“Las joyas son cortesanas de la riqueza”

Abstract

In his only published novel, Por donde se sube al cielo (1882), Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera explored the contradictory desires produced by Mexico’s experience of modernization through the story of a Parisian actress. Her internal struggle between, on the one hand, accepting the commodification of her beauty in the commercial marketplace, and, on the other, pursuing traditional moral virtues rooted in Catholic spirituality and manual labor is not clearly resolved in the novel, prompting readers to question their expectations and beliefs about the quickly-developing effects of modernization at the end of the nineteenth century. By adding a more literal reading of the novel to established allegorical interpretations, I argue in this essay that Gutiérrez Nájera paradoxically represents the growing influence of commercialism by criticizing the desire for luxury goods while at the same time promoting a virtuous work ethic.