journalism are generally associated with history, politics, cinematographic mythology, the culture of television, the culture of consumption, and show business. Considering this, the cronicas deal with idols, pop culture and its fashions, immediate reality - la cotidianidad - politics, and the traditions of popular urban culture. The cronicas adopt the point of view of the marginalized sectors of society, ranging from feminists and homosexuals to the poor. With respect to narrative strategies, both cronicas and New Journalism focus on provoking and expressing emotions and sensations mainly through the personal points of view of the marginalized sectors of the population. In other words, they incorporate various forms of subjectivity into their texts in order to problematize a monolithic discourse. These writers make use of techniques taken from the social sciences disciplines (psychology, sociology, anthropology, and ethnography), along with literature and film, incorporating orality - el habla comun - into their narration. They organize their narratives around titles and subtitles which echo the popular expressions of everyday intercommunicative exchanges. In Monsivais's cronicas, the rhetorical questions, the anticipations, the indirect style, and ongoing commentary underline the intrusion of a narrator that constantly distances himself from \"objectivity\" and \"neutrality\". There is a constant interplay between a third-person narrator who investigates and a first-person intrusive narrator who acts as an eye-witness to certain events. Whether the narrative posture is in third or first-person, the narration is often marked with an ironic and satirical tone. This is further analyzed in chapter three. Another narrative technique in this particular form of writing is the vivid reconstruction of events. Monsivais, like other writers, reconstructs particular real events and characters in order to criticize them and reflect upon their significance for Mexican society. The elements that he recreates vary from popular film stars and idols to the forgotten slums of Mexico City (i.e., Tepito, one of Mexico City's poorest neighbourhoods). Monsivais contextualizes past and present events in order to illustrate their meaningful transformations. This new organization of discursive material allows for new interpretative possibilities, and therefore, opens the door to approach reality in a different way. As Antonio Urrello argues: \"Monsivais's approach sends the reader in search of meaning as it is generated through the different layers of text, providing the possibility of alternative readings of the characters and events portrayed\" (Urrello, 1998, 567). Towards a \"Definition\" of Cronicas 32 Monsivais has written extensively on this subject and in Antologia de la cronica en Mexico (1979) and A ustedes les consta (1980) he expresses his views on this problematic new genre. He points out that conventional journalism is much more sensationalist and denunciatory than the cronica, which is more the \"arte de comentar literaria y criticamente la actualidad\" (Monsivais, 1979, 7-8). Although Monsivais argues that the cronicas are closely linked to reportage, a form of journalism, he believes that they go beyond this: \"No discrepe demasiado de la idea de cronica como construction literaria de sucesos o figuras, genero periodistico donde el empeno formal domina sobre urgencias informativas y versiones directas\" (Monsivais, 1979, 8). Thus, for Monsivais it is clear that the cronica goes beyond its immediate function of \"representing\" reality. There is more of an emphasis in its rhetorical apparatus of representation than in believing in the \"transparent\" character of representation. In order to distinguish between conventional journalism and cronicas, Monsivais argues that while the traditional reporter pretends to offer an \"objective\", \"neutral\" and \"impersonal\" point of view, it is important to keep in mind that \"impersonal, objective reporting...is really a kind of special code that can deceive the reader who isn't fully aware of the limitations of the convention\" (M. Stephens, 1988, 19). Monsivais does not pretend to ascribe to an impartial point of view because the cronica is openly partial. This partiality is illustrated in the manner in which the writers of cronicas juxtapose the presence of a witness (opinions offered in first person) with that of a third-person \"know-it-all\" type of narrator who distances themselves from the action and who also presents la interioridad ajena of the characters. 33 These ideas evoke Tom Wolfe's belief that in order to capture the fragmented and chaotic aspects of reality, one has to present something more than just merely an \"objective\" description. According to Wolfe, the writer should offer something more than readers had to look for in fiction: that is, the interior lives of characters. The only manner in which a writer can achieve this is through the creation of scenes, dialogue, and interior monologues. That is why Wolfe says that \"Eventually I, and others, would be accused of \"entering people's minds\"...But exactly! I figured that was one more doorbell a reporter had to push\" (Wolfe, 1977, 35). Hence, there is a clear relationship between Wolfe's ideas of New Journalism and Monsivais's views on cronicas because in both of them \"priva la recreation de afmosferas y personajes sobre la transmision de noticias y denuncias\" (Monsivais, 1979, 8). In other words, while conventional journalism presents new information, the cronicas and New Journalism relive them artistically. The writers which appear in Monsivais's Antologia de la cronica en Mexico \"suelen ser mas escritores que periodistas\" (9) because their texts have achieved a kind of permanence, as opposed to journalism. Considering all that has been argued thus far, it is apparent that