Crimes against the State, Crimes against Persons: Detective Fiction in Cuba and Mexico

187 Pages·2004·1.57 MB·English

by  Persephone Braham

Crimes against the State
Crimes against Persons
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Crimes against the State
Crimes against Persons
Detective Fiction in Cuba and Mexico
Persephone Braham
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis • London
Parts of chapter 3 previously appeared in “Mrs. Watson in Havana,” Hopscotch 2,
no. 1 (2000): 52–59; copyright 2000 Duke University Press; all rights reserved;
used with permission of Duke University Press. Parts of chapter 5 previously
appeared in “Violence and Patriotism: The novela negra from Chester Himes
to Paco Ignacio Taibo II,” Journal of American Culture 20, no. 2 (1997): 159–69;
copyright The Popular Press; used with permission of The Popular Press.
Copyright 2004 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401-2 520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data
Braham, Persephone.
Crimes against the state, crimes against persons : detective fi ction in Cuba
and Mexico / Persephone Braham.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0- 8166-4 134-X (HC : alk. paper) — ISBN 0- 8166-4 135-8 (PB : alk.
paper)
1. Detective and mystery stories, Cuban— History and criticism.
2. Detective and mystery stories, Mexican— History and criticism.
3. Cuban fi ction—2 0th century—H istory and criticism. 4. Mexican
fi ction—2 0th century—H istory and criticism. 5. Politics and literature—
C uba. 6. Politics and literature—M exico. I. Title.
PQ7382 .B73 2004
863'.08720997291— dc22
2003017865
Printed in the United States of America on acid-f ree paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal-o pportunity educator and employer.
12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vi
Introduction: Latin American Detective Literature in Context ix
1. Origins and Ideologies of the Neopoliciaco 1
Cuba: Crimes against the State
2. A Revolutionary Aesthetic 21
3. Masking, Unmasking, and the Return to Signifi cation 39
Mexico: Crimes against Persons
4. Contesting “la mexicanidad” 65
5. The Dismembered City 81
Epilogue: Globalization and Detective Literature in Spanish 101
Notes 109
Bibliography 145
Index 165
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Acknowledgments
To Marina Brownlee, my gratitude for her friendship and encour-
agement in this and other projects. To José Miguel Oviedo, for his criti-
cism of this manuscript in its earliest stages, and for introducing me to
the novels of Leonardo Padura Fuentes. To Leonardo Padura, Carlos
Alonso, Justo Vasco, Ilán Stavans, Mauricio-J osé Schwarz, Gustavo Pérez
Firmat, and Luis Adrián Betan court, for sharing their time and insights
so generously. To Bill for his careful objectivity, his synthetic criticism,
and his untiring and perspicacious readings.
v i i
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Introduction:
Latin American Detective
Literature in Context
Until the 1970s, the fi eld of Latin American detective fi ction was
both limited and derivative. Through simulation or parody, authors en-
gaged the marginal status and formulaic nature of detective narrative to
dramatize Latin America’s peripheral position with respect to modern
Western culture. Detective writing in Spanish remains a marginalized
endeavor, charting an uncertain path between the politicized arenas of
literary production and the contested phenomena of popular culture. But
the Latin American detective genre is also fl ourishing, on its own merits
and as a source for other literary experimentation.
This book examines the trajectory of the detective novel in Mexico
and Cuba from its obscure beginnings to its present success, and seeks to
recognize the rationales by which it was adopted, as well as the aesthetic
and ethical complexities of the process itself. What are the political and
literary discourses governing the production of detective literature in
Hispanic cultures, and in Mexico and Cuba in particular? What aes-
thetic, ideological, and practical obstacles do detective writers confront
as they try to adapt the genre to refl ect their own circumstances? Final-
ly, can the exploration of this genre allow us to refl ect on some of the
broader literary and cultural questions pertinent to Cuban and Mexican
realities?
The detective novel came late to Hispanic letters, and one of its defi n-
ing characteristics has been a concern with foreign paradigms of moder-
nity, and ultimately the failure of liberalism and its constituent elements
in a Hispanic context. Leftist and socialist aspirations, also a part of the
i x