Alegría en la revolución y tristeza en tiempos de paz. El juego en Cartucho y Las manos de mamá de Nellie Campobello

Abstract

In Cartucho (1931), Nellie Campobello represents the Mexican Revolution as if it were a game, in the sense that Johan Huizinga gives to the term in Homo Ludens (1938). She puts forward the beauty of war, the joy of the revolutionaries and shows how they are converted in children playing on their horses. In Las manos de mama (1937), the constituting ingredients of ludic play move from the revolutionaries to the mother. Furthermore, in postrevolutionary times the spirit of the game is missing. The differences between both texts helps one to understand how their critical reception was considerably divergent.