for Monsivais the representation of reality is problematized by the incorporation of different points of view (and the interplay between first and third person narrator) and its relative distance in time to the events which have already been reported upon by either a newspaper or a news magazine. The cronicas acquire more literary \"value\" when they separate themselves from mainstream media and they appear independently in books. Monsivais observes that Si el periodismo es lo instantaneo, como puede ser periodistico un libro que demando cuatro afios de trabajo? Solution posible: James Agee entendio lo que el New Journalism habria de enunciar casi 34 programaticamente: no solo importan los grandes acontecimientos en el feudo de la primera plana, sino tambien las informaciones a largo plazo, la noticia de las reacciones de la colectividad ante la noticia, la noticia de los factores que rodearon el surgimiento de la noticia, la noticia de hechos muy diversos que pudieron o pueden ser noticia, la noticia de las respuestas personales y las diversas e impredecibles asociaciones mentales que engendra la noticia, la noticia de los factores de creation de la noticia (Monsivais, 1979, 206). In this paragraph it is clear that Monsivais's interests lie in searching for the news behind the news, the why, the how and the now-what-kind-of-analysis, which journalism rarely explores. The \"cronistas\" have a very informed and critical point of view, focusing on examining the past with an eye toward separating out actuality from myth. In A ustedes les consta, Monsivais argues that he has eliminated doubts as to what the difference is between cronicas and journalism and reportage: \"He vencido el inutil y bizantino temor del abismo generico entre cronica y reportage\" (Monsivais, 1980, 13). In this work he gives a much more concise and precise definition, based on his earlier studies: Reconstruction literaria de sucesos o figuras, genero donde el empeno formal domina sobre las urgencias informativas. Esto implica la no muy clara ni segura diferencia entre objetividad y subjetividad, lo que suele traducirse de acuerdo a premisas tecnicas: el reportaje, por ejemplo, requerido de un tono objetivo, desecha por conveniencia la individualidad de sus autores: de este modo, Los ejercitos de la noche de Mailer, donde el narrador es el protagonista confeso no seria un reportaje. En la cronica, el juego literario usa a discretion la primera persona o narra libremente los acontecimientos como vistos y vividos desde la interioridad ajena. Tradicionalmente - sin que eso signifique ley alguna - en la cronica ha privado la recreation de atmosferas y personajes sobre la transmision de noticias y denuncias (57). 35 It is evident that the most important points with respect to technique are essentially the same: point of view can vary between a first-person witness and third-person narrative; and the referent, even though he does not directly indicate it, seems to be a lived reality (\"suceso y figuras\") which may also be immediate, or at least recent (\"urgencias informativas\"). Monsivais's main point is that the cronica presents a true reality using the technique of fiction: \"la recreation y la reconstruction literaria.\" One aspect of his analysis that remains ambiguous is that the degree of art used in the cronicas seems to be provisional, subject to the convenience, individuality and discretion of the writer; he does say that traditionally, the cronista chose a fictionalized presentation of the events. This suggests that he, like other writers, privilege fiction over fact. In A ustedes les consta Monsivais has offered a more precise definition presenting the cronica first and foremost as a literary construction: \"el empeno formal\" (\"el juego literario\") es mas dominante que el empeno informative\" Furthermore, he suggests that it is more subjective than objective, and more closely associated with literature than with journalism. At the end of his prologue in A ustedes les consta , Monsivais clearly delineates the social, political and cultural use and value of cronicas: Todo esta por escribirse, grabarse, registrarse. Entender, desplegar, reportear este nuevo pais es primordial para el periodismo escrito, televisivo, filmico, radiofonico, lo que exige e ira exigiendo el crecimiento de una prensa marginal y el aprovechamiento inteligente y critico de los recursos de la prensa establecida. Una encomienda inaplazable de cronica y reportaje: dar voz a los sectores tradicionalmente poscritos y silenciados, las minorias y mayorias de toda indole que no encuentran cabida o representatividad en los medios masivos...Que pueden informarnos cronica y reportaje de la situation actual? Por lo pronto, para citar a Valle-Inclan, que elpresente aun no es la Historiay tiene caminos mas realistas (76, emphasis mine). 36 Conclusion The contemporary Mexican cronicas emerged as a new modality in the post-1968 era. The cronistas responded to the tragedy of the Tiatelolco massacre by echoing the concerns of the students and engaging themselves in an ideological and political critique of the PRI. The cronicas are more an exercise in the literary recreation of events, epochs, characters, ideas and impressions than traditional journalism. They give voice to people who have not traditionally had one in the public sphere. This is what stimulates these writers to take into consideration popular movements, strikes, ways of life, etc. As Monsivais advocates: \"en los sectores tradicionalmente marginados surge el interes por historiar y cronicar su desenvolvimiento\" (Monsivais, 1992, 23). According to him, Jose Joaquin Blanco's Funcion de medianoche is one of the first collection of cronistas that combined the essay with the cronicas or, better said,.the writers did not distinguish between the genres. The thematic hierarchies disappear and the