From Monkey Tales to Cuban Songs: On Signification

Abstract

Spanish American writers represent the old inherited impositions and new self-imposed limitations of their national discourses. The resentment is not always exteriorized, for open dissent upsets the balance between overt means of cultural enslavement and hidden aims of apprentices enslaved by will or by force to seek official inscription. Originally, New World others bowed to a single European act: Spanish intervention. The historical implications of this intervention are negligible compared to the linguistic ones. The master code not only enslaved cultures during colonial times, but also intervened in the signification of the language of independence. Imitation was a prerequisite for any form of national communication, including attempts at disavowal. The Spanish language thus perpetuated the rhetoric of a system which had become obsolete. Two options were left to Hispanic and Hispanicized dissenters: alienation, even official muteness and practical invisibility, or resentful acceptance of an uneasy compromise. The best antidote for linguistic enslavement was to be found in fictional discourse. Mimicry of the master code, as projected in literature, could become officiaily tolerated, subtle mockery. Whereas the system imposed strict rules on signifiers, it was willing to enrich the ranks of signifieds with outside values. This form of linguistic gluttony reflected the typical practices of Hispanic acculturation: encouraging newcomers to contribute their own values to the presumably equitable colonial collage. Yet, if the historical imperatives behind acculturation aimed for total passive accep-