Clamor of Innocence: Central American Short Stories

Abstract

Appearing at about the same time as Rosario Santos's anthology And Sold the Rain (see above), Clamor of Innocence, a collection of Central American short stories, shows similarities and differences with the former. Among the similarities are the presence of many shared authors (Carmen Naranjo, Samuel Rovinski, Julio Escoto, and at least ten others) as well as several individual stories. This is not necessarily a negative feature, as it actually serves to reinforce the idea that there is a group of Central American writers whose works abundance and quality form a contemporary literary identity for the region. There are brief biobibliographic notes on each author at the beginning of Clamor of Innocence, but no introductory comments to clarify the selection process of the thirty-one texts. However, it is clear that the compilers have followed a wider historical perspective than the Santos anthology by including Miguel Angel Asturias's Johnthe, Carmen Lyra's Estafania, and Salarrue's We Bad. Also included are already classical stories such as The Swede by Ernesto Cardenal and The Center Fielder by Sergio Ramirez, both reflective of Somozan political repression in Nicaragua without being specific as to the target. In addition to these, we find the well-known Rogelio Sinan (Panama) and Carmen Naranjo (Costa Rica). Several of the selections were included in the Antologia del cuento centroamericana edited by Sergio Ramirez (1973). There are six women writers, as opposed to four in And Sold the Rain, but the differences in the number of selections included curiously result in an equal representation in both: about 20 percent of the authors. Two of these names and one story, The Guayacan Tree by Bertalicia Peralta, are shared by the anthologies. One feels that, within the not-so-familiar field of Central American literature, women writers are even less frequent or familiar. Fortunately, this status is not reflected in the quality or prolific nature of those women who do write. Naranjo's Walls and Rima de Vallbona's Penelope on Her Silver Wedding Anniversary are invitations to read more of their work. An interesting feature of Clamor of Innocence is the fairly large proportion of stories concerned with human sexuality, both within a wartime context and outside it. Morales's Dead Weight, Castellanos Moya's Setback, and Castillo's Anita, the Insect Eater, moreover, are as concerned with the sexual experience of the female protagonist as is Peralta in The Guayacan Tree. As a counterbalance, the Panamanians Enrique Jaramillo Levi (While He Lay Sleeping) and Sinan (Heaven's Surgeon) link sexuality with male mortality and morality. Sinan's story is more nearly a fantasy or allegory than a psychological study. Importantly, indigenous culture is represented in Delfina Collado's Katok and Francisco Gavidia's She-Wolf. Collado f cuses m re on historical aspects of the Conquest and prese ts less a modern short story than an artistic recreation of the clash between Spaniards and Indians during that period. Gavidia treats mythical/magical phenomena pertaining solely to a native American group, not situated in a specific time but rather atemporal, as if to underscore the persistence of the other, non-Hispanic groups in Central America.