new cronistas document (and they radically search for new methods to document reality) the society which they belong to, both of which they detest and love at the same time. These writers, although experts in Latin American literature, have incorporated the styles of American writers such as Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe, and Capote into the cronicas. They are interested in narrative history and they find their themes in the official world just as much as in the underworld of countercultures, \"entre los juniors y los chavos-banda, entre lo politico y lo espermatico\" (24). What distinguishes them from other writers is their freedom, their uncensored language, their recourse to the \"I\" which announces a more democratic 37 relationship with the reader, under the premise: \"Soy en todo igual a ti, solo que ahora estoy en el uso de la palabra\" (24). Like never before, the cities Mexico, Monterrey, Guadalajara, Tijuana, Culiacan, Oaxaca are the main protagonists in the cronicas. No longer is it \"el conjunto de edificios y cenas de la Nueva grandeza mexicana \" (25), but rather the chaos of urban life, where unforeseen characters appear and disappear, the collective tragedies, the occupations that is generated by the current economic crisis, \"el habla obscena\" que refuncionaliza y absorbe la violencia urbana, las pequenas transas que no dejan ver el bosque de la corruption, los condones que trazan los derroteros de la nueva sexualidad\" (25). In Monsivais's cronicas, intensity, humour (irony, parody, satire, caricature and sarcasm), fantasy and literary recreation all come together, with the intent of reflecting el desmadre that 'arranges' the postapocaliptic world of Mexico. The following chapter analyzes urban popular culture and its importance in the contemporary Mexican cronicas. This is significant because these writers position themselves from a perspective that is rooted in a knowledge of urban popular culture in order to criticize the political and economic rhetoric of the PRI. Monsivais, who is a fierce critic of the establishment, the Mexican state and the institutions that perpetuate the repressive system, has written an extensive number of articles on Mexican urban popular culture which we will examine in order to see how he practices his theory in his cronicas and how he goes about condemning the dominant class, the Mexican political system and the institutions that support and herald it. 38 Chapter Two Urban Popular Culture in Contemporary Mexico and its Importance in Monsivais's Cronicas Introduction In the discussion that follows we are going to investigate urban popular culture19 as it relates to Monsivais's cronicas because it is a central theme that appears in his works. He writes from this perspective in order to fiercely criticize the dominant class, 1 9 We are well aware that the word 'culture' is both complex and ambiguous. Raymond Williams, who claims that culture is \"one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language\" (Williams, Keywords, 1987, 87), has provided some enlighting anaylisis on this subject. He argues that, first of all, culture can be used to refer to \"a general process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic development (90).\" We could, for example, speak about the cultural development of Western Europe and be referring only to intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic factors - great philosophers, great artists and great poets. A second use of the word 'culture' can suggest \"a particular way of life, whether of a people, a period or a group\"(90). Such things as religious festivals would fall into this definition. Culture can also refer to \"the works and practices on intellectual and especially artistic activity\" (90). In other words, those texts and practices whose principal function is to signify, to produce or to be the occasion for the production of meaning. To speak of popular culture usually means to mobilize the second and third definition of culture. When one thinks of \"a particular way of life\", such practices as the youth subcultures can be thought of as being an example of culture; they are generally refered to as lived cultures or cultural practices. The other definition of culture - signifying practices - would allow us to speak of soap operas, rock music and comics as examples of culture. In The Long Revolution Williams explores the 'social' definition of culture, in which culture is a description of a particular way of life\" (57). He comes to the conclusion that there are three points embodied in the 'social' definition: (1) culture as a particular way of life, (2) culture as expression of a particular way of life and (3) cultural analysis as a method of reconstituting a particular way of life. However, Williams warns us that \"there is a significant reference in each., .and, i f this is so, it is the relations between them that should claim our attention\" (57). He describes as \"inadequate\" and \"unacceptable\" any definition which fails to include the other definitions: \"However difficult it may be in practice, we have to try to see the process as a whole, and to relate our particular studies, i f not explicitly at least by ultimate reference, to the actual and complex organization\" (60). In addressing the \"complex organization\" of culture as a particular way of life, the purpose of cultural analysis is always to understand what a culture is expressing; \"the actual experience through which a culture was lived;\" the \"important common element;\" \"a particular community of experience\" (64). Williams calls all this \"the structure of feeling\" (64), and by it he means the shared values of a particular group, class or society. The difference between popular culture and urban popular culture in Mexico is that the latter is a manifestation of the process of urbanization and industrialization. It arose in the 1950's when millions of people began to flock to the cities in search of employment. Idols such as Jose Alfredo Jimenez and Cantinflas were a type of urbanized peasant who represented the transitional between the rural and the urban, the traditional and the modern. 