Tall Tales Made to Order: The Making of Myth in Men of Maize by Miguel Angel Asturias

Abstract

Characters in Men of Maize (1949) are either talkers or doers.' The ones that act are, more often than not, described by the ones who talk and their distorted descriptions are always glaring transformations of the facts. This intermittence between reality and fiction typifies a number of modern novels-from Stern's Tristram Shandy to Miguel de Unamuno's Nieblabut what is unique about Asturias' controversial Indigenista fiction is that the bones of his literary creation are laid bare not merely to motivate the reader's response, but, specifically, to nurture it. When Asturias began to compose Men of Maize, in 1945, his overriding intention was to educate his public. In Guatemala, that year, he was not alone in fomenting social adjustment. Juan Jose Arevalo, a school teacher who described himself as a spiritual