Voicing Resistance on the Border: A Reading of Americo Paredes's George Washington Gomez

Abstract

As an artistic construction of 1930s, Americo Paredes's novel, George Washington Gomez, addresses issues of social injustice exacerbated by additional pressures of economic crisis. novel was written between 1936 and 1940 though it was not published until 1990. We can see in novel multiple tensions resulting first of all from specific evocation of old of cultures along Texas-Mexico border, so clearly represented in epic border corrido tradition. novel's plot development and stylistics also evoke form of realism and naturalism, combining the old and and looking backward and forward (Pizer xi). To lesser degree, some of novel's tensions result from suggestion of potential affiliations and ruptures with ideology of vocal intelligentsia of national Mexico during and after revolution of 1910. One actual media organ that articulated negative view of revolution and complicated Texas Mexican's attitudes towards both Mexico and U.S. was La Prensa of San Antonio. Finally, novel's artistic texture is enhanced by identification of problematic issues within Texas Mexican community, especially in terms of class and gender; these issues contribute to protagonist's alienation from that community in his attempt to formulate new American way of life. An early post-structuralist approach can help us appreciate conflicting multiple tensions in this novel. In The Death of Author, Roland Barthes argues that is multidimensional space in which variety of writings, none of them original, blend and clash (146). From this perspective, author of text, or novel in this case, acts as an arranger, or re-arranger, of pre-existing and always ideologically charged bits of data. text which author constructs then is a tissue of quotations drawn from innumerable of culture (146). Upon close examination of George Washington Gomez, what we find are ideology charged textual strands, layered and intersecting, that recall various cultural elements available to novel's narrative consciousness at time of construction. radical border corrido and conservative La Prensa are two cultural elements that influenced ways in which Texas Mexican community perceived itself. Americo Paredes, member of that community, was also an intellectual with literary aspirations whose worldview was further influenced by naturalism.(1) border corrido, La Prensa, and naturalism, then, represent influences on author and consequently in novel coming from various centres of culture. Texas-Mexico border, since 1848, has been site of confrontation but has also been fertile site for cultural production that, even as art, has sought to chronicle history in ways that are organic to area and population and in ways that are ideologically coherent and consistent with community and epoch. By studying border corrido, Americo Paredes in effect gave voice to community which would otherwise have remained voiceless in scholarly and intellectual circles, on both sides of border. border corrido, as identified by Paredes in monumental work With His Pistol in His Hand, is type of ballad that emerges along Texas-Mexico border during nineteenth century with common theme and hero prototype. theme is border conflict between competing groups and hero figure is the man fighting for his right with his pistol in his hand (With His Pistol 149). former northern provinces of Mexico were also fertile grounds for revolt. All across Mexico conditions worsened under Porfirio Diaz regime and this gave rise to organizing against tyranny and led eventually to revolution of 1910. Conditions under Diaz deteriorated to point that Mexicans and even Texas Mexicans rose up against Diaz regime. …