39 which is an oligarchy that is integrated by the PRI and its government, and who, through a system of patronage, control the majority of companies, properties and industries. He also condemns the institutions such as the labour unions, mass media and the culture industry, for perpetuating an undemocratic society which is only concerned with the well being of a selected few. For these reasons, Monsivais always adopts the point of view of the marginalized sectors of society because he believes that in order to create a pluralistic and civil society the subaltern class, who resist hegemonic ideology, must be able to participate in the public sphere, and hence, that is why he gives 'voice' to the silenced masses. He does not merely describe the phenomena, but rather he offers a penetrating analysis of how the economy, politics, the dominant class, mass media and the culture industry have affected the urban popular classes. The arena from which these voices are heard and projected are located within the realm of urban popular culture. Although urban popular culture in Mexico is not difficult to identify, it is tough to define. It is recognizable in the immediate reality of such things as artesanias, carnivals, magical beliefs, salsa, telenovelas and oral narratives - all of these to some extent or another convey the idea of the popular as a distinct sphere. The difficulty resides in the fact that when these objects and practices are placed in their larger context, namely within the parameters of'modernization', industrialization and urbanization, \"this distinctness becomes more difficult to define\" (William Rowe and Vivian Schelling, 1989, 2). Garcia Canclini recognizes the problems posed with this dilemma: how does one study the millions of indigenous peoples and peasants who migrate to the major cities or the workers who are incorporated into the industrial organization of work and consumption? How do we analyze those phenomena that are not covered by traditional categories of high or popular culture? How to build societies with democratic projects shared 40 by everybody without making everybody the same? (Garcia Canclini,, 1995,23). It is clear from these arguments that we cannot look at popular culture solely from the perspective of the rural, and as a simple, pure form of life. So tenacious is this myth that to say 'popular' automatically evokes images of rural life and the peasant, while the city is seen as artificial and complex. But to view urban centres as a corrupting and contaminating force, in opposition to a pure and authentic culture rooted in the rural areas, is to indulge in nostalgia. Subsequently, in order to arrive at a deeper understanding of what urban popular culture is in Mexico, and how important it is to the cronicas, we must examine it within the context of Mexican and Latin American 'modernity.' Monsivais has done pioneering work in the field of Mexican urban popular culture; he has written extensively on the subject and has developed a theory of urban popular culture, which he practices in his cronicas. He convincingly argues that urban popular culture is, among other things, a response to the uneven, partial and distorted processes of economic and political modernization and urbanization in Mexico and Latin America. Groups who belong to the popular classes resist the homogenizing effects of modernization, \"revitalizing in their own way their daily lives and their traditions, converting their deficiencies into technique of identification\" (Monsivais, 1982, 421). He claims that the culture of subordinate classes appears to be vulgar, reactionary, fatalistic, degraded, primitive, complacent, shapeless, resentful, chaotic, cruel, quarrelsome, repressive, irreverent, delightfully obscene, superstitious and macho, yet at the same time, he concludes that it is a vital, generous culture which resists the oppression of the 41 national hegemonic culture expressed through the mass media and the state, and 20 underpinned by the transnational corporations and dependent capitalism. In this chapter we will focus on some of the complexities faced with in the study of urban popular culture, as viewed by Monsivais and other cultural and social critics. We commence our investigation by examining how Latin America's unique form of 'peripheral modernity' has led to the formation of a urban popular culture in Mexico which is both distinctive and transformative in nature, manifested in the continual shifting of cultural symbols, customs and practices. We will then discuss the important relationship between hegemony and popular culture, and proceed to analyze how Monsivais views this important relationship between the dominant and marginalized groups of Mexican society. As we shall see, he provides us with a historical analysis of the various stages of popular culture in order to highlight the emblematic changes and transformations that it has undergone in the last eighty to ninety years. Once we investigate Monsivais's theory of popular culture, we will examine how he applies it to his cronicas. In particular, we will provide a short analysis of two of his cronicas -\"Tepito como leyenda\"(Dz' "Thesis/Dissertation"@en . "1999-05"@en . "10.14288/1.0088941"@en . "eng"@en . "Hispanic Studies"@en . "Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library"@en . "University of British Columbia"@en . "For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use."@en . "Graduate"@en . "A new synthetic dye"@en . "Text"@en . "http://hdl.handle.net/2429/9021"@en .